Sometimes I have a hard time choosing what to do. Things go better after I choose and move ahead. Dan Rockwell’s post spoke profoundly to me today. It’s not just the message for me personally, but another reaffirmation of my project management philosophy.
When I suggest we find what can go right on a project, in a way I’m saying that we need to put more emphasis on what we want to be when we get done with the project. That comes from two perspectives. First, how the project’s outcomes make our organization’s services and capacity more perfect. Second, how can we make our journey to get there more perfect in its contribution to our growth. Both perspectives are more about, as Dan suggests, choosing who we want to become and how we want to become that way (in keeping with who we are) than what we want to do.
Balancing the focus on completing scope with a focus on completing ourselves is finding what can go right on a project. It’s the other side of risk.
Dan, thanks again for helping me consider more deeply what I’m trying to say.
Unable to choose is unable to move. Choices enable movement. Unable to choose is another way of saying stuck. Successful leaders make decisions.
Everyone who’s stuck
lives with choices waiting to be made.
Fear of choosing is fear of losing opportunity.
Fear of missing out is the reason you miss out.
The critical first choice:
The choice that informs all others is who to be not what to do.
First choices enable action.
Choosing what do before deciding who to be means you’ve caved to external pressure.
Answer “what to do questions” by clarifying who you want to be. What to do is an event. Who to be guides the journey.
First choices involve who to be.
Second choices explain what to do.
First choices are relatively easy. But, if you’re not sure who to be, ask, “How do I want to be known?”
Benefit:
Identity off-sets external pressure…
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The Other Side of Risk 