Project Management ITIS 6342

Fall 2016
Week 2
Work, Grit and Leadership

Thomas Kitrick PhD

What is Work?

Define work
Define our Relationship to Work.

What is Work?

Work can be defined as transfer of energy. In physics

we say that work is done on an object when you transfer
energy to that object. If one object transfers (gives)
energy to a second object, then the first object does
work on the second object.
In physics there is no judgment made about the
relationship of the work needed to transfer energy to an
object.
Therefore, if we like or dont like work it is more about
our psychological approach to work that defines it. Work
is a natural order of the physical world.

You Want Success ?

Redefine how you approach

work and the fulfillment it can
provide, no matter how small the
task.
Define the elements that
determine whether work is
completed and to what degree it
is completed.
People who do well have figured
it out over the course of their
work life, and it is offered in
microcosm during this semester.

So Here is the Deal ..

Before starting any endeavor, and I include this class, I

think it is important to define the goals of what we are
trying to ultimately meeting.
As we discussed briefly last week PM is the key
consideration in this course PM A Priori skills include:
Grit, Perseverance
Critical Thinking
Leadership
A priori knowledge or justification is independent of experience, as with mathematics (3+2=5),
tautologies ("All bachelors are unmarried"), and deduction from pure reason (e.g., ontological
proofs). A posteriori knowledge or justification is dependent on experience or empirical
evidence, as with most aspects of science and personal knowledge.

1. Grit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grit
_%28personality_trait%29

Grit is a positive trait based on an individual's passion for

a particular long-term goal or end state, coupled with a
powerful motivation to achieve their respective objective.
This perseverance of effort promotes the overcoming
of obstacles or challenges that lie within a gritty
individual's path to accomplishment, and serves as a
driving force in achievement realization.
One of the best predictors of future achievement has
been intelligence. This relationship has been found in
scholastic achievement as well as in job
performance. As such, one might expect that grit
would be strongly correlated with intelligence.
Somewhat surprisingly, in four separate samples, grit
was found to be slightly inversely correlated with
intelligence.
This means that grit, unlike many traditional
measures of performance is not tied to intelligence.
This helps explain why some very intelligent
individuals do not consistently perform well over long
periods.

The Myth of Sisyphus is a

parable written by the
philosophical essayist
Albert Camus, published in
1942
"The struggle itself . is
enough to fill a man's
heart. One must imagine
Sisyphus happy."

Grit

Angela Duckworth, practicing

psychologist who has studied the
ability of people in all walks of life
and how they persevered to become
successful.
A TED Talk that turned into a
book.
The book is better.
Every semester I hear from students
how hard they work, and I still dont
understand.
ALL successful people work
hard.
Working hard is actually the
goal.

Grit is the ability to retrain a

mindset of perseverance no matter
what the difficulty, the odds of
success or the perception of reward.
Work becomes its own reward.

True or False?

Fixed Mindset
In a fixed mindset you believe that talent is a
naturally occurring event.
Some people have it some people dont.
The extent to which you have been given
talent determines how far you will go in your
career or life.
Therefore everyone has a ceiling, to some
extent.
Let me offer another view before we debate the
relative merits

True or False?

Learning Mindset
In a learning mindset our view is that we are
all given an equal amount of innate ability,
which discounts the definition of talent to zero.
Through focus and preparation we develop
skills to become what we want to become.
In a learning mindset, there is no ceiling, other
than the ceiling we create based on our time,
effort, focus and attitude.
Which do you personally believe?

The Grit Factor

Talent is the single most over rated thing in the world, if it exists at all,
unless you are looking for an excuse.
Pre-existing conditions may set the stage for success so modifying
your goals is a constant loop for every successful person.
short people may not be a great basketball player but could be a
great athlete
Most pop culture emphasizes talent over work because it makes lazy
people feel better about themselves and makes success mysterious.
Work itself is marginalized as something to be avoided and only
sought out unless payment is involved. This is further exacerbated by
success having a payoff other than the process involved in doing it.
Learning outcome number 1 in this course is to test your Grit and give
you an opportunity to improve your Grit Factor.

Just One Example

Many people would think that Michael Jordan is a

talented person.
Natural basketball player? WRONG. Cut from
his High School basketball team.
Great Natural Athlete? WRONG. Awful baseball
player. Average golfer.
What is rarely discussed is his work ethic, described
in the book by his personal trainer Tim Grover.
By focusing on his talent however we overlook the
real reason he was successful. He worked harder
than anyone else in the NBA during his tenure.
If MJ worked harder than anyone else on his
basketball game what gives anyone else the
mindset that not working hard is somehow in the
equation of their success?
The real reason? It makes us feel better when we
think somebody is a natural. It lets us off the hook.

The Way of Work

The title of the book is drawn from a

quote from Meditations, a series of
personal writings by Roman emperor
Marcus Aurelius: The impediment to
action advances action. What stands in
the way becomes the way.
Holiday draws from Meditations,
Aurelius, and the philosophy of stoicism
to expand the idea that how we respond
to obstacles is what defines us.
Holiday argues that obstacles don't
inhibit success, they create success
and that readers should see "through
the negative, past its underside, and
into its corollary: the positive."

Our Job as Project Managers

Our job as PMs is to drive a culture of Grit in our Project Teams and
stakeholders. What does that look like?
No job is too difficult, it can be broken into smaller parts that
build success.
Set standards for achieving goals, develop plans for meeting
those goals.
Never give up in the attainment of a goal, except when you
have to, then use information gained to regroup and succeed
Develop Grit in team teammates, shy away from people who
make excuses.
Dont accept laziness in ourselves and others.
View the process as something to be embraced, not resisted.
You can start tonight in your project teams and develop a culture
that involves a Learning Mindset and Work becoming its own reward
and self fulfilling prophecy.

In Class Assignment

Last week you brainstormed 10 issues

on campus.
This week I want you to narrow that
down to 5 and think about solutions for
each.
For each of those. Brainstorm 5 pieces
of work you would need to perform to
solution the problem.

10 Issues Pair Down to the Best 5

1

UNCC Issues

2
4
3

For Each Define 5 Solutions for

Each Issue
Solution 1

Solution 5

Issue 1,2,3,4,5

Solution 2
Solution 4
Solution 3

Assignment Due Next Week

Quiz on Wikipedia article on Grit. 10 True/False

or MC questions.
Each student brings in a 2 page document (1.5
spaced, normal margins) that describes the
work involved in the Issue/Solution they have
selected. This will be graded based on logic and
whether the document describes work (or not).
The document will be handed in with your quiz.