Subscribe today & get a Bonus zip file containing 15 PM articles or tools in PDF format (88-pages total!) plus a 37-minute PM podcast!

<<-- Read previous issues online!

• March 22, 2011
• April 13, 2011
• May 17, 2011
• June 21, 2011
• July 26, 2011
• August 12, 2011
• September 14, 2011
• October 25, 2011
• November 29, 2011
• December 31, 2011
• January 31, 2012
• February 29, 2012
• March 30, 2012

[This book excerpt is from "Taking Care of Yourself:  Managing Your Priorities, Time, & Energy" in The Project Management Minimalist]

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“Procrastination is a mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting or completing any task or decision.” — Neil Fiore in The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play

I created the chart after reading Neil Fiore’s unique description of how procrastination works…how it is part of a larger cycle of emotions, starting with perfectionism and driven by fear. (What an amazing insight!)

Here’s an example of how it works. When you get that big, important project assignment, you are overwhelmed by a sense of perfectionism. This is your big chance and you want to execute it perfectly. This leads to a fear of failure that stops you in your tracks. You procrastinate. After procrastinating for a while, you begin criticizing yourself. The longer this self-criticism goes on, the greater your chances are that you’ll begin to experience anxiety and depression, loss of confidence, and an even greater fear of failure! The only way you can end the cycle is to use what Fiore calls “the now habit.”

Fiore recommends applying a set of “replacement thoughts” in order to develop “the now habit.” Specifically, you need to make these replacements:

• Replace “I have to” with “I choose to.”
• Replace “I must finish” with “When can I start?”
• Replace “This project is so big and important” with “I can take one small step.”
• Replace “I must be perfect” with “I can be perfectly human.”
• Replace “I don’t have time to play” with “I must take time to play.”

The theme here, as you can see, is to begin thinking of yourself as being empowered to take on the project on your own terms. I’ve highlighted the “… take one small step” replacement thought above because it is echoed by many other great thinkers as the best way to deal with fear.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson says: “Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain… Do the thing and you will have the power.”

Then there’s this from Dr. Susan Jeffers in Feel the Fear & Do It Anyway:
“The only way to get rid of the fear of doing something is to go out and do it… Even if you just take a baby step or two… you need to act… Experience a small success, overcome a little piece of your fear, and build on that.” (My bold added. -MG)

And finally from David J. Schwartz in The Magic of Thinking Big:

“Here’s something to remember: Actions feed and strengthen confidence; inaction in all forms feeds fear. To fight fear, act. To increase fear — wait, put off, postpone… Jot that down in your success rule book right now. Action cures fear.” (My bold added. -MG)

The point is that action, in itself, is empowering. It energizes you. You aren’t frozen in place anymore, procrastinating. You are in motion, pushing through your own fear, even if it’s to take a small baby step toward completing that complex project.

One empowering thing you can do to remove the fear that keeps you procrastinating, is to simply trust your judgment. I discussed this topic in some detail earlier in The People Stuff part of this book. The main thing to remember here is that you have a perfectly trustworthy “internal wisdom filter” that will generate plenty of good judgments for you if you get out of your own way and simply trust it.

(Above: How your “internal wisdom filter” works and why you can trust your judgment! For much more on this topic, see the section above titled: “Trust Your Judgment,” as well as my supporting podcast. – MG)

Summarizing, to deal with procrastination, you need to:

• Let go of perfectionism. (Be human, create something that may be flawed, and understand that most projects involve lots of polishing and revision. So it’s okay if this particular iteration isn’t perfect!)
• Meet fear of failure head on and take some action, no matter how small, that moves your toward your goal.
• Recast your internal “self-talk” so that you are empowered, not victimized.
• Trust your judgment. You’ve earned wisdom through your experiences!

[This book excerpt was from "Taking Care of Yourself:  Managing Your Priorities, Time, & Energy" in The Project Management Minimalist]

So… Imagine My Surprise!

Every month or so someone emails me and asks where they can get a copy of my first book, ID [Instructional Development] Project Management: Tools and Techniques for Instructional Designers and Developers. I usually tell them that as far as I know the publisher has taken this book out of print. Then I explain that since that book’s publication in 1992, I’ve written & published 5 more PM books. And all of these are “agnostic” — designed to be used in any industry or any areas of specialization (including instructional design & development).  Then I simply recommend my latest book & support tools (The Project Management Minimalist) instead.

Recently, after another such request, I decided to do a quick search on Amazon and on eBay to see if any used copies are available. WHOA!! I learned that some enterprising folks have scooped up a few copies of my book (all apparently used) and are selling these at fairly high prices! As Homer Simpson might say, “DOH!! Can they do that?” (Well, of course they can… this is the land of free enterprise, after all, right?)

My Response to Overpriced Used Copies of My Book: A 20th Anniversary Auction!

Upon further reflection, I realize, “Hey, this is the 20th anniversary of this book’s publication. And, since I have a couple of original, mint, still-shrink-wrapped copies left, why not test the post-publication market through an online auction. And better yet… to irritate the exploiters who would sell marked-up, used copies for $200 – $300 and more… let’s price these mint copies (with my signature, letter of authentication, and other bonus goodies) below theirs and see what happens!

So if you know someone who might want one of these one-of-a-kind books, signed by me send them to my e-Bay auction here:   http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330712341446#ht_2087wt_134

Truth is, I am becoming a bit of a geezer and could die any day now… That would really spike the price, right??

[Update: April 30, 2012: Well, the eBay auction has come and gone. But if you're interested, I've made a couple of copies of this book available on Amazon.]

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[For more about the evolution of my PM books & philosophy, see this related post:  My Incredible Shrinking PM Recommendations.]

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P.S. — I am considering scanning the entire book and making it available as an e-book in several different formats. If you think this is a good idea, let me know. Email me at pm.minimalist@gmail.com .

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P.S.S. — I am selling a BUNCH of lovely vinyl albums (my personal LPs) on eBay. (I replaced them all with CDs/MP3s and want them to go to a good home where they’ll be appreciated.) To see everything that’s up for sale (and see my strange taste for music revealed) go to all my eBay auctions by clicking here.

Subscribe today & get a Bonus zip file containing 15 PM articles or tools in PDFform (88-pages total!) plus a 37-minute PM podcast!

View Previous Issues of the PM Minimalist Update Online:

• March 22, 2011
• April 13, 2011
• May 17, 2011
• June 21, 2011
• July 26, 2011
• August 12, 2011
• September 14, 2011
• October 25, 2011
• November 29, 2011
• December 31, 2011
• January 31, 2012
• February 29, 2012

[This book excerpt is from "The People Stuff: 10 Sets of Challenges to Inspire Teams" in The Project Management Minimalist]

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“A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages… Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.”  Ralph Waldo Emerson in Self-Reliance

“… the best in every business do what they have learned to do without questioning their abilities — they flat out trust their skills, which is why we call this high-performance state of mind the ‘Trusting Mindset.’ Routine access to the Trusting Mindset is what separates great performers from the rest of the pack.” – John Eliot in Overachievement

“Skill in any performance, whether it be in sports, in playing the piano, in conversation, or in selling merchandise, consists not in painfully and consciously thinking out each action as it is performed, but in relaxing, and letting the job do itself through you. Creative performance is spontaneous and ‘natural’ as opposed to self-conscious and studied.”  Maxwell Maltz in Psycho-Cybernetics

“By banishing doubt and trusting your intuitive feelings, you clear a space for the power of intention to flow through.”  Wayne Dyer in The Power of Intention

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So, do you trust yourself — really trust yourself — to come up with that creative leap, that exactly appropriate solution, that powerful insight that maybe no one else can generate?

The message shared by all these great teachers… indeed, by many other great philosophers… is that to achieve anything great you must trust that voice which lies deep within you and is trying to be heard.

OK.  If I could see you right now, I’m guessing some of you who are reading this are rolling your eyes and judging this all as a bit fluffy, cosmic, new agey, or “woo woo!” Still, I’m willing to bet that you (or some people you respect) have used one of these expressions:

• “I just had a hunch that…”
• “I had this strong intuition about…”
• “I had to go with my gut… I just did what seemed right.”
• “I had a strong feeling about this and I just decided to follow my heart.”

Whether you call it a “hunch,” an “intuition,” a “gut feeling,” or simply the unspoken nudging of your heart, you’re talking about pretty much the same thing: that inner voice of wisdom that we all possess, but we all too often stifle. Sure, this inner voice we’re talking about can be intangible and elusive. But I bet that if you had to do so, you could logically trace the origins of its judgments and choices. And this logical audit trail would prove to you that this inner voice is really quite worthy of your trust and respect.

Here’s the deal: Your intuitions, “gut feelings,” and hunches are derived from and ultimately grounded in your unique life experiences, both good and bad. And because of this, they have behind them the solid proof of your reality. To illustrate how all these experiences come together to generate solid, trustworthy judgments, I present to you the analogy of the common kitchen strainer. (Now stick with me, here… this is actually a pretty cool analogy!)

A kitchen strainer is made up of a whole bunch of strands of wire, criss-crossed to form a grid or a screen. Now let’s say you don’t have one of those fancy juice machines, but you want to mash up a bunch of fruit and extract the juice. You begin by cutting the fruit into pieces, then dump these pieces into the strainer. You then place the strainer over a bowl and push down on the fruit and mash it up until the juice runs into the bowl. The wire grid or screen of the strainer prevents all the seeds, stems, strands of bitter fibers, and fruit skins from coming through. The only thing you get in your bowl is the juice essence that you wanted. All that other stuff can be thrown out (or added to you favorite fiber-dense muffin dough!).

Your Inner Wisdom Filter

Your inner voice (i.e., your judgment) operates pretty much like that kitchen strainer! (See graphic above.) Let’s say you have to make a difficult decision and don’t have time to think about it. All sorts of possibilities and pertinent facts and constraints and outcomes rattle around in your brain. Your “internal strainer” is activated to deal with this. The wires in your internal strainer are made up of a vast set of unique experiences that you’ve acquired over your lifetime. Successes, failures, joys, miseries, and all sorts of life events combine to form this internal screening mechanism. That horrible job you had, that successful project, that challenge on your high school sports team, that class or internship you took, that difficult relationship you finally worked out — all these events comprise the unique strainer that creates your special judgments. And when all the possible solutions and issues related to a problem are dumped into that strainer, the good stuff — a unique and powerful judgment — emerges. It’s a judgment that’s automatically informed by all of your life experiences. And, as such, it’s powerful and trustworthy!

Still skeptical? Consider some real-life examples:

• A badly battered and bleeding patient is wheeled into the emergency room at a hospital. The on-call physician takes charge and begins diagnosing and treating the patient at a whirlwind pace. A life is at stake… there’s no time to stop and think. Instead, the filter of the doctor’s unique experiences (med school classes, internships, time served in the military, previous years working in an ER) — this filter kicks in to quickly sort and choose among possible treatment strategies. Appropriate action is taken and a life is saved.
• A wise tribal elder is called on to mediate a dispute between neighbors. She doesn’t need to consult legal texts or put the matter to a vote. She simply considers the situation in light of her years and years of life experiences and knowledge of the tribe, then makes her recommendation. The unique situation and options are filtered through her experiences and a trustworthy recommendation emerges.
• Your grandpa has been making his prize winning chili for many years. Somewhere back in his dim past, he used a recipe. But over time he’s learned from making bad batches and good batches that a little more of this vegetable and a little of that spice added at just the right time in the cooking process results in chili that gets rave reviews. He’d be hard pressed to tell you exactly how he does it. The grid of his internal experiences simply produces high quality judgments automatically throughout the cooking process, while he’s busy cutting up vegetables and stirring.
• Then there’s those fine artists we all admire. They’ve been highly trained in brush selection and handling, paint mixing, composition, and so on. But when they start painting, they simply flow into the work. They allow the subject that inspires them to be strained through the grid of their training and unique sensibilities to create something that is beautiful and new. They trust their judgment.
• And finally, consider the simple act of parallel parking your car. As you align your tires to the curb and ease into the parking space, a thousand automatic muscle memories are activated to press the accelerator and the brake pedals at just the right times, turn the steering wheel just so, and scan your mirrors to get feedback on how you are doing. You don’t tell your brain how to integrate all this hand-eye movement. Your internal filter simply takes in all the possibilities, sorts through them to figure out what really matters, and provides you with the judgment to park quickly and allow the other cars who are waiting for you to finish parking to be on their way.

The bottom line: You already HAVE trustworthy judgment! It’s impossible to live your life without activating — and trusting — this judgment a thousand times a day! So why not really embrace it? Why not learn to trust your judgment whole-heartedly when you’re making all those difficult professional decisions? Remember, deep down, you already know what you need to know!

Now let’s apply all this to project management.

Challenges…

Reflections

Reflect on these questions:

• What are some of the complex things you do without thinking? (Consider sports, brain games, coaching, sifting & sorting through things, inspecting, quality assurance?)
• If you had to do so, would you be able to dissect one of these complex abilities and show each skill and bit of knowledge and experience which makes you able to do this thing so well?
• When have you been under pressure to produce a fast decision on a complex issue? How did you fare? Was it a good decision? If you had to, could you defend it based on your experiences, skills, and training?
• What are some areas of your job or career where you might be overthinking things? Could you begin to relax and trust your judgment in these areas?

Team Challenges

Ask your team:

• Think about the projects you have worked on. When was the last time you had a really powerful experience of “I told you so!”
  • Could this “I told you so…” event have been avoided if you had “spoken up,” honoring that inner voice that knew better?
• Look back on your accumulated experiences and expertise. These are the sources of your judgment. How might we, as a project team, better leverage your judgment on our projects?
• What do you need from senior managers or project managers that would enable you to more confidently “trust yourself?”

Project Manager Challenges

• Take a few minutes to review each of your team members’ resumes, job histories, and project track records. Look for signs of untapped wisdom.
• What parts of our projects are in need of some of the wisdom and judgment that our people may already have, but aren’t using?
• Thinking about each team member and his or her experiences and expertise, ask yourself these questions:
  • Are we really using this person’s judgment to the fullest extent?
  • Do we create a safe environment in which this person can apply their judgment?
  • Do I need to try to prove to this person that they can trust their judgment by pointing out their long history of successes and good decisions?
  • What can I do to help this person develop the confidence to more fully trust his or her judgment?
  • What obstacles can I remove that are impeding them from exercising their judgment or are making them overly cautious

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[This book excerpt was from "The People Stuff: 10 Sets of Challenges to Inspire Teams" in The Project Management Minimalist]

Subscribe today & get a Bonus zip file containing 15 PM articles or tools in PDFform (88-pages total!) plus a 37-minute PM podcast!

View Previous Issues of the PM Minimalist Update Online:

• March 22, 2011
• April 13, 2011
• May 17, 2011
• June 21, 2011
• July 26, 2011
• August 12, 2011
• September 14, 2011
• October 25, 2011
• November 29, 2011
• December 31, 2011
• January 31, 2012

Last November I invited visitors to this web site and other PM discussion sites to share “one simple thing…” that could improve projects and/or project management (PM). Many smart people with lots of different PM experiences took the time to think about, then respond to, this invitation.  This free e-book anthology is a collection of these responses. It includes:

• Full-blown articles by guest bloggers published on this website
• Comments by this website’s visitors
• Comments posted on LinkedIn’s “PMChat” group
• Comments posted on this discussion on Focus (Focus.com).

My heartfelt “Thanks!” to all of you who were kind enough to create and share your thoughtful responses to this challenge!  And I hope you find this anthology to be a thought-provoking and valuable resource.

(Apple iPad users NOTE:  After you’ve downloaded this epub file to your computer, please see Using iTunes to add ePub files to iBooks for detailed info about loading the file onto your Apple device.)

[book excerpt…]

Best Practice: Consciously choose your attitude.

“We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them.”  — Epictetus in The Enchiridion

“From the most simple task to the most complex, if you are not in a state of either acceptance, enjoyment, or enthusiasm, look closely and you will find that you are creating suffering for yourself and others.”   — Eckhart Tolle in A New Earth

Take another look at the Tolle quote above. The selection in bold tells the whole story. The graphic below illustrates how one man’s thrashing against reality – his self-chosen misery – is creating suffering for himself and others!

So what should this guy be doing? Well, according to Tolle, he only has three choices.

1. He can accept his situation and stop wasting energy fighting against it. (This will allow him to think more clearly and figure out how to make things better.)
2. He can find something to enjoy about the situation.
3. He can become enthusiastic about the situation.

Any of these choices will make things better for himself and those around him.

Now when you think about it, he actually has a fourth choice: He can remove himself from the situation by simply quitting his job. That is, he can go somewhere else and do something else that won’t make him so unhappy. But if he can’t quit or remove himself, then he must accept, enjoy, or become enthusiastic about his situation. To thrash around against reality, bemoaning the situation and spilling negative energy all over other people, is simply stupid. Worse, it saps away energy that could be used to make the changes that could improve things.

So the next time you find yourself ranting and raving and thrashing around against reality, refer to the chart above.  See if you can’t reduce your stress and make things better for everyone around you by consciously choosing a different attitude!

There’s more about how you can “Consciously Choose Your Attitude,” in the 3rd part of The Project Management Minimalist… The People Stuff… You can also check out my 18-minute podcast, Consciously Choose Your Attitude. Download it from – http://www.inspiredprojectteams.com/?p=1026

Related Blog Posts, Podcasts, & More

• A New Earth: Are You Ready to be Awakened? (Eckhart Tolle & Oprah)
• Practice Mindfulness
• Consciously Choose Your Attitude
• Accept What Is
• 10 Specific Actions That Can Help You Become Happier
• Become a Project Management Minimalist

David Emerald, Creator of TED (The Empowerment Dynamic)

(The following article is part of our One Simple Thing…to Improve Projects series. It was contributed by David Emerald, the creator of TED — The Empowerment Dynamic.  David is the author of The Power of TED* book, an executive coach, and uplifting keynote speaker who lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and business partner, Donna.

In a nutshell, TED provides a framework for building better, more empowered relationships. The Power of TED materials, as well as David’s workshops, are both inspirational and practical!  TED enlightens and encourages those who practice it to reach new levels of collaboration.)  

[A personal note: "I've found that TED provides a unique framework to view and improve both my business and personal relationships. I was so excited to share TED's potential for project teams that I created the blog post/podcast Shift from Drama to Empowerment. Thanks, David, for the wisdom & the inspiration!"  -- Mike Greer]

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My number one “simple thing” is to adopt a Creator Orientation.

Projects are put in place to create outcomes. However, in the process, problems are inevitably going to arise. When they do, they can easily pull us – individually and as a team – into what I call the Victim Orientation. In this mindset, which is often the “default” in organizations, we are problem-focused; anxiety-based and reactive.

By adopting a Creator Orientation, we stay focused on the outcome(s) we are creating; are passion-motivated; and take the baby steps necessary to accomplish the project.

Baby steps can include solving problems. However, rather than merely reacting to the “problem du jour,” we can identify, prioritize, and get to the root cause of those challenges that must be overcome to create the outcomes we envision.

To learn more about the Creator Orientation, check out the TED Tools section of the TED website. 

Subscribe today & get a Bonus zip file containing 15 PM articles or tools in PDFform (88-pages total!) plus a 37-minute PM podcast!

View Previous Issues of the PM Minimalist Update Online:

• March 22, 2011
• April 13, 2011
• May 17, 2011
• June 21, 2011
• July 26, 2011
• August 12, 2011
• September 14, 2011
• October 25, 2011
• November 29, 2011
• December 31, 2011