On Self-Awareness

This year I've been focusing on self-awareness, which in my case was really about taking stock of myself in asking searching questions. It started toward the end of last year, when I first began to make sense of a model that I coined as the RAGE model (Reality, Aspirations, Goals, Expectations). In the course of this year, I had applied RAGE to not only a number of my personal & professional situations, but also used it to help guide a few friends and colleagues. I realised that many people find themselves in situations, when faced with different choices, are often conflicted about these choices, find themselves searching, reaching out to me(!). What surprised me most was how I was able to give neutral counsel, often by re-applying the techniques I've come to use on myself - the crux of it is really around asking searching questions. So I decided to use this blog post to capture my learnings to date, as references to the topics I've come across, share them with you...at the very least, I can come back to this post for a refresher when faced with my next dilemma. I myself am still learning...

This post is taking me more than just a few days to write, so I'm releasing it incrementally. There's still some empty sections that will be filled up as I go along. It's broken up as follows, you can read each section independently:

• Real-Life Scenarios
• Know Thyself - RAGE Model
• Dreyfus Model
• Discover Your Generational Archetype
• Cognitive Biases
• Socrates Questions / Socratic Method
• Ego is the Enemy
• Humble Yourself
• Create Your Own Prime Directive
• Antifragile & Black Swan Events
• Happiness Criteria
• Circle of Control / Influence
• Conversation Transformation
• My Own Situational History
• Failure Resume
• Concluding Remarks

Experiments with Novo Resume

Back in July I started looking at potential jobs I could apply for (since applying for specific jobs is an ongoing activity in my personal development plan). I stumbled upon this interesting piece on a six second resume, which introduced me to this site NovoResume. The site is still beta, doesn't have many powerful features, still in development - but I decided to give it a try, for a potential job ad that was for GM Digital Media Operations. I did not end up applying, since after much thought, didn't feel quite right about it being a good fit for me.

Anyway, you might find NovoResume interesting and would like to experiment as well. Below is a version of the Resume I created using NovoResume in about 20 minutes. I am waiting for them to provide templates for Senior roles (with 10+ years experience profile).

Resume created using NovoResume

On Project Management

In the last couple of years, I've had people approach me from different areas (technical and non-technical) to teach about project and program management. I've had some senior management ask me to guide project managers (that were close to being fired that needed an intervention to turn them around), engineers seeking guidance on how to get into project management, and heads of PMOs tell their people to shadow me to learn how "Muhammad does it", so much so, that most recently, most of my style of project documents, reports & ways-of-managing-meetings have formed the basis of "how we should do things here" templates. This year, I was asked to teach a course and was even offered a potential future coaching opportunity to help a PMO reach their desired levels of performance (which plays nicely to my aspirations of improved life-work balance and creating more time for myself, like working 3-day weeks).

This might sound like great feedback, something to be proud of, and a rather nice side effect of the work that I have come to "just do" automatically. I had no ulterior motives for recognition and reward. I never once professed to be a grand professional project manager.  Heck, I am not even certified (even though I've been on training courses and I am quite well read), I don't even promote PMP / PRINCE2 / Agile certifications & methodologies, and I've hardly used MS Project to run projects - and here are people who already have all the certifications in place (and arguably more proficient with project tools like MS Project), coming to me, asking for guidance and to be taught!! 

In truth, this recognition (and sometimes public endorsements) makes me more uncomfortable to say the least and has increased my own self-awareness, because I'm actually quite acutely aware of my own limitations. What is it that my customers see in my work?? Do they realise I'm not even currently a certified PM?? How can I help transmit what I've learnt in my experiences (acquired wisdom & intuition) in project management, that people don't already know, that they wouldn't already have picked up in PMBOK certification courses anyway? 

Recently I completed Any Hunt's "Pragmatic Thinking & Learning", where I came across the Dreyfus Model; and earlier this year, I read Donnie MacNicol's "Project Leadership" which made me realise that I may just be at the level of Expert/Mastery (Project Leader) skill level on the Dreyfus model for most (but not all) of the skills for project & program management. In a future post I will share my own PM-skills diagnostic when viewed according to the Dreyfus model. This will be a useful self-discovery exercise especially after watching a talk on Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday.

So as an experiment, I decided to create a rough mind map of my own PM Knowledge-base. When I start a project, what framework do I use that helps me navigate the project minefield? So I created the picture below - a very rough dump from memory. This could potentially serve as a rough outline of a coaching course I could do for project management. If I were to write a training plan, how would I structure it? If I were running a PMO, what would I focus on? I could just about write a blog post on each of the topics (and over time, I could have training material emerge, who knows!).

My PM Mind Map

Rough Mind Map

My PM Knowledge Base

Whilst I have to date, kept away from acquiring a formal PM certification (see this post that explains my reasoning to shy away from certification), I read a number  of books and material on the subject. Below is my library that has helped me in my quest to master the subject and sharpen my toolbox. This list is in no particular order, although each one has inspired me in some way and has had a direct influence into how I apply my knowledge in applying my project management roles (I've got another five more currently reading, the list will update as I finish more in future).

On mapping your realities

Earlier this year, around March/April some time, I came across this TED talk, about drawing your life / aspirations in terms of current reality (current state) to desired new reality (future / desired state). At the time, I had just finished working on my own version of personal journey mapping, which I coined as the RAGE (Reality Aspirations Goals Expectations) model. This TED talk made me think and experiment with my own sketch, which I actually attempted, immediately after watching the video. I found the picture lying on my desk, so decided to post it on this blog, and to share with others (who may find themselves in a similar situation as I). I hope the picture says it all, suffice to say, I've been making some headway in my own personal journey tracking (which I plan to share in a future post, called On Self-Awareness). If you want to see what I've been tracking this year, check it out here.

Here's the TED Talk:

And here's my very own version 0.01, of my life picture, snapshot from March/April:

And back in Jan/Feb I had sketched my general view that led to my RAGE model, which incidentally is my implementation plan to get me from Current -> Desired State:

To manage software teams, take a page out of the baker of breads

Software management metaphor - Another one of those "This might not work" posts...

Last night I woke up from a deep sleep, to the sounds of the howling wind outside, the tatter-tatter of light scattered rain hitting the window, whooshing branches of the garden palm tree against the roof & telephone cable, at about one in the morning, and the sounds of an indecisive impending thunderstorm about to break - when a thought came to me: that managing software teams is just like being a baker who bakes bread! 

And if you're going to coach software teams, you won't do a great job unless you've been through a few projects yourself, in say maybe three different products...just like a baker should never profess to be a a true baker of breads if he/she only knows of just one type of bread :-)

So let's build on this metaphor

There are no doubt a wide variety of breads, over two hundred according to wikipedia. Each bread appears to have its its own unique characteristics, not just from outward appearances, but also sometimes, unique ingredients as well. 

Though most breads may share a common pool of ingredients, they will vary in terms of process & methods.  Some doughs (infrastructure code perhaps or engineering methods?) must be repeatedly pounded,  some need to reach a different points of elasticity, some need varying amounts of time to soak, just in preparation time, and some might be best served a day later. 

Some breads need a tender touch, care and extra attention, whilst some breads are rough, solid and can take on a few dents and bruises here and there. Either way, the baker understands that balance and care are needed to get the best bake out of the ingredients, methods and process - just enough and not forgetting, the baker's intuition, experiential wisdom all play a huge part into what makes a baker of breads, a great baker of breads...

The baker of breads is no doubt expert, finely attuned to the methods and processes that must be applied to each bread to get the desired result: beautifully baked, well worth the time, effort, energy and most of the time, patience.

Any shortcuts taken, or hastily applying a different method based on some other bread type could result in failure, or perhaps a mutation of sorts. The end result is likely not a very good bread, far from edible.

In pretty much the same way, a software manager (coach, consultant, etc.) needs to approach each software team with care, take time to understand its own unique character, culture and drive for success, applying possibly unique methods to "bake" the teams to reach their desired goals and outcomes. And this outcome in my view, is one of delivering value, keeping customers happy.

So to end the metaphor, a software manager must become a master chef, a baker of breads. Understand each bread is unique, invest in appreciating this uniqueness which may need you to change your own behaviours and biases. 

And revel in the the taste of variety...

Then I went back to sleep...