A Day at the Oscars

The company is in somewhat of an uproar. The CEO has announced a new corporate strategy and organization structure. He holds a company-wide meeting where all this is presented in some detail. His candor encourages a lot of difficult questions from the audience. A key focus area is on increasing span of control but he makes sure everybody knows what he means…we have too many managers and we will be flattening the organization...many managers will lose their jobs. He also comments that sales compensation plans are going to change. Top-line revenue doesn’t drive the right behavior; everybody needs to be... Read More»

The Night Before the Deadline

In all aspects of life, I believe it’s important that we not take ourselves too seriously. With the holidays squarely and firmly upon us, I’ve decided to take a little creative liberty with a popular holiday story. I hope you enjoy the project management version of this holiday classic. ‘Twas the night before the deadline, when all through the plant Not a milestone was met, not one on my Gantt; The status reports were all sent to the sponsor with care, In hopes hopes he would see pending trouble to beware; The team were all nestled all snug in their... Read More»

Knowing Your Limitations

According to fictional San Francisco police detective, Inspector Harry Callahan, in Magnum Force of the Dirty Harry film series, “A man's GOT to know his limitations.” While it is true that there comes a point where every individual eventually reaches their limitation and thus you must know your boundaries, how can organizations encourage growth for people to realize their full potential without driving them over the border? And what is the responsibility of the individual to strive to attain their full potential without overstepping the boundaries of their limitations? Below are some tips for individuals and hiring managers to aid... Read More»

Data Management

I remember as a child my mother would never throw anything away. If I tried to throw away even a useless scrap of paper, she'd frantically dig through the garbage, excitedly proclaiming that I would one day look back and thank her for not letting me throw away something with such sentimental value. Clothing was packed into bags and stored in the back of the closet for decades. Even if it was 10 years out of date, 10 sizes too small, it could not be thrown out, just in case one day it would come back in style. She refused... Read More»

Managing With Consultants

If you have been managing for more than a few years, you have been in the situation where you needed some outside help to complete a project. Sometimes you request the help yourself but sometimes your management supplies the help without asking you - how uncomfortable is that? That can create the perception with the consultant that they are there to clean up your mess and they show up with “the attitude.” If you value your team, check with them before you hire consultants to help them and make sure consultants know where they fit in the organization. I knew... Read More»

Creating the Project Office - a Personal Story

Every so often a student posts a course review that thrills and delights me, even more than usual, mainly because it validates and vividly describes, in a most personal manner, my deepest intent. This review covers, in a way that should be of interest to many, a journey of creating and developing a project office, a journey that enlightens and informs others about pitfalls and best practices. The review also depicts the benefits of online educational forums—how the lessons learned describe and may be applied on the job. Here is L's story: "I was interested in taking this class [UCI... Read More»

Managing Out

Perhaps the most difficult job a manager faces is dealing with an employee that just isn’t performing up to expectations. Even if you’ve been coaching them all along and their performance is no surprise to them, taking the formal steps to manage them out of your organization is painful for both of you. With any luck, they already have another position lined up. Regardless of how well prepared they are, you need to be prepared. The first step is to give the employee a fighting chance to redeem themselves, as soon as the performance problem becomes apparent. Remember, that it... Read More»

The Power of Questioning Why

As project managers we expend significant thought and effort on aspects of who, what, when, where, and how of our projects and our work. Working with project managers and front-line managers in several organizations throughout my career, I witness much less thought given to the often more relevant question of why. Perhaps because asking why is viewed as being contrarian, and therefore may have a negative career impact, we never bother to pose the question. Or, perhaps we don’t even think to question why. Failing to ask, and understand, why can cost our organization immeasurable sums of money and also... Read More»

Portfolio Management: Lamborghini Body on a Plymouth Horizon Chassis

Having attempted rolling out project portfolio management at several organizations I can state with confidence that the portfolio management process fails to deliver on its promise to streamline an organization’s project pipeline and provide high value. However, it is not the fault of the portfolio management process. Rather, I have found that the fault resides primarily with how organizations are structured (refer to a prior blog post titled Portfolio Management: Is Modern Management Practice Compatible?). Another major issue is a lack of education and understanding of portfolio, program, and project management at the upper management level (think C-suite). It’s easy... Read More»

Project Safety

HSSE - What’s That? HSSE stands for Health, Safety, Security, and Environment. In the old days, it was one of the issues that people had a tendency to let slide. The safety was a concern but health, security and environment were passing interests. Nowadays these are all important issues. They have to be addressed on your projects and you need to have funding to cover them. Companies vary on how serious they treat HSSE so you should be prepared for every eventually. I have worked across several industries and it seems as the liability and risk of death or injury... Read More»