Category: OPM letter

I drafted this series of OPM.0’s to test the newsletter concept before making a public commitment. I needed to verify that the newsletter wouldn’t be a major commitment beyond what I had been spending on the blog. It seems doable, though I may need to reassess after I return to the office and lose five hours a week to the commute.

Heading back thru time

In testing the newsletter concept, I went through my archives over the first half of 2021. Fortunately, blogs are built for exactly that sort of leisurely activity.

Unfortunately the real world is not so accommodating. In private practice, it was hard to keep up with the onslaught of deadlines and follow up projects. Since I wasn’t in management, I was never briefed on the financial performance of our projects. More importantly, we rarely had time to analyze our process and examine lessons learned, much less conduct post occupancy reviews after the building was long completed.

Theoretically, life in the government could give us a little more time to explore such things, but frankly the world moves too fast for such luxuries. As soon as one project is completed, the new batch of legislatively approved projects are placed on our desks.

Assuming that there is value in learning from the past, there must be a way to solve this problem. I haven’t tried to crack this nut just yet, but to speculate I’d guess that involve a regular practice of taking careful notes paired with and formal reviews. The notetaking must be systematic and extremely easy (to avoid losing the thought). The formal reviews would force one to analyze the raw data at regular intervals and provide an opportunity to immediately disseminate the information to colleagues so they can learn vicariously.

Maybe this will be the project within the project for my next big project.

~

Do you have any systematic practices to learn from the past?

Hit Reply and lets chat!

~

My OPM notes from May

I’m a huge fan of Seth Godin, even though I wasn’t overwhelmed with his most recent book, The Practice. Even so, it still comes highly recommended, even if I don’t think it is absolutely mindblowing like his masterpieces The Dip and Linchpin.

I wrote this the morning before our first punch walk for Substantial Completion. There were some jitters before the big event, but as I predicted, life kept moving forward.

This is not exactly OPM related, however this may be my most influential read of the year. So I must shout out the Bed of Procrustes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

This month’s posts ended up being very book centric. Death by Meeting isn’t a “must read classic,” but it is worth reading for anyone searching for ideas on optimizing meetings.

One from the Archives

At my last firm in private practice, I instituted a post-mortem meeting with my architect-interns after every major deliverable. It worked really well for my team, however I haven’t been completely satisfied with how it has worked with my architect consultants as an OPM, partly because it is unreasonable expect that I will get the unvarnished truth when they are concerned that their next project might be at risk. As such, I need to lean hard into making notetaking super easy and to enshrine a regular practice of intermediate reviews for self reflection.

… and a public domain photo.

Create a Template

Over the past couple years, I’ve created an “automatic trigger” to look for ways to create a template or checklist whenever I do something repetitive a second time.

I’m not sure why I didn’t create this internal rule of thumb while I was in in private practice. I suspect it is because life as an OPM has an extremely wide variety of repetitive detailed tasks. One moment you’re processing contracts. The next day, invoices….then something else. This is particularly noticeable in the State of Nevada, because we work within a two year rhythm with our biennial legislative cycle.

Cal Newport mentions a rule of thumb where it pays to automate something when one anticipates a task will repeated thirty times. I suspect the ROI is even quicker when the effort is just pausing to write up a checklist.

~

Have you found that work as an OPM has quite a bit more variety than in private practice? How do you create administrative efficiency?

Hit Reply and lets chat!

~

My OPM notes from April

In retrospect, April did not have many OPM or architecture related posts. However, Kitchens and Dining Rooms comes pretty close. A fun read, though not worth going out of one’s way to obtain.

Because of the lack work-specific posts, I thought I’d throw in this rant against social media. As knowledge workers, it is particularly important to avoid gunking up our brains. Though frankly, social is so toxic, I recommend that all humans quit the algorithm.

This post was my response lauding one of the best blog posts that I read about life during the pandemic. Arnaud’s original post is well worth a (re)read.

One from the Archives

Speaking of templates, one of my internal initiatives at the office was to help institute a digital signature for invoices and agreements. It was incredibly successful in streamlining an unwieldly process. However, such success comes with an ominous cloud for those who have settled too comfortably into their jobs.

… and a public domain photo.

Work Trivia

I just spent the entire night playing around with Mailchimp to set up a separate newsletter feed for this OPM letter, for those who might not be interested in main catch-all Grizzly Pear newsletter.

As always, it was fun to muck around in the heart of the internet beast, playing behind the scenes of what we normally experience as information consumers. However, such amusement is tempered with the knowledge that I’ll forget everything I learn by the time I wake up tomorrow morning.

I’ve noticed a similar dynamic with architect-y things. I used to be pretty good with AutoCAD, but its been seven years since I used it professionally. Similarly, I always prided myself on my knowledge of the codebook – I was on the committee that reviewed the 2018 IEBC for any necessary amendments for Southern Nevada.

But skills atrophy quick. When I was the Architect of Record for a small kitchen demolition, I was shocked how much my skills had atrophied in just two years years. It was painful to put together a single sheet demolition plan. Every aspect was like walking in quicksand, drafting in AutoCAD, fluency in annotating the set, completing the code analysis.

Admittedly this isn’t my (normal) job anymore. The State pays me to be a multiplier. My responsibility is to effectively manage our great architects and contractors. What used to matter no longer does. As an OPM, it’s a good sign that those skills are diminishing. Let’s hope I’m picking some new ones in their place.

~

What do you miss from your past career before becoming an OPM? What new skills and knowledge have you picked up as an OPM?

Hit Reply and lets chat!

~

My OPM notes from March

I’ve shared this extended explanation about weekly check-ins to quite a few folks. I’m not sure if any of my recipients has read the post, but the use of a web task board with regular meetings is an absolute game changer and should become common practice within the profession.

Atomic Habits is an instant classic in the self help genre for good reason. It’s packs a helluva lot of promise for seemingly little effort. However, I slightly prefer BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits, though they complement each other well.

One from the Archives

Its crazy to think about the start of the lockdown just a year ago. In the moment, I wrote this post with some ideas about managing construction administration as remotely as possible. As we head out of the pandemic and this project is wrapping up, I’m happy to report it worked out swimmingly. Admittedly, it’s really because we had a great team.

… and a public domain photo.

Should I always start with an italicized intro here?

Hidden Experiments

This blog has gone through a lot of iterations. Its been a Webcomic, Poetry, Photo, Daily Blog (2018-2019), Notes on My Consumption, and now a OPM Letter.

Quite a few fits and starts in hidden in plain sight. However, I’ve built up a nice archive, and my recent push with my Notes has established a good rhythm for regular posting over the past year, albeit for a very small audience. Maybe this latest experiment will be the one to hit. Then again, the earlier experiments have become the established infrastructure for my newer projects, indeed, much of this newsletter is repackaging and publicizing what I’ll have already written.

One of the most enjoyable things about being an OPM has been the autonomy in my job and freedom to experiment. I don’t know if other public works agencies work in this manner, but when I joined the State, my supervisor said all he cared about was that I don’t blow the project schedule or budget and to pay our vendors promptly. Beyond that, be fair to the State.

How liberating!

Standard operating procedures and checklists and processes certainly have their place. As a government agency, we have plenty of all of them. However, it was amazing to be given my own office and the freedom and encouragement to try out new ideas and see if they’d go anywhere.

Usually they don’t. Such as my attempts at utilizing gantt charts for scheduling (too detailed for our needs), spreadsheets as tracking mechanisms for all kinds of minutia (not worth the effort), personal productivity hacks (Pomodoro!), and so on.

But occasionally, something hits. The workflow documents for implementing digital signatures in our agency were invaluable when the pandemic hit. The dead-end random spreadsheets projects gave me the skills to kludge together a life and work tracker that I use at the start and end of every day. During the pandemic, I experimented with weekly check-ins with my architect, and now added another weekly check-in with my supervisor that will be recurring long after we return to the office.

Instead of searching for my next success, maybe I should be looking for my next opportunity to fail. The more of those I grab, the higher the chance I’ll get another hit.

~

What are some memorable successes or failures when you were innovating at the office?

Hit Reply and lets chat!

~

My OPM notes from February

I came across this quote by John Adams which is simultaneously inspiring and challenging. What are we willing to do in order to free up opportunities for our children?

I’m only an excel expert in my office because because architects are notoriously basic when it comes to spreadsheets. It’s not the most useful skill in my original profession, but my attempts to get better at this program over the decades paid off one night in helping out my colleague.

One from the Archives

The link above for my daily blog experiment was for the first post in that year-long run. However, I also wrote a longer analysis of what I got out of daily blogging at the end of the project. The TL:DR version is that daily blogging has its value but takes up a lot of time, and I stopped because I needed a better balance between consumption and production. Even so, it was a good exercise that led to my current twice a week blog schedule. I strongly recommend that everyone start a daily blog. Cut out social and create your own media.

… and a public domain photo.

Hello World!

Thought Manager

As with any project, a good first step is to start by making its goals concrete, and the aspiration of this newsletter is best condensed by this odd phrase.

I’ve been out of college for twenty years, but Architecture is an old person’s game. I’m still learning new things every day, and I’ve only been an OPM for three years.

Then again I’m embarking upon the back half of my career, so I hope I’ve got some valuable ideas worth sharing with my colleagues and the next generation of architects.

I believe that writing this monthly newsletter will force me to think sharper while providing a vehicle to connect with fellow OPM’s. In more detail, my definitions of success for this project are:

• Develop a library of work related musings for future personal reference.
• Create content that can be easily shared on my portfolio as well as email and Linkedin.
• Push myself to keep improving. I’m at a dangerous moment where I’ve developed just enough experience to become complacent. I’m hoping that sticking myself out in public every month will keep me from getting too comfortable.

Fortunately, these three goals are attainable by my own effort. Just sit down and write a few hours every week.

Ideas should be shared, not hidden. I wouldn’t be blogging if I didn’t have this bonus goal in mind – to develop an audience and spark conversations with folks I might not otherwise meet. If that happens, I think I’ll have become a Thought Manager.

~

What are your goals within this modern information-connection economy?

Hit Reply and lets chat!

~

My OPM notes from January

Apologies for the self indulgence, but it seemed fitting to start the year and this newsletter with a post with an introduction of a hundred words and ten photos.

It Doesn’t Have to be Crazy at Work is a an aspirational manifesto for a calm workplace. However, the foundation starts in one’s mindset. Calmness starts with being satisfied with enough.

Seth Godin repeatedly touts Linchpin as his masterpiece, even when he is on the book tour circuit selling his newest books. He’s right. It’s his most earnest attempt to push us to risk failure over guaranteed stagnation.

When I finished reading it, I thought Tiny Habits would be the most influential book of the year. I was partially correct. Some of its tips have helped me develop better personal habits, but its biggest influence was introducing me to the world of ebooks and revolutionizing my reading and audiobook habits.

One from the Archives

I’ve always taken a fairly personal approach to work and business. If I am doing something for the better part of my waking life, then I might as well bring my best self to this effort. However, one’s compatriots in a project are not always the most obvious folks. The conversation with the past is one of the great joys of renovating older buildings.

… and a public domain photo.