When good people go bad! So many times we are faced with good people, most people are and do their best but there are times when their behavior, something they do or say for example, isnt what we like.

“It’s not the person i disagree with, it’s the behavior!”

This is a very important distinction. At work, at home, with your family and friends and pretty much everywhere. It is important to address the behaviour that your disagreeing with, not the person.  People don’t change, behaviors do and it will make your life a lot easier. That means focusing on ways that will deter that behavior, keeping the discussion on track, not bringing up the past and speaking of the behavior as a subject not as part of the person.

As an active person, i find this very well executed on the sports field, “leave it on the court”. After  a game, where the play has been rough or the opponent “got away with one”, it’s ended with a shake of the hands and a smile. Because it’s not the person it’s the behavior.

So next time your at work and your faced with someone being generally dysfunctional remember “It’s not the person i disagree with, it’s the behaviour!”

Today, I came across this excellent post from Fred Wilson’s VC blog.  This same advice and direction should be applied to Project Boards, so I have edited the post to include specifics on project boards or steering committee’s:

 “The Project Board Meeting is the primary way that Project Boards function. This post is about making Project Board meetings effective and helpful for everyone involved.

A Project Board cannot be effective if it doesn’t get together frequently. Some Project Boards only meet less or more frequently. I have been on a few Project Boards that meet once a quarter and I encourage those Project Boards to meet over the phone for an update in-between those meetings. I have also been on a lot of Project Boards that meet weekly, I believe these meetings are far to frequent for the Project Board and Project Manager to be effective. I’m a particular fan of the monthly Project Board meeting. The idea is to have one meeting mid month.

Project Board meetings should be discussions. They should be interactive. They should have some structure. But they should not have too much structure. Some Project Managers and Project Board Executives make the mistake of driving the Project Board line by line through the agenda, cutting off meaty discussions in the name of staying on schedule. The purpose of Project Board meetings are to have these meaty discussions not to get through the agenda on time.

I prefer that the Project Board get all “official business” out of the way at the start of the meeting so that the meeting doesn’t have to get cut short to discuss risks, approve changes,  minutes, or some other important but perfunctory Project Board resolution or assurance.

A cold autumn day as winter approaches and the Athabasca Glacier in full retreat gets some well deserved replenishment.

This time we’re taking you back to May 2010 and to a desert in northern Chile.

We leave Pisco Elqui taking a morning bus ride through the valley back towards the coast. After a couple of hours we arrive the lively fishing town La Serena on the northern coast of Chile.
I think up a hilarious and catchy, or as just puts it super annoying, song called “HEY LA Serena” sung to the tune of Macarena it really only has three words and a prelude of pretending to speak Spanish and anyone can join in. Basically it goes:
Takeabus tothecoast of northern chile
Haveabigheadache cozyoudrinktomuch pisco
HEEEEEEY! LA SERENA!!!
Thankfully one homeless guy thought it was pretty good, he and his toothless grin joined in before falling over.

Anyway, our stay in La Serena is short as we are making our way up the coast to San Pedro de Atacama. So we spend a brief dazed moment at 7am walking around La Serena. Even at this early hour there are people getting about their daily business and painting graffiti on the steep streets that lead down the hill to the harbor. But we have no more time to explore, we board our bus to Calama for our 14 hour ride.

The scenery flies past.

Some of the scenery

By the time we arrive at Calama it’s night time. Calama bus station is small, crowded and dirty. We push through the mob to get our bags and find the next bus to take us to San Pedro. All goes well and we’re on our way for the final leg of our trip.