2 Conversations: project management

Monday, March 21, 2011

project management

My husband took a project management course on the weekend. It has led to some important conversations that will affect business and our personal lives.

First: personal. Kevin’s group used our home renovations as a case study. We’re going to have a family meeting about it tomorrow with all of the key stakeholders: his daughter, his cousin, himself, and me.

Second: business. Kevin has suggested that I take advantage of what he’s been learning to develop and strategize in my own business. He’s brilliant. I’m looking forward to that.

I’m also looking forward to lunch with him in a few minutes!

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The Rules 2

1. Average two conversations five days a week about what I'm doing and/or why I'm doing it.

2. Email counts, though phone is better and in-person is best.

3. Enjoy building a business through being a Connector (as per Malcolm Gladwell).

4. Report some of those conversations here. Try to report weekly or more—e.g. by Thursday or Friday as the business week is winding down, or Monday/Tuesday after a weekend of touring or conferencing.

5. Reflect on the significance of these conversations.

6. As appropriate, provide names, links, contact info, pictures, etc.

The Background

Near the end of 2009 I moved to Calgary with the goal of establishing Siretona Creative, a publishing and production company that empowers women in the arts to build community among generations and nations. Siretona women are using our voices to make a difference in the world.

I like to read widely about business and to network intentionally and extensively through in-person events and social media. Still, the business side of things wasn't "clicking." Everything felt like a stab, an attempt, a bit of a guess. Now there's nothing wrong with following intuition, and in the past year I have been involved with three great projects largely due to intuition: BlueBeary, Notes from Over the Hill, and the Minus 40 Tour. At the same time, I have puzzled over how to bring it all together in a cohesive way, besides an inspiring mission statement.

Puzzled until I read a tweet from someone I don't even know:

"If you have to have a success formula here it is: Have 2 conversations every day about your vision and goals" (@douglass231).

Ah-ha!!! A day or two before that I had read a challenge to talk to 10 people in one day about my products. TEN! It's really a small number, as this blog will hopefully discover, but at the time it felt overwhelming. Douglass231 freed me. Two is manageable. Two is easy to track. Two can be quick.

Now every day except Sunday, I have a target: two conversations about what I'm doing and/or why I'm doing it and/or how I'm doing it.

First of all, I want to track my own progress as a networker, strategist, marketer. Who am I talking to? How am I finding them? What do we talk about?

Second, I want to tell the world about these conversation partners. Sometimes I'll need to guard identities, but I suspect most of the time it will be appropriate and even important to promote their businesses with descriptions, links and even pictures.

From time to time I'll invite guest bloggers to track their own conversations. We'll see where this all leads!