Iteration is Best

We're on one side or another...iteration or long range planning. Which do you prefer?

I prefer iterations of no more than 4 weeks. I'm not the Almightly and no matter how much experience one has at managing projects, I cannot imagine and would not dare to presume that I can predict everything and understand every risk - no matter how fantastic the team is. Why not guarantee success through shorter iterations?

In order to create a heathy and manageable plan with a greater probability of success, consider breaking your project down into phases that can be completed quickly and then blast through them using lessons learned from the previous phase and current "right now" information. Once you try it a few times, get your systems in place and operations in check, I bet this style will become your preference.

Another consideration is that teams will remain on board and motivated because of the frequency of team planning meetings - more involvement in the planning, more often throughout the entire project. Like mini hits of project success - not just milestones.

More action and involvement during the trip makes the trip more interesting, and that makes it seem like a shorter trip! Ask my son, he loves our road trips.

Super Human Practical Management

During the last several days, I've been in conversations where the other party has used the term "super human" - which in and of itself isn't necessarily unusual, except that I had been thinking of the term just as the other party said it.

Maybe I'm psychic? HA! Wouldn't that be nice?!!

Got me thinking though...from a project manager's perspective, being super human means being on top of everything all the time, keeping our eye on the ball while watching and managing all the wee details. Come to think of it, it's exactly the same as being a Mom.

Now, being super human certainly doesn't mean that we are not apt to making mistakes. We all do, no matter what role we're playing. However, when we gather as much information as possible (chrystal-clear scope and absolute stakeholder requirements, for example), pull together the most appropriate team, communicate effectively with the best intentions / assuming the best intentions, having identified and planned risks, and then roll with the punches...you are guarantee success. Really. Think about it. Even the best laid plans, with the most experienced teams and leaders, have failed - some miserably. What went wrong then? Well...maybe we aren't gods, maybe we're just super humans trying to be gods.

Project management is no guarantee - it raises the probability of success. Maybe we should start calling it Practical Management instead?

It is interesting to me that the value of project management is now being studied. In some cases, even in projects that 'fail' from a product output perspective, when the team is managed respectfully and is engaged throughout, and processes are managed appropriately, everyone considers the project a success.

Of course, they weren't managing the corporate budget! HA!

Strategic Thinkers

Strategy was once defined as "the art of planning and directing large military movements..." In business, a strategy clearly shouldn't be about managing miltary, but rather about how you will (in a friendly way!) bring your product to life, get it all done and still be home for a hot meal once in a while.

Strategic thinkers are big picture thinkers and tend to have particular qualities: they enjoy being part of a team, they see problems as opportunities, they balance short and long-term goals, they stay calm in crisis and unexpected events, and are generally very good communicators. The difference between analytical thinkers and strategic thinkers is that the latter moves from analysis into action. We've all heard of "analysis paralysis". Strategic thinkers also tend to be one step ahead, great forecasters and quite often accurate in their predictions - perhaps due to "fall off, get back up and do it again" experience! A strategic thinker will incorporate processes and never, ever reinvent the wheel. In fact, the first question when embarking on a new project is always "who has done this before and should I get in touch with them?!"

So...we've just arrived in Oliver to spend a few days with family, eat more than usual and relax (ie, sleep on the dock all day until the next trough-run). During the drive up I got to thinking about 'thinking'. My husband jokes about the fact that I don't have an "off" switch - I am in fact always 'on'. I like thinking, strategizing, juggling and figuring. For me, life is much more interesting when I'm wiggling strategy into managing my way through more than I can handle. I am very left-brained, but find that I am actually tapping into my right brain (creativity) when I'm strategizing. Who said I couldn't paint!

Perhaps you could try: life as a project. For starters, break your professional daytime into units (I use 1 hour blocks). Each unit will now have a value depending on what I'm working on; revenue-generating activities (ie, bigger value), dreaded filing or invoicing, professional volunteering, networking, refreshing my education, etc. If you think of time in units you're able to quickly distinguish the real value of each activity, which makes delegating tasks much easier and gives you the freedom to focus on activities that require your expertise. At the end of the day, you have strategically (maybe unknowingly!) aligned your activities with your business plan and have likely experienced less subjectivity and more efficiency (this translates into less emotion and more energy). Life is supposed to be easy.