The Art of Project Management: Expert advice from experienced project managers in Silicon Valley, and around the world
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Nathalie Udo - UCSC Extension in Silicon Valley

After working for key companies, like Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM), Boeing and Baan, within different industries in both Europe and the USA, Nathalie Udo co-founded Projectway, LLC, a boutique project management consulting company, in 2001 and InDepth Strategies, LLC, a boutique strategy consulting and executive & career coaching company, in 2010. Nathalie has built a proven record of accomplishments with her ability to deliver. She loves inspiring people to achieve what they previously thought was impossible, and has been told that her enthusiasm is infectious. She has helped her clients realize their business objectives by using the right amount of personal coaching with project management discipline and process improvement. Nathalie has lead complex international projects for corporations like Fireman's Fund, Autodesk, Kaiser Permanente and Pacific Gas and Electric. She is a seasoned professional with extensive coaching, project management, cross cultural communication and leadership skills. She takes strong ownership and accountability for deliverables and drives positive results. Nathalie's clients compliment her for her expertise, strong work ethic, and most importantly, her ability to deliver. She is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and certified Scrum Master. She has a Masters Degree in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Maastricht, Netherlands. As author of several papers on the subject of project management and team interactions, Nathalie has been a guest speaker at several global conferences. She is also one of the co-authors of "Scrappy Women in Business: Living Proof that Bending the Rules Isn't Breaking the Law". You can reach her at nudo@indepthstrategies.com

Reaching your Goals with Positive Thinking

Reaching your Goals with Positive Thinking

It is that time of the year again: a time when many people reflect on the journey of the last year and look forward to the journey of the coming year. There are many statistics and research results out there showing that visualization, goal setting, and refocusing help you reach your goals. Many elite athletes [...]

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The Death March trap

The Death March trap

I hope you are enjoying a great holiday season. The last quarter of this year has been slightly insane for me. I have traveled to Japan four times, once to Singapore, once to Europe and once from Europe to NYC. On top of that, there is the sage of buying a place in the south [...]

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Making a Difference – It is within our control!

Making a Difference – It is within our control!

One of my favorite quotes is from Ghandi: “We must be the change we want to see in the world.” It is so easy to blame others and think that we cannot make a difference. If we would give in to that thought, nothing would change. We probably would still be hunters and gatherers. Changing [...]

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The Quest for the Ultimate Project Management Checklist

The Quest for the Ultimate Project Management Checklist

I went diving in the Esterelles (Cote d’Azur, France) this morning and was quite impressed with the thoroughness of the boat boarding and de-boarding process. Having dived all over the world, this process can range from absolute chaos to some sort of order. First of all, it is important to note that the French dive [...]

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The Art of Unplugging

The Art of Unplugging

A week ago, I returned from an amazing vacation to Alaska. I spent eight days on the Nautilus Swell, a beautiful wooden dive boat converted from a 1912 tugboat. It was an amazing trip, exploring Alaska both above water as well as below. Alaska definitely gives you the feeling of being in the “final” frontier. [...]

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What makes a “good” company?

What makes a

My theme for 2012 is to simultaneously raise corporate and individual social consciousness. A few weeks ago I, together with Greg Balestrero, spoke at DigitalNow, a conference for executives of associations, on the topic of “The Rise of Corporate Consciousness: Integrating Environmental and Social Principles into Organizational Strategies”. There are a lot of companies providing [...]

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Global Communication

Global Communication

I was in Madrid last week and from there I flew to Tokyo where I’m right now for work. The workshop has forty people from approximately 12 different countries. My stay in Madrid and Japan inspired me to write this blog. Communication studies have shown that when we communicate the majority of the message is [...]

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Explorations Lessons

Explorations Lessons

I just finished the book Blind Decent of James Tabor. It came highly recommended by a good friend of mine. The book tells the story of two explorers, one American and one Russian, trying to find the deepest cave in the world, one in Mexico and one in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. The [...]

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A Matter of Perspective

A Matter of Perspective

Still being sore of my hike up Mt. Kinabalu last weekend, I was realizing how much our perspective drives our experiences and in the end our life.  Having done a lot of research on what to expect when climbing the mountain, I was expecting it to be a hard climb with potentially rain all the [...]

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Explore your Curiosity

Explore your Curiosity

A few weeks ago for the Whole Life Being website, I wrote a blog about “exploring your curiosity”.  I want to share some of the content here since it is important not only in our lives but also in our project management work. After a few less than ideal years, 2011 is so far an [...]

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Clear Communication – Key to Success

Clear Communication – Key to Success

I am in sunny Seattle while writing this. A city I love when it is sunny. Mount Rainier and the Olympic range are gorgeous at this moment. My current contract has me working on Get Well plans for the two major customers of the company I am consulting for. It is interesting to see how [...]

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The Need for Agility

The Need for Agility

For those who know me I am an avid scuba diver. The last week I took a short trip to the Mexican caves. Absolutely gorgeous!! By my return this weekend, Japan had been hit by one of the largest earthquakes in their modern history, followed by a tsunami and now is facing a potential nuclear [...]

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Celebrate the Downtime

Celebrate the Downtime

In the last few months, I definitely am noticing an uptick in the economy. Several times a week, I am asked if I know someone for a specific job and also more companies are seriously looking to involve consultants to resolve certain specific issues or simply to support their staff. During the past year, together [...]

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Personal Touch

Personal Touch

To continue my learnings from the PMI Leadership Institute meetings I wanted to share with you what Troy Hazard discussed regarding leadership. Troy has started several businesses and also has seen several of them fail, losing all he gained. Based on his experience he has collected real life strategies to improve leadership and relationships to [...]

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Change or Die

Change or Die

As a member of the PMI Leadership Institute Advisory Group I have the pleasure to have an active part in the PMI Leadership Institute meetings that precede the PMI Global Congresses. This year’s North America Congress was in Washington DC or more exactly Arlington, VA. It was probable the best Leadership Institute meeting I have [...]

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Keeping your Cool

Keeping your Cool

To keep in the spirit of my cave diving adventure, it occurred to me how important presence and alertness of mind are for the success of your project. I have been scuba diving since the mid ‘90s and have continuous worked on improving my skills. I have made dives all over the world, have been [...]

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Lessons not Learned

Lessons not Learned

I just returned from a week of cave diving in southern France. The objective was to get my cave diving certification which after an intense week of 14 hour days I managed to do. Reflecting on the week I thought to share some parallels with project management. Since the early 70s the cave dive community [...]

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The value of our word

The value of our word

I have been on the road a lot the last few months and this month tops it all. I just arrived back home and realized that by the end of this month I will have been home 6 days out of the 31. Guess I am living the movie “Up in Air”. When I started [...]

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The Importance of Planning

The Importance of Planning

While I was in Italy for the PMI Leadership Institute Meeting, I took the advantage of sneaking away for a few days with dear friends for a four day motor cycle ride around Lago Maggioro. Having been born and raised in northern Europe, May for me resembles the month that finally the sun comes through [...]

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The New Normal

The New Normal

I was fortunate enough to attend the PMI EMEA Leadership Institute Meeting in Milan a few weeks ago. The keynote speaker was James Bellini. According to his website he is a leading futurologist and author with a considerable reputation as a thought-provoking speaker and moderator at top-level management conferences and business schools around the world. [...]

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Investing in yourself

Investing in yourself

I truly believe in continuous improvement. In today’s world standing still really translates into regression. I apply that continuous improvement to different areas of my life: I keep pursuing knowledge on scuba diving in general and its physiology in specific, I am planning to improve my technical skills of motorcycling this year, I learn new [...]

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