Category Archives: Management

#70 Delivering babies

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After 9 months of pregnancy, you’d think a baby would be ready to come charging out. As mothers are well aware (as are fathers, grandparents, nurses, and doctors), the baby is too comfortable, and does not wish to come out. Sometimes delivery has to be induced.

Projects at work follow a similar pattern. Large or small, if they are important, projects are like babies waiting to be born. When the time comes, be prepared to deliver (pun intended). Push hard, push as much as you have to, push safely. Epidurals are not always available. Your co-workes are watching how you deal with the pain.

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#69 Where does your “urgency” come from?

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Change management required you to identify the “burning platform” early in the process. Where does this “spark” come from? Within you? Or from the environment?

In real life, you will have a mix of both sources. The only question remains, what is the ratio?

  • If 80% of the urgency is from the environment, you are “reacting.”
  • If 80% of the urgency is from within, you are being “proactive.”

In both cases, you are likely to be very stressed. You can fight fires most of the time, or be so driven that you don’t stop to smell the roses, and hope to remain stress free. High stress and low quality of life go together.

Thus, another metric becomes the number of change efforts in progress at any time. How many plates can you keep spinning at any time? Reduce the quantity, concentrate your energies. Delegate what you can.

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