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Your recovery gets more attention than your mistakes

February 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

When you’ve promised to deliver something, you’re expected to come through. Your project is expected to be on-time, on-budget, and meet spec.

It’s expected to be what was discussed, including everything that was listed, negotiated, and agreed upon. Not only that, it’s expected that you’ll deliver all those things that were not discussed explicitly. All the things imagined in what was thought to be a complete meeting of the minds.

There’s always a grey area, and that can be the toughest part to deliver on. Which is why communication is such a crucial element in any initiative.

Things go wrong

And still, things go wrong. It’s almost inevitable. There is an unexpected challenge, a tricky problem, something that wasn’t discussed thoroughly enough, or some other snafu along the way.

The thing is, something goes wrong in almost any endeavor. As much as good intentions, clear communications, thorough checklists and best practices tries to avoid problems, they crop up. So, often, people aren’t expecting there to be an absence of problems. But when they arise, they do expect you to deal with them swiftly, adeptly, and completely.

The pivot

How you’re going to get to the goal just changed, but the goal hasn’t moved. In the parlance of startup companies, this is called the pivot. You remain focused on your mission, but evolve your strategy to find a new way to achieve it.

Chances are your setbacks won’t be that dramatic, but the lesson applies. And that’s really the thing people are watching.

What do you do in a difficult situation? Do you look for scapegoats and contract clauses and other ways to find excuses or share blame?

Or do you focus on charting a new path to success?

Do you rally others to the cause? Do you display creativity, resourcefulness, and competence? Are you honest and direct?

Those are the questions others are wondering about you when this happens, and they should serve as the guide to your response.

Photo credit: KJ Pane

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Plan of attack

January 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

As you dive into your next project, what is your plan of attack? How do you intend to approach the various challenges?

Adjusting your attitude, focal points, and formulating specific intentions will go a long way in defining your level of success with the initiative.

How are you going to measure the project, other team members, and yourself?

Not just for team leaders

Whether you are the leader or play another role on the team, you should consider your personal agenda. What is your personal plan of attack? What do you want to learn from the experience? What sort of contribution do you intend to make? What kind of impact do you want to have?

If you’re on the team, you have a responsibility that you can’t shake. And it’s not finding excuses for why you, others, or the team can’t be successful. It’s to figure out the way that you, others, and the team will be successful despite the challenges you face.

A team of personal responsibility

Good teams share distribute responsibility widely. If everyone takes a personal stake, and everyone works to develop a good plan of attack, the project will have a much better chance for success.

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What makes you stand out? Taking Initiative

January 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

If you want to stand out, to rise above the crowd in a busy workplace – take initiative.

Ambiguity is opportunity.

Work is messy, particularly nowadays. Less people are doing more stuff. Pressure is rising on everyone. New tools and technologies confuse and complicate matters. Lots of things need to be figured out – that’s an opportunity for you.

If you can bring definition to things, if you can introduce some clarity, if you can assemble fragments and set a direction, then you are leading. And work today needs more leaders, not less.

The reduction (or absence) of repetitive tasks and clear instructions can cause a bit of consternation. You can react in two ways – wait, or act. Acting is always better.

You don’t need to be a bull in a china shop. You don’t need to become a rogue player. You just need to do something that most people don’t – take responsibility for moving the ball forward.

Notice: you need to take initiative and take responsibility. Don’t wait for it to be given to you. That’s how you stand out.

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Project Management and Project Leadership

January 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Are you managing or leading?

A question worth pondering as you embark on your next project.

Project management is about meeting spec. The bulk of the work is in aligning resources, coordinating tasks, and reporting on progress. All crucial to getting work done. For this you need good followers on your team.

Project leadership is about creating a vision, guiding principles, and inspiring others to act (creatively). On this team, you’ll need more leaders. Leave room for others to step up, and create an environment that encourages them to do so.

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The strongest players make the whole team stronger

December 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Having an exceptional team member is a huge advantage, when that team member works in service of the team.

A lone renegade, no matter how good, can really hurt the team. Morale, enthusiasm, and quality diminish in the face of the sharp shooter who doesn’t care for the team, except to encourage their appreciation for his skills and talent.

A strong individual that is a team player, however, can boost a team to new heights. A strong player who is serious, focused, energized and committed – but humble and helpful – is an asset like none other. This attitude will get the individual and the team much further along by raising everyone’s game, boosting morale, and increasing the quality of the output – and the pride of everyone involved.

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Talking about failure before your project starts

December 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment

An interesting idea: the premortem.

As you prepare to launch your next project, imagine all the ways it could fail. And then figure out how you can best avoid those failures.

You won’t be able to anticipate everything, of course. But posing the question this way to your team may provoke some interesting thought. And maybe it’ll uncover more than the typical exercise of identifying the critical factors for success.

Photo credit: Kevin Jarrett

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Picture This

November 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A picture is worth a thousand words. So is a drawing, sometimes.

Sketching out an idea is a really good way to get something out of your head and in a format that can be more easily communicated to others.

Sometimes it’s the only way to convey something complex or technical.

Sometimes the idea and the drawing are very simple – but sketching it out makes it more real, more concrete.

Group Discussions

The person who steps up to the whiteboard in a meeting immediately gains clout. Daring to scribble and draw in front of others (something children do constantly and without hesitation), makes it seem like you must really know what you’re talking about. It can establish you as the thought leader in the room.

Sure, there will always be those who prefer to sit back and comment. They’re in an easy position to judge or criticize, but that whiteboard setup comes with an eraser – it’s easy to make changes on the fly. And the first mover to the board always has the advantage of being seen as a leader.

In fact, you are the leader of shaping that idea when you’re doing the drawing. You decide the shape, size and flow of the diagram and how to represent everyone else’s input.

Drawing Conclusions

Whether alone or in a group, shape your ideas with a sketch every now and then. Build a habit of thinking and communicating visually. You’ll help yourself and others by making things clearer and more concrete. It’ll be easier to get feedback, make changes, and synthesize ideas.

And it’s easy. Kids do it all the time.

Photo credit: Yandle

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Taking Action: 12 Children Get A Free 20-Week Computer Programming Course

November 21, 2011 By 5 Comments

One of the challenges even great speakers face is moving people to action. Great conferences full of great speakers can provide a lot of inspiration. Attendees are happy to spend the time and money on a good conference if they can get just a few “take aways.”

Everybody wants action, but it can be frustratingly rare.

Doing something for others

Alexis Ohanian, founder of the poular web site Reddit.com, got some quick action during his keynote address at the recent Business of Software conference in Boston – by moving others to act to help others.

His challenge: Tweet how you would make the world suck less with software. The winner, chosen by event organizers, gets a MacBook Air.

The winning tweets were the un-selfish ones.

Dharmesh is the founder of another very successful company. He didn’t need or want the prize. Richard’s idea tied in nicely with Dharmesh’s goal, but he didn’t want the prize either.

Action!

Enter Noel Clarke. He stepped up to bring these generous ideas into action, with a generous move of his own.

Noel reached out to the Lincoln School in Melrose, MA and offerred to teach a programming course to 5th grade students. So the school is getting a MacBook Air – and Noel is launching an early morning computer club that he will run for 20 weeks.

Following a curriculum designed by MIT, the course will shepherd young newbie programmers through the development of games, interactive stories, music and animation applications using the Scratch platform (also developed by MIT).

Originally limited to 8 students, Noel has since decided to allow all 12 applicants into the course.

Interview

I’m fortunate enough to know Noel, and doubly fortunate that one of my daughters will be taking this course (she’s pretty excited and has downloaded and started working with the Scratch software already). When I found out about all of this, I wanted to ask him a few questions and share this story. Hopefully it will inspire others to also take action.

What inspired you to step up and offer your time and expertise?
I have been thinking about teaching my daughter Abigail (4th Grade at the Lincoln School) about computer programming… and when Alexis Ohanian challanged the audience to do something that makes the world suckless it felt like the two ideas connected.

How hard was it to get the school on board with this idea?
Getting the school to agree was practically the easiest part – The Principal of the Lincoln School Brent Conway agreed after a simple email, and we had one face-to-face meeting where we discussed the details.

How long did it take from the moment this idea was popped into your head until the flyer was printed and kids were signing up?
It took two days! I sent an email to Mr. Conway on October 28 and by October 31st we met and agreed on the details.

What is your advice to others who want to make something like this happen?
As the twitter hashtag says #JFDI – “Just F’ing Do It!”

So there you have it. From idea to action in no time. Now, 12 children learn something new and useful. And maybe they become inspired to do more.

Who do you know taking action?

What can you do?

Photo credit: Horia Valran

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Avoiding Best Practices

November 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Best practices represent the tried and true, the state of the art. Best practices are what the collective efforts of many have determined to be the best way to do something.

Best practices are solid, reliable, optimized, and valuable. But they are not innovative.

You’ll have to chart your own course if you want to be innovative.

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Checking References

November 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Before purchasing and adopting a new system, it’s a good idea to do some due diligence. Vendor-led demonstrations and even trial installations can only tell you so much.

The best information is going to come from someone else who has already adopted the system and has been actually using it for a while.

Affirmation

The trouble, of course, is that the vendor will certainly steer you toward their best and happiest customers. Those customers make the best references (for the vendor).

Another challenge is that we all like to feel that we have made the right decision. So, the references you’re speaking with who have made a commitment to adopting the system are driven to be consistent with that decision. Things get rationalized, so you need to be prepared to dig a little deeper to get a well-rounded opinion from them.

Key Questions

1. Who are your most recent customers?

One key question for the vendor is to ask for references who have most recently adopted the system. While their commitment to consistency may be strong (since they just made the purchasing decision), the experience of the transition will be fresh in their minds. It’s a different perspective and one you should actively seek out.

2. What have been your disappointments?

A key question for the reference is to ask about disappointments. Surely there are things that didn’t work as promised and things that didn’t go as planned. These things are not often offerred up immediately – not because references are trying to hide anything, but because it’s natural to de-emphasize these things in our minds as part of rationalizing our decisions. Asking directly will surface these items, and these are the things you need to hear most.

3. What would you do differently?

A great question, particularly for the reference who have most recently adopted the system, is “what would you do differently?” Learning is part of every project – particularly systems rollouts. And there are always things that could be done better, realities that were uncovered only through the experience of doing the project. This is the stuff you want to capture. It will be most useful to you should you go forward with the implementation yourself. And people are always willing to share these insights – it puts them into a consulting role, a rare opportunity to share the experience and the insights they have just learned but will likely not have an opportunity to use again.

Ask and Share

Ask the right questions and you’ll get good information from references. And remember to share the same insights – the “bad” stuff along with the good – when you’re asked to be a reference. The disappointments and things you’d do differently don’t automatically jump to mind when you’re in reference mode, but these are probably some of the most useful pieces of information you can share.

What are your reference checking strategies?

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