Modeling the Behavior - Part 2

I did a post earlier this week about modeling the behavior that you would want to see.  It is a great way to bring positive change to corporate cultures and a cornerstone of our practice.  I was at an event earlier today and making small talk and heard something that made me want to journal right away.  I was talking with a gentleman who was telling me that he manages a group of engineers and that when one of them would get too into the weeds in explanation, he would ring a bell on his desk to signify that the conversation was over.  He was proud of this.  He said he had his staff trained like Pavlov's dog so when the bell would go off, it was meant to let them know they were driving too far into the details for him and it was time to move on to the next point.  He was sharing this a sense of pride in the conversation.

I am a huge fan of modeling and understanding DISC profiles and communication techniques.  As a project manager, communicating with each other and our teams is one of the most important aspects of success.  I could quickly tell that this person was a high "D" or dominant personality and a strong leader role.  His engineers sounded to be of the high "C" variety who wanted to be into the details.  I asked a question of him that took him completely off guard.  I asked, "So when do the engineers get to ring the bell?"  He looked at me completely perplexed.  I went on, "So if you are on a topic or too far off for the engineers liking, do they get to ring the bell to signify it is time for you to move on, or is it just a one way device?"  By the look in his face, you could tell that the question has either rarely been asked or never been asked before.  He did not like it!  I told him that I didn't mean to offend him if I did, I was just curious on how the dynamic worked.  I tried to lighten the mood by telling him that in my role as a project manager, I rarely complete the tasks, my team does.  Their contribution and happiness on the project is my largest concern.  We awkwardly left the conversation.

At the end of the event, he caught up with me outside.  He told me that nobody had ever challenged the notion that the bell ring could be offensive or that it was a one-way device.  He said that he sat and thought about it through the program and couldn't get it off of his mind.  It was not the type of leader he wanted to be.  He said that he was going to throw the bell away when he got back to his office.  "Or," I said, "you could wait until the next staff meeting and let them know that you never meant to offend anyone with it, apologize if you are comfortable with that, and then throw it away."  He said that he liked that idea better.  He asked me how I thought of that.  I told him one of my favorite stories.

I was a young manager and could feel my team slipping away from me.  I had a planned vacation and asked them that while I was away, to write down everything that they didn't like about me and I would make that part of my personal development plan.  They could either present it to me directly or give it to my boss.  They presented it to me directly.  Almost everything that was presented was a small item that I could improve upon right away.  Small items that were bothering them that I was not aware that I was doing.  I was able to immediately act upon their feedback and strengthen the bond with the team again, it just took the courage to ask.  One of my favorite all time quotes comes from Carl Jung, "Unless you make the sub-conscious conscious, it will rule your life and you will call it fate."  Most of us have to be willing to understand our blind spots in order to improve them.  We have to model the behavior and be the change that we want to see.  Instead of pointing the finger and announcing what we do not like, we must point within and model what we do like.

No Day But Today,

Rick A. Morris

Model the Behavior

One of the questions I get most often is asking about my first PMO.  We were built to deliver 60% of our projects successfully.  This incredible team delivered 99% of the projects on time and on budget.  The thing I was most proud of was how they impacted the corporate culture of the organization.  It also helped me frame one of the biggest techniques I use today, modeling behavior.

How many times have you seen suggestions or change come out of failure?  How many times have you seen requests for change come out of complaint?  Now, how many times have you seen a request for change been modeled?  In round tables, we teach that small actions lead to great change.  We didn't know this at the time, but that is exactly what can occur. 

A common framework and an activity that I am not a fan of in project management is lessons learned.  The intent is good, the execution is why I am not a fan of the activity.  Rarely does anyone learn a lesson from that meeting.  The meeting is held because it was required by the process.  Several things are listed and then gathered on a shared drive or listed somewhere.  Are people really going out and studying these lessons and enacting them to great change?  We are pulling these from complaints and using suggestions for change.  However, most organizations then just settle back in to the next project without changing anything.

Modeling behavior is about changing something small.  You make a proactive change and then monitor the result.  The process is tweaked until it is perfected.  When the results are seen, others want to be a part of that success or feel the benefit of the change and will request it.  This drives more adoption and belief in the change.  Instead of the complaint and negative top-down driven change, this becomes a positive and bottom-up driven change.  It is empowering and contagious.  So instead of complaining that something needs to change, make the change on a small scale and model the behavior you desire.  See how that works and what those results will offer.  I can tell you with many stories the difference can be a completely different corporate culture!

No Day But Today,

Rick

Don't Lose Sight of the Dream

One of the greatest things about the profession of project management is that we get to make dreams come true.  You can attend one of my sessions or the Free Webinar to hear the elevator speech that every project manager MUST know!  As I was participating in a mastermind session this weekend, I heard Paul Martinelli speaking into many entrepreneurs saying, "Many people have a dream, create a plan, and then fall in love with the plan."  I really started to ponder that in terms of project management.  How many times have you seen that happen?  

A project gets created to accomplish something.  We get together and create a plan.  Then every meeting from there forward begins to discuss the plan.  We fall in love with the PLAN!  It is all about status of the plan, completion of the tasks on the plan, and the percent complete of the plan!  Many times, the project (or dream) morphs to the constraint of the arbitrary notion of the plan.  Once the plan has been created, we have limited ourselves to a date or a budget.  However, it is the dream that is driving the results, not the plan! 

When we modify our dream, that becomes difficult because we have to adjust the plan, budget, document the scope change, etc.  It becomes a rigid process that diminishes the value of the dream itself!  Now don't get me wrong, controls are great and necessary.  What I am talking about here is for you to sit back for a moment and think through your last 5 to 10 projects.  Once the project was presented and a plan was created, did we fall in love with the plan or fall in love with the dream?

This is one of the greatest examples of displaying one of my core concepts that changed the way that I saw projects forever.  When Rob Thomsett explained that projects fail because of context, not content, it created a fresh perspective of what activities are creating value and enhancing the dream, and which activities are setup just to avoid failure or to affix blame.  That perspective shift is one of the greatest shifts a project manager can embrace.  Understanding that enabling the value of dreams far outweighs the strict adherence to our first thought or first plan.  It is being open enough to be always considering alternatives and having the flexibility to work within the constraints where progress and success can be found.

For example, we were working with a client in an industry that was new to us.  They hired us to create a specific system.  At the first release, it was clear that the system was what they asked for, however, not what was going to be what they needed.  We recognized this quickly and opened up a design and idea session with the key stakeholders.  We tested a few ideas and created mock-ups and wireframe designs with all ideas being considered.  The energy in the room was contagious.  We landed on a new design and after re-scoping the project realized that we would still be able to deliver by the date requested with only a slight modification to budget.  The result of the collaboration was a patented algorithm that revolutionized an industry.  One that would have not have been found by that team had we stuck to the plan.

This isn't a calling to throw out all plans.  Plans and controls are necessary.  The call is to not be so attached to a plan that we lose sight of the dream.  We do not want to become so attached that if the plan is failing, we attribute it to the failure of the dream!  

No Day But Today,

Rick

Every Situation is an Assignment

I just recently became a Certified Human Behavior Consultant.  In the training Dr. Rohm shared a message that just hit home with me.  He said that every situation is an assignment.  When you find yourself saying, "I can't wait for this to be over, " or, "I will be happy when this situation ends," your attitude is incorrect.  The correct attitude is to step into the situation with the understanding of "What am I supposed to learn from this assignment?"  If you are trying to get through the situation as quickly as possible, you will try to speed the situation up and you will miss the lesson.  If you go too fast, you will miss what you are supposed to learn.

Life, your Creator, or whatever you believe assigns you situations.  These are not graded assignments like in school.  They are pass and fail.  If you fail to learn from the situation, you will most likely be given the assignment again.  This is why poor behavior seems to be repeated or you may feel like you continue to attract unwanted outcomes.  It is not that you are continuing to attract bad situations, it is that you failed the previous assignment.  No matter how painful the assignment, no matter how much it hurts, approach it with an attitude that you are seeking the lesson.  Find what you are supposed to learn and improve!  This is what a solution-oriented person does.  This is where growth happens.  Do not ignore the situation, embrace it!  It could lead you down the path of untold fortunes!

I have coupled this thought by looking at a timeline of my life.  I have gone back and looked at critical situations that still seem to crowd my conscious thoughts.  The things that creep into my mind and shout at the positive things to bring negativity.  Does that ever happen to you?  Do you ever feel the momentum shift?  When you start something positive or good things start to happen and then your mind seems to self-sabotage and bring up resistance thoughts?  I used to let those thoughts get me down.  I would listen to the negativity and allow that to hamper my positive momentum or my current growth.  What I do now is search for the lesson that I missed.  What did I fail to learn that I can apply to growth?  How can I turn that negative thought or negative situation into a positive story or a positive affirmation to create momentum?  Try it!  There is not a person on this planet whose mind isn't wired to tell them things that bring self doubt, self awareness, or pause.  The only difference between really positive and successful people and those who are not is the choice to filter out or not to listen to the negativity.  It can be as simple as a choice.  One of my favorite books was referred to me by Seth Godin called the "War of Art" by Steven Pressfield.  It is a beautiful book about Resistance and how to overcome it.  Check it out if you have time!

No Day But Today, 

Rick A. Morris