Posts tagged “Milestones”

Thresholds

Posted on June 22, 2019
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A yoga teacher once told me: practice really starts to change once you do it three to four times per week. It’s a general threshold to more meaningful results, and a point to consider more broadly. What is the input necessary to get our desired output? When can we expect to see a difference? Is there a minimum effective dose? Some things won’t change until we reach a certain threshold, some things are impacted by thresholds of others (see Granovetter’s model and Malcolm Gladwell), some things require maintenance to stay within a threshold, and some things might even be irreversible after reaching a certain threshold. It helps to know what moves the elevator. “The difference between success and failure typically depends on the number of…

Categories: Project Management

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Think Week (Change Week)

Posted on February 23, 2018
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I recently completed my version of a think week, taking some time for reflection in New York and West Texas during a natural work transition. My think week was apparently less stringent than the isolated-cabin-in-the-woods version of the think week, but I also oriented more toward actionable changing in addition to just thinking. Here are five questions to consider when structuring a think (change) week: Confirm Commitment Do you really just want a vacation? If you’re primarily looking for a break from work, consider taking a nice vacation. You can step away from usual routines, visit different places, and socialize with friends and family. You can physically and mentally refresh. A vacation is not the same as an intentional, structured, immersive thinking experience. In my case, I knew I wanted a solo week with…

Categories: Career

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It’s All Interim

Posted on November 12, 2017
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I switched jobs this month, and alongside a few gracious comments as I transitioned, I experienced a sort of bewilderment that such a dramatic change could occur. It was almost as if leaving a decent role was unfathomable. The I could never leave mindset dominates. But you will leave as well, either by choice or by circumstance. Eventually for an advancement, through a termination, to a retirement, or on a stretcher, you’ll be out the door, and others, in some way, will pick up what you’ve left behind. We should all be mindful of temporality and inevitability in a role, with what we own, and in life. It’s all interim. “You can die tomorrow…who is going to take care of all this crap!” –Margareta Magnusson *

Categories: Career

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Watermelon Day

Posted on August 3, 2017
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In basic red-yellow-green project status reporting, a watermelon is a project that is reporting its status as green when it is actually red at its core. Green on the outside, red in the middle. It is superficially showing on track when it’s really at risk. What is seen on the outside doesn’t match the reality of the content. On National Watermelon Day, resolve to go below the surface, have substantive conversations, and solve real issues. Let’s go cut into some watermelons. *

Categories: Project Management

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Exit Strategy

Posted on December 9, 2016
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How do we know when we’re done, an executive asked me this week. It’s a great question. What is our definition of success? When can we stop? So many activities focus on the announcement, the start, the big release, without fully considering the expiration date, the phase out, the closing. It’s the summit fever in high altitude mountaineering, the compulsion to reach the peak with too little regard for a safe descent. It’s the redundant technology in the work environment or the never-ending career role. It’s why garages and landfills get cluttered with objects. Look around…something might need an exit strategy. *

Categories: Risk

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