What We Have Here, Is A Failure To Communicate

Today's entry is not merely a reference to the classic film Cool Hand Luke, but rather a stumbling block that occurs in every aspect of our lives, from personal relationships through to work relationships, with Project Management being no exception. I cannot recall how many times I've personally received the "communication" speech, let alone delivered it to someone else. So what is the problem? Why is communication so difficult to master? While I'm sure that there are a lot of possible reasons, below are my thoughts on this age old dilemma.

Vulnerability ~ As human beings, I think that we all tend to be vulnerable on some level. Nobody wants to open themselves up, for the fear of getting hurt and therefore we go out of our way to put up a shield of protection, to close ourselves off from the rest of the world. So how does this tie into communication? By talking out loud and sharing your concerns or your need for help, you have now opened yourself up, allowing people to see your weaknesses. The key to overcoming this, is to recognize that we are ALL vulnerable and that opening yourself up to others is simply another progression in life and that sometimes it will be hard and sometimes it will be easy, but in the end we exist stronger as individuals when we open ourselves up to being part of something greater.

Hero Complex ~ Continuing on the same train of thought as the issue of vulnerability, though from a completely different angle, there is the hero complex. Not only do you not want to open yourself up, but you don't want to be dependent on anyone else either, you want to do it all yourself. Now the reasoning behind this could either be as I just mentioned, the idea of not wanting to be dependent on anyone else for fear that they might not always be there, or it could be that you want to claim all the fame and glory for yourself and therefore don't want anyone else involved to share in it. Looking at the first possibility, where you are scared of being dependent on others for fear that they might not support you continuously, I think that this is a valid concern, but a risk that should be taken, for even the smallest amount of support is often better than no support at all. As for the second possibility, of wanting all the fame and glory for yourself, I think that this is a very dangerous type of attitude and one that will end up limiting your growth in any type of relationship, both personal and work related. The amount of knowledge that we can attain ourselves is in no way comparable to what we can learn from others and shutting yourself off and choosing that path of solitude, is choosing a static lonely life in a world of endless possibilities.

Fear ~ "There's no such thing as a stupid question..." a phrase I'm sure we've all heard at some point in our lives, but truthfully, how many of us actually believe it? I cannot count how many times I've personally witnessed a project blow up, simply because someone was too scared to admit that they needed help, that they didn't understand, that they couldn't do it alone... Playing again off the theme of vulnerability, people are afraid to show their weaknesses and therefore go out of their way, not necessarily to strengthen those weaknesses, but rather to strengthen the appearance of a lack of weakness. The downfall is that there is only so much you can do on your own, and no amount of pretending is going to change that. Asking for help doesn't show your weakness, but rather it shows your strength in accepting the fact that there is ALWAYS something to learn and someone out there to learn from!

Discomfort ~ This last possibility for lack of communication, I hope is a unique one, but I figured that I would mention it as I have personally come against this one in the workplace. So, discomfort, the idea that you can't talk to someone due to personal reasons. A simple solution would be to move to a different department or job thus avoiding any type of awkwardness or discomfort, but if you're like me, giving up and avoiding confrontation is rarely a solution that I am going to take. So, what can you do? Face the issue head on, work past your differences, and move forward together. While this is often easier said than done and will definitely take some time to accomplish, the outcome, tends to be well worth the effort.

Looking at the above reasons, while they are all completely valid, they do seem to share the same major flaw, and that is that they overlook the concept of a TEAM. What is a team? According to Wikipedia, a team is comprised of many people with complementary skills, which generate a synergy through a coordinated effort for a common purpose. So how does communication play into teamwork? Simple, communication is the glue that holds a team together, it is what keeps us all on the same page, moving in the same direction, towards the same end goal. Without communication, all is lost, and that end goal drifts further and further away from being a reality and becomes more and more some good idea that someone once had.

So in the end, my suggestion to all those out there who have trouble communicating, all I can say is make the effort, take the risk, the reward that comes from good communication, is priceless.

Quality Is The Differentiator, Or Is It?

In my time as a Project Manager, I have come across many obstacles, but the one that seems to constantly occur is the big QC, Quality Control. The debate? If quality isn't your differentiator, what is? The answer, nothing. In this day and age, knowledge is easy to come by, almost too easy. Anyone can sit down with a book, take a class, or surf the web and come out an expert in whatever they desire. The Question: What makes you stand out from the crowd? The Answer: Quality.

So what is quality? According to Wikipedia, it is "the achievement or excellence of an object". The excellence of an object, something so basic, yet at the same time is so often overlooked. The question is why? In my experience, lack of quality is never associated with lack of knowledge or skill set. So what is it? Ownership.

Ownership ~ The word ownership is really synonymous with the word accountability, it is the idea of being responsible for your work. I cannot emphasize enough how critical ownership is to the quality of a project. From my experience, one of the main downfalls in quality, is the disconnect between one's self and one's work. If there is no ownership, then what you end up with is a robotic production line, where the key goal is to produce as much as you can, as quickly as you can, for as cheap as you can. The problem? As the saying goes "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me". The mistake of buying a substandard product, only occurs once and in most businesses, the goal is to keep selling. See the problem?!

Now that we have an understanding of quality, and where we are going wrong, the question is how do we fix this? While I'm sure that every person has their own patented approach, let's look at two basic concepts...

Process ~ You are not the first person to ever create a product and you will by no means be the last, so why waste time in trying to recreate the wheel? Process is essential to creating a quality product. From the first point of meeting your client, all the way through to your final product delivery, you should have a consistent process in place. Having standard steps through a project's life cycle will allow you to stay on track and ensure that everything is moving along as it should. Now the key to a good process, is that it is organic, that it is constantly changing to keep up with new successes and to rid itself of past failures.

Confidence ~ The concept of confidence, is a self enhancing system, the better the quality of the product, the more confidence you'll have, the more confidence you have, the better the quality of the product. Be confident in yourself, in your knowledge, in your skills, and a quality product will surely follow. On the flip side, if you are not confident, seek guidance. In most scenarios you are not working alone, but rather you have a team to support you, look to others to provide the answers you need. And if all else fails? Find a blog that has the answers!

So what does this all mean? At the end of the day, whether you are the Project Manager, the Developer, the Designer, the Sales Manager... you are the Company. When you deliver a product to a client you are representing not only yourself, but your company as a whole, and in that sense, to deliver something below standard, reflects negatively on everyone and is therefore unacceptable.

Now, to overcome this is simple. Before handing your product over, you must think to yourself, is this something that I would be happy with? If the answer is no, then you go back and work on it. If the answer is yes, well then, you've just produced something of quality and in the end, quality is the differentiator.

Taking The Plunge...

So a friend of mine, suggested that I start a blog... I'm not sure if it was to educate me or to keep me busy, either way I figured I'd take a stab at it. The problem? The two T's, finding a Topic and finding the Time. As I procrastinated with this project, my friend beat me to the punch and started her own blog, thus igniting the competitive spirit in me and leading me to this very moment, my first blog entry.

So what about the T's? Finding a Topic. With so much information out there, trying to pick one topic that would entice me enough to keep writing (or in your case, keep coming back and reading), proved to be difficult. But then it hit me, why limit myself? Why should I focus on one topic when there is so much out there to learn and share? And so... the topic of my blog is technology, but not just in it's traditional sense referring to physical objects or software, but rather in the more broader sense referring to systems, methods, techniques... in other words, knowledge.

As for Time? Well, this one is going to be a little trickier... I've committed myself to a weekly post, which should guarantee some sense of consistency.

But who knows, the world is full of information just waiting to be discovered!