How to Hone Your BS Detecting Skills

Succeeding in business is all about accurately analyzing information and then making smart decisions. Falling for BS is antithetical to both. But with the world awash in half-truths, partial distortions, aggrandizing exaggerations and out-and-out lies you’ll have plenty of opportunities to fall prey to other people’s bull. How can you protect yourself from being led astray by their nonsense?

Washington, DC based venture capitalist Don Rainey has penned a post for Business Insider’s War Room offering six suggestions to help you hone you BS detecting abilities. The piece is well worth a read in its entirety, but the basic suggestions are as follows:

1. Determine what serves the speaker’s self-interest. Whenever someone is presenting a point of view, you owe it to yourself to consider how their opinion might correlate to their own self-interest. After all, there must be some reason they have to make the argument to you in the first place. And that reason more likely correlates with their own self-interest than with yours.

2. Question the data. We live in a world of pseudo science, skewed sample sets and anonymous experts. Don’t accept anything as an important truth without first examining the source.

3. Watch for truth qualifying statements. “To tell you the truth” or “Let’s be frank” or “I have to be honest…” are all statements that beg the question – “Are we starting to be honest just now?”

4. Listen for name dropping. Credibility should always be derived from the strength of the argument, known facts and/or the reputation of the person present. If absent prominent people are the backbone of an argument, you should be suspect.

5. Notice confusion in response to logical counterpoints. This type of response is meant to undermine your confidence in the soundness of your counter argument without seeking to specifically or factually oppose the point itself. Watch out for confusion when there should be none.

6. Beware of the obvious. If a conversation provides you with one obvious thought after another, wait for the end of the train of thoughts as it is typically an illogical conclusion. After getting into a “yes…yes… yes…” rhythm, you may easily accept a well placed random conclusion or mistruth. by Jessica Stillman

Ten New Rules for Project Managers

"An amazing thing, the human brain. Capable of understanding incredibly complex and intricate concepts. Yet at times unable to recognize the obvious and simple." Jay Abraham

These ten ideas will dramatically improve your projects. Are these ten rules the top ten … You decide.

But don't take too long … Share these rules with your team …Your team members are sure to help you carry them out!

Adopt practices for exploring a variety of perspectives. We think we see what we see, but we don't. We really see what we think. Remember the blind men and the elephant. Make it your habit to inquire what others see. You'll see more together.

Stay close to your customer. Clients' concerns evolve over the life of a project. Take advantage of that to over-deliver. Stay in a conversation with your client to adjust what you are doing.

Take care of your project team. We've come to accept that the customer comes first…the customer is always right. We can't take care of the customer if we first aren't taking care of our project team. It's a challenge. While there are some things we can do for the whole team, it comes down to taking care of each team member as the individual that he or she is. And to make it more difficult, then we must bring their various interests into coherence.

Keep your eye on the overall project promises. Project work can be difficult. It is easy to loose sight of what we are doing and why we are doing it. Remind your team and yourself of the overall promises and how you are doing fulfilling those promises.

Build relationships intentionally. Project teams come together as strangers. To do great work…innovation, learning, and collaboration…all take people who like and care for each other.
Don't leave that to chance. Start your projects by building relationships among team members.

Tightly couple learning with action. Projects are wonderful opportunities to learn. Don't put that off for the after project lessons learned. Make it your habit to incorporate learning loops in all your project activities. Your team will appreciate it. Your customer will benefit from it. And best of all, it will make your job easier.

Coordinate meticulously. A project is an ever-evolving network of commitment. Keep that network activated by tending to the critical conversations. See that people are making clear requests, promises that have completion dates, and share opinions that advance the purposes of the project. Without attention to those critical conversations the project will drift.

Collaborate. Really collaborate. Make it your rule to plan with those people who will be the performers of the plan. Don't wait 'til the project has gone south to get their help. Start out that way. Continue collaborating as the usual way you work through the project.

Listen generously. People are able to say what they can in the moment. For the most part, people are well-intended. Give them the benefit of the doubt. Take the time to listen. Ask questions. Seek others' opinions. And while you're at it, don't be so harsh on yourself.

Embrace uncertainty. Expect the unexpected. There is far more that we don't know and can't know than what we can anticipate. Be resilient to what life throws at you. Anticipate that your team will learn something along the way that can and should change what you have promised and how you can deliver on your promises. And when you take a set-back — we all do sometime or another — review the other nine rules for how you can work your way out of it. © 2004 Hal Macomber. Reforming Project Management

Good luck ...

Beyond Techniques ...

I am a big fan of the book The Art of War and Taoism ... I truly believe that there is alot of excellent philosophical ideas within both concepts.

I recently came across the a post from the The Tao of Project Management blog which I thought was excellent and bore repeating.

Beyond Techniques

People who blindly follow PRINCE, PM-BOK or any other technique or methodology to the letter are not usually wise project managers. The wise project manager needs no guidelines or methodology to do the right things and steer the project successfully towards completion. Those guidelines and methodologies exist to teach and instruct the less experienced, for whom they were intended. However the good project manager should also set an example and therefore should be seen to follow those guidelines and methodologies where they are appropriate.

The Way

The poor project manager may recognise that he needs members of the team to do the work on the project but he fails to recognise that he also need to serve these people. If there is no mutual need and mutual respect he is missing the whole point and will not see how things happen.

The wise project manager has an awareness of everything that needs taking care of on the project; he misses nothing. In return the members of the project team need the project manager to steer them in the right direction and facilitate their work. I know this for this is the way of the project manager.

The Tao
Lao Tsu tells us:

A good walker leaves no tracks;
A good speaker makes no slips;
A good reckoner needs no tally.
A good door needs no lock,
Yet no one can open it.
Good binding requires no knots,
Yet no one can loosen it.

Therefore the sage takes care of all men
And abandons no one.
He takes care of all things
And abandons nothing.

This is called “following the light.”

What is a good man?
A teacher of a bad man.
What is a bad man?
A good man’s charge.
If the teacher is not respected,
And the student not cared for,
Confusion will arise, however clever one is.
This is the crux of mystery.

I hope it is helpful ...

Bad Customer Service #2

Bad Customer Service #1

Making the Right Decision ...

I just finished making a VERY difficult decision in my life and it started me to thinking ... how many times a day do we, as Project Managers, sit and consider whether or not we have made the correct decision ... one, two ... seven, eight ... more ?

Decision making is a key role for any manager or leader.

Surprisingly many people struggle when it comes to taking decisions. This might be due to:
o Fear of failure
o Lack of a structured approach
o Procrastinating
o Lack of clarity

Whatever the barriers, there are 6 steps that you can follow when taking any decision.

1. Problem Definition
Before you can start to take any decisions, you need to be absolutely clear the problem you are trying to reach a decision on. One simple technique is just to write out in a sentence what the problem is that you need to take a decision on.

2. Assess the Implications
All decisions have implications. If it is a decision at work, it has implications for you, your peers, your team and your superiors. Depending on the decision (e.g. a promotion at work) it may even have implications for your family, especially if it involves relocation.

3. Explore Different Perspectives
Perspectives are simply different lenses through which you look at the problem. By exploring different perspectives you start to get a feel for those that you are most attracted to.

4. Get Clear on Your Ideal Outcome
When you are faced with a big decision, it is easy to get lost in the detail and circumstances. An alternative is to get clear on your ideal outcome and use this ideal outcome to inform your choices. Imagine you aspire to be a CFO of a Top 100 company. By having clarity on your outcome, you can make choices on promotions and experience linked to this ideal outcome.

5. Weigh up Pros and Cons
Another way of looking at a decision is to consider the advantages and disadvantages of each of the options open to you. Simply listing the advantages and disadvantages of each option is a powerful way of moving forward on decisions.

6. Decide and Act
Once you have gone through the previous 5 steps, commit to a choice or course of action and start to make it happen. To avoid procrastination, give yourself permission to be okay with any failings that might arise.

At the end of the day there is no magic formula for decision making. Following some simple steps and acting can however move you into the realm of effective decision maker. By Duncan Brodie

I am happy and comfortable with my decision ... are you ??

Ostrich Management ...

How many of you have experienced or are currently experiencing 'Ostrich Management' (A Watercooler Phrase ... Meaning when someone in a leadership position sticks their head in the sand, hoping a problem will just go away) ?

What are your thoughts and/or solutions to this problem ??