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Index section
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1. Welcome to Elements!
2. When is it a Project and why does it Matter?
3. Sample Guidelines for a Project
4. Project Management for Real Life Projects
5. Links: Kids, Funny, Virtual Teams, Home
Inventory, Scams
6. Coaching Notes: Niche or Not?
7. Newsletter Notes
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Welcome to Elements! |
Life and
business activities continues on as the holidays approach. The way
of the world changes for a season, and it becomes brighter, and we
are more grateful and alive.
However, with the change of season, stress escalates as the need to
do, to buy, to go, to visit and to accomplish is determined by
certain dates!
When I find myself in that hurricane of activities I need to remind
myself to do less and just be. I have to step back and ask, "Why
am I doing this activity?" That simple question can create a whole
new perspective and focus. If the activity is part of a something
with a larger goal, it is beneficial to identify it as such. An
article in this month's Elements describes what a project is and
describes the generic stages for managing projects.
I have a large list of interesting websites to share with you. I
almost held back to save some for next month's edition. I am going
to trust and be grateful that you will continue to share your
emails, books, conversations, and photos with me and that I'll hear
about your concerns, interests and goings-on's. You may see bits
and pieces of them show up in Elements.
When I celebrated the one-year mark of my title change to
Coach/Consultant from Consultant, I categorized the types of active
coaching I am now doing. I've placed them this month's section
called Coaching Notes. See if you recognize yourself in any of
these. I do.
Happy Holidays,
Star
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2. When is it a Project and why does it Matter? |
Gardening,
employee moral, gift shopping and vision creation--which one is a
project?
It is a project if the answer is "YES" to these questions:
- Is there a clear beginning and end?
- When it's completed will you have created or accomplished
something unique?
It might NOT be a project if it is:
-Ongoing, without an end, or a process
-Repetitive; e.g., a task, such as doing dishes or logging
information
-A milestone; e.g., a birthday or having funding approved
It depends on your perspective or the external perspectives of the
items listed above. Knowing the difference can be key to effectively
managing a project or to approaching an activity, milestone, or task
in a satisfactory and conscientious way.
My gardening is an example of perspective. My gardens are
haphazard, ill planned and not bountiful. They always have been that
way. After several seasons of letting the bounty rot on the vine and
not even liking the vegetables I planted, I finally realized why I
garden. I enjoy being outside, digging in dirt and seeing things
grow. For me, gardening at my house is an ongoing evolution of
nature. With my gardening, watching things grow and being outside,
there is no unique or desired end result or clear start and end.
When I realized that gardening is not a project for me, I enjoyed it
more. It wasn't about getting things done.
Acknowledging that something is not a project can take the stress
away from those of us who are driven to accomplish and complete
things. It allows us to approach it differently and to be more aware
of what we want out of it, for instance: investigating, learning,
observing, connecting, enjoying, or just being.
However, gardening can be a project to others. I have friends who
garden with clear and desired outcomes, such as the look they want
to achieve, the vegetables they want to grow and how they will use
them. For them it's also about achieving their desired end results.
It ended up that I did have a garden project. In order to grow
anything edible for humans, and not for rabbits, I had a garden
project to install a fence by June 1st.
Addressing employee morale may be considered as a project or an
ongoing concern of an internal culture, or both. At first, the
project may be required to instilling certain behaviors. If it is
to be considered a project, there must be measurable goals over a
defined period of time. Employee satisfaction surveys are one way of
creating a baseline so change can be measured. If it is not a
project, then employee morale will show up antidotal and as ongoing
traits and behaviors--something that is always there and continually
addressed. The reality for most organizations is that dealing with
employee morale consists of projects and a cultural way of being.
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3. Sample
Guidelines for a Project |
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Declaring
something a project forces focused thinking and planning which can
be helpful for effective management and delivery. Once something
is declared a project, here are the four generic stages used to
manage it, which are called a Project Lifecycle:
1. GOALS: Setting measurable and specific end results
Defining WHAT the project is
2. PLAN: The Blueprint to accomplish the Goals
Determines HOW it will be done, and what tasks and milestones must
be done
Includes a schedule and states how much money, time, resources are
required
3. ACTION: Jumping into the land of commitment
Puts the plan into action and assesses progress as you go towards
the Goals
4. DONE: Did you meet your goals? Time to Review, Celebrate,
and Learn
For the next time, determine what did you do well and what you
need to improve or do differently?
To learn more about formal project management standards used
worldwide by industries including construction, manufacturing,
hardware and software, checkout the Project Management Institute's
Website,
http://www.pmi.org/ Their standards committee publishes,
"The Project Management Body of Knowledge" book from which
certification and training programs are built on.
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4. Project Management for Real Life Projects
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I am
offering an Adult Education Course in Acton, MA starting in March 2002
called Project Management for Real Life Projects. The course teaches
professional project management techniques and coaching skills that
can be applied to your real life projects. The class will select a
sample project. Examples might be: career change, job
search, personal skill building, home remodeling, or purchasing
decision.
I am looking for 8-10 volunteers for one night to run a free pilot of
this course from my house and it will be video taped. You will get a
project notebook, have fun, learn and be fed! Contact me if you are
interested. I will schedule it based on our availability for
sometime before March.
"Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs" -
Henry Ford
"All that I have accomplished...has been by that plodding, patient,
preserving, process of accretion which builds the ant heap particle by
particle, thought by thought, fact by fact." - Elihu Burrit
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5. Links: Kids, Funny, Virtual Teams, Home
Inventory, Scams
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http://www.fastcompany.com/online/36/firstsite.html
Fast Company magazine reviews software application tools that help
virtual teams. This is provided as a follow up to last month's
article on Virtual Teams.
http://www.netlibrary.com/
E-Books. They are here, almost. This site is for libraries,
corporation and the public.
My local library has a subscribe service to it. You must down load a
book reader and then "reserve" the book you want to read. The list
of books available is limited; however, it's really convenient and
addictive for the armchair reader. Somehow, nonfiction seems better
for e-books. I don't know how to or want to curl up with my laptop.
http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/~vista/abstracts/ahouseinv.html
This site contains a book of forms you can download and print to help
you record your house inventory. It is very complete. I've started
it. It is published the University of Illinois.
http://www.statefarm.com/consumer/homeinvt.htm
This is web site is a shorter form of a home inventory from State Farm
Insurance.
http://www.snopes2.com/
http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/
http://www.hoaxkill.com/
http://www.scambusters.org/
http://www.virusbtn.com/Hoax/hoaxlist.html
Hoaxes, Scams, Urban Legends Sites
If you've ever wondered about an email you received, if it was a hoax,
if you should pass it on, this collection of sites has tons of urban
legends, myths and scams that are found on the Internet. I browsed
all of them and recognized a handful that has ended up in my email
box. NOTE: Sensitive readers should stay away.
http://www.funbrain.com/
This claims to be the Internet's #1 site for kids and teachers. I
learned about it from my eight-year-old son, who plays it at school.
This is now his site of choice; he likes the math-baseball and the
location game.
http://www.gotlaughs.com/
I always wondered where all that email humor stuff came from that
people forward. Here's some of it. You can see pigs and apes doing
WHAAZZUP and George Bush and Colin Powell doing the Banana Boat song
with new lyrics for Osama bin Laden. CAUTION: this site may be
offensive to some. My source of information for this site is a
teenage boy.
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6. Coaching Notes: Niche or NOT?
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I've
resisted declaring a niche for my coaching and consulting business.
I'm fascinated and intrigued by all people and businesses, their
lives, their histories and the challenges.
Over the past year, four types of coaching clients and topics have
emerged, with each situation and person bringing a unique perspective
to it.
1. Directors, Project and Product Managers, Technical Leaders and
Managers
Skills Improvement:
Identify skills you want to work on for your job, career or personal
growth
Create a plan with weekly review for progress and awareness.
Being more Proactive, rather than Reactive:
Getting clarity on the most important things to focus time on.
Figuring out what the daily, weekly and monthly priority tasks are and
how to incorporate them into the stressful and crises-driven workday.
Decision Making and Unblocking
Tackling and getting forward movement on tough, multifaceted, sticky,
emotionally-charged core issues.
Communication:
Being more effective and accurate in the moment.
Understanding others' perspectives and your own assumptions.
2. Business Owners, Consultants, Senior Level Management
For successful business owners and leaders that are stuck or wanting
to take the next steps in their business:
They are usually dealing with multifaceted, complex, no clear next
steps, and with thorny and abstract problems.
Lots of objective and instinctive information is gathered and brought
into the discussion. Historical perspective, industry information and
models, new idea
development and brainstorming are used to shape and develop actions
that will move them and their business forward.
These people are experienced in business, considered experts, and are
already successful in at least one or two areas.
3. Job Seekers and Career Changers
Network:
Learn how to effectively network. A major placement firm estimates
that for professionals, 70-80% of successful job searches are from
networking, 10-20% from using a placement firm, and 5-10% from
responding to advertisements.
Clarity:
Be very clear in all written and oral presentations about what are job
and career needs and what are not. Ensure that the receiver of the
information understands it the way it is intended it to be.
Focus:
Consider a career or job search as a project.
Have specific measurable goals, a plan with milestones, actions, and
feedback loops and end points. A milestone might be to investigate 5
other types of careers in the next 3 months.
Balance:
Create a structure and time guidelines for the job or career search
and conscientiously use the other available time.
Spending 24x7 on a job search is too stressful.
4. "What do I want to do When I Grow up?"
I love the creativity, energy, excitement, hard work and fun that this
type of coaching client is willing to share with me. Where we start
and where our journey takes us, is always a surprise. The answer is
slippery and elusive and evolves over time. Eventually we create a
personal mission statement or a vision of their future self. In
conjunction with that, we focus on aligning activities and values to
reflect the core or center of the person.
If you are interested in any of these are areas, call me let's explore
it!
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Elements November 2001
Written by: Star Dargin
Edited by: Ruth Gleba,
gleba@aol.com
Advertising will be accepted.
Contact Star for rates at:
stars@stardar.com
Personal submissions will only be published with permission from the
submitter, who is responsible for ensuring rights to the material.
Based on your preference, submissions can be published anonymously.
Elements will be published 12 times a year.
The deadline for the next issue is December 7, 2001
To subscribe or unsubscribe send email to
stars@stardar.com
The opinions expressed in Elements are the author's viewpoint.
While every effort has been taken to verify the accuracy of the
content, such information is
subject to change without notice. Elements is not responsible for
inadvertent errors.
Star Dargin
34 Robinson Road,
Littleton,
MA 01460
978486-4603
Star Dargin is an independent coach, consultant and trainer and is a
partner of Shared Learning International: www.sharedlearningint.com
As a professional coach she collaborates with individuals and teams to
provide focus and balance in achieving personalized results. As a
consultant, she specialized in bringing software methodologies and
project management to life for business, teams and individuals.
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