Disobedient Talk

If you aren’t careful, managing a project can feel like being in an office chair, spinning around, and not getting much done. To avoid this dizzying exercise, a PM needs to prioritize their work. You need to ensure that you are tackling the most essential…

Ineffective response strategies are a frequent shortcoming of risk management plans. Project managers often make common mistakes when deriving risk response actions, resulting in inadequate strategies. Here are some of the most common mistakes and what can be done to replace and enhance those response…

Working hard on project management is only part of the battle. Ensuring you engage appropriate change management is required to make that hard work count and allow organizational changes to stick. Here are elements of a sound organizational change management strategy: Develop a robust education…

Project management is a relationship business. Solid relationships, built upon strong communication planning, and execution, elevate how others see you as a leader. Here’s how: It shows you’re in control of your project. Clear, regular communication sends a powerful message: you know what’s happening and…

In a recent LinkedIn Live session, an attendee asked for the best approaches to keeping stand-up meetings from going too long. This is a common issue when you have an excited agile team looking to get things done quickly or having challenges. Here are approaches…

I just returned from an international holiday. It was fantastic, but I couldn’t help but feel like a project manager during the journey. It seems every time I step off a plane in a foreign country, I’m in the middle of a project. The skills…

I worked on a project with an interesting character named Eddie.  He was a nice guy, but he had difficulty getting to our team meetings on time.  I called Eddie aside one day and asked him why he was always late in the morning.  He…

Voltaire is credited with saying, “Perfection is the enemy of good enough”. Perfection implies that no degree of error is acceptable, whereas good enough implies that what you have is usable for the purpose you require. While we should strive to be more than just…

When working in a project environment, I appreciate predictable behaviors. They make your life easier because you can count on a degree of reliability from your team members. Team norms help instill predictability and establish trust without restricting flexibility and allowing people to produce their…

Have you ever tried to bust a piñata while blindfolded, with a group of people trying to give you directions?  Too high, too low, further to the right.  It can be tricky to hit the target when you can’t see what everybody else can see….

Have you ever tried doing one of those gigantic 2,000-piece jigsaw puzzles with the tiny, teeny pieces? It can take a long time to get the pieces to fit perfectly and reveal the final, magnificent result. But you can speed things up if you have…

Being a good manager means understanding what your team needs from you, and adapting your style to those needs.  Although you may have been appointed to a team management role because of your ability to apply your technical skills, the tools that honed your career…