Carpe Factum Put To Song

Wow... Steve Farber never ceases to amaze me.  Check out his latest post about his musical talent.  His song "Blaze of Glory" should be the anthem of every professional.  Carpe Factum is all about accomplishment.  When we fall short of that accomplishment, we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and come back better than ever.  I've been listening to his song multiple times already this morning.

May you go down in a blaze of glory, and rise up in a ball of fire!

Thanks, Steve, for sharing your talent!

Yeah But What If?

Recently, I've been working with a group of people to help them redefine the way they do work.  We're on the final stretch, and it's been a challenging project.  (Challenging in a "good way," mind you.  Paradigms have been pushed to the limits, and this group has experienced their fair share of Aha! moments.  "Bad challenging" is where everybody sits around in a befuddled state, paralyzed with fear of moving forward.)

One of the elements of the challenge has been the "Yeah but what if...?"  This is a two-edged sword.  As a facilitator of change, I want to get all of the possible variations to the process out on the table so we can address them.  However, some times the "Yeah but what if...?" becomes a destructive weapon, used to halt progress with that 0.000001% chance that this one event that only happened one time in the history of the department could happen again.

Ten days ago, Scott Berkun put up a post called Idea Helpers:  Ways to Grow Ideas.  A week prior to that, he submitted Idea Killers:  Ways to Stop Ideas.  Mind you, both posts are excellent reads, and his contributors have submitted thoughtful additions to the lists he started.  The disturbing element is that as of the time I'm writing this post, Idea Killers had 78 comments; Idea Helpers had 8.  That tells me that there are a lot more people out there using "Yeah But What If...?" as a weapon than as a tool.  Have we really become that much more proficient at killing ideas than incubating them?  Wow!

How have I been dealing with the "Yeah but what if...?" from my team?  A few hints:

1. Validate and affirm - often the person just wants to feel heard.  They may agree that their issue is too remote to be put into the process, but they just had to get it off their chest.
2. Use a Parking Lot - this is a great meeting management tool.  Just keep an extra sheet of flipchart paper around to capture tangential ideas that fall into the "Yeah But What If...?" category.  This way the meeting can continue and you can decide later if you need to address it once the entire process is documented.
3. Challenge appropriately - the art of meeting facilitation comes into play here.  Begin asking some open ended questions about the "Yeah but what if...?" event:

• When did this last occur?
• What caused it?
• What did you do about it when it happened?
• What safeguards did you put in place to prevent it or mitigate it for the future?
• What is the probability that it could happen again?

Remember, the "yeah but what if...?" can get you into trouble or keep you out of trouble.  How do you handle the "yeah but what if...?" in your quest to carpe factum?

Just A Friendly Reminder...

Just a friendly reminder that this is the last week to purchase a copy of Race Through The Forest to help some great kid-friendly organizations financially.  My publisher, Tiberius Publications, and I are each donating $1 per copy sold to three awesome United Way affiliated agencies.  And since it is Christmas shopping season, buy few copies for all of the project managers in your life.

If Amazon should go into an oversold situation, we will honor all orders made during November.

GRRRR-Attitude = Gratitude

A new universal expletive has crept into my vocabulary over the past few years when things go wrong:  "GRRRRR!"  Yup, that's right.  A simple growl.  Then I learn from it.  Then I get over it.  Recently, I was asked to write an article for a newsletter.  Since it's November, the Thanksgiving theme seemed appropriate, but rather than wax sappy about family and friends and home and love (don't get me wrong... I'm VERY thankful for all of these), I wrote about my gratitude of failure and mistakes:

We live in a convenience-driven society, where almost anything can be achieved via microwave or drive-through, where the media tells us that almost any problem can be solved in either 30 or 60 minutes (minus commercial breaks), and where the expectation for results keeps growing.  It's hard to stay focused when things go KA-PHLOOEY.  In looking back, the best lessons I have learned as a project manager - and as a person - were when things were not going smoothly.

I want to challenge each of you to think of a few moments in the past year where you were in a slump, when you were having "one of those days," when Murphy's Law was winning out.  Maybe you are going through that right now.  What are you learning from the experience?  Are you allowing it to defeat you, or are you allowing it to make you a better person, to build your Carpe Factum stamina?

Maybe you are not going through it yourself, but you have friends or family members who are.  What are you doing to help?  Are you providing them with a reason to be thankful that you're in their lives this season?  To be honest, I've had a pretty good year.  But I've also felt at times like I'm in the splash zone at an emotional Sea World as I've watched friends and family members battle health concerns, financial problems, relationship strains and break-ups, and job issues.  I want to look back and be thankful that I was there for them when they needed me.

Those GRRRRR moments can get us down, or they can lift us up.  The choice is yours.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving, and enjoy everything that life throws at you!

Assistance Is Futile; You Will Be Humiliated

In an earlier post, I mentioned a colleague's insistence that I have a PhD to teach Master's level courses.  Now I'm reading a similar vein in Noah Kagan's okdork post.

Amazingly, our organizations end up scratching their heads about what causes office politics.  Many executives have no clue that politics are occurring, or they are in denial about that fact.  Very early in my professional career, I once made a comment about "in the trenches" in front of an up-and-coming manager, who innocently yet insistently asked me what the difference was among the cubicle-dwelling ilk and the ivory-tower managers.  That was my first lesson that the higher the management, the more clueless they can be about the existence of politics.

Even worse than the resistance to acknowledge politics is the lack of understanding that executives are the ones causing the office politics in the first place.  One such area of executive intervention is (not) recognizing the relationship betwen policies and outcomes.  Take Noah's post as an example:  advertising - one of the most naturally creative industries - actually rewards the "we've always done it that way" mindset through their recognition processes.  Another example hits closer to home.  One of the major employers here in the Des Moines market just started a "contingent worker" policy (which actually affects all of their locations across the U.S.).  The crux of the policy is that contractors who have worked there for twelve months must then take six months off before they are allowed to come back.  As many of you know, many projects do not fit neatly into a 12-month window.  This is an executive brain fart that is doomed to failure, as both business unit hiring managers and contracting firms alike are already scrambling for loopholes.

Oh well... sometimes executives and organizations need to be burned by the very systems they help to create before they learn their lessons.  But until that happens, we "in the trenches" are pitted against each other in useless political games where there must always be a loser, but no game is promised a winner.

It's Not Easy Being Green

So far, we've covered the reasons for using a color code system of red-yellow-green for reporting status.  We've talked about what constitutes a project in red or yellow status.  Now it's time for the impossible... the unattainable... the unthinkable... the only-in-your-wildest-fantasies-not-including-the-entire-stadium-made-of-chocolate-dream:  a project in green status.

OK, it's really not that hard to achieve green status, but given the multitude of things that can go wrong on a project, it's also not easy to achieve green status either.  And it really takes very little to veer a project away from being green.  For those who are curious about how to achieve Project Utopia...

Scope

• Have the requirements been fully defined and converted into workable tasks at the appropriate level of detail?
• Is scope being managed (complete with a solid change management plan)?
• Are quality checks and signoffs integrated throughout the plan?
• Is rework virtually non-existent?

Schedule

• Is the team following a baselined project plan?
• Have the critical path and major milestones been identified, and is the project team managing project operations with them in mind?
• Are tasks and activities on schedule with virtually no slippage?

Resources

• Has the project budget been defined and baselined?
• Are funds and resources available when needed to adequately keep the project moving forward?
• Are there virtually no cost overruns?

Other Factors

• Is your team fully functional with few cultural or political impacts?
• Is there strong, visible sponsorship?
• Is there an operational risk management plan in place?
• Is communication predictable, usable, and ongoing?

Obtaining status green should not be that difficult, if you have done due diligence in the Initiation and Planning phases to ensure the project starts well.

Before we leave this quick-and-dirty tour through the project color spectrum, I have a couple of questions that generate good old-fashioned debate in project circles.  I honestly am curious what you think:

1. If any element of your project status is red, should the entire project be placed in red status, or is yellow good enough to express the color?
2. Should any project be allowed to be green during the planning phase, given that no baselined project plan is in place?  (On this one, I think I'm the lone voice crying in the wilderness.  My take is that a project must earn green status by completing the planning phase.  Allowing a project to be green during planning does nothing to motivate a team to complete their project plan baseline.)
3. Who owns the decision to set and to change a project's color?  Is the project manager or the project sponsor ultimately accountable for determining this?

Your views?

Old "Yeller"

Sigh.  It's the same old story.  Boy meets project.  Boy learns to like project.  Project protects boy from evil corporate surroundings.  Project falls sick, threatening those around it.  Boy must decide to put project out of its misery.  Tears stream down boy's face as he raises his shotgun and...

Oops... sorry.... I started channelling classic Disney movies again...

How do you know when your project "gits the hydrophobia"?  (For those who haven't seen the movie, go out and rent it and then reread this post.)  Many projects are ailing and on various roads of sickness.  Knowing how to identify the signs of a project in "yellow status" will take you far in identifying the true status of your project:

Scope

• Is the Project Plan incomplete or not baselined?
• Are scope changes not reflected in the most current Project Plan?
• Are quality checks and regular sign-offs missing?
• Is undocumented rework occurring?

Schedule

• Has the project plan been rebaselined (i.e. a do-over, a mulligan) due to slippage or poor estimation?
• Is significant yet recoverable slippage of schedule occurring (less than 10%)?

Resources

• Has the project budget been loosely defined (e.g., hitting the side of a barn)?
• Is it difficult to procure funds and resources when needed?
• Are significant yet recoverage cost overages occurring (less than 10%)?

Other Factors

• Are signs of stress noticeable yet still manageable?
• Are there problems with project commitment from relevant executive stakeholders or are office politcs playing a more prevalent role than planned?
• Are more risk events occurring than originally planned?
• Is communication sporadic or inconsistent?

Yellow is probably one of the "easier" status colors to report.  You don't have the pressure of justifying green.  You're not under the magnifying glass of red.  People expect things to go wrong.  However, yellow status is not an invitation to become complacent.  Yellow can turn into red in the blink of an eye.  Just keep your project away from rabid, wild animals and nobody gets hurt.

Red Rover, Red Rover, Send Status On Over

OK, so we've established that determining the color of status reports creates a certain level of political spin doctoring in some organizations.  And no color seems to cause the most problem than red.

I once worked in an organization where the Chief Information Officer was a very early morning person.  Starting at 5:00 AM on Fridays, he would hold "sunrise services" in his office for any project manager whose status was red.  Rumor has it that these were not pleasant meetings, but to be fair to the executive, the projects were on his radar and he was discussing the root causes that created the red status and often providing his assistance to alleviate the situation.

How can you determine if your project is seeing red?  The process that has worked well for me over the years is to break down the project into four sections, as follows:

Scope

• Are there random scope changes or a considerable amount of unchecked scope creep?
• Is the project plan non-existent or just plain ignored?
• Is more than 10% of the functionality or requirements still in question?

Schedule

• Is there no project plan baseline (i.e., nobody has finalized and approved a project plan)?
• Has there been a schedule slippage of more than 10%?

Resources

• Is the project budget non-existent
• Is it next to impossible to procure funds and resources when needed?
• Are you experiencing unrecoverable cost overruns of more than 10%?

Other Factors

• Is the team exhibiting signs of distress or dysfunctional behaviors?
• Are the sponsor and executive leadership weak or absent?
• Is there an absence of a risk management plan or is the project under constant seige from unplanned risk events and issues?
• Is most of the communication absent or fictional?

If you are answering YES to any of these questions, then it's time to face the facts and come to reality.  Better to be red in the project than red in the face.  And just because one factor from the above list is red does not necessarily make the entire project red; one should consider all the factors before determining if red is the overriding project status.  These factors are just a few of the common ones to consider.  By breaking your project down into the basic components of the triple constraint, it becomes a little easier to isolate the factors contributing to the color status.  Hence, if you ever get called into a "sunrise service" you can be a little more prepared to communicate proactively with your sponsor.

Next stop:  Yellow Status

Can You Taint With All The Colors of The Wind?

I was in a status meeting one time where we were all going around the table, talking about our projects and sharing what color status they were (red, yellow, or green).  The project manager who was sharing his story was on a truly disastrous project, so it was an amusing point of synchronicity that a squad of firetrucks came blaring by the building as he was reporting the disastrous existence that he was experiencing.  I congratulated him for expressing exactly how badly his project was going with well-timed sound effects.

It's an amazing phenomenon in the project world that three simple colors - red, yellow, and green - can cause such consternation among project managers, project teams, and executive leadership.  Take this case study in spin doctoring as an example.  Tahmid Munaz of SQA Bangladesh shares an amusing story from an agile newsletter about color shifting.  The simple version is that the project team wanted the status reported as red, the project manager played it safe and reported yellow, and senior management put on their perceptual filters and reported green.  Hence, it appears that the stoplight is broken... very, very, VERY broken.  The question then becomes, "How can we fix it?"

The color of project status - be it green, yellow, or red - should not be a challenging consideration.  What amazes me is that these three colors throw everyone into a tailspin.  I've seen project managers turn into Martha Stewart ("Can we report our status as 'lime' since we're not quite green all the way?" or "I'm not quite ready to report us as red... is 'pumpkin' an acceptable choice?").  It would appear that reporting red-yellow-green is one of those cross sections between project management and office politics.  So... the next three posts will be dedicated to helping all of you project managers out there in the blogosphere determine what color your project really is.

By the way, Dan Wahlin had an interesting post last month about tools that would allow one to report color status in a dashboard.  While tools are fine and dandy, it is equally important to understand WHY you are choosing the color you have so you can justify it later.  Still, it's a worthwhile read.

Elmer PhD

A few years ago, I ran into one of my undergraduate professors.  She was actually my favorite professor during my undergrad years because of all of the energy and passion she brought to the classroom.  During small talk, I mentioned that I was teaching MBA courses at Drake.  "When did you earn your PhD?" was her first response.  When I informed her that I had not earned my PhD, she was incredulous.  "How can they let you teach Masters Level courses with no PhD?"  She was actually appalled.  Her emphasized word choice made the message very clear:  I was supposed to feel inferior to her since she had a PhD and I didn't.  Yet I got the impression that she found it very unsettling that she was still teaching undergrad courses, and I was teaching in a master's level program.

Even more annoying was that I would run into her from time to time (probably about twice over the next couple of years) and the first thing she would do is start harping on that fact again.  She even went so far as to cast dispersions on the "academic integrity" of Drake for letting me teach at that level without the "coveted" PhD.  Finally, I simply responded to her that perhaps Drake was progressive enough to realize that experience really is the best teacher, and a balance between life experience and book smarts is what students want.  She huffed a little, quieted down, and walked off.  Go figure.

So... what do you think?  I've been eyeing a PhD program recently and have been wondering about pursuing the advanced degree (just for my own benefit and desire... not because I'm being told I have to have it).  Should a master's level instructor be required to have a PhD?  I'm really curious what you all think out there in blog-land.

We Should Have Called Phil

We had a blast.  For about 2 hours this morning, I was allowed to share space with some of the greatest minds in Des Moines... as well as some dude from Connecticutt.  The only thing missing in this whole scenario was a phone call to Phil Gerbyshak... some kind of virtual-confererence-call-group-hug-sort-of-thing just to let the little relationship geek know that we were thinking of him.  I'm sure he was there in spirit.

There's a connectivity to blogging that I'm still wrapping my mind around around.  I met a lot of people face-to-face for the first time in the last 24 hours, yet it seemed so comfortable... like I'd known them for months.  And with many of them, it really was months... on the blogosphere.  I'm meeting people all over the globe.  And this Iowa boy is learning that there's a VERY BIG WORLD out there waiting to be discovered.  Who says that the age of Rennaisance and Exploration is dead?

Thanks Drew, Sandra, Tom, Mike, Starbucker, and Mike for an awesome time this morning.  (Doug, Mitch, and Brooke - I don't have your linking information readily available, but it was nice meeting all of you as well... I'm sure we'll be connecting - virtually and in person - again soon.)

Easy As Rolling Off A Blog

It has been a good week on the "Blogger Relations" front.  First, I had a make-it-great interview with Phil Gerbyshak.  Any chance to talk with Phil is pure positively charged adrenaline, regardless of the topic.  The only interview question that really threw me was trying to figure out my favorite superhero (Phil told me I couldn't list any of the members of my blog roll, which really cut down the choices).

Tonight, I was able to spend an outstanding evening with an outstanding blogger.  Starbucker was in town... just to meet the up-and-coming bevy of Des Moines bloggers in the morning.  I was lucky enough to stake a claim with him this evening, and we went out to dinner, after which I gave him the nickel tour of Des Moines.  We shared stories about blogging, family, and careers.  I have a feeling the conversation could have gone on much later, but we both have day jobs.

I've been blogging for eight months now.  I feel exceptionally blessed to have met so many wonderful people.  Starbucker and I had a fun time exchanging blogger-interaction stories.  There have been very few on the blogosphere that we've experienced who have not been kind, wonderful, and gracious people.  The relationships we've built will last a lifetime.  My 2007 goal is to meet (in person) all of the bloggers who have had such a rich and lasting influence on my life this year.

Racing Against Phantoms

"I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been."  --Wayne Gretsky

My family and I were dining in a fun little 1950s style diner last week... complete with table-top juke box so we could share our favorite golden oldie's with the whole restaurant.  In the middle of our dinner, the 1958 hit entitled "Beep! Beep!" from The Playmates blared out through the restaurant.  For those not brave enough to link over to listen to the song or at least read the lyrics (and it really is worth the link to hear the song), the basic plot of the story is that a guy driving his Cadillac notices a little Nash Rambler riding his tail and honking his horn.  The Cadillac driver assumes the little runt wants to drag race and floors it.  Much to his surprise and annoyance, the Rambler keeps up until the Cadillac has topped 120 MPH, when the Rambler driver pulls along side him... not to race him but to ask how he can get his car out of second gear.

It wasn't a competition at all.  Somebody was just wanting some assistance, when pride and arrogance clouded perceptions.  How often have we encountered that mindset in our jobs, where we perceived that somebody was competing against us when, in fact, that was not the case at all.  Maybe we were not even on their radar screen, and they were just doing their job.  Even worse is when somebody misperceives our motives and won't help us out.  How dare they think so lowly of us?!?!  We're indignant.

While we're on the topic of corporate competition, I was surfing for new blogs to link to, when a post on the blog, Ask Uncle Bill, caught my eye.  This corporate sage shared a great story about a young woman he encountered through a business transaction who actually had sized up her competition and created a strategy for dealing with them.  Not maliciously, mind you.  She simply used her skills and abilities (along with a little God-given edge) to ensure that she stood out among the other nameless, faceless suits.  Sometimes we need to assess our competition realistically before we create a strategy to face them head on.

Finally, when it comes to competing in the work place, we must address the worst kind of competition.  It has destroyed many a great professional, and injured many innocent bystanders because of its nefarious nature.  I'm going to defer to one of my favorite life-altering authors (Dr. Seuss from his book, Oh The Places You'll Go) to describe it more fully:

I'm afraid that some times you'll play lonely games too.  Games you can't win 'cause you'll play against you.

If the end game is Carpe Factum - seizing the accomplishment - it would only seem logical to assess the competition that could hinder our ability to get there.  Is the competition real?  What do you need to do to compete intelligently against the real competition?  And, are you really only competing against (and defeating) yourself?  What do you think?  How do you approach competition in the work place?  Who is your Nash Rambler?

Elective Surgery

Tomorrow is Election Day.  The media keeps telling us that the fate of the power of Congress is in our hands.  Here in Iowa, we have a governor spot up for grabs.  And, for the first time since I started voting in 1984, I'm still an "undecided voter" the day before elections.  It's not a matter of apathy; I really do care who is elected and how they will impact me, my community, my state, and my nation.  And yes, I use the singular possessive pronoun on all of those because I still feel a personal stake at each level of government.

Take Iowa's governor's race as an example.  Congressman Jim Nussle is running against Iowa's Secretary of State Chet Culver for the position.  I like Culver.  He's local to Des Moines.  He was a former teacher, and I'm a huge fan of education issues (being married to a teacher, I have no other choice).  He's done an admirable job as Secretary of State, although it did take his office 4 weeks to send me paperwork they had approved (which I'm probably not going to hold him personally accountable for that).  Then there is Nussle.  Even though he wears the title Republican, he's proven himself to be a moderate who will vote his conscience.  He'll bring Washington connections to the office to help our state.  Which leads me to my bigger dilemma:  I don't dislike either candidate, but I'm not passionate about either one.  For those of you who have read this blog, you should surmise by now that passion is a key driver in my values system.  I've not been a huge fan of the EMMM approach to decision-making (eenie-meanie-miney-moe), but I still have to make some kind of informed decision before tomorrow.

Do you ever have a hard time getting people to make decisions within your organization?  Why do you think that is?  Fear of accountability?  Apathy?  Lack of knowledge?  We're supposed to be one of the most well informed generations, yet people still claim to "not know enough to make an informed decision."  I stumbled across a really cool post on the Principles of Knowledge Management recently at Dave Pollard's How to Save the World blog.  He appears to be a realist, and he seems to get the fact that the reason why most knowledge management systems fail is that the individuals within the companies don't internalize their usage... they have not made them personal enough.  So that lack of knowledge then turns into a fear of accountability or a level of apathy.

Unlike perceptions of political candidates (which can be spin-doctored to persuade people to believe almost anything), knowledge about business decisions should be more objectively based.  Yes-No answers and numbers should form the foundational basis for those decisions, and that data should be made readily available for those who need it.  Then let the users of that data come to informed conclusions about what the data is telling them (adding in the right level of intuition and personal experience).  Then figure out the right decisions and how to inform stakeholders of those decisions.  Not exactly tough stuff to figure out, but in our fast-paced world of snap decisions, it's more easily said than done.  Visit Dave's post on Knowledge Management.  Think about your own decisions.  How can you help expedite the decisions that are the cornerstone of your planned accomplishments?

Also, if you have looked at the information about your own candidates, please get out and vote tomorrow.  Whether you are voting for somebody or against "the other guy," make your decision be known.

The OS!M Pursuit of the Yippy-Skippy Moment

Well, the Drake University project management class is done (except for the mountain of grading).  The final session with my students was on Saturday when they presented their findings and recommendations to the three United Way affiliated agencies.  The agency directors were extremely grateful.  Marylou gave me one of her wonderful hugs, and I honestly thought Ed was going to jump out of his seat at one point and give my students a "hallelujah, preach it!" shout.  (By the way, the book selling donation campaign is well underway, if you would like to help them out.)

After the presentations were completed, my students and I had a chance to reflect on the prior six weeks.  Because I had changed basically everything about the class, the entire semester represented an OS!M to me (if you want to know what that acronym means, you'll have to ask Steve Farber).  Suffice it to say, there have been enough events that have happened in the last six weeks to keep me on pins and needles.  Some of the joy of discovery happens, though, when things don't go as planned.  I truly believe the end result was worth all the effort.  The student dialogue at the end assured me that at least a majority of them got quite a bit out of the course, even if they are still perturbed about my "evil" 75-question multiple choice final.  How dare I make them think in a master's level course.  The nerve of some people!

That evening, I went with my wife to watch the Valley High School drama department perform "The Laramie Project."  Those students had recommended the play to their drama instructor after seeing another school perform it at a contest last year.  They, their drama director, and many administrative staff endured scornful emails and phone calls from the community, unfair blasting from the media, and even uninformed protestors at the performances.  Yet they plowed forward.  And they performed.  And they excelled.  When high schoolers can make me forget that I'm watching high schoolers, that's good drama.  The performance was virtually flawless, and they are to be commended... not only for their talent and skill on stage, but for their courage and strong values off of the stage.

My friend Terri refers to milestones as "Yippy Skippy Moments" in your project.  I kind of like that description.  When you've stuck your neck out there on the chopping block to make something better for somebody else, that takes a lot out of you.  My students are probably exhausted tonight after all they did for those United Way agencies.  Those Valley High School drama students have to be completely wiped out after the adrenaline high of performing such an emotionally challenging play.  And I'm a little exhausted as well.  Carpe Factum will do that to you.  But the "Yippy Skippy" moments always keep us coming back for more.