Project Management and Art; Not so Different

From PMthink! by Jerry Manas

Many people are suprised to hear that I was an art major in college and ended up in the IT and project management fields. But art, writing, music, computer programming, and project management have some surprising similarities.

In all cases, you typically begin with an overall structure, and then fill in details as you progress. They all require organization and planning (with the exception of some modern abstract art, but even that is often planned out).

And they all involve creating something that must be accessible to people, whether it's a piece of art, a song, a software program, a project's product, or any type of communication.Yes, planning, structure, and human interface are key to art, writing, music, computer programming, and project management, so it's not unusual to find someone adept on one area to naturally do well in the others.

The inanity of the American consumer

From Seth Godin's blog ...

"Never before in history have so many needed so little.

'What do you get for someone who has everything' takes on a whole new meaning in the face of the BTB TEM 500.

This device will toast your muffin, poach an egg and heat your ham, all at the same time.



What kind of person, exactly, needs this?

If you're the rush out the door guy who stops at McDonalds, then there's no way you're going to stop and clean the thing.

And if you're a gourmet, you probably want to make more than one at a time, and you still don't want to clean it.

Not only don't people need it, it's unclear that they even want it.

It seems as though we've marketed ourselves into a corner, where the only way to grow is to find increasingly narrow niches of decreasing utility. The consumer portion of our economy is now dependent on a four-week long debt-fueled race to buy the useless.

Surely consumers can do better. And maybe, marketers can lead us there."

..................................................................................

Seth, if consumers want it, they'll buy it. If they don't, it will rot on the shelves. Shouldn't we all start with the idea that, in actual fact, consumers are inherently smart about what they really want?

And wouldn't a better question to ask be "What research led to the Company to think that this is a good idea"?

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Resonant Leadership

From Business Week online

"To manage other people effectively, you must first understand yourself. Try the following self-discovery exercises

In Resonant Leadership, authors Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee talk about the need for leaders to renew themselves and nurture mindfulness, hope, and compassion in their lives. Here is a sampling of condensed exercises from the book: Advertisement

Rhythms in My Life
On a sheet of paper, write the current year at the top of the left-hand side of the page. Underneath it, write the years in descending order from this year all the way back to when you were born. Next to any of the years, write any event or experience that you considered at the time or now consider to have been important. Possible categories include events related to personal health, relationships, financial status, hobbies, emotions or career. Don't feel compelled to follow a logical sequence. Add items in whatever order works for you. Look at the number of years between major life events. Is there a rhythm to when you feel the need for a change or when changes seem to occur? If so, where are you in the current rhythm, and when should you listen for a wake-up call?

My Legacy
What would you wish to have as your legacy in life? In other words, what will remain or continue as a result of you having lived and worked all these years?

Name That Feeling
Three times a day for a week, stop what you are doing, close your eyes, and concentrate on how you are feeling. Put a word to the feeling or feelings you are experiencing. At first, you may describe your feelings with words like 'stressed' or 'pressured' or 'happy.' As you practice, however, you will find that you are able to name your feelings much more quickly and with more.

What Would I Do If …?
You have just been told that you've received a major, unexpected inheritance. It is such a large amount of money that you immediately know you have complete freedom from all financial concerns. In fact, the amount of money allows you to consider doing and having things that you never had thought were possible. How would your life and work change?

Imagine Someone Else's Day
Pick someone with whom you work or live. Close your eyes and imagine his day from when he gets up in the morning until when he goes to bed at night. Imagine what he sees, hears, thinks, and feels. What are his hopes and concerns as he goes through his day? Who are the people that he sees and cares about? What are his stressors and worries? What is important to him?

What did you notice from this exercise? What surprised you? What things did you wonder about, or notice that you really didn't know or couldn't imagine? How might you seek this information from this person?"

Business Week article was adapted by permission of Harvard Business School Press. RESONANT LEADERSHIP: Renewing Yourself and Connecting with Others Through Mindfulness, Hope, and Compassion, by Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee. Copyright 2005 Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee. All Rights Reserved.

How Can Start Ups Grow?

From HBS Working Knowledge by Sarah Jane Gilbert

"The track record is well known and sobering for any entrepreneur: 90 percent of all new ventures fail. It�s not hard to see why. Start-ups often lack vital resources, must compete against established companies, and have little or no track record with which to woo customers and investors. So how do those one-out-of-ten firms grow into successful, sustained enterprises?

Assistant Professor Mukti Khaire believes that small companies can grow by developing intangible social resources such as legitimacy, status, and reputation. In an interesting twist, her research on this insight is that these intangible resources may be best acquired by following a road of conformity in how your company is organized and presented to the outside world. In start-ups in established industries, conventional business titles such as Marketing Director work better than novel ones like Chief Evangelist.

'These social resources are acquired by mimicking the structures and activities of established firms, and by affiliating with high-status customers respectively,' she wrote in the abstract to her recent paper, Great Oaks from Little Acorns Grow: Strategies for New Venture Growth. The paper was published by the Academy of Management (August, 2005) as part of its Best Paper Proceedings."

Read the rest of the article ...

Glossy Rut-Buster

From Worthwhile - by Kate Yandoh

"Even though the magazine addict in me perked up with glee after reading this tip from Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind, I hadn't put it into action until just now. It's simple. Go pick up five magazines that you've never heard of in areas you've never chosen to read about. Flip through at will, maybe tear out some images or articles that speak to you in some way, then watch for breakthroughs.

Wow. Courtesy of Aquarium USA, Sing Out! Folk Music, Grassroots Motorsports, Modern Drummer, and Wooden Boat, some new thoughts about a web project, seeds for a future blog postings, a few new words and who knows what else are mine. Even if you're not wrestling with a particular form of block or working on a project, spending just an hour doing this can make some creative connections and furnish a very economical - and portable- brain break."

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Do Ask, Do Tell - More Power in Your Little Finger

From WorldWIT - Women. Insights. Technology - from Liz Ryan

"One of the best parts of my job is getting to interview fascinating women every week (sometimes, I interview men, too) for our WorldWIT Radio program. Many of our guests are in lofty positions and have tons of influence, as well as accolades in all sorts of areas. Very often, WorldWIT members listen to these radio interviews, and write to me to say 'How does one achieve all that? Do you have suggestions for gaining influence, rising in the world, and becoming powerful?' The answer is yes - I do. In fact, finding one's personal power is one of my favorite topics.

But the first thing I would note about power is that there isn't just one kind. I believe that there are two very different sorts of power that a person can focus on developing.

The first type is pretty easy to identify. You'll have lots of power if you have a senior-level job, a big title, a large staff and loads of budgetary dollars to control. Likewise, awards, advanced degrees and high-level business relationships are strongly identified with power. We're all familiar with people whose resumes glitter with these gems. What more could one want, really, than a long list of honors next to your name?

The trouble with these hallmarks of power is that they are externally focused. All of these things - titles, awards, degrees, staffs, etc. - are conferred by other people. In fact, the titles and honors, just like trophies on the shelf, are evidence of how much other people esteem you. In my experience, there is a strong correlation between a person's desire - or even need - to be respected and to feel significant, and his or her zeal to amass trophies during a career. And then there is another problem - what has been bestowed upon you can as easily be taken away. an enormous organization of subordinates - these can disappear in an instant. That's one of the reasons why this type of externally-conferred power - what I call "Big P" power - is so stressful to maintain. In the quest to continue becoming more significant and more powerful, if you're focused on the Big P trappings of power, you're never done!"

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What Artists Know about Leadership

From HBS Working Knowledge by Sharon Daloz Parks

"The phrase "the art of leadership" is certainly well worn. But consciously recognizing the practice of leadership as artistry has received little attention.1 For now, I simply suggest that art, artist, and artistry be given a more prominent place within the lexicon of leadership theory and practice.

Affirmation and resistance
The image of artist, cast as a metaphor for those who provide acts of leadership, immediately evokes two primary responses — affirmation and resistance. Those who think of themselves as artists in the conventional sense of the word — for example, painters, sculptors, musicians, writers, architects, photographers, and some athletes and gardeners — may pick up the metaphor with ready enthusiasm, recognizing that incorporating their artist-self into their practice of leadership opens into a horizon of powerful possibilities. But those who suffered through their last required art project in school, or who hold the stereotype of an artist as nonrational, asocial, marginal, or soft — may cast a more jaundiced eye upon this metaphor.

It is highly likely, however, that the jaundiced eye belongs to someone who in some aspect of his or her professional or personal life exemplifies the power and qualities of an artist: the ability to work on an edge, in an interdependent relationship with the medium, with a capacity for creative improvisation. (Entrepreneurs and some politicians, physicians, and educators, for example, are akin to artists, seeking to bring into being what has not yet taken form.)

Working on an edge
Within any profession or sector, one of the primary characteristics of the artistry of leadership is the willingness to work on an edge — the edge between the familiar and the emergent. Harvard University professor Robert A. Heifetz honors this edge when he speaks of the capacity to lead with only good questions in hand — and that acts of leadership require the ability to walk the razor's edge without getting your feet too cut up — working that edge place between known problems and unknown solutions, between popularity and anxious hostility. Artistic leadership is able to remain curious and creative in the complexity and chaos of swamp issues, often against the odds. As we have seen, those who practice adaptive leadership must confront, disappoint, and dismantle and at the same time energize, inspire, and empower. The creativity that emerges from working on this paradoxical edge is integral to adaptive work, building out of what has come before, yet stirring into being something new and unprecedented — the character of leadership that is needed at this threshold time in human history."

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In a Bad Spot? Try Mindfulness

From HBS Working Knowledge, by Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee

Navigating the unknown

"When dealing with a crisis or the unknown, we simply cannot predict what is to come. It takes confidence and optimism to let go of preconceived notions while also studiously opening oneself to new information and solutions. The process of opening up can make us feel vulnerable, even afraid. Many leaders simply shut down in order to avoid this kind of uneasiness. Many also shut down to prove to people around them that they are decisive and know what to do (even when they do not). Avoiding openness - and vulnerability - results in a narrow focus and can ultimately cause you to slip into mindlessness.

Most of us experience times when it seems easier to give up what we believe, step away from our principles and go along with the status quo. Sometimes, behaving in the politically correct way is a lot easier than staying true to ourselves. Then it becomes all too easy for people to demonstrate values only when someone is watching them or it is convenient. Sometimes we feel vulnerable simply because no one seems to see things as we do, and no one else seems to have the courage to stick it out and do the right thing. When we feel like this, it is easy to lose confidence in ourselves, to question whether in fact we are doing the right thing or just being stubborn. Knowing where your personal line is, and also having people around you who share your values, whom you can trust and talk to, makes a huge difference."

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Seven Principles of Cultivating Communities of Practice

An older article / book review from HBR, but it seems quite timely as I am doing work on the subject right now.

By Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, and William M. Snyder

"In Silicon Valley, a community of circuit designers meets for a lively debate about the merits of two different designs developed by one of the participants. Huddling together over the circuit diagrams, they analyze possible faults, discuss issues of efficiency, propose alternatives, tease out each other's assumptions, and make the case for their view.

In Boston, a group of social workers who staff a help line meet to discuss knotty client problems, express sympathy as they discuss difficulties, probe to understand each other's feelings, and gently offer suggestions. Their meetings are often deeply challenging and sometimes highly emotional. The fact-driven, sometimes argumentative, meetings of the Silicon Valley circuit designers are extremely different from the compassionate meetings of the social workers in Boston.

But despite their differences, the circuit designers' and social workers' communities are both vibrant and full of life. Their energy is palpable ....................

.................... From our experience we have derived seven principles:

• Design for evolution.
• Open a dialogue between inside and outside perspectives.
• Invite different levels of participation.
• Develop both public and private community spaces.
• Focus on value.
• Combine familiarity and excitement.
• Create a rhythm for the community."

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