A Blessing and a Curse

Is being an expert in a field or practice a blessing and a curse? Possibly. If someone is deemed an expert and the most qualified in a certain area, that person may be more burdened and utilized than their counterparts. Businesses often look at the fastest approach and the short term direction that will involve less risk and cost. Read More»

Coaching - The Rocket Science of Managing

So, if you delegate well, you're supposed to stay completely out of the picture, right? Nothing could be further from the truth. Now that you've delegated, you need to make sure everything stays on course. It's rocket science. When a rocket goes off course, you give it mid-course corrections, whenever possible. It cost you dearly to put it in the air; blowing it up is a last resort. My boss, Mike and I were in a meeting negotiating terms with some suppliers. I was making good progress and Mike had taken a delegating posture until I made said something he... Read More»

Portfolio Management: Is Modern Management Practice Compatible?

I sat anxiously in the PMO Director's office waiting to present my proposal for an organizational portfolio management process implementation. I had spent the previous several months drafting the process and holding reviews with several key company stakeholders. My homework was done and I knew I would hit this one out of the park. The presentation spanned the next thirty minutes. What seemed like an eternity of silence had passed, but in reality was probably only 10 seconds, the PMO Director finally spoke his verdict. "Am I the only one that has major heartburn with this process," he stated. My... Read More»

Challenging the Way We Work and Manage

As I work on writing my next book, my research is increasingly supporting the premise that we are working under a very outdated model of management. In this post, I will challenge the current model and hopefully cause you to pause and consider your own experiences. I will begin by posing a few questions. Are the projects you lead very straightforward? Can they be completed by your team employing checklists and a predetermined set of steps? Are the problems you and your team are addressing easily solved? If the answers to the questions above are no, as I suspect, then... Read More»

A Bit of a PM Pep Talk

I've recently been thinking about time Project schedules, budgeting and goals. I recently got into an interesting argument with another Project professional about being "on time", and some very interesting thoughts came out in the debate. If you think back to what we were once taught about goals, they were supposed to be "SMART" - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time sensitive. When you think about it, that's what our project plans and schedules are supposed to be - "SMART". Of course, we all want to be "on-time" and "on-budget", so we are under a fair amount of pressure to... Read More»

What is Your Purpose?

A key challenge in managing projects is dealing with chaos. Chaos theory is extremely useful to guide behaviors in an organization that depends upon project-based work for its vitality. An organic approach to the implementation of project management implies that we can learn tremendous lessons from that fabulous practice field where chaos flourishes - nature. My studies have led me to believe that a strong sense of Purpose will sustain us in all endeavors, however chaotic, and help us achieve better, more harmonious outcomes from our projects. The important lesson is to embrace a natural organic living systems approach to... Read More»