I like change. Or to be more exact, I can’t really take the absence of change, development or improvement in some form in my life for very long. I feel trapped, stagnated and like if I don’t snap out of it, this is what my life will look like till the day I die, that I never will be able to make an effort to change again. So I have made it my thing to embrace change and thrive in getting to explore the new possibilities it brings.

In the introduction to project managing in the book “A guide to the project management body of knowledge” it states:

“PROJECT DRIVE CHANGE”.

Hmm. I read the paragraph several times. That is so true, and yet I have never thought of it that way before.

I have studied project management previously. I have worked in projects and as a project manager. I have thought of projects as a way to archive the development of a product, or a way to implement a new system into a firm in a controlled and logical manner. That the change of something is decided upon on the outset of the project.

But now I come to realize that the project is driving the change. It is deciding how and what changes needs to be done to reach the desired outcome of the project. Decisions taken in the project will effect people involved in or affected by it’s outcome.

The second realization is that perhaps projects drive change is the reason why I like projects so much. I have pondered that many times, and I realize that they play on my strengths and that is part of it. But my fondness for change is probably the main reason why I prefer projects. Hmm, go figure.

A lot of people hate change. If you are working, you have probably worked with somebody at sometime that says “no” to every suggestion, that does not seem to like anything except what it is like right now. My guess is that that person is really afraid of change or the unknown, and I feel truly sorry for them.

Imagine living today and be afraid of changes. It must be horrible! So how do you get those people aboard a project and motivate them?

I had a collegue that said: “You have to give motivation to those who wants to leave something behind and as well those who wants to get to something new.” In my experience many persons afraid of changing wants to keep their job. (This sounds bad, but bear with me) If a company does not keep up with competence or changes in the market, the company will not survive. That is not unknown. Even if a company is thriving now, sooner or later somebody willing to improve, someone more hungry, will start competing. So in the long run, a company will need to evolve to stay in business. And for employees to keep their jobs, the company needs to stay in business.

So “getting to something new” for people afraid for the unknown can be changing a little bit now in order to “keep our company that gives us salary” in business in the future. Explained in the kindest and most pedagogic of ways, of course!

Approximately 5 billion gigabytes were generated from the beginning of recorded history until 2003. In comparison 5 billion gigabytes of data were claimed to be generated every 10 seconds in 2015 according to Ritter, T. LundPedersen, C. (2019): Digitization capability and the digitalization of business models in business-to-business firms: Past, present, and future, Industrial Marketing Management.

Isn’t that mind blowing?

Digitization, or the process of making analog information digital, has made everything more accessible and made life and work easier for everybody with access to it. It has opened up a new world and is the foundation for the digital development we have seen the last three decades. It has it’s uses, definitely.

But since the arrival of smartphones the development has been explosive. Sometimes it feels like the phone is glued to the hand, both to me and to the people I see around me. Digital is “the new normal” since 2010 after all, according to the table above.

Being a consumer and a customer of digital data in everyday life since many years has given us perspective and references to how hard or how easy and effective it can be to perform a task. That has made us, or at least me, somewhat particular and cranky when it is not easy. Or lately, when the site, app or program I am using does not add value. When things are just digitized.

I love reading and have at any given time at least five apps to read in on my phone. The last years there are also many websites that allows you to read online for free, which I do. But then I get annoyed when I cannot bookmark where I am at. I get annoyed when I happen to close the webpage and can’t get the information of what book I was reading last. I would like to have recommendations about what to read next based on my reading history, but there is no such function. It is like walking in to a really large library where everything is categorized, but that is it. You have all this data, but no good way to filter or store my preferences for it. That is when I find digitization lacking in many ways. Like the provider of the service could just have made some more effort to add value, but nooo.

Shopping in some smaller firm’s online shops or surprisingly many online shops of smaller and medium sized industries is another example of when I find digitization is lacking. They have digitized the shop and so you find something you want to buy and enter your information, and then …

Nothing. Shockingly nothing! No order confirmation is sent to your email. No “follow your order”-link is received. No sms telling you that your package has arrived. So you log in to your bank account and see that the right amount of money has been withdrawn, probably sent to the right company even though the name is not exactly the same as the webpage. And one day you just find the package outside your door.

Just digitization is not enough. It leaves me frustrated since it seems like taking the easy way out. Like the company delivering the service can say: “Yes, we have gone digital” but they did not really get it. Or they have not kept up with the changes. For the last 10 years.

As a product developing engineer (physical products) I have strived to apply Albert Einstein’s device “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” 

It has been such a good advice. But applying it to digital products would give you digitization, that is my conclusion. “As simple as possible” is to just take analog and make it digital, no need to think one step further. It is not good advice applied to this area. It just does not cut it in my eyes.

When I signed up for the master’s degree in IT Project Management at Stockholms University, being assigned blogging was not what I expected. Pretty much shying away from social media, it was neither what I wanted to experience.

I have worked as an engineer with project managing, technical support and administrantion for many years. The last couple of years I have been broadening my horizon; studying programming, web management and digital business development at different Swedish Universities.

But I wanted to get a more hands-on approach and found this IT Project Management degree. How much more hands-on can it get then having to start a blog the day the course starts? I just want to immerse myself in everything about this subject and have decided that I will just have to trust in the process of this.

So now I am actually looking forward to the blogging experience and wherever it will take me.

Until next post, I advise you to stay hungry, stay foolish!