Project managers are consistently learning and evolving as they move from project to project but how often do you actively log the details or ask yourself what did you learn from your last Project?The knowledge and experience they gain from previous projects can prove highly valuable to the success of future projects. However no matter how much experience they have there will be times when they make the wrong the decision and their project gets delayed or even fails. Instead of focusing on the negatives the project manager needs to take some positives from it. One way to do this is by taking the opportunity to learn from these mistakes and bad decisions. A popular action taken by project managers is conducting a lessons learned review at the end of every project. When this is done correctly it can contribute to the success of future projects as it will encourage the recycling of good ideas and highlight the avenues that previously didn’t work well. By having a controlled Continue Reading

Ok, “fun” may be a stretch…but not really. When do we dislike our jobs the most? When they are dead ends. When we’re micro-managed. When we don’t feel leadership is leading us. When we feel that we aren’t given the tools or authority to succeed. I’ve had one or more positions where all of this happened….maybe not all in one job (though I can think of one specific job that encompassed most of these). I’m sure we all can think of a job where we were pushed down and we were unhappy. We tend to not be at our most productive selves in these types of jobs and under these types of conditions. I’ve always found that I am at my most productive when the work is fun and when I have a great deal of control over that work. The same goes for the projects that I lead. If I have executive management that has a great deal of confidence in my skills and basically lets me run the show with the understanding I’ll shout out when there are needs as well as keeping them up-to-date on status, then I Continue Reading

We all live in an imperfect world. We can never expect to have complete information. Colin Powel, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State, uses the 40/70 rule.  He explains that he never takes any action unless he feels he has at least 40 percent of the necessary information. He never expects to have more than 70 percent. To wait and try for more causes too many missed opportunities "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift, that is why they call it the present. " Kung Fu Panda Reflecting on the last ten years of my own experience working on projects, early on, I saw mostly “traditional project management.” That is, project management that places greater emphasis on planning upfront, and as a whole, a greater proportion of the total project planning is done very early in the project, and seeks to provide predictability of activities over longer planning horizons. Other terms I’ve heard for this project management style are Continue Reading

It is a very special thrill to manage complex global initiatives and projects. Doing so gives you a sense of excitement, novelty, pride and accomplishment. It raises your awareness of all of those important global differences: time zones, stakeholders’ availability and engagement, local hierarchies, speed of execution, communications styles and about 100 other things you pick up as you go along. Global project management is a skillset that is becoming increasingly relevant for those of us who, up to now, have relied on single-culture communication skills and traditional Project Management methodology. And it’s not something you can master overnight. Understanding how to effectively manage virtual teams is about a third of your battle. As I’ve said in the past, the best virtual Project Managers assemble teams comprised of people with the three A's – assertiveness, accountability, and the ability to work independently. So you want to be a Global Project Manager? You've Continue Reading