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iWoz

Getting your dream project isn’t always easy. This involves learning, training perhaps even travelling and lots of will power and focus to make sure you don’t deter.

Yesterday while reading Iwoz, I was blown away. The book of course is all about Steve Wozniak and his brilliance but amidst it all I learned: 

·Stay true to myself and my goals

·If others don’t get it, don’t look back, continue with your plans.

·Think differently

·If you have an opportunity, go for it.

·Have ethics at work, its good.

·Don’t lie or malign others, never under estimate your peers and respect the passion others have.

If you get a chance, make sure to read this definitely. It's an inspiration, an awakening and an insight into how great minds think.

Your day is waiting for you!

Newsletters- Do they change you?

If you follow me on twitter, I tweeted about 2 fav persons whose newsletter I love.

I am not a fan of newsletters, I treat them more as a spam flooding my inbox because most of the times I really don’t care what you have to sell.

However, Jenny Blake and Elizabeth Harrin are exceptionals. If you are a newbie or out of college (I’m none of these) and love entrepreneurial journey- Jenny’s newsletters (and blog) are fantastic. Need a project management update and what’s new happening in the PM Town, Elizabeth as always is a great resource.

Another great resource that I have been ignoring for a while is Ramit Sethi. I read the partial free download of his book and his blog and loved it, so I signed up for the newsletter years ago. Honestly, I have almost never read his newsletters till last week. I didn’t want to buy stuff and thought his newsletters were informative, but I didn’t know if it was for me.

Till last week, I clicked on his newsletter and saw his tips on having a great resume- that got my attention.
I read the whole thing including the links and downloaded all the videos and information. The material was great. It was stuff he was giving away to registered newsletter subscribers that he usually sells as a course.

From all that I have read and heard (still have 3 more videos to go), here are some amazing things he said:

•Resume’s should be very specific (in everything). Pack in details, research your company (where you would like to work) and your job profile well. Don’t just randomly apply to jobs (and through job boards) and then blame the system for not having a scope for you. True- my last 2 jobs have been through referrals.
•Use LinkedIn as a Tool.
•Every month, keep a percentage of your salary for meeting other interesting people.  While it may not be flying to the other side of the world, meet people in your locality who can be your mentors, career advisors, or just a great contact. Invest in yourself and your growth.

So, instead of signing up for all kinds of newsletters, look for those that helps you. De-clutter your inbox and focus on the thing you should be doing.

That is my goal for December. I have moved continents, lived in 2 cities commuting every month and postponed a lot of personal goals for tomorrow (the one that never comes).

This December, I am re-planning my life and my goals. I want to be happier, do things I have always wanted to do and find time for myself and my hobbies. Learn something new twice a year that isn’t part of my professional life (like Tennis and rock climbing).

Time to de-clutter and find yourself.

(Image Courtesy: Google Images)

Newbie?

Just because you are an intern and newbie:

•Observe your boss to imitate them as much as you can and want to- you will get a feel of what they like.
•Be you, it matters even among the more experienced crowd.
•Ask questions, see document libraries, gather as much information you can from meeting, conversations etc.
•Don’t back out during all conversations and fault findings. Hold your own.
•Don’t let others tell you how much you are worth, you know better than that.
•No one has the right to make you feel inferior without your permission. Dont let that happen.
•When nothing seems to be working out, don’t loose hope. It happens, instead focus on things you can do. Get a certification, see the requirement, ensure your work is around fulfilling those requirements.
•Be careful about what you say in the office. And your social networking sites.
•Even if you feel nothing is working out, stay. Stay for 4-6 months to let everything fall in its place.
•Quitting is good, but not without a plan.
•Amidst all the chaos, try finding a mentor. She/he will guide you to navigate the mess.
•Try to keep a happy face, makes you look friendlier.

Here are some awesome links that might be interesting:
Best agile Books
More on Kanban 
No such Thing As Bad Decision

CPR Technique

This post has been taken from http://www.dhavalpanchal.com

The software world has misused so many terms from the medical profession that one more would not hurt.

CPR – Categorize, Prioritize, Resolve.
This is simple mnemonic that aids me to be methodical in my approach towards uncovering and resolving impediments.

Categorize:
How do you view your world?
To me lack of impediments is like moving in a frictionless environment. This state exists when
a. No work is being done
b. It is an ideal theoretical context

To challenge myself and my teams to look beyond business as usual, I look to creating a categorization mechanism that people can relate to. Lean concepts of load, flow and waste are very simple to understand and use.

There are other categorizing perspectives such as
1. process, tools, technology, culture
2. Not enough time, Takes a lot of time
3. Personal, Team, Organizational
4. Stop, Stall, Go!
5. One off, Always, Sometimes
There are no limits to how you may slice your world of work, expose perspectives and uncover impediments that were hidden.

Prioritize:
The purpose of prioritizing is two fold:
1. Identify impediments that have most negative impact on having ‘fun’ at work
2. Select a handful of impediments that should be worked through resolution.
For impact assessment, ‘dot-voting’ could be a technique to bubble up impediments that sap most energy from your team. (As has been done on the picture above)
Many impediments get treated as ‘Business as usual’  - often times because people are not sure how to influence or act towards resolution. Impediments that get ignored or not addressed fall through the cracks and ignored and accepted as norms for team/organization culture.
Recognizing where the team can take action, where they can influence and what is ‘the soup’ is very important to focus on what can be done over what should be done.

As a self directed exercise, the team members move impediment stickies to into an appropriate zone. Items that they feel they can act upon and attempt to resolve within the team fall into the ‘me’ circle. Items that can be influenced and require assistance from managers, organizationals, other teams etc fall into the influence zone. Items that can’t be acted upon or resolved via influence are in the soup. Many organizational scale impediments tend to fall into the soup.

Resolve:
Take action on resolving impediments that are in the ‘me’ zone. Act towards influencing others in your organization to assit with impediments in the ‘influence’ zone. Expose impediments that are in the soup to senior management, as they are best positioned to address these.

Identifying problems have a negative impact while resolving problems have a positive impact.

Videos that teach, not preach.

This video speaks for itself.

Steve Job’s biographer’s interview in 60 minutes.

Part 1 and Part 2.  

Lots more happening in the PM world these days, to watch Elizabeth’s diary click here and here . 

Challenge Accepted!

This is a guest post from Josh Nankivel from PM Student. If you are trying to begin your path in project management or are into it, Josh's blog is a treat. He also reached his half a million visitors this year! Congratulations.

This road sign is pretty much what the path forward looked like to me when I started my venture into formal project management.

Sheesh!

Perhaps you can relate. Since then, I’ve combined what I’ve learned in my own journey with the things I wish I would have known to start with and try to help other people who are starting out.

These are the steps you can start taking today to de-mystify your project management career.

Step 1 - You Are Here

If you don’t know where you are starting from, it’s pretty tough to move forward.

There is no ‘one size fits all’ advice for starting or advancing your project management career. Imagine a GPS system in your car that has no knowledge of your current location. It doesn’t work, does it?

You can leverage your background, skills, and interests in different ways to get started. If you have a technical background, there are tons of strategies to use that to your advantage. The same is true if you come from a general or operational management background. Even if you are just starting out and don’t feel you have much experience or background to leverage, it’s very important to acknowledge that and use your interests and natural talents effectively.

Write it down. In the course I teach worksheets are provided to help you clearly define your ‘current location’ as a foundation from which to move forward. You can even start with a blank page and just do a SWOT analysis of your current position. Going through this process will help generate ideas about what you might be interested in pursuing and how you can parlay what makes you unique into opportunities going forward.

Step 2 - Define Your Destination And Plot The Course

Imagine that same GPS unit knows where you are currently at, but has no idea or only a vague notion of where you want to go.  Again, pretty hard to get there...

I recommend researching organizations to eventually target 3-5 companies that you would really love to work for, who have clear indicators they value project management as a discipline, are in an industry you love, and with whom you can leverage your starting point to quickly achieve your initial goals.

Aside from targeting the right organizations, this is the step where you start to examine how you should augment your tool kit with certifications, education, and above all gaining experience with projects in ways that will make you more competent and appealing to those target organizations.

Step 3 - Build Professional Relationships

Almost anything worth doing requires more than just one person.

When you get lost you want to have a circle of friends who know, like, and trust you that will help put you back on course. Networking is a scary word for most people, but I’m talking about building relationships here. And now that you have a clear set of routes planned for, you know exactly what kind of people you should focus on building strong professional relationships with.

The most important factor here is giving, giving, giving. If you want to get people to know, like, and trust you it’s all about being indispensable to them. Most people go about networking all wrong. They come across as a nuisance, expecting someone who barely knows them to spend time, effort, and social capital to fulfil a request.

You shouldn’t be requesting anything until you’ve delivered so much value to someone they feel obligated to repay all the favors you’ve done for them. Every person is going to be receptive and value different things, so you really have to know the people in your network if you want to provide them with real value. This isn’t something you can do halfway; do your homework and be specific. Set up whatever you are willing to do for them to make it so easy for them to say yes.

In fact, all they should have to do is say yes.

Here’s an example.  In September a local recruiter who is part of my network of friends reached out to me because I’ve always been willing to point him to qualified candidates, and he knows he is going to get a quality referral from me.  I have built up that trust over time by demonstrating my willingness and ability to deliver value to this recruiter.

It was a position for a Junior Project Manager position, and as it happens I knew someone else in my network who I thought would be a good fit. I made the connection between the two.  Here’s what happened:

•The recruiter gained a high-quality candidate referral.

•The candidate got a nice recommendation and referral for a position he’d love to have a chance at.

•I reinforced my status with both of them as someone who loves helping other people get what they want, without any expectations or hassle.

Voila! The virtuous circle is complete. All 3 parties here gained value. This is my style of networking and it’s a continuous process, not an event. Will I ever ‘get back’ the value I gave to these two individuals? Perhaps not. It doesn’t matter. If you do this often enough over time, you get to be known, liked, and trusted. Pay it forward, and you’ll be amazed what opportunities open up for you at some unexpected time in the future.

Step 4 - Drive With Confidence

In the last part of my course I get to the logistics of the job hunt; resumes/CVs, coverletters, portfolios, interviews, and dealing with offers and rejections. If you’ve done steps 1 and 2, and are constantly doing step 3, this is the icing on the cake.

Unfortunately, most people think this is the cake. It’s not!

(When did Josh switch from car to cake analogies? Just go with it people, I’m eccentric like that :-)

The goal of the previous steps is to never go into this phase of the process cold. You will be better prepared than the majority of candidates for whatever position you are applying. The vast majority of people do not know what I teach or actually take action to implement this stuff. They do what everyone else does instead; apply and pray.

If you’ve done your homework and put sincere effort into the process described earlier, the hiring managers will already know who you are and will be excited to interview you.  Imagine that!  

In the best cases the clear ‘vibe’ I’ve gotten when I did this well is that the whole application and interview process was just a formality; they already knew they wanted to hire me. In fact, you’ll notice I didn’t mention anything about searching the job boards online. This isn’t necessarily a bad idea, but if you are doing the rest of what I’ve outline well you should never have to. The goal is to hear about new positions from someone in your network who knows, likes, and trusts you... and wants you to come work with them.