This topic is a BIG ONE. I wrote the first two essays just so I could establish the necessary background for writing this essay.

I call this idea schedule crunching.

The Conventional Approach

I think it is common to take a more conventional project management approach and concentrate on sticking to the plan, sticking to the schedule, and slipping when something goes awry. The assumption is, typically, that problems are out of the team’s control and, therefore, problems are sufficient reason to slip the schedule. Since there are so many problems that arise on a project, there are typically many slips as well.

Many wise people have said that what you put your attention on is what you will create around you. This is true in project management. If you concentrate on meeting the plan and slipping when big problems arise, you will, at best, s ...

This topic is a BIG ONE. I wrote the first two essays just so I could establish the necessary background for writing this essay.

I call this idea schedule crunching.

The Conventional Approach

I think it is common to take a more conventional project management approach and concentrate on sticking to the plan, sticking to the schedule, and slipping when something goes awry. The assumption is, typically, that problems are out of the team’s control and, therefore, problems are sufficient reason to slip the schedule. Since there are so many problems that arise on a project, there are typically many slips as well.

Many wise people have said that what you put your attention on is what you will create around you. This is true in project management. If you concentrate on meeting the plan and slipping when big problems arise, you will, at best, s ...

One of the best ways to make sure your project team maximizes efficiency and ships on time is to figure out the project “blocks.” In other words, answer the question “What’s blocking you?”

You might recognize this question from the Personal Alignment pattern and protocol. Figuring out what’s blocking you as an individual is essential to getting what you want, your personal alignment. Figuring out what’s blocking your team is essential to shipping great products on time.

When I ask a team “What’s the biggest block?” I’m talking about the most interesting block, the most daunting one. Another way I ask that question is “What is the biggest block to shipping this product tomorrow? Why can’t that be done?”

The Critical Path
There is a project management term called the Critical Path. This means that if you were to map out all the tasks that need to get done to ship the product, n ...

Some of the issues The Core deals with are:

What do you want?
What is your intention?
the virtue of Trust
Creating Connection
investigating
accountability

This idea incorporates all of those. One idea I’ve been trying with increasing clarity and success is intentionally seeking 100% trust with my children. I’ve decided I want them to trust me 100%. One daughter is 11 and one daughter is 9.

The main way I do this is to tell them “I want you to trust me 100%. So what will it take to get us there? What do I have to do?”

Then I really make sure I understand what they are afraid of and figure out a way to resolve it.

Perhaps they are afraid of something real. For instance, one daughter said she was afraid I would call her a name because she had seen me call Jim a name 3 years ago. I resolved it, for now, by ...

I am starting a new category of essay: Project Management with The Core. Besides family issues, this is the most requested area when clients ask for advice.

The Core supports skepticism. By “skepticism” I mean the questioning of conventional thinking and assumptions. This is very different from cynicism. When I say cynicism I mean the criticism or sabotage of positive endeavor because of a lack of hope and faith. Skepticism is identified by its curiosity and experimentation whereas cynicism is typified by a lack of results and a lack of support for those who do get results.

I was lucky enough to get a manager very early in my working career who was skeptical of conventional program management practices. She supported me in shipping quality products on time by doing what made sense instead of what I was “supposed” to do. When I met Jim, he and I had a similar skepticism for such things and we taught each other what we had discovered in th ...

Dear Friends,

Today what is on my mind is Family and The Core. In particular, I am very inspired by a new idea we discussed a week ago in our family for the first time.

It goes like this.

I am proposing that Jim and I and his 2 youngest kids(9 and 11) get aligned around the idea that:

Mad is OK.

To be more specific I am proposing that we shoot for the ideal I have in mind that when one or more of us is mad, that the others are not scared, simply alerted to the fact that someone is mad which means there is a problem to be solved.

This may seem out of the realm of possibility to some of you.

But I have asked myself recently: Why do I immediately get scared when someone gets mad? It’s because I am afraid he/she is going to act in an irrational way. I think, for me at least, I could get to a point where I’m not scared when certain ...

Jim and I have experimented quite a bit with applying The Core to
everything. A theme I’ve noticed in talking with many of you, is
that you are interested in how to apply the protocols to family and
marriage. I am going to talk about one idea we believe in. I have
several more but this one has a lot of facets so I’ll stick with just
one today.

CheckOut and Marriage

We have found that a key to creating a harmonious marriage is to use the CheckOut protocol *to the letter.* This means that as soon as either one feels that the interaction is not going well, he/she checks out. You can almost always deal with an issue later and get better results. There are very, very few real emergencies. As a friend of ours put it, “the key to a good marriage is to leave each other alone when one of you is in a bad mood.” Well said.

It is important to ...