In work and in life the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. You can try to anticipate the unknown, and whatever you do in this regard can often help greatly, but all of your advance planning and anticipation generally won’t cover personal emergencies, company or customer changes, catastrophes, or acts of God. What do you do? How do you keep your head while others around you have seemingly lost their minds? How do you regroup, rethink, replan, and restart? What can you use and what must you scrap?
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
The Best Laid Plans ... and Then Life Happens!
In work and in life the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. You can try to anticipate the unknown, and whatever you do in this regard can often help greatly, but all of your advance planning and anticipation generally won’t cover personal emergencies, company or customer changes, catastrophes, or acts of God. What do you do? How do you keep your head while others around you have seemingly lost their minds? How do you regroup, rethink, replan, and restart? What can you use and what must you scrap?
Labels:
Team Effectiveness
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Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Can You Pass The Red Face Test?
Several times in my career I’ve had to give depositions and testimony in legal cases, mostly patent related, and I learned some lessons in getting ready for and during these cases that are directly applicable to project/program management. These include determining the right questions to ask to get the information you really want, and “reading” the answers and body language of the people responding to these questions.
In preparation for giving depositions our attorneys told us repeatedly that when a question is asked, you should answer the question honestly but only answer specifically what has been asked. The example they gave, which has stuck with me to this day, is that if their attorney asks you if you know what time it is, and you do, the proper response is, “Yes.” You are not under any circumstances to respond, “The time is 3:12 PM”. In giving this response you are going well beyond the question asked, and you are not to do this. This has broad application to the situation above, where people may honestly answer your question, but where you haven’t really asked the right question. I’ll expand on this shortly.
Further, our attorneys stated that, when asked questions, you must be able to pass the red face test. What this means is that you must be able to answer the questions responsibly without your face turning red. Most people who try to lie, or stretch the truth, or move out of their comfort zone tend to get a bit red faced, which indicates to the opposing attorneys that they should challenge the answers being given or statements being made to try to sort out the real truth from what is being said. Passing the red face test is always important for project/program development team members, and again means you need to ask the right questions, and then properly follow up on those questions. It’s not that you are trying to “interrogate” your people, but you need to gather the real facts if you are to get things back on track.
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Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Looking Down versus Looking Up
So what are some examples of people who are always “looking down”? If you always wait for your boss to give you your next assignment and simply take that assignment without question and seldom raise questions about it (see What Horse's Ass Said You Should Do It That Way!), you are simply “looking down”. If you accept an assignment from your boss, but don't really care that much about it or don't really take full ownership of it (see Own Your Job! All of It! and Show True Professionalism!), you are simply "looking down". If you work on your assignment without noticing or caring about what others around you are doing or working on (see Herding Cats 2: Problem Child & Elitist Bastard and Herding Cats 6: Complainer/Whiner, Eternal Optimist, Gossip, Cheshire Cat, Loner, Credit Taker/Thief & A$$hole), you are simply “looking down”. If you prefer to always work alone (and shut others out by words or actions), and ignore how your assignment fits into the overall project or program or product, you are simply “looking down”. If you wait to hear from your boss on whether your work is acceptable or not rather than checking with others whose assignments interact with yours or with others who use or test your work, you are simply “looking down”. If you would prefer to work at home or stay in your own workspace at work having little or nothing to do with other members of your team, and have little or no interest in how your assignment fits into the whole of the project or program or product you’re working on, you are simply “looking down”.
Labels:
Personal Effectiveness
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Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Like Trying to Change Tires on a Fast Moving Car!
Labels:
Personal Effectiveness
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