I have now another reason to be grateful for having been doing project management these past couples of years: it helps me dealing with my baby. Of course, you can always implement the concept in everyday life. But, I want to emphasize specifically on how it helps me to embrace motherhood.
I am talking about Project Management in practice which may or may not in accordance with its theory. Since I'm not a PMP-certified, all I get mostly is from experience as a PMO in several IT projects.
*Related to Planning: Always Have Plans But Be Flexible Enough to Maneuver*
The word management itself has clearly identified that there has to be an "order" to manage things. The order is usually proposed and agreed upon in the beginning of projects. Although some of the projects didn't have it in a formal form. It includes how the project will be conducted, how scope will be defined, how communication will be done, how schedule will be established and updated. All aspects related to a project will have its own "order" or governance.
However, as the project goes there will be some unexpected things occurred which require team to take immediate actions. Often is it against the governance. To keep things going on, certain ways of conduct will not be followed. That's how things are: you should be prepared that they will not be they way you think they should be. You can have plan A, plan B until plan Z, but chance is you can still face the unexpected. So, you should be ready to maneuver and quickly identify the next plan for it.
Leaving the project without governance means that you as PMO does not do what you are paid to do. But being too rigid on it, can also impact the end result because there are times when everything is very chaotic in the project and require quick and new planning.
The same goes to having a baby. As a parent, I feel that it is my responsibility to prepare and plan how I raise the baby; how to build a good sleeping habit, how to introduce her to new things, what to eat and not to eat, and many other things. However, more often than not all the plans are jeopardized.
I managed to have the baby sleeping by herself on the crib after a few tiring nights of taking her in and out of the crib, until she was comfortable on her own and slept well in it the whole night. It went well until she was having problem with digestion which made her so fussy and just wanted to sleep in our arms. That goes for the next few days and I have to teach her again how to sleep on the crib. Another example is on breastfeeding schedule. She naturally followed every 2-hour breastfeeding time after teaching her the habit for a few days. Then, something which I think growth spurt came to the picture. She drank almost everytime and my plan to have me-time in between her feeding time was gone.
I could just give up planning and just do what people say as "go with the flow". To me going with the flow does not mean that you let the baby does whatever she wants to do. For example, if you just follow what baby wants she could just sleep 4 hour straight. But you know that in such young age (less than one month) she has a very little tummy and she needs to be fed often, at least every 2 hour. Otherwise it may be dangerous because the body doesn't get what it needs.
So, the idea of planning is not about controlling but guiding. It is about accepting that things can go wrong and being prepared to have another plan.
(to be continued)
On Part 2 --> Related to Communication Management
(Jan'15)
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