Jeff Richardson - UCSC Extension in Silicon Valley

For every success story there are a thousand failures.  That’s the reality of change.  The fragile seeds of hope, innovation, insight and ideas are everywhere, but the harsh environments in which we live are often not conducive to their continued growth.  Just like a delicate seedling that needs nutrients, water and shelter from the elements, learners need plenty of support [...]

Athletes, musicians, and artists regard practice as a “must do”, so why don’t business leaders and project managers? Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Outliners” highlights that 10,000 hrs of practicing something seems to be the tipping point for becoming an expert. Bill Gates and the Beatles are two examples of this success principle in action. They were [...]

Animals have an ingrained system to warn them of dangers. These instincts have been honed for each species over centuries by natural selection. Same goes for the project species that are roaming your halls and conference rooms. Neuroscience research shows that we can sense that something is wrong long before our conscious mind picks up [...]

Ever go to the grocery store for ONE THING (so of course you don’t grab the handy basket), but end up juggling an arm load of items by the time you get to the cashier? Our performance conversations often suffer from the same distraction disorder. We start to talk about one aspect of the project [...]

Addressing sensitive subjects like someone’s weight, political affiliations or religion are topics that most of us treed delicately around. Cautious to not offend, apprehensive about what direction the resulting conversation may go and anxious about how much we’re comfortable sharing are usually enough red flags for your brain to seal your lips shut. Just talking [...]

The difference between success and failure for project manager is a thin line.  One delay can have profound impact on delivery commitments.  Mitigating future risks becomes a whole lot easier when you have a network of professionals both internally and externally to the organization to leverage for a solution.  Building a comprehensive network is more [...]

The New Year is finally upon us which means it’s time for the annual tradition of professing personal and professional changes to ensure a more prosperous new year.  In reality, any day is the perfect day to start something new, but who am I to bemoan the ritual of renewal that potentially can transform your [...]

The execution of decisions on projects tends to be more of an art than science.  We’d love to have the buy-in that consensus brings, but don’t have the time, patience or need to debate every decision.  Command and control is efficient at getting the word out, but bogs down when individuals need to make lower [...]

How many decisions does it take to make a project? Thousands? Millions? The actual answer is much more as you visualize all the strategic decisions cascading down into the individual choices that drive daily actions. Add the growing complexity the global economic downturn has added to the mix and it’s no wonder that PMs and business leaders everywhere are struggling with executing plans that deliver predictable results. But, some interesting new research from the field of neuroscience is providing new insights into this age old problem. Let’s explore the challenges that are undermining our efforts to accelerate the speed of decision implementation.

Your internal company network is the life blood of your continued project successes in addition to being a source for career security.

Getting the project team’s decision making framework set upfront will pay huge dividends when you need it most.

Leading virtual teams requires a unique set of competencies to master in addition to the traditional project management tools/techniques. The book “Mastering Virtual Teams” by Duarte & Snyder provides a great set that I promote in my training seminars: Coaching & managing performance without traditional forms of feedback Selecting and appropriately using electric communication and [...]

As the scope of your projects expands, you’ll need to engage teams, not just individuals, from around the world to accomplish your goals. Last weekend I was reminded about the challenging role that leaders who play an interface function between the global leadership team and their organizations. Two consultants from the Organization for Applied Research [...]

The challenge of managing virtual projects is amplified by a complexity factor equal to the number of cultures represented on your team. When you start doing the computations based on the different cultures related to nationality, company, functional discipline, age and caste you can quickly realize why you and your peers heads are spinning when [...]

The accelerated pace of globalization has made the need for virtual teams essential. The list of benefits that corporate executives tout to stockholders and channel partners is accelerated time to market, customer intimacy, resource utilization, employee retention and cost efficiency, to name a few. The challenge lies at the feet of project managers around the [...]

Mother Nature can teach us much about managing projects if we apply her fundamental principles to the work. In this installment of The Nature of Project Leadership we will begin with the season of WINTER. This is the season of planning and preparation. There is little hope for a prosperous harvest if the soil is [...]

Welcome on a metaphorical exploration of project leadership philosophy and practices. I am fortunate to live on 20 acres in the Santa Cruz mountains rising 3000 feet above the Silicon Valley. Out here Mother Nature’s rules are the law. My background as a transformational engineer and a wilderness guide has enabled me to observe these [...]