More thoughts from Japan

I'm still in Japan and I went out to a famous Buddhist town of Nikko over the weekend. Back in 782 CE, Shodo Shonin established a monestary here. There are lots of Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in the area. I took a hike up to one shrine up a small 900 meter high mountain that was marked on my map.

The map couldn't prepare me for the hike. Sure, it showed I would be going up, but it didn't show the step switchbacks I would have to cover to get to the top. It also didn't give me any idea of what the shrine at the top of the mountain would be like. However, I was glad I made the journey.

A project plan is like a map. It's meant to help guide us, but that's it. It's not the project or our deliverables, it's just helps us get there. While the best project plan doesn't necessarily mean we'll make the customer happy, without a plan we run a high risk of getting lost. So make sure your plan will get you to were you want to go.

A haiku

I’m in Japan for a while on business, so I thought I would share a haiku I came across. It is from Basho Matsuo, considered one of the greatest haiku writers.

Samidare ni
tsuru no ashi
mijikaku nareri

Roughly translated this means:

In the seasonal rain
a crane’s legs
have become short

The interpretation is up to the reader. What I think is important on international projects is trying to understand the culture of the countries you are working with. It may bring some new perspective to your life.

The Mayan Civilization

I was in Mexico part of last week and over the weekend for my company's annual meeting. While there, I had the opportunity to visit the ruins of the Maya city in Tulum. It was exactly what I expected a Mayan city to look like, a city carved out of the jungle. The temple was impressive, right at the edge of a cliff leading down to the Caribbean. The Mayans didn't have a lot of tools and relied on human labor (and lots of it) to do the work. One possible reason for the Mayan decline is a revolt by the working class.

So how do we keep our working class from revolting? How can we keep the project team happy? Clearly, we don't want to work them to death. One company I've done some work with lately doesn't have a very sophisticated portfolio management project. Anyone can start up a project and expect the resources will be able to support it. The end result is that key resources are assigned to more projects than they can reasonably work in an 8 hour day. The solution here is a portfolio management process that looks at resource allocation and doesn't allow a project to go forward if resources aren't available to support it.

As for the Mayans, they declined but never completely disappeared. Even today a number of the Mayan languages are still spoken and other traditions still exist. I wonder if the same will be said about us in 1500 years.

Groundhog Day

February 2^nd is Groundhog Day here in the US. On this day, Phil the Groundhog is brought out of his box, and if he sees his shadow, we have 6 more weeks of winter. The movie “Groundhog Day” with Bill Murray, based on this event, is one of my favorites.

With the cold winter we’ve had in Kansas, I sure hope Phil doesn’t see his shadow. I’m ready for spring. I know Phil’s observations don’t really have any impact on the weather, but isn’t it fun to hope?

Do we run our projects this way? Do we hope that something will turn out right? Maybe we’ve identified a risk, but we hope it will go away without impacting the project. A book titled “Hope is Not a Method” came out a few years back. I remember my boss at the time really keying in on the message. We can’t just hope things will go well; we have to be proactive about it. We need to plan a response to those risks, at least the high ones.

So while I will be watching what happens with Phil, rather then hoping for an early spring, I’m going to take a trip to Cancun next week!

Think Diversity

Yesterday was a bank holiday here in the US to honor Martin Luther King Jr, the great civil rights activist. It got me thinking about diversity and the benefits it can bring.

As a project manager, I’ve had diverse teams to work with. I’ve come to realize diversity isn’t just a skin color or the country where someone is born. Diversity may be experiences, opinions, or even the type of food someone likes. If you've had a team potluck lunch and enjoyed some different recipe someone brought in, you were appreciating diversity.

What it comes down to is that everyone is unique. As a project manager, recognize uniqueness and how it can bring value to the project. When having a discussion on possible approaches to a problem, a diverse group of participants will bring about more options. So next time you’re recruiting for a team, think diversity.

New Year's Resolutions

The New Year has arrived. My children were asking me about any New Year’s resolutions I had made. I told them I don’t make any specific resolutions on New Year’s Day, that I try to always keep my goals and dreams a part of my life.

Our family recently watched the movie What the Bleep Do We Know. It was really thought provoking, tying spirituality and physics together. One topic that stuck with me was how we can create our future by first envisioning it. One of the commentors talked about how he takes time at the beginning of each day to think about how he wants that day to turn out, and things do turn out the way he wants.

As an athlete, I have found I do better in races when I take the time in advance to mentally rehearse the race. I now do the same thing for work. I get to my office, take some time to check for any urgent emails or voice messages, and then get ready for the day. First, I read a daily spiritual message I receive via email. Then I take time to think about how I want my day to turn out. I think about my projects and what I want to accomplish. If I have a conflict to work through, I think about how I want that to turn out. I even think about my workout for that day and what I want to accomplish. Then I get to work, knowing what I want to accomplish that day.

Try it for a few weeks, see what happens. Goethe once said if you can believe in yourself, anything can happen.

Drop me a line and let me know what you think of the blog, btarne@yahoo.com

Namaste

The Meaning of Christmas

Our church had an intersting service this week. The minister incorporated the story How the Grinch Stole Christmas into her talk. At first this might seem a bit odd, after all this is just a kid’s story. The point she was trying to make was how Christmas was an opportunity to let our hearts be open to love. We don’t try to find love; we just have to drop the barriers that keep it from finding us. That happened to the Grinch when he realized Christmas wasn’t about the gifts or the food, but that it was about people.

So there’s no real connection to project management here, or is there? Is project management about the tools and technology? Will we be happy if we have a get a great WBS for a present? Or is it about the people we work with?

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Peace!