Love project research phase 2

The insights from the first cohort of research were so interesting and rewarding! It’s as if I was given a new language to use when describing the practice.

We’re going to run another round of research – the form to sign up is at the bottom of this page.

You’ll be led through the practice to make a habit of telling yourself “I love you” on a daily basis. I’ll provide a workbook in MS Word format for you to complete at the close of each week, with two or three diary style entries to share so I have structured feedback in a consistent format from all participants. Ideally you’re comfortable with typing, since that’s how I’ll be collecting your journal entries. It’s all anonymised. The research will run for five weeks, and wrap up with a one on one phone call debrief.

Why not? Maybe we’ll change the world…. together.

Sign up form is linked below the video.

Sign up at the application form here.

Apply to share your love project

I’m excited to announce the next phase of what I’ve been referring to as The Love Project. The feedback has been amazing so far, but is all anecdotal. The next step logical step is clearly to formalize feedback with a research study the month of June, 2020!

That’s fancy talk for you agreeing to tell yourself “I love you” daily, and complete two short journal entries each week in June to share with me. Ideally you’re comfortable with typing, since that’s how I’ll be collecting your journal entries. The month starts with a short call, and wraps up with a longer debrief. There could be material here to summarize and share in a book or other articles.

Why not? Maybe we’ll change the world…. together.

Thank you to everyone who applied! The research project is now underway and the application has closed.

All the things I’ve produced about love (so far)

This is a hub page, to share links to the work I’ve completed on love.

Pick if you’d like to read the article yourself or have me read it to you.
It’s about how my life changing practice of falling in love with myself. We all deserve love, and that it doesn’t need to come from an external source, nope! It can be generated within. With this practice, we move beyond self-love and self-care, into a space of safety.

It’s becoming a part of my business too!
With Love as a working / corporate value
And two videos talking about the concept
Love as a corporate value (pt 1) and Love at work – wait there’s more! (pt 2)

Maybe you linked here via Instagram, but if not, I use my Instagram page to share the simple truths from my studies of the human experience.

impressed woman with unimpressed catBonus – the time I tried to record a video about falling in love with yourself but the cat kept interrupting. Watch me laugh my ass off with Caturruption.

Update April 18: Accepted as an art project on the Arts and Positivity FB page “Get down with the lockdown”

Processing grief – reference materials

The topic of grief came up for me in early February when my car was broken into. I realized that I am quite familiar with processing grief, and that it’s one of the main sources of my strength and life perspective. This page is to support a presentation via Zoom on April 6, 2020, and also to compile all these resources onto one page.

Key Points

  1. Grief is a spectrum of Macro<>Micro.
    Macro are the big, unwanted changes. Death of a loved one. End of a relationship, global pandemic.
    Micro (or even Nano) grief can be triggered by a simple let down of expectations. When we’re dealing with Macro grief, we may have a macro level response to a micro grief trigger.
    e.g. crying in the grocery store when the lane closes in front of you – it isn’t the lane closure that brought on tears, it’s the straw that broke us while we were just hanging on by a thread, missing a loved one so much.
  2. Call it what it is.
    I have found that grief does not go away by itself, it will lay dormant and show up in our reactions until it’s faced and processed. Especially for the small things – the micro grief – realizing that what’s happening is grief can give us the tools to move through.
    There is power for a leader to acknowledge the grief they are moving through, as a level of transparency for their team. Be human.
  3. Meet it with gratitude.
    One philosophy of mine is to bring balance to emotions by figuring out what the opposite emotion is, and increasing that in my life. In the case of grief, I found the opposite to be gratitude.
    Yes there was a loss, however what still remains?
  4. Provide structure.
    If you’re supporting others through processing grief, aim to reduce their micro grief. Clear process and structure helps with this, as well as managing expectations. To help with #3 above, can you provide them with something to be grateful for?

LinkedIn Articles

Your Team is grieving: here’s how to help

Was written a couple days into government mandated self-isolation – I saw the patterns of what was happening in the business world and wrote this article, mostly from content from the video, but with a business lens as an open letter to leaders to lead their teams not just through a work day or week, but through a pandemic.

Limit grief for your team by managing expectations

Wrote this after a few 1:1 calls with leaders who reached out from the first article. This explores a tool for managing others expectations of us, called the “user manual of me”. This tool feels especially pertinent

YouTube Video

17 minute “coffee chat” video exploring my personal story and the gift of grief

How to write emails that get read (and responded to)

On January 15, 2020, I participated in the NetSquared “Trends” event in Vancouver, Canada. We each had 5 minutes to share our message. As a project communications geek, I spoke about writing email for mobile.
Here are the key takeaways:

  • Ensure the subject line is clear and memorable – this could be the only thing that gets read
  • Include a one-line summary or Call to Action (CTA) at the top
  • Address the salutation to the person with a CTA – leave those being looped in for informational purposes only on the CC list
  • Use bold formatting or bulleted lists for skimming so the key points jump out of the prose
  • Put the story, detail or other background at the bottom (after the CTA)
  • Avoid responding to an existing thread with a new topic

Edit: I was snowed in the day of the event, so I recorded my presentation to share instead. The event was later cancelled due to the blizzard, however here’s the content anyway!

User manual of me

This is inspired mainly by the Rands “how to” post about his work and management style. I’ve been enjoying his writing for over a decade, so his is one of my favourites. The purpose of a user manual is to take the opportunity to share our preferences and working style, and also provide a few spoilers about our quirks.

I’ve wanted to write my own User Manual of Me for years now, and now that I’m working with a client to design theirs, I filled mine out for fun.

Note that this is a living document and will be updated as I continue to evolve towards total perfection.

Why I’m in this job.

What motivates me to come into work each day is that I’m doing my own thing. I approve my own clients and work on projects that inspire me and challenge me to grow personally and professionally.

The conditions I like to work in are:
Quiet with little distraction. I find it tough to focus on one conversation when there are several that I can hear. This is why you’ll often see me working with noise cancelling headphones. I am social and like people, so that coupled with the difficulty focusing means that the open office format is the Anti-Jessica.

In times of stress I prefer support to look like a simple “how are you”. I’ve found that if stress is acknowledged, it can be moved through. I’ve gotten pretty good at delegating so I’ll let you know if there’s something that needs delegating, and if I think you can help.

My best working patterns look like …
(what hours you like to be at the office, do you check anything from home outside of these hours, do you need to leave at a specific time, do you have a remote work arrangement)

I like to start early and take breaks throughout the day. I work on personal things, like my creative writing, before I start work for the day and I always make a day’s to-do list. I work remote FT and prefer video meetings to voice only. I only have one Vancouver-based client at the moment so I am not often in Vancouver. 

I add value to teams by…
(what role do you fill historically with the most success?)

I’m an executor. I often won’t get hung up in the creative details, I have a deep desire to get sh*t done and celebrate that sense of accomplishment with you. Give me clear goals and a good team and I’m excited. A decent team and draft goals will do as well. Just give me something to lead, please!

People often say I’m brilliant at….
(think of compliments you’ve received either at or outside of the office)

 running meetings! I wish this were something with more brilliance to it. I do love a well formatted meeting with clear roles, defined agenda that finishes 5 minutes early

Things I struggle with are ….
(What really grinds your gears, or irritates/annoys you?)

People who complain. I am working to be more patient with this, however as someone who has been through many challenges and created the life I want to have, I forget sometimes how overwhelming it was for me before I was empowered to make the changes. I’m sorry if I’m hard on you, and I’m working to instead figure out how to empower you. Come to me with solutions to go with the problems. Chances are, you’re closer to the situation and already know the best path through! Perhaps we’ll come up with something together, but I bet you already know what changes are needed.

Handling feedback

My thoughts on feedback are….
Feedback is important. I feel that we can explain ourselves to each other and save each other from guessing what’s going on. The closer to the moment that feedback can be given, the better, but it should be delivered as privately as possible. 

My preferred way to give feedback is….
It’s the same way that I like to receive feedback, privately, as soon as we can and face to face. Feedback in writing tends to sound significantly more serious than it is. If something needs to be on the record, let’s talk first and then write down our shared understanding and agree on outcomes and next steps.

How I like to receive feedback
E.g. immediately, 1:1, casually, over coffee, in writing, later on, collected together
I like to receive feedback as soon as possible, 1:1 if we can. In person would be great, but see above with working FT remote so a video call. Feedback can be moved through via talking faster than writing emails back and forth.

Communicating with me

(What’s your preferred medium for work related communications? How do you handle email, phone, IM, in person?)

This may sound old school but I prefer email. My personal phone is the same as my work phone, so it’s often out of sight when I’m focused on work. That’s why you may get an email response faster than a text or phone call.

I rarely answer my phone, but if I see it’s ringing and I see that it’s you, I’ll pick up. Please don’t leave  voicemail though, please email.

I have skype and I’m on numerous slack boards, but I check them sporadically. Even text is better than slack or skype, unless we’ve worked out a specific arrangement for your specific project.

I check email at least once an hour during business hours – 8-4pm. You can expect a response within a business day, unless it’s clear that the email was for informational purposes only – i.e. there’s no action on my part needed.

A meeting is required when there’s a group discussion and/or decision. If you’re on my team, you can see my calendar and please book what’s needed. If you’re a client, let me know a few times that work, or give me access to your calendar to book a time. I prefer meetings that have a specific agenda, and for any information related to the meeting to be circulated in advance. Not everyone will have a chance to review in advance, but I’ll certainly do my best. This saves time in the actual meeting so we can get to the point.

People might misunderstand me when I …
(Have you ever found yourself explaining a quirk or nuance of your personality that you wish someone knew before working with you?)

I’m funny by nature, though I recognize that some of my humour is poorly timed. I’m sorry if I do this to you and it’s something I’m working on. I’m learning that just because my brain points out a joke that’s Monty Python worthy, it doesn’t need to be made. I derail myself with this sometimes too and I’m really working on balancing this out without turning into a humourless robot.

I have learned how to compartmentalize at work and it’s served me well. That’s why if you talk about something that isn’t on topic for a meeting, you may get a puzzled look. I haven’t forgotten who you are, what you’re witnessing is me actively context switching. This varies based on my workload (how many clients and projects I have active, is this my third back to back meeting, etc)

I’m excited you’re here and by reading this I feel you’re giving me permission to be me. I really appreciate that.

That was a lot of reading! Here is a picture of a kitten gazing off into the distance at its bright future.

Oh the places you’ll go

Though most of my Project Management Consulting work is remote and we mainly see each other via video conference, I’ve also been enjoying a bit of travel lately to work with clients in person. Here are a few shots from my travels in July and August, 2019.

yukon

I showed up a couple days early to check out the gorgeous terrain around Whitehorse – this picture is from a trail run in Kluane National Park, home of Canada’s largest mountains.

Long days lead to poolside work – Menlo Park, CA
I was onsite at the facebook campus working with Antenna Consulting on a Research Program discovery.

scooter commute

Had fun commuting via scooter in Calgary, AB! Lime rentals has partnered with Calgary for a bike and scooter sharing pilot. This thing really ripped! I showed up at my client’s office still giggling from the ride in.

It was great to meet the GreenPath team in person in Calgary! We got so much done together I forgot to get a group pic, so here is the in-office banner.

I went to Banff National Park for the first time, the weekend before visiting GreenPath. This is the view after hiking up Sulphur Mountain – top of the Banff Gondola.

I’m excited to be working with such a variety of interesting clients already. Travelling to work with the team in person is a real treat, however I’m happy to be settled back at home in Squamish, BC and keeping the velocity up on each of my projects.

I love teaching

Jessica Evans PMP, project manager with thank you slide at end of training
there is a 100% chance of cat gifs in the presentation deck

I’ve always loved teaching, and project management changed the way I see and do business. Teaching project management combines two of my passions and I’m excited to do more of it. This isn’t a boiler plate regurgitated presentation that I could recite with my eyes closed. I work directly with your team to understand their current capabilities and identify opportunities where we can step up their skills without overwhelming them. The workshop / presentation will be interactive and customized to the team’s needs.

I call it “Project Management as an Attitude” (PMaaA). Ensuring a project’s success isn’t just the responsibility of the Project Manager, if that’s even a formal role on the team. Everyone on the project team can contribute towards the project’s success when they understand the methodologies and tools to do so.

I’d love to hear from you – please reach out to see what sort of training I could provide your team. Training can be a stand alone engagement, or we can package it with other services. Teaching helps me to keep my skills sharp and up to date and I find it’s truly rewarding.

The return to freelancing

It’s with mixed emotion that I announce my departure from OXD (formerly OpenRoad Communications), where I had the privilege to be on their leadership team as Director, Client Services for almost five years.

I’m very proud of our work together—formalizing the PM team structure and professional services team operational process, and being involved in all aspects of the business from sales opportunities and pitches, through staffing for execution, and measuring revenue and reporting results of closed projects.

This was a challenging decision that I didn’t take lightly and took months to finalize. However, I can state with 100% confidence that now is the right time. The team is in good shape and the structure is in place to continue to support them without needing me personally at the helm.

It’s a huge leap to leave a stable, familiar, full-time job to leap into the unknown. I’m confident that my existing network will lead me to opportunities so I can experience and realize the sense of accomplishment with many clients.

So here I am! Happy to work with you on Project Management coaching, project management for hire, and/or operational consulting. I’m excited for the opportunities that this change affords me.

Get in touch! 🙂