So I admit it. I'm finally tackling a stack of magazines next to my desk that I haven't had a chance to touch in a couple of months. Oh, looky here… The first is Baseline, always a good read.
If project management is your bag, then you'll definitely want to check out, "Life, Death & The Psychology of a Project," a fascinating account of the work done by Elizabeth Nash at the gigantic mortuary organization, Service Corp. Ms. Nash was hired from outside the firm to run Delta Project, a two-year, $25 million plan to replace the company's disparate collection of software systems and to streamline the field operations of its 3,500-plus funeral homes spread across the US. Part of the systems transformation involved eliminating legacy programs running on the IBM AS/400 — and laying off two-thirds of the team keeping those systems up and running. Infosys was brought in to develop the new systems and processes. That involved bringing 20 Indian programmers over to work at the headquarters in Houston to learn the business.
But Ms. Nash's first step on her new job was this: to go out and visit funeral homes that were part of Service Corp. This enabled her to talk to the people who would be using the systems and to see how they worked — a simple, vital step that brought her closer to her "customers." You'll learn much about the psychology of change management in this article. (If you register on the Web site for free, you can download a PDF edition of the story, which is the best way to read it — and its related sidebars, charts and other materials — if you don't get the print publication.)
