Blog Competition Winner – 2/3

UCSC Extension in Silicon Valley offered the students in its Project Management classes the opportunity to enter a competition to write a blog for SVprojectmanagement.com.  The prize for the top three entries was to be published on this site. All the students in the Project Leadership and Communication class of regular blogger and UCSC Extension instructor, Alan Tsuda, took up the challenge.  The top three chose diverse topics from how to “BLUF” your way through a project to the advantages of a yoga approach and ending with thoughts on what there is to love about being a project manager.

Note: SVProjectmanagement.com invites new and experienced project and program managers to share their insights. If you feel you would like to contribute your thoughts to this blog, please contact the blog coordinator and include a sample of your writing.

Here is our next winning entry…

Principles of Yoga and Project Management

The PMI Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide), Third Edition defines project management as:

“Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements. Project management is accomplished through the application and integration of the project management processes of initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing. The project manager is the person responsible for accomplishing the project objectives.”

Centuries ago, the great sage Patanjali laid out a kind of map—one that suggests not just asana and meditation but also attitudes and behaviors. Yoga philosophy of life, is not restricted to just asana and pranayama, it is a path of all-round development of an individual: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. How one feel physically is going to affect how you function mentally.

To become  a successful project manager is to raise your own awareness of what you’re doing and managing. At an individual level, Yoga helps with self-awareness/management, concentration, tolerance, and the ability to take calculated risks and plan long term. A project manager with clarity of personal goals and calmness of mind can only be an able manager. This is where yoga helps.

There are certain key differences between western management concepts and yoga-based management. The former starts with the premise that a person remains inactive unless propelled by action through motivation — money, position or recognition. Western management philosophy puts primary emphasis on competition, while in yoga way, the emphasis is on collaboration and individual creativity. In the West there is greater emphasis on goal achievement for the firm, while in yogic management, success of the firm is an inevitable by-product of the holistic goal of making this world a better place to live in.

Real challenge for a project manager is to turn people’s anxiety about the future into confidence.    So if you want to grow as a project manager, what you mean is that you want to get better at turning their anxiety into confidence.

Geetha Vaidyanaathan

Geetha Vaidyanaathan, an experienced Software engineer, worked for Sun Microsystems for more than 12 years in various aspects of Software engineering.  Geetha holds an undergraduate degree in Physics from University of Bombay and Masters degree in Computer Science from California State University, Hayward, CA. Prior to migrating to US, Geetha spent 8 years in Zambia, Africa where she worked as a teacher of Mathematics and Physics to High School students.  Geetha is an avid gardener, home decorator and enjoys yoga, traveling and reading a wide range of books from Astrology to Zoology.  She enjoys community service and is currently serving as President of South India Fine Arts, a Bay Area based non-profit, volunteer driven organization engaged in promoting South Indian classical music.