New Perspectives in Project Management From A High School Library: Getting An A+ In Every Subject, Blog # 5

Welcome back to blog # 5 in the series. Today, for project management, we are going to look at a very specific case of an on-campus project and how I managed it into an A+. Of course, I had a vision, a mission and purpose, goals, plans and pilot programs and I had Standard without compromise, Heart, Attitude and Appreciation, Perspective and Persistence, and Excellence and Enthusiasm…so I was in good SHAPE. This is a story about relationships and resources, and hard work and study and no play…. (more…)

New Perspectives in Project Management From The Second Grade Playground: # 4 = What SHAPE Is Your Leadership In?

Welcome back everyone to blog # 4 – your opportunity to look in the mirror to see what you see about having you lead, or work on, any project…and you had better see a leader or else you are going to see a follower and if you are follower, then you may be the one who is rowing the ship instead of being the one at the helm.
If I said to you that you have to lead from your heart and not from your head, would that be a cliché for you? If it is, look again, because it is reality…perhaps even the reality that your project needs right now. So, what SHAPE is your leadership in? Good SHAPE? Flabby SHAPE? Ooops! Did I offend you? Do you need offending? If so, then I am here to help. (more…)

New Perspectives From The Second Grade Playground: Romeo and Juliet as Improve Theater, Blog # 3

 Welcome back, everyone for blog # 3 – the fresh and refreshing perspective series.  If you have expectations and assumptions about finding something serious here, such a re-engineering and all that other good consultant stuff, this is NOT the place for you.  If you want to find out how we DID IT and won ALL of the awards, then stick around.

One day, in a land not too far away, I was called into the principal’s office ( so what else is new?) and informed that, in addition to math in the classroom, I would be given two groups of 40 students each to teach them improvisational theater. It was a pilot program hosted by a local repertory theater company in an effort to broaden their interest in school activities.  These were the best of the regular students and the zainy brainies.  I had three days to create a curriculum that would run for five days and our “opening day” was Monday, April 30^th. (more…)

New Perspectives For Project Management From The Second Grade: Natalie Goes To College, Blog # 2

Welcome back, everyone.  I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s overview. Were you in a snit and snot, dance and prance, rant and rave, hoot and holler or scream and yell of your own yesterday?  If not, maybe today is your lucky day…these things are experien-tial, you know.  And, did you go out and buy Stephen R. Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”?  If not, why not?  Didn’t you put that on your personal and professional growth project management ‘to do list’?  If not, then you are not as highly effective as you thought you were.  Tisk, tisk.  Back to second grade for you. Now, if you did buy it, or re-read it simply because I mentioned it yesterday, then mazalt tov ( in Yiddish congratulations! ). (more…)

New Perspectives From The Second Grade Playground, # 1

Project Management:
New Perspectives From The Second Grade Playground To Make Your Job Easier.

Project management has got to be the easiest task on God’s green Earth.  Yes? No? Maybe so.  Have you not discovered this to be the truth as we all know it?
 

Hello everyone, I’m Dave Katz – the most obnoxious math tutor that my school districts, school principals, math departments and teachers, staff, parents and students have ever seen and met.  .  My students and their parents love me.  Some teachers hate me, and so, I know that I am during the right work for the right people.  Anyone need an A+ today?  Today’s blog is the first of seven. (more…)

Teamwork is really a set of individual commitments and contributions…do you have it on your project?

I believe the concept of teamwork often gets turned into some fluffy, warm and fuzzy “thing” that no one quite knows what to do with … an ephemeral idea of a bunch of people working together in unadulterated harmony or even outright bliss. Great if you can get it but not something I’ve seen a huge amount of and certainly don’t count on.

Instead, I think teamwork is really a combination of individual acts of initiative — to pay attention to and act on details of the project personally — for the greater good of the project. But that requires individuals to understand HOW they can contribute to the good of the project from beginning to end, and sometimes outside the realm of what they thought was “their job.” (more…)

Is the PMO still relevant?

Michael Hammer, in his initial article on re-engineering, evaluated how work has been organized throughout the past half century. He stated that in the postwar period, entry-level people with basic skills were easy to come by, but experienced professionals were not. As a result, businesses pulled apart work into small, repeatable tasks, and focused information at the top of the organization, where people knew what to do with it. (more…)