What If You Couldn’t Fail?

This post is a holiday gift to all of you who have read my blog during 2012, its first year.  The blog has been a gift to me.  I’ve been able to sort out what’s important, what works for me, what I want to do next, and share it with you.  Some of you even find it helpful.   That’s the best part.  I will keep blogging.  Please keep reading, commenting, and sharing this with others who could use it.

I saw this story on the news this week.  A wonderful thing happened when a teacher asked his students:drivingdream

“What would you do if you couldn’t fail?”

This struck home for me.  If you’ve been reading this blog, you know that I ask you to explore perfect outcomes to your projects.  Too often we are afraid to ask “What would the outcomes be if this project went perfectly?”  We want to control scope and risk.  But, limiting our options before we consider perfect outcomes limits our opportunities.  Looking for perfect outcomes and opportunities is “the other side of risk.”  Of course, we have to balance our dreams with our capabilities as we take each step forward.  But, as this story points out, when we envision an opportunity and our dreams are clear, our capabilities can grow to meet them.  Click the picture above for the newspaper story, and the link below for the video on King5 TV.

http://www.king5.com/news/local/Glacier-Peak-students-driven-to-make-classmates-dream-come-true-184355201.html

Please enjoy this story and have a wonderful holiday.

Thanks for reading and warm wishes.

The picture is by Jennifer Buchanan from the article in The Herald.

Waiting for Program Management

“How much of human life is lost in waiting?”  Ralph Waldo Emerson

indiana marionI heard this quote at the end of the last Indiana Jones movie a couple weeks ago and it stuck in my head.  Indiana and Marion waited a long time to realize that they belonged together.  It’s taken me a long time to recognize a different connection.

I was talking with a wise associate last week and he opened my eyes.  He said he enjoys my blog and that he likes the quality assurance tools I use that reflect my philosophy.  We all like that kind of feedback so I was receptive for more.  Then he said that I must be using the PMI Standard for Program Management as a reference for my work.  I admitted I wasn’t.  He reached over to his bookshelf and handed me the standard and I paged though it.

A lot of what I’ve been blogging about as the basis for how I look at projects was right there in the PMI program management standard.  It recognizes the need for:

  • Linkage to organizational objectives
  • Governance of organizational capacity to ensure that projects create synergy
  • Consultative skills working with stakeholders and politics
  • Benefits realization

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