Fitness PM Thursday - Taking Measurement (or "Why I hated Army Basic Training"))

As a young private, one of the things I absolutely hated about US Army Basic Training was the tests.  HATED THEM.  There were medical tests (vision, height, weight, a physical), there were basic soldier tests (remembering your 3 General Orders, basic rifle marksmanship, basic grenade marksmanship, "the Super Bowl" assessment - including first aid, etc), and there were physical fitness tests (2 mile run, 2 minute push-ups, 2 minute sit-ups).  I still get almost physically ill at the thought of taking these tests.

21 years have flown by since Basic Training in lovely Fort Jackson, SC.  I probably couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with my M-16, and pray to God that we will not have to rely upon my accurate recital of the 3 General Orders.  However, as a project manager with 20/20 hindsight I really appreciate the Army's propensity to take measurements.

A measurement (or metric) is used to assess capabilities or show progress.  Obviously, you'll want these measurements to be relevant to your Problem (in our case fitness - see my Problem Statement blog).  You'll also want to have enough different metrics to get a good understanding of how you're solving your problem.

The measures that the Army used assessed several capabilities:

• Health:  Is this soldier a body type that will work well in the Army?
• Physical Fitness:  Can this soldier stand up to the rigors of being in a stressful, battlefield situation?
• Soldiering:  Does this soldier have an understanding of the system so as to be a useful asset and not to be a danger to him/herself or their fellow soldiers?

Each measurement, at least in the Army's case, was an accurate representation of your overall fitness for duty.  If a soldier passes the Health criteria and aces the Physical Fitness tests but stinks it up with an M16, the likelihood is either a)

How does this apply to the physical fitness and/or workouts of a regular person?  It's super simple.  First, think about your problem statement.  For example, my problem statement is:

• It currently takes me > 45 minutes to do my favorite fitness hike due to my current weight (191 lbs) and level of fitness.  If I cannot complete this hike in < 40 minutes, I will be late to my other morning commitments (breakfast, childrens' school, work) AND my wife may break my neck.

Hopefully this problem statement and its impact are abundantly clear.  Based on this, what are some measurements that I can use to assess my cuurent capabilities?

• Time:  For this hike, the distance is fixed and the terrain is hilly and rocky, but other than the temperature and the number of people on the trail, all variables remain the same.  I measure the time it takes to get from the trailhead to the top and back again, and I'll measure it each time I do the hike (which is only once per week, on Saturdays at 5am).
• Weight:  Right now, it's about 191, which is just a little heavy for somebody with my frame.  Worse, it causes me to snore (pissing my wife off to no end).  I will keep track of this metric daily since I probably need to lose about 5-6 lbs.
• 3.2 mile run:  My running route begins and ends at the top of a big hill.  I can do this quickly enough to not impact my family, so it is a good exercise to help improve my hike.  Right now, I can do this in about 30 minutes, which is really slow.  Improving this metric, maybe to 25 minutes, will be a good indicator that I am making progress.  I run this two times per week and will time it each time.

Obviously it's great to see improvement in your metrics (a positive trend), but if you notice that one of the metrics is going in a negative direction, you should realize you need to take action.  In my case, my 3.2 mile run time could improve, but unless my weight also improves (i.e. it increases above a trigger point, 191 lbs), it is not likely that my hike time will improve.  An early warning of an issue will trigger you to take action before you are completely derailed.

A couple tips on using metrics:

1. Ensure your metrics are relevant to your problem and/or goal.  Measuring the number of pushups that you can do will not directly help you to understand whether you can perform your hike more quickly. 
2. Make sure your metrics are quantitative:  Saying "I'd like to look good naked" is probably not a good metric.  What if the person who is looking at you is a chubby-chaser?  Pick your weight, your waist size, your hip circumference, etc, as a better metric.
3. Establish trigger points:  While your measurements may fluctuate a little, you may want to pick a trigger point for a measurement.  For instance, if my run takes me more than 30 minutes, then I will need to run a shorter distance or sprints in order to improve my run time.
4. Pick several measurements:  You'll probably want several measurements to accurately monitor your progress.  Time, weight, heartrate, recovery time might be a good combination for the hiking problem.  If you pick too many measurements, they'll be difficult to collect and maintain (and you won't do it).  i would choose 3-5 relevant metrics.
5. Measurement frequency:  This is up to you, but for each measurement that I use, I decide ahead of time how frequently I will measure.  Maybe it's every day.  Maybe it's weekly or monthly.  Do what makes sense, but please realize that the more quickly you identify an issue, the faster you can resolve it.
6. Be consistent when you measure:  Similar to my tip on quantitative measurements, you need to be consistent when measuring.  If measuring your waist, measure at the belly button each time.  When doing pushups, know what constitutes a full pushup (both down and up).  You're only cheating yourself if you're not consistent.

That's it.  And guess what?  I found my old PT test scores from Fort Jackson the other day.  I know I can beat my pushup total right now, I'd probably be close with sit-ups...but there is no way in HELL I could catch an 18 year old version of me in the 2 mile run.  Maybe this should be a new Problem Statement, Goal and Metric for me?  (or maybe I should just accept that I am 39)

Interesting, useful topic?  Would you like to see more of this?  Please reply to my blog or drop me a Tweet @PMGeekAndy

Fitness PM Thursday: Problem statements (i.e. using your big fat body as leverage)

Have you ever noticed that it is often difficult to motivate people to take action?  Have you ever noticed that sometimes one of those people is yourself?

As a project manager, I often have to influence resources who do not report directly to me.  These may include the people who do the work on my projects, my project sponsor, and project stakeholders (e.g. customer, peer team members, suppliers, etc).  Sometimes I will see teams working...but they are not working cohesively, and they may or may not be addressing the appropriate problem with the urgency it needs.

As a regular guy (or gal), oftentimes we have similar problems in our personal lives...and our fitness is no exception!  It is all too easy to continue going through the motions and not taking focused steps to address our issues.  Further, our family and friends might not support our personal "projects" as they may not grasp how important these endeavors are.

This leads me to today's topic:  creating a problem statement.  A Problem Statement is used to gain agreement from stakeholders on what problem is to be solved, and what is the impact of not solving this problem.  I do this as a first order of business when establishing a new project team, and I have begun doing this for my home projects.  An effective problem statement will focus a team and garner attention from sponsors and other stakeholders who can remove "project roadblocks."

A problem statement is constructed as follows:

• <Current situation> <impact of doing nothing>
• Example:  Our XYZ website crashes when we have ABC users logged in simultaneously.  The impact is that we are lozing up to $ZZZ in sales per day and have experienced a

A couple of notes:  The problem statement should have some sort of quantifiable measurement, both in the current situation and the impact.  Making this tangible is the best way to grab people's attention and unite their energies.  The problem statement, in my opinion, should NOT include any solutions.  It also should not state Goals (this is a separate activity, see my goal-setting blog from a couple weeks back).  When a team is too focused on solutions and goals without first agreeing on a problem, this is analagous to straightening the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Trust me - this applies to personal fitness!  My example:  losing weight!  At the end of graduate school, I was tipping the scales at 215 lbs.  In fact, my Nintendo Wii Fit character was round!  I needed to address this, and I needed support from my family.  Here's the problem statement that I came up with:

• My weight is 215 lbs and BMI is > 27.  The impact of this is that I have to buy new pairs of pants and snore heavily (which keeps my wife awake).  There are also long term health impacts including susceptibility to arthritis, back pain and needless risk of Type II diabetes.

Simple, powerful, and useful when focusing my attention on improving my diet and forcing me to work out.  There were measurements (weight, BMI...I could have gotten into my waist size, cholesterol, etc - but you get the idea).  The impact was also very clear - this would impact my wallet, impact my wife's sleep, and impact my family.  Creating this statement got my wife to allow me to buy P90X (and ultimately the Insanity and Rush Fit).  Yes - I ultimately lost 30 lbs (have gained 5-7 back - but am in good shape).

I hope this is helpful.  Have you ever had problems focusing your resources?  (or yourself?)  Send me some feedback or drop me a line on Twitter (@PMGeekAndy) if you have any questions or would like help crafting your fitness problem statement!