Friday September 8, 2023
Volume 1 - Issue 13
This week I’m loving
Today (Sept 8, 2023) the world will celebrate International Literacy Day under the theme: “Promoting literacy for a world in transition”. This theme has been chosen to help sound the alarm that the pandemic didn’t just impact economic gaps, but other important inequalities have also widened. UNESCO reports that the share of children who cannot read a simple text with comprehension at the age of 10 years increased from 57% to 70% since 2019. In Canada, more than 1 million children are estimated to have below-grade reading level and in the United States 40% are struggling to read at a basic level. A shocking 48% of Canadian adults (and 54% of American adults) might not be able to fully comprehend the content this newsletter having literacy skills below the high-school level. Here are some other global statistics you may find interesting:
Image credit: UNESCO
Literacy statistics are often focused on reading ability, but literacy actually includes 4 skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening.
Reading and comprehension skills are critical competencies for project managers. Last week’s interesting read on judgement (link here if you missed it) talked about the importance of reading not just for information but also to really understand the meaning conveyed by the text. This type of comprehension goes beyond the simple words written on the page and is an important part of our ability to understand what is really going on in a project.
Listening, and in particular the art of active listening, is equally important, both to ensure we can effectively help and support the project team, but also understand and engage with project stakeholders.
Finally, a huge part of project management involves speaking. Whether this is providing instructions, progress updates, motivation, engagement, conflict resolution, or problem solving collaboratively, not a day goes by where a project manager isn’t crafting one narrative or another.
As professionals who rely so heavily on literacy, we can be strong advocates to support literacy within our communities and to inspire the next generation toward positive literacy outcomes.
So let’s take a moment to be thankful for the words we can use to exchange our thoughts and I hope you can find a way to pay this knowledge we take for granted forward somehow in your community.
Tool of the week
Another very useful visual requirements model is the Business Objectives Model. One thing I love about this model is that it is very good at focusing the team on the business problem(s) at hand. The process for creating the model follows a simple 4-step framework.
Image credit: Analyte Projects Ltd.
Business objectives and business problems form hierarchical pairs. These are derived iteratively until the objective can be solved by a clear solution. At the highest level of the hierarchy, the business problem should relate to money. As you progress down the hierarchy, the problems narrow down some aspect of the level above.
Image credit: Analyte Projects Ltd.
The business objective that would remedy the primary business problem is defined next. Business objectives should always be measurable and might have a timeframe within which they should be delivered and measured.
Image credit: Analyte Projects Ltd.
Next identify additional business problems. Ask the question: “What is the primary reason we aren’t achieving this business objective today?” Sometimes the team will need to go away and do research or collect data before this question can be answered. Continue iterating between problem and objective until the solution that immediately addresses a business objective becomes apparent. It should be possible to clearly describe the solution characteristics or features and tie them directly to the business objective.
Image credit: Analyte Projects Ltd.
Lastly, for each business objective, think about how and when performance will be measured. These findings are captured as success metrics which can be written right into the business objective box or added as call-outs depending on your preference.
Ultimately, when this model is complete, the project team and your stakeholders will have access to an at-a-glance view of the value the project will deliver.
An interesting read
One of the lesser known project management superpowers is the gut check. We all know it, that nagging feeling that something is going wrong, or that something needs attention.
I have found that young project managers often try to suppress this. They worry they will be seen as uncertain, they think having doubts and worries isn’t part of the career. To this I say, not so my friend. In fact, this little nagging feeling, your intuition, is one of a handful of traits of excellent project managers that we just can’t teach. You either have it, and know how to tap into it - or you don’t.
This week’s read is a reminder to pay attention to your intuition and to let it tell you what it needs to. A short piece from the masterful Ozan Varol.
A tip
Project management is a career that involves a lot of self-evaluation. Most of your bosses won't know much about your profession. Most of your colleagues won't do work that is similar to you. Your company probably doesn't see things the way you do. Only you will know. Only you can evaluate where you can get better.
But how can you do this?
Each week, try a 10 minute mini-retro:
3 things you want to congratulate yourself on
3 things you want to improve on
3 actions you can take in the upcoming week
I like to do this on Friday night which is a good night to celebrate, and also a great way to take thoughts off your plate so you can enjoy the weekend and return to them on Monday as you take action to improve.
A lesson
Fitting in at a new role or new organization can be tricky. I wasn’t always great at it. I am an enthusiastic person and I often assume others share my enthusiasm. Through the years as I have navigated organization after organization I assembled a list of things I force myself to observe before I make any real moves within the organization.
Here’s what I’ve learned.
Where you see executives tells you a lot about the culture of the company and how psychologically safe the culture is. I use this to help me understand how much challenging the status quo will be tolerated or welcomed.
Cultures with toxic patterns often show their colors fastest in the form of happiness. If you don’t see people laughing, joking around with eachother, and genuinely having a good time, watch carefully for the toxicity as it will be there, no matter how subtle.
Projects are a vehicle for value delivery. If you don’t see this happening, it tells you the organization is struggling to be effective. Don’t expect job stability in an environment like this.
The connection between projects and strategy is how you figure out whether a company is working to achieve it’s purpose or wandering aimlessly. If you want to stay engaged at work, this one is very important. No one likes an aimless role, and succeeding in one is very hard.
Finally, how organizations learn is highly visible to project managers in the form of lessons learned and also an important indicator of how well your role will be received. If the organization isn’t learning from its struggles you will have an uphill battle ahead of you.
What signs do you look for when you join a new organization?
I really hope you are enjoying this newsletter. I’m getting read to launch some other exciting stuff including resources to support your project management, another newsletter specifically focused on Value Delivery, and online courses. This community is a passion for me, and I’ll keep serving you here every week, but if you are interested in these other things, please sign up for my mailing list.