Am I weird or what? The way I lead my life and my project management practices are so intertwined that it’s sometimes hard to tell whose legs I’m dancing on! Cross-pollination of work and life outside of work (different from work-life balance) is a fact: are you leveraging it or letting it leverage you?
What would change if you applied your knowledge of risk, cost or time management to your personal life? Can you identify what you’ve learned in life about interacting with people and how you apply it to managing project teams or communication planning?
I discovered the real benefit in making the learning from this transference explicit when an unexpected event radically changed my future. I had to adapt. From my work experience with retrospectives I developed a personal retrospective process for evolving vision, approaching the future and increasing my leadership capability. From the personal side I leveraged the lessons from 20+ years of playing softball (I pitch) and the understanding of Principles and Values to improve my project and other organizational work.
How about you? Be agile (inspect and adapt!) and try this personal retrospective exercise –
Create 4 columns. In column 1 list a few of your business competencies, in column 2 list where (if at all) in your personal life you use the competency, in column 3 list the effect of using the competency (may not be positive) and in column 4, if you don’t use it, list how you could benefit if you did. Now repeat this in the other direction – from personal life to business.
See anything interesting? Share your wealth with yourself! Try modifying the exercise to look at skills that need improvement. How empowered do you choose to be?
The PMBOK® and I are completely aligned on (at least) this idea: that historical information and lessons learned are an asset: don’t just sit on yours!
You can find more information about retrospectives on my website: http://www.acornfuture.com/
