Inspired Project Teams

Audio:  Take Charge… Stop Playing the Victim [Time - 8:16, File Size - 7.7 MB]

“Life Law #2: You create your own experience.
Strategy:  Acknowledge and accept accountability for your life. Understand your role in creating results….
Life Law #4:  You cannot change what you do not acknowledge.
Strategy: Get real with yourself about life and everybody in it. Be truthful about what isn’t working in your life. Stop making excuses and start making results…
Life Law #5:  Life rewards action.
Strategy: Make careful decisions and then pull the trigger. Learn that the world couldn’t care less about thoughts without actions…”

– Dr. Phil McGraw in Life Strategies: Doing What Works, Doing What Matters

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These three Life Laws can be truly empowering. When I feel victimized by other people or circumstances that are “beyond my control,” I step back and mentally run through these Laws.

Here’s an example: Let’s say I have an ongoing relationship with a client who is driving my project teams crazy by making last minute changes to every project’s deliverables. Here’s how I might apply these Laws:

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Audio:  Make Time for Recreation [Time - 7:49, File Size - 7.3 MB]

“Do you know what the word ‘recreation’ means? It means ‘re-creating’ your energy, your enthusiasm. You’re no good to me all burnt out and crispy. So this weekend, go camping with your family or something… anything. Just don’t bring back your musty old, stressed-out self!”  – Anonymous supervisor, my first job out of grad school

“Rule #24:  One must pay close attention to workaholics: if they get going in the wrong direction, they can do a lot of damage in a short time. It is possible to overload them and cause premature burnout but hard to determine if the load is too much, since much of it is self generated.  It is important to make sure such people take enough time off and that the workload does not exceed 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 times what is normal.” – from One Hundred Rules for NASA Project Managers (Curator: James Atherton)

“I’ve created the concept of a holi-hour, a shortened version of a holi-day.  I allow myself at least an hour each day to relax totally.” — Susan Jeffers in Feel the Fear… And Do It Anyway

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Energy, enthusiasm, creativity, and the ability to interact pleasantly and productively… if you or your team is going without adequate time off, it is unlikely that they can muster any of these traits in a sustained way.  Simply put: Working around-the-clock without taking time for recreation is not heroic, nor is it even sensible. It can lead to mistakes, low-quality project results, and (worse) to burnt-out team members and even shattered personal lives.

The trouble is that many professionals — the top-knotch people we all want on our teams — may have accepted a level of overload in their lives when they were in grad school or serving internships that is simply unrealistic and unsustainable over the course of a career. It’s important to their long-term health, and the health of your organization, that they learn to value recreation as much as they value making high-quality professional contributions. The fact is, in the long run, quality results depend upon rested, invigorated people.

Greers Challenges…

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Audio:  Get High on Kindness [Time - 5:14, File Size - 4.9 MB]

“The positive effect of kindness on the immune system and on the increased production of serotonin in the brain has been proven in research studies. Serotonin is a naturally occurring substance in the body that makes us feel more comfortable, peaceful, and even blissful. … most anti-depressants… stimulate the production of serotonin chemically, helping to ease depression. Research has shown that a simple act of kindness directed toward another improves the functioning of the immune system and stimulates the production of serotonin in both the recipient of the kindness and the person extending the kindness. Even more amazing is that persons observing the act of kindness have similar beneficial results. Imagine this! Kindness extended, received, or observed beneficially impacts the physical health and feelings of everyone involved!” — Wayne Dyer in The Power of Intention: Learning to Co-Create Your World Your Way

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It’s simple: Wayne Dyer’s The Power of Intention is part of my everyday life. And for good reason. He weaves together the profound with the everyday and manages to leave you stimulated with your own ideas about how to apply his concepts in your life. For example: The simple, yet profound, idea from the quote above means that with a little practice (i.e., real, thoughtful practice… actually generating and encouraging small acts of kindness) you can create an entire project team or organization of high-on-serotonin, happier people. Wouldn’t that be great?

Greer’s Challenges...

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Audio:  Think Small [Time - 5:55, File Size - 5.5 MB]

“Conventional wisdom says that to beat your competitors you need to one-up them. If they have four features, you need five (or 15, or 25). If they’re spending x, you need to spend xx. If they have 20, you need 30. This sort of one-upping Cold War mentality is a dead-end… expensive, defensive, and paranoid… So what to do then? The answer is less. … [and] less means:

• Less features
• Less options/preferences
• Less people and corporate structure
• Less meetings and abstractions
• Less promises”

– from Getting Real: the Smarter, Faster, Easier Way to Build a Successful Web Application, by web-based application builder, 37signals.

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So… does your project really need to be that big and complicated? Are you sure it couldn’t be tighter, smaller, and a lot more fun?

Greer’s Challenges…

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Audio:  Today… Be Here, Now [Time - 5:10, File Size - 4.8 MB]

“Never confuse yourself by visions of an entire lifetime at once…remember that it is not the weight of the future or the past that is pressing upon you, but ever that of the present alone… the passing minute is every man’s equal possession, but what has once gone by is not ours.” – Marcus Aurelius in Meditations

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So… Is your project team living in the now? Or are they torturing themselves by ruminating over past difficulties or imagining future troubles?

Greer’s Challenges…

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Audio:  Find a Project Mantra [Time - 5:07, File Size - 4.7 MB]

“In my experience, there’s only one thing that will always steer you toward success: That’s to have a vision and to stick with it… Once I have a vision for a new venture, I’m going to ride that vision until the wheels come off…” [Law Number 1: See Your Vision and Stick With It.]” – Russell Simmons in Do You! 12 Laws to Access the Power in You to Achieve

Simmons also says:
“The word mantra comes from two Sanskrit words man, (‘to think’) and tra (‘tool’). So the literal translation is ‘a tool of thought.’ And that’s how mantras are used in Buddhist and Hindu practices, as tools that clear your mind of distractions. Because when you focus on repeating that mantra over and over again, soon the noise will die down and all you will hear is your inner voice.”

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Greer’s Challenges…

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So… what inspires you and your project teams?

Click on the Comment below and share your favorite quotes (from famous or not-so-famous people) and tell us how these have made your PM life a little better.

[NOTE: It might take a few hours to get your Comment approved. Spammers load up Comments with all manner of nastiness, so I personally read and approve all Comments before they get posted. Thanks for your patience! -- Mike G]