ZachEvans

Believer. Husband. Dad. Coach. Healthcare Thought-Leader. All-Around Good Guy.

Resources

Project Initiation & Closure

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Project governance is neither a fun nor a simple concept to implement. Some organizations do this very well and have elaborate, multi-level, processes that ensure proper vetting, prioritization, oversight and funding. Other organizations have little-to-no governance and do everything by the seat of their pants with varying levels of success. Most IT professionals will tell you that some level of governance is necessary and those same professionals will be happy to share at least one (or perhaps many) examples of a time where the governance process ground their project to a halt for no viable reason.

I am one of those that believe some level of governance is needed for successful project implementation and have developed a short-form Project Initiation and Project Closure document that I have found useful when organizations do not have (or do not want) a full-scale governance process.

Project Initiation Document – A two-page template that lays out the very basics of the project: details, team members, objectives, success metrics, scope, and a signature block. The template does not include assumptions, risks and mitigation plans, project plans, or resource plans. It is assumed that those are being handled in other forms or may not be deemed necessary.

Project Closure Document – A two-page template that lays out the same basics as the Project Initiation Document but adds options to identify if objectives and success metrics have been met by the project.

No project documentation should be used as a club to beat a colleague or client over the head with (although some project managers do just that) but, rather, should signify a meeting of the minds and an agreement on how to define and measure the success or failure of a project. Neither should project governance be viewed as red tape that adds no value to the operations of an organization.

Related files: Project Initiation Document; Project Closure Document

Project Scorecard

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In my professional life, I serve as a consultant on several projects at any time. Part of my role in relation to the management of this project portfolio is to provide input on prioritization. All organizations have limited resources to spend on projects and analytical tools can help inform decisions leaders are faced with in regards where to allocate these resources.

One such tool that I developed and have used successfully is a project scorecard that analyzes several dimensions of a project, assigns a relative weight to each dimension, and provides a recommend project rank based on the overall score of a project. This particular scorecard looks at the following project dimensions:

  • Number of departments impacted
  • Revenue impact
  • Quality impact
  • Safety impact
  • Project sponsor
  • Projected cost
  • Urgency
  • Priority
  • Budgeted
  • Security
  • Interfaces
  • Existing installations (in other divisions of the company)

Based on your needs or organization, the dimensions analyzed would vary greatly, but the value behind the tool would not. Furthermore, I would not recommend making decisions based solely on a tool such as this, but would use its outputs as one data point (although, perhaps, one that carries a great deal of weight).

Are you in need of having a tool like this built for your organization or do you have other questions as to how a tool such as this could be implemented? Please contact me for more information.

Related files: Project Scorecard

Relative Medium Positioning

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For a recent consulting meeting I needed a graphic that could describe the relative positioning of content delivery mediums that would help my client understand the impact of their medium choices.

I wanted to represent the difference in production costs, the frequency versus the depth of the content being published, and whether or not the medium was best suited for push- versus pull-publishing. While perhaps not perfect (certainly my handwriting is not perfect), I believe the resulting graphic is intriguing enough to share:

Relative Medium PositioningOne point of clarification: The category of micro-blogs is meant to include mediums such as Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter and other similar outlets.

Customer Service Satisfaction

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Throughout my career I have been blessed with opportunities to join organizations that are in need of a fresh set of eyes to evaluate their processes and are poised to make a leap to a higher level of productivity and service. When presented with such an opportunity, I typically start with uncovering and mining data that allows me to set benchmarks for how the team is currently performing. Customer service satisfaction rates is one such metric that I try to wrap my arms around as quickly as possible.

I have learned on more than one occasion that satisfaction questions have never been asked. Anecdotal evidence may be available that points to a team delivering on their service promises but very little hard information is available. I have developed, over time, a basic satisfaction survey that helps me to  understand current service levels and set benchmarks, around which future goals can set. You can view the survey that I use in one of three formats:

  1. Customer Service Satisfaction Survey (.docx)
  2. Customer Service Satisfaction Survey (.pdf)
  3. Customer Service Satisfaction Survey (SurveyMonkey)

I have added, depending on whether or not I am using my survey to poll internal- or external-customer, a Net Promoter question to my survey but the above-mentioned samples do not include this. (I have found that using a Net Promoter question for internal-customers–those that have very little choice when it comes to using your service or not–is not as valuable as using a Net Promoter question for external-customers).

As with any survey, you need to use the information produced as only one data point in your decision-making process. You also need to understand the dangers associated with being driven to perfection.

Successful Transitions

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Transitions at work are never easy or simple. They are, however, a fact that every individual and organization will have to deal with at some point. Employees leave your team or organization. You choose to leave your team or organization. As the saying goes, the only constant in life is change.

When you are the individual making the move, I have found it to be helpful to create transition documents for both the position you are leaving and the position you are moving in to. The outgoing document will help the organization you are leaving know where you are leaving the work you were being paid to do and the incoming document will help you stay focused on creating a solid foundation for success in your new role.

Related Files

Baseball Commissioner Resources

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I have coached little league baseball for the past four years (a total of nine seasons between oldest boys who have an opportunity to play in both a fall and spring season).We play in the Grassland Baseball league in Brentwood and love the small community feel of the league. This spring I have added the responsibilities of an age-group commissioner (7/8 year olds) to my responsibilities of head coach of two teams. I have a list of baseball coaching resources and want to start a list of resources that I am using as a commissioner.

Documents

  1. Player Evaluation Template (Excel) – Since our 7/8 league is a draft-based league (instead of a bring-your-own-team league) we do annual player evaluations on multiple dimensions to try to keep the competitive balance between teams as even as possible. I used this document as a tool for the evaluators to mark their scores. The copies I provided to the evaluators already had the player demographics loaded so all that needed to be written in were the discrete scores.
  2. Consolidated Player Evaluation Template (Excel) – Ideally, each player is evaluated on each dimension by more than one evaluator. If you are able to secure multiple evaluations, this consolidated evaluation tool provides average rankings based on the various dimensions. I chose not to include dimension weighting (where one dimension is “worth” more than other) but you could easily modify the template to do that if you wanted to.
  3. Player Evaluation Form (PDF) – Good, concise form evaluating players on the fundamental skills needed to play baseball.
  4. Many states now have laws in place governing concussions in youth sports. States such as Tennessee require coaches (and some even require parents) to view concussion training each year. Two good online training resources are from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Federation of State High School Associations.

I will add additional resources as I come across or develop them but I would appreciate learning about anything that you are using as well if you are inclined to share them with me.

Adoption Fundraising

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Ask ten couples who have adopted about what they think of fundraising for an adoption and you will most likely get very different opinions from one extreme to another. Some will tell you that they would have never dreamed of raising money to help finance their adoption. Others will tell you that they simply could not have gone on the adoption journey without outside help. Regardless of their stance on fundraising, all will agree: Adopting a child is expensive. Really expensive.

When Mandy and I decided to adopt a little girl we considered the financial consequences of our decision along with the impact adding another little one would have our lives and, especially, our three boys. Initially, we decided that we would pay for all of the adoption expenses out of either our income or our savings and would tap in to our home equity loan if we needed to. We decided not to do any fundraising, not because we were against it, but because we felt that God had blessed us in such a way as to allow us to pay for our adoption out of our own means. But God had other plans.

First, our church family at Harpeth Hills stared an adoption fund where families could give money to specifically help those that were adopting. Then, our dear friends and owners of Katy’s Gifts in Nashville offered to host a shopping event where 100% of the profits from the event would be donated to us. Finally, we borrowed an idea from another family that had adopted a little boy from Ethiopia and held an adoption garage sale. In the end, we were able to raise about a third of the total cost of our adoption, which gave us the flexibility to save our home equity loan for the surgeries that Molly Kate needed.

Below is a list of ideas for fundraising that is not intended to be exhaustive but includes commentary where I have personal experience or directly no someone that does.

Clothing. Several friends of ours sold clothing from organizations like 147 Million Orphans where the organization split the proceeds of the sales with the adopting family or simply allowed the families to purchase the merchandise at wholesale prices to then resell for profit. We also had friends that had custom shirts printed specifically for their adoption, which they then resold. Two drawbacks to this type of fundraising is that it will most likely raise small dollar amounts and you have to pay for the merchandise upfront, which may be an issue for some families.

Churches & Foundations. As mentioned above, our church started an adoption fund specifically for people to be able to give to who wanted to support families on their adoption journey even if they were not going to go on the same journey themselves. Additionally, there are many foundations and non-profits such as Show Hope that have grant programs to help off-set the cost of an adoption.

Garage Sales. We live in a large neighborhood in Franklin, Tennessee, which holds two community garage sales annually. With over 2,000 homes in our neighborhood, the garage sales draw people from a large geographic area and provides plenty of traffic to raise money for an adoption. We quietly asked a handful of friends for any donations of items they no longer wanted to sell in our garage sale and had five or six respond very generously, including our friends from Katy’s. We then advertised the garage sale as benefiting an adoption, posted it on Facebook, Twitter and Craigslist, and ended up having a really successful event.

Private Dinners. Whether it is a well-known local chef or just someone who is an extraordinary cook, we have had a couple of friends who invited select family and friends to a private dinner at a high cost-per-plate. This is a private twist on an old non-profit fundraising tactic that offers much more than the basic rubber chicken dinner.

Restaurant Events. We did not personally avail ourselves of an event at a restaurant but we have known several families that worked with an organization such as 1 Seed to host a fundraiser at a local restaurant. The basic premise is that that adopting family purchases the food upfront (or has it donated) and then hosts a lunch (or dinner) where family and friends volunteer as the wait staff and diners pay higher-than-average prices for their meals and also have an opportunity to make an additional donation at check out.

Retail Store Events. We have friends that run a local gift shop and Hallmark store who asked us if they could host a fundraising event on our behalf. The owners of Katy’s Gifts covered the labor cost for the night and then donated all of the proceeds from sales to our family. Additionally, several family members and friends offered to bake goods, which we then sold on the sidewalk outside the store. This bake-sale also served as a great distraction for our three boys as they manned the table outside, which meant that they were not inside running wild.

Sporting Events. This is another type of fundraising event that we did not personally experience but we had friends who did. Our alma mater, Lipscomb University, began hosting Adoption Rallies where the proceeds from all tickets sold to a given game would be donated to the adopting family. That adopting family would then do their best to get as many of their family, friends, co-workers and anyone else they know (or barely know) to come to the game.

Baseball Coaching Resources

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I have written before about my experiences coaching my son’s baseball team. Things got really interesting this past spring when I volunteered to coach both Carter’s 8U team and Seth’s 6U team in the Grassland Baseball League. In addition to the fact that I spent three to four nights a week at the baseball fields as well as three to hour hours each Saturday, I had a great time spending time with my two oldest boys.

As I get ready to take on coaching both teams again this fall, I have been readying several resources that I have collected or developed over the past few years. I have spent quite a bit of time scouring the Internet to little avail so I decided to share several resources here.

Documents

  1. Lineup Card (Word) – I keep a score book for each team but this is a lineup card that I give to the opposing coach as well as to my volunteer dugout parent to keep the lineup straight. The league in which we sons play require players to switch positions every two to three innings, which is the reason for the additional columns. This is a common set-up for younger teams.
  2. Lineup Card – Substitutes (Excel) – As players age, it becomes common for leagues to move to a 9-player format resembling MLB. This lineup card allows for 9 batter and fielders as well as several substitutes.
  3. Lineup Card – No Substitutes (Excel) – Some leagues allow for all players to bat while limiting the number of fielders to 9. This lineup card allows for up to 11 batters but the additional batters would be listed as “EH” (extra hitters).
  4. Position Tracker (Excel) – I track each player’s starting position from game-to-game so that I can do my best to equalize playing time in the infield and outfield. As children get older, some simply will not be able to play in the infield but, especially at younger ages, I believe in giving all players the chance to play in the infield at least some of the time.
  5. Season-Starting Email (Word) – Once our player draft is over, I try to get an email out to my parents as quickly as possible. This is especially important when you only have a few weeks before the start of your regular season and you need to have your first practice a few days later. I have noted the sections of the email you could customize to fit your team and league information.
  6. Team Hitting Stats (Excel) – I have not yet started tracking many defensive stats for my 8U team because we still rotate players a lot but I have starting tracking hitting stats. This basic spreadsheet tracks hits, at-bats, runs, wins and losses for each player, game and the overall season. The most recent version I used was for an 11-player team and 13-game season but you can add columns and rows to fit the size of your team and length of your season.
  7. Team Hitting Stats – Advanced (Excel) – As I prepare to take my 8U team to the 10U division (which is kid-pitch with steals) I decided to create a more advanced offensive stat tracker for this season. This spreadsheet tracks games, hits, at-bats, doubles, triples, home runs, strike outs, walks, hit-by-pitch, runs, total bases, times on base, total plate appearances, batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage (OBP), and on-base percentage plus slugging (OPS). UPDATE: I have expanded the spreadsheet to 15 games and added a column to track RBI.
  8. Baseball Score Cards – Some seasons my league provides a score book but not always. I found this resource that provides free, public-domain score cards in multiple formats. My favorite is the Enhanced Vertical Scorecard.
  9. Player Evaluation Form (PDF) – A good, concise evaluation form for players based on the fundamental skills needed to play baseball.
  10. Depth Chart (PDF) – An editable, visual depth chart.
  11. Pitch Count Tracker (Excel) – Most leagues have mandatory rest rules based on the total number of pitches thrown in a game as well as a maximum number of pitches, typically on a per-game or per-week limit. I created this tracker based on a per-game maximum of 75 pitches, but it could easily be customized to your league rules. There is also a key that leverages conditional formatting in Excel to change colors based on the pitch count range.
  12. Team Pitching Stats – Advanced (Excel) – This spreadsheet tracks games, innings, pitches, hits, strike outs, walks, hit batsmen, runs, hits per 9 innings, strike outs per 9 innings, walks per 9 innings, and earned run average.

Books, Blogs, Practice Plans, Web Sites, etc.

  1. Coaching Youth Baseball the Ripken Way – I stumbled upon this book online and have found it to be a great resource. The first several chapters layout a philosophical framework for how to coach youth baseball and the later chapters provide many drills and comprehensive practice plans you can use. All of the drills and plans are rated by age and cover batting, defense and pitching.
  2. Coachdeck Baseball Training Drill Cards – Packaged as a deck of cards, this is a great quick-reference for baseball drills for players of all ages. Covering multiple topics (defense, batting, pitching, etc.), these can help you jump-start your practices with multiple drills and stations that keep your players moving.
  3. TeamSnap – TeamSnap provides web-based software to manage teams and leagues but their blog also provides some great real-world content on topics such as being the coaches child and tips for getting parents on board for a successful season.
  4. All Pro Dad – Family First is the non-profit organization that created this site, which focuses on being a great father with sports references galore. Many of the ideas for dads can be easily translated to apply to coaches.
  5. CoachUp – While I have never personally used CoachUp (I think it’s a little early to have my 7 and 5 year old sons working with a private coach), this is a good resource to help find a private coach for multiple sports.
  6. Little League® Bat Rules – They change every year so I always recommend that parents check out the current restrictions and bans on bats on the official Little League® web site.
  7. The Baseball Drill Book – This is the latest book that I have purchased that includes a number of drills for all ages and positions. It is a compilation of drills from the American Baseball Coaches Association.
  8. Ripken Baseball YouTube Channel – This public video channel contains videos covering batting, fielding, throwing and more.
  9. Drills for Catchers – List basic and advanced of drills specifically for catchers of all ages.
  10. Positive Coaching Alliance – national non-profit developing “Better Athletes, Better People” by working to provide youth and high school athletes a positive, character-building youth sports experience.
  11. Bullpen Aces Batting Drills – good list of batting drills for mechanics, stance, grip, and power.

I will add additional resources as I come across or develop them but I would appreciate learning about anything that you are using as well if you are inclined to share them with me.