Random Act of Kindness

My family and I figured we'd do something a little different this last weekend and went to see ICE! 2010 at the Gaylord National Resort.  But, this post is not about Dr. Seuss or Ice or the resort.  This is about a random act of kindness. The thought is fresh in my mind, mainly because I just finishing Delivering Happiness, the book by Tony Hsieh of Zappos. One of the passages referred to delivering random acts of happiness, which was very similar to acts "of kindness" from the book and movie Pay it forward.

So, what happened?

With a little bit of time to spare, before going to the ICE attraction, my son and I were going to ride a small train ride inside the Gaylord Hotel.  As we stood in line, we happily chatted about getting to go on this ride.  When we got to the front of the line, the attendent asked for our tokens.  Tokens?  Nobody said anything about tokens!  She pointed to a small machine off in the distance.  We were supposed to go see ICE! in about 20 minutes so I knew our schedule was getting pretty tight.  My son and I ran over to the machine.  On the machine was the the message

Tokens $2.  Machine takes $1 or $5 bills.  NO CHANGE

I looked in my wallet and found two $1 bills and some $20's.  I thought for a second and then realized we were screwed.  I looked into his eyes and broke the news to him.

Buddy, we're going to have to come back.  I only have enough for you to ride.  I can't go with you.  Do you want to ride the train by yourself?

I saw his eyes well up as he began to shake his head.  "No, Daddy, I want you to go on the train with me!"

I responded that I was sorry but we'd have to come back after I got some change.  Perhaps we could ride the train later, after the exhibit, if there was time.  I spent the next 15 seconds trying to explain to my son that the machine did not take $20 bills.  A woman then walked up to me, reached into her purse, and handed me two $1 bills.

You two go have a fun train ride.

My son and I both said thank you to her and I added I didn't have change.

Don't worry she said, go have a good time.

So, off we went and had a good time.  I look forward to paying it forward.

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No, I’m Saying…

I was in a contract negotiations meeting for several hours yesterday.  The most notable quote came after the customer was asking for the basis of estimates for the scope of work being proposed. I think both the vendor and customer could have done a lot better if they had just valued customer collaboration over contract negotiation.

I felt like I was watching a first-time buyer at a used car dealership.  When the sticker price is in the Millions of dollars, it becomes a very interesting game of poker.  As usual, my job was not to negotiate.  It was merely to observe and advise.

Vendor: You're saying the LOE is too high.

Customer: No, I'm saying I want you to justify your LOE.

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And the Winner is...

Elizabeth Harrin!

Congratulations, Elizabeth and her blog  A girl’s guide to Project Management, for taking home the prize at the ComputerWeekly IT Blog Awards 2010, in the category of Project Management.

This is the 3rd year in a row Elizabeth has won in this category.  Take that as a hint people.

Go read her blog!

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(Zombie) Customer Service

I'm currently enjoying Delivering Happiness, the book by Tony Hsieh of Zappos.  In the book, his approach to customer service reminds me a lot of what Seth Godin wrote about in his book, Linchpin.  For those looking to map this to an activity in the PMBOK, I see this falling under Manage Stakeholder Expectations (Executing and Communications).

In any case, I can relate to my intent to communicate directly to people as people, not as mere customers, vendors, or colleagues.  Every day, I see people act as though they have no free will to make a decision.  They ignore what is right or wrong.  They act like they need permission to be honest and humble. They act like...wait for it...zombies!  Yes, zombies!

I recently sat in a meeting and heard how the vendor screwed up.  I'm talking completely-their-fault nobody-else-to-blame screwed up.  When confronted by the customer, their reaction was "I'm sorry you feel that way about [this].  I respect how you feel."

My reaction?  [expletive] YOU, man! I don't care if you respect how I feel or not.  And don't try to feed me that Dr. Phil line about me owning my own feelings!  What I want to hear you say is "I'm sorry we screwed up.  I will do whatever I can to make this right."

Another scenario that comes to mind was my wife contacting a credit card company about something.  The customer service rep was painfully unprepared to talk to a human being.  They could not deviate from a script one word without needed to talk to a supervisor.

Thank you for calling.  We appreciate your business.  Can we interest you in buying our credit protection plan? [my wife complaining] Oh, I'm sorry, can I put you on hold while I discuss this with my supervisor? [5 minutes later....click]

People, you want to provide great customer service?  Empower your customer service representatives.  Vendors, you want to provide great customer service? Empower your teams to admit when they screwed up and offer to fix it, not just cover it up.

I've always seen the best performance from my teams, when they knew what we needed to do but were not being told how they needed to do it.  I believed they would make the right choices for us all to reach our goals.  Those of you in the Agile community get this already.  Empower the team and communicate with everyone as much as possible.  Don't just communicate.  Talk to them.

So, as I step down off my rant soapbox, I want you to take a look at the Zappos core values (listed below). They actually remind me of the 4 values, 12 principles of the Agile Manifesto or Agile community as a whole.

Zappos core values

1. Deliver WOW Through Service
2. Embrace and Drive Change
3. Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
5. Pursue Growth and Learning
6. Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
8. Do More With Less
9. Be Passionate and Determined
10. Be Humble

If you had 10 core values for your project or team, how would you refine this list?

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Know Agile when I see it

I got all fired up today when I read some pretty outlandish statements by a company claiming it "helps through an innovative project management and development tool known as Agile Methodology" and they went on to write "Agile is based on a project management methodology known as SCRUM" I haven't heard something like that since someone told me Al Gore invented the Internet (urban legend). Thank you to AgileScout, who wrote the original post titled Agile is NOT a Methodology.  At last count there were 19 comments linked to the post.  Head over to the AgileScout blog and get caught up.

So, what IS Agile and what is NOT?

To answer that, I’m going to take a little liberty with Justice Potter Stewart’s opinion in Jacobellis v. Ohio 378 U.S. 184 (1964)

I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description ["Agile"]; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the project involved in this case is not that. [Emphasis added.]

The fun part is knowing what Justice Stewart was really talking about.

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Identify Stakeholders (& Zombies)

The Program Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) would have you Identify Stakeholders at the crossroads of the Initiating process group and the Communications knowledge area.  Basically, what the Project Management Institute (PMI) is trying to say is you should be identifying all of the people who are somehow related to the project.  Who holds a stake in the success or failure of your project?  You should complete this activiy at the beginning of your project lifecycle. This isn't bad advise.  It doesn't matter if you're a Project Management Professional (PMP) or an Agile practitioner.  The idea here is to lower the risk of having someone, who may be for or against your project, from disrupting things.  You have to accept that everyone has different and unique motivations.  Know your sponsor, product owner, stakeholders...zombies.  Zombies!?  Of course.  Once you identify everyone even remotely associated with your project, try to understand their motivations so you will be able to build relationships.  But look out for the zombies.  They won't listen to you and just do what they want.  Don't pass judgement on them.  Zombies are zombies.  They're going to do whatever they want and you and everyone else is just going to have to deal with it.

Today I was in a meeting with a zombie.  Everyone in the meeting appeared to have the same opinion of the topic at hand. Everyone, that is, but the zombie.  The topic itself really isn't important.  But it was basically a room of people against one zombie.  You may start to ask yourself what the zombie must be thinking.  Seriously, it's an exercise in futility.  Just make sure you know who they are early on and make some contingency plans.

So, remember kids, identify stakeholders (and zombies) early in your project.  Start building relationships with the people.  Find out what motivates them.  Know who are the zombies!  Take appropriate action, either by buying large quantities of plywood to board up doors and windows to the office or get some brain flavored mints.  If you can't keep the zombie away, the least you can do is freshen their breath.

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Week Ending Nov-13

Wow, it's been a busy week on the blog.  The amount of comments from last week's posts kept me busy clear into this week. Early in the week, I was asked about the RSS feeds that I read daily.  I listed them earlier in the year.  In just a few month, I started using Twitter a lot more and feeds less.  Read more... A retrostpecitve - daily read, then and now

Next, I wrote about how within different areas within organizations, people feel they are the true center of the universe.  Read more... about how I feel people should not forget the larger goal

On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to see a webinar, from VersionOne and their Moving Agile into the Mainstream webinar series.  Read more... about AgileLive

I was then inspired to write about the need to Communicate effectively. See what I think are the best and worst ways to communicate.

On Thursday, I was interviewed for an upcoming podcast about project management and project leadership.  It inspired me to write a post titled Chasing the carrot Read more...

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Chasing the Carrot

carrot

I'm certain we all have our price, based on our hierarchy of needs. I do what I do (during the day) to satisfy my need for a steady paycheck (security).  Until a situation presents itself, where I can satisfy that and other needs, I will continue working this engagement and occasionally rant about the injustices of advising.  I will admit, I have it pretty good, being somewhere between Social and Ego on Maslow's hierarchy.  But, what if there is more? That brings me to today's post.  This week I was interviewed by Ty Kiisel and Raechel Logan for an upcoming podcast.  They got my perspective on project management, project leadership, Agile, certifications, and more.  I had a really great time!  So, now I feel like chasing a carrot.  I'm really going to buckle down on getting that PM Network article completed.  I'm really going to get busy on the book.  Look out world, Zombie Project Management is on its way.

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