empowerment

When we think about creativity, we tend to think about Research and Development and new product/service innovation.
But, why not consider the creative ways in which you can do the ordinary daily work?  Why not create an environment in which employees at all levels can offer suggestions for improvement?
Not merely suggestion boxes, but quality circles in [...]

In classrooms all over the world little children are taught the importance of coloring within the lines.  Indeed, they are often called names like “sloppy” or “careless” if they don’t conform.
In some cultures conformity to the norm (tradition) is everything.  Everyone must toe the line and behave appropriately.  Those that deviate from the norm are [...]

One of the keys to successful project management is holding the right conversations on the right issues at the right times. For any given initiative, there will be a handful of conversations that the best project managers will make sure take place. Unfortunately, too often, silence and suspicion rule — and fail. It doesn’t have [...]

Am I weird or what?  The way I lead my life and my project management practices are so intertwined that it’s sometimes hard to tell whose legs I’m dancing on!   Cross-pollination of work and life outside of work (different from work-life balance) is a fact: are you leveraging it or letting it leverage you?

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Some time ago I was managing a team at a small company, when I faced a challenge with a talented employee. “Don” had just been assigned to my team, and we were meeting to discuss next steps for his initial project. I wasn’t prepared for what came next.             
Within a couple of minutes, Don’s anger at [...]

Quick: what’s the biggest challenge in cross-functional collaboration?  Bing!  Yes, “building trusting, open relationships” is correct!  Does that sound too Oprah-esque?  Let’s think about it for a minute.  How do you build trusting, open relationships in your cross-functional team, and why does it matter?
Let’s start with why it matters.  How successful will your collaboration be if each [...]

Project Sponsors, does this sound familiar?  You’ve got a great team, and you’ve pointed them in the right direction on a new project.  They work really hard, but what they come up with isn’t what you had in mind.
Project Managers, does this sound familiar?  Your project sponsor passes along some high level guidance to your [...]

The more I think and learn about project management the more I realize I had it all wrong in my early days of beating my head against the wall to get my projects completed within the triple constraints.  Being an accidental project manager with no formal training and also being from an engineering background pointed me [...]

If knowing “HOW” to do something were enough we’d all be rich and thin. There’s always some reason why well-intentioned, educated, experienced professionals are doing the opposite of what they know makes sense. Frequently it’s because they are really busy, and can’t possibly do what needs to be done until someone ELSE changes [...]