Transformation & Leadership - Insider Tips

With the whole world celebrating women’s day, I wondered how celebrating a day can give some more light to different women in society. We celebrate so many different kinds of days, but when we celebrate who we are it’s not only because of what we do with our life but also because of what we are gifted with!

And definitely, a woman’s capability when it comes to giving birth and embracing new life & nurturing it is incomparable to any other roles one can take.

When I was in my 20's, I was once told by my senior while handing over a responsibility that "you should take care of this like its your own baby", That time I didn't have the idea of how tedious and important the task is. Like motherhood, a project can have a complete transformation for us. More responsibility, juggling with multiple tasks, acquiring new skills and most importantly a feeling of altruism.

Being a MOM is a role far more powerful than a project manager. You take control of a new life, plan things for him, do risk assessments for his daily activities, plan a budget too and all without any pay. It's such a natural flow of emotions. 

Not to forget that many women also take a career break and devote them fully to their being MOM Project. Miss India (Miss World 2017) Ms. Manusi Chillar, had rightly answered the question asked to her during the contest. When the judges asked her what should be the highest paying job in this world, her answer was a mothers job should be the highest paying in terms of love and respect.

Let's respect all mothers in this world for all they do in raising a child with the countless sacrifices.

Happy Mother's Day! 

We are approaching the end of this jinxed year , “2020” and there were so many things we experienced, learnt and implemented.

Among these few things, I bring the voice of our authors on what they think was their “Biggest lesson learnt and one change they want to see next year"

Let's hear from them:

Steve Salisbury:

Personally? Take time to go outside, walk, breathe, reflect and regenerate. Working full-time from home with little to no human interaction means you must find other ways to take time away from the office. Professionally? Stay the course with the fundamentals of your game. While we have had to adjust to some of the "How's," most of our "What's" remain the same. For 2021, I want to see greater focus on human leadership. Leaders must develop relationships with their employees now more than ever. Leaving them home with little to no contact is not healthy for them, or for your organization. As it appears we'll still be dealing with Covid-19 for awhile, this remains a crucial activity.

Tony Saldanha

 I think the biggest learning from this year is that every issue is also an opportunity. This has been a rough year personally and professionally for most people. Life and business is not what it used to be. In my case, I stopped traveling for keynote speaking and consulting. However, it has been a great opportunity to start new ventures. I have a founded a new organization to create global standards and certify companies on Global Business Services. And, I've taken the opportunity to start podcasting. I think the change going forward is the importance of not losing the lessons of agility that we learned in 2020. There's a real danger that we all "go back to normal". That would be a mistake. There is real value in "crisis-like collaboration", and in "agility in dealing with change". Let's make sure we keep the good lessons from 2020!

Ruth Pearce

The biggest lesson I have learned is that it really is OK to practice self-care and not to overcommit. I cannot help anyone else if I don't take care of myself. One change I want to see next year is that across the world we develop more respect - for each other, for the planet, for other creatures, for everything!

Carole Osterweil

The sense of Walking in Fog and the pressure 'to keep on walking - even though the way forward is far from clear' is even more prevalent than I had appreciated! I asked over 200 Project Professionals about their experiences. 84% said they are Walking in Fog at least half the time. Of these, 10% will admit it in an informal setting, 83% are not brave enough to do so in a formal setting, 7% had not admitted it to themselves. By keeping it secret, we are burdening ourselves unnecessarily. Your sponsors, stakeholders and team members are Walking in Fog too. Remember the story of The Emperor's New Clothes. It took one kid to say the Emperor was naked and reality prevailed. Liberate yourselves and your projects. When you are in fog - talk about it - in all settings.

Kavitha Gunasekaran

My biggest lessons: 1. Never waste a good crisis to learn the hardest yet most important lessons of life. 2. Getting the love and affection of family and being blessed with good health are the pillars of happiness. 3. An adversity nudges us to identify our true north and fulfill the purpose of our lives which is predominantly to make a difference to the lives of as many people as possible. One change that I would like to see next year would be healthier and happier people on this earth.

Ryan Gottfredson-

Uncertainty and complexity is only going to increase. To be able to navigate the increasing uncertainty and complexity, we need to develop vertically (as opposed to horizontally), which means that we need to elevate our mental development and maturity.

Nic Jain-

My heart goes out to all that were affected by the #Pandemic. Best we can do in honor of those that had to pay the price is to use the lessons learnt for those in our circle of influence to make it better. Make digital transformation grassroot – now even the most remote villagers know how to get on a zoom call , why not use this opportunity to enrich their lives going forward with educating on what they need to know in order to succeed right where they are.  Use #COVID19 as a stepping stone to take our planet to the next level. Picture is from last PMI event Jan, 2020 Philadelphia. Looking forward to the world getting to the new & better normal. 

When I see, so many changes around us, like the seasons, weather, government, policies and so on. One thing that comes to my mind, these are the changes that happen on a defined period. These are known changes, can say in better words, sometimes planned too. But do they definitely bring a positive effect?

Recently some of the very unplanned changes were implemented in the society and it was for good. We see adaptability playing a vital role in the businesses and even in the society. 

When I ponder upon some of the works of the great biologist, like Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, which explains that individuals best suited to their environment are most likely to survive, I see the significance of adaptability. Another biologist Richard Dawkins in his book called "The Selfish Gene" writes about the idea of the replication genes as the central force behind evolution. So, in a way replication and adaptation gives us the roots of changes in the nature. What we learn here as the nature has its great ways to adapt and replicate, so can the project in the modern day world.

What's the best way to plan for the changes which are periodic and anticipatory?

The best plan is the one that gives us the best results in the project. And once a plan is proved to be good, the same can be replicated for the periodic changes with minor tweaking to it. Then we can call these changes as periodic and planned.

A question comes to mind, how we account for storms and earth quacks? There we can develop a probability and impact matrix to asses the risks. Like the meteorologist and seismologist warn and forecast risk and impact, the same way the Project managers do it for projects. The evolution of processes and management has happened with time and efforts. The processes which got popular and were replicated fast became prominent. But again the planned changes to them gave new and better fit for the organisation and people.

For periodic changes too, we need to refer the lesson learned repository, as the time may bring some better results if we look at the history of it.

So, dear readers, what you change periodically in your projects and how you plan for it?

My best friend gave me a review of a product and suggested to give it a try. Since, I know that her reviews are always good, I gave it a try. Suggestions play a vital role in one's decision, importantly if it has been given from an influential and powerful stakeholder in a project or in our life.

In organisations as well, the scheme of suggestions and improvements are prevalent. Some keep it as an idea generation ballot box, others keep as continuous improvement projects and rest just implement it weighing the pros and cons.

When I was working for a public sector firm, I found that the way of working was like following a set of rules. Follow the same process, refer the lesson learned repository and execute accordingly. There was little space to include new ideas, new processes and what I meant here is give a thought to new suggestions.

How can we better adapt to including a mechanism of trying to let Innovative worthy suggestions included?

Here are some ways we can:

1) Introducing an employee suggestion scheme: One of the oraganisation I have worked for has a suggestion box and a portal where employees could freely submit their new ideas, improvement steps or some benchmarked initiatives. Even, the top three suggestions/ideas were awarded every quarterly which gave recognition and connectivity to the employee.

2) Including as a training project: With the upliftment and development of current employees, organisation can get them more involved by encouraging them into taking short term training projects and bring new ideas and suggestions to the team.

3) As a part of the performance appraisal process: I am sure each and every employee waits for this process and puts his/her best efforts to get the best rating for their previous years' contributions. But, if he/she also gets a chance to think/plan/write one or two development projects they want to take the coming year, they would feel delighted. Isn't this sounds interesting to both of them?

4) Open suggestions during the exit interviews: It is sad when an employee leaves an organisation, but its an inevitable process. Many of these can still do a great help to the departing organisation by putting their unadulterated views in the interview or paper that may help the organisation improve.

I want to add a quote from Mr. Harvey Mackay here:

"The employees who share innovative ideas may also be the folks who have some hidden talents that would help incorporate their suggestions"

On the 151st birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, I am thinking of the evolution of leadership skills and how it has been influenced by the history. Celebrating the charismatic and  transformational leaders, help us re-capitulate some of their, extra-ordinary skills and the success stories/mantra.

One of the best way to do this is to read about the work they did and how such a huge wave of "change" was established. Here I present three of the best quotations from Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi) and how I relate to them.

1) You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

This is one of the most inspiring sayings of this great leader. It is so true, when we talk about changing something, we tend to exclude ourselves. Inclusiveness and being an example of the change can have such a strong impact, was proved by him.

2) Live as if you were to die tomorrow;  learn as if you were to live forever.

Living in the moment and present will always have the positive effect. Doing the very best of yourself, today and giving it the fullest will surely present the best outcome tomorrow. We are learning so many things, but are we not unlearning some good things too? Both success and failure in our life gives us the best lessons to remember forever and also pass on to next generations (what we call the lesson learned repository).

3) A man is but the product of his thoughts; what he thinks, he becomes

This is truly the secret of success of the greatest leaders of the world. The vision, goals and mission of your life, project or organisation should be really well defined. Working/thinking towards/inline with your goal/vision/mission always helps one achieve success. Being optimistic bring positive frequency in the environment.

We are lucky to have such great leaders in the past. Evolution in the leadership style has added value to the work being done in the present, but the primary traits remain the same.

Empathy, Integrity and Vision