Changing the way we working: delivering impact through better project management

Changing the way we work: delivering impact copyright from mlocock

A workshop developed with Andrea Bradley covering the nuts and bolts of formal project management methods like PRINCE2 and MoRPHE, but also placing emphasis on the key question of how managers think and behave.


A summary was published in The Archaeologist 89 (Autumn 2013), pp. 17-21.

This workshop was developed in response to a perceived gap in opportunities to improve the standard of management in British archaeology.  Andrea Bradley of BIPC and I share an unusual perspective on project management, since we both combine experience of commercial archaeology with work outside archaeology and training in the PRINCE2 formal project management methodology.  There have been attempts since the 1990s to use the wisdom and techniques of management theory in archaeological contexts, but these have made little headway until recently.  To begin with we mapped out a brisk introduction to project management theory and terminology, but we realised as we talked about our experience of applying it in practice that much more important than any specific technique was the attitude of the project manager, and so we deliberately constructed the programme to start and end with changing the mental landscape.  All effective Continuing Professional Development must be personal development if it is make a real difference to future performance through changed behaviour.  This article summarises the key points.

Understanding ourselves

Although project management techniques have their place, the need for self-awareness and reflection is greater.  The workshop's first exercise explored our individual values and priorities by identifying our most intense experiences.  For many people this came from their leisure time or family life.  Unless we understand our drivers it is difficult for us to operate effectively.

Exercise: Self-assessment

There are no right or wrong answers.  You will not be showing your responses to anyone else, so be as honest as possible.  The exercise consists of 4 statements, which you are asked to score from 1 (disagree strongly) to 5 (agree strongly).

	Disagree Neutral   Agree
I am competent and professional in my role	1        2        3        4      5
I find my role satisfying and productive	1        2        3        4      5
I am passionate about being involved in excavation	1        2        3        4      5
I make a positive contribution to the success of projects	1        2        3        4      5

The time you have taken to answer these questions is probably the longest you have spent on reflection in the last year.  But you answers are vital in setting any goals for improvement.  People are very poor at evaluating their own performance -psychologists have identified the Dunning-Kruger effect, the phenomenon where the less we know about a subject, the more confident we are in our opinion.  This is exacerbated by the prevalence in many organisations of a culture is "Don't ask don't tell" about people's performance, except for annual appraisals.  The rest of the time poor performance (or good performance) is not discussed.  One helpful tool is the 360 degree evaluation, where anonymous feedback from bosses, peers and underlings allows you to compare your idea of how you are doing with those of others.  There is a free survey available from www.carregffylfan.co.uk/media.html 

Projects and project management

There is a traditional view that the management of archaeological projects is unique bit is is archaeology, but this exceptionalism was challenged by one of the workshop's exercises.  Participants were asked to report on a recent project that had failed and to identify the reasons for failure.  The answers were: poor planning, poor communication, insufficient time and resources, unavailability of key staff, and inflexibility in the light of changing circumstances.  Nobody reported that C14 dating or a complex occupation phase was the problem.   The issues are generic, and precisely those that the discipline of project management is aimed at addressing.

Project management is a distinctive subset of general management - it gets its character from the fact that every project is temporary, with a defined endpoint and constrained resources.  As a result, projects involve compromises between standards, scope, costs and time: a good project manager is one who makes the right calls in the face of tough choices.  Project management is not, in essence, complex - it can be summarised as comprising three components: talking to people, moving bits of paper around, and thinking.  Moving bits of paper around is usually the easy bit, while thinking is often undervalued.

Formal project management defines a project as a unique temporary activity delivered a specified change with defined budget and resources, using skills from multiple parts of an organisation or consortium, in order to achieve a business aim.  In business, this aim is usually to generate a profit.  Although some archaeologists would say that a successful project is one that has the right academic or professional outputs, no organisation can afford to lose money forever.

PRINCE2 is the widely-used method in the UK, especially in the public sector, and its terminology and structure have become standard.  It is often perceived as paper-intensive and excessively bureaucratic, but one of the principles is that processes should be tailored for the project.  The key benefits of using PRINCE2 is the clarity about aims, progress and standards which reduces the chance of catastrophic failure.  Few archaeological organisations explicitly use PRINCE2, but PRINCE2 underlies English Heritage's MoRPHE project planning process (the replacement of Management of Archaeological Projects (MAP2 and MAP3)). 

The workshop didn't try to provide a full primer on project management, instead focusing on the issues most relevant to archaeology.

Defining roles

Successful projects tend to have well defined roles without overlaps or black holes, and project management therefore spends a lot of time defining the roles and responsibilities of those involved.  PRINCE2 discourages the creation of large steering committees with periodic progress meetings in favour of a project board restricted to those directly involved, meeting when required to make decisions.  The project board includes representatives of the suppliers (those doing the work), end -users (representing the client) and the corporate interests of the institution (the project executive or director).  The project manager reports to the board, from whom authority within defined limits is derived.  When things are running to plan, the project manager can provide brief highlight and checkpoint reports to the board members, but this can be escalated into ad hoc advice and meetings as soon as the project's success is threatened.  Typically the board's discussion will go like this:

Project Manager	Progress is behind schedule and completion is in doubt
Supplier	We need more time and/or resources to complete the work
User	We need to ensure that standards are maintained if we are to achieve the intended aims
Executive	Providing more resources will reduce the profit generated

These tensions are inherent in any project governance structure - the power of assigning roles like this is in providing a forum and process by which these can be balanced.

Defining the structure

Projects often involve numerous contractors, subcontractors, and stakeholders, in addition to the hierarchy of the project team itself.  It is helpful to draw this structure and share it with others.  Since communication is vital, every link in the structure can be thought of as an information flow, and it is worthwhile considering the medium and frequency with which data will be shared (formal report, email, phone call, or site visit).  Often the process of mapping will highlights some key relationships which have no defined means of communication at all. 

Change, risk and progress

Chang and risk is part of the project landscape.  At the start, there are too many unknowns to predict effectively what will prove possible or desirable.  Good project management allows for this so that the project manager can spot risks and opportunities early and amend plans accordingly.

A thorny issue in archaeology is how we track progress.  It is relatively easy to monitor expenditure and activity to check spend against profile, but this doesn't address the vital question - how much of what needs to be done has been done?  In the end this is largely a judgement call, but project managers should at least be asking themselves this question all the time.

Changing how we work

“The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.” Robert M Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Organisations are hard to change, but it is much easier to change our own behaviour.  The workshop ended with a series of practical tips which could be implemented immediately.  

The 'Five Whys' technique of root cause analysis can be applied to any recurrent problem, major or minor.  All it needs is a partner who can ask penetrating questions, and often the problem's solution emerges.   For example: "They've run out of content sheets on site again."  "Why?" "They didn't take enough." "Why?" "There weren't many left in the sore." "Why?" "The last project took most of them but didn't order more."  It would be possible to devise a complex administrative solution, but perhaps all that is needed is a note on the wall of the store reminding people to order more when the supply is getting low.

"Lessons learned" is a phrase that originated with PRINCE2 and has become a commonplace - continuous improvement comes from not repeating mistakes.  Even if there is no formal post-project review (and there should be), anyone can take some time to reflect on their experience and activity to identify what worked and what didn't.

We also need to recognise that we are not brains on legs - our physical and emotional state can affect our work.  I have a rule: no Excel after 4 o'clock, based on the bitter experience of re-doing financial reports the next morning when I'm awake enough to spot the errors. 

Having an impact

Those who attended the workshop found it inspiring and positive at the time, but more importantly they have taken action on returning to work. 

"I now plan out each morning what I hope to achieve, and review it at the end of the day"

"I make much more effort to explain the background to the tasks and to link it to our company objectives"

"I have found myself noticing my emotional state and deciding to postpone difficult conversations until I'm calmer"

Project management is the art of juggling priorities Photo: Martin Locock

Would your oganisation benefit?  If so get in touch to arrange a workshops.

Quick fix - email pop-ups

Whenever I talk about time management, people's worst problem is email, which robs them of the ability to plan their own work and concentrate on completing it.  Sometimes this is unavoidable - a project manager will have to keep up with emails as they arrive in case one is time critical.  But often the messages are completely irrelevant, routine, or non-urgent, yet they will still have intruded upon the flow of thought.  Studies have shown that after such an interruption it is likely to take 5-10 minutes before the worker returns to the original task.

So how to fix it?  One answer is to make good use of filters and folders so that important messages can be spotted immediately.  But the single simplest change you can make is to notifications.  The defaults for Microsoft Outlook were devised at a time when email traffic was rare and messages were important, so a window pops up to say a new message has arrived; in such circumstances it takes an iron will to deliberately leave the message unread while you finish the sentence you were typing.  It doesn't have to be this way.  Under Outlook > Tools > Options > Email options > Advanced options, it is the work of a few seconds to change the notification to something less distracting, like an envelope on the task bar.

Making this one simple change will give you back the feeling that you can control the way you use your time to best advantage.

Five things archaeologists can learn from The Apprentice

Alan Sugar and the would-be apprentices (2009 series)

Photo: AJC1

The Apprentice is a reality TV entertainment show, with the emphasis on entertainment rather than reality.  But it is, nevertheless, instructive to those, like archaeologists, who are isolated from the day-to-day business environment, its culture and values. It may not present a wholly representative picture, but it is still possible to learn a little about how the world seems to those with a business role.


1. They don't care

Not just about heritage, about anything. Business appears to be one big game, with money the way of keeping score.  Someone who is willing to swear blind that  their product is organic in order to close a sale is unlikely to be trouble by the moral issues raised by not obeying a planning condition. 

See my posts on business meetings  , what not to say at a client meeting and Step 5: communication.

2. They know nothing

They stopped reading when they discovered money.  They may vaguely recall Elizabeth I, but don't count on it.  Archaeologist will need to explain from first principles about Planning Guidance, types of project, curators and contractors, post-excavation, archives and publication.  Don't assume that they know what you, or they, should be doing. They don't.

3. "Project manager" means nothing

There was a time when being a project manager implied a level of experience, competence and responsibility, and to introduce oneself as the archaeological project manager meant something that should be respected.  This has been eroded recently, and when fitting a kitchen or washing cars can be 'project managed' then clearly the term has lost much of its meaning.

See my post on Step 2: labels.

4. They wear the uniform

The phot above neatly demonstrates my discussion of image.  Although no dress code has ever been formalised, grey suits and black dresses have emerged as the uniform of business.  These days there is much more tolerance of idiosyncrasies such as weird hair and jewellery, but it is still true that business people will only respect people who dress like them.

5. Results are what matters

If money is the yardstick applied to success, expect an uphill struggle trying to persuade them to spend more than necessary.  At a certain level of maturity and seniority, company staff may be willing to consider the soft benefits of feel-good spending, but the default mode is cost minimisation.  Expect this - and make sure that you have costed for everything you need.



So, to conclude: business people have a different set of values, and  when communicating with them, bear this in mind.

Buy 10 simple steps: the book

Transform your business with a 10 simple steps workshop.

Copyright and the economics of archaeological publishing

I am not a lawyer, but I have seen and signed a lot of publishing agreements, and there is a lot of confusion out there, especially now that digitisation has given new life to old and forgotten print articles.

Whose copyright in the first place?

Copyright belongs to the creator initially, automatically, unless it is being created as part of your employment, in which case it is usually the employer's. So for most commercial archaeologists, it isn't their own perosnal property. Things may be complicated by the inclusion of otehr material (illsutrations, mps and photographs) with their own rights owners. And even more complex if the original developer was one of those who require their contractors to assign copyright to them - so that a unit and its staff may have to ask permission to publish their report.


Publishing agreements

The terms on which a publisher agrees to publish a work vary considerably. In commercial scientific publishing, it used to be standard to require authors to sign the copyright over to the publisher (this is now changing significantly as the open access movement has led to pressure to allow authors to keep copyright), while in archaeology, particularly for one-off volumes, authros were asked only for a licence. In most cases, until recently, the question as never raised: if there is no signed agreement ceding copyright to the publisher then it would still with the author (or employer or client). It is administratively convenient for publishers to hold copyright, allowing them to republish, sell in other markets, and handle incoming re-print requests without a lot of correspondence. On the other hand, it may mean that authors are (or feel) precluded from re-using their work themselves (in a book or on a website) or granting others the right to re-use it.

Authors faced with a strict demand for assignment of copyright have limited room for manouever - it may be completely non-negotiable (or said to be), or the author may be allowed to retain a licence so that they can do stuff in the future.


Economics

Aside from the question of what you might want to do (or authorise otehr to do) with your work, there is the question of who makes money out of it. The short answer is, alas, nobody. Most journals and book series riley on institutionl subscriptions from universities round the world as the main market - a few hundred at most. Although the rates may be high, these need to compensate for the high start-up costs for printing and distribution (it is only in the thousands when unit costs drop, beaing spread out over so many). So most journals do not pay their authors, editoirs or reviewers for initial publication rights. And they don't make a lot more from selling rights on, either - £50 or £100 for reprint rights. Relying on arcaheological publication fees for your pesnion is not a good plan. There is one possible route for income, though: the
CLA Sticker scheme, which collects fees from people who photocopy artciels and distribute them to regsietred authors. Unfortunately, you have to register your publications with them, and pay a small fee, to be included, and of the course this is only worthwhile if you expecte there to be a fair number of copies made (in which context it is worth pointing out that only twice in my life have I ever met anyone who has said they read on emy articles, let alone copied it, let alone paid a fee).

Being positive about business meetings

Archaeologists involved in fieldwork projects spend most of their time thainking about arcaheology, and talking about it to other archaeologists. This is , unfortunately, poor training for dealing effectively with non-archaeologists (see What not say at a client meeting, for example). But meetings are a critical part of the relationship between an archaeological contractor and their client; if done well, they can ensure that the project runs smoothly and any problems are resolvedin a sensible and fair manner; if done badly, they can negate all the work on marketing, branding and image and lead to misunderstandings and costly delays. So it is worth getting them right, and needs non-archaeological skills: there is therefore good reason why office managers will usually handle this part of the work. But eventually any project manager will have to attend a meeting. How they can they ensure that they come away with the right result?


Be Prepared

Print out the agenda and minutes. If you have little time, check the minutes to see whether there were any action points relating to your wokr: you can be certain that you will be asked about these. Also make sure that you know where the meeting will be held, and how to get there.

If have more time, it is worth looking at the list of attendees in order to work out who they are, and which firm they represent, and to think about whether there is anything you might want to discuss with them.

You should also prepare, preferably in writing, a short account of your progress in terms designed for a non-archaeological audience.

Be On time

It sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised. The people you meet may have no interest in or understanding of your work, may never listen to a word you say or read a report, but they will notice if you are late, destroying all the effort that your company has invested in appearing as an efficient and businesslike contractor.

You should also bear in mind what they will expect to see: if you want to confirm their opinion of archaeologists as bumbling eccentrics this is a good ay to start.

Be Smart

Don't look like an archaeologist. In most professions, status is demarcated by dress codes: important people wear ties. So if you want them to think that you're important, wear a tie. Again, confound their expectations: you want to be treated as an equal.

Be Informed

This development is probably the first time they've had to deal with archaeology (every project is a first date). Having an archaeologist there will be an excellent opportunity for them to find out about planning policies, archaeological methodologies, recent legislation, and anything else they can think of (they may well as about fossils and dinosaurs too). So it's best to be able to respond in a coherent way, at elast to the moe directly relevant questions.

Be Tactful

You may work for a lot of different developers; you may undertake work on adjoining plots for different clients. Although (from your point of view) there is no conflicty of interest, the devloper may feel that you are not 100% loyal if you spend a lot of time talking about your other work. It is important to remember that you may have been given access to commercially sensitive information (completion date, for example), and you should respect confidences.


Be Interested

Other specialists involved may mention things which are directly relevant (the ecologist may be doing some work on hedgerows; the engineer may be planning geotechnical work). But even if not, it is worth keeping your ears open so that you can understand their role better.

Be Vague

You will probably be asked questions that you cannot answer: "How long until you're finished? How much would it cost to extend the excavation? Can you move to seven-day working?" Don't feel that you have to offer guesses. If it's beyond your expertise or mandate, say so. It's better to say that you'll check back and let them know than to give a misleading or wrong snap response.

Be Efficient

After the meeting, sit down and tidy up your notes, taking special care on anything that relates to your work. Tell the office about anything substantive that you have learned.


To put it all together, be P O S I T I V E !

Email is your friend, not your enemy

A recurrent feature of any discussion about time management and working practices is the feeling that email is out of control; people say that they have to check it constantly and yet know that the old messages stack up, and they can never deal with it all. As a result, they say that if only they could handle the email mountain and have confidnce that they'd seen the important stuff, they'd be able to cope, leading to the desperate arbitrary expedients of 'email free Fridays' or 'no email after 3.00' rules.

This self-analysis may not, in fact, be accurate: an overflowing inbox may just be the symptom of a wider malaise. But since handling email forms such an important part of modern working, it is worthwhile thinking a little to get it right. Unfortunately, most of the problems come from other people, sending you stuff, but you can at least try to make life easier for your recipients.

WRITING EMAILS

Use the subject line

. . . to say what the subject is. The actual subject, preferably. Anything sent under a geenric heading, or [no subject], will be difficult to locate later when you're trying to find it. Don't use ALL CAPS, and start the subject with the key words.

It's often possible to put all the necessary info in the subject.
Not:

Subject: Re: Meeting tomorrow?



Text: Yes, 10am is fine.

But:

Subject: Meeting 10am ok



Text:

Email conversations tend to drift onto new topics; if this happens it's best to re-title messages periodically, rather than end up with:

Subject: re: re: re: re: re: re: Dinner tonight?



Text: Will you marry me?

For similar reasons, it's much easier to keep track of threads if you stick to one subject per email, so that if there are three issues you want to raise with someone, send three messages: this will allow them to respond to each on its own timeframe. Otherwise it's likely that only the first, or most urgent, issue will actually be addressed.

But there is an even more basic question: should you be writing an email at all? Email is great for short, quick, transient and non-controversial communication with people with whom you have an established relationship. It is not good for arguing, or explaining at length. A good rule of thumb is the 10/5 minute rule: if it will take longer than 10 minutes to write or 5 minutes to read, don't send it by email. Turn it into a Word dodument, or talk on the phone. Few people read long emails carefully, so don't expect them to.

Think hard before you use 'reply all' It is annoying to be copied into a two-sided debate in which you have no interest. Much better to have the debate in private and then circulate the conclusion to all.

If you are going to forward an email, it is helpful to add some sort of gloss: "Do you want to go to this conference?", "See the comment in para 2 which we might want to respond to", or even just a simple "any use?".

I would discourage the use of automatic read receipts. Somebody who has read the subject of an email, and decided to open it, is ready to read the contents, and the intrusion of a pop-up that they must read and click on before they can do so breaks the flow. There are a few occasions when a positive response is needed: I would just add a note in the text: "please confirm you've had this message".

In theory it should be possible to use priority markers (red text, !) to gain the reader's urgent attention to a particular message, but unfortunately these tend to be used only by spammers, and will therefore make people less likely to read it. Instead, start the subject line with "Urgent! "

Having a corporate signature text with phone number and a web address is a good idea. Having one which is bloated with legal disclaimers and vague threats against unintended recipients is a bad idea. Often these disclaimers are so broad that anyone wishing to conduct serious business would be justified in refusing to respond and insisting on dealing with someone whose word could be taken as some form of official sanction. It would be better to train staff in what they should say than to rely on these probably unenforceable clauses. Similarly, asking "do you really need to print this email?" may be ineffective. You could argue that the environmental impact of adding to the size of a message that has to be colelcted and stored by multiple recipients might outweigh the tiny number of trees saved by indecisive readers who were persuaded not to print it.

Don't apologise for cross-posting. The days when you only got messages you wanted have, alas, gone. Wasting everbyody's time by making them read this before getting to the substance is more annoying than getting the same message twice. But equally, don't circulate needlessly. Reading irrelevant emails can absorb an enormous amount of staff time, especially if they are labelled (unhelpfully) "Important notice to all staff" but in fact are of interest to three people in the organisation.

Finally there is the question of tone. It used to be common for people to treat email as if it were an electronic letter, written in the fairly stiff and formal language adopted in many businesses. Increasingly, though, it is coming to resemble speech, and it is hard to maintain that it should necessarliy be any more formal than would be used in, say, a telephone conversation. In general, peopel would rather recive an instant response, even if brief, slangy and mis-typed, than wait half an hour for one which said the same thing but in more coherent prose.

READING EMAILS

So maybe your readers will start being glad to get messages from you. But right now, that isn't really much help with your inbox. What can you do?

Break your messages up into folders. A good way is have folders for individuals or groups. When you're looking for an old message, you may have forgotten its subject or date but probably can remember or guess who had sent it.

Use message rules and filters. It is worth setting up rules so that new messages are moved straight into the relevant folder. You can then at a glance spot responses you were waiting for while leaving others to one side.

Have a folder for newsgroups. Those messages can go straight there and wait for your leisure; alternatively you can periodically use 'mark folder as read' so you can forget the rest. If the newsgroup has an acessible archive (as Jiscmail groups do), you can safely delete these messages en bloc.

Process your emails. Leave non-urgent unread messages in their folders. Scan the messages in the active folders, open the important ones, and respond to the simple ones straight away. Then go back and deal with the important complex ones. Whether you then go on to deal with the others is up to you, but you can be confident that you know about everything you need to for now.

The archaeological marketplace

In times like these, effective marketing can make all the difference between survival and closure. Does your current strategy deliver business? Or are you wasting time and money?

If you're relying on repeat business from your existing developers, you will starve

There were 4,500 developer-funded reports per year sent to HERs in England before the credit crunch (source: Archaeological Investigations Project)
There were 500,000 planning applications per year (source: Planning Portal)

So, on average, 1 in 100 planning applications leads to archaeological work of some sort. So even if a developer is highly active and submits a lot of applications, they are unlikely to need archaeological assistance more than once in a blue moon.*

If you're relying on word-of-mouth you will starve

Developers don't talk to each other very much, and certainly don't share their commercial secrets. They won't recommend you to their competitors. And in any case, given the low incidence of archaeology, it won't be often that someone who has had a problem meets someone who has got one at the moment.

If you're relying on your reputation you will starve

You can't rest on your laurels and wait for work to turn up based on your reputation. The only archaeologists likely to be recognised outside the archaeological community are Time Team (and maybe Bonekickers).

Every project is a first date

You need to make a good first impression. It's no good muddling along and then producing the best report in the world at the end: they won't hang around. But managing that impression is difficult.

What will be noticed
Price
Answering emails and phone calls quickly and politely
Having professional-looking stationery, staff and premises
Professional and quality accreditation
Friendliness, enthusiasm and efficiency
What curators say about you

What won't be noticed
Academic credibility
Specialist knowledge
Previous experience
What past customers say about you

I man ways, this is depressing, since it means that the qulaities we value highest are least effective. But it's probably better to realise that, I think.



* Environmental Assessments are different: developers for types of development that require these *will* be repeat customers and *will* know about archaeology.

What not to say at a client meeting

Scenario:

Your unit's evaluation has revealed well-preserved stratigraphy on the development site; there is a real possibility that the archaeological impact of the proposal will be enough for the application to be refused. So what should you say? Or more to the point, not say?


Well at least we managed to resolve the question of when the Town Ditch was finally filled in.

They don't care. It's not their job to care, and they don't. You're not there to sell archaeology; you're there to advise your clients. Even if you've spent the last ten years worrying about exactly this issue, now is not the time to say so. Tell you client, instead, that the evaluation has performed its function but has left them with a possible problem.


Perhaps you could get Professor Withington to comment?

Well, yes, if you want them to think that you don't know what you're doing or what you've found. Most developers will at some point have come across a local professor with no understanding of the planning process and an axe to grind (hydrology, bats, electromagnetism) and they will hardly jump for joy at the suggestion. It is in any case a bad move: the credibility of 'authorities' in a public forum may dissolve under astute questioning ("When did you last consult the SMR?" is a good one), and for all you know he has been writing mad letters to the council since the Thatcher era. Even if you do think he may have something to say, he should be YOUR advisor, not your clients. If he is advising your clients, what are they paying you for?


The archaeology is too precious: you'll have to re-think.

Sometimes you do have to say this. But under the present framework, it's up to the planners to say this, not you, most of the time. The judgement of whether preservation by record is an appropriate response is always a finely balanced one.


I'm sure you'll get permission

Don't say this unless you really are sure. Your clients are used to the vagaries of the planning process, and ill-advised certainty at this point brings potential liability (they may go around taking up options on leases on the basis that the development will be going ahead).


What you should say

Provide a forward plan: what's next? Meeting the case officer's a good place to start.
Look at contingency plans.
Suggest changes to design to minimise risk and cost.

Above all: be the advisor they want: be clear, well informed, judicial, and open.

IFA conference presentation

Here is the Powerpoint I will be talking through next week at the Annual Conference for Archaeologists in Swansea as part of the Managing Archaeology session sponsored by English Heritage.

| View | Upload your own

Good and bad Powerpoint

There are people who hate Powerpoint because it leads to boring talks (see Death by Powerpoint). I think it's more likely that boring talkers lead to boring talks, but certainly getting the best from it as a presentation medium takes a bit of work.

Is Powerpoint the right format? Why not just talk? Or use slides? Do you have time to put it together? If you're in a hurry, concentrate on deciding what you're going to say, not what it looks like.

Some people like to write out a talk in full and then read it out. This is less effective than a well-executed extempore talk, but much better than a bad one. If you are nervous, read. Reading a text is skill: the key rules are to slow down, leave spaces, leave room for asides that occur to you at the time, and make sure that it is written as a talk: pompous prose sounds terrible when read out.

Almost all talks end up too long. Ideally your planned presentation should run for 75% of the time you have been given: this will allow you to add stuff as you go along. There is a persistent belief that a talk that runs for 40 minutes when practised the night before can magically turn into a 20 minute talk on the day. It can't. If you don't want to run out of time halfway through your second point, you will need to prune the introduction drastically.

If you are going to use Powerpoint, you need to think about delivery. One of the reasons that Powerpoint presentations end up dull is because the speaker talks to the screen with their back to the audience, or sits at the side or the back of the hall. This means that they lose eye contact with their audience and cannot project their voices. You should (if given the choice) stand at the front, facing the audience, to one side of the screen, so that you can see people and they can see you. Be careful if you turn towards the screen or move away from a microphone, because you won't be heard. Your posture should be relaxed so that your voice can resonate, rather than stiff. If you have the slightest inclination to nervously jangle your keys or coins while you talk, it is a good idea to empty your pockets beforehand.

Use F5 Slideshow and the space bar to advance: if you use the mouse you will be trying to use that rather than paying attention to the audience.


I have compiled some advice on content in a Powerpoint Go to Slideshare to see the presentation.


This link might work too:

| View | Upload your own

Sources for sign generators:
Sign generator (book covers)
RedKen (alphabet soup)
Hetemeel (Einstein)
Atom Smasher (computer error messages)
ImageGenerator (MS Office paperclip)


Powerpoint when well-used can be a very effective tool, so it's worth spending some time on.

Copyright for archaeologists

I am still not a lawyer.


Fortunately, there is a lot of good advice on copyright from The Intellectual Property Office.



Ways of managing your Intellectual Property Rights issues


1. Head in the sand



"We don't have any IPR issues because we're just doing research"
"We redraw the OS base maps so we don't have to worry"
"We've never really thought about it"

If you're not worried about IPR then you're not paying attention.
If you are creating or using text, images or data, on paper or electronically, you have IPR issues: maybe you just don't know it yet.


2. Hope for the best



"Nobody's ever complained"
"It's good advertising for them anyway"
"We don't sell our reports commercially"
"It's out of print"

In many ways this is a worse position than the first one: you sort of know that there is an issue and you shouldn't really be doing what you are doing, but can't be bothered to do it properly. IPR litigation is a growth industry; rights holders employ teams of lawyers whose sole job is to track down and fine hapless misusers. Do you feel lucky? Are you sure?


Some clarity about copyright

"My reports are research so I can include copies of maps" WRONG

Copyright law changed in 2003 to amend the old phrasing which allowed copying for 'private study or research': it became explicitly limited to non-commercial research.

‘Commercial’ is a broader term than ‘profit-making’. ‘Commercial’ is in practice synonymous with ‘directly or indirectly income-generating’. It is also clear that the purpose at the time the request for a copy is made is what is important and so some genuinely unforeseen income at a much later date is not relevant to the question. Your intention at the time must be unambiguously non-commercial.
When deciding whether or not something is commercial or non-commercial, is it the proposed use of the copies or the nature of the requesting organisation that is the decisive factor?
As mentioned above, the purpose for which the copies are required is the decisive factor. This will mean that non-profit institutions will need to obtain permission for some copying ...

Copyright Licensing Agency notes on changes to UK Copyright Law

You should still be able to obtain copies of maps for your own use, but if you are paid for putting the report together, by any mechanism, you will need a licence from the copyright holder to include them.

"If it's submitted as part of the planning process the report is in the public domain" HALF WRONG

There are two different meanings to the term 'public domain'. There is a general meaning of 'not confidential', 'open to public scrutiny'; this is true, of course. The planning process is a public process, and reports will be available. Even where report commissioners seek to control access, public bodies may well under FOI or the Environmenatl Information Regulations have to provide access to them. But this is access, to view and read, not to copy. The second meaning, of 'not copyright protected', is a US legal concept which has no direct application in the UK.


"Information wants to be free" DEBATABLE

Information users certainly want data to be free, but then they would say that. Users are in no position to dictate. The question that has to be asked is whether the information creators want it to be free. They have invested time and resources into creating it; they may feel that, having been paid by someone once, they can release it to the benefit of the world. Or not.

It is interesting to note that the most vociferous advocates of 'free' data are HERs wanting to collect the reports submitted to them into a digital treasure trove, yet they are the ones who are most restrictive about what people can do with their data. (see for example the recent Data Protecion Act thread on HER Forum).

It's an estate map from the 19th century: it can't be in copyright. HALF RIGHT

Old manuscript maps probably are out of copyright (although 70 years after the death of the creator might catch some young surveyor's work in the 1880s), unless they were transcribed later (in the 1930s). But if they are held in an archive, you will also need permission to reproduce the photographic image of the map, which may still be in copyright. If it has been published since 1945 it may be out of copyright: photographic copyright is complicated.

I bought an old postcard, so I own the copyright. WRONG

No you don't. It may be out of copyright, but if it's in copyright, having a copy of it confers no rights on you.


Crown copyright means it's public. WRONG

Crown copyright means that its protection runs for 50 years.


I write the report for my unit. It's my copyright HALF RIGHT

Copyright belongs in the first instance to the creator. Unless, that is, you were doing the creating as part of your employment, in which case it is automatically transferred to them (good contracts of employment say so explicitly). There is a slight grey area if you created say a popular guidebook in your own time based on data from your day job. Freelance workers would hold the copyright and would have to explicitly transfer it to the commissioner if they wanted to own it.

One unexplored complexity is that copyright duration is determined by the creator's death date, even if they no longer hold the copyright. Good record keeping long into the future is a necessity to allow rights to be managed.

It may not be my copyright, but I still have moral rights RIGHT

The main moral rights (which are inalienable and held by the creator (only)) are attribution and protection from derogatory treatment. Attribution is the right to be identified as the author; this right must be asserted. Protection from derogatory treatment provides some recourse for uses which are contrary to the creator's wishes. The case law fro this is weak and contradictory.


Joint copyright solves problems. WRONG

Joint copyright (between several authors or between an author and a publisher) makes problems, because the permission of ALL owners is needed to allow re-use.

I can use a photo from a book because it's a good advert so people will buy it WRONG

It may be a good advert. But nobody appointed you as their agent, and you will not get anywhere by arguing you did it for their benefit, when you should have been asking. Politely. With your chequebook out.

I've traced off the OS map, but the new map is mine. WRONG

If it is derived from OS data, it's still theirs. Only if you can demonstrate not only that you could create an equivalent image using no OS data, but actually did so, are you safe.

OS data is public data: I've paid already in my taxes. WRONG

The Ordnance Survey is self-funding: its survey work on behalf of the government and everybody else is paid for by its licensing and products.




Disclaimer

This is for general information purposes and is not intended to constitute legal or other professional advice. You should seek specific legal advice in relation to any particular matter.

Step 5: Communication

Communicating with non-archaeologists is something that archaeologists are not, in fact, very good at. Talking archaeology at them, fine. But that isn't the same thing.

• Don’t expect them to share your viewpoint
• Don’t expect them to know your terminology
• Do tell them how it affects them
• Do give them bad news clearly

WHAT THE ARCHAEOLOGIST SAYS

WHAT THE DEVELOPER HEARS




Some golden rules
• Consider your audience: what matter to them?
• Provide a clear message: don't tell them 'we don't really know'
• Avoid wishful thinking: don't say you might be finished next week if you won't
• Don’t get bogged down in detail: they don't care about feature 1099
• Check they understand: ask them; listen to the answers
• Don’t be misled by politeness: they may be humouring you


Step 5: How well do you communicate?