Everyday Project Management

Over the past week I’ve seen several cars with “We Believe” painted in their back window. I am assuming this refers to the belief in that jolly guy from the North Pole who flies through the night with a sleigh pulled by reindeer to deliver presents worldwide. It got me thinking, why not spend as much time and energy this season in improving a belief in ourselves to achieve the challenges before us? I’ve been in business 21 years - time after time, when I’m faced with challenges, I’ve had to dig down deep into my own internal sense of self, reestablish the base of my strengths to find the path up the next mountain. I’ve been blogging about these concepts this entire week:

Leverage your strengths to pursue opportunities - see the Creating Meaningful Work posting.
Create value from your unique differences - see the Standing Out from the Crowd posting.
Find the opportunity from adversity - see the Concerned About Keeping or Getting a Job in Today’s Environment posting.

In this “Believe in Yourself” day, that we are dedicating to helping others harness a belief in themselves to pursue their life’s challenges, my Cheetah Team and I have created a number of fun activities (for participating we have selected several courses you can take for free that will help you enhance your capabilities to climb that next mountain in your life):

1. Share your own story of how a belief in yourself helped you rise to a challenge in your life. On December 19, 2008 we will pick a winner. The winner will get a free 60 PDU course or a free PMP Online Exam Prep course. Just for participating, you will find out how you can take our Cheetah Action Project or PM of Weightloss online courses for half price.

Share Your Story.

2. Participate in our survey to learn how you and others improve a belief in yourself. Just for participating, you will learn how you can take our free 1 PDU online course called Believe to Achieve.

Take our Survey

3. Download our Free Believe In Yourself assessment to develop the base from which to chart the path up the next mountain in your life. By completing the assessment, you will learn how to take a free 2 PDU online course called PM Myth Buster - where you explore the common myths facing project managers today and how to move past them. You will also get an offer for 50% off two of our most popular and newest online classes: Project Prosperity and Cheetah Family Office.

Download the Free Believe in Yourself Assessment

4. Listen to our Believe In Yourself Podcast where Michelle LaBrosse and Bryne Edwards share their ideas of how to use a deep understanding of your own capabilities to overcome risks and thrive where others see adversity. For listening, you will learn how to take our 20 PDU online course Cheetah Family Office for free.

Listen to our Believe in Yourself Podcast

WE BELIEVE IN YOU, DO YOU?

My friend Joy Baldridge gave me Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers - the Story of Success. FANTASTIC read. He talks about what makes work meaningful - autonomy, complexity, and a link between effort and reward. It’s not about the money - yes we all have to make a living. It’s better for your overall well being though to take the lower paying job that gives you more meaningful work than to take the high paying job of repetitive labor with no autonomy where you are shut down at any turn for innovation and effort. It is by paying your dues with the lower paying work where you develop meaning (and skills) for your life, where the opportunities for significant advancement arise.

For the past four months, I have been advocating that we all learn how to leverage our four sources of capital as a way to muscle past the current worldwide credit crisis. By leveraging your four sources of capital - you will be creating more meaning in your life. You will be creating the tools that can help you thrive in any environment. Here are some examples of how to better develop and leverage your four sources of capital:

Social Capital - this is your relationships. How do you build good relationships? CARE about others. Find opportunities for them to be successful. Be grateful for how others help you. If people slight you, forgive them FAST. Grudges make you old, mean, and slow. I like to apply two of the four agreements here - don’t take things personally and don’t make assumptions. Most of us judge others by their behavior and ourselves by our intent. Reverse that and you will have relationships that stand the test of time.

Knowledge Capital - this is what you know and how you can use it. How do you build your knowledge capital? Do what you love and do it and do it and do it. Practice makes perfect. Gladwell points out in his Outlier’s book that for people to rise to any level of success in a field, they have to have at least 10,000 hours of practice in what it is they are doing. If you are doing what you love to do, that 10,000 hours goes by in the blink of an eye. Also, learn how to learn - the faster you can learn, the faster you can change. When you get to the level of mastery in what you love, the learning happens effortlessly and often. You will then start to find the opportunities all over the place to apply what it is you have mastered to help others every place you turn.

Brand Capital - this is your credentials and your reputation. How do you build your brand capital? This is where I live by the other two of the four agreements - Be impeccable with your word and always do your best. Word of mouth of your capabilities is the best endorsement you can get. Yes you have to get the requisite credentials in any field you want to go into. But credentials will only get you in the door. To keep finding open doors, your reputation needs to be rock solid for being able to deliver on what others need from you. This is where I find being great at doing projects comes in especially handy.

Operating Capital - this is your infrastructure for delivering value to others. If you rely on your car to get to locations where you create value for others, you better make sure you keep that car in good working order. The same of your computer systems, your internet connections, anything you need to keep yourself operational. Over time you can create more infrastructure to create more value - but that takes time and maintenance. Only create and maintain that which you truly need to create value for others. For example, when I started my company, I thought I needed bricks and mortar - at one point in time I had six training centers. These did not create value commensurate with their cost. Now my company is essentially virtual. I have one small training center in a city where it is the more cost effective route than using public venues. We still create tremendous value for our students, my team is much happier working virtually, and my overhead and risk is way down. My main infrastructure is my web system that enables me to support my business worldwide. We take extremely good care of that and are very vigilant in it’s performance and upkeep.

For more information on how to create meaningful work, check out my free downloads.

Well this subject line could be taken several different ways.

The first meaning is the one similar to you’re standing out in the rain. Well who wants to do that. EXACTLY. Who the heck wants to be standing out in any crowd. Why not avoid the crowd, and follow your own path?

The second meaning is making yourself apparant in a sea of similar people. Really, I’ve always preferred to be a big fish in a little pond than to be a little fish in a big pond. And consider this, I was reading something on the decline of the big recording companies about six months ago. It appears that all a band needs to make bank is to have about 10,000 fans. And they can do that today simply in the age of the internet and social media. We all have extremely unique attributes - things about us that make us vastly different than anyone else on the planet.

Think about what makes you different than anyone else?

Where will that difference be most useful?

For me, it started when I was in high school - I loved science and math but I was very much of a people person. I was not your standard “engineering” type I was told over and over again. My Dad even said in one college interview that he had no idea why I really wanted to go into engineering as I was much better at psychology. The person interviewing me said - well Mr. LaBrosse, in engineering we need people people too. I think your daughter will find a welcome home in this field.

Being a people person who can swim well in both worlds - extreme engineering, and the extreme people skills required of being a CEO has served me extremely well. Yes I am a bit odd and I don’t quite fit in either camp very well - but it has helped me create some incredible products, business ideas and make a big impact on the world.

I figure there are now over 6 billion people on the planet - I certainly don’t need or want all of them to love me. I’m happy with just helping a million people here and there with my Cheetah Learning courses and free tools. Luckily I’m young as I still have a ways to go to hit the million person mark. I’m getting closer though as about half a million people have downloaded my free tools and I’ve had about 10% of those become my students and stay around to be on my mailing list.

But I didn’t do this overnight. I was reading in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outlier book that for anyone to achieve a level of mastery, they need to put about 10,000 hours into mastering their craft. I’ve been at this business building schtick for 21 years now. I’ve devoted over 200 hours per month to building my craft as an entrepreneur, business owner, marketer, project manager, accelerated learning specialist. I live, sleep, and eat my business - it isn’t work to me, it is what I love. So spending 50,400 + hours doing that has created one heck of an existence.

Become the big fish in your own little pond - check out my free downloads.

I’ve been in business since 1987 and have weathered wide fluctuations in both the external economy and my own internal economy. I realized about ten years ago that it really just doesn’t matter what is going on in the external economy - what matters far more is what is going on in my internal economy. I also realized that there was only one person responsible for what was happening with my internal economy - ME.

What I do do - look at the external environment and figure out how to capitalize on it with my internal environment (those things I control)- regardless of the label that is being placed on it at the time. I look at:

1. What are the right goals for me to be pursuing at this time? Running a thriving business requires that I know when to hold them and when to fold them. When the external environment changes, I change.
2. How can I help other people succeed in the current climate? The more I can help other people find success, the more success I find. And what people consider success is different in different times.
3. Are the financial commitments I have made still the right thing for me to be doing? This has far more to do with the lifestyle I want to lead than anything else. Yes, some decisions made a lot of sense at the time they were made - however as the winds of change blow through life, they may not make that much sense anymore.
4. Do my definitions for my own success still make sense for who I am and who I want to be now? As I move through life, what drives a feeling of success changes. It just doesn’t make sense for me to keep pushing to achieve a level of success that just doesn’t suit who I am anymore.
5. Am I using the money in my life in the best way that will generate more money? This requires that I am able to evaluate opportunities quickly for the best return on investment.
6. How can I best leverage my four key sources of capital - social (relationships), knowledge (skills), brand (reputation), and operating (my existing infrastructure)? I actually love tough economic times whether they are external or internal as it makes me much more creative and aggressive. I make the most money by leveraging these four sources of capital when it’s tough for everyone else to get money.
7. Where in my life are things working great? I learned a long time ago that whatever is meant to be happens easily. If something is just too hard for me to do, it means I’m not supposed to be doing it.

I created several free downloads that explain how to implement these concepts. Capitalize on Recession Downloads.

I realize that many people are very scared right now because of the uncertainty of our times. What helps me get back to the steady state condition where “bliss” is actually possible is thinking about all the ways that I can build bliss into my life. Here is my top ten list of how to build an enduring state of bliss. (who wants to be happy just for a few fleeting moments - I prefer to lead a blissful existence.)

1. Completing projects fast to get the value of what is created builds bliss.
2. Picking the right projects to pursue build bliss.
3. Working well with other people on a common goal builds bliss.
4. Helping other people achieve their dreams builds bliss.
5. Doing something meaningful builds bliss.
6. Setting it up so everybody wins builds bliss.
7. Enjoying the company of others who are also fully engaged in their life projects builds bliss.
8. Creating new ways of meeting goals builds bliss.
9. Taking time to appreciate a completed project builds bliss.
10. Knowing that what we set out to achieve, we can achieve, builds bliss.

I have a bunch of free tools that can help you create a more blissful existence too.

Tools to Create an Enduring State of Bliss

What is the number one way to get or keep your job in today’s environment? I run a company that employs directly and indirectly about 200 people. Like every operation out there today, we have to be incredibly creative and focused on delivering real value to our customers. The people who we can afford to keep employed are the ones who can create real and measurable value TODAY, and EVERYDAY. It is no longer about your future potential, the home run you hit yesterday, your popularity or your abilities at political maneuvering that will keep you employed. Real results that bring in revenue now is what will make you invaluable. Here is how you do this:

1. Go after the projects that will show a very fast and measurable return on investment. If you need to learn an effective project management technique that will help you achieve outstanding results that doesn’t require you to spend hundreds of dollars on difficult to learn software, check out www.cheetahpm.com. You can be operational and effective with this method in less than two days.

2. Get your job done for the least cost possible. If you have resources that are not cost effective or have lost the value they once produced - cut them before someone tells you to cut them. You will be seen as being proactive with the best interests of the operation in mind. You can get some great deals right now, especially if you know how to use effective negotiation techniques. Take the Cheetah Negotiations course and you will quickly master the skills to get the most of every negotiation where both parties win.

3. Create an environment of possibilities and opportunities. Make sure you know how to evaluate the opportunities that will give your operation the highest return on investment. Check out our Project Portfolio course to see how you can select the projects that will give your operation the highest return on investment.

4. Find new ways to generate revenue for your operation. Even if you are not part of the sales or marketing team, they have projects too. We have a sales and marketing course that teaches you how to use project management skills to generate more business. Now is the time to do cost effective sales and marketing projects, especially when competitors may be slashing marketing budgets. You can capture a lot more market attention if you run your marketing projects creatively. Project Management can help you do this.

5. Learn how to manage risks. No one likes surprises, especially not now. If you can reduce the risks facing your operation, while creating revenue and decreasing costs, they will want to keep you around. To learn how to better manage the risks that could hurt your operation, check out our risk management course.

To help you get or keep your job in today’s environment, use the promotion code everydaypm09 and get a 20% discount off any of the courses Cheetah Learning offers. This offer is valid until Dec. 31, 2009.

We set up the second Wednesday in December for reviewing lessons learned. While most people focus on goal setting and resolutions at the beginning of the new year, we find it helps us to spend some time before we jump into that mode by focusing on the lessons we learned in the past year. We analyze just how well we did in meeting our biggest goals for the year, and determine what we could and should be doing differently to achieve better results going forward.

With the challenges we are facing worldwide, the inclination to review the past year is more urgent than ever. Reviewing the events of 2008 will help create meaningful change in 2009. Plus, life is a series of projects, and Lessons Learned is a critical step in all projects; it’s where you review what you learned doing your project so you can determine what to do differently – and how – on your next project to achieve better results.

Here are the top three lessons we learned for the year and how you can participate in lessons learned day with us:

1. When You Show Up and Participate, Good Things Happen (Participate in our lessons learned survey). We have a special “thank you” once you fill out the survey.

2. By Helping Others Find Success, You Find Success (Download our Free Lessons Learned Template). You can also take our online Lessons Learned Course and earn 2 PDUs.

3. Just by listening you join the conversation. (Hear our podcast on lessons learned day). In the Podcast, we reference a special thank you with the online course - PM of Holiday Parties.

If you’re struggling with ways to over come the challenges of these times, it’s good to both fall back to proven techniques that have worked well in the past and to adopt new techniques you’ve never tried before. Over the past 8 years, we have created a wide variety of free tools that have essentially helped us get out of major holes. Yes some holes, were made from our own bad decisions. But other holes were just things we fell into that were hard to avoid. But quite frankly, it just doesn’t matter how you got into the hole when you’re there. What matters, is how to pull yourself out of the hole. If you’re looking for ways to both avoid the holes of life and to pull yourself out of a hole, click here to check out our free downloads.

TOOLS TO PULL YOURSELF OUT OF THE HOLE.

Project Turkey started in September. Apart from the usual fare, advanced preparations have involved boats, jets, bows and arrows, veterinarians, appliances, and niki’s.

Yes, I live in Alaska most of the year as my daughter finishes up her last year of high school. Yet my children are still very rooted in our family traditions in Connecticut - the biggest one being Mom’s huge thanksgiving throw down. Since I will probably be living in CT part of the year after the kids leave the nest, I have kept my Connecticut residence. And as a way to give them a sense of roots, and a nest from which to soar, I maintain our family thanksgiving tradition.

I thank my lucky stars for how cheetah project management has saved my hide on this grand day year after year, especially now as I have to coordinate preparations from afar. We will be arriving in Connecticut (with the puppy), after a 36 hour journey from Alaska, late Monday night. This means I have two days to get ready for the Thanksgiving day bash at our house there for 20 people. In those two days I have to:

1. Open up the house after being gone since last July. Luckily my folks live in the area and keep an eye on the place for me. My house cleaner in the area blocks aside time to help me when I come into town. Still the house has been devoid of human life for four months and needs the basics. Luckily my parents keep my car so that is usually working. Sometimes I do have to get a rental car - note to self - make a reservation for a rental car as a back up plan.

2. Get all the ingredients as the fridge is totally empty. I have already ordered the long lead items I wanted from Kane’s Market. My youngest had been practicing with the bow and arrow as we have a dozen or so wild turkeys that run around our yard. I’m not really up for that experience this thanksgiving, so I ordered an organic bird from my friend Bob Kane who runs Kane’s Specialty Market.

3. Make sure the appliances are in fact still working. I had a new fridge delivered in September as it croaked after my July 4th party and have the double ovens scheduled for repair on Tuesday. If the double ovens get repaired, then I can also make a turducken - which is a chicken stuffed in a duck stuffed in a turkey. Bob Kane makes these as well.

4. Take the high schooler to visit the eye doctor, orthodontist, and dentist as she essentially sees herself as an “exchange student” in Alaska and just prefers these folks in Connecticut.

5. Welcome my three out of town visitors who are coming to check out Connecticut to see if they want to move there. And yes, they are being enrolled in the thanksgiving day preparations.

6. Get a new pair of walking/running shoes that are pretty much already broken in so i can safely do the 10k turkey day run/walk with my mom on Thanksgiving morning.

The rest is rather academic. This will be my 25th Thanksgiving day bash +or - 3 or 4. For the most part over the past 25 years, I have hosted Thanksgiving. After you do something 25 times, it gets pretty routine. Maybe that is why I like the complexity of the way it has been for the past couple of years - of flying in from afar and whipping it all together in two or three days. Just makes life a little more exciting.

Johanna Rothman, President of Rothman Consulting Group, Inc., and creator of the blog - http://jrothman.com/blog/mpd/, is the author of Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management, and Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds Corrective Action for the Software Industry.  We recently interviewed Johanna about her views on blogs and PM. Here is that interview. Thank you Johanna. 

Hi Kristen,

Thank you!

What have you learned doing your blog?

• I’ve learned that while each project is unique, there are some common problems across all projects:

1. how to get started because the front end is often fuzzy
2. how to keep people on just one project, because of the perceived need for everyone to multitask
3. and how to know what done means so you can finish the project.

• I don’t know for sure I hope it’s helped people think about their work as project managers and how they organize their projects. If there was a recipe for projects, I would happily publish it. But there isn’t. The best we can do is use our brains and apply what we know to the situation, and if that’s not good enough to search for more help. I hope people think about and then use some of the pragmatic approaches I discuss on Managing Product Development.

• The comments! I never know what will trigger comments, and when there’s a whole discussion in the comments, I know I’ve done something right.

• Raven Young
• Glen Alleman, Herding Cats
• Hal Macomber, Reforming Project Management
• Esther Derby, Insights you can use
• Jurgen, the noop guy

Johanna