A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

A picture is worth a thousand words refers to the idea that complex stories can be described with just a single still image, or that an image may be more influential than a substantial amount of text. It also aptly characterizes the goals of visualization where large amounts of data must be absorbed quickly.

It is believed that the modern use of the phrase stems from an article by Fred R. Barnard in the advertising trade journal Printers' Ink, promoting the use of images in advertisements that appeared on the sides of streetcars. The December 8, 1921 issue carries an ad entitled, "One Look is Worth A Thousand Words."

Another ad by Barnard appears in the March 10, 1927 issue with the phrase "One Picture is Worth Ten Thousand Words," where it is labeled a Chinese proverb. The Home Book of Proverbs, Maxims, and Familiar Phrases quotes Barnard as saying he called it "a Chinese proverb, so that people would take it seriously." Soon after, the proverb would become popularly attributed to Confucius.

Despite this modern origin of the popular phrase, the sentiment has been expressed by earlier writers. For example the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev wrote (in Fathers and Sons in 1862), "A picture shows me at a glance what it takes dozens of pages of a book to expound."

The quote is sometimes attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, who said "Un bon croquis vaut mieux qu'un long discours," or "A good sketch is better than a long speech". While this is sometimes translated today as "A picture is worth a thousand words," this translation may not predate the phrase's common use in English.

Remember this next time you are doing a presentation …

Project Management Certification

Until recently I was in search of gainful employment, which I have happily found. During my search I realized that there were a great number of 'uncertified' Project Managers in the business world, that are claiming to be Project Managers.

I think that if you are going to call yourself a Project Manager you should have to be certified as a Project Manager, either with PMI (Project Management Institute), IPMA (International Project Management Association, or an affiliate), etc.

Knowing first aid doesn't make you a doctor !!

Just like understanding the concept of project management doesn't make you a Project Manager !!

Certification to me means meeting a set of requirements such as those for a PMP - Project Management Professional (see chart).

I know what you are thinking ... and NO, I don't believe that a certification automatically makes you a competent Project Manager or even an average Project Manager ... that will come with experience.

I just think that only certified Project Managers should be able to call themselves Project Managers ... otherwise, why would anyone go through the effort to become certified ?

Thoughts ??

Sloan Campbell MBA, PMP, P.Mgr, F.CIM, CC

7 Habits of Brilliant Project Managers

I came across this article on Project Smart (http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/) and I thought it was worth sharing with all of you ... the article was written by Duncan Brodie. Enjoy ...

Project management is a tough role. You often find yourself being pulled between keeping users, subordinates, team members and senior people happy. Given these demands, what do the best project managers do that makes them stand out from the crowd?

1. Focus on Solutions

Problem solving and breaking through constraints is an essential part of managing projects. Those that excel as project managers have a mindset where they focus on finding solutions to problems. They keep asking themselves how they can overcome whatever barriers arise.

2. Participative and Decisive

All the best project managers understand the need to communicate and consult. They also know that lots of talking and procrastination achieves nothing. Finding the right balance between consulting, deciding and acting is what separates the best from the rest.

3. Focus on Customer

In every project there are customers. They might be internal or external or a combination of both. The best project managers keep customers at the forefront of their mind. They listen effectively, take on board the feedback they are getting and look for ways of incorporating it whenever they can.

4. Focus on Win-Win Outcomes

In any project there will be many stakeholders, all of whom will see their issues as being the most important. The challenge that the best project managers respond to is finding solutions that address the issues without compromising the overall project structure.

5. Lead from the Front

Project managers need to lead by example. The example they set determines how the rest of the team behave and respond to the challenges that arise. Those project managers who want to encourage openness and honesty are open and honest themselves. Those that take risks and learn from their mistakes empower others to do the same.

6. Adapt to What Arises

You can set out the best plans in the world, think about the risks, put great tracking in place and even then the unexpected will show up from time to time.

Adaptability is a key characteristic of the best project managers. View adaptability in projects a bit like the flight path of an aircraft. It can be off course along the way but it needs to be right on target when it comes to landing.

7. Get the Best Out of Everyone

Those that excel as project managers realise they cannot do it all on their own. They recognise the importance of the collective team effort in getting results. They find and utilise the strengths in everyone and try to ensure that they allocate roles to those best placed to deliver. They learn to keep everyone motivated and pushing the boundaries to get results.

Project management is a complex and demanding role. Starting to work on these 7 habits can take you to the next level.

Duncan Brodie is a Leadership Development Coach and Management Trainer at Goals and Achievements http://www.goalsandachievements.co.uk/ .
He specialises in helping accountants and professionals to make the transition from technical expert to manager and leader.

If Anything Can Go Wrong ... It Will !!

Murphy's Law ("If anything can go wrong, it will") was born at Edwards Air Force Base in 1949 at North Base. It was named after Capt. Edward A. Murphy, an engineer working on Air Force Project MX981, (a project) designed to see how much sudden deceleration a person can stand in a crash.

One day, after finding that a transducer was wired wrong, he cursed the technician responsible and said, "If there is any way to do it wrong, he'll find it." The contractor's project manager kept a list of "laws" and added this one, which he called Murphy's Law.

All project managers (managers in general) should be aware of these laws for their own good and the preservation of their projects.

Murphy's Laws
1. Nothing is as easy as it looks.
2. Everything takes longer than you think.
3. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
4. If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. Corollary: If there is a worse time for something to go wrong, it will happen then.
5. If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.
6. If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.
7. Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
8. If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
9. Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.
10. Mother nature is a bitch.
11. It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
12. Whenever you set out to do something, something else must be done first.
13. Every solution breeds new problems.

Murphy's Law of Research
Enough research will tend to support your theory.

Murphy's Law of Copiers
The legibility of a copy is inversely proportional to its importance.

Murphy's Law of the Open Road
When there is a very long road upon which there is a one-way bridge placed at random, and there are only two cars on that road, it follows that:
(1) the two cars are going in opposite directions, and
(2) they will always meet at the bridge.

Murphy's Law of Thermodynamics
Things get worse under pressure.

The Murphy Philosophy
Smile . . . tomorrow will be worse.

Quantization Revision of Murphy's Laws
Everything goes wrong all at once.

Murphy's Constant
Matter will be damaged in direct proportion to its value.

Murphy's Corollaries
Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.

Law of the Perversity of Nature (Mrs. Murphy's Corollary)
You cannot successfully determine beforehand which side of the bread to butter.

Corollary (Jenning)
The chance of the bread falling with the buttered side down is directly proportional to the cost of the carpet.

6 Questions to Help You Build Trust on Your Team

The words 'Trust Me' have been uttered billions of times … and every time those words are spoken, it’s because it’s because the other person doesn’t.

I was sent this article by a colleague and I thought it was worth sharing with all of you ... the article was written by Lieutenant Colonel Diane Ryan.

This post is part of our Frontline Leadership series, looking at what business leaders can learn from today's military.

The ongoing economic crisis coupled with the appearance of one scandalous headline after another describing the latest crook to run off with somebody's life savings have done much damage to Americans' ability to trust one another. While a fair amount of skepticism may be practical at times, building trust both between individuals and within organizations is absolutely critical to overall well being and effectiveness. And nowhere is this requirement more important than in relationships in which the life of one person may, in specific situations, depend on the actions of another. That's why examining the processes of building and maintaining trust between military personnel in the extreme environment of combat may provide practical considerations that apply to leaders in many different contexts.

Perhaps most important is the understanding that trust must be a two-way street. While it is imperative that subordinates have trust in their leader, this will never happen without reciprocity. In a combat team, all members are mutually interdependent, meaning everyone has a specific job to do — jobs that often require a significant amount of risk to life or limb. Soldiers must trust their leader to make decisions that minimize risk where possible, and the leader must trust that soldiers will carry out their orders despite any hazards for the overall benefit of the team. Recent research by my West Point colleagues Colonels Tom Kolditz and Pat Sweeney indicates that there are several factors which influence and facilitate building this mutual trust building, including shared values, relationships that foster cooperation, and perceived competence.

For much of my own military career I took the trust-building process between myself and other soldiers, both leaders and subordinates, for granted. It was only after returning from my most recent deployment to Iraq and spending three years in the civilian world finishing my graduate degree that I began to sense that there was something special about how we cultivate trust in the Army. My first clue was when I had the occasion to ask a university administrator, himself a veteran, for a fairly substantial policy exception that I truthfully did not expect to be considered. When he granted my request without batting an eye I was taken aback. After I stammered out a surprised thank you, I exclaimed "But you don't even know me" to which he quickly replied "Oh I do know you, because I know what you stand for and I know you'll do the right thing." Our shared values served as a precursor for instantaneous mutual trust that developed and deepened over the course of our professional relationship. I recognized that this was not an isolated incident and that the values I share with my own leaders, peers and subordinates often serve as the figurative handshake upon which all subsequent trust is built.

In my experience these shared values facilitate cooperative relationships and intimacy at much faster rate in the military than in many civilian professions. There are many factors that might contribute to this phenomenon. Perhaps it's because we move around so much that we feel a sense of urgency to get to know each other more quickly. Maybe it's the time we spend together riding in dusty HMMWVs and sitting in foxholes sharing even the most mundane details of our lives in an attempt to pass the time until we get back to civilization. But mostly I think it's because we want to know almost everything about the people we potentially face death with. These deep personal relationships — that I have come to consider familial in many cases— cement the bonds of trust.

Inherent in both initial perceptions and long-term trust building is competence in the form of technical and tactical proficiency. In other words, do subordinates believe that a leader knows his or her job well enough so as not to needlessly jeopardize their safety and well being? I vividly remember the pressure of leading my first convoy operation as a brand new lieutenant — ten hours through the hills and winding roads of the Bavaria. Although I exuded confidence (at least that's how I remember it), inside I was terrified of getting lost and ruining my credibility with the platoon forever — which thankfully did not occur. What I did not know at the time was that approximately 10 months later I would be executing a similar exercise across the Arabian Desert as part of Operation Desert Storm, where so much more was riding on my performance as a leader. Had I not demonstrated competence early on, my soldiers would have lacked trust in my ability to keep them from harm's way, and our overall effectiveness as a unit would have suffered tremendously.

While most businesses are not subject to circumstances similar to combat, many of the trust-building processes practiced in the military are nevertheless applicable, particularly when an organization faces crisis. Asking the following questions has the potential to facilitate trust building within your own organization:

1. Do I place trust in my employees as a prerequisite to earning theirs?

2. What are my organization/profession's shared values and culture?

3. Have these values been articulated within the organization to the point they are internalized and go without saying?

4. How much do I know about my employees and their families and how well do they know me?

5. What experiences can I offer to increase cooperation and familiarity in ways that are appropriate and rewarding?

6. And last but certainly not least; does my personal competence inspire trust in my subordinates?

Finding ways to build confidence in people who only have to look as far as the daily news to find numerous reasons why not to trust may be challenging, but ultimately well worth the effort.

17 Pointers for Managing Virtual Teams

In this day and age when more and more of our interactions are virtual, it is important to have some guidelines for success. I REALLY like the following 17 Pointers for Managing Virtual Teams provided by Kevin L. McMahan ... I hope they help you with your virtual meetings ...

1. Engage the team in setting expectations about behavior and performance. Record
   the team's decisions and commitments to each other.
2. Clearly define member responsibilities.
3. Use rigorous project management disciplines to ensure clarity.
4. Consider servant leadership exposure and training for potential team leaders.
5. Determine, as a team, how conflict will be addressed and resolved.
6. "Proactive behavior, empathetic task communication, positive tone, rotating
   leadership, task goal clarity, role division, time management, and frequent
   interaction with acknowledged and detailed responses to prior messages."
7. Strive for a good faith effort in complying with the team norms and commitments,
   be honest in team negotiations, and don't take advantage of others or of the situation.
8. Encourage social communication that accompanies task completion at the outset and
   be enthusiastic in e-mail dialog; look for predictable, substantial, and timely
   responses to members.
9. Provide more formal communication than in traditional same time/same place
   teams.
10. Keep communications in a shared database for use in new member orientation.
11. Focus knowledge management attention on the tacit as well as the explicit
    knowledge. Document the tacit and embed the process into the organizational
    structure.
12. Record and share the "context" when sharing information, preferably with a view
    toward future audiences.
13. Match desired activities with performance evaluation factors; reward the desired
    performance.
14. Build information sharing (knowledge management initiatives) into the
    organization's strategic plan.
15. For a team cross-cutting an organization's departmental boundaries, develop an
    information system to help translate terms in the subject disciplines.
16. Encourage and provide feedback on all team activities; listen to it!
17. Design and integrate tools that fit the team environment; don't force the team to
    adapt its behavior to the "latest" software.

Kevin L. McMahan, from his paper: "Effective Communication and Information Sharing in Virtual Teams"

Inspirational Speech #2

The second inspirational speech that hits home with me is, Gene Hackman's When the Washington Sentinels Left the Stadium that Day speech from the movie the Replacements. It's not as graphic as Al Pacino's speech in Any Given Sunday, but it makes an excellent point just the same.

Here it is ...

"When the Washington Sentinels left the stadium that day, there was no tickertape parade, no endorsement deals for sneakers or soda pop, or breakfast cereal. Just a locker to be cleaned out, and a ride home to catch. But what they didn't know, was that their lives had been changed forever because they had been part of something great. And greatness, no matter how brief, stays with a man. Every athlete dreams of a second chance, these men lived it."

Enjoy.