Remembering Good Men and Women

Memorial Day is here and fortunate to grow up with mentors and friends who served in WW2, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. They all say the heroes were the ones who did not return. Which is true. But these people all worked and fought in horrific conditions for their brethren soldiers, sailors, marines, air force, coast guard and national guard. They did not want to let anyone down.

They returned to the USA to raise families and build our society. They joined groups, charities, churches, and created businesses. They joined our political process, schools, colleges and created the prosperity we have today. They did the extraordinary and maintained their humanity, caring, charity, faith and confidence. If something went wrong, they had been through worse, and had faith all would thrive.

Please take some time this weekend to remember those who came before us. We are living on the shoulders of ordinary people who became giants.

Are You Brave Enough to be Wrong?

Too many fears: “Don’t admit that.” “People will think less of me.” “If I tell them bad news will be fired.”

We have put too much money or effort into that to quit. Accounting calls that sunk costs. Despite the testing or product failures business carries on.

There is too much new information and even more distractions. Daily news prioritizes bad news to monopolize attention. Scaring people gets eyeballs. We spent time on the recent instead of the important.

Our brain is lazy and saves energy where possible. May not know we were wrong. We have scripts: “Already looked at that.” It takes energy to think deeply. See “Thinking Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman.

Slow down and look at feedback. Don’t rush to next item. What is important or valuable here? Are the results going as expected? Why not? What are customers saying? What are the competitors doing? What problems are manufacturing having? Why are we having rework? Dig into design and marketing if necessary.

Lean Startup prioritizes making a minimal viable product to test. “Build, Measure, Learn.” Interactions with customers are accelerated. Designs iterate quickly. Business models are modified and improved to succeed. 

Manger at standup meeting questioned a project due date. A few people disagreed starting discussing. Showed Donnie written notes had with that date. His reaction, “Never mind Steve showed me that date written down.” Donnie did not waste time or effort about being wrong. He moved on.

We are all human and make mistakes. Don’t stay stuck in yours. Admit, apologize if necessary, and move on. 

“Those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.” - George Santayana, philosopher, poet, writer

Seeing Around Corners

Project management is anticipating issues and mitigating possibilities before they occur. Successful projects are brought in on time, close to budget, and with features the customers want. How?

“Everything is easy, until you have to do it.” My crystal ball doesn’t exist. The future is hidden from us all. The only way a project works is deep research, asking tough questions, detailed work planning, and over-communicating.

Deep research is getting with sponsors to understand the purpose for this project? Increasing market share? Mitigating product weakness? Entering new market? Safety? Find the benefits: More income? Lower cost? Less weight? New market opportunity? Attracting new customers? Something is motivating the investment. How much budget are they anticipating? Where did the estimates come from? Which features are must and which features are nice to have? The charter must be explicit to prevent project scope creep. Adding work during the project blows budgets and schedules. Who makes the decisions?

Asking tough questions may not be popular, but necessary for success. Find out what is causing the change: Falling sales? Dated design? Poor quality? Losing existing customers? New competitor products/services? 

At some point you have to look for other successes and failures to learn from. Have we tried something similar before? How did it work out? Why? How many design iterations were necessary? How long did the steps take? Did equipment or tooling cost more than expected? How over budget was it? Learn recent history from the people who participated.

Detailed Work Plans include breaking down individual steps and who is going to perform the work. Budget for more expensive talent to perform planning. Often less experienced people execute the steps, although sometimes it is the same senior people. Include feedback loops in your plan. Never had a product not redesigned after testing. The simple tool tested Friday was the result of 3 design iterations. When do we get user feedback? Sooner is better. How long does regulatory approval take? 

Schedules are notoriously hard to plan. Everyone wants to add time in case. Ideally you set a plan for the expected and add 10-20% extra time for the unexpected. People can hate giving estimates. Ask 1^stestimated time for the worst case, then the best case, and finally ask typical case. Add the worst case, best case and 4 times typical case, then divide by 6. The typical case is the estimate they want to use. Remember the goal is to bring the project in early and under budget.

Over-Communicating may feel like you are repeating yourself, but if you don’t someone will miss the message. Everyone is busy, distracted at times, and not always receptive. Advertising believes it takes 4 to 10 touches to get attention.

Weekly status meetings should be the norm, followed by an emailed summary. Daily stand up meetings may be necessary for work groups. Sponsors may prefer bi-weekly or monthly discussions, but include weekly status reports. Ask them their preference for communication. 

When something is wrong, face to face may be preferable. My go to is writing the key points in an email, sending it and immediately calling. By writing the info down it is organized, and we are both discussing the same points.

Project management does feel like “Herding Cats” at times, but is rewarding work.

Nobody Fits, Everyone Belongs

We have to stop blaming smart phones. Loneliness is epidemic. Depression and anxiety disorders increased by 54% and 42% between 1990 and 2013 per WHO. Drug overdoses and addictions increasing for 16 years per CDC.  Suicides are happening across all ages, sexes, and races. Middle age men 45-54 have the highest suicide rate, followed by senior men over 85. 

Personality and Social Psychology Review shows empathy in college students fell 48% between 1979 and 2009. See the numbers of youth joining violent or extremist movements.

“Bowling Alone” by Robert D. Putnam (2000) shows data with affects of isolation. People no longer have traditional support from family and society. Urbanization is one factor as more people move to cities for work. Another is business people trying to out work each other to get ahead.

Our culture needs to change. It starts with us. We need to choose happiness.

Greet People and Welcome Strangers

Kids have been told not to talk to strangers. Bad advice. Everyone is a stranger until you meet them. New employees need to be introduced and guided to succeed. Does not happen overnight, but you get to know more people over time and belong.

Actively Join Groups 

Don’t just attend events. Show up early and help setup. Stay late and clean up. Find people who look lost and guide them. Volunteer to organize. Grows you personally and career wise.

Help People

Nothing gets us out of our own head and troubles. Whether helping neighbors, kids, elderly, schools, or homeless, you focus on someone else. Simple as holding doors, carrying items, weeding or shoveling snow. Red Cross, Scouting, Coaching, Job Networks, Habitat for Humanity, Salvation Army and more charities need volunteers. Your opportunities are unlimited.

Forgive People for Disagreeing

Opposing political groups previously expressed frustration with each other, now express fear and anger. Anger has been associated with loss of status. (World Economic Forum 2019 Global Risk Report) Family and friends are still good people if they support different candidates or ideas. Participated in events at different churches, temples and synagogues. We have more in common than differences.

Go Worship Regularly

Don’t only be spiritual at home. Go join communities of faith and attend more activities than services. Knowing you are not alone in suffering and having fears helps us through challenges. Stopped going in 20s and returned at 40. Rejoining the Catholic community has made it easier to survive my challenges in life. Biggest joys have come from rejoining.

Don’t know why or where to start, join an Alpha session. AlphaUSA.org is international, interdenominational, and a place where people ask the hard questions of life. Enjoyed my Alpha and now host tables at my Catholic Parish. Do not have all life’s answers, just have people to ask my questions. (BTW churches are not buildings, but communities)

The benefits changing our culture and welcoming people are productivity, lower stress, less addition, fewer suicides, and less violent crimes. No downsides to living a better life.

“Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilisation.” ―Mahatma Gandhi

The Global Risks Report 2019

https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-risks-report-2019

Decline in Human Empathy Creates Global Risks in the 'Age of Anger'

https://sponsored.bloomberg.com/news/sponsors/zurich/decline-in-human-empathy-creates-global-risks-in-the-age-of-anger/?adv=6712&prx_t=F6oEAAAAAAFEANA&fbclid=IwAR1Z-tLhwctIAsMGdB5_TnhHnyri_8UMSUyJ5cSDEol1ehVHyyIK1oH03Wo