SAMPE Journal - September/October 2016 - 26

North America Report

Rick Willardson
Pressurized Structures Lead, Firefly Space Systems
rick_willardson@live.com

Early in my career, a high-level (but somewhat inexperienced) program manager told a large group company
meeting to "Focus your efforts across the board." At the time, this didn't sound so strange to me. In fact, it
sounded like a pretty good idea to a young engineer. Everybody working on everything across the program would
surely help us accomplish our tasks faster. Fortunately, that is not what happened; because the result of such a
widespread multi-tasking environment would have been mass chaos.
As I have matured professionally, I have discovered just how difficult it is to multi-task. In fact, my wife says multitasking is impossible for me; but I think that is just my extra detailed analyst side that likes to look deep into issues
before deciding on a course of action. Anyway, what I have learned through programs like Six Sigma and others;
is that too much multi-tasking just produces wasted effort and resources. One of the best examples I can think of
comes from the world of finite-element analysis (FEA). Depending on the size of your problem, adding additional
CPU's to the solution doesn't equate to faster solutions times. In fact, it can actually lead to longer solution times;
because so much time is wasted passing information back and forth between the separate problem domains.
There is a multi-tasking "sweet spot" where the FEA program is most effective. So it is with us human beings as
well. We each have to find this sweet spot or multi-tasking balance point for ourselves. This point is not static and
has to adjust at different points in our lives; as I am discovering now adjusting to my new position at Firefly Space
Systems.
One technique I have used to help find this sweet spot is something I call the List of Six Things. It is something I
learned from an LDS Sunday School manual. I believe that manual was heavily influenced by the works of Stephen
Covey. Regardless, each day you make a list of six tasks you need/want to accomplish that day. You rank them
in order of importance and proceed to work down the list. If you don't finish it that day, it goes on the list for the
next day. When balancing multiple projects, often each project would only get one or two items on the list for the
day. Sometimes particularly large tasks get ranked behind simpler quicker tasks. This technique has helped be
tremendously, if not to be more effective, at least to maintain my sanity.
So, about now you are probably asking what does this have to do with SAMPE? As I was preparing to write
this article, I found myself in a mid-summer, multi-tasking haze. I was unable to focus on this article, having just
returned from vacation and trying to balance work, family and SAMPE commitments. I was just jotting down
random ideas of subjects I could write about in the article and thinking about what I needed to prepare for the
executive cabinet's July planning meeting in Chicago. Then it came to me - SAMPE North America has already
made their list! We have chosen to focus our efforts on the three task force areas - corporate & government
relevance, emerging technologies and information & expertise. Choosing these focus areas will help us to be
more effective in our efforts. Prior to this road-mapping activity SAMPE North America's efforts were not always
thoroughly focused and perhaps a bit random (like me trying to get this article started).
So this year we are going to focus on executing the mission of our three task forces. We have cleared some
distractions, like being a landlord (the Covina building has been sold). We will clear away others. The executive
cabinet will be focused on the task force missions. Task forces will take up the balance of our time during our
summer planning meeting. Each task force has an executive cabinet liaison to assist them. Each task force
has leaders from our board of directors. Each task force has a budget for its activities. Each task force needs
volunteers, so get involved! Help set the future of SAMPE North America. Focus and execute - that is my message
in a nutshell!

SAMPE Journal, Volume 52, No. 5, September/October 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SAMPE Journal - September/October 2016