Happiness is... being a Project Manager

There is a lot of research on happiness these days. One of the latest books to come out on the subject is by Shawn Achor - Before Happiness. Mr. Achor gives five strategies for being happy. I found these strategies to be similar to those required for being a successful project manager:

1. Use success accelerants - signals that tell your brain success is possible. I would liken this to collecting metrics in a project; with measurement, we have guidance on what to do to achieve success.
2. Set meaningful goals. What is a project if not a goal to be reached?
3. Eliminate as much as possible the negative emotions of fear, pessimism and doubt. This sounds like providing the vision and leadership that any project needs to be successful. When pessimism starts to abound, find ways to cut it short and turn it around.
4. Share your good feelings of happiness with others. Hopefully that would happen in any team environment. I have certainly been in environments where one person's happiness inspired and buoyed a whole group (and cases where the opposite was true, as well).
5. Focus on the positives rather than the negatives. I don’t think I have seen any successful team where there was a focus on the negative!

So, a happy person can be likened to a successful project team. How does your team line up?

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

Lag, Lead or Laugh

Last week I was in Newfoundland and Labrador giving a project management course.

I asked the class, “Does anyone know what a lag or lead is?”

One guy piped up, “Yes, a lag is what you stand on.”

Took me awhile...

(Thanks Jeremy, I have been laughing all week.)

Inspired

On April 3, my company is starting up a program where senior executives will tell their stories. These leaders have inspired me by their generosity of spirit.

The executives giving these sessions are all busy people. They travel, they manage good-sized companies. All of them, when asked, agreed to share how they got to where they are.

Just considering this inspires me. That these individuals would be willing to take the time and present their tips, tools and advice. This isn’t about making more money or getting publicity - they already have enough of those.

So thank you, Halifax Executive Mentoring Series presenters!

If you are in the Halifax area and are interested in learning more about this series, please see halifaxleadership.com.

The Sender-Receiver Model

Why the Sender-Receiver Model is true:

My mom said, "Honey, please go to the store and buy a bottle of milk. If they have eggs, get six."

I came back with six bottles of milk.

She said, "Why did you get six bottles of milk??"

I said, "Because they had eggs!"

source: iwastesomuchtime.com/on/?i=45065

Have you been Asked yet Today?

I had a conversation with a potential client the other day and they asked me question after question. Probably thinking I was getting irritated by it (if they knew me better they would know this certainly wouldn't be the case), the client said “We teach all of our consultants to ask questions. If they don’t understand something, they are told to ask more questions.” Wow!

This is definitely the kind of place I would like to work. My husband can vouch for this. If he tells me he was talking with so-and-so the other day and they went to the Bahamas, I ask “When did they go? For how long? Did they go with someone? ...” until he says, “I didn't interrogate them!”

One of the biggest problems with projects is not getting a complete view of the objectives (scope). This stems from a few things, including not spending the time and effort to find out what the client really wants. How do we find out what the client wants? ASK.

Why wouldn't we ask questions? Probably from a fear of looking stupid – after all, whatever we do, we are supposed to be experts in our field. Our customers come to us to get their problems solved. Isn't asking questions a sign of weakness?

I would claim that asking questions is a sign of confidence.

When I was in elementary school there was a classmate who asked the most seemingly stupid questions. That classmate is now a doctor. I could see that my classmate wasn't stupid – rather, appearing unintelligent was less of a risk than not knowing.

So, as my potential client so clearly demonstrated, asking questions is a key to success.

Is it Really a Project?

I asked a colleague the other day how everything was going with his project. He told me that what he was working on was supposed to be a project, but really it was operations.

The word was that the company had described the work as a project to win the contract. However, the work wasn't seen as a project.

Was it a project or not?

First, I would say that if the team member did not think he was working on a project, he was not. No matter if there was a project name that he put on his time sheet each week.

How could it have seemed to be a project?

My guess is that the Project Manager and executive saw it as a project. There was an account code assigned and surely there were reports to the customer on the deliverables. And, hopefully, there was an end result in mind.

However, if the project team members did not see any sign of this being a project, it surely wasn't to them. (If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it...)

If there were regular team meetings with outcomes the team was working toward - that would be seen as a project. Even if there weren't team meetings, but regular communication from the Project Manager, possibly outlining the overall status of the project, there could be some semblance of a project.

What was the missing key?

I would say communication from and to the Project Manager.

So, I guess my colleague was right - this was operations cleverly disguised as a project.

Big Data and Project Estimates

March Madness is due to hit in full force soon. I try to ignore this fact but my husband warns me every year when the season is approaching (so I can know why he is hibernating).

For those who aren’t basketball fans, March Madness is the American (United States) National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments.

This year it is especially big news because Warren Buffett, together with his company, Berkshire Hathaway, are offering $1 billion to any person who can correctly pick the winners of all 63 games in this year’s NCAA men’s college basketball tournament. The odds, without tools, are 1 in 9.2 quintillion.

To add to your chances of winning, Paul Bessire has created an application called The Predictalator. He says this software has been incredibly accurate in predicting outcomes of sports games. If you want to spend time on going for the billion, there’s a tool.

The Predictalator analyzes multitudes of factors and converts them into probable outcomes.

Let’s apply these estimates to projects. If we had a project with 64 team members (just like there are 64 teams in the Men’s NCAA tournament), and asked each team member for an estimate on an activity, we would have 1 in 9.2 quintillion odds that all of the estimates would be correct; correct meaning exactly equal to the actual outcome. If we had only 64 activities in a project – which would be a pretty small project – and had one estimate for duration for each activity, again the odds would be 1 in 9.2 quintillion that the total estimate would be on target.

Which leads me to think – why do project managers, sponsors, team members and clients (okay, project stakeholders in general) often expect projects to be “on” their estimates? Certainly the odds are wildly against that.

Of course, as we get closer to the end, our estimates for the project budget and duration are much more accurate – just like when we get down to the final game in a basketball tournament.

While The Predictalator teaches us there is no safe bet on games or projects, perhaps a good webinar for basketball bettors would be on Rolling Wave Planning, to continuously update their estimates.

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!

Project Management Truisms Ring True

I went to a fascinating presentation on lessons learned from projects yesterday. The two presenters analyzed ten projects they had worked with and came up with twelve lessons learned. I listened intently.

Of great interest to me was that these were not project management professionals and did not even use the term 'project management' in their talk. What lessons did they come up with? Among them were:

1. Senior leadership needs to be committed to the process and open to the outcome.
2. Make sure the purpose and intention of your project are clear. If you are confused, everyone else will be too.
3. Go slow to go fast. Planning and implementing an effective and meaningful project takes time. Are you ready for this?

Do these findings sound familiar to you? The findings underlined for me that the theories of project management ring true. The personnel involved in these projects discovered these truths from their own experience.

So, I conclude that whether you think in project terms or not, having a sponsor you can rely on, having a clear vision and purpose for what you are doing, and planning are fundamental principles of success for any work.