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Ah-Ha-Moments

Yearbook 2010

By Luis Seabra Coelho, January 2011.

From http://www.ah-ha-moments.net/
Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010

About this Yearbook


This eBook includes all the posts on Ah-Ha-Moments during the year of 2010, the
first year of existence of this blog. The objective of this yearbook is for you to
have an easy way to get to all the information posted on the blog. I hope you find
it useful.

Please use this information as you please. The only thing I ask is to mention its
origin.

To formalize this, all content is under the Creative Commons license:

Ah-Ha-Moments by Luis Seabra Coelho is licensed under a Creative Commons


Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

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Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
organizations purpose of producing value by means of recurring activities: making

Articles lamps, building cars, lending money or whatever. In contrast, projects are the
way organizations adapt to their ever changing context: basically, organizations
build a strategy to fulfill their vision and then they define strategic objectives to
implement strategies. Now some of these strategic objectives require a change in
Project Management and Change the organization. When this is the case, projects and programs are the way to go:
Management it can be the construction of a new highway, a new hospital, a new product or
whatever fulfills the proposed objectives.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Now imagine a company that has the vision of being the top national
Late last year I was asked to write a newspaper construction company on a small country like Portugal. Also imagine that last
article about project management that was never year they had 20% market share following the 2 current market leaders. One way
published. The topic I choose was this very one as this company has to gain market share in Portugal is to start operations in Spain
I thought it would be an easy introduction to so they are recognized as a leading company and take some construction projects
project management as a way to change things in from their competitors in Portugal (the strategy is internationalization). In order
an organization - and make the organization a to do that they decide they have to (i) have 10% of their human resources
better one. And then I had a kind of an "Ah ha" speaking Spanish by the end of this year and (ii) change their ERP software so it
moment: actually there are things that are not all complies both with Portuguese and Spanish laws and practices like fiscal
that obvious. Later on I was surprised by this reporting by the 1st quarter of next year (the strategic objectives). So it's quite
year's topic for the Research Working Session straight forward that this company has to start some projects to reach these
(part of the PMI EMEA Congress) was Change objectives and comply with the defined strategy. In order for this company to
Management. Who would have guessed I was change they have to get some projects going.
following PMI's research trend? And that made
the 2nd "Ah ha" moment. Before I continue with this example, let me introduce the Change Management
topic by introducing John Kotter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kotter).
The link between Project Management and
Change Management is pretty straight forward: if Kotter is a leading author on Change Management. He studied how organizations
you want to change something in an organization make changes happen and why some succeed and some don't. That's how he
you do a project (or a program). On the other hand, any organization's activity came up with his 8 Step Change Model
can be classified either as an operation or a project. Operations serve the

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(http://www.kotterinternational.com/KotterPrinciples/ChangeSteps.aspx). You formal classroom in the office where these people learn Spanish) started with the
can check for details on Kotter's site, but in short these steps are: vision of being the leading construction company in Portugal - not a very obvious
connection. Furthermore, the purpose of these projects don't end when 10% of
1. Acting With Urgency the employees can speak Spanish. And the project's results don't continue inside
2. Developing the Guiding Coalition the organization just turning them into operations like after building a bridge you
3. Developing a Change Vision start charging tolls and maintenance.
4. Communicating the Vision Buy-in
5. Empowering Broad-based Action So, before the project exists several things happened in the organization that
6. Generating Short-term Wins made the project justified - in a minimum, building a vision, selecting a strategy
7. Don't Let Up and developing strategic objectives. And after the project ends the change
8. Make Change Stick process is still running by enforcing the project deliverables use thus making
these changes incorporated into the organization.
I don't want to go into much detail on Kotter's model, the point is that you can
group these steps in 3 stages much like in habit changing models (defrost - Going back to the example, before you start any project to help this organization
change - refrost). That is: start operations in Spain you should prepare the people in the organization for
that change to happen and gain their support. If you don't do that you'll probably
1. Allow changes to happen get so much resistance that the projects may actually fail even if they are a
2. Make the changes success - that is, the project may deliver the desired results but they can't be
3. Turn them into habits incorporated into the organization. The same goes to what happens after the
projects end. If you don't find a way to incorporate the changes they made,
things will go to the way they were before, much like the steering wheel of a car
Projects belong to the "Make the changes" part which include the steps:
after a curve: all you have to do is let the wheel go and immediately the wheel
"Empowering Broad-based Action" and "Generating Short-term Wins". goes to the "less effort" position and makes the car go straight again.

The same example I used to show the link between Project Management and So, in short:
Change Management can also be used to show something not so obvious. The
 Organizations have operations and projects
fact is that in any situation you can think of, changes in the organization start long
before the projects do, and changes will continue long after the projects end.  Unlike operations, projects are done in order to change something in the
organization
In this case, learning Spanish (imagine a couple of projects to address this like  In order to change something in an organization you have to go through
selecting the people who have an interest in working in Spain and develop a 3 stages where projects fit in the middle stage

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Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
 And that means that there's something that caused the need for the project task), you can look at what caused it (there's a team member performing
project and way behind all the others). And this is not only interesting but you can take
After the project ends, you need to somehow incorporate that change advantage of it as a Project Manager. If you take your dog for a walk after dinner
into the organization you have the chance to take a look at that day's events with a certain distance.
And... Ah ha!, that can make a difference (in this example, if first you know
Bottom line is that in most cases you can look to Project Management as a part of there's a team member that is under performing then you can find out what's
Change Management. And if you understand the need for a project and the wrong with him, hopefully find a solution and get this team member to perform
impact it is intended to have in the organization... better). Much like going from positions to interests on negotiating, you change
the focus from the events that happened to their context, causes and
Then you can be a better project manager!
motivations. So, taking enough distance from events can give you at least these
additional perspectives:
Meet the most wanted Project
 more objectiveness
Management tool: the dog!  higher level
 causes
Sunday, May 30, 2010
 learn from your mistakes
Recently I was told in two different occasions that the most wanted and needed
I don't mean that you need to get a dog if you're a project manager or that
Project Management tool was... THE DOG!
everyone that owns a dog should be a project manager, but it can certainly give
Both times the speech and reasoning were quite straight forward and did amuse you an edge. Have you ever wondered why everyone is insisting so much on soft
me. It went like this: if you are able to take skills? It's just because the hard skills are much more common on project
enough distance from the events that you're managers. So, if everyone knows about Earned Value Management, Gantt charts
involved in you can take a different and resource leveling what difference can you make if you just know the exact
perspective of things. And a dog can help you same stuff? It's pretty easy to find someone who knows about these topics, but
get the time to do it when you take him for a what about international virtual team building? And about negotiating? And
walk. Now a different perspective can be leadership? If you know the hard skills (like EVM) and on top of that you add soft
more than a more objective one, it can also be skills (like leadership) you have an edge over the professionals that just have the
a more high level one. That is, instead of hard skills to offer. This gives you a competitive advantage.
looking at stuff happening at the heat of the
moment (an argument on who will do some

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Albert Einstein once said that insanity was "doing the same thing over and over
again and expecting different results". I don't think he was refereeing to
Project Management? Yeah, I do that too
competitive advantages, but it fits just the same. If you do like everyone one else
Thursday, June 3, 2010
is doing all you can expect is doing as good as everyone else. If you're looking to
be better than the rest than you have to do things differently even if it means Time after time I've been asked "What do you do?" and I have a hard time trying
taking risks and going against the standards and conventions. On the last PMI my best to explain what exactly I do... Project Management is not all that easy to
Global EMEA Congress I heard someone tell a story about an Italian company that explain to some people working in the area, so how do you explain it to someone
went international and on some point decided that their IT had to be who doesn't know the first thing about it? How do you explain it to your kids at
standardized. When he was asked "What was the Project Management home? Here's a possible dialog:
methodology used?" he answered: "The CEO was the methodology". The fact is
that they took a different approach that worked for them in that particular - Kid: Dad, what exactly do you do at work?
context. And they would probably fail if they did that particular project in a more - Project Manager: Well son, dad's a Project Manager.
conventional way. - K: Yeah, I know that. But what do you do?
- PM: What do you mean? I manage projects, that's what I do...
One thing I usually do on the most stressful moments when I have people over - K: Ok, and what is a project?
my shoulder anxious for results is going for a smoke. This gives me the chance to - PM: Err... a project is what dad manages...
cool down enough so that I get focused again. Moreover, when I'm not thinking
about the problem at hand, I often get solutions that somehow pop up in my
mind. Again, I don't mean that you should start smoking, ok?

So, if you:

 take enough distance from the problems at hand


 if you are critic on how everyone's dealing with issues and
 if you can deal with the issues in a different way

Then you have an edge that may lead you to get results on complex contexts and
so...
Then you can be a better project manager!

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Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
project? Well, if one of those three conditions fail then you don't have a project.
So what is not a project?

 Having dinner is not a project (probably you have dinner everyday,


right?)
 Your kids are not a project (they're not really temporary, are they?)
 Your next vacation is not a project (probably you don't make a
continuous effort on it)

But why do these examples look like projects? Actually, there are a few reasons
but the main ones are:

1. They share some of the components of projects and so they have some
of the same needs. Making dinner, for instance, is temporary and is a
I don't think you can explain what Project Management is without recurrence, continuous effort. Agree? But it takes the 3 components simultaneously
that is, you'll have to go through what a project is so you can explain what project in order to have a project. Nevertheless, some of the needs are the same
management is.Thus, Project Management is managing projects. And a project and they can range from making sure dinner is ready on time to plan
is...? your vacation so you get to see and do what you wanted to.
2. And, depending on context, these very same examples of non-projects
Well, you can define what a project is in many different ways, the safest way to can turn into real projects: if you're making a special dinner like a dinner
go at it is saying that any project must have 3 components in it: party for your wife's 40th birthday that's actually something unique with
some unique end results - and so dinner can be a project, depending on
 something unique as a result the context.
 a temporary effort
 a continuous effort

So a project can be almost anything, right? Yeah, that's about it. And also,
everyone is doing projects. Developing a new product, building a house or some
piece of software, putting a satellite on orbit or some medicine on the market in
the form of a pill, you name it... those are all projects. And what is *not* a

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do something really elaborated for fun, to please your senses and the
senses of those coming for dinner. It looks like the same dinner dish
can't really workout in all these different contexts, doesn't it?
4. Time: Who is doing what needs to be done? How long will it take? When
will it be done? What needs to be done first?
5. Cost: How much money do you need? And when? Do you have enough
money for that?
6. Procurement: You'll probably need to buy some stuff for dinner. Do you
have all the tools needed? Who has the stuff you need to buy? How long
will it take to buy it? How will you decide where to buy the stuff from?
7. Communication: Does everyone know what to do? What time is dinner
starting? And where?
8. Risk: What can go wrong? What can be done in order to prevent that?
What will you do if something actually goes wrong? Can you buy pizzas if
And this take us a bit further on understanding what Project Management is (that dinner is burned?
is, beyond that Project Management is managing projects) and it's all about these
Now these needs are all interconnected, each of them depends on several others
needs. You can read all about it any Project Management book, but in short these
directly, and so you have entropy set in. Add people to that and entropy becomes
are (skip this part if you just want to get the juicy parts out this post):
what is technically called a chaotic mess. And so (drums rolls, please...):
1. Human Resources: You have to get someone to do the work. You can do
Project Management is the art and science of making a mess workout right.
it yourself sometimes, but someone has to do it - always. Who will do it,
will people be happy to do it, these are some of the things you have to In short, mess management.
think about.
2. Scope: What are the project results? What will it deliver? You have to
make sure that you know what you want to get at the end. Is dinner
going to be pasta? For how many people? Does everyone like pasta? Are
there enough seats for everyone at the table? What needs to be done?
3. Quality: Will these project results fit what started the project in the first
place? You can make dinner just to feed yourself and the family but you
can also want a dinner party because it's someone's birthday or you can

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manager). And if you know where you stand and what you need to know to get
better at it, than you can know how to improve and...

Then you can be a better project manager!

Images taken and adapted from Project Cartoon.

Developing leadership skills


Sunday, June 13, 2010

In the beginning...

I thought that leadership was some kind of


attribute that all public people had and that all
And the people making sure that the mess works out are Project Managers (or the others didn't have. Leadership was the skill
mess managers). Which brings us to a distinction that's so hard to explain: if that enabled them to be "famous" - and I didn't
Project Management is so complex and complicated as it looks, then Projects need that. I guess I confused leadership with
Managers don't really have the time to do work on the projects they manage so notoriety which later on I found was a quite
they actually don't do project work - and when they do it they perform poorly common mistake. Then I thought that there
(both as project managers and as team members). were leaders and followers and you'd be either
a leader or a follower - you were born one or another and you couldn't possibly
Bottom line is: everyone has a mess to clean up sometime, so everyone is really a be both. Later on I found I was wrong and, again, that this was a common
project manager and could benefit from knowing a bit more about the tools, skills mistake. Then I thought that leadership was a way to predict success: if you were
and processes involved - what works most of time. The only difference is that a good leader you would be somehow successful. Guess what: I was wrong again!
professional project managers are those that make a living out of making messes I don't change my mind easily but I did change my mind a lot on the topic of
workout right, they just do it more often then others - and hopefully have more leadership. And that's what really got me interested on - what's with this
experience and knowledge than the others so they do it better. leadership thing that makes me change my mind so often? What is there so
Bringing this to a conclusion: anyone on this planet who is a project manager difficult to capture?
(professional, part-time, amateur or even not knowing that he/she is a project

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Well, this post has the main objective of saving you time if you're just starting on  The environment where they're set to do it (leading a remote team
this topic and put you on the same stage where I am. But be warned: I may soon sounds quite different from leading a team from your office)
change my mind again!
So, lesson no. 1 is: a good leader depends on the context.
What is leadership?
Example
Every leadership author has a different definition but all of them include (i) the A good example of a leader, in fact one I always try to keep in mind, is a coach. If
ability to influence people, (ii) orientation to results and (iii) all give the idea that you think of a coach, he must have:
leadership is a social skill. So if I had to define leadership myself I'd say that it is a
social skill that allows someone to make other people want the same one thing  Social skills: he has to deal with the players, the managers, the fans, the
and use that will from others to make it happen. press,...
 Making people want the same thing: the coach has to make the players
On one hand, social skills are built on top of emotional intelligence and not the believe and want the team's objective (a greater purpose that each of
regular intelligence that is measured by IQ tests (basically reasoning and logic); the players want to achieve)
on the other hand it involves other people, it's not something you do alone. So  Channeling of that will to make it happen: so the teams works on it,
leadership is something you develop when relating to other people and you don't keeping in sight the major goals but always working on smaller
need to be a rocket scientist to do it! objectives towards that goal

Ok, this is a start... One thing that comes out of this example is that the coach doesn't play the game
with the players, he just makes them play as good as they can. So leaders don't
...but in practice...
need to do the work, they just need to make the work flow in the direction that
...this doesn't seem very helpful, does it? What exactly does a good leader? The suits his/hers objective...
correct answer is: it depends! You can imagine a perfect leader for each given And we have lesson no. 2: a good leader doesn't need to do work! How do you
context but not a perfect leader for any context - and so the answer depends on like that?
the context. And context vary on several variables like:
Another example
 The leader itself (his/hers values, personality, culture, skills,
Imagine you have a plant and you want to make it grow. A simple fact is that
experience,...)
plants know how to do it, they can grow by themselves. In fact, that's what
 The people being lead (again, their values, personalities,...)
they've always done. If you command the plant to grow yelling at it regularly do
 What they're set to do (putting a man on the Moon feels different than you think it will give any results? Well, probably not... but if you provide the
developing some piece of software or wining the World Championship)

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natural conditions they need to grow like water and light you will probably get it Lombardo and Eichinger you have 67 different competencies - which would
to grow, right? That's what a leader does: (i) he finds what makes others move, probably make you wonder if they're talking about the same topic. Try googling
(ii) provides that conditions and (iii) directs their energy towards the results for leadership competencies or leadership skills and check out how many
he/she wants to get. different sets you'll find... What I concluded from this is that the competencies
themselves are not important as whole, there's something behind them that
So lesson no. 3 is: a good leader is a provider. Or a roadblock remover. Or both. plays a much more important role. In fact, you even have...
He/she makes sure everyone has everything they need to get the job done.
...opposite competencies!
Leadership competencies
If you look at any of these lists of leadership competencies you'll find out that's
impossible for the same person to master all of them and that some are almost
the opposite. For instance, Zenger and Folkman talk about "Solving problems and
analyzing issues" and "Championing change" which are somehow contradictory,
do you agree? Also Lombardo and Eichinger talk about "Results focus" and
"Visioning and strategy" which again are a bit contradictory... do you think you
can find someone with all of these competencies developed? Well, probably
not...

The thing is that depending on what kind of a leader you're looking for, that is,
what kind of context the leader is in, you'll want different sets of competencies
embedded on the leader. Think of the military: both a General and a Sergeant
are leaders. But you'd probably prefer a general with the ability to "Championing
change" and "Visioning and strategy" rather then "Solving problems and
analyzing issues" and "Results focus". And for a Sergeant you'd probably go the
other way around, that is:

Depending on who's thinking about leadership and on what perspective For a General, prefer the following leadership competencies:
(psychology, human resources, general management, project management,...)
you'll see different sets of competencies necessary for effective leadership. For  Championing change and
instance, on "The extraordinary leader" by Zenger and Folkman, you'll end up  Visioning and strategy
with 5 clusters of 16 different competencies. On "The leadership machine" by

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Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
Over the leadership competencies: And this is counter intuitive, my bet is that you you'd imagine that the ideal
process would be to evaluate how good you were at each competency and then
 Solving problems and analyzing issues try do develop those that you were worst at, am I right?
 Results focus
Going back to the military, it's pretty easy to imagine how hard it would be for
Selecting competencies to improve someone to be a good General and a good Sergeant at the same time. And if you
want to be a better General you should develop the competencies necessary for
So imagine you are thinking of
a General, not those that are necessary for a Sergeant, right?. And the same the
competing either by running the
other way around, if you want to be a better Sergeant you should develop the
marathon or by weight lifting just
competencies necessary for a Sergeant, not those that are necessary for a
because you enjoy both. If you do
General.
both the marathon and weight lifting
you'll have to develop a set of This does make sense after all!
competences in order to run the
marathon and a different set of skills Better yet, if you already have some "natural talent" to do something you
in order to lift weights. Do you agree probably enjoy more the skills you need than the skills you don't need, so you
so far? Now, to run the marathon one have to do better at what you already enjoy doing and do best!
thing you'll have to develop is
You may be surprise but this in fact a simple and old truth, even Abraham Lincoln
resistance; and to lift weights you'll
have to build strength. But once said "Whatever you are, be a good one."...
developing resistance means that you And this is the bottom line: if you want to be a better leader, you should develop
have to give up some strength; and the skills and competencies that you enjoy best and that are better at - or the
building strength means you'll have to
ones you're worst at for the kind of leader you are.
give up some resistance. So if you
want to both run the marathon and lift weights you won't do as good as you And this is lesson no. 4: to improve as a leader you should improve what you
would if you just picked one and developed the set of competencies necessary already do best!
either to run the marathon or lift weights. Ah ha! If you do both, the best you can
expect is to be average; if you pick the one you like best or that you have more
"natural talent" you have a change to be great! Walk the talk

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Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
There's one thing I think it's safe to say that all leaders should be able to do and 2. a good leader doesn't need to do work
that is to build trust. Even if you think of the most controversial leaders like 3. a good leader is a provider
tyrants and dictators, they only last as long as there's some kind of trust - even if 4. to improve as a leader you should improve what you already do best
it's just a small group that trust him. If there's no trust their days as leaders are 5. a good leader is trustworthy
numbered.
There's a justification for this. On one hand, if you believe that a leader is a
provider, you'll also believe that you have to trust the provider. On the other Just keep in mind these 5 lessons on leadership and I'm sure that...
hand, some of the good things a leader brings (like someone people look up to,
Then you can be a better project manager!
motivation and a sense of a greater good) are built on top of trust and so if
there's no trust there's no way to build upon that and so you won't be able to get
those good things a leader should. Working for a better good
So in short, a leader has to walk the talk, that is, he must act accordingly to what Sunday, June 20, 2010
he says and demands from others.
National teams
Final lesson: a good leader is trustworthy.

And from here...


I was discussing over lunch with a friend the challenges of building a good team
Assuming you trust what you've read so far, there's a lot to learn about for the World Cup and I was arguing that the problems there were basically the
leadership. It doesn't take much to get started, but you can't take anything from same as in any other team. And that, much like any other team, there were some
granted. There's a lot of other things like what we saw earlier about improving as specific issues with a National Team which we then agreed that at least were:
a leader, that can be counter intuitive - please remember that. Also remember
that this is a starting point on leadership from my point of view - and so some  making a football star look beyond his belly button
basic stuff is missing, like the leadership styles that were not included. But you  in a very short time, fitting together different habits, skills and styles
can read all about it in several places - actually I like Wikipedia as a starting point, that each player has
as long as you don't take anything for granted.  taking away the arrogance from someone who is a young man that
earns more in a week what someone else earns in an year
The most important thing to remember after reading this is that:
But then, after a couple of days this conversation took place, it suddenly struck
1. a good leader depends on the context me: actually, even these specific issues are not different from what happens in

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Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
the office. Ah ha!... in fact, the same problems take place in the office and with
Do you feel comfortable? Afraid? Feel like running away from them as fast as you
can? Why's that? Why do they look so mean? For starters, they look pretty
focused on the same thing, don't they? And seeing all of them so focused on you
makes you wonder if this is the best place for you to be...

And then they don't seem worried about themselves, do they? On the contrary,
they look like they have a mission to do and there's nothing going to stop them,
they have something bigger then each one of them. And if there was just one of
these guys in front of you he would probably look ridiculous but all of them
together it's completely different - the only word that pops on my mind is power:
they have the power to do whatever they are set to do! And they're showing it to
you to intimidate you - this is performed just to you. They show the will to go
over anything in order to get what want and build a high obstacle that you must
the same root causes - they just take place in a different context... be prepared to overtake if you face them. Also, they're giving you the chance to
turn away - and call you yellow if you do.
Do you agree? No? Keep on reading then...
This is what the All Blacks do, they are the New Zealand rugby team and they
What is a team? mean business... just watch this to feel the power of this demonstration called
the Haka. And pay attention to the opposite team: they are hugged, some can
Putting it as simple as I can, a team is a group of people working for a better show a bit of contempt but they look like they're ready to call for their mommy...
good. It works in a pretty simple way. Just imagine you are standing in front of
these guys... And for last, this has absolutely nothing to do with what they are about to do -
playing rugby. It has to do with something on the side - they are a team.

An all of this just because:

 they are focused


 they are not thinking about themselves
 they are highly motivated
 together they are more then just the sum of the individuals

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Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
prima dona in particular consider the team? And think highly of the team? And
support others to reach the team goals?
So how do you turn a group of people into a team like the All Blacks? How do you
go from the first picture (the Portuguese team, looking kind of relaxed) to the Suppose you have a team with skills and capabilities that your star programmer
second (the All Blacks, focused on wining)? How do you go around the challenges doesn't have. Suppose that it's obvious that the team is going far, they're really
that arise on building a National team, football, rugby or whatever? And does it going to get there. In fact, suppose the team is going much much further than the
have to do with your team at the office? star programmer would ever go by himself. What do you think your star
programmer attitude would be then? Odds are he would probably consider the
Making a football star look beyond his team more because that would be in his own advantage and interest. So the
belly button thing to do is complementing the star skills from within the team, giving the star
the things he can't have and making obvious that the team is going much further
How do you do it? Imagine you have
than the star ever would on his own. In short, give the star a goal that he knows
Cristiano Ronaldo (a star Portuguese
he can't do it on his own - make him work for a better good.
football player) on your team. Would
you yell at him like the other football This seems pretty easy and straight forward, doesn't it? Actually no, it's pretty
player on the picture? Well, probabily hard - you have to find what makes each person in your team move, know what
not. Yelling at him wouldn't motivate each one is really good at and make them use that skills and capabilities. But
him to look beyond his belly button. And nevertheless, it's the way to go.
we all have stars working with us at the
office that have a hard time looking Fitting together different habits, skills and styles
beyond their belly buttons. Technically they are called prima donas. The first
thing I want to argue is that prima donas are the same either if they are a I think all these can fit into two categories: tolerance and, again,
football star or a star programmer as far as the team is concerned. Although each complementarity. And every team needs both in order to function properly.
has their particularities like a different pay at the end of the month they tend to
Tolerance is about accepting differences. It's about accepting others like they are
be individualists, think highly of themselves, they don't consider other team
and it's about agreeing to disagree - sometimes you need that. You don't have to
members as high as themselves, they rely on the support of others to reach their
win every argument, you don't have to be the one making every decision and
individual goals and so on.
your thinking is not always the best. Be smart enough to learn from others and
Think about one of the prima donas you know, is he/she much different then let others do what they do better then you. If you do that, if you are tolerant
this? How would you turn this the other way around? How would you make that enough to let everyone to what they're best at you'll end up with a fantastic
team. But for that you have to be tolerant...

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Complementarity is important for technical skills but particularly important on team member that thinks he/she is the best at what he/she does when in reality
styles. In order to have a balanced team you will have to have enough creativity other team members are better and he/she really doesn't work hard to be all
on the team but also enough rigor; enough stars but also enough hard-workers; that good... well, this leads to arrogance.
enough emotion but also enough logic; and you could go like this forever... the
advantage of this is obvious: a team with more skills, more versatile and with I have a couple of tips on how to deal with this. The first one is to show how
more different styles is able to face more challenges. much a team member improves when working on something. If someone thinks
he/she is a great programmer and if you are able to show the improvements
made because of some trainning he/she went through then that person *must*
realize that he/she isn't all that good it...
Taking away the arrogance
The second is to have a reality check. If you can show that another team
Sometimes what seems like arrogance is in fact a simple and member, not so considered, is faster and better... either you're insane or you
strong message that you believe in your team. That is what have to accept the fact that you're not all that good at it.
José Mourinho (a Portuguese football coach) does. How do
you make someone believe that he/she can really do it? The whats and the hows
Yelling or a pat on the back doesn't work, does it? Well, this
guy found a way to do that: he stands for his team and his I've been talking about the "what" to do. The "how" to do it is a much more
players anywhere anyhow. I don't think this is arrogance. complex issue. Going again back to sports, you can notice that the best coachs
can do this, they can turn a group of people into a team - but not every coach.
Other times people take for arrogance the fact that someone is really good at And each of these coachs that can do it, they do it differently. And this connects
what he/she does and works hard for. Cristiano Ronaldo is an example again: he to leadership issues, some of them discussed on "Developing Leadership skills".
is good, he has been the best player in the world and he works harder then most One thing's for sure though: each case is a case, what works for one particular
players do to be that good. Is there a reason to prevent him to acknowledge that coach and team usually doesn't work for another coach and/or another team. My
he really is a good player? I don't think so. And I don't think this is arrogance. best advice here is to be alert. If you know what you want it's a lot easier to see
how to get it. At least is easier than if you don't even know what you want, right?
But... Jut remember that a team is all about a greater good. If you do that...

Arrogance can come from status. It can come from the fact that someone does or Then you can be a better project manager!
says something just because he/she can. No reason, no purpose, no pattern, just
whims. Some people do and say stuff just because they can. This is usually the Images taken from FIFA and Wikipedia.
case of people who are either insecure or disconnected from reality. If you have a

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Project Managers are negotiators
It's all about interests, not positions
This is no big news, but it's good to keep this in
Sunday, June 27, 2010 mind. Let's have a go on the why's first. Project
Managers deal with people and where there's
That's the way into win-win negotiations
people there's a conflict of interests. Plus, Project
Managers deal with people on different sides of the
battlefield, on one side people that do stuff and on the other side people that
How to do win-win negotiations run businesses. And on top of that, a Project Manager is himself dealing with
tough balances because of what he/she does: the balance between time, scope
Remember Camp David Accords after the Six-
and cost, the balance between a sponsor who wants the project's results to go on
Day War back in 1967? It was one of the
with the business and the fact that you have to get those results somehow (even
toughest negotiations in recent times and it as
when you don't know what they are for), and also the balance between a happy
a successful one. It was tough because of the
and motivated team and a result oriented and productive team. And I didn't
context but mainly because Egypt and Israel
even mentioned sub contractors, different objectives inside the organization,
had different positions that could never happen simultaneously - they both
different professional views (ever worked with an engineer and a marketeer on
wanted the Sinai Peninsula to be theirs. There was no way that the Sinai
the same project?) and so on... In any of these different types of situations there
Peninsula could be simultaneously part of Egypt and Israel. But they found a
are conflicts for you, the Project Manager, to manage and so you have to
solution, and both won! How did they do it?
negotiate, you have to get what you need to get the job done and you have to
This post isn't about history, religion or war, it's about negotiation. And the Camp give something back.
David Accords provides some good examples Project Managers can use. Oh
that's true, Project Managers must be negotiators, haven't you noticed?
Yet another example
In the picture, from left to right: Menachem Begin (Israeli Prime Minister), Jimmy
Carter (United States President), Anwar El Sadat (Egyptian President) Ever heard the oranges tale? Two kids
where fighting over a couple of oranges
because they both wanted them. The fight
goes bad enough to make the parents
step in and make the kids share the
oranges so each of them got one single

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orange. Both the kids were mad at each other because they both needed the two The exact same thing happened with the Camp David Accords. Both sides wanted
oranges. But they went to do what they needed the oranges for anyway, the Sinai Peninsula and both sides were right at some extent, at least they could
although there were not enough oranges for none of the kids to do what they both give a logical reason for wanting it. So how did they do it? They moved from
wanted to. So one kid cuts his orange in half, squeezes both halfs and gets half a positions to interests. Now how do you put Arabs, Jews, cooperation, honesty
glass of orange juice. And the other kid got a grater and after grating his orange and trust in the same sentence? It's not an easy task, that's for sure. What I think
used the zest to make an orange cake. they did was to let their guard down, bit by bit. Honesty and trust can't be won in
an instant, it always takes time to build (and a moment to lose).
About positions and interests And to worsen things, some of these steps you take to gain trust can be quite the
opposite. At the time, Sadat said in a speech that he would travel anywhere to
Positions are what you want to get in a negotiation. Interests are reasons (root
discuss peace, Israel included. Shortly after, the Israeli government stated that
causes, if you will) why you want what you want. Anyone can discuss positions in
Israel would invite Sadat to Israel if they ever thought that Sadat would accept
a negotiation, right? You just say what you want and that's it. And the fact is that
the invitation. And eventually, Sadat went to Israel... This is what I meant with bit
most times that's enough, so you kind of get used to it. But what happens if the
by bit. You give a little, the other side gives a little, then you give a little more, the
other side wants the very same thing you want like the two oranges in the above
other side too, and so on. Until you reach things really big, like the first visit ever
example or the Six Day War? Usually there's a fight. Again, that's what happened
(I think) of an Arab President to Israel. But please notice that this break through
with the two kids and the Six Day War. What if they told each other what they
was done based on insinuations and second intentions - not honesty and trust.
wanted the oranges for, the "why" part? Both oranges could be used to both the
But the end result proved there was trust - at a minimum, more trust than
kids' purposes, one wanted the juice and the other the zest so that could be
before. Nevertheless, no one ever states in a negotiation everything, you must
done. The problem is that when someone wants what you want you're
always go through this process of giving a little bit turn by turn, you give and
"programmed" to fight for it, you fight for what you want; that's what you have
then the other side gives.
learned ever since you were a baby: you cry and hey, get milk! No one
remembers to stop and ask: why do you want that? And even if you did Finally the arrangement they made was something like this: the Sinai Peninsula
remember to ask that, probably the other side would be defensive. Probably they was still part of Egypt (that was the interest of Egypt as it always has been a part
would think you were gathering information to attack on another front. So the of Egypt) and Israel would patrol parts of that territory (their interest was
other side must cooperate too! Going from positions to interests is tough and it security). Straight and simple, isn't it?
takes both sides to do it. And it takes both sides to be honest and trustful. So it
seems that getting to interests on a negotiation is getting tougher and tougher...

Back to Egypt and Israel

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Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
And win-win negotiations again good approach on this is to introduce the "interests" topic slowly. And I'd bet on
the 5 whys to start with (more on that on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Whys
We hear a lot about win-win negotiations and how but for a short explanation, the basic idea is to keep on asking why until you get
important they are. I agree. But in order to do it you a root cause for a problem). So if you set this technique inside your team you
have to go after interests, not positions. So keep have a good chance of switching from positions to interests and the following
this in mind: when discussing interests there must example dialog is then possible to have with anyone on your team:
be cooperation from the other side and both sides
have to be honest and trustful. If on the other side Team member: I'm sorry but I can't do this task, you should ask someone else to
of the table there's someone who doesn't do it.
cooperate, who is dishonest or not trustworthy, Project Manager: Why not?
forget about win-win. In these cases it will get too TM: Because there are people that know much more about it than I do and they
much time and work to get anywhere. Unless, of course, the prize is big enough, should do it.
like the Camp Davis Accord case. PM: Right, and so they can also do it. But why can't you?
TM: I've just told you I don't know enough about it.
And that's another thing to remember. Win-win is good but there are other PM: Well, if I though you didn't know enough about it I wouldn't have asked you
options. And sometimes, in fact I'd say most of the times, you should go for other to do it. I think you can do it.
options. Win-win takes time, and sometimes you just don't have enough of it. TM: What if i try and fail? On my last project one guy didn't get the bonus at the
end of the project because he couldn't do a task on his responsability.
But in most cases...
PM: So that's your problem? You're afraid you get punished if you fail?
But in most cases, like for Project Managers, you should keep it simple. Win-win TM: Well... yes.
negotiations usually take much longer so go for them when it's worth while the PM: No problem then. You do that task. If you fail I'll get you some training all the
effort. And what can Project Managers use from all this? If you don't have rest stays the same. Ok?
cooperation, honesty and trust built into your team you are in deep trouble - and TM: Ok.
you must have bigger worries than win-win negotiations. But if you do have them
And the message is...
in your team, you can for win-win negotiations with your team as I'm certain that
in many cases it's worth the effort. And so teams look like one good target for Negotiation is part of the Project Managers job. And win-win negotiations are the
win-win negotiations. ones that bring the most benefits. But in order to do that you have to:
But to do that the teams have to know about win-win also and in many cases you  Go from positions to interests
don't have that. So how do you teach them about win-win? My best guess for a
 Be cooperative and get cooperation

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Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
 Be honest and expect honesty
 Trust and be trustful
 Be able to invest in time and effort

And remember that win-win negotiations bring the most benefits but demand a
big effort so many times you have better options other than win-win. So if you
keep this in mind then you can be a better negotiator. As negotiation is a skill
needed for Project Management...

Then you can be a better Project Manager!

One final note

I'm not much into history so forgive me any inaccuracy about the Camp Davis
Accords story. The purpose of using it was exclusively to illustrate how to go from
positions to interests in a negotiation. Sustainability, Social Responsibility and Charity are all used to mean the same
thing - I'll use my own phrase, doing the right thing. When in projects, "Doing the
Images taken from Wikipedia, Home Cook'n, Adventures in unemployment and right thing" can be much the same as any other project. But when you have
Search Engine People. people giving their work for free these projects acquire some specific
characteristics that are worth while exploring. I just ended my very first "Doing
the right thing" project and so it's a good time to make a balance and check what
can be learned from it. My plan is to tell you what this particular project was,
what we did, what went well and what could be done better the next time -
that's called Lessons Learned, I've been told. This is a Project Management blog
so the focus will be on Lessons Learned part. Hopefully it will be useful for you
when you get a project with characteristics and features similar to these. I don't
Lessons learned from my first "Doing the find these characteristics and features all that common but at least they can
right thing" project occur on some "Doing the right thing" projects as it happened in this case. And if
that ever happens to you, well, you can use them.
Monday, July 5, 2010

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Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
Let me just add that charity is something that have always bothered me for the And our project was...
simple reason that it's the easiest way for someone to feel good about someone
else's misfortune: you just write a check and that's it, you feel good because
you've done something about it. At least that's the basic principle. And I think
that in order to feel good you should work for it. This post is not about charity,
it's really about projects that sometimes acquire some very different features
from the "usual everyday stuff".

Are you wondering why I associated a lion's picture with a "doing the right thing"
project? Keep on reading then...

Some context first

Some children have chronicle or terminal diseases. That's the kind of world we
live in and we better get used to it. But. Some people take the time an effort to
make their lives a bit better and make the lives of people that live around them
(like their parents and brothers) a bit better too. This is not about money, as ...to take a 14 years old girl with some nasty disease to the Zoo. Surprised? So
some of them are from high social-economic environments. It's just about kids were we, but yes, it's possible for a teenager's dream to be as basic as going to
and bad luck. And to get involved you don't just write a check and make a the Zoo. I'm not sure if she has never been to the Zoo just because of lack of
donation. You have to work face to face with the kids, parents, brothers and money but the fact is she never did go to the Zoo. And it was a natural dream for
friends. her because she loves animals and she has cats and dogs. But most of all, she
loves lions. When we talked to her the first time her eyes shone when we got her
The basic idea is to get a small group of people making such a child's dream come
to talk about what animal she loved the most - the lion.
true. This is done in the following steps:
We started last September and it took us over 9 months just to take her to the
1. Find out who is close to the child, starting with his/her parents
Zoo, she was already 15 when it finally happened. This was somehow justified by
2. Talk to them in order to find (i) a way to approach the child and (ii) what
each member of our team, the point being that actions took much, much longer
his/her dreams might be
than in any normal circumstance to the point of almost despair.
3. Talk to the child to get 2 or 3 of his/her dreams confirmed
4. Get approval for the dreams Anyway, all is well when it ends well and this was the case. Going to the Zoo was
5. Make his/her dream come true a huge success and she enjoyed it very much. The highest moment was when we

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got there before the Zoo opened and our Zoo guide took us straight to the lions Differences from regular projects included the fact that all members of our team
that were about to be fed. She immediately spotted 2 lion cubs which was a great were doing this on free time exclusively which made progress a hard thing to
unexpected bonus. We were with our Zoo guide and the lions' keeper and talked accomplish. Even gathering the team in one place and one time was impossible
about the lions and the keeper's job at the Zoo. In short, all this made her feel most of the times. This was bad enough in itself, but actually seeing that getting
special, not only by going to the Zoo, but mainly because she was able to see some work done in the office was systematically more important than to take a
things and talk to people that weren't available to most Zoo visitors. I do think kid with such a health problem to the Zoo that was hard to deal with. Projects
we made her dream come true and I'm pretty sure that she won't ever forget it. don't deal with emotions as strong as this and in such a direct way. The other
thing that working on free time does is that there is no way to set authority. On
one side no one felt comfortable making pressure like asking if something was
done as agreed; on the other side when I said I'd do something I'd know that I'd
be excused if I didn't do it so things got to the point where I'd say I'd do
something and then forget all about it! When that first happened I was kind of
chocked with myself, I mean, I'm a better person than that but it actually
happened. And I don't think I was the only one taking advantage of this lack of
authority, even if not intentionally or on purpose.

But working for the good of someone else really gives you a good feeling. We
knew we were doing the right thing and that was reassuring. I mean, the
difference between actually doing something for a kid like this and writing a
check for some institution that we think will use the money wisely for someone
we don't know is really huge!

In short, this project was different from other projects because:


Starting off with the Project Management stuff
 it was not a project (big difference!)
The first thing I want to make explicit here is that this was not a project because  team members used only their free time for the project
it wasn't a continuous effort - it took us 9 months just to take this kid to the Zoo.  dealing with strong direct emotions
Nevertheless there were some Project Management tools, processes and  lack of authority
knowledge that we could use.
 the "feel good" effect

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Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
Anyway, what I missed on this project was the lack of responsibility and
initiative. Most of the time we would be waiting for someone to come forward
and say he/she'd do something and that's what I'll have to fight harder the next
time.

Information radiators

I believe this was our second miss, a way to let everyone know how we were
doing. Again, it was a miss because (i) we were not together at the same place
and (ii) some didn't use the internet on a daily basis. Next time I'll work harder on
this too because it's something really important, it provides a very needed bigger
picture, like the things I discussed on "Working for a better good". A sense of a
Self organizing teams bigger picture is needed and knowing where you stands is a must. Like feedback
is, which I haven't talked here yet - but will sometime soon.
The problems that Agile addresses are much the same as the ones found in these
projects. In both cases there is a call for creativity, there is a path that no one is Retrospectives
able to see so you have to keep on going and keep checking where you are and
where you want to go and a complete lack of structure in any sense other than Everyone does good and wrong. The problem arises when you don't know if
some very wide guidelines. In this particular case, our biggest problem was the you're doing one or the other. Or if you can't talk about it with pinpointing
lack of authority, the attitude of letting things go whatever way they were going someone and say "it's your fault". Somehow we had a hard time dealing with
with no worries. For instance, to give someone the responsibility to do something these issues. I'd definitely go for a honest and trustful attitude here but it was
the Agile way is to let that someone assume in front of all the other team something we couldn't really do for reasons that should go on another post. The
members that he's going to do that. It's a lot more difficult not to care about point being: look for what is going wrong (not who) and what is going well (and
some task you assumed in front of other that you were going to do. why).

This works when people are together, which was not this case, we met from time Coaching
to time only. So one other approach was to this virtually but some of us didn't
use the internet on a daily basis so it was hard to find a way to do this. It would
have been helpful if we took little some yellow papers, like the Scrum way, even
if would have done it on some web application. I didn't mentioned before but
there are no project managers on these projects so Scrum did come to mind.

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Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
worth, no matter if there's no pay, no recognition or whatever. It pays by itself
and it's so overpaid that you have to experience it for yourself to know. But to
give some examples, when we interviewed "our" kid she was in the hospital for
some treatments and something really good happened there: although our plan
was completely broken by some good intended nurse we pulled it through very
nicely. One of the rules of these projects is that it must be a surprise for the kid.
This nice nurse didn't know that and so she asked the kid to think about
something she really wanted to do so we could make that happen. When we got
there and saw what she's done we kind of panicked but the team member who
was with me started talking with her about the kids with same limitations she had
and how we could help them overcome them and all of the sudden the dream
was forgotten. And that did it, as simple as that.

This is a bonus, I mean it's something required but... it makes sense when you One other thing that went particularly well was that all interviews were done in
have people that are doing this on a regular basis. If they're better at it they can pairs and with people with different kind of mindsets, if you will, different takes
influence other people on doing it better also and it might work n some cases. I on stuff. In the case of the interview I was talking about we planned for me to
don't have much free time, but if I was going to do this on a regular basis I'd conduct it. But as the other team member did so well at the start she continued.
definitely want someone on my side helping me do it better. I'm a pretty good And then eventually when she started stammering. That was when I stepped in
project manager and I know I went wrong several times along the way. If I had and continued the interview normally. Until it was my turn to stammer and the
someone along the way with me pointing that out I'd me a much better team roles reversed. It worked very well, really smooth.
member on this project and, better yet, I could help other to be better at it.
In conclusion
Unfortunately, I only realized these "wrong doings" sometime after they
happened. Some of the Agile ideas are applicable in cases such as these, namely the ideas
related to:
What we should keep doing

Not everything went wrong, sorry if it sounded that way. My main purpose with  Self organizing teams
this post is to give you a warning sign to stuff you should look out for because  Information radiators
they went wrong with me. But somethings went great, the main thing being that  Retrospectives and
"our kid" had her dream come true! And let me tell you that it's something  Coaching

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Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
Don't be stuck on these but please keep them in mind when you have a similar with you here. The video translates in a very plain language a study conducted
project at hand. I do wish I had someone telling me about them when I started jointly by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Chicago
this last September but I didn't. I mean, how much hard can it be? To take some and Carnegie Mellon.I'd like to get it but couldn't find it, yet.
kid to the Zoo? Well, in my case it was 5 people and 9 months hard...
Check out the video anyway, it's really worth it...
Keep this info in the back of your mind even if it's not useful for you right now
because if you have such a project... Why this video?

Then you can be a better Project Manager! I never felt like money worked for me the same way it is said it should for most
people. Even those people that say that work only for money and the more
Images taken from National Geographic Magazine money they get the harder they work, well... I've seen some of them going
through Hell and back just to get something that was needed or some other
reason that didn't have any more money or power involved.
Mastering Motivation But for now I just really want to share this great video with you and make a short
summary of it even if it's already quite summarized.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
In short, what's behind this motivation thing?

Only 3 factors lead to better performance and personal satisfaction:


Did you know that a better pay could lead to a
poorer performance? Oh you already did?... And  autonomy: on the very least, asking people to do something and letting
did you know why that happens and when a them decide how to do it;
better pay could lead to a poorer performance?  mastery: making people better at what they do;
Really? Well... sorry, this post isn't for you then.
 purpose: like in businesses, you start with a vision, the same goes here,
Otherwise please keep on reading.
if you want more details check out "Working for a better good";
Actually this post is just a re-post of a video on
If you think of Open Source Software, like it is mentioned on the video, it all
You Tube, but on one side it is a summary of
makes sense, doesn't it?
what motivates people and on the other side it is
funny and really good - and so it's worth sharing The principles

Just two basic rules here:

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Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
1. For mechanical skills, the performance gets better with the pay
2. For cognitive skills, the larger the reward the poorer the performance
Learning from examples
Friday, September 10, 2010
So what's in it for you?

Always pay people enough to take money out of the negotiation (does it sound ...Or lessons learned
close to utopia?). For simple mechanical tasks, reward with money to get a better
I was recently at a high school event that had the purpose of
performance. For all other, focus on autonomy, mastery and purpose to get a
giving recognition to the students who got the best marks. Many
better performance.
of the people present there kept talking from start to end. The
As Project Management is about making people give their best, if you follow this school's Principal decided to take action at one point and so she
simple guideline... stopped talking to the person next to her, took the microphone,
made a loud shhh while a student was playing violin for the
Then you can be a better Project Manager! audience and then continued to talk to the same person again.

Images taken from Disney, video from You Tube but found on a I was astonished with the all thing but to everyone there it
Portuguese post on Mentes Brilhantes by Ricardo Costa, thank you seemed normal, just business as usual. What kind of an example were those
for your blog. people giving to the students? Students that age are very active learners and they
learn a lot by example, by looking up to parents and teachers and act like they
do.

Pretty much everything was wrong from the very beginning of the event and the
all thing, including the lack of leadership skills of the school's Principal, really
bothered me. And they do several events per year that must go as bad as that
one did. What was wrong there? Why can't they learn? So I decided to write
about it here for 2 different reasons:

1. What happened in that school is something that can happen in many


project management situations, at the very least you can learn from
that.

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Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
2. Hope is the last thing to die. Who knows? Maybe some of those people, Then one student went on stage to play saxophone. Cool. He played one tune.
the Principal included, will read this post and decide to do things Then another. Then another. He played 5 tunes altogether. More than 30
differently next time. minutes passed and no certificate was given - and that was the reason for the
event. I started to worry. How long would this take?
The beginning
They could have handed a program for the event. Or say what was going to
Surprisingly for me, the event started just 3 happen. Or at what time the events would take place. Or something. But no, we
minutes late. And I was impressed. That was were just there waiting for things to happen, not knowing what exactly was going
something positive. on.
But people were talking and they never stopped, What about organization?
not even when the Principal started a small
speech. She really was able to look cool and relaxed talking to a large audience Finally the Principal announced they would be giving 140 certificates. And she
where most people was talking to someone else and so they weren't paying any started calling the students, one by one, starting from the senior classes. This was
attention. One thing she could have done was to politely ask for silence so the really time consuming and for no reason. If they just called all senior classes the
event could start - and wait until there was silence. Or just saying "Welcome!" students would get up, go on stage, get their certificate and the whole process
really loud and make a pause waiting for silence. Or whatever. As long as she would be a lot faster. It would also be faster to take the photos of all the students
didn't start the thing without anyone paying any attention... This I found odd instead of one by one. Again, a lot of time was spent. And in "non-project related
because it's a standard that is difficult to break afterwords. Then I wondered if tasks" because the objective of this event was to give the certificates to the
she taught any classes and if she behaved the same way on her classes. Scary students. Sounds a bit like gold plating, doesn't it?
thought...
Shhh...
Same mistake again The story of the violin and the shhh I told at the beginning of this post took place
immediately after the seniors got their certificates. In order to do worst then this
A government official followed with another short speech and the exact same you'd really have to put an extra effort. Let's look at what went wrong:
thing happened. He talked while everyone in the audience was talking and
making so much noise that it was really hard to listen to him. The fact is that he  The Principal was talking to the person next to her while a student was
really didn't have anything interesting to say, not to the students neither to their performing to the audience
parents. The same advice as before goes to him...  She interrupted the student's performance
 And she continued her conversation
Is there an agenda?

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Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
How could she have handled the situation assuming she started the event with something that you don't have (another scary thought...)? These are some tough
everyone in silence? And assuming she wasn't talking also? She could have questions you probably should try to answer.
gestured for those who were seeing her and she could have walked discretely
asking for silence for those who weren't paying attention to her. Anything would And this is the same for whatever you do, if you're a teacher, a politician, a
be better than the 3 things she did... parent or a project manager. For instance, the way you conduct meetings is
decisive: if you interrupt someone on a meeting to say something you can be
Few resisted till the very end sure you are passing a message that probably is not a very positive one. The way
you present stuff to others, the way you respect what others say and do. If you
As the event took so long, people started to leave as they received their have this kind of attitude, others will respect you and eventually they will have
certificates. Both students and parents. And teachers too! When their students the same attitude. And if you spread good values like that...
got all their certificates most teachers left too! I must say that I also wanted to
leave but was persuaded to stay. And I'm glad it was so. Even if the event didn't Then you can be a better Project Manager!
have any more interest for me I was with students and I should set an example.
And I did. Images taken from Wikipedia

Team players
Monday, October 4, 2010
The link to Project Management

I think it was Epicurus, an ancient Greek


philosopher, that said something like: "Do Imagine that your company has this policy
everything like you would if someone was watching that makes every top manager change
you" (I'm sorry I don't know the exact quote - I function every year. Crazy, no? Well, I know
looked for it but couldn't find it). This is a simple of a company that does exactly this. Each
but very powerful piece of advice. All your actions year the head of the Financial department
should set an example so other people can admire becomes the head of the IT department,
you and look up to you. The problem is, what do the head of the IT department becomes the
you have to admire? What do you want others to head of the Marketing department and so
admire in you? Do you want others to admire on. Is there a purpose that justifies

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Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
something a bit crazy like this is? There is, and they have two objectives: on one
hand, to force interdependence between the top managers; on the other hand
to grow each of those managers as professionals. Interdependence

Why would a company want to something like this? What would they gain? Just like the picture above by M. C. Escher
Curious enough? Keep on reading then... shows, the shape of each figure is defined
by the shapes of the figures next to it. But
First things first at the same time it also defines the figures
next to it - and that’s interdependence.
The main thing when you do something as bold as this is That is, a shape defines and at the same
to have an objective. Don't do it because some other time is defined by the shapes next to it.
company did it or even because some guru said that's How do you do it in real live? Well, this
what you should do. In fact, don't do it even if it is a company does it like this: Suppose you're
best practice. Think first about what you want to about to lead the Human Resources department. Suppose you don't know the
achieve and then how to get there from where you are - first thing about it, suppose your background is Finance. And suppose there's this
"As Is" and "To Be" scenarios can be a starting point. guy who has a Human Resources background (and he's about to lead the IT
Will these steps get you there where you want to be? There are a lot of things to department). It's clear for everyone that you need help with Human Resources,
think about when you want to change something. The truth is that's why we right? So you'd probably ask this guy for some help, right? And the same think
came up with Change Management, it is an area complex enough to have its own happens to this guy once he doesn't have any experience on IT he has to rely on
discipline. someone who does. Each person relies on someone else and at the same time
there's someone else who relies on him/her. That's interdependence for you.
This is really important because when you apply good ideas, processes or
whatever in a different context you have to make sure that they will bring you Growth
the expected benefits. In most cases people apply best practices without taking
into consideration the differences in context (even if it's just cultural differences) Now imagine you’re hiring a new
and at the end the results are not what they expected. And in some cases they Marketing director. And suppose you
may even get worst than they were initially. have one of these guys from this
particular company that in the past 5
years lead the Marketing, Human
Resources, Sales, IT and the Financial
departments. Wouldn’t you think that

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Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
someone with this kind of experience was a better choice over someone that was Then you have an attitude problem: what if someone doesn't see the benefits
only on Marketing on the same period of time? I'd guess that much... and takes on a new function not relying on anyone else? What if he/she doesn't
give a hand to someone else when it's needed?
The knowledge, experience and maturity that each of these guys get is really
amazing. And it's their benefit in the first place, and of course they know it. But Another problem is the learning ability. The younger you are the easier it is for
the company also gets something for it, to name a few reasons: you to learn. So you can be successful in such a workplace for sometime and get
less and less successful over time.
 reducing the impact when someone leaves the company
 having very able people In short:
 having people that are not afraid of taking some risks
 Recruitment is more complex and risky
 having flexible people
 Attitude
This makes sense particularly in dynamic environments where you prefer flexible  Learning ability
people over experts and risk taking over doing things by the book.
What does this has to do with Project Management?
But...
Most projects have contexts that are dynamic
There’s a price to pay when you this. Are and cross-function. Even if you are an expert
you ready to pay? You'll face several new team member in a particular field, let's say an
challenges in such an environment, but I'll SAP MM expert, you will do projects in several
just mention a few. First there's a big industries for sure so this kind of flexibility and
problem when you hire someone new for adaptation makes sense. It also makes sense to
such a position. Recruitment is more strive for interdependency and growth in any
complex because you want to check how team whenever possible.
adaptable to others functions people are
and recruitment also has more risk In most cases, it is a bad idea to put an expert on a field working on something
because although you may think someone else on a given project - most people feel diminished. But you may be on the look
may adapt to this you'll never know for for experts on your team that show interest on other fields so you can take every
sure until he/she gets there. chance you get to challenge them on that other field of expertise. The same
benefits discussed apply but mainly you'll end up with a happier project team -
and a happy team is a productive team.

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Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
So if you keep this story on the back of your mind you may do some good to your Quality is all about assurance, not control. Quality includes processes and actions,
current team and... not auditing and finger pointing. And so quality reflects the actions you take to
get your job done (isn't this what a Project Manager does?), not what you do to
...Then you can be a better Project Manager. make sure you did your job well.
Images from http://www.mcescher.com/, http://www.wikipedia.org, ...when no one is looking
http://secondpicture.com, https://psdgraphics.com and
http://reuters.socialpicks.com I have a story to share with you. In fact, Andrew Henderson has a story to share
with you. If you click the link you'll get the full details, but in short: Andrew makes
pipes and he made a mistake on a particular pipe (the pipe in the picture above).
He finished the pipe and simply decided to keep the pipe for himself. Please
Quality is what you do when no one is notice that no one would ever know about his mistake, he didn't have to tell the
buyer about it. So this action of his brings out the this true nature of quality -
looking when no one is looking. (And this is also somehow related to ethics but that's for
another post.) What you do when no one is looking is really what you naturally
Tuesday, November 30, 2010 do, isn't it? And that leads to the quality level you get in the end because there's
no way you have someone watching what you do around the clock. And that is
the lowest standard you'll ever get - or minimum quality.
Yesterday Meredith Bell twitted the
So... is this what you do with your projects? What do you do when you know no
following quote by Henry Ford: "Quality
one is looking?
means doing it right when no one is
looking". I couldn't resist re-twitting it and What does your team? Keep this in mind because if you do...
added "Quality is what you do when no
one is looking". (Hey, I'm quoting myself, ...Then you can be a better Project Manager.
does this count as a quote?) In fact both
share the same meaning and both touch Images from http://hendersonpipes.blogspot.com
what quality is really about.

Quality is what you do...


Is there a need to follow plans?
Friday, December 17, 2010

Page 31
Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
Just yesterday I quoted Eisenhower: "Plans are worthless, but planning is Sorry, I don’t have an answer for you
everything". If you use the PMBOK as guide this may come as chock for you. But
then again, it was Eisenhower who said it not John Doe or some mad man. So I always stick to my planning - with some
should you take this seriously? Was Eisenhower a mad man? Or was he trying to necessary adjustments along the way. But
make a point being provocative? Is there something to learn from this? I have never redone the project plan. In
my case, this has been true for "regular"
A small story to begin with projects - no training or presentations
included.
I used to work as a trainer and back then I was really proud that I didn't usually
follow any of the plans I carefully did for my sessions. It seems I have often been So I’d love to hear from your experience
able to find a way to do something better than what I had initially planned. On on this one. My best guess is that the following can help if you want to have any
one occasion I had to deliver a programming training course to designers. As you good results:
can imagine, programming is not on a designer's top list of interests so I put the
problem to the class. To my surprise, someone in the class suggested that if they  Is it a short term project?
worked on a game that would make things a lot more interesting for them. So in  Is it a dynamic project?
the end, I managed to deliver all the contents I was supposed to deliver, each  Do you have a real team?
group of students on that class had a working Tetris game and we all had a lot of  Do you have a small team?
fun alongside with some stressful moments. Net result? A really positive  Do you have a built in trust relationship with your client?
experience for us all. With no plan to follow or measure performance against -
Is it a short term project?
yes, you read it right...
What makes a training session different from your "regular" project? The first big
Now the question that must be in your mind is: can you do this on a “regular”
difference is that training sessions are very short (one week tops?). I don't know
project? Can you deliberately ignore your initial plan and redo the planning as
exactly why but this makes me feel much more comfortable working without a
you go?
safety net.

Is it a dynamic project?

Meaning, are you working on a project where you actually don’t know what the
end result will be? Imagine a marketing campaign. It often happens that you have
a certain amount of money and time to promote a product but no one has the

Page 32
Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
faintest idea how to do it, sometimes not even what media to use. So I’d imagine small teams can help you pulling out something like this.
it’s easier to re-plan along the way if you have such a project to manage. If you
start planning to have some outdoors and end up with a TV commercial, I’d say Do you have a built in trust relationship with your client?
that redoing the plan is an option.
Suppose you hire someone to this project for your company and when you ask
Do you have a real team? him “When will you deliver?” and you get “I don’t know...” for an answer. Unless
you really trust that person you’d probably find someone else right away to do
If you’re lucky enough to have a group of the project.
people working on your project that (i)
have been working together for some How right was Eisenhower?
time, (ii) work happily together, (iii) are
Planning is everything - it lets you go through all your options, it forces you to
highly productive and (iv) value the
think about what you have to do in order to get things done and makes you think
project deliverables more than their
about your options. And if you think a bit, that's a kind of an Agile approach so it
individual deliverables... well, if this is
isn't all that far fetched - but that is for another post.
your case, I congratulate you (and I maybe
even envy you). Ok, but don’t do it on a regular basis

Anyway, if this is your case I’d imagine it’s much easier to change course in the If you do it on a regular basis you will probably end up just doing stuff that you
middle of the project. But then again, having a real team makes everything much think it contributes to the project success instead of redoing your plan because
easier... you found a much better way to deal with the project.

Do you have a small team? Call for comments

If you redo your plan you have to let your project So what do you think? Are plans really necessary? Can you redo a project plan in
team know about it, to say the very least. So with a the middle of the project? What kind of benefits would you have to get to
project team of 10 people you’ll have a consider redoing a project plan? Please speak your mind, I’d love to hear from
communication problem. If you have a project team you.
of 50 people you’ll have a big problem and probably
a constant head ache. If they are 100 you’ll live in a
nightmare for a while. The larger the team the If you enjoyed this you may also enjoy these related posts:
harder the communication, right? So it looks like

Page 33
Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
 Team players I really hope this doesn’t make any sense to you. It doesn’t make any sense to
 Tom Peters on Personal Management me and this is why I don’t like this phrase. But I do like Christmas - without a
 Bertrand Russel on Innovation Business Case.
 Eisenhower on planning
This may be a clever take on that phrase, but what does it have to do with Project
Images from http://www.careerealism.com, Management?
http://www.christophniemann.com,
Let's start with a story
http://www.graphicdesignblog.org
Well, you may have noticed that not
everything in Project Management is
A Christmas Business Case black and white. Different people have a
different approach towards the world
Friday, December 24, 2010 around, Project Management included.
The phrase "Give to receive in double" can
be someone's preferred phrase and that
doesn't mean I'm right and that someone
“Give to receive in double” is on the top of
is wrong. But even so, there are some
my list of phrases to avoid.
things that are either right or wrong.
It sounds like an investment, doesn’t it?
This may seem obvious but I have a *real* story for you that shows otherwise -
You invest a certain amount and you’ll get
that some people really believe that Project Management really is in black and
double that in return! You could even
white. (I’m not sure of the basic facts like dates and stuff so I’ll ad lib a bit on this
write a Business Case for it easily, as you
*real* story and turn it into my story for this post only). And it goes like this:
have the ROI computed already and all.
Once upon a time there was this company that built airplanes. And they found
And as Christmas is a perfect time to give,
out that their airplanes had some problem that could eventually cause an
you could write a perfect Christmas
airplane to crash. So what did they do? Cost-benefit analysis, of course! They
Business Case, right?
evaluated the cost of calling in all the airplanes and fix the problem. If they didn’t
do it, there was the risk of eventually being forced to pay some compensation to
crash victims and their families. As doing nothing was cheaper, that’s what they
did: nothing.

Page 34
Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
But a plane did crash due to this problem. And somehow the word got out. And
in the end they had to pay a huge amount of money to the victims' families...
...Common sense
Gulp…
Nothing replaces the use of common
The irony of this story... sense. You can do whatever analysis you
want but please review the results before
accepting them. If they put human lives at
risk like in the story above... gosh, doesn’t
...is that their cost-benefit analysis didn’t
that sound fishy to you? Fortunately for
work. The main purpose of this analysis is
most of us project managers our mistakes don’t cost lives. But they always have
to evaluate the impact of doing
a cost. Keep that in mind will you?
something. But...
It's also all too easy to take the wrong conclusions. Keeping the nonsense and
They chose the most expensive scenario...
the irony in this story alive, one could imagine the following lesson learned for
...because they got their premises
the end of this story:
wrong,...
"We should have kept our cost benefit analysis top secret inside the company. If
…did a poor risk assessment... we did so, the company could have saved millions in legal battles".

…and got the wrong results.

Sorry but I couldn't resist the temptation of using a picture from "The book of Bottom line
nonsense" because all this does sound a lot like nonsense.
Project Management isn’t black and
Anyway, although they probably did a very good document explaining all the white. In fact, it is very colorful. So don’t
math and reasoning to support the recommendation to do nothing (that expect some analysis to give you all the
probably ended with a presentation where the decision to do nothing was answers. Do your analysis but please
made), something did go terribly wrong. And that was... review the results before accepting them
as *true*. If you do this, who knows?
Maybe...

…then you could be a better project manager.

Page 35
Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
Wish you a Merry Christmas. are a few Project Management frameworks and methodologies available for
project managers to choose from. And they have to deal with people while trying
If you enjoyed this you may also enjoy these related posts: to make something unique happen for real... If this context doesn’t sound
complex to you I don’t know what will...
 Janis Joplin on Ethics
 Lessons learned from my first "Doing the right thing" project So how can you step into this messy world of Project Management and survive? I
have strongly advised on the use of common sense (check out “Mastering
Files under the same tags: Motivation”, “Team Players” and “A Christmas Business Case”).

 Article But his time I have a new tip for you: the KISS Principle.
 Ethics
KISS stands for Keep It Simple Stupid and
Images from http://www.santadollars.com, http://www.ohdeedoh.com, it follows pretty close Albert Einstein’s
http://thenonsensebooks.com, http://www.freedigitalphotos.net (luigi diamanti) “Make things as simple as possible, but
and http://www.bbc.co.uk not simpler”. Doing things in a simple way
is not always easy, so I have a small list of
things for you to keep in mind.
KISSing Project Management
1. Projects satisfy Visions
Friday, December 31, 2010
First things first, so don’t forget why your project exists. A project is always about
implementing some vision (a business vision, not the hallucinating kind) so be
sure to know what vision started your project and what business need it
Project managers have to know a bit addresses. And it’s never about delivery dates or keeping the project under
about a large set of different subjects, budget - those are important but that’s not why your project exists.
you can pick any topic from Earned Value
Management to Leadership. They have to
have a large set of personal skills, some of
them cannot coexist peacefully together
(can you easily imagine someone being a
visionary and focused on results?). There

Page 36
Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
others however you can: on your project’s lessons learned, on your company's
intranet, on Twitter, on Facebook or whatever makes sense on your particular
2. People make things happen case - but share it.
It’s not the framework you use, not the 5. Don’t go for tags
methodology or the tools. If you’re
managing your project from your closed Don’t go Agile just because it’s the trend on
office with no phone ringing and no one software development. Don’t ignore Scrum just
walking in I’d bet something is really going because you don’t take it seriously - I know
wrong. So start off with a close grip on some people using Scrum on Marketing with a
your stakeholder analysis and your huge success. When you have to make choices,
communication plan. And stay as close as go instead to what looks like it will bring the
you can to your project team. So leave best results and forget what people call it. If
your office and be with people. you think about it, a rolling wave waterfall has
more similarities with a sprint than any other thing I can think off. Strange, isn't
3. Roadblocks it?

Project managers don’t do the project work. They make it possible for the 6. Simple isn’t easy
project team to deliver on time and on budget. So keep an eye on what’s
preventing your team from performing at their top. Risk management plays a big Keeping it simple doesn’t mean it’s easy. So prepare yourself to be bold and
part but so does knowing what your team’s expectations are. brave. Think ahead. And allow yourself some distance to thinks happening. Did
you ever hear that a dog is the best project management tool you can have?
4. Know about Best Practices and avoid them
And to wrap up, I'd love to hear from you and your experience. How important
Knowing about Best Practices allows you do you think the KISS Principle is in Project Management? Do you make an effort
to save a lot of time and so you should to keep things simple?
know what tools are available for you to
use without re inventing the wheel Would you add something to this list?
everyday. But. If you find someway to do
something in a simpler way, go for it! And If you enjoyed this you may also enjoy these related posts:
add it to your toolbox. And share it with
 Mastering Motivation

Page 37
Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
 Team Players
 A Christmas Business Case
 Meet the most wanted Project Management tool: the dog!

Filed under the same tags:

 Article
 PM basics

Images from http://www.coolmath.com/, http://dryicons.com,


http://www.nri.ucsb.edu and http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/

Page 38
Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
Peter Drucker on Time
Quotes Monday, June 28, 2010

Machiavelli on Change Management


Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is
Thursday, June 24, 2010 managed nothing else can be managed.

Peter Drucker (1909-2005), Austrian born writer and


management consultant

It must be considered that there is nothing


more difficult to carry out nor more
doubtful of success nor more dangerous to
handle than to initiate a new order of
Victor Borge on teams
things.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Niccolò Machiavelli (1446-1507), Italian Laughter is


statesman and philosopher, in "The Prince". the shortest distance between two people.

Victor Borge (1909-2000), Danish comedian,


conductor and pianist, affectionately known as The
Clown Prince of Denmark, The Unmelancholy Dane,
and The Great Dane

Page 39
Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
driver, one of the most successful Americans in the history of the sport.

Arthur C. Clarke on Risk


Saturday, July 3, 2010 Spider Man on Leadership
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Clarke's Second Law: The only way of
discovering the limits of the possible is to
venture a little way past them into the
impossible.
With great power,
there must also come great responsibility.
Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008), British
science fiction author, inventor, and
futurist
In "Amazing Fantasy #15". Spider Man (1962-), fictional
Marvel Comics superhero first published on "Amazing
Mario Andretti on Control Fantasy" on August 1962

Monday, July 5, 2010

If everything seems under control, you're just not going


fast enough.

Mario Andretti (1940-), Italian-American automobile racing

Page 40
Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
Albert Einstein on the human factor Bertrand Russell on Innovation
Monday, July 26, 2010 Friday, September 17, 2010

I believe in intuition and inspiration.


Imagination is more important than
knowledge. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every
For knowledge is limited, opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
whereas imagination embraces the
entire world.

In "A Liberal Decalogue", from "The Best Answer


In "Cosmic Religion: With Other
to Fanaticism: Liberalism," The New York Times
Opinions and Aphorisms", 1931. Albert
(1951-12-16). Bertrand Russel (1872-1970),
Einstein (1879-1955), German born
British philosopher, logician, mathematician,
theoretical physicist, philosopher and
historian, socialist, pacifist, and social critic.
author.

Tom DeMarco on Control Tom Peters on Personal Management


Monday, September 27, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010

Life is too short for non-WOW projects.


You can't control what you can't measure.

In "Controlling Software Projects, Management


Measurement & Estimation". Tom DeMarco (1940-), In "The Project 50 (Re-Inventing Work Series". Tom Peters
American software engineer, author, teacher and (1942-), American writer on business management
speaker on software engineering topics. practices.

Page 41
Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
Abraham Lincoln on Personal Janis Joplin on ethics
Management Monday, December 13, 2010

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Don't compromise yourself.


You are all you've got.
I have found that most people are about as happy
as they make up their minds to be.

Janis Joplin (1943-1970), American singer,


In "How to Get What You Want" by Orison songwriter and music arranger.
Marden. Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), the 16th
President of the United States.

Eisenhower on planning
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Seth Godin on Marketing
Plans are worthless,
Saturday, December 11, 2010
but planning is everything.

Marketing is actually what other people are saying about


in the speech to the National Defense Executive
you.
Reserve Conference in Washington, D.C. on
in "The appearance of impropriety", posted on Dec., 9th on
November 14th, 1957. Dwight D. Eisenhower was
Seth Godin's blog. Seth Godin (1960-) is an American
the 34th President of the United States and he
entrepreneur, author and public speaker. Godin popularized
the topic of permission marketing.

Page 42
Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II London School of Economics best known for his over 60 plays.

Lewis Caroll on Planning Carl Sagan on Qualty (and everything)


Sunday, December 19, 2010 Sunday, December 26, 2010

If you don't know where you are going, With insufficient data it is easy to go wrong.
any road will get you there.

in "Cosmos", 1980. Carl Sagan (1934-1996),


American astronomer, astrophysicist, author,
in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". Lewis Carroll cosmologist, and highly successful popularizer of
(1832–1898), English author, mathematician, logician, astronomy, astrophysics and other natural sciences.
Anglican deacon and photographer.

If you enjoyed this you may also enjoy these related posts:

George Bernard Shaw on Communication  Quality is what you do when no one is looking

Thursday, December 23, 2010

The single biggest problem in communication


is the illusion that it has taken place.

quoted from the "Leadership Skills for Managers"


(2000) by Marlene Caroselli. George Bernard Shaw
(1856-1950), Irish playwright and a co-founder of the

Page 43
Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
The Irish on Leadership
Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Nodding the head does not row the boat.

An Irish saying.

If you enjoyed this you may also enjoy these related posts:

 Learning from examples


 Mastering Motivation
 Spiderman on Leadership
 Developing Leadership Skills

Page 44
Ah-Ha-Moments Yearbook 2010
Contents Arthur C. Clarke on Risk .................................................................................... 40
Mario Andretti on Control ................................................................................ 40

About this Yearbook ................................................................................................ 2 Spider Man on Leadership ................................................................................ 40

Articles .................................................................................................................... 3 Albert Einstein on the human factor ................................................................ 41

Project Management and Change Management................................................ 3 Tom DeMarco on Control ................................................................................. 41

Meet the most wanted Project Management tool: the dog! ............................. 5 Bertrand Russell on Innovation ........................................................................ 41
Project Management? Yeah, I do that too ......................................................... 6 Tom Peters on Personal Management ............................................................. 41

Developing leadership skills ................................................................................ 9 Abraham Lincoln on Personal Management .................................................... 42

Working for a better good ................................................................................ 13 Seth Godin on Marketing .................................................................................. 42

It's all about interests, not positions ................................................................ 17 Janis Joplin on ethics ......................................................................................... 42
Lessons learned from my first "Doing the right thing" project ......................... 20 Eisenhower on planning ................................................................................... 42
Mastering Motivation ....................................................................................... 25 Lewis Caroll on Planning ................................................................................... 43

Learning from examples ................................................................................... 26 George Bernard Shaw on Communication ....................................................... 43


Team players..................................................................................................... 28 Carl Sagan on Qualty (and everything) ............................................................. 43

Quality is what you do when no one is looking ................................................ 31 The Irish on Leadership ..................................................................................... 44

Is there a need to follow plans? ....................................................................... 31


A Christmas Business Case ................................................................................ 34
KISSing Project Management............................................................................ 36
Quotes ................................................................................................................... 39
Machiavelli on Change Management ............................................................... 39
Peter Drucker on Time ...................................................................................... 39
Victor Borge on teams ...................................................................................... 39

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