Mia Whitfield

Have you ever been to a “team building” event that felt like work?  You’re there because you have to be, but you’re dying to leave?  By the end, had the Esprit de Corps improved at all?

Technorati Tags: appreciation, Teambuilding, teamwork

Just about every project management job description entails “motivating people who do not report to you”.  It’s clearly important, but how can you do it well?  The key is encouraging rather than squashing your team’s inherent self-motivation.  

Technorati Tags: appreciation, motivation, Team-building

I recently worked for two very different companies: Company A, a huge, global company with a heavy reliance on contractors; and Company B, a small, regional company with a core staff that had been there for quite some time.  I was struck by the difference in my first day at each company… 

Technorati Tags: Culture, people, [...]

Does your team seem to be allergic to process?  Have you been trying to implement project management best practices and meeting resistance? 
If so, have you addressed your team’s inherent questions, like “How will this make my life better?” and “Is that improvement enough to merit the hassle of changing?”  Have you explained how this will [...]

At an entrepreneurs’ forum I recently attended, I was heartened to hear that even startups recommended checkpoint reviews.  
The term “checkpoint review” can have different meanings in different contexts; in this article, it refers to a cross-functional executive review that the project team must pass to continue.  This happens at key milestones to make sure your product is on [...]

Quick: what’s the biggest challenge in cross-functional collaboration?  Bing!  Yes, “building trusting, open relationships” is correct!  Does that sound too Oprah-esque?  Let’s think about it for a minute.  How do you build trusting, open relationships in your cross-functional team, and why does it matter?
Let’s start with why it matters.  How successful will your collaboration be if each [...]

So you need to put together a schedule, but are having trouble getting estimates from your team?  Believe it or not, that’s good news! 
Well, not great news: great news would be quick, accurate estimates, honed by years of experience and factoring in a reasonable amount of risk. 
But it’s not bad news, either.  Bad news [...]

Does this sound familiar?
Project Manager:  I thought I knew where we stood, but turns out we’re further behind than I thought.  This latest slip is going to have a domino effect.  I wish I had known earlier, when we could’ve done something about it!
Task Owner: I don’t want to make a big deal out of [...]

Ugh, the communication pitfall.  We’ve all fallen into them.  The question is, can you get out?  Or better still, can you avoid them next time?  Here are a few common ones:
 

Our product spec change discussions happened over email, and now I can’t tell what we decided on, much less find the supporting material!
I seem to [...]

Project Sponsors, does this sound familiar?  You’ve got a great team, and you’ve pointed them in the right direction on a new project.  They work really hard, but what they come up with isn’t what you had in mind.
Project Managers, does this sound familiar?  Your project sponsor passes along some high level guidance to your [...]