What DON'T you stand for

"What are your Values?"  This infrequently asked question can be difficult.  What do you stand for?   It can be challenging, and can result in more than a hundred characteristics of general form.  To prepare for this, change the perspective. Maybe the question should start with "what don't you stand for?"  Then, move back to the positive side of the equation.  Do you now have a basis to identify the core values and beliefs that drive you personally and professionally?   Spend some time and mold them into your own value statement.  To borrow from the public radio show,  "This I believe.....".

Digital Preparation for New Year's Resolutions

 Ever fail at honoring those new resolutions you make every year?  How about using technology to bump reminders back to you?

As I prepare for another round of resolutions I am going to take another tactic this year.   I will be setting up personal electronic calendar entries for reminders.   In some instances I will use specific calendar appointments for events (go to gym on Tuesday, etc.).   The beginning of each month will be appointments to review progress.    I think I might use NudgeMail.com as well.

Change your life -- begin with thinking

When you change your THINKING, you change your beliefs.

When you change your BELIEFS, you change your expectations.

When you change your EXPECTATIONS, you change your attitude.

When you change your ATTITUDE, you change your behavior.

When you change your BEHAVIOR, you change your performance.

When you change your PERFORMANCE, you change your LIFE.

I heard this yesterday, and several times prior.   Kudos to at least John Maxwell and Steve Siemens, as well as many others who remind us of these valuable words of wisdom.

Men - stress - meat

Men -- Feeling stressed? Grill a steak, a study suggests. 

A study by McGill University in Canada says meat has a calming effect on men. Scientists say that red meat not only calms the brain, but also boosts the intelligence and memory power.

I think a Tim Allen grunt is about to commence !!!

A quick email reminder solution

Ever been in a hurry and needed to set up a reminder for yourself, but didn't want the paper, no pen handy, didn't want a yellow sticky note, and didn't want to go into your own tracking system?  

Then you need to check out Nudgemail.   It is a quick solution to send yourself a reminder email.  You will receive a reminder email at a specific date and time of your choosing.   Not complicated  & not difficult to use. 

Check it out, nudgemail.com, and consider adding it to your toolbox.

Sorting out best advice for Project Management

Ever feel overwhelmed with advice?  Too many solutions, too much time is required?  Working in a paperwork adverse environment?  Need structure but unwilling management or stakeholders?   An environment that kills you with structure and administration, and you have no time for your own involvement to ensure the project is truly moving in the right direction and will meet its goals?

My recent attitude is developing the following as my baseline:

• Do all that your environment requires, but use common sense to minimize your effort 
• Simple is better than complex
• Don't ever quit learning
• Don't ever be satisfied with the status quo
• Recognize that these may conflict among themselves, and then move on
• And lastly, Laugh a little, or even a lot    
  
  
  
  

Origin of establishing Thanksgiving Day

Did you know that many American leaders were involved in establishing our American day of thanksgiving?  This included George Washington, the prodding upon many presidents by Sarah Hale, a proclamation on Oct 3, 1863 by President Lincoln to set aside the last Thursday of November, and finally in 1941, Congress permanently established the fourth Thursday of each November as a national holiday.

Too much information available?

I am a perpetual learner. I love being a sponge of information. But lately I am thinking that I have too much information available for my own reasonable consumption.



I want to be a continuously better project manager, so a read this blog, read that article, subscribe to this RSS feed, and so on. I want to be a better resource manager of people, so then I do the same thing. I am curious about many newer technology tools and how they can be to my advantage, how to better use social media, and on, and on, and on....  It is never about mastering the subject, but rather better understanding and insight.  It used to be big stacks of magazines and also some books besides my reading chair, but now we are in the electronic age.


Finally, in the past few days I have found that it is nearing the point of out of control. Time to pursue the purging process. What do I really need to follow / What can I purge?

Cloud Computing: Collaboration, sharing, data storage and backups

I am in another of my investigative modes.  The current topic is further pursuit of 'the cloud'.

 Via on-the-job I have utilized a few cloud based collaboration tools. Most specifically, we used Central Desktop and exploited it in the data sharing mode. I utilized it extensively in my project management activities for file sharing, status report sharing, and other related events. Business procedures were also integrated. It was great not clogging up email systems with large attachments. Early work experimented with BaseCamp, but its simplistic model just did not have enough juice. Cloud concepts also allowed quick startup without investments in big box solutions such as Microsoft and IBM.



Presently I have progressed to also now looking at the concept of data storage and backups, as well as other related benefits such as multiple pc independence, at the personal home usage level.  For a few years now I have utilized Google Docs on a limited basis - specific purpose. Coming after many years of caution and traditional I/T experience, I finally have opened my vision further. Dedicated external hard drives backup solutions and the portability of thumb drives are attractive. They still have limiting physical factors however.

My new strategy is pursing targeted local subfolder structures, and specific frequently changed files, of hopeful smaller size, where cloud storage and cloud backups could more easily of benefit and justification.  Here are some of the solutions I am pursuing and investigating right now.

• DropBox

• SugarSync

• Evernote: PC and Android

• GoogleDocs

• Mozy (its on my list to look into)

• Central Desktop - for personal use

Wasteful Marketing in Politics

Tired of your mailbox full of political junk mail?  I am sure am.  Fortunately, there is only a few days left in this election process.   

Today I received 6 pieces of political mail, and I am sure there are people who received much more.    As I walked up to the house all I did was toss them directly into the recycle bin.  No I did not read them, not even a glance.   Why bother?  These oversized postcards never have anything of substance.    "Vote for me, joe smoe, I will save the economy, or I will say something else that everyone wants'.   OR,.... don't vote for my opponent because he is a bad man........

blah, blah, blah.   I am sorrry but (no, I am not) that type of message will not sway me to your candidate.  What I am concerned about though, is the the competence of the individual who is swayed.   Pretty shallow.  

As with all problem situations you should not just tell what is wrong, but also suggest alternatives and solutions.    So, here is one thought ---- >

Why not place all energies and moneys into efforts to share in-depth beliefs of what you are going to do once in office.  Then promote where your information can be found,  invite voters to share their thoughts and enhance your stand. 

I want to know what you really are going to do.   I could care less on simple meaningless sound bite messages on postcards.     I will vote for a smart individual, not one who dumbs down his message. 

Alternatives to Traditional Communications

Tired of lengthy and wordy status reports? PowerPoints that are difficult to follow, or too much information, or take too long to prepare? Too many sources of information need to be brought together?


I have contemplated these questions and other similar factors for several years. One my solutions has been the development of simplistic templates, focusing only on core summary information.

Another area that has had my curiosity for over 3 years is mind mapping. Mind Mapping tools are growing, especially in the initial needs and requirements gathering areas. I believe that there is great potential for alternative presentation approaches using the underlying concepts of these tools --- it may be time for PowerPoint to die. Mindjet is a leader in the commercial product world but is pricy. FreeMind is a commonly recognized leader in the open source, free world but is not necessarily the easiest to use.

Traditional methods of sharing a document or presentation can be very painful as well. Many corporations are still bound to hardcopy. Or even email attachments which then fill up email queues and require the recipient to spend time and energy to save the file and address reading, printing, and reviewing. I have utilized collaboration solutions in The-Web-Cloud arena, such as Google Docs, BaseCamp, and Central Desktop, and have been exposed to SlideShare (.net). There are many others surfacing as well.

If we dig deep enough, have the latitude in the corporate environment to pursue non-traditional options, and push ourselves outside our of comfort box, we can be leaders into new and better communications.

What are you using and doing to improve your communications?

Atanasoff - THE builder of the 1st computer

Jane Smiley has just recently completed the writing of a good biography of John Atanasoff.   While there have been other claimants of the creation of the very 1st computer (and possibly one of the most important inventions of modern times)  Atanasoff was indeed the 1st.   A tangled web of confusion was delays in the patent process, which was finally settled in the the courts in the 1970s.     One of the hidden gems of the story is that this all occurred in the midwest, at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.  Additionaly, I, an alum of ISU, took computer science classes in the building named after him many years ago.

Check out the BusinessWeek story on this at: http://bit.ly/8ZsHG4

A John Atanasoff website: http://www.johnatanasoff.com/

Find the book at Amazon.  It is now on my need-to-read book list: http://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Invented-Computer-Biography/dp/0385527136

Question the Question

I recently read a blog which focused upon "Changing the Question".  The context related to a self analysis of life quandries.  Some self reflection should always look at WHY, the foundations of the question, and even WHY NOT.   

While well written, I found myself believing that this applies to a wider range of topics, such as daily business challenges, serious strategy sessions, and also project business requirements and project scope.   Too often we take a statement at face value.  While still respecting the original statement or dilemma, we owe it to be thorough.   Ask the tough questions --- Why, Why Not, what are your assumptions --- are they necessary or absoluty true, whose truths, what happens if we don't do anything, what happens if action is delayed, what are the costs, are there alternatives?  Simply put -- we need to challenge (question) the question.   

Laptops and Screws

We all know we live in such an amazing fast paced world. Technology is moving at such dramatic paces around us that we are now just taking it for granted. However...

Just a few days ago, a few critical keys on the keyboard of my laptop began to not function, or function erratically. It is amazing that 3 keys --- Backspace, Enter, and Spacebar, are so critical to overall functionality. I placed a call to the manufactor's Technical Support, and they assured me that a replacement keyboard would be ordered and available in just a few days. FYI -- warrantee coverage took care of the whole matter.

The technician arrived early this afternoon and replaced the keyboard in a timely manner. However, in order to do so, he more or less had to disassemble most of the laptop to get to the keyboard area. I'm sure he removed at least 60 or more screws, many of which of which appeared to me microscopic. Of course all components need to be held in place, but it struck me very odd that such a critical technological devise would have so many SCREWS!

My vision turned to the do it yourself assembly packages that we all have addressed.   Can you see the inventory packing list for a laptop:   1 hard drive, 1 monitor screen, 1 integration board, 1 shell casing, 1 keyboard, 1 power cord, and oh yes, 60 million-zillion screws.

Business Leadership & Conducting an Orchestra

Itay Talgam: Lead like the great conductors

I am not sure how I initially I found it, but was intrigued to watch a particular TED Talk video. Italy Talgam, a career orchestra conductor, shares the relationship between famous conductors and the members of the orchestra. The leadership that one must provide gives significant insight to business leaders. I found a valuable parallelism to team managers, and as project managers as well (the latter being close to my heart professionally.)

Just some of the significant tidbits I absorbed:

• Build appropriate Control, not Demand, into your team

• The leader must build a partnership

• When it is needed, and only when it is needed, authority must be there

• Give instruction, ensure responsibility, ensure effective communication is present

• Don't forget the other participants, such as the audience (i.e., your customers), and the builder of the instruments (i.e., your implicit support team)

·       And #4 from the 10 Commandments for Conductors:  Never look at the trombones — it only encourages them.  (which I found humorous since I played trombone in my earlier years)

Check out the full TED talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/itay_talgam_lead_like_the_great_conductors.html

Influence: simple and expanded definition

The definition, and more, of INFLUENCE


Influence is a powerful word, that when properly executed, is much more than power. By definition it is the act of producing an effect without (an apparent) exertion of force or direct command or demand. A mouthful, it can move mountains, grow individuals and teams, and accomplish significant feats.

Leaders must have a successful capability to conduct their influence for a greater good than themselves and self glory. Executives, directors, managers, and project managers must prevail in this skill set.

I recently found a blog on this topic in relationship to social media. It has 4 terrific key points listed below.

1. Influence is simple… which makes it complicated.

2. Influence is contextual.

3. Influence is the product of reach and authority.

4. (Most) Influence is invisible.

More intrigued? a link to the original posting -   http://tinyurl.com/25osc3k

Social Media HAS changed our lives

Without a doubt social media is changing our lives.     Is is no longer that we should adapt to "IT", but rather "IT" has already impacted us.    The label "Social" is likely an unfit adjective as well.  It is no longer personal, no longer professional.   The blending of newer, or rather the newer and most recent, media into our lives happens with our little control over it.   It used to be Myspace, now its Facebook.   What's around the corner?  There are so many similar or niche solutions that may rise to the top tomorrow, or even tonight.    Can you believe emails are becoming old fashioned?

Corporations, small and large, are searching how to exploit this all.   Branding, customized customer relationships, more frequent contact with the customer, internal communication activity improvements.... the list goes on.  

The traditional perspective of social connections is being redefined across all boundraries.   Families, extended families, private industries, schools, and yes even into churches.

AND....   Technology is growing at a terrific pace in parallel.  Phones are now  super "smart", and siginificantly more intellegent than previous 'smart' ones.  We can't live without the nonverbal aspect of what they do or allow us to do  --- texting, tweeting, our personal calendars giving us notifications on the fly.

Check out this video.   It provides an amazing perspective of the growth of social media.
Video: Social Media Revolution

What happened to Labor Day?

Today, Monday September 6 is a national holiday -- Labor Day.  But yet how many people in the American society are truly acknowledging the intent of this day? Or they just looking at another day off, or a day of BBQing and family picnics? 

We have lost something here.  A great something.   In the interest of the big corporate dollar many people are still working on this day.  When I grew up there were extra lessons in school the days before noting the purpose and value of this day of tribute.   We also were taught to extend the boundaries of the definitions of Labor to include many other factors and professions.   

Here is another view of this concern which goes further in depth.    http://tinyurl.com/3ywuaoa

The Six Layers of Resistance

The Six Layers of Resistance: Problems & Solutions


While studying Goldratt and the Theory of Constraints (TOC) several years ago, I gained knowledge of the following 6 areas of concern that surround resistance to pursuit of a solution.  For the most part they are steps that should be followed in succession.

1. Disagreeing on the Problem

2. Disagreeing on the direction of the direction of the Solution

3. Disagreeing that the suggestion solved the Problem

4. Claiming that the Solution will also lead to negative effects

5. Pointing to obstacles blocking or distorting the implementation of the Solution

6. Un-verbalized fear

People Pay For Value

I just read an interesting blog titled: People Pay for Value, Their Value - Not Yours. It is a very interesting article that reflects how value definitions are changing and the variances value statements.


It brought to mind the views of the value (pun intended) of a project. It is not uncommon to encounter the end or near-end of a long running project and the end customer says something like "but that is not what I wanted". Scope management, inadequate business requirements, lack of user engagement, a project team working in isolation, the lack of adequate change control, and just as important -- constant customer communication and involvement to ensure the original target objective continues to be paramount. Project Managers must be continually tuned to these concerns.



Blog entry: http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/people-pay-for-value---their-value-not-yours/

What matters most is .....

What matters most is

Showing up for your life... whether you feel like it or not.


so.... regardless of the speedbumps that we have all endured, charge forward !!!

The Wind & You

"The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails."



- William Arthur Ward





Where am I? Where are you?

Have you encountered a failure yet?

Two separate situations within a week have brought me to a link of this video.

If you have never failed, you have never lived.

Where is Project Management

A few recent articles, as well as a variety of blogs I read have my attention to a few overlapping questions --- WHERE is Project Management? WHAT is Project management? Where is it going? What should it be?

These are interesting questions, of which there is no one single answer. The cloud of confusion continues to become larger. Project Management has been clearly in vogue within corporations in the last decade -- everyone wants to say they have it, but doing so by their local definition. There are various scales of grand, complicated, complex planning schedules, and rules and yet more rules, and even the lack of them. Then at the other end of the spectrum, there are simply coordinators with a large title. While there is a growing demand for this profession to assist in corporate growth, one article notes a survey reflecting the lack of company commitment, understanding and investment to ensure the project is fully addressed from beginning to end (please note the Chaos studies). Another dimension is the challenge of in recent times of "Agile"-ment. While often reflected in alternative roots to the traditional software development life cycle challenges, it is often disguised as a project management solution without fairly addressing the breadth (and depth) of other components to a project beyond developement.


I personally have some basic and core tenets. The leader of a project, hopefully titled Project Manager should follow some variation of the following. Ensure that the project management solution blends well into the corporate culture, and at the same time advances the culture to a higher degree. Gain committment from key business leaders not only to the project objectives, but also to the chosen management practices governing the project. Continual process improvement, as related to the project management profession and project methodologies, is a necessity. The ultimate delivery of the goal the project trumps any mandated standard or procedure of project management. As businesses evolve and need more timely solutions, project management must also be more flexibile (note the hidden references to the concepts of agile). I know I have more core beliefs and will comment on them in the future.

The way we think about things

I read the following quote yesterday: "If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it." -- Mary Engelbreit

How often do we get caught over analyzing a situation or problem attempting to change something we can't change? It may be a job loss, an oil spill, certain politics or even an unfortunate accident. Some times we need to just tell ourselves: "get over it and move on."

Say something meaningful - Godin

A recent posting by Seth Godin, http://tinyurl.com/39m3c25,
is right on the point -- SAY SOMETHING MEANINGFUL. Too many corporate statements and political statements dance around but we aren't sure what they are really saying.

Ensure your messages, statements, progress and status reports have true value and meaning.

Happiness

"The secret of happiness lies
not in the act of creating joy.
The secret of happiness lies in
recognizing joy when it
comes."
- Kerry Patterson

Doesn't that just sum up where we should be?

We often get caught up in the rat race of our job, the busy schedules of family life, the problems around us -- from unemployment to the price of gas.

But we need to take a moment, a deep breath and pause......., and note the joys and happiness around us.

Have a great day!

Seth Godin's TRIBES

I just finished reading Seth Godin's book "Tribes". The subtitle - We Need You to Lead Us, gives you an insight to the core themes. While he centralizes on leadership, he does a great job on the many various facets surrounding leadership, becoming a leader, today's weaknesses of leadership and our society. He likes to reflect his expression by the the good outcomes of heritecs.

I like his thoughts on "stuck on stupid" and also sheepwalking - which essentially is "hiring people to be obedient and giving them brain-dead jobs". Also, "don't settle" [for mediocre].

It is a great easy read, with plenty of wisdom and thought. The only complaint would be his attempts to bring in religion and faith into his discussions. Not only do they not fit well with his message, his apparent non-religious personal aspects can be negating to those who do.

Please read this book. I highly recommend it.

Brands for Project Managers

The PM Network magazine, March 2010, has a great article by Chauncey Hollingsworth: "Making Your Mark. In a world full of the slick sell, project managers need to create their own distinct brands."
It notes several valuable thoughts.

• Building a good reputation. Leading efforts with best practices, knowledge, skills
• Marketing yourself, self promotion
• Integrity. Believing in yourself
• Being unique in the qualities your portray
• Execution, i.e., performance, not hype

a sense of urgency

Finished a great book - "a sense of urgency" by Joh P. Kotter. The book has much to say and more people need to read this.

He brings out some key factors. False urgengency and complacency both are not readily understood nor recognized by those surrounding themselves by those concerns. Kotter proposes 4 tactics to address true and beneficial urgency. He also notes a phrase that is critical: urgent patience.

Where is your sense of urgency? How about the team members on your project? Your stakeholders and project champions?

Did it RIGHT

There's power in this statement by Ballmer; I personally emphasize the word RIGHT.
Where is your project?

Ballmer: Google leads because 'they did it right first'

Risk Management Quotes

RISK QUOTES


To know that we know what we know and that we do

not know what we do not know – that is true knowledge’. Confucius




‘Reports that say that something hasn't happened are

always interesting to me, because as we know, there are

known knowns; there are things we know we know. We

also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we

know there are some things we do not know. But there

are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know

we don't know.’



US Defense Secretary, Donald H.Rumsfeld,

DoD news briefing on 12 February 2002

SME vs. SMR

When gaining needed support from a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in your projects, ensure you don't have a SMR (SME Rookie).

Ipods in public

A great Des Moines Register Opinion piece, "How old is too old to be wearing an iPod in public" [and or listen to MP3 player and audio books and....]

Answer: Age trancsends technology.

http://tinyurl.com/ygmk9ar

the beginning - again, 2 years later

Here we are, again. Efforts 2 years ago were spent testing the waters of blogging, understanding the basics. And then the efforts faded away. Time to rejuvinate !! Lets see where this takes us.