Is It You or Is it Me?

This week, I was feeling out of sorts with no evident reason why - until Thursday morning. That's when I got back into my meditation routine. My Muse device told me I hadn't meditated in four days!

When I started meditating daily six years ago, I saw remarkable changes in my life. Good things started coming to me out of the blue. Things which used to drive me bananas didn't phase me anymore. I had changed and life around me changed.

Is meditating the answer to world peace? Maybe. I do know it helps with my corner of the world.

What We Focus On

The other day I found myself focusing on some negative events in the news. Looking for inspiration, I stared at my library of books. One book jumped out to me (felt like it literally did!)

"QBQ!", by John G. Miller, is a great book of not-so-common sense. (The full title is Practicing Personal Accountability at Work and Life - QBQ! The Question Behind the Question®, What to Really Ask Yourself to Eliminate Blame, Complaining, and Procrastination.)

Mr. Miller talks about making better choices through changing the questions we ask ourselves and others. His three simple guidelines for creating a QBQ are:

1. Begin with "What" or "How" (not "Why," "When," or "Who").
2. Contain an "I" (not "they," "them," "we," or "you").
3. Focus on action.

As he says, "What can I do?" fits the guidelines perfectly.

So, instead of thinking, "Why are they acting like that?" I started re-focusing on where I was and what I could do.

Hey, sounds like some good things are happening in the world now. Funny how that happens!

The Best Kind of Goal for Managing Change

I attended a workshop recently which was about change and how people deal with it. My goal in attending was mainly to learn more about myself and how I react to change that I didn’t originate (that is, a change imposed upon me).

I learned much from this workshop. One key point was to focus on learning instead of on performance during such a time of forced change.

Here is a tip I found useful: If your first reaction to something unfamiliar is, “I can’t do that,” instead say, “How do I learn to do that?”

The course taught*: “When facing a challenge, some people adopt performance goals which focus on demonstrating a certain level of competence. Others adopt learning goals which focus on increasing their capability. Learning goals are generally more helpful than performance goals during periods of change.

People with learning goals tend to see setbacks as information about the effectiveness of their strategies and become motivated to keep trying. They understand that learning new skills often requires going through a phase of awkwardness, confusion and failure.”

Knowing that on the other side of confusion and awkwardness is the learning, keeps me keeping on learning.

I hope you found this useful. Please let me know how you implement it in your work.

* excerpt from Developing Resilience During Change by Gregg Brown, Tidal Shift Inc. - for more info contact gregg.brown@tidalshift.ca

Breaking It Down

Sometimes when I look at an important project I am about to start, I get overwhelmed with the idea of it. It feels like, "It's just too much." Then I remember there is an easy way around this - break it down!

When I was in school, I won some contests for writing. One key to writing is the same principle - breaking the idea down into smaller parts. Even though we didn’t use the term 'mind map' then, as my kids do all the time in school now, that's what I did. I took the idea and broke it into its subcomponents and then further subdivided. Working on each part was much easier than trying to throw ideas willy-nilly at the whole.

When creating a training course, it’s the same principle - break it down. Looking at the topic of project management as a whole can be a bit daunting because there is a lot of information. The key, again, is to break the main idea into parts. What are we doing on Day One, Day Two, and so on? We want to make sure each topic is covered in the right amount.

So, if you have a big idea that's confusing you (I know when this happens to me, it's when I ignore the idea, pushing it to the side because it's "just too big" to think about), try this: take a quiet moment and write down the 'parts' of the idea. Then, put them in order as to the weight to be given to each part.

I hope this makes you feel better and breathe a sigh of relief because you are on your way to achieving your goal!

This breaking down process is really what the work breakdown structure (WBS) is all about. The WBS has been reported to be the most valuable tool by 74% of project managers.

The Value of Not Working So Much

I saw this post on LinkedIn, and thought it was intriguing: Why Germans Work Fewer Hours but Produce More: A Study in Culture. After all, who doesn't want to work fewer hours yet produce more?

Then another article caught my eye: How the Supposedly Lazy French are More Productive Than Germans.

This article stated “According to OECD data from 2011, French worker productivity stands at $57.7 worth of output per hour, while German’s is $55.8 and the United Kingdom’s is $47.2.”

What I got from both articles is that these cultures work when they work, and keep their working time to reasonable limits.

Good advice for all of us, I think.

“Done” for Wealth and Project Success

Twice this week I have read how the word “done” can bring wealth and project success.

According to Brian de Haaff (The One Word That Will Make You Rich on LinkedIn), being rich is about achieving what you have dreamed of accomplishing, and using the word “done” can confirm you’ve achieved it.

Similarly, Glen B. Alleman in Performance-Based Project Management states that being able to define what “done” looks like is the basis for project success.

So, if getting things done brings happiness and success, and completing projects successfully is getting things done, who could be happier than the project managers of successful projects?!

Alleman gives advice on increasing the probability of project success through answering “Five Immutable Principles”:

• What does “done” look like?
• How are you going to reach “done”?
• Do you have all the resources you need to reach “done”?
• What impediments will you encounter along the way to “done”?
• How are you going to measure progress towards “done” in units meaningful to the decision makers?

PMPs will recognize that these questions cover a lot of ground from the PMBOK. But even if you are not an official project manager, these questions can be helpful to achieving any goal.

And this article is... “done”!

The Opposite of Mad

Last week I was driving my eight-year old to school. Out of the blue, he piped up, "The opposite of being mad is being thankful."

I was a bit surprised. I thought about my brilliant son and said, "Yes, Zachary, I guess the opposite of being mad is being thankful."

He then continued, "The opposite of being worried is being excited. The opposite of happy is sad. Now you say a few."

"Well, Zachary, I think you've covered everything," I replied after giving it some thought.

"Haven't you ever thought about emotions, Mom?" he responded.

I laughed, "Yes, I have thought about emotions."

I gave a class that day and told them about my conversation in the car. One lady surmised that perhaps they had talked about emotions in school. So, when I picked Zachary up, I asked him if they had.

"No, that was just to break the silence," he said.

Many times I have started to get angry at a situation or a person, probably for not being the way I wanted them or it to be. I think maybe a lot of us are like that. So, I am focusing on catching myself in those “almost mad” moments and turning them around - what is there to be thankful about instead?

Maybe, like my eight-year old, I can understand that the opposite of being mad is being thankful.

Being Brave (and Project Management)

This is my year to be brave. Sara Bareilles’ song “Brave” totally captures my intent:

Say what you wanna say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave

I have a feeling it’s not just me who is valuing bravery these days. I read a newsletter that touched on this thought. Lea Brovedani wrote, “Although agreeableness is positively correlated with teamwork, it is negatively correlated with leadership success.” Isn’t disagreeing sometimes a brave thing to do?

Project Managers are required to be brave. I think it should be written into every Project Manager’s job description:

• Be willing to stand up for what you think is right (without totally alienating the customer)
• Be prepared to let your team and executives know when things are not on track
• Be willing to make decisions without too much grief!

All of these are acts of bravery. So, if you need inspiration for bravery as a PM or in any other role, take Ms. Bareilles’ advice:

Everybody’s been there, everybody’s been stared down by the enemy
Fallen for the fear and done some disappearing
Bow down to the mighty
Don’t run, stop holding your tongue
Maybe there’s a way out of the cage where you live
Maybe one of these days you can let the light in
Show me how big your brave is

Positive Questions

Have you ever used affirmations? Have they given you results? I have read lots on the power of affirmations but must admit I have never really used them.

However, when I saw “The Book of Afformations” by Noah St. John, I was intrigued. Mr. St. John came upon a realization that our subconscious mind acts upon questions. If we pose questions to ourselves, things happen.

I was happy to test out this theory. For the past few weeks, I have reframed my thinking to be in the form of positive questions. I think, along the guidelines provided by Mr. St. John, “Why do I provide such great service to my customers?” Interestingly enough, using this questioning technique has coincided with many opportunities to prove my customer service skills.

This questioning technique can be related to projects. For teambuilding, perhaps the project team could think this way: “Why do we get our work done so efficiently? Why do we provide such great value to our customers and company?” These questions are starting points. Your team will undoubtedly come up with excellent questions themselves. Then, it will be interesting to see what happens.

It doesn't cost anything to use the technique and I would encourage you do to so. Let me know your results!

Unglamorous work?

Bill Gates is famous as the founder of Microsoft. Today, he spends much of his time and considerable money on the eradication of polio in the underdeveloped world.

With his great help, polio has been eradicated in India. This effort has taken a lot of hard, unglamorous work. All by his own choice. The man who has enough money to do whatever he would like.

Most of us have nowhere near Bill Gates’ money. We imagine, if we did, how we would buy a castle or travel the world a few times over, or some such lofty indulgence.

However, Bill Gates has gone from Head IT Manager to working for the underprivileged.

If we think we are doing something not as significant in the world, it might be worthwhile to think about what Jim Collins, author of “Good to Great” says:

The truth is, few people are working on the most glamorous things in the world. Most of them are doing real work - which means that most of the time they’re doing a heck of a lot of drudgery with only a few moments of excitement. The real work of the economy gets done by people who make cars, who sell real estate, and who run grocery stores or banks. One of the great findings of this study is that you can be in a great company and be doing it in steel, in drug stores, or in grocery stores. 

The basic message is this: Build your own flywheel. You can do it. You can start to build momentum in something for which you've got responsibility. You can build a great department. You can build a great church community. You can take every one of these ideas and apply them to your own work or your own life.

Bill Gates built his own flywheel a few times over. But we can all do it.

And while you are it, remember: project management principles will help with all that building!

Click here for more information on Bill Gates’ work on the eradication of polio. Click here for more on Jim Collins and “Good to Great”.

Reaching Project Goals and the Law of Attraction

Do you manage projects, large or small? If so, have you thought about how completing a project successfully and using the Law of Attraction are alike? Being interested in both topics, I have thought about this interaction quite a bit. And here is my view.

According to the Project Management Institute (PMI), a project is “a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service or result.” So, our goal in a project is to create a particular product, service or result.

How do we perform this creation? One of the main things we will do is to build a picture/description of the outcome, and get agreement on it. For example, if our project is to create a website for our company,  we define the overall look of the website, how many pages the site is to include, and the site’s purpose before we get down to work. Thus, we are defining the scope of the project. When we do this, we almost always visualize the end-result and work from there.

So, how is this similar to getting what you want through the Law of Attraction? The Law of Attraction is based on the premise that if we can see and believe what we want, we will attain it. So, like in a project, we are seeing and focusing on what we want.

In a project, this focus and belief in the end-goal provides not only a focal point for project team members, but also gives motivation – the team working towards a goal. If you have worked on a project where all team members had the goal in mind, you will know the feeling of synergy and excitement that can result from this “beginning with the end in mind” as Steven Covey says.

Why not try it, if you have not already, in your work and personal life? Imagine the desired results (outcome) to get results! As you do so, ideas on how these results may come about might spring to your mind, or maybe you will find yourself doing things that help bring about the outcome. Whichever way it happens for you, please email me with your results, I would love to hear your stories.

Measuring Your Personal Gas Gauge

In a matter of two weeks I heard the same message.

In Kansas City we talked about poker. You have two players, both with a pair of 7’s. One player is down to their last $10, the other has $1000s in chips. Who plays with more confidence?

When he was here in Halifax, Mike Lipkin talked about a gas gauge: there are two drivers, with one the needle is on Empty, the other the needle is on Full. Who drives with more confidence?

Here is the hard question: on a daily basis, what are you measuring? What is your gas/poker chips that define your confidence, your success? Not your bosses or your co-workers measure, your measure. You are in control of defining (and measuring) your success.

Years ago I had a director who left work every day promptly at 4:30 because he had a young family at home. Some people measured that as a fault; luckily, his family gauge, his key measure of success, was full when he left.

Hindsight is 20-20. Maybe running out of chips gets you first in line at the buffet, or maybe you are still using the old “Ran out of Gas” routine. But then again, maybe not. Go fill 'er up.