I need your help to make this newsletter more helpful. Each issue takes time, money, and energy to produce, so I want to know what's useful and what's not. Please take a moment and send me a note on what you like, don't like, and what you'd like to see more of. Send to terry@managementpro.com
I met many of my newsletter subscribers when you attended one of my Strategic Project Management (Logical Framework) seminars. Below is a description of that signature seminar, followed by a more general summary of my consulting and training services. If you seek a practical solution to an organization or project design issue, check these out.
Strategic Project Management ProgramStrategic Management Services
Highlights of This Issue
Guest Article – How can we stay upright amidst the swirling change of live and work? Harvard Business School Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter shares some sound "change agent bumper sticker" advice for putting change into action.
Project of the Month – Our PROJECT OF THE MONTH features one woman's plan to start her own consulting practice in the future.
Self-Mastery – All around us are creative and potentially profitable ideas, but we fail to recognize them. OPEN YOUR CREATIVE EYEBALLS features tips for noticing what most people miss, and taking action.
Book of the Month – MASTER YOUR WORKDAY NOW! offers a fresh prospective for controlling chaos, creating outcomes, and connecting your work to who you really are.
Laugh Out Loud – Here you'll find the usual fare of the unusual and funny, so enjoy.
Seven Truths about Change to Lead By and Live
By Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Professor
Harvard Business School
I call these the Change Agent Bumper Stickers. Here are seven universal sayings that can comfort and guide anyone engaged in the effort of setting a new direction, orchestrating innovation, establishing a culture, or changing behavior.
"Change is a threat when done to me, but an opportunity when done by me." I coined this truth in my book The Change Masters, which compared innovation-friendly and innovation-stifling corporate cultures, and then saw it in operation in personal relationships, too. Resistance is always greatest when change is inflicted on people without their involvement, making the change effort feel oppressive or constraining. If it is possible to tie change to things people already want, and give them a chance to act on their own goals and aspirations, then it is met with more enthusiasm and commitment. In fact, they then seek innovation on their own.
"A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step." Big goals can seem overwhelming. The magnitude of the problem, the difficulty of the solutions, the length of the time horizon, and the number of action items can make change feel so complex that people feel paralyzed, and nothing happens. This saying from China's Chairman Mao is a reminder to get moving. Do something, get started, take the first steps however small they seem, and the journey is underway.
"If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there." A clear destination is necessary to guide the journey of change. Many change efforts falter because of confusion over exactly where everyone is expected to arrive. In the children's book, Alice in Wonderland, Alice, who is confused anyway, asks the Cheshire cat which road she should take. The magical cat responds with this helpful reminder to pin down your goal first. Zoom in on the destination on your mental map, and then zoom out to pick the best path.
"Change is a campaign, not a decision." How many people make vows to improve their diet and exercise, and then feel so good about the decision that they reward themselves with ice cream and sit down to read a book? CEOs and senior executives make pronouncements about change all the time, and then launch programs that get ignored. To change behavior requires a campaign, with constant communication, tools and materials, milestones, reminders, and rewards.
"When you come to a fork in the road, take it." Baseball legend Yogi Berra was known for oddball sayings that contain gems. There is an aspect of change that involves trial and error. Fear of mistakes can sometimes leave paths unexplored. It's important to seize unexpected opportunities. Some sidelines are dead ends, but others might prove to be faster routes to the goals.
"Everything can look like a failure in the middle." I've observed this so often that I call it Kanter's Law. There are numerous roadblocks, obstacles, and surprises on the journey to change, and each one tempts us to give up. Give up prematurely, and the change effort is automatically a failure. Find a way around the obstacles, perhaps by making some tweaks in the plan, and keep going. Persistence and perseverance are essential to successful innovation and change.
"Be the change you seek to make in the world." Leaders must embody the values and principles they want other people to adopt. This famous Gandhi quote reminds us all — executives with associates, political leaders with followers, or parents with children — that one of the most important tasks is personal: to be a role model, exemplifying the best of what the change is all about.
This article originally appeared in a Harvard Business Review Blog
Stephanie's Consulting Company
Stephanie is currently working for a great company, but senses she'd like to start a consulting business in the future, aligned around her real passion – helping the underserved get better access to health care.
If the idea of starting your own consulting practice intrigues you, use this modifiable LogFrame as a template for your own planning. And may you succeed beyond your wildest dreams!
Open Your Creative Eyeballs
By Terry Schmidt
Have you recently caught a glimpse of car headlights that made you think twice about what you were seeing? You might do a double-take when you see that those are eyelashes above the headlights.
Yup, eyelashes on car headlights (aka CarLashes) are becoming the new craze! Whether you chuckle, guffaw, or scoff at the sight, headlight eyelashes may become the next BIG thing. Perhaps you are like me in asking yourself, "Now why didn't I think of that?"
Really, how many times have you seen an oncoming car and noticed the similarity of the two headlights to our two human eyes? We've all seen thousands of passing cars and have undoubtedly recognized the human eye-resemblance. For some, this passing thought flashes as quick as a wink. Most people, however, simply STOP at that...the connection of "headlights... eyes... yeah"; and then quickly move on to the "more important things to do on their list."
Neither you nor I took the next creative step that the inventor of CarLashes did. He made the additional connection that eyelashes above the headlights would cement the human eye/headlight comparison even more.
Cars have had headlights for more than 50 years, haven't they? Now along comes someone who opens his creative eyeballs and lets his "headlights-eyes" theme percolate for a while and –Ping!- he comes up with CarLashes.
Let's admit it. It could indeed have been YOUR idea. It's too late for this one, but all around us – every day – are dozens of potentially profitable ideas that are open to anyone with the sensory acuity to look at common situations and see them with a creative tweak.
When creative people look at something like oncoming car headlights, they AREN'T AFRAID to let their imagination PLAY for a while. But many of us stifle our "What If" thinking because it just seems silly: ("Eyelashes for cars? Whatda, you crazy? Get back to work!") Yielding to such seeming frivolity conflicts with our image as "serious adults" and "professional people."
Even when we DO let our thoughts play creatively, we usually jump to premature closure, which cuts off the creative juices with "logical," critical analysis of our as-yet unborn idea. Result? The good idea remains just that, an unborn, partially-grown good idea which MIGHT (if given birth) be both a boon to mankind and a goldmine to us as its creators.
Dear Reader, it's time to open your own creative eyeballs, with or without lashes. Here is a simple, three-step practical way to do so.
Step #1 - Retune Your Observational Antennae
Our eyes and ears can perceive much more than our minds can process. Every moment, millions of different stimuli bombard our consciousness, so our minds develop filters to screen out the seemingly unimportant.
The good news is that we can program our Reticular Activator System (RAS) to recognize subtle signs and signals around us, which could lead to our own CarLashes-type breakthrough.
According to Answers.com, the Reticular Activating System "filters out repetitive stimuli, preventing sensory overload." It sounds simple enough and good for us, until we realize that unless we program it consciously, our RAS usually screens out most of the new, strange, intriguing developments and possibilities around us right along with the "repetitive" stuff. Retuning your observational antennae, will open your creative eyeballs and tune your RAS to the interesting.
Try this simple experience in noticing more and differently. Next time you drive, observe all you can about headlights. Note how the creative designers and engineers have brought us differently-shaped headlights, different colors, different positions, and different numbers of headlights, where they have both recessed and protruded the headlights with adjacent blinkers that communicate direction. The intricacy of their design includes sculpting their covered lenses to focus on the road, keep the beam out of the eyes of oncoming drivers, cast sharp light or diffuse light as needed, and more.
The challenge here then is to develop our own antennae and riches-radar system to be sensitive and consciously attentive to such creative possibilities when we encounter them.
Step #2 - Experiment with Different Perspectives
How can we reprogram ourselves to notice things that we may have been oblivious to previously? Experiment with different perspectives, literally. Bend over, drop your head, and look between your legs backward for a 180-degrees shift in perspective. Or, kneel down your knees for a different viewpoint lower to the ground. Breathe deeply and exhale while viewing something in the room that "caught your eye."
Ask different questions like – Why is this the way it is? What if it were different? How many different ways can it be different? What am I noticing about it for the first time?
Challenge yourself to NOTICE anew and capture your observations on paper. For just one week, carry a wire-bound notepad and writing tool, and write down the fleeting thoughts and "weird" observations that get past your RAS. Give yourself a daily quota of "what I observe that's new." Since the act of writing down makes you conscious of your thinking, in this way, you help yourself develop the habit of real-time awareness.
Step #3 - Gain Creative Depth with a Mind Practice
Finally, deepen your creative grooves with a deliberate program of mind discipline and development. Meditation is one of the best, and it's not just for yogis??? any more. Setting aside some time daily to quietly MEDITATE for 15-30 minutes can also help develop your creative awareness. There are over a dozen types of meditation.
World-famous inventor Dr. Yoshiro Nakamats holds The Guinness Book of World Records for the most inventions. He meditates in an unusual way 3,200 inventions, which is thousands more than his nearest co-creator, Thomas Edison. Dr. Nakamats puts on a mask along with aqua-lungs; and then slips into warm water several meters deep, to quietly meditate on observations, ideas, and possible inventions.
You don't need underwater meditation, but it CAN be very effective if you also have some training in real-time observation, some practice in rigorous application of disciplined thought, and the courage to PLAY with your ideas when they come to you.
So, as you look around you, ask yourself "What's this?" and "What is missing here?" You might just come up with an answer more profound than CarLashes, and maybe even many times more as rewarding. Even if you don't, you will discover the quality of your life experience is imaginatively richer. Open your creative eyeballs and see what you see – and what you don't yet see that could be.
Master Your Workday Now!
Proven Strategies to Control Chaos, Create Outcomes, & Connect Your Work to Who You Really Are
By Michael Linenberger
Reviewed by Terry Schmidt
I've long been a fan of David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) system of workflow management. Allen's system turns staying on top into a winnable mental game.
Now along comes Michael Linenberger's WN (Workday now) system, which adds valuable new perspectives. Both systems aim to reduce stress and restore a sense of order to your life and work. Both require organizing task lists, identifying next actions, and keeping your in-box tidy. And if you follow their approaches, you will feel in control and get more done.
Linenberger's introduce a fresh concept called the Workday Now Horizon, which is a rolling time horizon of approximately 10 days into the future. For most of us, somewhere in the 1-2 week range is the natural time horizon when thinking about their upcoming to-do items. Beyond the 2-week range, most of us consider out to-dos as being somewhere "over the horizon" and not of immediate concern. No need to deal with them until the become more urgent.
He further divides the Workday Now time period into the Critical Now (tasks which are truly urgent and MUST be completed today) and the Opportunity Now zone tasks. These are pending within the next couple weeks but don't absolute have to be done today. All other tasks and projects are placed on an Over the Horizon list.
This method of managing tasks offers a practical way of balancing urgency and importance. Urgent tasks are a business reality and must be dealt with in a timely manner. In the WN system, the truly urgent tasks receive top priority, and less urgent but still important tasks are given the next priority. By managing urgent tasks effectively and not allowing them to overwhelm you, the WN system helps you get control of your workflow, thereby feeling up time for important but less urgent tasks.
Later sections of the book explain how to integrate higher-level goals into your life, and how to active them with emotion. The final third explores how to connect your workflow to a greater purpose.
I give Master Your Workday Now! two thumbs up. If you're interested in improving your personal effectiveness overwhelm, and aligning your actions with your life's purpose, buy, read, and use the tools in this book.
I found these at jokefile.co.uk
1. Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me, either; just leave me the hell alone.
2. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and a leaky tire.
3. It's always darkest before dawn. So if you're going to steal your neighbor's newspaper, that's the time to do it.
4. Don't be irreplaceable; if you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.
5. No one is listening until you make a mistake.
6. Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else.
7. Never test the depth of the water with both feet.
8. It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
9. It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help.
10. If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments.
11. Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.
12. If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.
13. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat & drink beer all day.
14. If you lend someone $20, and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
15. Don't squat with your spurs on.
16. If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
17. If you drink, don't park; accidents cause people.
18. Some days you are the bug, some days you are the windshield.
19. Don't worry, it only seems kinky the first time.
20. Good judgment comes from bad experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.
21. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.
22. Timing has an awful lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.
23. A closed mouth gathers no feet.
24. Duct tape is like the force; it has a light side & a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
25. There are two theories to arguing with women. Neither one works.
26. Generally speaking, you aren't learning much when your mouth is moving.
27. Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
28. Never miss a good chance to shut up.