Choices

An introduction of shameless self promotion? Why not.

A friend of mine has called me an encyclopedia of earned value, meaning I can find a positive spin in many of the initially negative outcomes of projects/endeavors. I think many people look for the silver linings in things. I think in his way, this person saw more of it based on the interactions.

When things are not going my way, I tend to take some action internally as well as externally. What can I do differently? Is there another way that we can motivate the team? Is there an alternate pressure that can be alleviated via distraction or interaction that will allow the team to move faster, better, stronger than before (for less than $6M, adjusted for inflation)?

I look outward as well, Occam’s Razor and all. And usually that’s where the issue lies. It’s outside influences. A supporting team was unable to finish a deliverable due to a high severity incident. Funding was redirected for an alternate and critical business case. Sometimes things get shelved. Sometimes things fail. That’s just an iteration that wasn’t successful. What parameters do we change on the next go-round?

A gent I worked under, decades ago, and greatly respect and enjoy once told me he watched me take blow after blow on a brutal project, many of them at his direction and delivery, just to see what might survive. The difficulty of that ordeal was more than defending the plan, the philosophy, the path I was choosing; it was coming back each day, knowing I was going to have to do the same thing again. After a few months of slugging it out on this program, him and I sat down and had a chat.

I’ll spare the dialogue, but the gist was around why I continued to keep coming back in the ring, as he put it. I told him I was learning something new each time the plan didn’t hold water, or I hadn’t taken into account the things that he brought up. These new influences were nuanced, but valuable, and he helped me understand that the plan for, whatever is being done, had ramifications that were going to be unseen by me, but nevertheless will occur, and will affect someone.

I tend to think about how that resonates in the work I do today. Who is it that is three cycles away from the implementation that I am driving, how are they affected? What is the value that they derive from what I am building/migrating/selling/enhancing? Is it better?