Undercover Boss: Lessons Learned from Waste Management's President and COO

Posted on February 9, 2010 by Matt DeVries

What did you watch after the Superbowl?  If you are like more than 36 million other viewers, you watched the premiere episode of Undercover Boss . . . a new reality show on CBS that features high level executives who go undercover to interact and work with daily employees.

Waste Management President and COO Larry O'Donnell

The premier episode featured Larry O'Donnell, President and Chief Operating Officer of Waste Management, as he worked alongside his employees.  O'Donnell got down to the nitty gritty, cleaning porta-potties, picking up trash at a landfill, sifting cardboard at a recycling plant, and driving on a trash route.  If you saw the interaction between O'Donnell and his employees, you felt the authenticity of the moment.  Whether you call it "good reality television" or a case of "good scripting," there were a number of lessons that can be gleamed from O'Donnell's experience:

  • A company's success depends largely ( ...if not entirely... ) upon its people.  While this may be common sense, many company leaders do not realize how far down the ladder this principle applies ... all the way down to the bottom man or woman.  If there is a friction between your hourly employees and your middle management, that friction may never be realized by upper management.   
  • No matter what level on the company ladder, innovation and hard work should be rewarded.  O'Donnell saw this in an employee named Jaclyn, who was a paid-by-the-hour administrative assistant.  Jaclyn also acted as an office manager, scale operator, and scale supervisor, and accountant for accounts payable, accounts receivable, and payroll.  Ultimately, O'Donnell promoted Jaclyn to supervisor, placed her on salary status and made her position bonus eligible.
  • Work policies enacted by management should be reviewed for effectiveness and acceptability.  Some of best decisions made from above have the best intentions for the best results.  However, management decisions can achieve an opposite result if not carefully enacted.  For example, O'Donnell heard complaints from an employee who was docked pay for two minutes for every one minute they were late clocking into work.  Wanna know the kicker?  O'Donnell was the one pushing for increased productivity from WM employees.

Question: Did you identify any other "lessons learned" from the undercover boss of Waste Management?

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Project Management: Lessons Learned from My Belt Collection

Posted on August 10, 2009 by Matt DeVries

Letter from My Belts

After an extra long day at work, it is easy to come home ... take off my tie and belt and shoes ... pile them in the corner ... and collapse on the couch for a few moments of rest.  For many years, I would leave my things piled in that dining room corner and I would usually pick my belt in the morning while on the way out the door.  

One day, my belts had a different plan.  As I was preparing for an early morning meeting, I raced down stairs, knowing that there were at least two belts in my usual corner (... he-he .. I left them there two nights in a row ... ).  Rather than finding my belts, however, I found this ( ----> ) note.  I was surprised at how similar the handwriting was to that of my wife.  Nonetheless, I can't blame my belts for running away.  They have asked many times to be put away at the end of a long day.  I did not listen.  I did not learn. 

Are you listening to your belts projects?  Are you learning from your belts projects? You should be.

One project management tip is to create a "Lessons Learned" process that results in the identification of issues for improved design, construction or performance on subsequent projects.  In other words, "Lessons Learned" is the formalized approach to gathering information both during and after construction which can be used to assist future project teams based upon the written experiences and recommendations. 

What does "Lessons Learned" look like on a green building project?  Harvard's Green Building Resource provides an excellent example in a case study on the One Western Avenue project: 

  • One Western Avenue was denied EQc4.3 for not providing carpet cut sheets. From the specifications, it was not clear which product was used. Be sure to include cut sheets for all EQc4 projects."

"Lessons Learned" can also be more detail oriented and created as part of a final submittal process, such as the Final Construction Deliverable prepared by Extrusion Technology, Inc. for a renewable energy project in Massachusetts.  You can even find basic "Lessons Learned" templates on-line.

Writing the lesson learned, however, is only the start.  The real commitment by project team members is to have the resource readily available for the next project and to act upon those recommendations.  I've learned my lesson and my belts have not run away ever since.

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