The seven characteristic principles
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===3. First things first=== | ===3. First things first=== | ||
| − | Put first thing first is the personal fruit and writing the program, taking the necessary steps that are needed to realize and make them happen. With the knowledge from habit one and habit two you start to analyze the daily habits and ask yourself what is the most important thing in your life? It is important to focus on the things that really matter instead of on trivialities. This is where you should question the path, you’re on and analyze your habits, hobbies, addictions and scripts in your life. <ref name="StCo"/> By questioning the path one is taking, can also be transferred into project management. By asking how you can manage your time effectively in a stressful daily routine. The best way is to organize it is by making a time management matrix. You divide the tasks into what is urgent, not urgent, important, and not important | + | [[File: Eksemple3.jpg |thumb|200px|right| Figure 3: time management matrix <ref name="StCo"/>]] |
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| + | Put first thing first is the personal fruit and writing the program, taking the necessary steps that are needed to realize and make them happen. With the knowledge from habit one and habit two you start to analyze the daily habits and ask yourself what is the most important thing in your life? It is important to focus on the things that really matter instead of on trivialities. This is where you should question the path, you’re on and analyze your habits, hobbies, addictions and scripts in your life. <ref name="StCo"/> By questioning the path one is taking, can also be transferred into project management. By asking how you can manage your time effectively in a stressful daily routine. The best way is to organize it is by making a time management matrix. You divide the tasks into what is urgent, not urgent, important, and not important. | ||
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| + | '''The first quadrant''' is everything that is urgent and important. They are therefore activities that are crises or problems that need to be solved here and now. It is things that need immediate attention and are important for the project to keep moving forward. E.g. deadlines that need to be met or pressing problems that need here now decisions. In big projects, 90 precent of the time you will be dealing with urgent and important things. If you are only stuck in this quadrant it will lead to stress and burnouts. | ||
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| + | '''The second quadrant''' are things that are important but not urgent and therefore things that does not need to be solved right away. It can be things like making plans or calls you need to make that are important but not urgent. This quadrant is important because it is here you will spend time updating and evaluation documents and schedules. It is also here things often get less prioritized but if time spend here the pay off in the long term will be high. Therefore, this quadrant should have one of the highest prioritizations in the time management matrix. | ||
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| + | '''The third quadrant''' are things that are not important but urgent to reach the goals. It can be answering emails or solving problems that are urgent. E.g. if there is a miscommunication or misunderstanding of what to build or a solution needs to be found. In this quadrant it is important to delegate the work, so you don’t have two people working on solving the same problem. | ||
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| + | '''The fourth quadrant''' are things that are not important or urgent and spending too much time on it will lead to waste of time. It can be wasting time on things that are wrong or things that are outside of once decision or control. | ||
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| + | This matrix can help you delegate your time optimally, so that you don’t waste time on things that are not important. This will give balance to the project but also one’s life and make plans on where the project is going and where you want or should be. Focus on what is important to you or the project and make it a priority. | ||
===4. Think win-win === | ===4. Think win-win === | ||
Revision as of 16:15, 21 February 2021
In the light of the modern technology world we live in today it has become more complex, stressful, and demanding for us humans. Especially when one must find a balance between work, family and your own self. For one to achieve higher aspirations and overcome great challenges in once projects and life, Stephan R. Coveys has come up with seven principles. [1]
SStephen R. Coveys approach is an inside- out approach and focus on one’s character ethics which is the foundations of one’s success. The character ethics is about one’s integrity, humility, courage, and modesty. To achieve one’s success and happiness one must look inside with the help from the seven principles. To achieve greatness, you must plant the seeds and work with your own self. [2]
This article presents the seven approaches to help one with becoming more effective in reaching one’s goals. It is all about aligning oneself based on one’s characteristic ethics to achieve one’s goals. The article covers the seven principles and their limitations, connecting the dots and its practical relevance in project management.
Context
What are habits?
To understand the seven habits, one must first understand what habits means to having a successful project or work team. Habits are rituals and behaviors we as humans do automatically without thinking about it. Habits are connected to an activity e.g. brushing one’s teeth [3]. To incorporate or change a habit one must have an open mind for it to happen. An equally important thing you need to have in order to change or adapt a habit are the following three things: knowledge, skill, and desire. Knowledge is the question one must ask what to do and why. The skill is where one should ask how to do. Desire is wanting to do. Changing a habit or adapting one can be hard and therefore it is important that you are motivated or have a greater purpose for why.
When incorporating the seven habits from Stephan Coveys you can divide them into three criteria, the Private Victory, Public Victory and Renewal. The Private Victory is all about working on yourself and understanding how you can become a better project manager. Understanding and working on yourself will give you the boost that is necessary to achieve greatness. It is all about going from being dependent to independent. The Public Victory is what Stephen Coveys calls the maturity continuum, which consists of three levels of dependence, independence and interdependent. Dependence is the relationship between a boss and the employer and their attitude towards each other. Going from dependence to independence means you need to understand the first three habits to become the I. The interdependence is where you will be thinking like a team and not about the I to accomplice the goals or scopes set. The interdependence phase will be described in habit four to six.
1. Be proactive
The most important habit!
Take responsibility for your own life. The human being is a unique specie because we have self-awareness. This means that as a human you have the possibility to learn and analyze your own experiences as well as other people’s experiences [1]. This allows us to change or adapt habits. Being proactive you are driven by your values and therefore take responsibility for your life and the choices you make. Being able to be a proactive person means that emotions does not affect the work environment, whereas reactive people are the opposite. In other words, Mahatma Gandhi said:
"They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them." [5]
Our language is a powerful tool to determine if you are a proactive person or reactive person. The proactive person will take responsibility and take matters into his own hands and will have wayed out the consequences of the choices he has made [1].
Another way to look at this by the Circle of concerned/ Circle of Influence is how to spend your time wisely on things, which you can control and not on thing, which you cannot control[1]. Looking at figure xx The Circle of concerned is things that are out of your control e.g. people’s opinions, others’ mistakes or economy.
The Circle of concerned are people that are reactive, who complain a lot, and their mood tends to affect the people from the outs. This leads to them not taking action or responsibility of the things that they are able to control. This is shown in figure xx where the reactive people have a negative energy.
The Circle of influence are people are thing you can take into matters and can be controlled e.g. your attitude, your goals, skills to learn. The proactive people take responsibility for their decisions and it determines their way of living and not their conditions. They don’t dwell on things, which they cannot control, but act and improve the things they are able to control. They also know that at times there are things that cannot be controlled, but they are able to control the way they react to the situation. This is shown in figure xx where the proactive people have a positive energy.
Do not dwell on things you cannot control but take responsibility to the things you can. This gives you a stronger way of living and more power. Being proactive in project and portfolio management will give a stronger output and a stronger team. You want to act rather than being acted upon! To be proactive is something that can be used in project and portfolio management.
2. Begin with the end in mind
Everything in our minds are created twice. First one creates an idea or a habit in their head and then they seek it out [1]. Like in building project the Architect has an idea in his mind of architectural looks of the building and then begins to make blueprints and construction plans. To reach the goals in life it is important to create a map to determine the lifegoals and the destination to reach them. Everyone has at least once in their life been asked where they see themselves in five, ten or fifteen years. If you cannot answer, you are wondering around without any purpose in life. This can also be related to a project. If a project manager does not have a clear purpose of the project, it is likely that the project will not be a success. If the project has a clear purpose, the chance for it being a success it big. Find your destination and work towards it. Do not ask what life can offer you, but what you can offer life. [2] Leadership vs Management:
"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." By Peter Drucker and Warren Bennis [1]
Leaders are the ones who have a vison on where the companies are heading, there mission, visions and the company’s goals, whereas managers are hired to make sure that the companies’ goals and values are aligned Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag
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