Commander's Intent

Do you know the saying “no plan survives contact with the customer?” It comes from the military saying “no plan survives contact with the enemy”. Since the army knows that this is true they came up with a high level concept in the 1980s that is called the Commander’s intent (CI).  CI is a crisp and clear statement that is used at the top of every order. It specifies the plan’s goal and the desired end-state of the operation.  On different levels of the organization there can be different CI’s.  A high level example might be “Make Afghanistan peaceful”.  The Army suggests 2 questions to arrive at the CI

1.       If we do nothing else during tomorrow’s mission,  we must …

2.       The single, most important thing the we must do tomorrow is …

Read “Made to stick” from Chip & Dan Heath if you want to learn more concerning CI and many more valuable concepts. What is your Commander's Intent?

Change

Is change good or bad? I guess it depends on what kind of change it is and how you perceive the change. A change can be an exciting opportunity to improve a situation or it can be the first step in the wrong direction.
Most of the changes in our lives form first in our heads and then they happen in real life. So make sure you approach change as positive as possible. That sounds much easier than it is! Think about a Merger & Acquisition situation or on a more personal level on a separation from your partner. These are big changes and they are not easy to deal with. Another example could be a project that you get assigned in your company. Let's say it is a very challenging and critical project for your company and you know that senior management is paying very close attention to this particular project is this good or bad for you? Is this something great for you because you can show what you and your team can do or is it something scary?  Your judgement of the change will determine how you approach it. Don't waste energy and fight the change but instead try to make the best of it!

Business life and personal life

Is there such a thing as a business and a personal life? I mean can you have one set of values in one life and another set of values in another life? How many hours do you spend at work every week. A week has 24x7 hours, so 168 hours. We all have to sleep so let's assume that is 7 hours a night, which means 49 hours per week. This leaves us on average with 119 hours per week. Now how much of this time do you use for your job? Let's go with some low and conservative numbers (at least for Managers and Key Contributors) and say it's around 9 hours a day, 5 times a week. That adds up to 45 hours. In addition to the job itself let's assume you have some light commute. Again let's estimate low and assume it's only 40min a day. That is ~ 3.5hours of commute per week. Then how often do you think about work when you're actually NOT at work. This includes things like thinking about a presentation you have to prepare, an email you have to follow up on, telling your partner about a challenge at work etc. I assume 1.5 hours every day. This ends up to be 10.5 hours per week. If we add all the job related hours we end up with 45h+3.5h+10.5h = 59 hours. So out of our 119 hours we spend 59 hours with our job and 60 hours on our personal life. Your Job is 50% of your waking hours! Every day, every week, every month and every year. This is your life. Make sure that your business and personal values are closely aligned otherwise you waste your life.

Building a strong team

In many companies Managers talk a lot about how important people are but what do YOU do to really show your team how important they are? Lip service is not enough! In addition to your company standard benefits like 401K, Health, Dental, Eye Insurance etc. what is important to your team? You have to meet with them on a regular basis to find out and to stay on top of this topic. If people are taken seriously and see that you, as the manager, put in a real effort to help them move forward that makes a world of difference. Unfortunately many Managers (incl. Project Managers) are overwhelmed with this role and are more focused on themselves than their team. Instead of stepping over your team, to appear as the hero, make your team stronger. Mentor your people and provide them with the necessary connections and advice. It requires some effort and sometimes the effort will be wasted but most of the time you will get much more benefit from this than you think.

Do what you say you will do!

Communication is a key factor in every relationship because it allows us to clearly state to each other what we need and what our objectives are. Therefore it is very important to further develop our communication skills at every opportunity. Some people are very good in 1 on 1 discussions, some are very good in giving speeches, some excel in written communication and some people are simply very likeable and gain credit through that. In all these cases, and many others, though the most important aspect is what follows the communication. To do what we say we will do is one of the most important things in relationships. We have to think before we communicate because we will be held accountable for the things we say.

Take back control

Is it up to you or the people around you how you feel? Or does the weather influence your mood? There can be many things that influence how we feel, good or bad. Do you want to gain some more control over how you can deal with these uninvited feelings? If you do then you should have a look at Victor Frankl's book "Man's search for meaning".  We might not be able to influence everything that impacts us (e.g. the weather won't get nice just because we feel depressed) but we can influence how we react to these things. This is much more powerful than you think. Read the book and see how powerful this can be.

Ask for forgiveness instead of permission

If you want to achieve change you sometimes have to ask for forgiveness instead of permission. In many organizations it is challenging to get any changes approved without hard ROI (Return on Investment) data.
Now what do you do if you don't have that data and you can't get that data in a reasonable amount of time?
First of all you really have to believe in the change that you are proposing and you should have some basic data that shows why this is a good idea! Show some user/customer benefits. Who will benefit from your idea and why? Then you have to determine are you ready to put in some serious personal time and effort to show that you are correct? Are you passionate enough to find other Teams or individuals to support you? Let's assume you do, then it helps to keep the effort small and run some kind of pilot project to check if your idea is really as good as you think it is. Once you can show that your idea works on a smaller scale you have a much better chance to move forward with your idea on a larger scale. Good luck and just do it!

Take care of yourself

If you are in a position where you do what you love to do for a living, time doesn't really matter that much.  In this case your work is your hobby and you wouldn't know how to use your time any better anyway. As long as that position provides sufficient financial means you are in a great position to achieve personal and professional satisfaction. Alas, for many people that is not the case. They might love what they do but they don't want to do it 24/7/365! I am in this category and I think that is fine!
If you are also one of these people then you should ensure that you balance your time between work and home effectively. Notice that this is not just a saying that you use to show your boss how dedicated you are but something important for your longterm health and well being as well as your effectiveness at work. To be successful also means to know when to say "No". Take care of yourself and actively schedule time to recharge your batteries! Note that in some cases the work just needs to get done and you have to suck it up and do whatever needs to be done, whenever it needs to be done. But that should not be your default.

Do more and better work

One challenge in the work environment is that most of the time multiple tasks need to be addressed at the same time. Is that true for you? If it is, does it have to be this way? I don't think so! If you are an exceptional multi-tasker then this might not present a problem for you but if you are more of an effective sequential worker then this is a problem.
In any case, one reason why we have this challenge is that we miss to prioritize our work. Many of us just go ahead and work on whatever task comes our way or whatever task we like to work on.  This is not a good use of anyones time. Prioritize the tasks that come up and then work on them in priority order.
It is simple but it is not easy. On a typical day when you attend meetings, check emails you also have to prepare other meetings, get a report out to your team, follow up with other teams to ensure the system or process requirements were correctly understood and many other things. Instead of just reacting to whatever comes your way put some effort into regaining control of your time. Don't jump on every task. Think and prioritize before you start the next task.

Little effort - big return

Have you ever noticed that the "little things" in life are very often the "big things"? What do I mean by that? Let's look at an example everybody understands. When you have a partner you do not come home every night and bring a present, right? Even when you are madly in love and can't get enough of each other. What you (hopefully) do though is treat each other nicely. If you want to have a good relationship you have to treat each other accordingly.  In a Business setting it is very similar. There are many little things that can make a world of difference, they don't cost much beside your good will. Some examples are saying "Thank you" more often or letting someone finish their sentence without interrupting. It can even be as trivial as a nice greeting in an email. Try it and see that a little appreciation and respect goes a long way.

Simple Language

Do you have problems to understand when somebody talks to you in acronyms? If you do then you are not alone. While it might be ok in your professional group to use acronyms, many people outside of your group, and maybe even some inside, will not understand what you are refering to. The point of communication is that people understood you, isn't it. If you are not sure if an acronym or term is commonly understood replace it with another, simpler term. In some cases you might have to use examples to make it really clear what you are talking about. Don't be afraid to lose time when you do that because in almost all cases that I have run into it actually saved time. It's simply a good habit and it helps to be clear and unambiguous.

Time

Today I heard (again) about an interesting question from Marshall Goldsmith. It is not a scientific study but based on him asking 10,000s of people around the world a question.  He is asking people what percentage of their communication is based on either telling others how smart, special or wonderful they are or how stupid, bad or inept some other people are.  Based on his feedback the average number is 65%.  That is a lot of time even if the number is only somewhat correct. If this is anywhere near your answer to this question, then you have a first hint on where you can save time.

Coming to terms with decision making

I just read this article from Marshall Goldsmith's book "Mojo ...". It is an excellent book and this paragraph sums up a couple of important points. Read it and learn from it.
"Every decision in the world is made by the person who has the power to make that decision - not the "right" person, or the "smartest" person, or the "most qualified" person, and in most cases not you. If you influence this decision maker, you will make a positive difference. If you do not influence this person, you will not make a positive difference. Make peace with this. You will have a better life! And, you will make more of a positive difference in your organization and you will be happier."
This approach sounds simple doesn't it. But it is certainly not easy! Treat your decision makers like they are your best customers.

Up to you

You might not recognize it but you probably have more influence than you realize. That is true at work and it is also true in your personal life. It is up to you to use your influence to improve things. Are you aware of how your attitude impacts your day?  In this context it is important to notice that an authority position obviously provides more opportunity to impact outcomes but even without that official position you can have influence. Instead of focusing on decisions that you can't influence, focus on the ones that you can.  Let's look at an example. If an organization decides that they need another Merger to grow their business and you are at the lower or midlevel of the organization you will have no say in what is going to happen. So there is no point in dwelling on these thoughts for long because you can't influence it. What you can influence though is your attitude towards Mergers and to your (future) team in general. You can see a merger as an opportunity or as a threat. You can also come to work with an open mind and look for the good things that you can build on or you can focus on the negative things. Whatever you decide will heavily influence your day and the day of the people around you. Are you ready to be a positive influence for yourself and others?