Give Them An Example
At first I was disappointed in the quality of action plans prepared at the end of professional development short courses and seminars. We’d covered the material. I provided a template of key areas where action was required. The assignment was to reflect on the material and describe what actions would be taken by each student to apply this material to his or her work environment. Since learning takes place in the movement between reflection and action, and because short term memory tends to fade if not applied within the next six hours, the assignment intended to quick start the process.
Why did these very smart, professionally engaged people not put together meaningful plans? (more…)
Posted by:
englundr at 29 Dec 2006 under Leadership, Team-building, Conflict & issue management, Communications, Planning, scheduling and budgeting, Implementing project management, Career development
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(Posted on behalf of Michele Jackman, PM Consultant extraordinaire) I recently gave a UCSC presentation on the “art and science” of making SENSIBLE decisions under pressure. The greatest challenge is not the rational/analytical process. That’s the easy part. 
After leading a number of projects, you are asked to lead a major effort with multiple teams working somewhat independently but contributing to the same goal, a big budget, the company future depends on your results … you get the picture. Is this just a large, complex project or are a program, and what are the differences?
A graduate course required a case study to be submitted every week. A grade was given, no comments were provided, and no discussion occurred in the classroom. Over the duration of the course, little noticeable improvement occurred in quality of the cases submitted or grade received. In another course,