{"id":5147,"date":"2010-10-11T06:31:22","date_gmt":"2010-10-11T13:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=5147"},"modified":"2010-10-11T06:37:16","modified_gmt":"2010-10-11T13:37:16","slug":"do-worry-be-happy-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=5147","title":{"rendered":"Do Worry, Be Happy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I am a professional worrier.\u00a0 Yes, at times I actually feel like I get paid to worry.\u00a0 What could go wrong with this, what could go wrong with that, what are the mitigation plans?\u00a0 This was true when I was a project manager and an engineering manager. But, with those positions I was also responsible for delivering results, not just worries.\u00a0 Now, as a consultant, I am often asked to focus on my talent to worry and just think about the things that could go wrong.\u00a0 A client will have a team of people working on a new product, and they just want to make sure that the product gets to the customer on time and in working order.\u00a0 Often, I find myself helping my clients define both \u201con time\u201d and \u201cworking order.\u201d\u00a0 Also, I help them think about all the obstacles that might prevent either of those and mitigate those obstacles.\u00a0 Very worrisome work.<\/p>\n

I once managed joint development projects with a partner in Japan, the owner of a small electronics firm.\u00a0 He was a delightful person with a sunny disposition, and we became close during the few years we developed products together.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0At the time, I was responsible for engineering deliverables having to do with both \u201con time\u201d and \u201cworking order.\u201d\u00a0 We would frequently communicate by phone, he in Japan, I in the US, to discuss all the thises and thats and ensure they were being mitigated.\u00a0 His nature was so focused on the positive outcomes that he seemed blas\u00e9 about risks. He would respond to my questions with the following analogy: he would describe himself as a duck – calm, dry and pretty above water and furiously paddling and pooping underwater.\u00a0 While my partner assured me that a lot was going on below the water line, I knew that his primary focus was on what was above the water line. \u00a0I still wanted the \u201cpoop\u201d on what was going on below the water line.<\/p>\n

There were two barriers that I had to overcome to get to the information that I needed.\u00a0 The first was my development partner\u2019s acute optimism and unwillingness to focus on any negative outcomes.\u00a0 The second was the Japanese inclination to keep a very clear line between what was in their \u201chouse\u201d and what was outside.\u00a0 To overcome the first barrier, I found that the most successful tool was simply to listen patiently. My development partner loved to talk and he would eventually disclose everything, even the bad, as it came across his consciousness.\u00a0 The other technique was to have one of his engineers physically come to our lab in America and work next to our engineers.\u00a0 By doing that, the \u201chouse\u201d borders became far less well defined and the flow of information increased dramatically.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yes, there is a happy ending to this story. We delivered our jointly developed product to our customer on time and in working order.\u00a0 Actually, we surprised many people with our accomplishment. Our successful team went on to launch several more generations of products many of which are still in service today, a decade later.<\/p>\n

I worry. I know that worrying alone does not get results. Also, I know that partnering with optimistic, positively inclined people can be fun and exhilarating.\u00a0 I have found that the combination of lots of enthusiasm with an occasional pause to worry can be very effective in achieving rapid results and desired outcomes.\u00a0 So do worry, and be happy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am a professional worrier.\u00a0 Yes, at times I actually feel like I get paid to worry.\u00a0 What could go […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1485,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,9,856],"tags":[586,858,860,861],"class_list":["post-5147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-global","category-risk-management","category-pmbok-process-monitoring-and-controlling","tag-japan","tag-joint-product-development","tag-risk-assessment","tag-risk-mitigation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1485"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5147\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}