Mother Hen Leadership

Project Managers can learn from watching a mother hen taking care of her chicks. It's a neverending job keeping watch over those chicks to make sure they are safe and don't wander off and get lost or into trouble.

The Project Team needs a good leader. The Project Manager needs to always keep an eye on the team to make sure everyone stays on track. You need to be involved, but do not micromanage your team. Let them be independent like chicks so they can develop and become valuable team members. Be there to steer the team members back on track when you notice that they are lost and need some guidance.

Having good intuition is a plus. The picture I snapped illustrates the mother hen being concerned because she has a feeling that one chick is missing because there are only five chicks around her so she takes to higher ground to get a better view of whats going on.

(Note - this article was originally written by Drake Settsu and published on projectmanagement.com/blogs/419316/Project-Management-in-Real-Life in December 2019)

Merry Christmas from Hawaii - 2019

The Sheraton Waikiki continues the Christmas tradition of displaying a Santa Claus & Mrs. Claus sand sculpture in the hotel lobby every year. If you are in Waikiki make some time to pose with the sculpture to capture a nice Christmas pic. 

Mele Kalikimaka means Merry Christmas in Hawaiian.

Sheraton Waikiki - Lobby 

Who Lives in My Heart

Life is a journey that will allow us to meet many people in our path or their path. Technology allows us to keep in touch with those people that we made a connection with.

A connection is a person that shares a common interest or you just like staying in touch with each other. 

The special connection is a person you meet and interact with frequently. It can be in person or via an app on your phone. Try old school and just call each other like the olden days.

We live in an age that we are on the go all the time. Those neat apps on our phones allow us to share our lives with everyone in our circle of friends so we know what’s going on with each other all the time.

There is no app for who lives in my heart. Your heart knows who to invite in and makes room in it for your special friendships. 

Treat friendship like a wild bird that is meant to be free with no cage. If the bird likes you it will return and seek your company. Put the bird in a cage and lock it up, then see how long it will stay with you. The bird will find a way to escape to be free one day and fly away.

Through the years some of the wild birds in your life will fly away even though they were not in a cage. True friendship is a precious gift that will last through time. 

Summer has arrived in the Aloha State

Summer 2019 has arrived. 

I'm so blessed to live in a place that many visitors spend their precious vacation time $$$$ to visit. I don't take this paradise for granted. I play tourist all the time by taking in the beauty of Hawaii.

If you are planning a summer vacation make it a Hawaii vacation and enjoy the beautiful beaches and fresh air.

Now for Hawaii locals, you need to get outside and enjoy your beautiful state. 

The view from the balcony of the Miyako Japanese Restaurant at The New Otani Kaimana Beach Hotel
Oahu - Waikiki

Taming the Wild Wild West (Project Management) environment

The Wild Wild West environment that is just focused on completing projects with no regard for an approach with standards works for many companies. The question is how long can a company operate efficiently with the Wild Wild West mindset.  

Bringing in Project Management professionals to run projects in an environment that has been operating in a "let's just get it done" approach will be a challenge. There will be resistance and a waste of my time attitude given. 

Leadership skills to win over the staff and management will be crucial. The Project Manager needs to show confidence and control without intimidating the staff and management. A company that has not practiced structured Project Management will need to be educated on the value it delivers. 

Baby steps, one step at a time will be the approach to get staff and management onboard with practicing structured Project Management with defined approach and standards. Select small projects to start off with. Have a kickoff meeting to go over the expectations of the team when there is a Project Manager running the project. Ask for input from the team so you can make appropriate adjustments to the approach that will be used. Create the project timeline with tasks and distribute to the team. 

Completing a few small projects will provide valuable insight into how well the staff and management adapted to a Project Manager running projects. It will also show the staff and management the value of a project that is run by a Project Manager.

It's ShowTime for the staff and management to be presented with a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation from the Project Manager. The presentations will give an illustration of examples of the approach, standards, and reports. The presentation should be done after you completed a few projects to allow appropriate tunning for approach, standards, and reports. 

I recommend a Hybrid or Hybrid-Plus method to be used. It will be a continuous work in progress to fine-tune as you get to learn more about the company. A hybrid-plus will provide more flexibility.

I have two posts on my blog here on projectmanagement.com for the Hybrid-Plus approach.

The Lean / Agile / Waterfall made to order Hybrid-Plus for software projects

The Hybrid-Plus called The LAW

It's going to be an adventure to go from an unstructured Project Management environment to a well-tuned structured Project Management environment. This is your time as a Project Manager to become an even better Project Manager. All your skills will be tested and tuned. You will be a better Project Manager after you tame the Wild Wild West in the company.

(Note - this article was originally written by Drake Settsu and published on projectmanagement.com/blogs/419316/Project-Management-in-Real-Life in March 2019)

The Spectacular March Sunset in Hawaii

Ala Moana Beach Park - Oahu

What can I say! You just have to be there to experience the beauty of nature closing out a day in Hawaii. Just make sure you stop in your tracks and take in nature's awesome display of beauty if you are at the beach when the sun says Aloha, see you again tomorrow.

The Hybrid-Plus called The LAW

Lean Agile Waterfall

A Lean Mind

The entire team needs to have a lean mindset of working efficiently to deliver defect-free deliverables to avoid wasting valuable time that could be spent on other tasks to get ahead.

Being Agile

The project could have some requirements that are still being finalized. Do not let missings requirements holdup the project start date if the missing requirements are not needed in the beginning. Create an Under-Construction task at the anticipated point in the project timeline. The team members need to be ready for new tasks to be assigned to them once the requirements are finalized. The Project Manager needs to keep a close watch on Under-Construction tasks in the project to ensure the project timeline stays intact. 

The Waterfall

The project flows like a waterfall. Each team member has important tasks in the waterfall. The timing for a team member to complete their tasks on time in the project is imperative to give other team members adequate time to start their tasks on time. Always keep the project flow in mind on how you affect other team members. We are all in it together as a team. The Project Manager is the safeguard to monitor progress and guide the team along the waterfall. 

The LAW

The ability to deliver any project on time by reducing waste and being flexible with the task assignments. Having a map of the waterfall (aka project timeline) will ensure you don't miss anything. The Project Manager is the architect of the map. 

(Note - this article was originally written by Drake Settsu and published on projectmanagement.com/blogs/419316/Project-Management-in-Real-Life in March 2019)

Risk Register (Project Team Members)

The Project Team Members is an important risk on a Risk Register, there are many other risks to add to the register, but my focus on this article is Team Members. 

Project Managers need to focus up front on the availability of team members for a project. The Risk Register should include team members working on different projects, especially concurrent projects. We often assign key staff to multiple projects which is fine if their key dates and implementation have breathing room for safe multitasking. 

The Risk Register will provide valuable insight into how your project team is spread out. The reprioritizing of project dates might be needed to address overallocated staff. It's good to know up front that you are working with overallocated staff so you know the potential risk that could be a showstopper.

Roll the dice or play it safe. Just make sure that management understands all the risks that are involved with overallocated staff.


(Note - this article was originally written by Drake Settsu and published on projectmanagement.com/blogs/419316/Project-Management-in-Real-Life in February 2019)

The Party Invitation Guest Limit

The guest limit for a party should be made crystal clear. Most of the time you will be inviting a couple to a party so you need to make it clear on your invitation that only two people are invited. Get creative on the invitation and create two checkboxes with 1 - attending or 2 - attending. Do not let your guests control the number of people attending. The party budget and seating limitations will dictate how many guests per invitation will be allowed. 

Lack of common sense happens all the time with the people you invite to parties. Avoid misunderstandings by being upfront that there is a guest limit. Remember to indicate that no children are allowed if it's an adult only type of party.