Project X Discussions

Importance for Relating to Others

Many people have criticized business and engineering schools for not teaching any courses on how to wins friends and influence people.  Tom Peters and Dale Carnegie come to mind.

However the key success factor for people to be successful in taking a leadership role is their ability to relate and influence others not their technical capability.  

The trouble with teachung these skills is that the student must be ready and they must believe it is important.  One interesting point is that Einstein was not the greatest scientist of our time that makes us adore him.  He was more charistismatic than some of the others.

The leader of the Manahattan Project was not a great scientist but a great leader.  

I bet we all can think of the people we would follow because of the ability to lead as oppose to their technical ability.   I also believe that these skills can be learned if the student is ready.   Also when the student is ready, the teacher appears.

I think a good start would be reading and using "How To Make Friends and Influence People."   Check out a new version for the digital age. 

 

Can You Change the Future?

A great technique which can help us change our future is called future pacing.  The steps are very simple but extremely powerful.

• Select a future outcome that you desire.  Describe it in detail.
• Test whether you really want his outcome by asking.
  • What will happen if outcome occurs
  • What will not happen if the outcome occurs
  • What will happen if the outcome does not occur
  • What will not happen if the outcome does not occur, consider carefully
• If the honest answers to these questions are simple we have a well formed outcome
• Now visualize the outcome happening in the next week.
• Describe what it is like in detail
  • What it looks like
  • What it feels like
  • What it sounds like
  • What you are saying to yourself about it

• Now visualize the outcome in three weeks answering the same questions.
• Next imagine the outcome in two months answering the same questions.

 

Be careful to only do this exercise with things you really want to occur because it is very, very powerful. 

This exercise should be done quickly and if you have a friend who could ask you the questions you will find it easier.  

 

Do Self Help Books Help

I was recently asked by a person doing a PH D research project to complete a questionaire about my use of Self Help books.  I realized that I have bought and read many.  I think I have bought more than I have read but still I have read many on many subjects.

I was asked what makes a good self help book.  My first answer is when the advice is sensible and practical.  Something I can use myself to deal with some issue I am concerned about.  Many of the books are too complex and impractical.  One book I really loved was "The Power of Now" by Tolle.  However I could not apply his great ideas.  I love his ideas but I did not know where to start.  Then I read "The Presence Process" by Brown and I found a practical process I could follow.

My first self help book I recall reading was "Children The Challenge" by Driekurs.  It was a very practical book about dealing with children's behavior in a family.  I found incredibly profound but practical at the same time.  The book had a very sane underpining of psychology.  I recall that "iron clad logic of social living is cooperation."   

I have read books on positive thinking, golf, spirituality, yoga, Tai Chi, and lots of other things.  I have listened to tapes and CD's in my car when I commuted to work about two hours a day.  

I have kept an open mind on most subjects and I am looking for new ideas.  Those that are practical and sensible I will use and the others I dismiss.  

I suspect some people think self help books are a waste of time but for me they represent an important part of my learning. 

 

Discouragement And Encouraging Ourselves

Cause of Anti-social Behavior

When I exhibit anti-social behavior, I do it because I am feeling discouraged.  I have low self esteem.  However I am completely in control of my own self esteem.  How can you say that, Jim, what about all these terrible things that happen to me?  It is all a matter of choice.

Encouraging Myself

When I am playing golf and I make a bad shot, I have a choice on how react.  I can berate myself and get down on how stupid I am.  Or I can look at it a lesson to be learned about my game.  By looking at it a lesson from life, I find it more encouraging.  I can look at the positive of how lucky I am to be able to be out here.  There are lots of great things about being out on the golf course.

Recently I played with Jack and he made a bad shot and he was berating himself loudly.  I said to him don't give my friend such a hard time.  He laughed and it broke the tension.  

Watch That Inner Voice

  Try to teach your critic to be more encouraging.  Remember life is too serious to take seriously.

How We Learn Behaviors

Ever wonder why you do the things you do?

We do not learn things by reading them or by being told.  We learn from life's expereinces.  We develop a model about how the world is and remember things that reinforce that belief.  We form most of our world view by the end of elementary school.

Enough preaching let me use myself as an example.   I have always felt that I am not big enough for many tasks.  In order to prove that to myself I have a early recollection.  I remember one time when I was about three or four, walking down the road with my dad and trying make my steps as big as his.   This memory reinforces my belief about how the world is.

My first girlfriend broke off with me after we had been an item for nine months.  I was completely blind sided.  It took me years before I had relationship that lasted more than nine months.

So what's my point.  If you are wondering about why you behave a certain way, your early recollections might give you some clues.  These are memories about a specific incident that you can say "I remember one time ........."   The big clue is how you felt about it.  

Sometimes you have a hard time seeing it yourself, but if you have a trusted friend, he/she might help.

So when you do something that baffles you, consider how you view the world.  If you want to change, try to modify the belief with "sometimes."   I do not believe I am not big emough all the time, only sometimes.  Get the idea.

Motivational Tool

Just read a blog about a new tool I Done This that I will use and report in a month.  

Pink on New Productivity Tool

I think we need to give ourselves a pat on the back for what we have done.  The undone task haunt us and we forget what we got done.

telecommute

&$#%ing commuting!

we all hate it and yet we all do it. we are in the habit of getting in our car and driving to work. bumper to bumper. stop and go. traffic. oh, how we hate it.

I suspect a good number of us don't have to do it. we could work from home or a local library or Starbucks or even a satellite office closer to our home.

anyone whose job entails computers, forms and meetings doesn't have to commute every day! with more and more use of the cloud, collaborative software and conferencing facilities, like gotomeeting and livemeeting , commuting becomes an unnecessary waste of time.

I'm not advocating becoming a recluse. traveling to an important face to face meeting is vital. some people will have to do this. but do we have to do it every day out of sheer habit?

try it. telecommute one day a week, then 2, then three. you'll be more productive, happier, less fatigued. you'll gain time at both ends of your work day, save money on fuel, and be greener too by reducing you personal carbon footprint!

7 Consulting Lessons Learned

These lessons have been learned in school of hard knocks in consulting.  Would like to see my scars? 

1. Readiness - People only do what they are ready and willing to do.
2. Hidden factors - Many important factors are hidden.
3. The clients are always right - Even when they appear to be wrong.
4. The client success - The only measure of success in a consulting work.
5. Change is the product - The product of a successful consulting project is not a great report.
6. The Best interest of the client - Always act in the best interest of the client.
7. Go the extra mile - Give the client 10% more than they expect.

I have written about many of these items in previous blogs and in a Knol called Harvey Gellman Pioneer Computer Consultant.   Project X strives to use these lessons on every engagement.  Tell us how we do.

Comments and additions are welcome.

 

 

Be Curious and Understand Context - Ask Questions

Do you know the context for the work you are doing?  

How does it fit in the great scheme of things?  

I am often amazed how little we appreciate how the projects we are doing fit with the business.

 Example - Value of Outsourcing

An interesting personal example might help.  I worked with CGI for several years after they bought Gellman, Hayward and they started to do outsourcing of IT departments.  I thought at the time the motivation was to improve the functioning of the IT activity.  Reading the book, Dealing With Darwin, gave me a completely new perspective.  For a company to evolve, resources and capital are needed.  If an organizations IT function is not core to how the company differentiates themselves, then becoming more productive in that area can be a source of resources and capital.  An organization that can sell their IT equipment and operations to another company in exchange for a long term service agreement will create resources and capital to be invested in evolving their business.  That concept really places a completely different spin on oursourcing.   I, now, understand outsourcing in an entirely different way.

Example - Motive for Reorganizing

I often wondered why companies move to a decentralized organization and then after several years, move to a centralized model.  I suspect that senior management want to shake up the status quo and get people to rethink things.  Often organizations get so set in their ways that a rethinking is necessary.  I often thought that it was a waste of time but maybe in the bigger context it makes sense.

What Abbreviations Mean

Another example, many organizations have abbreviations for many things.  These abbrevaitions take on a life of their own and people forget what they mean.  I found in the telecom business to understand the context of a project, I really had to look into the meaning of these short forms and abbreviations.  Asking questions about these commonly used phrases can reveal some interesting things.  Often the questions and the answers increase your understanding and perceptions of the project.  I am shocked how little we know about the business.

How Does Your Work Fit

I encourage you to be curious about how your work fits into the company strategy.  Maybe if you understood the issues driving your project, you may find even better ways to help.

Alone And Afraid In A World I Never Made

I do not think we understand the world we live in.   During early 1900's people thought that science would be able to explain everything and there was a limited number of things left to learn.  Then scientist discovered rerelativity and quantum mechanics that turned the scientific world on its ear.  We now realize we know very little and much of what we know may be wrong.  

However the engineering side of us all allows us to use many things we do not really understand.  We use cyberspace without knowing really how it works.  We use computers with only the vaguest idea how they work.  

Thus we feel scared to ask questions about the context of a project because we are afraid we fall down a rabbit hole and end up in wonderland with Alice in a world that makes no sense.  I think the lesson from Alice is do not be afraid, enjoy this world and explore.  You will learn more than you ever imagined.  You will understand more than you ever imagined you could.  You will make a bigger contribution than you imagined. 

Change and new things can be scary but they also can be exciting.   The more we welcome uncertainty; the more we will learn.

COMMENTS WELCOME

Data Governance - Whose Issue Is It?

Data governance is an issue for everybody in the business intelligence business.  The following are a series of blogs on Data Governance.  I would like to invite comment and criticism.  

Data Governance - Introduction

Process Design

Introducing Data Governance

Readiness

A Fairy Tale

Role of IT

Is Data Quality an IT Issue

Data Stewardship

A Data Quality Story

Introducing Data Governance

Data governance is a challenge for every organization and I invite readers to tell me about their experiences.