Focus on the WHY

In my business analysis work, I have always placed my lens of focus on what a customer is trying to accomplish - their objectives. What steps in a process that are in place to meet a need. Until I picked up a copy of Simon Sinek's book - Start With Why - did I understand the magic on focusing on the WHY. As Simon notes in his book, many companies can have operational excellence, but until a company can lead with why they are in business, they will not reach the scale and success that others such as Apple, Southwest Airlines, and Harley Davidson have experienced.

Simon also notes that at an individual level, understanding your why can have powerful influence on your career decisions and directions. I encourage you to watch his TED video - http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html, and also read his book to dig into WHY to help you understand how to move your career work in the direction that aligns with purpose!

Help build a community of practice!

I have been involved with the International Institute of Business Analyst for the past 3 years, and during that time I became very involved in helping the Austin chapter grow. My decision to step forward as a volunteer was prompted by my own challenges in trying to grow in my profession with no group of peers to turn to for advice or direction in future career steps. Having recently read a great post from the  IIBA BA Connection newsletter on the "Global Community of Practice", I realize that my own efforts to bring together my peers is very much aligned with the direction of the IIBA.

As stated in the article by Julian Sammy "A community of practice is more than a group of "people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly." (http://www.ewenger.com/theory/index.htm) People do not work in isolation. A competent BA can't do much to help an organization if the organization doesn't see the value in the work that the BA does. Performance may go down; even as BAs in a community of practice help each other acquire new skills, learn new techniques, and discover new tools. Any really effective Community of Practice must understand, educate, influence, and engage with the stakeholders who surround the practitioner community. These people can raise up the practice—or cause it to fail." 


It is the when we come together as a group and help each other understand how others are moving a "practice" forward - that is when we are building the community! Do not work in isolation and try to figure out by yourself the best way to pursue your direction - I encourage you to reach out to your community of practitioners in your field and share how you can help!

Be a volunteer in the new year

This past year many of us have faced job changes or are seeking new opportunities in our careers. One step you can take to open new doors in your career path is becoming a volunteer in one of your local professional organizations. I took the plunge at the beginning of last year to become the president of the local Austin Chapter of IIBA. As part of continuing to build my professional network, I took the step to devote time and effort in contributing to and leading an organization. The Austin IIBA Chapter has always been able to attract great speakers on subjects that business analysts can immediately apply to improve in their jobs - see list of prior events -  http://austin.iiba.org/index.php/chapter-events/archived-events

Not only was this group a great resource for me, but I also knew that individuals pursuing a business analyst career need to have a group where they can engage with others in understanding their dynamic role and how a business analysts can grow in their career path. The role of volunteering at the Austin IIBA Chapter has moved my focus from personal gain to one of understanding that being a volunteer is giving of your time to help others. It is the helping of others - helping them connect with others for new career opportunities, and helping them understand how to gain new knowledge to grow in their business analyst career.

Take the step this year, and decide to volunteer in your local organizations. It is by helping others, that you will find your path in moving forward in your career and finding future professional opportunities.

The Power of the Story

My work involves putting together software requirements for developers to code against. Much of that effort gets into very low level detail, and quickly can become an exercise in delivery of details that may not trace back to the objectives of the project. I have found in my efforts to set boundaries of what is delivered as the product starts with defining the business objectives of the customer. And the best method of communicating those objectives is through "telling the story" of why, what, where, how, and who is involved. A software tool called Blueprint that was presented at the October Austin IIBA meeting is a great software tool to investigate when trying to tell the story of your software project.

This process of story telling not only in software engineering projects, but also in presentations is very powerful, and when you can start with that story in either a presentation or defining scope of a software project you will be very effective in communications. I also recommend looking into Doug Stevenson's Storytelling In Business books and CDs.  By putting on your Story Telling lens - you will find the process of communicating business objectives and providing key messages to inspire or motivate in connecting with others.

Keep it Simple! - KISS principle

For most of the past year, I thought that I needed to change my blogging platform. And with that change, somehow, I managed to stop blogging due to the excuse that it will take time to setup a new blog. Well, during that time, Google improved their blogging platform, and I realized that Keeping It Simple is better than using an excuse to not blog at all.

I find it interesting how we can quickly rationalize why something takes too much time, or why we think we don't have enough time. Recently, I have encountered many others that use an "excuse" for why that can't take that extra step that is needed in either their business or professional career. For instance, I attended a Ripple event in Austin and I met a lady that is struggling to keep repeat customers for a sewing business. I asked her if she has started blogging or using on-line video that would help continue building relationships with existing customers. She told me that she was too busy with her new orders, that maintaining a blog or on-line videos on sewing would be overwhelming - well how about - Keep it Simple principle! just start something and Keep It Simple.

That is why I am back to sharing on Blogger and I will keep it simple!

-Bruce

Moving to new blog platform!

I will be moving my blog to a new Wordpress platform in October 2011.

With the move, I will continue to focus on ideas in motivation and career, but I will also provide my thoughts in the software requirements space around requirements development and requirements management. I look forward to sharing my thoughts with you on my new blog!

One word - Purpose

Purpose!! - what a great word to sum up the key to becoming a leader in an organization or improving your own career direction.

With this new year upon us, if you are looking to make changes that will move you forward in your career goals - I encourage you to pick up a copy of Roy Spence's book It's Not What You Sell, It's What You Stand For in order to understand how other great leaders have been able to clarify their purpose and rally others around them to build great companies. In his book, Roy provides insight into how he worked with leaders at Walmart, BMW, Southwest Airlines, Charles Schwab, and Whole Foods to define a purpose at each company that employees can rally around to build passion and understand the difference they are making in the world.

I heard Roy present at the Austin Metropolitan Breakfast Club last year during his book launch. He presented his core message of this book: great companies must 1) be built to make a meaningful difference 2) lead by leaders of great purpose 3) bring purpose to life in meaningful ways in the marketplace. But, Roy also took his review of "purpose" a step further to discuss how as individuals we can change our thought process to approach living a life of purpose - he played the following song during his presentation "Hallelujah" - listen and think about how this coming year can be a year that you are driven to work and live by purpose!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2NEU6Xf7lM

Thanks Roy!