On the Critical Path

Start the Day with an Easy Win

Posted on June 4, 2019 by Ron Munroe

I recently saw a retired Navy Admiral interviewed on TV promoting his book. I recognized him because he had also been on TV several years ago. He had gained some notoriety because of the popularity of a commencement address he had delivered. Video clips of his speech were all over the news. He was a good speaker and a commanding presence. I never saw the whole speech at the time, but seeing him again prompted me to look for it on the web to find out what had so captivated the audience.

I did find a video of it and watched all 20 minutes. His name is Admiral William McRaven and he spoke at the University of Texas commencement in 2014. The core of the speech was sharing ten lessons that he had learned in six months of basic Navy Seal training. He saw these lessons as valuable for anyone, including graduating students who might aspire to change the world.

All the lessons were thought provoking, especially when he explained the grueling challenges through which the Navy taught most of them. But the lesson that got the most attention on the news was the first, because it seemed too simplistic. It was: “Make Your Bed”. As he explained it, the Navy required the students to make their bed perfectly every morning and the result had to pass inspection. At the time he thought it was a ridiculous thing to focus on, but later came to appreciate the wisdom of it. He said when the first thing you do every morning is make your bed, it means you’ve already accomplished your first task of the day. It gives you a small sense of pride and encourages you to do more tasks. It also reinforces that the little things matter. If you can’t do those right, you are less likely do the big things well.

The other nine lessons and the stories behind them were compelling but, like the TV reporters in 2014, I was most hooked by the quirky “make your bed” because of the seeming contradiction that such a mundane practice can be listed among the lessons to recommend to graduates. I think what I appreciated the most was he gave me another way to look at a chore that I don’t love. I like the idea that making your bed can be viewed as not just a daily chore to endure, but the first completed task of the day, a quick win the helps build the day’s momentum.

Anyway, it is kind of a funny thing to write about, but I can see the Admiral’s point. It seems a little ridiculous at first, but I can see that it might hold some wisdom too.

Posted in Accomplishments, Lessons Learned | 4 Comments

Embracing the uncomfortable

Posted on May 15, 2019 by Spyros Potiris

Coming out of my Negotiations class on a rainy April afternoon, I was feeling quite disappointed. We had just completed an exercise on a multi-party negotiation for the development of a fictional new port on the East Coast, and I did not feel thrilled about the outcome. All students were assigned roles of interested parties and worked in groups of six to reach an agreement that would allow the development of the port. The purpose of the exercise was to practice making the right alliances and moves throughout the negotiation – new topics presented in that class – to make a favorable deal.

At the end of the exercise, however, I was pretty frustrated. I felt that I had failed to understand and apply the fundamental concepts and methods presented by our instructor. My conversations with the other parties did not seem particularly effective, while the negotiation process did not flow as smoothly as I wanted it to.

Having started a master’s program recently, I am constantly exposed to new ideas, frameworks and theories; during lectures, while reading papers, when discussing with peers. Learning something new, though, feels taxing, not exactly fluent or fun, and sometimes even stressful. I often find that I have to consciously remind myself that this is how the learning process is supposed to be; it is supposed to be uncomfortable. Realizing that the world is not necessarily as you have understood it. It is a messy process, and you just have to stick it out before everything starts to make sense.

To be effective, learning needs to be effortful. That is not to say that anything that makes learning easier is counterproductive, or that all unpleasant learning is effective. Quality learning, however, requires what scientists call “desirable difficulty”. The same way you feel a muscle “burn” when it is being strengthened, the brain needs to feel some discomfort when it is learning. Your mind might hurt for a while, but that is a good thing.

As kids, we do not know enough to judge ourselves harshly, so we naturally cut ourselves some slack. We are not worried that we are not getting it fast enough. We just keep working to understand. Learning new skills and concepts as an adult is no different, but we like to think we are experienced enough to make the process easier, more organized and less frustrating. But that is not the way learning works. To learn, we must embrace the uncomfortable.

Few people actually enjoy the feeling of being uncomfortable. I struggle with it. The challenge is to get past that initial feeling of wanting to return to the norm, so you can grow and benefit from that discomfort. But I do love how I feel when I get to the other side. The feeling of accomplishment and understanding are completely satisfying, especially when the growth process has been a big challenge.

So, what can you do to make the uncomfortable learning process more constructive and less stressful? Here are a few tips I have gathered from friends, peers, mentors and personal experience:

Be willing to be bad first; a combination of accepting being not-good and believing in your ability to get good. This a challenge for high-achieving, successful people accustomed to excellence. Being good at stuff is addictive. Letting go of that and going back to getting good at stuff seems not an option. But that is what you have to do in order to start learning something new.
Include your closest friends, peers and mentors in the process so they can support you and share in your struggles and eventual success. If you can persuade another friend to join you on the journey, it is even better.
Celebrate small wins by setting achievable milestones and getting excited every time you reach one. Be proud and pleased with each progressive step you achieve towards the end goal.
Take some time to clear your mind by meditating, exercising, listening to music or praying. It is important to calm both your brain and soul by taking small breaks from the learning challenges that lie ahead.
Make sure you set time away for simple tasks that you have already mastered. This can rebuild your confidence and remind you that you have powered through difficulty before.

Posted in Learning, Lessons Learned, Motivation | 2 Comments

It’s Time for Another Digital Spring Cleaning

Posted on May 2, 2019 by Tate Forgey

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Last year around this time I wrote a post with methods for a Digital Spring Cleaning. Well, it’s that time of year again and a good time to revisit this idea. Previously I focused on setting up a password manager and reducing clutter on your desktop and in your inboxes. Here are a couple more items to include in your annual checklist and your continuing efforts to maintain a tidy digital life.

Update all your Software
Outdated software can be an open door for malware
Consolidate and organize all your files
It makes it easier to find the data and keep it safe
“Shred” old hardware and devices
Proper disposal ensures personal information stays protected
Delete unused online accounts
Every account is an opportunity for your data to be exposed

Removing clutter from your digital life doesn’t only improve your day-to-day experience; it is an important part of your long-term digital health. Too many of us are digital hoarders and are quick to sign up for a “free” account if there is a little incentive. However, the strongest password in the world doesn’t make a difference if the company has poor security practices. By getting rid of all unused accounts and hardware, you reduce potential exposure of your data as well as simplify your digital life Marie Kondo style!

Posted in Productivity | 2 Comments

On Paris and Boston

Posted on April 18, 2019 by David Pesta

8:37pm, Tuesday April 16, 2019

Around 3pm yesterday, Patriots Day, my wife appeared in my home office crying. The Notre-Dame in Paris was on fire, she said. I launched the BBC live feed and saw it happen in real time. The entire structure, mostly ancient stone, seemed to be ablaze. The Notre-Dame spire, as iconic a landmark to Parisians as the Eiffel Tower, was thoroughly engulfed in flame. Smoke of an alien yellow-gray color churned from it. What little that could be seen of the spire’s skeleton appeared charred and frail.

A second later it collapsed. It buckled slightly, then toppled, the hell-fire still burning as it went down. It was staggering to watch. A sensation like a hot rock instantly formed in my stomach. Immediately I flashed back to September 11, 2001.

That day, from the 24th floor of 60 State Street in downtown Boston, I watched the World Trade Center towers collapse. With a dozen or so co-workers in a large conference room, I saw it happen live on a 10-foot projection screen. The massive iconic structures, now on fire, filled my field of vision. They imploded before our eyes, impossibly, implausibly. From the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse across the harbor of the dormant Logan Airport. Later we learned that’s where the planes had come from.

It was all coming back to me watching the Notre-Dame cathedral burn. A few years prior to September 11th, I had done some consulting work in the Wall Street area. Now on this 10-foot screen I watched fire, dust, and burning debris rain down on the streets below. I knew those streets, if only as places to get lunch. That day I hoped no one was on the street beneath those towers in New York. And yesterday I hoped, in a way almost like prayer, there were no French, no tourists beneath the spire.

Last September, I visited Paris for the first time on vacation. Right away I knew why people fell in love with the city. Every street was the most beautiful street I had ever seen. Each building the most magnificent. Each meal, each glass of wine, each wedge of cheese was the best thing I had ever tasted. The soul of Paris got into my bloodstream. And yesterday the heart of Paris was an inferno.

All this, of course, was happening during the Boston Marathon. Six years ago, we lived through our own heart-wrenching catastrophe. We witnessed our streets on fire, bloodied. People at Dana-Farber and other hospitals around Boston helped treat the wounded and the dying. Yesterday as Paris burned, it was impossible to keep the Marathon bombing out of my mind. I remembered where I was when I learned it had happened, how it felt, wanting to do something to strike back and feeling powerless to do so.

No one died in Paris yesterday. Objectively these are different scales of human catastrophe. I get that. I would not argue the point and say they are the same.

But to the French, to an entire nation, this beautiful ancient place is a part of them. The destruction feels like a death. That particular notion seems reflected in the footage of Parisians crying and singing hymns along the streets near Notre-Dame last night. It seems reflected in how millions of euros have already been donated to rebuild Notre-Dame while the embers are still hot. And most poignantly, it seems reflected in the firefighters who rushed into a flaming building minutes from collapse to save what was most precious to them.

It’s difficult, I think, for us as Americans to fully grasp it. The Notre-Dame of Paris is 850 years old. Can you think of anything else that old that you see every day? It took 200 years to build it. As a country, we are barely older than that. As a culture we are still infants in many ways. We have no sense of feeling interwoven with a long-lived heritage the way the French must feel it, deep in their marrow.

I cannot claim to write truly about the French psyche after just one short vacation in Paris (if there are any French people at DFCI, please feel free to add to the discussion). Mostly I’m just attempting to work through the visceral gut punch of the Notre-Dame fire and these disjointed memories playing in my mind. Like every writer, with the vague hope that I’m not the only one.
Maybe what really connects these events in Paris and Boston is the sense of our collective identity being threatened, wounded, burning. Our Boston-ness, their French-ness. Maybe the Notre-Dame is like Fenway Park to us. We walk by it every day, sometimes taking for granted that it’s even there. But if Fenway was on fire and the Green Monster burned to the ground, we might feel like France did yesterday. I hope that never happens.

Vive le France, vive le Boston, much love to both.

Posted in Lessons Learned, Motivation, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Lessons learned from the slopes

Posted on April 9, 2019 by Michael Madden

In the winter, my family spends almost every weekend skiing. This season we eagerly started in mid-November at Mount Snow, VT. The following weekend we skied at Bretton Woods, NH. All this while we waited for Ragged Mountain, NH to open where we had purchased season passes. When it did open on Friday, November 30^th we were so excited. Although we missed the opening day, we made sure to be there on day two and almost every weekend thereafter.

Sunday, April 7 however was the last day of the 2018-2019 ski season at Ragged Mountain. In a way it reminded me of closing out the projects that we manage in the IS PMO. There were no releasing resources, closing out procurement accounts, etc. but there was an exercise in lessons learned that might be helpful.

Firstly, there are fabulous deals to be found at the end of the ski season for the following season. We learned that by purchasing our season pass in the late spring for the following year, we could reap great savings and enjoy the mountain for a lot less financial outlay had we waited till the opening of the new season.

With a bit of research and advice from ski forums and blogs, we learned of places where we could rent the kids’ skis and snowboard and purchase a season pass for much less than the cost of the season pass alone at the mountain. This is a great benefit as our kids are growing fast and every year they would need new skis, boots, and a snowboard.

We also learned not to fully trust some of the reservation websites on the internet. Many times, those photographs look a lot better than the hotel when you get there and check in. Additionally, we learned that if the site says, “only seven miles from the ski mountain”, you need to verify that because the reality may be quite different.

The last lesson learned is from my seven-year-old daughter Margaret: “Don’t go down a run just because it looks fun.” I recall a run at Sugarbush, VT when we followed Margaret down a run because she thought it “looked fun”. It turned out to be a black diamond (ski rating category for advanced skier), which led into an ungroomed double-black diamond (ski rating category for expert skier) that really challenged me (the project manager) and took me about 30 minutes to get to the end of the run. Meanwhile the rest of the project team had completed the run in no time. When I finally met up with them, they asked me, “What took you so long?”

Hmmm, this reminds me of our projects when we miss deadlines and our sponsors, users, etc. ask why is this taking so long? Did we go down a run just because it looked like fun?

Posted in Communication, Knowledge Areas, Learning, Lessons Learned, Planning, Work Life Balance | 1 Comment

Australian Road Trip

Posted on March 22, 2019 by Agnes Chojnowska

In 2009, I spent six months studying abroad in New Zealand. It was without a doubt one of the best times of my life. Everyone I met was welcoming, and the classes I took challenged me to think through things from different perspectives. Being on the other side of the world from all my family and friends also forced me to become more independent and experience new adventures.
Almost every weekend my new friends and I were out hiking or exploring new cities. I bungee jumped, dug and slept in a snow cave, and immersed myself in Maori culture. Spring break came around and we had two weeks off. Some girls that we knew had planned a trip to Australia and asked if we wanted to go. The plan was to fly into Cairns, spend a few days exploring the Great Barrier Reef, then rent vans and drive down the coast to Sydney, where we would spend two days. They had already planned everything; all we needed to do was book our flights. My friends and I jumped at the chance, especially since we were busy organizing other trips and with schoolwork, but we should have read the fine print.

Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef were amazing; we snorkeled, fed koalas and kangaroos, and enjoyed the beaches. It was everything you could hope for when visiting Australia. Then we rented the vans, which were minivans with the back seats removed so it converted into a mini camper. There was a little mattress that folded out and even a kitchenette. Our first mistake was not questioning how long it takes to drive down the east coast of Australia, some 1500+ miles. We had budgeted three days, with stops along the way to explore the Gold Coast and Byron Bay. A quick Google search would have showed that the suggested timeline for the road trip is 10 days, to give yourself ample time at each stop. We, however, spent our time rushing from destination to destination, getting lost (this was a time before everyone had smartphones) and spending a half day waiting on a raining beach for a locksmith because someone lost the van’s keys in the ocean. When we finally reached Sydney a day later than planned, tensions were high; and while Sydney was beautiful we could not wait to get back to New Zealand.

Our trip to Australia was not what we expected. It was stressful and every one of us dealt with the stress in different ways, but it also bonded us together. Looking back, I learned several valuable lessons from my week down under:
1. Ask questions. Especially if it’s someone else’s plan.
2. Be prepared. Research.
3. Timelines are important, but they also need to be realistic.
4. People deal with stress in different ways, and that’s okay as long as it’s constructive.
5. And always secure your car keys when you’re near the ocean.

Posted in Lessons Learned | 1 Comment

The Orange What?

Posted on March 6, 2019 by Deb Cote

I don’t have children, but my favorite times of the year are school vacations. Why? Because they result in far fewer cars on the road during my commute. As a North Shore resident, that’s pure gold.

In February, the latest Global Traffic Scorecard from transportation analytics firm INRIX ranked Boston as the most congested city in the United States during peak commuting times. The most congested! More than Los Angeles! More than New York! That’s not a superlative any of us who work in Boston are happy to claim.

The report concluded that Boston commuters lost 164 hours in rush-hour traffic on average last year; that’s above what their normal commutes would have been without the traffic.

What would you do with an extra 164 hours? Besides the obvious ‘sleep’, soooo much could be accomplished. People would have more time to do things that often get pushed to the bottom of their prioritized To Do lists: exercise, spend more time preparing healthy meals, connect with family, read an actual book, take a class, catch up on work, join a club, pick up a hobby, go out with friends twice a week (that’s another report I read this week that will apparently help me live longer; I barely even see my husband twice a week, let alone have dinner and drinks with girlfriends 2x). And did I mention sleep?

But, since I live outside of the city and not near convenient public transportation options, I must drive in. So like it or not, I’m losing those hours. Short of lifting free weights in my car, bringing my friends along on my commute, or napping through my drive (when are those self-driving cars coming to Boston?), the only thing I’ve been able to do from the above list is read. Before you worry about being behind me on Route 1, I’m not reading an actual book. I’m listening to them on CD, which does help pass the time. (I’m currently on the last CD of Tell No One by Harlan Coben – it’s a nail biter!) I do often join conference calls, which can be helpful unless I need to take notes or look at anything online. And the bad drive can be an excuse when I’m still at the office late at night, making a quick text to the hubby “In traffic” more than believable.

Unless or until things change with the traffic situation, I’ll continue to take book suggestions (please add to blog comments!) and chat with friends and family on the phone (just ordered new wireless ear buds). And whenever the traffic reporter calmly announces with all the seriousness in the world, “The backup starts at the orange dinosaur,” I’ll smile to myself and think, “Only in Boston.”

Posted in Productivity, Time Management, Work Life Balance | 5 Comments

Hide That Phone!

Posted on February 20, 2019 by Janet Dougherty

My daughter recently sent me this picture of her son practicing “distracted driving” at age 18 months!

Hmmm, time for me to make some changes! I came to the conclusion that for myself and those around me, both at home and at work, I needed to proactively disconnect from the constant barrage of communication and information that my easily accessible phone provides.

Fortunately, The New York Times recently had a practical article on how to start this process:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/02/smarter-living/be-more-productive-hide-your-phone.html

This article is about making yourself more productive at work by making your phone inaccessible, or at least making it less accessible. According to research cited in the article, just having a phone in close proximity to you, even if it is turned off and even if it doesn’t belong to you, ‘reduces available cognitive capacity’. If you are trying to focus on a task and the phone is visible in your environment, then some of your cognitive resources are devoted to ignoring the phone. Not only that, but if you succumb to the lure of the phone and check out a tweet it can take up to thirty minutes for your brain to get fully back into the task you were working on. What a waste of time and resources!

The article says that ideally, if you are working on a cognitively heavy task then you should keep your phone in another room or locked up. That may not be practical all the time but since I read that article I’ve been deliberately keeping my phone buried in my backpack most of the day so that at least I have to make an effort to get it out. Even that small change has made a big difference; I find that my concentration is improved and those random thoughts telling me to check my phone occur much less frequently when my phone is out of view. “Out of sight, out of mind” works for me!

I started my professional career before ubiquitous cell phones entered our lives so I have a reference point for how it feels to work without the constant distraction of cell phones. I wonder how my grandson’s generation will learn how to effectively concentrate and be productive when they are surrounded by technology clamoring for their attention from a young age.

Posted in Productivity, Time Management, Work Life Balance | 4 Comments

It’s Amazing What A Simple Kind Word Can Do

Posted on February 13, 2019 by Sandra Cadogan-Beebe

It’s been five months since I’ve written a blog post and of course I am tempted to write about the Patriots’ sixth Super Bowl championship. This win is a gift to blocked writers across New England, a blog softball lobbed right at me. There are so many angles from which to choose. “Never count the Pats out,” “Told you so!” “Gronky and Vivi ride the Duck Boats,” “10 reasons why Tom Brady really is the G.O.A.T.,” the list goes on. Of course, now that I’ve written the word “G.O.A.T.,” and I have the attention span of a wide-eyed three-year-old in FAO Schwartz, I’m thinking instead of writing about my fascination with the fainting goat videos popping up all over Facebook and YouTube. Yes! Who doesn’t want to write about those?

Then something happened, and my blog brainstorming turned more serious. I have a few projects in process right now across the institute. Sometimes they go well and it’s easy to feel good about my role and contributions to the project. Other times, having a solid run of smooth days and weeks feels maddeningly elusive. I don’t know how other project managers feel, but when things don’t go very well, it’s hard for me to not feel responsible and try to figure out what I can do to sort things out.

Just the other day I published a bi-monthly status report on an implementation project. The update included a summary project timeline slide. Many of the testing-related tasks were running long, for good enough reason, and the task statuses changed from “green” to “yellow.” Not my favorite update to send, particularly since it took so long to get the project to a great place, but the yellow status was appropriate. All was not terrible since the go-live date is not in jeopardy and with some extra work across the team, we’ll get the work done. Nonetheless, I much prefer delivering cheery “all is well in the world” status updates so I didn’t look forward to sending this one out to the executives. No one likes lukewarm news, right?

A funny thing happened, and it made my day. I’m sure that no executive, and no key stakeholder, enjoys receiving a report that shows things a bit off track. The response I received to the email? “Thanks, so much Sandra! And I really like your timeline slide. Very easy to follow. Thanks again!”

So much pressure was mitigated by the response such that my worries around the messaging dissipated, allowing me to better focus with the team on working through the timeline issues. And I knew, more than ever, that all the right people have our backs while we execute these projects. Here at Dana-Farber, I have found that this kind of support is more the norm than the exception. Despite this knowledge, when the going gets tough it can be easy to be blinded and forget just how much support is available and just how many people want you to succeed. It was quick and simple, I’m sure, to provide that one positive reply. I know I appreciated the feedback and encouragement.

Think of all the times Tom Brady gave some words of encouragement to his teammates when things weren’t going well. This is the 28-3 guy, he practically has a PhD in encouragement.

It’s amazing what a simple kind and encouraging word can do, especially when we need it most.

Posted in Learning, Motivation, Team, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

It’s a Waterfall, not a Sprint!

Posted on January 29, 2019 by Dimitri Makrigiorgos

Last week, I walked out of the Harvard Vanguard in Fenway as an official graduate of their physical therapy rehabilitation program for Achilles tendonitis. Four months earlier, I had decided that I was going to run the Boston Marathon. I did what any wise and patient trainee would do, and immediately tried to run 40 miles in the next week.

Bad Move.

If you know anything about training for marathons, you know that you’re supposed to begin training months in advance, and slowly ramp up your distance over a long period of time. I did some basic research and read about this, but I scoffed at it. I had been a soccer player my whole life, and I ran 2-3 miles a few times a week. I’d never experienced any injuries due to running, so I thought I’d be fine if I tried to get a good start my first week of training. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it; plus, I was really excited!!

Surprisingly to me and unsurprisingly to my physical therapist, I injured both of my Achilles tendons due to overuse and I had to go through rehabilitation. In the meantime, I needed to find a way to relieve energy and stress, and I decided to borrow a guitar from my brother and start learning – what a fun idea! Predictably, I tried to play so much in the first few days that I tore up the skin on my fingertips and had to take a breather.

Since then, I’ve come to realize that this is emblematic of my personality. Once I feel motivated to start something, I often dive in headfirst in a rush of excitement, without proper planning, preparation, or patience, and I found that this occurs when managing projects as well.

In the PMO at Dana-Farber, we run most of our projects with a Waterfall methodology. If you’re not familiar with the terminology, part of what this means is that we plan all aspects of our project out before executing, and we try to gather all of our requirements and risks during the planning phase so that during the execution phase we can carry out our plan with minimal changes. An alternative popular methodology is called the Agile methodology, where development is done in shorter time periods called sprints, and planning is done on the fly, sprint by sprint.

Since I started here at Dana-Farber back in September, I’ve been assigned to assist and manage some pretty interesting projects, and I get really enthusiastic about them. Enthusiasm is all well and good, but what I’ve realized after some frustrating weeks and some self-reflection (and assisted reflection from my mentor Meagan Turner), is that this enthusiasm causes me to try and sprint through everything – I want all risks to be resolved as fast as possible and all decisions to be made without any hiccups, so that we can begin, execute, finish the project, and succeed!

Unfortunately, that’s not the way the world works, and I’ve since realized that I need to adjust my expectations during the planning phase– planning is important, and it’s not easy; new requirements will constantly arise, time estimates will lengthen, and budgets will grow tight. I’ve learned two valuable lessons from the perspective of a project manager dealing with this.

First of all, as a project manager, you can only control so much. You don’t necessarily get a vote in the important decisions about the content of your project. Your job is to understand the decisions that are made and plan accordingly. It can be frustrating when these decisions change your carefully planned out schedule, but I’ve learned to accept that change will happen, and it isn’t worth stressing about things that are out of your control.

The second lesson I learned was that just because changes occur, it doesn’t make you a “bad PM”. I used to worry whenever a missing requirement was determined, because I thought it reflected badly on me if our timeline estimate was pushed out or if something would cost more than originally budgeted for. I know now that these changes are not only inevitable, they can be a good thing. For every change that arises during planning, there’s one fewer issue that would have arisen during execution. The fact that these changes occur doesn’t make you a bad PM; it’s how you deal with them that reflects your measure. Follow the methodology, plan for risks, and deal with issues as they arise. Use your change control plan as a guide, and don’t lose hope – the darkest hour is just before the dawn!

You did make a change control plan, right?

As for my Achilles tendons, they are fully healed, and I am finally able to run again. Perhaps this time I’ll create a training plan. First entry of the plan: wait until its warmer!

Posted in Accomplishments, Learning, Lessons Learned, Planning, Requirements | 5 Comments