Eckhart Tolle, author of The Power of Now and A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, speaks of a time paradox in which we perceive what we are currently doing as an obstacle to what we might really want to be or think we should be doing.
This perception will reduce your ability to get what you are doing done well. It leads to rushing - getting it over with - and rushing generally results in poor decisions, poor performance and unnecessary rework. The perception that the ‘next’ thing is the really important thing to do also leads to paying less than full attention to the work at hand. There is the wasted energy of thinking thoughts like “I really have to get onto the real work” or “I wish this was over”. With less than full attention, the task at hand will take longer than it could and will probably be poorly executed. Further, we lose the pleasure and power of the doing of the work (no matter what it is) as a focused meditation.
It is always now. No one can change the present just as no one can change the past. We can change the immediate and long term future. If you are doing something that needs to be done, then do it with full involvement; not as something in the way but as a something important and worthy of concentrated effort in itself. If it doesn’t need to be done, if it doesn’t add value or if it causes harm, then stop doing it.
What do you find that you rush through or treat as a chore or as an obstacle to getting to do the things you really want to be doing?
I am just back from a week long silent meditation retreat. Not a very long time in meditation circles, but enough to change perspective by moving from a fairly fast paced, multifaceted life into silence and meditation and then back to the day to day, moment to moment. It fuels the practice of using work in daily life as a vehicle for self awareness and using our self awareness as a vehicle for most skillfully and effectively doing our work. Integrating mindfulness, a desire to explore, a clear intention, concentration, effort, and wisdom leads to better understanding and performance.
I am going off for a weeklong retreat to be in silence and to practice. “Practice makes perfect” or at least helps us approach it. In this case the practice is meditation - building concentration and mindfulness through the right balance of effort and letting go.
Of course, it is not necessary to go on retreat to meditate. We can meditate every moment until we no longer need to meditate. We no longer need to meditate when we have entered a zone we are seamlessly immersed in the moment to moment process unfolding around us - fully engaged, responsive, not reactive or driven, open to the reality of our situation. If we are a project manager it is the sense of being completely realistic and in-synch with what is going on in the project
I just taught a course on multi project management at a high tech vendor organization. Participants reported that there was a divide between sales and delivery people that was an underlying cause of cost and schedule overruns as well as client dissatisfaction.
Engagement management - the work done to ensure that clients are satisfied and the selling organization makes a nice profit - requires a close relationship between sales, delivery, support and quality groups. This balance, when it is in place, assures that what is promised can be delivered under reasonable conditions. It is all too easy to sell at a low price while promising the moon. When delivery is not involved inthe estimating and scoping and sales is not held responsible for the bottom line results, sales people are motivated to sell anything at any price. Ultimately the short term view - must meet this month’s quota - obscures the long term reality - dissatisfied customers and overburdened delivery people are costly.
Have you ever felt that each project was a deja vue? Maybe as soon as you get started there is a gnawing feeling that you are already off to a bad ride because you are just doing what you always do and what you always do always seem to lead to stress and displeasure.
Samsara is a sanskrit word that means continuous movement and flow. It is associated with a circle of unconscious repetition of activities. It is represented as a wheel.
Breaking out of the circle, getting off the wheel requires confronting the ignorance that is the underlying cause of the whole repetition.
If we start a project or engage in a relationship and simply operate in the way we have been conditioned to operate, we are highly likely to yield the usual results. This is not so bad if the results are pleasant . But what if they aren’t? What if even if they are pleasant we want to improve them?
So how do we defeat ignorance and get off the wheel? We review performance candidly and take action to change the way we perform. If we don’t take the time and effort to change then we stay on the wheel.
Just about everyone agrees that post project reviews are great. But not everyone actually does them. Of those that do, some are successful some are not.
How do we analyze our performance so that it is not threatening to the participants while it candidly addresses all issues? We can of course focus on the positive; use Appreciative Inquiry (AI). There has been lots of success using the positive approach. The AI advocates say “instead of focusing your energy on fixing the 0.0001% that’s wrong, AI foicuses on how to create more of what’s already working.” But, what if it’s the 10% that’s wrong? What if what’s wrong is costing the organization dearly and creating conflict? Sometimes we need to focus in on the problems and defects. Then we can drill down into these negatives and find the causes so we can root them out. AI will lead to a process that includes the analysis of problems and their causes as a part of continuous improvement.
I have been reminded lately of my time limit. On the grand scale there is no worry about time; its just a concept. But when it comes down to us in our lives and our projects, there definitely is a limit. On a personal level, I am reminded of it as I watch my 99 year old mother-in-law age, while aches and pains and a recent wisdom tooth extraction remind me of my own aging.
Then there are project deadlines. There is so much to do, so many projects and the constancy of daily operations. Can we get it all in before the deadline? What will be postponed or put on the backburner until it becomes a fire?
I was surprised to find that some colleagues were resistant to the use of the term “kindness” as a value along with truthfulness, clarity, completeness and others for communication in project management. Kindness is having the intention to benefit others, to be helpful and gentle. Kindness sets the stage for trust and openness which lead to more effective communications. Think about it, isn’t it easier to communicate with people who are kind?
Criticism may be positive (as in “That’s really fine work”) or negative (as in “The result falls short of expectations”). Negative criticism is particularly interesting. People often reactively resist negative criticism. This resistance gets in the way of learning and improving.
As critics, it is best to be clear, kind and constructive.
As one who is on the receiving end of negative criticism, it is best to accept what is being said as an opinion or point of view and then evaluate the criticism and the work being criticized to see what merit there is in the criticism. Even when the criticism isn’t communicated in a kind and constructive way, it is still worth evaluating it objectively.
Open minded: free of mental constraints and unfounded beliefs so that creative, responsive and proactive behavior is possible.
Can you question your most cherished beliefs? If you can’t, what does that say about them and you?
