Communications

By Stephanie Barnes • June 17th, 2009

My first two guest posts were about the intersection of Knowledge Management and Project Management; in this post I would like to talk about what I think are some of the peculiarities of Knowledge Management projects.
For the most part Knowledge Management projects are just like any other projects, tasks have to be delineated, risk managed, [...]

In my first post about Project Management and Knowledge Management I spoke about Collaboration, in this second post I will talk about after-action reviews.
After-action review also known as a project snap-shot, lessons learned, or any number of other names is an important Knowledge Management activity to complete at the end of a project. They don’t [...]

When Loyal first asked me to guest post on this blog, I said sure without thinking about it too much, I knew that Project Management and Knowledge Management went together, that’s what I do after-all as part of any project I do. Then I thought how am I going to explain it and make [...]

It had all the earmarks of a disaster, a real career-sinker of a project. And here was my old friend and former colleague calling me up enthusiastically, on the phone: “Hey Lisa, we need a Technical Project Manager for this start-up I’m working for, in Redwood Shores… you’ll love the project and the team. It’s [...]

After years of managing online products and projects, you’d think it would become old hat… but never, not for this gal. There’s always something new to learn, and a different twist on old scenarios, if you’re open to them. People and team dynamics are endlessly fascinating, and you never know how it’s going to go [...]

As Project Managers, I’m sure we’ve all seen the kind of scenario where there is a project team member who is generally uncooperative or can’t seem to get the tasks done on time – and the different approaches you can take in order to solve this problem. You can take the dictatorial “Do as I [...]

I’d like to start things off in this posting with a joke I heard on the US Television show, Two and a Half Men. Now keep in mind that the show is full of gratuitous innuendo and juvenile comedy, much of it not easily translatable in (nor suitable for) the context of project management.  In [...]

The ability to influence people is a good skill for a project manager. Isn’t it?
Isn’t it our job as PMs to influence people on the project? To find ways to get our stakeholders onboard?

Could it be that one person’s influencing can be another’s political manipulation?

Teams.  It seems like such an obvious part of project life.
Or, is it?
Recently, I’ve been noticing some things about project teams that trouble me.
Here are some descriptions of a team:

A group of two or more people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose and approach for which the team holds its members [...]

I recently changed hats from project team-builder to project team member.  As the e-learning course developer on the team, it has been a very enlightening experience to watch and support our most excellent project manager in action. 

This week I will share what this PM and others I have known have done that has made [...]

To wrap-up this week on being a change leader, here’s my short list of what to be and what to do:
BE
-  A person with character; leadership descends from character
- Visionary – Have a vision of the “changed” project
- Reliable and consistent to develop and maintain trust with your team
DO:
- Take a couple steps at a [...]

There’s one significant characteristic of a leader that I have not mentioned:
Be a model for those behaviors and traits that you are asking others to develop.
If this is done at the start of the project, it becomes part of the project “culture”.  If your team sees collaboration and good listening habits, they usually will behave [...]

So far I’ve covered the concepts that change leadership requires a vision and trust:

Vision to provide direction
Trust so that the team believes in the vision

I mentioned that the leadership begins by defining the “New End” (the vision). During the detailed “defining the new requirements and integrating with the progress to date, so we [...]

Yesterday I covered 3 points for change leadership and project management:
1.      You implement change everyday in your role as a project manager
2.      You are in a leadership role
3.      Major change requires strong leadership, starting with SEEING the “new” END
SEEING the “new” END becomes the VISION of what you and your team will be working to [...]

We’ve all experienced change.  In fact, we lead and manage change everyday as project and program managers.  Anita Wotiz did a terrific blog on Practical Change Management last week that provided a framework on planning and tracking to insure that the change is completed and successful.
Let’s consider what environment we are in right now: significant [...]

Courage is positioned as a pivotal issue for project management panache by Mike Levy. Courage is facing difficulties without fear. So what’s to fear in project-land? Plenty!
Let’s name a few fear factors:
•    Potential loss of job
•    Actual loss of team members
•    Churn in project portfolio’s
•    Confusion in corporate goals
•    Lack of time for skill development
•    [...]

Craig Brown in his Monday comment professes that project management panache requires presenting information with no fear. When the news is bad; it takes pluck and power and prowess.
What is pluck? It is passion, grits and guts for a subject. For me; project performance improvement is my passion. I, like Craig, talked about the Chaos [...]

Project management panache packs a punch when project managers are perceived as “having expertise in a critical area.” Andrew Meyer pressed this powerful point in response to the first blog on panache.
Expertise is defined as providing unique interpretations and insight (readmore). Andrew also posited that this is the may be the only protection against project [...]

My prodigiously prolific project management peers have several deliciously witty answers to the question; “what provides a project manager with the panache needed to stand strong in tough situations?” yet, none walked away with the text book answer. A textbook answer is. . . . (can you hear the drum roll crescendo?)
•    Context in which [...]

How would you translate the innovation culture in the SF Bay Area to a group of international engineering students? Would that include an entrepreneur, a garage, and a creative mind? And the project manager? When invited to organize a road trip to study the SF Bay Area’s role in innovation and technology, I immediately googled [...]

Sitting through a debate session at the European Commission’s conference on creativity and innovation, I wondered how this very conservative and structured assembly would harness creative ideas. Glancing at the serious faces surrounding me, I wondered if I had arrived at the right event. One of the panel speakers must have read my mind as [...]