Changing a poor project management mindset

I just saw an ad from Microsoft that says ‘how can I free up IT so they can focus on the big stuff’. Now I think the problem is not a lack of solutions but a lack of will on the side of big corporations to focus on the big stuff.

In the last few weeks I’ve started to design a project management operating system for the team I work with. It is not reinventing the wheel but rather evolving on the practices we’ve had in place for the last 2 years. But what I can see is that in a business environment is not easy to implement best practices that rely on documentation of processes, lessons learned and a focus on analysis and planning. It is far more easy to encounter such practices on engineering areas within a company where they count on many well established processes to ensure the end product will meet the customer/market’s requirements.

But what about our internal requirements? Isn’t the business a customer of its own? If I have to respond to someone in regards to the results of the projects I have on my plate it is certain the business itself will be among the stakeholders. And so it is very difficult in a lot of situations to make sure once a project is green-lighted that the appropriate steps to understand the end result and to define the tasks that will culminate in a successful execution will be taken.

So, what can we do? Truly tested solutions include:

• Promoting of Project Management practices by the PMs themselves.
• Educate your leadership members to understand the basis of PM-ship.
• Educate your project managers on the bases of PM-ship (yeah, PMs have a lot of guilt too).
• Promote the usage of collaboration tools that enable to sharing of information between projects.
• Enforce (yep, sometimes you have to use some of that authority you were granted) lessons learned documentation.
• Communicate, communicate, communicate – The more team members, sponsors, stakeholders know what is going on the better they will feel the success chances are and the easier it will be for them to adopt future PM best-practices.

Now keep in mind that driving to a correct mindset related to project management is not about implementing 25 new processes and techniques overnight, is about improving on what is already present. The best way for a function, company, organization, or team to get better is by evolving in small steps and taking them one at a time. That way the chances of making it stick to everyone increase and, more importantly, they’ll take it with them wherever they go.

Meeting inspiration

I say, if your knees aren’t green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously re-examine your life.  ~Bill Watterson

For reasons not related to this topic I found myself this morning waiting for a local bank to open after spending over 12 hours in a cold hard night out in the open of an old road (time in which I made new unexpected friends and had a chance to play cards on top of a bucket — I mean, seriously, how can life not be great?)

Waiting in line I was preceded by an old lady. It would have been easy for me to ignore the lady but she made a comment that caught my attention, she said “Its a really cold morning, uh?”. Now, having spent over 12 hours out in the open facing the cold it was my opportunity to say “heck yeah!, and you should have seen at around 3 am, it was cold as hell (frozen hell that is)”.

You will never see the last in creativity…

Copyright - Fabio Viale

You can think that you have heard the funniest joke or seen the ultimate on technology, but I don’t think anyone has ever thought they have seen the most unique and/or extravagant form of art ever. And Fabio Viale, a young italian sculptor who works marble like clay, proves it to be true: using marble to create a sculpture of a skull that looks like it was made with styrofoam?

 

Can we think like that in everything we do? I think that is innovation, even though there are hundreds of skull sculptures it is a breadth of fresh air to setup a different approach and make your statement in an individual way.

Makes me think on how this blog can contribute in a different, unique way. It’s a never ending search.

The road to maturity – A critic approach (a short take on Google Wave)

A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him or her.  ~David Brinkley

Being a geek defines a couple of things for me: I like new and different and I keep the ability to marvel at things.

For life I have seen myself with a glitter in my eyes as I am about to open a new gadget (whether its xmas or my bday), I particularly enjoy extending the moment right before opening/switching on/activating a new gadget/app/thingamageek. To me those seconds last longer than to the people around me (although sometimes it is the other way around as they expect me to rip the freaking wrapping already), but I enjoy those moments and I savor the feeling of excitement as I am about to experience something new.

However, the life of a geek is not easy sometimes, specially when you have a new toy, you want to share its marvelousness with the rest of the world (or at least anyone surrounding you at that moment) and turns out you are the only level 7 geek in miles (kilometers for us metric-based earthlings).

To expect or to not expect

Unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talents and our expectations.  ~Edward de Bono, Observer, 12 June 1977

Think of it as a scene with one of your friends who just got back from a trip to the Sahara dessert. Naturally you would ask ‘how did it go?’, your friend would say to you ‘pretty bad, the trip didn’t meet my expectations’, ‘why?’ you would ask to which your friend would reply ‘because there was no snow’.

Well, obviously your friend was up for dissapointment well before his trip began. Expectations come from the latin expectare which means to expect, to wait. Waiting inherently means inaction towards an end result. Therefore, to have expectations means to wait for something to just happen.

In most company’s interviewing sessions a question is asked: ‘what do you expect from this company?’, answers will vary: ‘growth’ some will say, ‘experience’ others will reply, ‘money’ would be a third option; and what happens if you get the job and you don’t see any growth? any experience to be had? no money raise after a while?. Well, you can say the company didn’t meet your expectations. But you have to think, all those ‘expectations’ were things you were waiting the company would provide. Instead ask yourself this question ‘what are you looking for in this company?’ and you’ll realize the importance of your role and your actions on actually getting that you so desire.

In buddhism the word expectation is used with caution, while it is natural to expect something in life, it is important to understand where the waiting ends and your own actions start so that you can reach the point where your expectation is met with actual results. As such I like to change the word expectation for desire, mainly because to expect is to place blame outside of you if it is not met, while desire is the feeling that can fuel your actions and make you get to that you wish for.

Buddhists try to live in the moment, the present, understand that life is as it is. They accept life as it comes, good or bad. But don’t get confused, it doesn’t mean being lazy or conformist, it means they do not expect life to give them anything they want, they take action to reach their goals, it is through those actions we will be able to harvest the good in life.

Think of it as a scene with one of your friends who just got back from a trip to the Sahara dessert. Naturally you would ask ‘how did it go?’, your friend would say to you ‘pretty bad, the trip didn’t meet my expectations’, ‘why?’ you would ask to which your friend would reply ‘because there was no snow’.

Well, obviously your friend was up for dissapointment well before his trip began.