Team-building

By asarkar • March 13th, 2010

This is the 3rd of the three articles that discuss about strategies for new project managers to function effectively. The three steps are; understanding top ten reasons of a project failure and how to proactively plan to avoid them, how to have a solid communication plan and how to manage changes. The 3rd article covers the importance of impact analysis and how to manage changes.

This is the 2nd of the three articles that discuss about strategies for new project managers to function effectively. The three steps are; understanding top ten reasons of a project failure and how to proactively plan to avoid them, how to have a solid communication plan and how to manage changes. The 2nd article covers the importance of communication and how to create project communicationmanagement plan.

This is the 1st of the three articles that discuss about strategies for new project managers to function effectively. The three steps are; understanding top ten reasons of a project failure and how to proactively plan to avoid them, how to have a solid communication plan and how to manage changes. The 1st article covers top ten reasons of a project failure and how to proactively plan in order to avoid them.

As Mark Twin would have said, “Everybody talks about teamwork but nobody does much about it.” Teamwork is the Holy Grail of manufacturing and sales/marketing, as much as for sports. But, like the Holy Grail–and despite claims–few know exactly how to create it.
Teamwork exists, but it cannot be sought directly and cannot be commanded or [...]

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 [...]

How a team feels impacts its productivity and business results.  Imagine if the acrobat above was having a bad day… the results would be disastrous!
A key ingredient that shapes team effectiveness is its culture and having a sense of community.
Geography plays a huge role in shaping culture. Communities that live together use a common language, [...]

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: [...]

Let’s continue to LEAD, albeit backwards…The other day I wrote about Delegation.  Today, let’s focus on Act and Encourage.  Sometimes, a little fog is good for team climate…

I had the opportunity to speak at the PMI Congress this year.  My presentation, called Expected Behaviors for Project Team Performance:  Road Rules, Not Road Rage introduced a set of ‘good behaviors” for teams to consider and an easy way to enable team members to reduce the “noise” which occurs among team members.

My esteemed colleague Natalie Udo’s post a few weeks ago, “What is a Project Manager?” started me thinking about what are the elements which make us successful in the business. And hopefully, I’m reinforcing Kimberly Wiefling’s recent posts on what are the keys to success as a project leader… and not being too redundant – Thanks, [...]

One of the reasons I got into Project Management in the first place is that I’ve always been interested in people – their personalities, where they are from, what makes them tick.
Growing up overseas in Japan, I attended an international school for foreigners, and there were kids from all over the world – kids whose [...]

As I was wracking my brain trying to think of interesting topics to write about for this week’s blogs, it came to me, a subject which is a sore spot and a pet peeve of mine – the fact that people don’t say “thank you” very often on projects, or in everyday business situations much (except [...]

I have been taking advantage of my time at home this week.  I am doing a lot of writing while I watch over my son’s recovery.  I am presenting a keynote for PMI Capital Michigan next month; this has been a good opportunity for me to prepare and practice my speech.   The Michigan Chapter is [...]

My 15-year old had knee surgery yesterday; it was his 2nd surgery in three months.  The first procedure was performed on his left knee in May, yesterday his surgeon repaired his right knee.  Prior to surgery, he endured much pain and many hours of physical therapy – he has many more months of rehabilitation ahead of [...]

I am lucky to live by the ocean.  Yesterday, I had the opportunity to spend two hours at the beach, by myself—no husband or children in tow.  I packed up a slew of unread magazines, my iPod, and sunscreen — I was ready for a blissful afternoon.  With the warm sunshine at my face, a [...]

I thought this would be a great topic for a Friday! It gives you the weekend to ponder it.
Last Friday I attended my first World Café. World Café Conversations are a way to create a network of conversations around important questions. Based on a set of design principles, Café Conversations link and build on each [...]

If you ask 10 project managers to give a definition of their role, you most likely will end up with 10 different descriptions ranging from project admin and task master to program manager. In marketing terms, our profession has an image problem: there is no standard job description and most people have no clue what [...]

Political issues often thwart rapid advancement.  Organizations by their very nature are political.  How can you identify and characterize stakeholder traits that need to be addressed or accommodated if, as a leader, you wish to exercise influence and be more effective within an organization?
One way to help turn potential victim scenarios into win-win political victories [...]

Are you having fun yet?  I have recently been moderating a discussion about management, leadership, and team building in a project and program environment.  Let me share a few of the comments recorded so far.  On the topic of what makes for project success—is fulfilling the triple constraints enough?—I provided a high level summary view [...]

In my last blog I mentioned that I recently received a job offer at a new company.  This started me thinking about what is my plan for getting started at the new job, so today I figured I’d share my thoughts and maybe it will help you or maybe you’ll have some feedback for me.

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It had all the earmarks of a disaster, a real career-sinker of a project. And here was my old friend and former colleague calling me up enthusiastically, on the phone: “Hey Lisa, we need a Technical Project Manager for this start-up I’m working for, in Redwood Shores… you’ll love the project and the team. It’s [...]