Carol Dekkers is president of Quality Plus Technologies Inc., and is a key advisor to senior management internationally. She has been instrumental in the design and implementation of successful measurement and function point programs in leading Fortune 500 companies. Carol is project editor for ISO/IEC 14143–5 Determination of Functional Domains. Ms Dekkers was honoured by the American Society for Quality (ASQ) as one of the 21 New Voices of Quality for the 21st Century.

Dekkers handed out stickers before the keynote. Delegates were asked to choose three. More of that later ..!

Project kickoff: First impressions are important – you are ‘on stage’. Offence and defence is normal stance. We need to be consistent. What the percentage breakdown between verbal and visual in in-person communication?  well it 7% verbal and 93% visual. What about email? 75% verbal 25% visual. And on the phone – 95% verbal 5% visual. Communication methods are being shifted around. Shyness – over 88% of people are ‘shy’ in meetings. It is increasing as we are meeting less face-to-face.

What about the stickers? What is it for? If I take a sticker will I win the Mercedes? Dekkers asks delegates to interview each other ‘why did you choose your stickers?.

Time up ! Stop ! Quiet ! What did you just do? So you asked about the stickers – but you didn't ask about the person and their position? So you talked about what interests are? When you walk across the office floor, in a kick off meeting. ‘’Good morning, this is Alec Dorling he is a world leader in assessments, he has made xxxx assessments and now we would like to do this and that.’’ We get introduced by name, rank and serial number.

What did you discover. ‘’Resources allocated to this task was inadequate (Kitson says)! – joking apart – we discovered things about people. We need to deal with people as people.

Types of project requirements:  We present requirements to users ‘un filtered Why are we using 400 pound concrete?

What is a network? A spider web that coordinates connections and relationship. The world is a network of relationships. Dekkers passes round a sheet to be completed. Relationships are a fundamental need. If you have a sheet, take a look at it. See if you can find a person to sign an item on the sheet. So how many you can get in one minute.

Stop!!  How many got every square signed? How many got 4 signed? Anyone have more than 2 children under age 6? Does anyone consider them an expert fisherman? All change. All those on who have x, y, z on first row. Second row if you know an African language (e.g. African English), you have attended a CMMi course, …, …How many can you get signed now?

Stop! If you are in the first 3 rows, stay where you are!  This is very interesting. Someone has all but two signed. Amazing. Why? because we knew where to go. Networking – key to success. It is incredibly powerful. Collective corporate knowledge is vital. Its a small world. No – its a world of billions of people, but they are are not moving about. Very few are active moving around.

Learning to learn: Visual, Audio, Kinesthetic

Thanks to Carol for an interactive keynote!