Goals

By Nathalie Udo • December 26th, 2012

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 [...]

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

As a Business Process Consultant and Efficiency Coach, I am a subject matter expert in the field of Process Improvement. I work closely with the client to analyze both operational processes and financial metrics to assess project opportunities that positively impact the financial performance of the client business. In that role, I see a few misconceptions in how to make office changes (or any change for that matter). The most prevalent false premise is to “start where you are and take small steps”. That may be the resulting action – but I don’t recommend we start there.

This is Laura Lee Rose, a business and life coach that specializes in professional development, time management, project management and work-life balance strategies. In my GoTo Academy: Soft Skill Tools for the GoTo Professional continuous online coaching series, I go into office etiquette on various real-world IT topics in detail. If you are interested in [...]

In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. The celebratory feast acknowledged the power of collaboration and partnerships between the Abenaki and Pawtuxet tribes, and the Pilgrims.  Do you have collaborative partnerships across your projects worthy [...]

  In my previous blog Are You Masking Your Heart’s Passion?,  I talked about how people sometimes wear a mask to hide their “true self” at home or at work. Today, I’ll share some observations about what happens when a person decides to take off their mask, follow their heart’s passion, and take a giant [...]

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 Features, Schedule, Quality — Pick any two” – so goes a popular saying among many engineers. And it indeed it does in many ways reflect the trade-offs that often get made. The less time there is to do a task, the more triage needs to be done as to the amount of functionality delivered, [...]

Problem Statement Requirements are a special issue for Engineering management because it is where their relationship with the Business teams really gets tested. The problem domain determines the nature and stability of the requirements, which in turn influences the relationship and the processes used by both business and technical groups. In heavily constrained problem domains, [...]

Understanding Customers – as a VP of Engineering What role does understanding the customer and the market play in the VPE’s job? For VPE’s in technology driven companies, it might seem obvious that it is important to understand the people who purchase your products or services. However there is actually a lot of debate on [...]

The process of procuring and building a greenhouse has given me some very concrete examples of some of the most important elements of a successful project.  In part 1, I covered these elements: start with a good plan, build a great foundation, assemble the right team, and solve problems creatively. Here in part 2, I’ll [...]

My wife, Karen, and I recently relocated from the Silicon Valley to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. The process of selling a home, finding a rental here, and moving all of our belongings, including a 250+ potted plant collection, took seven months and was nothing short of excruciating. Having successfully completed the move phase, [...]

With some additional proactive (Quadrant 2 preparation — sign up for the online coaching sessions for more information on this technique), you can perform even better. You get into the office early because you need to review the results of the overnight test run, and mail in the results before the 9:00am meeting. “Darn, the overnight [...]

Time-boxing is a method which allows you to do everything that you want to do without the above pitfall. You get into the office early because you need to review the results of the overnight test run, and mail in the results before the 9:00am meeting. “Darn, the overnight test failed at stage 6.  Why [...]

In my GoTo Academy: Tools for the GoTo Guy and Gal continuous online coaching series, I go into Time-boxing and the use of Parking Lot methods in detail. If you are interested in more training in these areas, please signup for the continuing online coaching series. Does this scenario sound familiar? You get into the [...]

Is your PMO no longer attracting fish?  The other day, we talked about changing things up to attract more or bigger fish.  Easier said than done.

Despite many [repeated] attempts to create it within organizations, there is no one organizational structure that fits all situations, nor is there ever a perfect organization. There will always be trade-offs and differences of opinion about how to structure any organization for the tasks ahead. Much of the literature in this area tries to help [...]

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 [...]

Knowing that all teams need to go through each stage from forming to storming before getting to norming and performing, a question I ask in the classroom and in seminars is, how do you accelerate the process? Consider these facets: 1. Based on your own experience, which do you think works better–competition or collaboration? Why? [...]

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. [...]