My Thoughts on Universal Basic Income

Recently,  I have read quite a bit about Universal Basic Income (UBI).  Philosophically, I am opposed to giving people money for merely existing, but I am intrigued with the idea of UBI.  I think that there are plenty of things swirling around that is causing UBI to continue to be in the discussion/

The first thing is the discussion about robots taking over jobs that human do right now.  I discuss this concept briefly in the post Future Proof Yourself. This topic seems to be gaining steam and it is an interesting concept.

I think that it is still a little premature to be worried a robot taking over your job.  That being said, it is important to realize that Project Managers and other workers need to consider that aspects of their jobs can be automated and which must be done with a human.  There are things that a machine simply cannot do, which includes dealing with other human beings.  Human relations is not a straight logical operation that can be boiled into a math problem.  The same with the Earth and our environment, just look at all the incorrect weather predictions as evidence.

One argument for UBI is the unleashing of all the human capital that would be unrestrained by something so menial as a job.  This argument forgets that the greatest things built in human history are not produced by comfort, but are produced in struggle.

Struggle is where human greatness is exposed.  I can not think of anything great created by someone who was not forced to out of the comfort zone.  The comfort zone is the enemy of greatness.

If we are truly on the road to UBI, then lets craft it in a way that builds incentives for people to actually work and contribute to our society.

Leadership Is Hard!

Leadership is hard.  I think that is a bit of an understatement.  Leadership is damn hard!  I have been in leadership positions and have not been in leadership positions.  It makes no difference if you are an appointed leader or not.  If you are a leader, you will lead where you are.

I used to tell people if leadership is too easy, you are probably not doing it right.  This is so true. A leader will be tested on a daily basis by those that you are leading.  I probably have has many sleepless nights wondering if I had made the right decision.  This is important to know that it is commonly not known the results of decisions, there is no instant gratification in most decisions. Leaders don't always know what the right or best decision is, but decisions do need to be made.

Leading people is frustrating some days, but I wouldn't change it for the world some days.  A former boss of mine told me that employees will never fail to disappoint you.  Yes, they will never fail to disappoint, but they will never fail to surprise you as well.

The secret is to get your employees all rowing in the same direction.  How is this done?  A leader needs to create a culture where employees know what to do, even in the absence of other orders.  A leader need to create an environment that nurtures budding leaders.  A leader needs to put other before themselves.  A leader just needs to lead. Period!

My Advice to Graduates

Since it is the season for graduation, I wanted to say a couple words of advice about being a Project Manager and starting a new career.  Graduation marks a new beginning.  This marks not the end to school, but the beginning of a new adventure.  This new adventure may take you places which you never thought you would go and do things that you never thought you would do.

My first piece of advice to new graduates is to take a course of action.  If there is no clear answer to the problem or dilemma, a bias for action is almost always better than inaction.  As a new manager, you might make a mistake or you might fail.  Making a mistake and failing is forgivable, if a lesson is learned, but inaction is not excusable.  These lessons learned will be far more valuable to your life as a manager or person than living a cold and timid life where nothing is ventured and nothing is gained.

I also think that things that come too easy are not appreciated as fully as things that have to be earned. This is an important lesson as life is going to be hard. Leadership and management are hard. I sometimes as know to say that if leadership or your job is too easy, you probably aren't doing it right. Do not shy away from the hard path, take it with gusto and remember those days as the good days.

Do not think that this first job as the only job you will ever have. You need to figure out what you can learn from the job and what the next step in your career will be.  This might mean learning a new skill by going to a course or taking a job that expands your experience.  Never stop learning and never stop growing.

Graduation is an accomplishment.  Take a moment to reflect on this accomplishment and then get to work.  Time is the only resource that you can't make more of, so don't waste it.

Requirements?

Recently I took on a project that needed help.  In my position, I commonly get brought into projects that have issues and need help.  This particular project is the acquisition of a piece of equipment. From the beginning of the project, there were no requirements.  The organization wanted this particular piece of equipment, but they did not have the requirements to use it.  I guess they were in a "buy it and we will figure it out" situation. This situation is not really what you want before an organization makes an expensive capital purchase.

The purchase is on hold.

We are now going back to the beginning and gathering the requirements and specifications for this piece of equipment.  I am building a Requirements/Specification Breakdown Structure to help visualize those requirements/specifications. Additionally, I am building the Requirements/Specification Breakdown Structure to show management the business case for the purchase of this machinery from this point of view.  The danger is that the data will not bear out the case for the purchase of the equipment and the previous work will be wasted, but that is why we have the process.

One lesson learned from this situation is to start with the actual requirements before falling in love with a piece of equipment.  Requirements need to be validated through the organization and provide an answer through a real business case.  So many organizations do not do this and end up wasting time and money on actions that do not provide value to the organization.

Brainstorming Techniques

Brainstorming is not a new technique to discover new ideas.  Brainstorming has been used as long as I have been involved in management to generate new ideas and to get the whole team involved.  The bigger problem with brainstorming is that it isn't done right and then there is no followup.

One reason that brainstorming isn't done right is that there is a tendency in groups for one person or one group of people to dominate the discussion.  This creates a dynamic where not everyone participates.  Sometimes that person or group of people is the management team.  Whenever there is not max participation, then something has to change.  One technique that I use when this happens is to break the group up into teams.  This smaller group dynamic should help to generate more ideas with greater participation.

An important thing about brainstorming is for there to be some followup.  Recently, I received an email with a list of half-baked notions, with the words still misspelled.  I actually did not know what this list was about.  After some investigations, I found out that this was a brainstormed list of actions. This list needed context and some fleshing out, or at least spell check.  Follow-up is very important. Without followup and context, that meeting of some very busy people ended up being a waste of their time and a waste of my time.

Brainstorming is a great technique for idea generation if there is maximum participation and followup on the ideas to provide context or better yet recommendations.

They Might Be Leaders II

Have you ever noticed that some people are natural leaders?  These people influence more people from there place in the organization than the appointed leaders.  These people can be a force for good or a force for bad.  As a leader in an organization, especially a leader of a project, you have to recognize these people and make sure they use their power for good.

How do you recognize these natural leaders?  They may not be evident.  They may be hiding in the shadow, instigating others.  I like to say they are on the edge of everything, influencing events.  I have had my share of run in with these type of people and it can be a challenge to use their powers for the good of the project and the organization.

The first step in getting them on your side is to simply talk to them and create a common ground. Many times this is harder than it sounds and it might be time consuming, but it is well worth it.  You have to be careful not to create a trans-actual relationship.  This is the type of relationship where there is a tit for tat.

The next step is to include them in the process.  This will help in bringing the rest of the project team into the process as well. This is important to solidify the participation to the end for the project team.

The last part of this process is to make sure that the team is recognize for the success of the project. This also includes a little mentoring to make sure that the natural leaders on the project team recognize their potential and hopefully move up into the project manager ranks.