Finding new ways to serve your profession

After record participation, five new directors were elected to the Board of Southern New England Chapter of PMI, include none other than yours truly. I will serve in this position for the next two years.

I volunteer and take leadership roles in PMI (Project Management Institute), because I believe that Project Management is the profession that makes a difference in our world. Better managed projects take us from daily firefighting into controlled management of our futures. We are making project management indispensable for business results and Project Management is a noble profession.

What are you doing to serve your profession? How are you sharing your expertise, experience and scars with other people so that they can be more successful? Have you offered to mentor anyone in the recent past?

Sailing The Sound - Excursion 1 of 2009

Yesterday I was out sailing with two very experienced sailors on the good ship Asterix. If you are not familiar with Asterix, then take a few minutes to research him. He embodies the spirit of everyone who chooses to stand and fight for what is right.

Asterix and his village defied the Roman Empire and resisted all attempts to become part of the mighty Roman Empire. Similarly, the good ship Asterix stands symbolizes the spirit of those of us who steadfastly stand and fight to make a difference in little ways in our worlds every day.

While we were out on the perfect sailing day, we crossed paths (or would that be wakes?) with the good ship Amistad. See the short video clip of the Amistad with sails up.

We also crossed paths with a large tanker that changed course after we changed course to avoid it, requiring us to tack again. Believe me, it is a lot larger and travelling much faster than appears from this photo. No matter who has the right of way -sailboat or tanker - logic dictates that you keep your eyes open and move out of the way of large tankers as soon as you can.

Measuring Success

This week I was talking with a colleague. I commented that my calender was free of meetings for the day and that I was focusing my efforts on preparing for a significant project meeting. My colleague was surprised to learn that I did not have any meetings for the day.

He asked how this could happen. I said "I don't know. Perhaps due to intelligent prioritization, my excellent time management skills or as result of decades of project management experience?"

My colleague totally missed the point and said "Well I have meetings all day. I will invite you to some of them."

This is a common problem. We default to measuring success by activity not by results achieved. We see people actively attending meetings and assume that projects are progressing. We measure success by the number of meetings attended, which is a meaningless metric. It takes more effort to identify the results you are working towards and then measure progress towards those results than it does to observe the number of meetings that you attend.

This is no excuse for professional project managers. Activity does not indicate progress. You need to manage your time wisely and stay focused on achieving results while deflecting meeting invitations that do not require your presence. Your time is a limited resource - don't waste it.

I should to this

The "shoulds" and "should nots" are enormous biggest mental blocks. I hear people saying that "I should do this", which is usually followed by "but, ..."

Some people seem to act first, get right to the heart of the matter, without thinking that there are "shoulds" and "should nots". What is stopping your from acting on your "shoulds". Is it because they are not your "shoulds"?

When we "should" do something, we are usually not living our own lives. We are living according to someone else's standards and to please them.

Every time that you think "I should do this", stop and answer the question "Why should I do this?"

If you don't have a good answer, then perhaps you have just liberated yourself from another "should".

The one question you should never ask a bureaucrat

There is one question that you should never ask a bureaucrat. Whether you are standing in line at the DMV and fuming about the paper work, or staring down an electronic "request for service" from a different department in corporate America, never, ever ask this question.

You do not want to hear the answer to this question. The form that you are filling out was created by a bureaucrat. Bureaucrats get up in the morning to craft and fine tune processes, procedures and forms. They stand tall with each new invention, irrespective of the effectiveness it brings.

Never ask a bureaucrat this question: "Could you be more anal?"

You will not like the answer.

SNEC-PMI Conference - Day 2

Today was an absolute blast at the SNEC-PMI conference. Toni Newman kicked off the day, with a dynamic, entertaining and memorable keynote.

Now that I have seen more Toastmasters club speeches, conference speakers and speaking contests to know that I don't need to see another one, I have become more critical of speakers. I have also come to learn that when a speaker's bio includes words such as "entertaining, dynamic, enthusiastic, memorable", then the speaker usually isn't. I have learned through hard experience that if a speaker is entertaining, dynamic and memorable, then their bio does not include these words.

Well, Toni's bio does not need any of these descriptions. Toni is awesome. Toni rocks. She is by far the best keynote speaker we have had so far at our annual convention.

If I were to describe Toni's keynote address, it would include the following memorable points:
1. She climbed a ladder on stage, and referred back to it during the speech.
2. Her story of Stephan, the waiter, had us all laughing.
3. We felt the sand under our feet as we walked on the beach in her description of the beach.
4. We laughed when she found herself in the men's bathroom and had to take a decision on how to exit the bathroom.
5. I don't anyone will forget the activity when we learned to answer the question "Why? Why Not?"
6. She walked into the audience and engaged the audience throughout the keynote. Talk about audience interaction par excellence!

Unfortunately, the other general session speakers were, well, uhmm, not as good. (I walked out when a speaker asked me to share my personal goals with other people in the room. This is about as amateurish as "turn and hug your neighbor")

The breakout sessions that I attended were fabulous.

Overall, it was again a great conference and I am amazed at how much work can be accomplished by volunteers. This whole conference is put together by volunteers under the leadership of a volunteer project manager. This is the power of project management when applied under the servant - leadership of a passionate project manager. Kudo's to SNEC-PMI. I am honored and proud to be part of SNEC-PMI.