#pmot #pm #pmp #thanksgiving
Roeder Consulting would like to be among the first to wish all Roederites (this term was coined by a member of Roeder Consulting’s LinkedIn group) a happy and healthy, even efficient Thanksgiving holiday. May your turkey reach the table under budget and on schedule. Even if your country does not celebrate Thanksgiving, we would like to pause and reflect on the many things to be thankful for. Despite the myriad ways in which each of us might answer the question of what we are most thankful for, we all certainly have much to appreciate.
Thanksgiving may be one of the largest personal projects we undertake each year. Thanksgiving requires planning, risk mitigation, clear communications, and a healthy helping of patience. As most of you will know Thanksgiving holiday is mainly celebrated in the United States and Canada. In the United States, Thanksgiving is a mix of European and Native traditions to celebrate the harvest. In Canada, Thanksgiving is often traced back to explorer Martin Frobisher as a celebration of his surviving the trek from England to Canada as he attempted to find the Northwest Passage. As you enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner this year and reflect back on recent projects, you too might find yourself either celebrating the bountiful harvest of project success, or appreciating the reality of having surviving yet another one. Either way, well done.
Thanksgiving projects— cooking a large meal, traveling cross-country, or making it through a family gathering —are often a source of stress. The liquor cabinet, chocolate stash, and football may help you get through it all – but so too will your project management skills. In particular, “sixth sense” skills— communicating with effectiveness, team building, and achieving buy in are likely to make the difference between a peaceful dinner and a day of mayhem you would like to forget but will not soon be able to. In Roeder Consulting’s classes we routinely discuss the six disciplines of A Sixth Sense For Project Management®. One of the disciplines is Adaptability. Thanksgiving is the perfect time to reflect on the importance of Adaptability. Whether it is adapting your travel plans or deciding to depart from your diet to respectfully gulp down Aunt Bethany’s green gelatin dessert, or finding a way to talk to your goofy cousins, adaptability is a key to Thanksgiving success. Be a Chameleon with a Core(TM). Adapt when necessary, but stick to your core when it comes to issues of morality, values, and firm convictions you know to be true.
Thanksgiving is also a time for Diplomacy, another sixth sense discipline. Does everyone sitting around the Thanksgiving table agree on how to resolve important and difficult questions? There often is no better test of our diplomatic skills than listening to your uncle’s extreme political views without gagging on a turkey bone. Deploy the deep breathing and mental tricks we teach. Take at least three deep breaths to keep the blood flowing to your frontal cortex where you rationally process ideas! Don’t let the emotions from your amygdala take over. Whatever happens, whatever crazy or difficult things end up being said, be sure to exercise Clear Communication to make sure you are being clear in the points you are trying to make. Many Thanksgiving conflicts arise from simple misunderstandings. Thanksgiving is also a time to recharge our batteries and prepare for the next battle at work or job transition. It is a time to listen to our whole body (brain, heart and gut). Fine tune your Awareness of these sensations and improve your ability to make Whole Body Decisions(TM). If all else fails, just like any other project, it’s good ol’ fashioned Persistence that will get you through. Whatever your plans– a large dinner, a small group gathering, or a quiet dinner alone in a lovely, well-lighted place— we here at Roeder Consulting wish you all the best during the project of the holidays.
And, of course, do be careful with Aunt Bethany’s green gelatin dessert. You actually don’t have to finish it.
Filed under: Soft Skills, The Balanced Approach | Tagged: a sixth sense for project management, adaptability, awareness, balanced approach, change, clear communication, communication, diplomacy, interpersonal skills, journey, newsletter, people skills, persistence, PMI, PMP, project leadership, project management, project success, roeder, roeder consulting, sixth sense, training, tres roeder, whole body, whole body decisions | Leave a comment »
Project Managers are constantly called on to gain support for their ideas. Whether it’s “selling” project objectives to a skeptical stakeholder, encouraging a human resources executive to provide more people for the project team, or convincing a vendor to support a change in scope, projects are one opportunity to earn support after another.
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