CAL Tip #2: See Your Reality

How do you feel about change? I like some changes. Others? Not so much. I like change when I can see the effect of my exercise program: I have more toned muscles and more endurance. I don’t like change when I see the scale with higher numbers.

I also don’t like change that’s foisted on me. I prefer to select my changes and implement them myself.

We don’t always have that chance.

I have a difficult time responding to change when I can’t see my reality. What is really going on? Is this a real change or a momentary blip?

Sometimes, the scale is a momentary blip. More often, for me, it’s reality. In our organizations, someone wants to change something, such as a transition to agile. Is this a management desire that will be a fad, or is it a real cultural change? Only time can tell us.

I have trouble adapting if I can’t see my reality.

I don’t know about you, but if I think something is a momentary blip, I can fool myself into thinking my reality has not changed. This is how I can gain five pounds over a winter, and not realize it’s happening.

Fool Myself

I fool myself into thinking each little blip is not adding up to a real change. We see this on projects all the time. We think we make progress on some part of it, and then, all of a sudden, we realize we have not made either enough progress or any progress. This is how traffic light status reporting moves from green to red in a week.

What do we need to do, to see our reality? I like to look at trends, for myself and projects. I measure my weight on a weekly basis and write it down. That way, I can see trends over time.

I measure my exercise and write it down. I can see trends over time.

I measure project trends and write them down. I see trends over time.

You can see my pattern: Write things down to see my trends. I journal for qualitative data and measure trends for quantitative data.

Maybe you can intuit your actual reality over time. I can’t. I need to write things down and look at the trends over time. I recommend you do, too. Whatever your challenge, find a way to see your reality. That will allow you to adapt to whatever changes you have.