Miscellaneous

By Mala Devlin • February 5th, 2010

The Journey

This week I shared with you some quotes that have helped to inspire me through some tumultuous times.  I find they make me feel energized and able to inspire others and pave the forward when ‘things go wrong’.  And, things almost always go wrong in projects – don’t they?  So, in addition to [...]

Sometimes, you have to break the rules to get things done!
As we go through our lives we are subjected to numerous rules – as kids, as students, as workers and as adults living our everyday lives.  As program managers and leaders, part of our responsibilities is to lay down some rules by which to guide [...]

Are you working with a ‘can do’ or ‘cant do’ project team?
We have all been in both kinds of teams.  The difference in potential energy is enormous.  And, what a difference that makes to team dynamics and project results!  ‘Can do’ teams seem invincible, welcome challenges and proudly talk about the battles fought and won.  [...]

 Do you really want to wrestle a pig?  
It is interesting how sometimes the signs in the universe all seem to converge and lead you down a certain path.  Today was such a day.  As you know, I have committed this week to sharing with you my inspirational quotes that have helped guide my career and provide [...]

Me – try to inspire – but why?
So, here we are – another Monday. Many of us traditionally start Monday on a low note. Back to the grind, back to the routine – same old. We will likely have the first of many project meetings on Mondays. Will you just go through the motions of [...]

We all have been in the situation where a customer or team member asks to add a feature or upgrade the quality of a certain item. We often agree to do these favors because we find ourselves unable to say “no”—driven by our desire to please or a preconceived notion that we do not have [...]

We are living in a world that gets more and more global. You don’t need to travel to get exposed to it. Most likely you have colleagues, neighbors or friends who have been born in a different country or whose parents are from a different country. Being born and raised in the Netherlands, it always [...]

Dear Diary -
In the “Dear Diary #2” blog I made a commitment to re-engineer my relationship with my dad – getting unstuck from the past conversation swirling around in my head about him.  (Perhaps you made a similar commitment to doing that with a colleague or boss after reading that blog?)  After recognizing that the [...]

Dear Diary -
For Christmas one of my closest friends gave me a dish towel that says “Being unstable and b-tchy is just part of my mystique.”  Knowing that there is truth in sarcasm, and understanding the importance of good communication skills and positive relationships to project success, I’ve decided to recommit myself to improving my [...]

The very first day of 2010 and of a new decade!! Wishing you an amazing, loving, successful and unforgettable year!!
During the past holidays I was staying with a friend of mine who has a six year old. Of course, we ended up watching a lot of children’s movies. One of them was Nemo which, as [...]

I am in the Netherlands while writing this. We just had another airline scare which immediate created a Dutch ‘hero’, Jasper S., who together with other passengers avoided disaster by jumping on top of the terrorist. The same but more tragic happened during the PA flight September 11th flight. These are people who decided to [...]

This is the very last week of 2009. Can you believe it? This year has gone by faster than any others. It was a year of extremes: extreme lows and extreme highs. Too many people lost their jobs, their houses, their loved ones or their spirit this year.  Every great project manager knows the value [...]

As a member of PM PM SIG group, I recently attended breakfast session on Using Mind Maps for Risk Management.  The presentation was good. It would have been even better if presenter’s brand new laptop worked to display his slides/Mind Map templates. We ended up spending quite a bit of time out of an hour [...]

Over the years, I have worked with, for and managed a spectrum of management talent. A good manager can make a huge difference to the bottom line and influence the actions of an entire organization or program. They are at the center of driving business success.
Yet too often, I still hear phrases like [...]

We are all very much aware that how a team feels makes a huge difference to their productivity and to business results.  Many of us have been on A-teams, as well as on D-teams.  It was the same you, in two different teams – with two vastly different results.  If we take that experience and [...]

We’ve all had to surmount project communication challenges at some point in our job functions. We are in a world of globally dispersed teams where we sometimes never get to see each other. Naturally, email communication is often deemed a convenient method to get messages across without having to work around team schedules. However, a badly [...]

Have you seen soccer teams come together? Soccer is very much a team sport. Players use their individual talents to advance the ball towards the goal, but ultimately pass to others on their team who are in a better position to score. In doing so, they sacrifice their moment in the spotlight for the good of [...]

It’s that time of year! About now, most companies embark upon a yearly performance appraisal process to provide feedback, deliver praise or criticism, and set the stage for the upcoming year(s). This is a somewhat rigid and heavily scrutinized HR activity. What can a leader do to motive their teams outside the confines of this process? Here [...]

There is a central theme running through my Project Leadership Thoughts: it is impossible to look at a project as an isolated entity. It’s about people and interactions. And interactions happen throughout the entire social network. Every interaction effects another one.
What does this mean for you, as a professional?
You have to work on [...]

We are working with people from all over the world. Globalization goes together with an increase in transparency of reputations. The Internet introduced deadly transparency.
With an increase in geographical and cultural distance the aspect of “trust” becomes all important. When people have never met, there are two mechanism we can fall back on: [...]

I’ve already written that Poka Yoke means “Do it right the first time.”  But, how about doing the right thing?  How much of our time do we spend doing things that are not helping us reach any of our goals?   A lot!   Now, I’m not suggesting we stop having recreation or relaxation – those are [...]