Page 76 - Straight Talk On Project Management IV

streak – you feel the pressure to maintain the run of ticks you get for jogging in the same way that
Snapchat makes you feel bad if you break the streak of daily contact! It becomes addictive! Just like
a steak bake!

You can apply this to any area of IT Project Management that you want to improve. An IT Project
Manager friend was promoted recently and, as she is used to just thinking for herself, she is finding
it hard knowing who is working on what and when they are supposed to deliver. The habit she is
seeking to develop is checking in with all her teams and workflows on a more regular basis, and
measure her inhouse capability against what could be achieved with Project Management as a
Service (PMaaS) resources. Her wall chart has a big tick each day so far this year (also, in her top
drawer is a huge bar of Green and Blacks dark chocolate from which she also allows herself a chunk
with every mark on the wall chart – you see – instant rewards work!!).

Praise and gratitude

Great habits within teams really thrive with praise. If you want your team to be mindful of budget,
praising them each day that they are within forecast works so much better than saying nothing and
then beating them with a stick when a project over-spends.
Reflecting on achievements allows the brain to re-live the experience, producing serotonin. This is
why gratitude practices are becoming so popular. Celebrating daily successes, small goals or
milestones, reminds you that you are valued. If you need a serotonin boost during a stressful,
challenging day, take a few moments to reflect on past achievements and project victories and
watch how habits form from the serotonin rush as you subconsciously try to recreate past glories!
Marginal gains

Increased success in 2020 will come from surprisingly small marginal gains.

As James Clear writes on his website, “Small differences in performance can lead to very unequal
distributions when repeated over time. This is yet another reason why habits are so important. The
people and organizations that can do the right things, more consistently are more likely to maintain
a slight edge and accumulate disproportionate rewards over time.”
Think back to what Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said – “The result is the result of our
performance. The performance was 100% a performance with which we should win this game today
because we were the clear better side for 75 minutes.”

Liverpool had one more shot on target that Manchester United. One! ONE!! There were JUST six
percentage points between them in terms of possession (53%v47%), BUT, they dominated this
match and won 2-0. Just shows you.

You only need to be slightly better at project managing to be a massively better project manager –
just 1%. It works like compound interest! If you can maintain a slight edge today and then again
tomorrow and then the day after that, etc, then the process of winning (by just a little bit) gets
repeated over and over again and the habits it will form will define your career.