Dear Fissure Friends,
Pope John Paul II recently died and there is a great outpouring of respect and affection for him, not because he was the Pope, and definitely not because he was “right” and everyone always agreed with him. The respect and affection came because of his respect for everyone as an individual and because he lived his life true to his heart and his beliefs. Without ever having met the man, most of us “know” this was someone who we would have loved to have as a friend or an associate. We talk about being a principled leader in our workshops as a key to leadership and teambuilding. Being a principled leader means “walking your talk” as Stephen Covey would say. You not only have to say the right things, but everything you do should be consistent with, and reinforce what you are saying. This is what Pope John Paul II did, and this is why we can feel respect and affection for him even though we never met him. Imagine the difference it would make if more business and world leaders were truly principled, treating all individuals with respect and following their own inner beliefs and hearts.
We have a very intriguing contribution this quarter from an unexpected source. Sandy Kimmer is an MD with the US Naval Reserve and daughter of long time Fissure associate Brian Toren. Sandy has documented her management and leadership style, including her “guiding principles” and gives it to new team members to read upon joining her team. If more people did this simple exercise I believe we would see significant improvement in our managers/leaders and teams. Thanks Sandy!
Are you curious about the changes in the latest edition of the PMBOK? John Skovbroten provides an excellent summary on what is “new” and what is “old”.
Geof Lory talks about project planning and what is the correct level of detail for a project plan. He also talks about how to create plan buy-in with the team and how to become a better planner. Of course he uses his family to help us understand and relate to the topic of a project planning.
Our upcoming public workshops are in the left hand panel - our computer simulation based workshops are an effective and fun way to learn AND EARN PDUs. Make sure you also check out what’s happening at Fissure (Fissure News).
Thanks for reading and have a great day,
Jesse Freese
Fissure, President
