Holiday Decorating - PM Style

Ever wonder why some people can organize a holiday cocktail party and it goes off beautifully while others can’t get the vegetables prepared to be presented on the table with the Thanksgiving turkey? Call it a party, dinner or a social, the event still requires elements of project management.

As job functions and thus careers meld through industry and organizational life-cycles, we may find ourselves taking on additional jobs and responsibilities that may not best fit our personality preferences or type. Due to downsizing, employees may not have the luxury of picking and choosing additional responsibilities. In addition, high potential programs may intentionally include “growth opportunities” or “stretch assignments” that truly test our patience and perseverance. Some opportunities you may ask for in your annual performance development plan. Others you may just get through the luck of the draw.

An example of a growth opportunity might be an assignment that requires Project Management. For some, Project Management (PM) is easy and comes naturally. Goals and timelines are a piece of cake whereas for others who prefer less structure, PM s the demon itself.

Think about it. Large project or small, generally a good project manager creates structure through timelines, milestones, tasks, and responsibilities. A good project manager knows where to start. There is a formula or template to follow and a sequence of events that need to occur for success. A really great project manager links tasks and responsibilities and sees the big picture of what actions cannot occur without the completion of subtasks. Although projects may impact people, the action of creating a project plan is logical, structured, and orderly.

Theoretically, type functions can be developed so let’s look at the cognitive functions that lean themselves to supporting a project management function. A first project is a great opportunity with guidance and mentoring to develop different or less preferred cognitive functions.

From an information gathering perspective, PM generally relies heavily on the Sensing function. A project manager must know the concrete facts and figures, details, compare/contrast past experiences, and understand goals and objectives. From a decision making perspective, PM generally requires personality preferences associated with the Thinking function - planning in a manner using logic and reason. PM probably is easier to uptake if the person’s preferred orientation to the world is structured, orderly and planned.

If Sensing and Thinking are not in your most natural preferences based on your type code, don’t despair. Project Management may not come easily but is a great tool to develop Sensing and Thinking. If you are not comfortable with PM, find someone in your organization who is and partner with them to learn the techniques of PM. Courses are also available through many e-learning avenues as well as software products to provide you templates and processes.

If you want to start developing this function, start with something fun and simple at home. It’s the holidays. If your general preference is to fly by the seat of your pants on decorating, relaxing, being spontaneous, and working off of memory and “just knowing” consider create a project plan for decorating your house this year. Think about your mini-project by asking yourself the following: Who, What, When, Where and How.

What: What are the specifics? What are your goals? The best decorated house on the street? Enough just to get by? Write a list on paper, not in your head, of what you want decorated.

Who is coming? Or who is involved? Will they take assignments or help?
When: Date/Time you want to start and end
Where: Location of all decorating. Again be specific. Be specific – the door, front yard, trees, shrubs, windows, etc.

Then, write down everything you need and list what you have or will have to buy.

Your “how” will be your tasks and action steps. What do you need to do to make this event happen. Do you need to drag the Christmas ornaments and tree down from the attic? Do you have to make a trip to a storage unit to pick up your decorations? Do you need to go to Target to buy more lights?

When? Who will do this? How are you prioritizing? Does the outside decorating need to be done during the day? Write a timeline to include the date, time if necessary, person responsible and tools/decorations that are needed. With every step, think of every detail and write it down.

It may be tiring. You may decide next year to go back to your preferred method of decorating. But you may find that project planning the process may save you time as you discover up front what you need and what resources you have available. Although you may find you don’t want to become a full-time project manager in your next career cycle, it’s a great opportunity to test and develop Sensing and Thinking as tools in your type toolkit to achieve the personal and professional results you want.

Happy Decorating!