Disobedient Talk

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…

When rescuing a project, you must alter the project management deliverables and approaches to control it. Your rescue effort and personal approach must be different. Otherwise, the project will end up troubled once again! Although you may need to modify some control deliverables, a few…

It may involve a few people or an entire organization. It might be a minor adjustment to respond to a change in customer support. Or it could be a full-scale “bet the business” initiative to leapfrog your competitors. No matter what the scale, there are…

Agile involves deep interaction between team members. When a team is distributed over multiple locations, extra care is needed to ensure things go well. Let’s look at activities to ensure your agile project delivers on its promise. The initial planning or Envision stage of the…

Larry Senn, a pioneer in corporate culture, concluded, ‘Culture is not an initiative. Culture is the enabler of all initiatives.’ Agile approaches require a culture shift from traditional project management.  So, how do you know if your corporate culture inhibits your organization from adopting agile…

A key to a long, successful career in project management is to not worry about stuff you can’t control. But that doesn’t mean you should do nothing about them! While I can’t give you a magic potion to help you manage things you can’t influence,…

So, when was the last time you, as a project manager, believed you had too much authority? I suspect that hasn’t happened often, if at all. Believe it or not, as a project manager, expanding your authority is possible with the right approach. Here’s how…

You can’t always count on key stakeholders to make decisions that are in the project’s best interest. In some cases, those decisions are appropriate, keeping the big picture of the overall business in mind. When that isn’t the case, the project manager must push back…

Are your employees showing up as their authentic selves at work? Many people feel compelled to wear a “game face” in the office – essentially putting on a mask that hides their authentic personality. When employees feel they can’t bring their whole selves to work,…

Projects solicit many opinions and viewpoints. Good project managers seek these viewpoints and use them to evaluate alternatives and make clear decisions. However, this can get tricky when your preferred approach to addressing an issue conflicts with the approach of a respected team member. Here…