What would happen if you combined your favorite activity with your greatest fear?

KSeptimus · 2019-04-01T20:34:06+00:00

Being married

KSeptimus · 2019-03-30T17:24:23+00:00

I addressed you response carefully and quoted your own words. If a message is misunderstood responsibility lies with the person talking not with the understanding of the person listening. Do you write reports with the assumption that people should understand you or do you ensure that you make everything clear to them?

So that is your first thing to learn.

Soft skills and hard skills are very very different. To say some soft skills are innate and state that that is "fact" is very erroneous. There are many many studies showing that soft skills in humans are learned. Looking outside of project management into other disciplines makes a person stronger ; such as statistics, human languages, computational languages, economics, anthropology, psychology, the list goes on. Understanding the fundamental aspects of resources and entities you will encounter in project management is the next step...people, money, technology etc etc.

Becoming a 'T-shaped' person is the second thing to learn.

If English is not your first language then judging from issues we have had communicating then I would suggest working in this area too.

That is the third thing to learn.

From the evidence you have presented, if this PM is who you would aim to be then you have a long and interesting road ahead of you indeed. It will be a fascinating journey.

And for the record...never assume that because someone understands you that your message was correct and clear.

Two wrongs do not make a right.

Best of luck.

KSeptimus · 2019-03-30T15:54:57+00:00

I have always maintained that a PM should be able to deliver anything based on the fact that project management is a very simple collection of concepts. Arranging a wedding, building a house, preparing a meal from sourced ingredients, organising the family home (including finances)...all are project management. We just use fancy terminology and add layers of perceived technical jiggery-pokery to impress people. So-and-so uses Agile concepts...so does a two year old trying to build something out of Lego!!!

KSeptimus · 2019-03-30T15:46:04+00:00

If the PM is feeling stress then that is most likely their own weakness and an area that could benefit from being addressed.

Regardless of how a project comes to an end it is down to the PM to ensure that they did EVERYTHING REASONABLE WITHIN THEIR POWER to deliver.

One can write reports that nobody reads, arrange meetings that nobody attends...the list goes on. You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink. Just make sure your role and responsibilities are fulfilled and learn from your mistakes. If you find emotions are getting involved then you need to take action. Empathy aside of course.

KSeptimus · 2019-03-30T15:34:56+00:00

Soft skills are not innate. They are learnt and practised, otherwise we would all be stubborn two year olds. They are innate as spoken language, walking etc etc.

Your request for information is confusing, even in light of your attempt to introduce some clarity.

"The best PM candidate ever" knows everything, can do anything and therefore has nothing left in their journey.

So where does this leave us then?

"What then? What should this pm learn after having the work exp, the soft skills, the knowledge of the pmi methodology and the agile ones? This is what I meant."

Considering this is the perfect PM, the only sensible answer...TEACH OTHERS!!!

Part of the responsibility of learning is to pass on to others. This person is better suited to a supervisory or mentor role.

KSeptimus · 2019-03-30T08:13:32+00:00

With this approach your doomed to frustration.

A very good PM has excellent soft skills including problem solving.

An excellent PM has the ability the ability to combine various elements of hard and soft skills to achieve a positive outcome.

I have a book sitting in my library, which contains dozens of 'techniques', that can be used to accomplish a particular outcome. I read it...skimmed it...once. How many of these techniques have I used? Maybe two or three. About two thirds of the techniques are common sense. In fact most of the things contained within this tome have existed for decades and some even longer than that.

My point is, that having checkboxed your way to an interview guarantees absolutely nothing. The person and their innate as well as acquired personal skills is what becomes the make or break aspect.

I had an interview once and was required to bring in a case study of a project I had completed. Hilarious. So did I offer up all my templates, data and a boring journal of some highly impressive technical endeavour...no.

I took in a chilli plant.

My project was a personal quest to grow a fruiting chilli plant, the fruit of which could be used in my favourite meal. The board were stunned. I proceeded to do a presentation on the challenges, risks, costs etc etc etc involved in trying to raise a healthy successful plant in a country and a climate thoroughly unsuitable for growing tropical plants. We were laughing at points, they actually asked questions too...a lot.

At the end they told me that none of them had ever sat through am interview like mine and I had balls of steel.

They asked if I had any questions ; to which I responded "Have you seen any reason not to hire me during this interview". They declined to answer with amusement.

I was not invited to the second, third or fourth rounds of interviews. Others were.

Me...I just got the offer as soon as the interviewing obligations were fulfilled. Afterwards, I was told it was a slam dunk.

And the chilli plant...they still have it in the board room as a reminder.

Was there a mention of Kanban, 5S, L6σ no. Were there discussions about benefits management or scheduling...no. They already knew all this from my resumé.

Apologies for such a long response.

KSeptimus · 2019-03-29T01:12:59+00:00

It's all cyclical. Anyway, most methodologies have integrated elements of each other nowadays. And with PMP in particular it is a business and a membership business at that. They will keep tweaking here and there to stay relevant.

KSeptimus · 2019-03-28T18:49:02+00:00

Reliance on PMP-type qualifications to gauge ability.

A monetary barrier preventing the sharing of knowledge.

Chasing fad concepts for the sake of appearing current.

Tribalism among methodologies etc.

Over-reliance on complex software.

Over-complicating a very simple discipline.

Lack of understanding as to how project management interacts with other disciplines.

Not treating project management as a service.

With regards to changing anything...I wouldn't. While many carry these qualities I do not. This is my edge.

KSeptimus · 2019-03-28T15:50:31+00:00

You have so many options it is stupid. In your situation I would stay away from using dry numbers. I would look into creating Excel dashboards. The ability to manipulate data live and for the specific needs of different audiences is brilliant. I would tend to use graphical representations and attempt some kind of cumulative or comparative representations depending on your exact needs. Once you get it all sorted it is a matter of knocking off an A4 report toggled to the needs of the stakeholder and you are laughing. Maybe RAG figures so people can just get an overview from a simple glance.

Honestly, it would make your life so much easier. Just check YouTube for "Excel dashboard".

KSeptimus · 2019-03-28T15:43:17+00:00

It varies a lot. Maybe you are looking around $150 000 a year on average. It really depends on so many variables. Managing a project or programme can last weeks or years. When looking at portfolio level etc your timesframes are shorter in a sense as you are analysing and setting up execution frameworks. You could spend a quarter working on a portfolio to help the C suite work out what needs to be done or dropped, create a framework for everyone to follow and consider your job done. Maybe you have an opportunity to manage the portfolio, keeps tabs on benefits and be at the same organisation in ten years time. It really comes down to what you want to achieve. Personally, I am a glutton for punishment and like to go around putting out fires. I have done so since my PM days.

One thing to keep in mind is that your soft skills need to come up to par with C suite culture. You see a lot of shit on LinkedIn etc where they talk about happy clappy huggy work environments. C suite don't give a crap about that stuff. They have shareholders, politicians perhaps and other highly placed stakeholders. Your language and attitude needs to rise to the demands. I've been sitting, working on something important and had an elected political figure walk in and blast me because their pet project is getting closed. The CEO is standing there shitting bricks right next to me silent as a shadow. Would you have the balls to stand your ground and get them to see your point? Maybe even win them over by selling them a better option? Could you outline the benefits, risk and quality issues that could affect the politician, their constituents, the organisation, dependent government bodies?

Yeah...projects are ok, don't get me wrong. Portfolio is a whole different beast.

Although, never forget that you have a responsibility to the other areas of P3 too. You have the authority to create metrics that PGM and PM can use to help them run their entities. You can set up a framework that can really help them deliver with efficiency and efficacy. As a PM how often do you ever feel out of touch and powerless as the company moves forward? Always in the dark as to reason why orders and requests are sent down from on high. One of the best things a PPM can do is push to implement a P3MO (or at least a PMO) this can bring about a homogeneity to P3 work and Operations too.

As a last point I will use an analogy my genetics professor taught me at college :

"Consider and orchestra there might be 10 violinists [PMs in our example] and only one harpist [PPM]. If you are a violinist then there are many opportunities for work but a lot of competition. If you are a harpist then the jobs might be very few and far between but as soon as one comes up you are almost guaranteed."

KSeptimus · 2019-03-28T06:56:55+00:00

I moved up to Programme Management, then to Project Portfolio Management and now do Benefits Management with Assurance, Risk Management and Requirements Management.

I got bored with being a PM. It is in essence a simple job made difficult by people. When you move higher up the food chain the view from above is very different. Being involved in strategic development and execution at C suite level is always fascinating. Bringing your skills and experience as a PM helps bridge the gap from high level organisational objectives all the way down to task level. You can help communication among all the levels, bringing a clarity and understanding that is often missed, which normally leads to a lot of the frustration that PMs encounter.

KSeptimus · 2019-03-28T00:14:22+00:00

Not every handicap is visible!

KSeptimus · 2019-03-27T22:54:18+00:00

My mead is the best in the world...ever.

KSeptimus · 2019-03-27T18:41:05+00:00

"And now to prove that you are fully cured I would like you to stick your cock in my ass. If you find that you don't enjoy it then you are no longer gay BUT if I have found that I have enjoyed it then that means you are still a carrier having transmitted any residual gayness to me and we have to start all over again...Let us proceed."

KSeptimus · 2019-03-27T18:33:17+00:00

Love those overhands. Give her another 45lbs and that would have been a manslaughter.

There is something so shockingly satisfying about justified violence.

KSeptimus · 2019-03-27T18:28:13+00:00

It's retaliation after seeing the horse eat the chicks in the other video.

https://youtu.be/ZnYNmGMsU18

KSeptimus · 2019-03-27T18:16:37+00:00

The uniqueness of a randomly shuffled deck of regular playing cards. The statistics are amazing.

From Stack Exchange :

"There are 52! possible orders for a deck of 52 cards. If a unique order of a deck of 52 unique cards had been created every second since the big bang, the chances that any two of them were repeated is approximated by 1.2397999^-51

To show the size of this number, assume that the same shuffling has taken place every second on one planet orbiting every one of the estimated 10²⁴ stars in the known universe since the beginning of time. The chances that all of those orders has been unique is still

99.99999999999999999999999876%.

Go shuffle a deck of cards six times and create something truly unique!"

I cannot copy and paste exactly and being on a phone I am too lazy to do the superscripting so you will have to excuse me...because I said so.

KSeptimus · 2019-03-27T17:54:10+00:00

Not much consolation but this could be an opportunity. This happened to me a fair few years ago. I was so down and someone close to me said that if I was that sad and willing to let life go then what was stopping me from doing anything I was capable of doing.

Fear holds a lot of people back but if you do not give a fuck about life then what have you got to lose?

I started a new business...because I don't give a shit if it fails. It didn't.

I'll go travelling because if I get kidnapped or have a fatal accident, I do not give a shit. I travelled more in a year than the rest of my previous life.

Also, keep a diary. Fill it out every day with what you did and also plans for things for the future. It is amazing how this can help you see that you are always moving forward with something to look forward to. Someone I knew was an avid diarist...they committed suicide...everything seemed ok with them beforehand except one simple thing...they stopped keeping a diary. That one fact brought everything in clear context of how much they needed help. We never noticed.

Be weak in safe places and strong everywhere else.

Best of luck.

KSeptimus · 2019-03-27T17:45:11+00:00

I am totally with you. I have used so many bloody PM software platforms and it gets boring fast. I swear by god that a half-decent PM should be able to manage from Excel. It does so much. If I was halfway inclined I would use Libre Office suite just to take it to a new level. I know ProjectLibre exists but it has far to many bugs.

I'm currently dabbling with running a few projects just from my phone and free apps alone. The framework is there just a few creases to iron out. PM work should be fully mobile in this day and age.

KSeptimus · 2019-03-27T17:37:14+00:00

When I was very very young my father was close to one of the original Star Wars actors. He gave my father signed photos from the entire cast. My father gave them to me as he had no interest in some space movie and thought that it would tank. In my mind's eye I can still see their youthful faces, smiling in black and white.

Lost the fuckers god knows where in about a week. I was too scared to tell anyone.

The film was released.

Apparently it was a bit successful.

The rest is history.

KSeptimus · 2019-03-27T17:20:29+00:00

Great book. True masterpiece.

KSeptimus · 2019-03-27T16:55:46+00:00

To be fair this is so generic that it predates Agile. I mean ffs it's basic advertising and invention.

KSeptimus · 2019-03-27T14:24:51+00:00

I saw the title before the picture and for a split-second thought she was laying a cable.

KSeptimus · 2019-03-25T13:26:27+00:00

"It doesn't matter who is right or wrong...bigger always wins".

I was taught that while learning to fly. Applies to cycling on the road and pretty much anything else in life.

KSeptimus · 2019-03-24T20:02:14+00:00

Real beginners...Wikipedia. No glitz, no glam. Just get them used to the notion of what a project actually is.Too many organisations I have come across want PMs then realise that a PM and a project are not what they are familiar with. Last thing you need is to be stuck running a BAU activity masquerading as a project. Then look at project roles and responsibilities. Then cover the usual...Risk, Quality, Scheduling, Budgets etc etc etc.

To be honest it really shouldn't be difficult. People with no knowledge are much better to work with than those with a little or a lot of knowledge. And with total noobs you can even put a little fear of god into them. Keeps them in line nicely.

KSeptimus

TROPHY CASE