Monday Motivation – February 15, 2010

To get what you want; stop doing what isn’t working.
–Dennis Weaver

You have your To Do list.

Do you have a Not To Do List?

Jim Collins’ book Good To Great was the first time I was introduced to this concept and I found it fascinating.

The basic concept is we all have idiosyncrasies which sap our productivity day by day. Usually these are seemingly little things but they add up quickly.

If you can identify where some of the holes are in your productivity, you can set yourself up for success by avoiding these items altogether.

Do you frequently get sucked into email strings that have no bearing on your original work plan for the day?

Do you find yourself obsessing about little gaffs you may or may have not made in the last to call to a customer?

Have you ever caught yourself whiling away the hours surfing YouTube for the latest Britney embarrassment?

Simply put: If they aren’t helping you accomplish your goals, stop doing them.

Some Additional Take Aways:

*A great Not To Do List can be found at 52 Projects

*Try to identify distractions that take away from your focus for the day.

*Reference and add to your list on days where you feel didn’t get as much accomplished as you would have liked.

Project Management – Part 3: Alternative Tools

Beyond Microsoft Project: Alternative Project Management Tools

When we think about project management, we often go straight to images of Gantt charts and Microsoft Project. While these are extremely useful tools and ways of thinking about project management, there are alternatives to these approaches that may approve more useful for you, depending on your learning and doing styles as well as your clients’ approaches to communication and project management. In this report, we’ve outlined various tools and processes that we encourage you to explore. Also, feel free to customize your own project management approach by borrowing elements of each – remember, it’s most important that the project is completed effectively, and it’s your job to make that happen in a way that works for you and your clients.

David Allen: Getting Things Done (GTD)

In previous articles, we’ve lauded the ways of David Allen and his “Getting Things Done” approach. While some of his approaches can be geared toward individual productivity, many can also be applied to project management.

With Allen’s “Getting Things Done” approach, you make your work/life/responsibilities into real, actionable items or things you can just get rid of. Everything you keep has a clear reason for being in your life at any given moment—both now and well into the future. This gives you an kind of confidence that a) nothing gets lost and b) you always understand what’s on or off your plate

Also built-in to the system are an ongoing series of reviews, in which you periodically re-examine your now-organized stuff from various levels of specifics to make sure your focus is on track. Similarly, Allen has put together a “project planning checklist” to help individuals consider the various ideas to be considered when creating and managing projects. These can be helpful triggers to help you create a customizable project management process. His project planning checklist includes thinking about:

Resources

• Whose input do we need?
• Whose input could we use?
• Has anything like this been done before?
• What mistakes can we learn from?
• What successes can we learn from?
• What resources do we have?
• What resources might we need?

Executive issues

• How does this relate to the strategic plan?
• How does it relate to other priorities, directions, goals?
• How will this affect our competitive position?

Administration

• Who’s accountable for this project’s success?
• Communication and reporting – methods and processes
• What structures do we need?
• What planning is still likely to be required?
• What people do we need?
• What skills are required?
• What training do we need?
• How do we get it?
• What other communication do we need?
• Who needs to be informed as we go along?
• What policies/procedures affected? What needed?
• What about morale? Fun?

Finance

• What will this cost?
• How do we get it?
• What might affect the cost?
• Might we need additional $?
• What are the potential payoffs ($)?
• Who signs the checks?

Operations

• What is the timing?
• Hard deadlines?
• What might affect timing?
• Who’s going to do the work?
• How do we ensure complete delivery?

Quality

• How will we monitor our progress?
• How will we know if we’re on course?
• What data do we need, when?
• What reports, to whom, when?

Politics

• Whose buy-in do you need?
• How can you get it?

Stakeholders – Considerations?

• Board
• Stockholders
• Employees
• Suppliers
• Customers
• Community

Legal

• Issues?
• Regulations?

Research

• What might you need to know?

Public Relations

• Is there value in others knowing about this?
• How do we do that?

Risks

• What could happen?
• Could we handle it?

Creative thinking

• Who would have concern about the success of this project?
• What would they say, ask, or input, that you haven’t yet?
• What’s the worst idea you can imagine, about doing this project?
• What is the most outrageous thing you can think of, about this project?
• How would a 12-year-old kid relate to this project?
• What would make this project particularly unique?

Online Project Management Tools

There are also a number of Web-based project management tools that may prove better aligned to your ways of work. Clarizen is an example of on-demand solution that allows you to effectively manage all your projects and resources with a dynamic, collaborative solution that incorporates the user-centric, interactive nature of the Internet with powerful project management tools.

Clarizen’s web-based project management solutions can help to manage the complete project life cycle from inception through to completion, to capture templates and best practices for future replication, and to connect team members across departments, functions, geographies and organizations.

For more information, and to participate in their free beta trials, visit www.clarizen.com.

Professional Project Managers

You also have the option to hire a professional project manager as an adjunct to you and your staff. There are likely significant costs associated with this option, but if you are strapped for time or resources, or if your project requires intense project management skills, this could be your best option. Visit http://www.pmi.org/info/default.asp to connect with a professionally certified project manager. Whatever your method, make sure it works for you. Nothing can compare to effectively manage projects. Remember, doing it well means more business from the same client referrals to others. It’s not a skill or process that can be overlooked, so make sure you invest the time into creating the process – whether traditional or alternative – that works for you.

Staying Sane: Being Productive, Even in the Slow Times

So you just submitted a big proposal to a prospective client who could really make a difference for your business. If this one comes through, it could make your year – or at least it could cover your payroll for the next few months. You are naturally patient, understanding that it will take time for your prospective client to consider your proposal and potentially review competitors’ proposals.

Rather than waste this “waiting time” with busy work, why not make the most of it? Avoid going stir crazy – by making your time as productive as possible, you’ll feel better and you’ll likely be moving your business forward by acquiring new leads or cultivating existing ones.

Tips for Tapping into Time

We’ve outlined some key tasks that will not only make you feel productive, they will actually produce results. From contacting prospects to getting your business organized, the following tips are all key investments in your business and future.

Schedule a minimum of two hours a day for phone calling

Make your phone calls in the morning while you are your referrals are both fresh and alert, treating this time as you would any important appointment. Your objective for your calls is to create interst, gather data and make an appointment. You’ll feel good when you can get those parts completed.

Call your best customers

When’s the last time you talked to them? They are your best business asset, so invest time into them. A simple phone call is always appreciated. See how they’re doing, what’s new and if there’s anything you can do for them (and don’t forget to record new information into a customer profile!)

Go to industry or association events

Usually, networking activities are the first thing to go when we get busy. Now that you have some space, get up and get out. Talking to people – whether colleagues or potential clients – is not only good business relationship management, but a welcome social outlet.

Work on your customer database

Now is the time to start recording all of the interactions, phone calls and lists that have been either stored in your mind or on disparate pieces of paper. Taking the time to organize in a database (Microsoft Excel or Access are completely sufficient) will pay off in the long run.

So, did you get the call back? If it’s a good answer, great! If not, don’t take rejection personally. It is to be anticipated and is a natural part of the selling process. Learn from it by using it as a valuable feedback tool and keep persevering!

Project Management – Part 2: Communication

Project Communication: An Exercise in Managing Change

Everyone intuitively knows it: communication is the key to any successful project. In fact, constant, effective communication among all project stakeholders ranks high among the factors leading to the success of a project. It is a key prerequisite of getting the right things done in the right way. As knowledge is power, sharing knowledge is empowering every project stakeholder.

It is a best practice among effective project management philosophies build in check points to ensure a thorough understanding and to secure early buy-in from different stakeholder groups. The number of formal communication checkpoints should vary depending on the size of the project and on the number of stakeholders in your company.

A project communication plan is the written strategy for getting the right information to the right project stakeholders at the right time. Each stakeholder has different requirements for information as they participate in the project in different ways. For information to be used, it has to be delivered to its target users timely. As a project manager, while developing your communication plan, you need to decide how often to contact each stakeholder and with what information.

Your communication plan should include the following components:

1. The kickoff meeting. This establishes project timelines, required resources, agreed-upon outcomes for the project, reporting schedules and so on. The kick-off meeting serves two purposes. Firstly, it serves to introduce the project team and formalize the project management aspects of the overall project. Secondly, it provides an opportunity for the project team to receive a more detailed briefing from the client and to finalize user and stakeholder involvement.
2. A review meeting could be held at the end of any of the analysis, design, or implementation phases. Here, you discuss the outcomes of that phase and their bearing on how to proceed with the project. This meeting aims to create a shared understanding of the emphasis in the remaining phases of the project and allows the project team to reconsider any assumptions based on learnings so far.
3. A technical review meeting, if applicable, explains the design to the client’s technical team and gain any feedback about any implementation issues, before the design progresses too far. The goal would be to walk the client’s technical team through the high-level design concepts, showing them the paper designs and explaining both the rationale behind the different designs, and how we would expect each interaction to work.
4. Regularly scheduled milestone meetings. Make sure that these intervals are agreed upon by the client and that these meetings happen. Bring an agenda to each meeting to review every component of the project, wins, status and challenges. These elements should cover resources, costs and issues.
5. Final presentation. The presentation to client project stakeholders at the end is a crucial opportunity for your organization to understand the design so far, and the rationale it is based on.

Change Management: The Goal of Project Communication An often-mentioned buzzword in business circles, change management is really the core of project management communication. There are many “meanings” of change management, but for the purposes of this discussion, let’s keep it simple.

The first and most obvious definition of “change management” is that the term refers to the task of managing change. In the context of project management, change management is essentially the goal of the communication process and structure. The obvious is not necessarily unambiguous. Managing change is itself a term that has at least two meanings.

One meaning of “managing change” refers to the making of changes in a planned and managed or systematic fashion. The goal is to more effectively implement new methods and systems in an existing organization.

As we referred to in part 1 of this report, a very useful framework for thinking about the change process is problem solving. Interestingly, this is also how effective project management is approached. Managing change is seen as a matter of moving from one state to another, specifically, from the problem state to the solved state. Problem analysis is generally acknowledged as essential. Goals are set and achieved at various levels and in various areas or functions. Ends and means are discussed and related to one another. Careful planning is accompanied by efforts to obtain buy-in, support and commitment. The net effect is a transition from one state to another in a planned, orderly fashion.

The bottom line: change is a reality in any project situation. Therefore, project management inherently involves stimulating change within an organization. Some organizations are set up for this, others aren’t. In order to effectively affect change through your client project, make sure you understand that people resist change as natural parts of the process. By regularly communicating through various means and structures, you can ultimately overcome thosebarriers to ensure project success.

Check out these resources for more information on project and change management:

http://www.change-management.com/

http://www.strategy-business.com/resilience/rr00006

Finding the Elusive Balance

“We do not remember days, we remember moments.”-Cesare Pavese

Long, long ago, employees worked from 9-5, Monday through Friday. Sure, there were occasional exceptions, but most of the time, the boundaries between home and work lives were clear.

Those were the days.

The world certainly has changed, and in many ways has made our lives easier with technological advances making our lives more efficient. But at the same time, the boundaries between work and home are blurrier for many workers, especially if you own your own business and/or work from home. The challenge ahead for many of us is to strike that balance to create the meaningful moments in both our work and home lives that keep us going.

By strict definition, work-life balance is a person’s control over the conditions in their workplace. It is accomplished when an individual feels dually satisfied about their personal life and their paid occupation. It mutually benefits the individual, business and society when a person’s personal life is balanced with his or her own job. The work-life balance strategy offers a variety of means to reduce stress levels and increase job satisfaction in the employee while enhancing business benefits for the employer. In our increasingly hectic world, the work-life strategy seeks to find a balance between work and play.

It isn’t easy to juggle the demands of career and personal life. For most people, it’s an ongoing challenge to reduce stress and maintain harmony in key areas of their life. Here are some ideas to help you find the balance that’s best for you:

• Keep a log. Track everything you do for one week. Include work-related and non-work-related activities. Decide what’s necessary and satisfies you the most. Cut or delegate activities you don’t enjoy, don’t have time for or do only out of guilt. If you don’t have the authority to make certain decisions, talk to your supervisor.
• Manage your time. Organize household tasks efficiently. Doing one or two loads of laundry every day rather than saving it all for your day off, and running errands in batches rather than going back and forth several times are good places to begin. A weekly family calendar of important dates and a daily list of to-dos will help you avoid deadline panic.
• Rethink your cleaning standards. An unmade bed or sink of dirty dishes won’t impact the quality of your life. Do what needs to be done and let the rest go.
• Fight the guilt. Remember, having a family and a job is okay — for both men and women.
• Nurture yourself. Set aside time each day for an activity that you enjoy, such as walking, working out or listening to music. Unwind after a hectic workday by reading, practicing yoga or taking a bath or shower.
• Set aside one night each week for recreation. Discover activities you can do with your partner, family or friends, such as playing golf, fishing or canoeing. Making time for activities you enjoy will rejuvenate you.
• Get enough sleep. There’s nothing as stressful and potentially dangerous as working when you’re sleep-deprived. Not only is your productivity affected, but you can also make costly mistakes. You may then have to work even more hours to make up for these mistakes.
• Read up on it. Some good resources are “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff” by Richard Carlson and “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living” by Dale Carnegie.

Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan

The Small Business Owners Daily Work Plan

We all have emergencies that enter into our world. But if we let ourselves be driven by the latest & loudest, we never make progress towards our long term goals.

If we’re going to ‘advance the ball’, we need to Plan Our Work & Work Our Plan.

Successful business owners wake up each morning, assess their progress towards our goals, and make darn sure they take one step – as small as it may be — towards that goal.

Each day builds on the success of the previous day.

Unfortunately, most of us start our days just by picking up what’s left over from yesterday. We scan our emails, we pick up the latest emergency, and we let ourselves be victims to all the stuff coming at us.

If our work has no context – no meaning – we end up feeling overwhelmed. Worse, we don’t advance the most critical projects to our success and happiness.

It’s what Stephen Covey called putting the ‘Big Rocks First.’

In a famous example from his book, First Things First, Covey tells the story of a teacher in front of a class with a wide-mouth gallon jar. Next to the jar is a pile of fist-sized rocks.

After filling the jar to the top with the rocks, the teacher asks the class if the milk jug is full. The class answers, ‘Yes.’

The teacher then takes out a box of tiny pebbles underneath his desk and then places them into the container, topping it off.

The teacher asks again if the container is full? Tentatively, they answer ‘Yes’ again.

The teacher then takes out a bag of sand and pours it into the container filling it to the top. Then he takes water and pours it into the container.

He says ‘Ok, NOW it’s full?’

Read more

Selling in A Recession Obsession by Dean Langfitt

Originally recorded at BizCamp 2009 by Sound Video Productions

Dean Langfitt, Partner at The Ruby Group. Selling in a Recession Obsession – As news of the battered economy proliferates the media and consumer confidence stagnates to historic lows, nowhere does the impact hit closer to home than in the sales industry. That’s why it is important to have an effective strategy in place to take action when the economy is trending down. Learn from Dean Langfitt with Sandler Training at The Ruby Group the four areas of focus to thrive in any economy and a seven-step approach to gain control of your selling process.

Video Presentation: Don’t Make these 5 Mistakes in YOUR Business – By Anita Campbell

Anita spoke at our first BizCamp on a topic of interest to all of small business owners & entrepreneurs - Don’t Make these 5 Mistakes in YOUR Business (I Wish I Hadn’t)

In this discussion you’ll learn:

• How to make your business more profitable and not become a failure statistic, including practical advice on:
• How to price your products and services.
• How to master technology without becoming a programmer.
• When and how to spend money on marketing, without wasting it.
• Partnering with others to put growth into hyperdrive. And more.

Widely considered a “small business expert,” Anita Campbell serves as CEO of Anita Campbell Associates Ltd, a woman-owned consulting firm helping companies and organizations reach the small business market. As Publisher of several online media properties and syndicated content, Anita reaches over 1,000,000 small business owners and entrepreneurs annually. She is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Small Business Trends, an award-winning online publication.

Using an Egg-Timer To Increase Productivity

Procrastination can sneak up on us when we least expect it. Certainly, we’ve all been in situations where we’ve raced against the clock to finish tasks, only to find we could have done a more thorough and complete job – with more successful outcomes – if we had planned and prioritized better.

But never fear – there are simple yet powerful tools you can use to overcome procrastinating habits and make them a thing of the past. For any given task, using these strategies can make all the difference in achieving the real business outcomes for which you have worked so hard.

1. Set a budget for the task. You can think about this in terms of a time budget as you would for budget money items you would purchase. For time budgets, list out your tasks with the “budgeted” or approximate amount of time you think it will take to complete it. This places the task in perspective and may prompt you to prioritize your time differently. Read more