Communicating Effectively in Virtual Teams: Part 2 of 4

In part one of this series I talked about the problems with speakerphones in virtual teams. In this installment, I’ll discuss the problems with another type of phone, the Cell.

Most modern cell phones have a built-in speakerphone feature, and will therefore also have the problems mentioned in the previous article when used in this mode. I won’t repeat the problems and recommendations for speakerphones here, but cell phones do have several other nasty problems that I will discuss. They are: latency, dropouts, and signal fade. (more…)

Communicating Effectively in Virtual Teams: Part 1 of 4

We all know that effective communication is critical to every well-executed project. Everyone involved in getting that next product to market must constantly exchange bits of information with many people. Everything from project proposals to release-to-manufacturing documents must be created, discussed, edited, reviewed, approved and distributed. All of these information exchanges require clear communication for the outcome to be a good one. (more…)

Leading Orgs - Only Octopi Need Apply

Leading organizations is like leading a swarm of bees. You can’t directly control what’s going on, and the statistics indicate that most organizational leaders aren’t doing a very good job of it. A Harris Poll found that only 15% of people knew their orgs most important goals, over half of employees don’t know what to do to achieve company goals, and less than half of employees’ time was spent working on these goals. What’s more, another big fancy-schmancy research center found that less than 20% of employees feel strongly committed to company goals. (Somehow the math doesn’t quite add up here. Must be some kind of statistical uncertainty in the data. I can’t tell if the 19% who are committed to the goals are the same 15% who know the goals. I hope so, otherwise we could have 15% of people knowing the goals, but not committed to them, and another 19% who are strongly committed to goals that they don’t even know. Ouch, my brain hurts!) (more…)

Watch Out for False Productivity

Cutting’s Edge is one of my favorite project management blogs. Thomas recently posted on the cost of project success. I enjoyed the examples of the construction of several wonders of the world as projects and their often overlooked consequences on the project teams that built them.

Thomas draws out a parallel to contemporary projects, and how in some or many cases project managers will actually plan on over-utilizing staff in their planning, or not see it as enough of a risk to take serious action.
(more…)

Cutting to the Chase on Organizational Maturity

Jim Sloane is a particularly adept person to provide an executive primer on organizational project management maturity.  There are a multitude of models and approaches for measuring organization maturity and the associated business benefits.  With the increasing number of tools and models available to organizations, it can be challenging to choose the best strategy that will work for YOUR organization. (more…)

Put Off Procrastination

The student syndrome is alive and well. I see it all around me, and I am no less guilty than any other.

Why do we put everything off until the last minute? Especially the important things?

I’ve recently read The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss, which has helped heighten my sensitivity to this phenomenon going on all around us.

(more…)