Disciplined Agile

This is the sixth and final part series that examines and explores how we might be able to use our personal and professional values the shape the future.

In today’s blog we will explore HONESTY.  

Please share what are your perspectives on honesty. How do you apply it to lead and create the future.

The PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct describes honesty as follows:

“Honesty is our duty to understand and act in a truthful manner both in our communications and in our conduct”

https://www.pmi.org/about/ethics/code

Take a blank page and write out in your own words what HONESTY means to you? Write out why it is important.

Reflect on how the power of honesty can be used as a tool to shape your journey through the new realities of our post-covid-19 world.

Honesty is more than not telling lies, it is doing what is moral and just. Being honest means having integrity, a moral compass, being trustworthy, not spreading rumors, not saying one thing behind people’s backs and then being different in front of them. Honesty is not telling people what we think they want to hear so that they will like us and provide us with favors and opportunities. This is a passive form of dishonesty.

Honesty means being who we say we are, saying what we will do and doing what we said, it means following through on our commitments.

Honesty means being open to both positive and negative feedback. It is surprising how many people do not know how to take compliments or hearing positive things about themselves. And equally how many people only hear what they want to hear, filtering out things that are negative or uncomfortable.

• How often do you ask others for feedback and really listened?
• How do you respond to negative feedback or criticism?
• How do you deal with people who are stating half-truths?
• How do you feel when you know you have told a lie?
• How do you feel about challenging people with uncomfortable truths?

The future is wide open, waiting for us to create it. What do you want to do with it?

How are you going to use your HONESTY to create the future of your family, your work and your relationship with yourself?

There are many things that we cannot choose in life, but our most important choices of all, who we are, how we show up, what we stand for and how we create the future through our values – these choices are in our complete control.

Please share in your comments your thoughts on the importance of values, so we can all learn from each other.

How are you going to use HONESTY to create the future through the chaos and turbulence of your new realities?

RESPECT

This is the fifth of a six-part series that examines and explores how we might be able to use our personal and professional values the shape the future. In today’s blog we will explore RESPECT. 

Please share what are your perspectives on fairness. How do you apply it to lead and create the future.

The PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct describes respect as follows:
“Respect is our duty to show a high regard for ourselves, others, and the resources entrusted to us. Resources entrusted to us may include people, money, reputation, the safety of others and natural or environmental resources”

https://www.pmi.org/about/ethics/code

Respect means accepting ourselves for who we are.
Our relationship with ourselves sets the tone for all other relationship we have with other people, compliance, regulatory, legal, environmental and shareholder implications.

Respectful leadership means treating everyone, regardless of rank, status or position – with the same genuine regard and consideration, you would like them to give you.

Respect creates a culture of trust and openness. It encourages people to speak their minds and share hard truths in ways that are maintains the dignity and honor. We cultivate respect in the culture by expressing a genuine interest in others, providing recognition and positive feedback, noticing when people do great things, being open and transparent about what is going on, taking others concerns seriously, and ensuring that when people feel wronged, that action is taken to remedy the concerns.

How respectful are you?

• How do you listen fully, without assuming you already knew what others are saying?
• How do you avoid telling someone what they want to hear so they will like you?
• How do you ensure every decision involves or takes into consideration the people it will affect?
• How do you listen openly to people who disagree with you to see what they can teach you?
• How do you respond to people who speak badly to you about other people behind their back?
• How do you ensure financial prudence and removal of non-value-add costs and activities?
• How do you take the effects on local communities and the environment into consideration?

When people say values cannot be measured, they have not been asked these hard questions.

The future is wide open, waiting for us to create it. How do you want to create it?

How are you going to use RESPECT to create the future of your family, your work and your relationship with yourself?

There are many things that we cannot choose in life, but our most important choices of all, who we are, how we show up, what we stand for and how we create the future through our values – these choices are in our complete control.

Please share in your comments your thoughts on the importance of values, so we can all learn from each other.

How are you going to use RESPECT to create the future through the chaos and turbulence of your new realities?

FAIRNESS

This is the fourth of a six-part series that examines and explores how we might be able to use our personal and professional values the shape the future. In today’s blog we will explore FAIRNESS. 

Please share what are your perspectives on fairness. How do you apply it to lead and create the future.

The PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct describes responsibility as follows:
“Fairness is our duty to make decisions and act impartially and objectively. Our conduct must be free from competing self-interest, prejudice and favoritism”

https://www.pmi.org/about/ethics/code

Take a minute to write out in your own words what FAIRNESS means to you and how it can be used as a precision tool to shape your future through the new realities of a post-covid-19 world..

In the midst of a crisis, fear of the unknown often provokes people to blame others and lash out at people who look and sound different.

Diversity and inclusion is much more than a legal remedy to social imbalances and bias. In nature the more diversity there is in an ecosystem the more resilient and healthier the system is as a whole.

Fairness begins with being objective about what we do right and wrong.

Fairness is not the same as equality. Equality means giving everyone the same rights and opportunities, regardless of circumstances. Fairness means giving everyone what they deserve.

Fairness is about being balanced, impartial and unbiased. It is about what is right and reasonable in the way we treat ourselves and each other. Fairness arises when we are dealing with differences, how others are treated and how we interpret our own freedom

Some people do not treat themselves fairly. They are overly self-critical, struggle with compliments and take their own good nature or granted. When this happens, they struggle with setting boundaries, do not always know where to say “No” and how to stand in their own power.

The primary step is to uncover our own “unconscious bias”. This requires us to slow down and step back, reflect on our own thinking, decisions and actions. It is also important to seek feedback from people around us, both those we trust but also the ones who we do not have a good relationship, as they may be more willing to challenge us.

How fair are you?

• What are your conscious and unconscious biases?
• How do you notice and address unfairness in yourself (self-?
• How do you notice and address unfairness in others?
• How do you improve and increase fairness in the teams and organisations you are a part of?

Think for a minute about how you feel when others have been unfair and treated you in an unconsidered way. This is how others feel when you are unfair with them.

It is important to feel what fairness is in your stomach and your skin, and why it is important.

When people say values cannot be measured, they have not asked these hard questions of themselves.

The future is wide open, waiting for us to create it.

We can follow others, or we can be leaders, we can inspire others to lead. How are you going to use your FAIRNESS to create the future of your family, your work and your relationship with yourself?

There are many things that we cannot choose in life, but our most important choices of all, who we are, how we show up, what we stand for and how we create the future through our values – these choices are in our complete control.

Please share in your comments your thoughts on the importance of values, so we can all learn from each other.

How are you going to use FAIRNESS to create the future through the chaos and turbulence of your new realities?

This is part of a six-part series that examines and explores how we might be able to use our personal and professional values the shape the future. In today’s blog we will explore RESPONSIBILITY. 

Please read this and share what are your perspectives on responsibility and how you use it to manage work, lead change and create the future.

The PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct describes responsibility as follows:
 “Our duty is to take the ownership for decisions we make or fail to make, the actions we take or ail to take and the consequences that result”

https://www.pmi.org/about/ethics/code

As we move into a post-COVID-19 world, being responsible for creating our future has become more critical now than ever.

Response-ability is our ability to respond and fulfill our accountability.

Our reaction arises out of a nervous instinct. A reaction shoots automatically from our subconscious mind with  no filtering or conscious choice. The reaction may trigger unintended consequences. This is why there is no such word as reactionability, as it would be a contradiction.

Our response comes from our intuition, it is the result of a conscious choice. When we respond we tap into our wisdom, we apply a chosen discipline. The choices we make may be intuitive, and subconscious as driving or riding a bicycle, but they are measured in terms of their impact on our lives and others.

The distinction between reacting and responding becomes particularly important in a time of stress and crisis because when there is danger, we are more likely to say or do something that is going to harm ourselves or others.

Our ability to respond is a discipline. The self-determination we apply is dependent on our maturity.

This is why Disciplined Agile is the foundation of requisite agility. It is not agility for the sake of agility but a conscious response to changes that are occurring in the environment and in business.

How response-able are you?

• Have you ever challenged or reported someone who is being unethical or doing something illegal?
• Have you ever failed to follow through or fulfill a promise or commitment you have made? 
• Have you ever taken what others say or do as personal rather a reflection of who they are?
• Have you ever blamed others for how you feel?
• Have you ever cut off, shamed or belittled others to feel good about yourself?
• Have you ever broken the law or taken advantage of a situation when no one is looking?
• Have you ever shared a confidence, knowing no one will find out?

Take a minute about how you felt when others irresponsibility has affected you and your work.

When people say values cannot be measured, they have not asked these hard questions of themselves.

It is important to feel what responsibility means is in your stomach and your skin, and why it is important.

The future is wide open, waiting for us to create it. What do you want to do with it?

How are you going to use your RESPONSE-ABILITY to create the future of your family, your work and your relationship with yourself?

How are you creating a context that allows not only you but those who you live with and work with to grow towards response-ability?

There are many things that we cannot choose in life, but our most important choices of all, who we are, how we show up, what we stand for and how we create the future through our values – these choices are in our complete control.

Please share in your comments your thoughts on the importance of values, so we can all learn from each other.

How are you going to use RESPONSIBILITY to create the future through the chaos and turbulence of your new realities?

Our values shape and define who we are. Our values are the sum of our beliefs, needs and assumptions. 

Some people go through their whole life unaware of the values that shape their judgments and relationships. 

When we are aware of our values, they guide us, they open our eyes, they enable us to sense what is going on in our own journey and how we relate to others and how they relate to us.

When we are not aware of values, it can be like changing lanes without checking our blind spot. We can end up in perpetual conflicts and breakdowns.

When get wrapped up in our own assumptions. When we get trapped in trying to explain everything through projections. When we get caught up in behaviors (who said what, who did what to who), not their root cause. Imagine a relationship that is a perpetual accident.

When we are blind to our own values and how they shape our thinking and actions. When we are blind to other peoples values. We call this values-myopia. Values-myopia will wreck not only projects, but also entire lives. 

This can mean the difference between success and project failure at work. This is why PMI has published the our core values of project management. 

This can mean the difference between the fulfillment of our intimate relationships at home or the most important personal relationships of our life being damaged for life. 

The difference is entirely up to us. 

When we are conscious of our values we can use them to as precision tools like a compass to navigate through vulnerability, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.

The four PMI Core Values are presented in the PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct:

• Responsibility
• Honesty
• Fairness
• Respect

These four PMI Values “…describe the expectations that we have or ourselves and our fellow practitioners in the global project management community. It articulates the ideals to which we aspire as well as the behaviors that are mandatory in our professional and volunteer roles”

https://www.pmi.org/about/ethics/code

Values are the foundation of effective project and disciplined agile leadership.

Our shared values form the basis of the culture we inhabit.

Our values are the basis for change and how results are achieved. The same values can take on completely different meanings for individuals, given their depth of development and self-awareness. 

Values-driven leadership has always been important in project management. In an agile environment this discipline is crucial as the transparency across all roles and functions taps the potential that resides within each individual and between people. 

Dialogue about values is healthy. This clarity of communication can allow potentially destructive conflicts to be anticipated and turned into creative conflicts that drive creativity and innovation.

In other words, people working together may have different values, even conflicting values, but when these are understood and appreciated, they can allow for creative conflict that creates something that is greater than the sum of the parts. This discipline is not easy. But this can be the difference between failure and greatness. 

What are your driving values? Take a minute. Grab a piece of paper and write out the three or four values that are the most important to you in your home and work life. 

What are the shared values of the teams you work in? How close are these to the four PMI Core Values? If the shared values of the teams you work in are not defined, what if - as an experiment - you were to use the four PMI Core Values as precision tools for driving excellence?

These two steps will enable you turn your values into a precision tool, a proactive way of creating the future.

1. ASPIRED VALUES: At the beginning of each day, reflect on your three or four driving values. Capture in a journal or notebook how will you apply your driving values in the key encounters and decisions in the day ahead? Just thinking through these questions will alter the way you experience yourself  and how show up for others and how you are experienced by others. 
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2. ACTUALIZED VALUES: Through the day as you deal with people and make decisions, reflect in real time on how your values are being embodied or denied in your decisions and actions. At the end of each day conduct a retrospective. Journal how your values affected:

• YOURSELF: How true am I to my values?  
• OTHERS: How well are the values of the people around me aligned?
• ALL: How well am I aligned with the values of the institutions I belong to and vice versa? (e.g., marriage, family, community, association, business, etc.,)

It is important to ask others for feedback on specific aspects of the ways in which you relate and lead and to carve out quality time to provide constructive feedback to others. 

The more proactively you do this, the more your values will shape your personal brand. This will allow you to attune into how your leadership presence is experienced and valued by the world.

Being values-driven transforms how we navigate through the chaos and turbulence of our new realities.

How are you going to use your VALUES to create the future of your family, your work and your relationship with yourself?

There are many things that we cannot choose in life, but our most important choices of all, who we are, how we show up, what we stand for and how we create the future through our values – these choices are in our complete control.

Please share in your comments your thoughts on the importance of values in your work and life, so we can all learn from each other.

How are you going to use values to create the future through the chaos and turbulence of your new realities?