People, Projects, and Organizations
Don’t Dismiss the Chronic Challenger on Your Team
We’ve all encountered them: the chronic challenger. They don’t like this or that. Or maybe they do like this but don’t like that. They cause us angst because they don’t go with the flow and we can’t imagine how anything they say can be of benefit. We wonder why they have such a bad attitude ...
Failed Projects: Does Management Really Care?
When projects fail in your organization what happens? Is there a lot of drama and shaming of those involved? Does the project manager’s reputation suffer? Most likely the answers are yes with varying degrees of intensity. But what else happens? . . . Nothing? If negative attention towards those involved in a failed project is ...
Managing Expectations
It goes without saying that projects involve lots of expectations. Project manager and team members feel the heat from project stakeholders when it comes to task completions, deliverables, adherences to processes, and use of resources, just to name a few. Although it is an essential part of a project manager’s job, knowing how to manage ...
Unfinished Tasks: Do “P”s Just Not Care?
We all have managed or worked with them. That certain type of team member who says they finished a task when the reality is they didn’t. The “i”s weren’t dotted and the “t”s weren’t crossed. They finished 80%, 90%, 99% of the work, but not 100% of it. These team members end up slowing progress ...
Respect The Project’s Natural Life-Cycle
There is a project joke that has been around for years… There are six stages of a project: 1. Enthusiasm2. Disillusionment3. Panic4. Search for the guilty5. Punishment of the innocent6. Praise and honor for the non-participants While this is satirically funny it is not a project life-cycle anyone wants to experience. A key factor that separates project ...
Guest Post: We’re Going Back to the Past
By Laurel Bretting, Systemation Marketing Guru Long time no see. That’s because we were concentrating on some special projects. We produced a treasure trove of fun, exciting, and useful tools/resources. So, hop on our time machine (no roads, DeLoreans, or hoverboards required) and find out what we’ve been up to this past year: Everything’s ...
Four Functional Disciplines Needed on All Projects
All projects have a set of common characteristic by definition: they are temporary endeavors undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. Because of this, they also have some common activities that must be executed. Such things as: developing the project plan, schedule, and budget . . . executing, controlling, and pre-planning the project ...
The Best Organizations Market, Sell, and Deliver
We all have had to deal with them many times in our life: organizations that deliver sub-par products or services. They were either companies you conducted businesses with or internal departments and groups in your company you needed something from. Regardless, they were devoid of enthusiasm with little interest in engaging you as a customer. ...
How to Help Yourself Get Help From Others
Did you know that when you need help the most you might actually be sabotaging your efforts to get it? It doesn’t make sense; but it’s true. This applies when you are both, physically or situationaly in need. The primary reason of sabotage is due to our resistance to being vulnerable. When we are vulnerable ...
Yes – TEAM Has an I in It
For decades coaches have told their players there is no I in TEAM. The point they’re trying to make is that the interest of the players should be the team first and themselves second. Players that put themselves first ahead of the team are often called prima donna or selfish. It is true that for ...
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