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
Is there any way to deal with the unknowns In Project Management? Well there are…
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
Me, myself and Global Project Management, or is it the other way around?
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
What I learned about project failure – some lessons.
The phrase "armed and dangerous" is an idiom I apply to a pilot (aviator) with hazardous attitudes such as anti-authority ("Don't tell me "), invulnerability ("it won't happen to me") and macho ("I can do it"). These individuals fly by their rules in unpredictable and potentially dangerous ways, disregard established flight-safety practices, seem unconcerned for their own safety and others and appear a step away from an incident. "Attitude" of a Project Manager (PM) will most definitely have a negative impact a project or program. And there are many other lessons I learned. When you run a project, there are a lot of components that need to be managed together: information, people, time, as well as specific challenges and threats. Speaking of threats – even if you’re a seasoned professional with extensive experience, you’re never immune to the smaller or bigger dangers of project failure. If you browse blogs and online communities, as well as glance at the agenda of offline Continue Reading
Failed projects: 3 lessons I learned
I'm sure your resume highlights your project successes, but all experienced project managers have been part of a failed or troubled project at least once in their careers. The Standish Group 2018 Chaos Report indicated 72% of projects were either challenged or failed to obtain business goals. Project failures may have been marketed as successes, yet the project goals were impacted by reduced scope, a strategic "change in direction" resulting in a cancelled release, or just a large cash investment that failed to provide any real business value. Sound familiar? Go ahead and raise your hand — I know you're out there. I'll even raise my hand. When you're part of a failed project, it seems stressful and downright painful, but you have the opportunity to learn a lot of lessons that will help lead you to project successes. Below are my top three lessons from a failed project. 1. The project schedule is your friend A leading cause of project failures and missed dates is the lack Continue Reading
Happy New Year + Life lessons I learned as a pilot
Becoming a pilot changes who you are, even if you don’t realize it at first. Sure, there are the practical lessons about math, physics, and engineering you don’t encounter in everyday life. But as a recent trip through my logbook proved, aviation offers courses in the humanities as well as the hard sciences. I remember my first solo like it was yesterday. I looked at all of my gauges, flipped a few switches, and stared down the long runway ahead of me. I pushed the throttle and as I slowly lifted off the ground in a small single-engine Cessna, it suddenly hit me that I was the sole operator of an airplane. Though terrified at first, I ultimately welcomed the challenge and the freedom liberated me. After being a passenger in a general aviation aircraft a few times as a child, I was always fascinated by flight. Pilot training has been unlike any other endeavor I have ever experienced. Student pilots learn so much beyond the complex rules of airspace or thought-provoking Continue Reading