HR

By Dr. Shree Nanguneri • April 13th, 2012

Enhancing PMP with Business Process Excellence Part III (Final Part of Series) Viable Lean Six Sigma Solutions to Validate Project Timelines and Increase KPI Linkage for PMP leaders Dr. Shree Nanguneri and Mr. Gustav Toppenberg   Meandering in a World Swayed by Certification: In Part I, we addressed the vitality of the linkage of a [...]

In my last blog, we looked at the research-based link between happiness and the ability to focus the mind. Simply put, people who are able to focus their minds a greater percentage of the time (most people’s minds wander about 50%) appear to be happier and more productive at home and at work. Now, I’d [...]

I really didn’t give much thought to the concept of happiness in the workplace until I was walking through the Phoenix airport and spotted The Harvard Business Review (HBR) out of the corner of my eye. Why did it catch my attention? Because here was a big yellow Smiley Face on the front cover (gasp!). [...]

Beliefs, and by extension, belief systems, are powerful energy magnets that shape our inner and outer worlds … and they can be innocently (or not so innocently) misleading. For example, in the 1500′s, authority figures believed that the world was flat as a pancake; in the 1940’s doctors appeared in ads advocating the health benefits [...]

This time of year in the US many people, including me and my family, celebrate Christmas. It’s the most important holiday for us, and it’s a time of year when people seem more tuned in to the connections among all human beings. It seems to me that people are a wee bit nicer to each [...]

Project Management in a Brave New World Which level of proof do you require on your projects? Do you have a tolerance for ambiguity? Is it shared by your sponsor? What exactly does Red, Amber or Green mean? This article focuses on the difficulties of managing people and projects across functional areas, global regions and [...]

“The Guide is definitive. Reality is frequently inaccurate.” “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” ‘The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’ by Douglas Adams, would be over 30 years old today, a phenomenon born in London around the same time that the Project Management Institute (PMI) was created [...]

I was speaking to a fellow speaker (who was a developer from Germany). He was sharing that his company will be sending him to 15 conferences this year. I was amazed and impressed at the expense his company was investing in him. “Wow! Share with me what you are bringing back to them, that makes it worth their investment to continue to fund all these trips for you?” He looked confused. “I mean, what is there ‘return on investment’. What are they getting out of these funded trips. How are your trips accomplishing their business goals?”

Did you know Project Management is having a birthday? Well, sort of a birthday. It was 100  years ago, in 1911, that Frederick W. Taylor published Principles of Scientific Management. Early pioneers of project management, such as Henry Gantt, were followers of Dr. Taylor. Now, for historical accuracy, it should be noted that Dartmouth College [...]

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about communication and perception. A friend of mine has gone from team member to project leader. I’ve known this person for a decade now and it’s been a fascinating process to see how he views the team now that he’s in charge, and vice versa, how the team views [...]

I recently was asked “How do you handle the “pains in the neck” at the office, home and social environments.

Project managers work on various projects, sometimes traveling to various clients’ sites. You juggle many emails, calls, faxes and meetings during the week. When do you find time and how to prepare yourself mentally to learn something new like a foreign language? You’re on the road and you think you can’t learn a foreign language [...]

1.  If I just use music and media, may I give up studying grammar and vocabulary and quit my language classes? If you are still a beginner or intermediary student, you absolutely have to keep learning grammar and vocabulary. They are the foundations of any language. Using music, TV, radio and film as additions to [...]

Do you think of foreign language learning as sitting in your boring, stuffy high school Spanish class repeating “Yo me llamo. Tú te llamas. Él se llama” in Spanish? Boring, right? Having labored through many dull language classes, I have seen how ineffective rote memorization techniques alienated and discouraged students. Foreign language learning, as discussed [...]

Unfortunately, in many countries, especially English-language ones, foreign languages have not been taken seriously by educational institutions, parents and children. People who learned to speak a foreign language were few and far between and sometimes couldn’t use their languages professionally. This is changing. More and more students are learning “hard” languages like Mandarin and Arabic [...]

On our first day, we typically want to “prove ourselves”. We want to show that they made a great decision in hiring us. We feel the need to jump in and be productive right away. Although our intentions are very good, in our zeal to impress, we can even go a little overboard.

After many years as a project manager as well as teaching about project management, I’ve come to the realization that there are two keys to project management: getting the product out and the people. While there are many, many other things that compete for a PM’s attention, these are two that, well done, will get [...]

Is working from home the fast track toward the door? What remote workers need to know about staying in the spotlight? While working from home sounds wonderful, there are some negatives to that flexible lifestyle. People with home offices tend to work more hours – often evening and weekends People with home offices tend to [...]

If you’d like to know yourself better “in an innovation way,” take a look! Four innovation types are discussed, including their strengths and tips for growth.

Ever been in a brainstorm and felt how differently your colleagues respond to new ideas? It turns out there are different “innovation types.” You may want to know what kind of innovator you are, and how you can improve your own work and your understanding of others in an innovation project team.