decisions

Over the last few days this week, I described three scenarios and the difficult decisions Project Managers made in each of the three.  In the first, the desire for more responsibility might bery well have led to less effectiveness.

Technorati Tags: Accountability, Career development, Commitment, decisions, Ethics

Patal Fray was Project Manager of a very big and important project for his firm.  He was very proud to have been given this assignment and assured his VP that he would bring it in successfully, on time, if not ahead of time.

Technorati Tags: Accountability, career-planning, critical-success-factors, decisions, Ethics, goals, goodwill, Leadership, management, over-extending, professionalism, [...]

A friend of mine once told me about a technique for keeping track of lessons learned.  She keeps a file labeled “DNDTA.”  That stands for “Do Not Do This Again.” 
The idea is to write a note to yourself describing something you did that would not be such a good idea to do ever again, then [...]

At an entrepreneurs’ forum I recently attended, I was heartened to hear that even startups recommended checkpoint reviews.  
The term “checkpoint review” can have different meanings in different contexts; in this article, it refers to a cross-functional executive review that the project team must pass to continue.  This happens at key milestones to make sure your product is on [...]

It seems to me that too many High Tech companies have become so bureaucratic that the processes and meetings and inability to make decisions bog projects down unitl they die from boredom.
I see meeting after meeting after meeting of people afraid to take risks and actually make working decisions.  Instead, everything is discussed ad-nausium.  Is [...]

In a previous post long ago I urged setting priorities even though everything SEEMS to be #1. Why don’t people set priorities? I think it’s because they don’t understand how to use them properly and fear they will result in critical work being back-burned forever. Not so – priority lists actually INCREASE [...]

A short while ago, our fearless leader, Kimberly, wrote about the six hats.  I thought I’d add a little to her suggestions.  The technique, called “Six Thinking Hats”  comes from a book by the same name written by E. deBono. (Boston, Little, Brown & Company, 1985)
The beauty of the technique is that it helps participatns [...]

So this guy goes to an all day workshop on trust. And in the supportive environment of the workshop, he sees that it’s safe to trust. Through the activities of the day, he learns to open up to others, to be vulnerable. After a full and satisfying day, he leaves the workshop feeling great. A [...]

(Posted on behalf of Michele Jackman, PM Consultant extraordinaire) I recently gave a UCSC presentation on the “art and science” of making SENSIBLE decisions under pressure. The greatest challenge is not the rational/analytical process. That’s the easy part.

Technorati Tags: Bottleneck, decisions, Leadership, Risk, sponsor

(Posted on hehalf of Dan Hartford.) Have you majorly screwed up a project? Don’t worry, you may be promoted for it! Several years ago I was working in California for a multinational company with head quarters in Europe that we’ll just call “The Firm”. To give you a sense [...]

Has working on a project ever made you so mad that you wanted to commit murder? Has one demagogue in a power position seemed bent on sabotaging your project? Have you been forced to lead a project that you knew was destined to crash and burn? If so, you can relate to the protagonist in [...]

Would you do it again?  Is it time to stop?  For me I think the answer is I’d never have that kind of energy and chutzpah again, not for some random faceless corporate projects anyway, and yes, it’s time to stop.  So yeah, after hitting the glass ceiling both in terms of title and salary [...]

One thing is for sure, there is always more to do on any project than there is time or money to do it. And as much as people hate to choose between things that seem equally vital, if everything is top priority, nothing is. Project teams used to ask for a list of “musts” and [...]