Importance of Articulation - A step towards achieving
excellence!!
We as managers and leaders have to constantly motivate our smart engineers to deliver “Best in Class Output”. Of course we have to then know what is “Best in Class”, for which we have to look around and seek references from inside as well as outside. Is it enough our our engineers just to do good work? Let me elaborate.
We as managers and leaders have to constantly motivate our smart engineers to deliver “Best in Class Output”. Of course we have to then know what is “Best in Class”, for which we have to look around and seek references from inside as well as outside. Is it enough our our engineers just to do good work? Let me elaborate.
Workplace reviews are not new to us. Every day we take part in
some reviews or the other, in some cases we are the reviewers and in some, our
work is being reviewed. It could be our own gemba walks during which we
interact with our teams to see and hear from them about their work. Or these
could be occasions where there are executive visitors, managers and customers
visiting.
However during all these reviews or interactions, one key
enabler for effective communication is better “Articulation". It is not
enough that our engineers just do good work but be able to articulate how and
why it is best in class. This applies to all kinds of engineering output, be it
Systems specifications, Design, Architecture, or the Code they have written or
the Tests they are doing or the Simulation they have done, Electrical hardware
they design or a mechanical part design or for that matter any engineering
output! We have to encourage our engineers to also create high quality content
to support the actual work-package to be able to not only preserve the
knowledge for future but also help to explain to others as to how good they
are.
There is one simple principle we can adopt. For anything we do, we should be able to create documentation or content that can meaningfully describe about the work itself and why the work is “Best in Class” in
- 2 minutes (Elevator pitch)
- 20 minutes (for busy executives or experts)
- 200 minutes (3 hours with a break for experts)
- 400 minutes (one full day with adequate breaks for experts who have traveled from far or who are willing to spend the time)
Once our engineers start creating such content and get into the habit of peer reviews internally and outside of their teams, they will hone their skills of Articulation. This then will automatically drive excellence in the work we do.
There is one simple principle we can adopt. For anything we do, we should be able to create documentation or content that can meaningfully describe about the work itself and why the work is “Best in Class” in
- 2 minutes (Elevator pitch)
- 20 minutes (for busy executives or experts)
- 200 minutes (3 hours with a break for experts)
- 400 minutes (one full day with adequate breaks for experts who have traveled from far or who are willing to spend the time)
Once our engineers start creating such content and get into the habit of peer reviews internally and outside of their teams, they will hone their skills of Articulation. This then will automatically drive excellence in the work we do.
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