Creativity

By Camille Smith • May 16th, 2013

“Most success springs from an obstacle or failure. I became a cartoonist largely because I failed in my goal of becoming a successful executive.” Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” Winston Churchill “Notice the difference between what happens when a man says to himself, [...]

Hi, I’m Camille and I’m an extrovert. (Hi, Camille.) I confess that from time to time I’ve overlooked the talents that introverts have to offer. I’m reforming. On a recent flight, I read Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain. I picked it up because in my [...]

Is Project Management a creative process? Full disclosure: I believe it is. I’ve had some colleagues vigorously take the opposing view.  Those holding this view came from many fields and disciplines – including a few working as project managers. At first, I didn’t think too much about it.  I understood that what I did as [...]

Over the last year, I’ve learned a lot about communicating with the human voice. How did I do this? By hosting an Internet Radio Show on BlogTalkRadio. Prior to the Internet radio experience, I was asleep at the vocal chord wheel, so to speak.  I used my voice each day, took it for granted, and didn’t [...]

It’s impossible not to judge. Telling someone else “not to judge” — shows you have made the judgment that they are judging. Most opinions, descriptions, decisions, views, rulings, and critiques are judgments.

I know this sounds strange, but I used a diet tip that I read from Micheal Thurmond’s “6 Day Body Makeover” – to accomplish career critical tasks.

I received the below great question a few days after my Art of War for Product Managers and High-Performing Professionals.  I thought you might be interested in the answer as well. Q: Many senior employees work under my lead. In this case, many other senior employees think that what a lucky me. Jealousy is coming [...]

Most everyone is familiar with Pro and Con lists to help make a decision. Often times the Pro and Con List does very little to clarify the decision – because – well – the reason you are creating the Pro/Con list is because it was a ‘close call’ to begin with. We don’t go to the trouble of making a Pro and Con list on ‘no-brainers’. Often times the pro and cons are pretty equal – making the decision still difficult. Our mistake is that we stop at this point. We don’t take the next step to reduce the impact of the “Cons”.

In a recent discussion about additional costs being added to my home build project, I made a comment to our builder that “I don’t want to play that game.”  He took offense at that comment.  I believe he thought I was trivializing the situation and not honoring standard industry practices.  The conversation did not go [...]

Project Managers as Project Marketers Seasoned project managers understand that a successful project never results from a single endeavor. Instead, it takes a myriad of cumulative and often-subtle accomplishments to bring even the simplest project to completion. Consistent communication with stakeholders is arguably the most important of those many factors. Motivating, coordinating and managing various [...]

For years, I’ve been pointing development and project managers to the full-length documentary, Tom Dowd & the Language of Music. (It’s rentable via Netflix, purchasable via Amazon.) Every time I watch Tom Dowd, I’m struck by how closely producing music resembles leading software development. Tom Dowd, an innovative music producer and recording engineer for over [...]

Many of the strategies used in games can be effectively translated to business and professional navigation. Find out how….

In the realm of following your heart’s passion, I’ve noticed that when people do not feel safe to be themselves, they start to wear a mask. This mask can be worn at home or at work, and may even morph into many “masks” for those who tend to compartmentalize their lives.  Wearing a mask is tiring; and [...]

About a year ago, I posted a project management blog called Do Affirmations and Quotes Work for You?.  It was based on my first-hand observations and shared how quotes and affirmations could be a useful and self-reflective tool in the work place. In the 5 Easy Tips for Using Quotes and Affirmations section, I encouraged [...]

Introduction Managing the trade off between encouraging innovation and meeting tactical objectives is a continual struggle for every Engineering organization. Caution will dictate to avoid innovation and take the tried-and-tested path. A high achieving development organization however will always be pushing to innovate and implement new or cutting edge techniques. In this chapter we look [...]

In the first blog of this series I mentioned the possibility that storytelling began as a response to our conscious awareness of unavoidable death. Some scholars suggest that this gave rise to three major forms of stories or myths – nationalistic (us and them), religious (us and Him) and ideological (why and what). Perhaps after [...]

Robert Langdon stirred angrily in his sleep in his extravagantly luxurious hotel suite in central London. The phone on the tiny antique bedside table was ringing incessantly. “It’s probably another butt dial” he thought to himself as he rolled over and pulled the pure white Egyptian cotton duvet tight over his head. The phone continued [...]

This is the first in a triad of blogs on the art of storytelling in projects. In the foreword of an excellent book by Sonia Arrison on longevity called ‘100+’ Peter Thiel of PayPal speculates that the origins of storytelling originated when our ancestors first acquired the knowledge of our inevitable death, a sombre birth [...]

Have you ever noticed when people ask you how you’re doing, you will almost invariably answer based on the emotional state you’re currently in? For example, if you feel as if you’re just barely hanging on or are feeling frustrated, you might answer with something like, “I’m hanging in there,” or “I’m all right, I [...]

“How is your marriage?” “Well, we have 2 kids out of the 3 we planned. A mortgage at an y% rate. $x dollars in savings. And we are in our 10th year.” It’s an answer. Hey! You could even mention a “emotional index” to indicate progress on the “mood”. Not everybody would be happy with [...]

“Once a photograph of the earth, taken from the outside is available, a new idea as powerful as any in history will be let loose.” – Sir Fred Hoyle in 1948. What do you draw when you are visualizing a project on a whiteboard? I draw an arrow from left to right that represents a [...]