Swim with the Sharks

Oh no! Turn your project managers into gamers ...

Project Education at Doctoral Level

Can't get enuf project management? Try getting your doctorate. ...

... "The school's PhD in Information Technology program has two new specializations, Project Management, and Information Security, and the PhD in Organization and Management program also has a new Project Management specialization. Capella now offers six Project Management specializations, allowing students at the bachelor's, master's, and PhD levels to choose either a business or IT project management focus. " ...

Via Capella Univ: New Specializations

The Thinking Person's Guide to Leadership

Every once in a while, I come across a website that's a goldmine of information. Fred Nickols' "Skullworks" is a good example. He has a wealth of thought provoking articles, by himself and others, in areas such as consulting, organizational development, training & performance, strategy, and more.

One article I found particularly interesting is the one on generalists vs. specialists, which happens to be one of the topics on my upcoming book (more on that soon).

As many knowledgable leaders know---and Fred Nickols is no exception---leadership and management are by no means simple. They require serious thought and carry significant responsibility. Reading just one or two of these types of articles a week can help make the difference between being a good leader and a great one.

Nickols runs a consulting company called "Distance Consulting," which focuses on helping organizations help themselves, a noble cause indeed. Here's the link to his articles.

Articles by Fred Nickols

Child's Play: Project Management Lessons From the Classroom

Ah, there's someone else that finds project management lessons in everything. It's a sickness I tell you.

Elizabeth Harrin has an article on Projects@Work about project management lessons she extracted from teaching a group of nine year olds in Paris. Whether it's the importance of giving clear instructions, understanding your stakeholders' environment, or negotiating win-win solutions, everything you need to manage a project you probably learned in kindergarten.

Read on...

http://www.projectsatwork.com/content/Articles/235373.cfm

Learning from experience

We've discussed the value of sharing lessons learned before. Here is another good example of a team that took the time and trouble to write up their experiences from real life. Earthquake monitoring is, by its nature, a very distributed activity and a project to support the service involves a very widely distributed set of stake holders.
Lessons learned from the NEES Cyberenvironment project

This paper really points up several critical aspects. Everyone will find something of value. For me, the section on the criticality of effective communication contains some quotable nuggets. For instance "We recommend, in fact, that on the very first day of the project, the project team should make a "mockup" - in as simple a form as a set of presentation slides - available to the user community". The effective use of prototypes as a communication tool across the stakeholder community is described well.

Service-Oriented Project Management (SOPM): Free Webinar and White Paper

For those interested in learning more about the Service-Oriented Project Management (SOPM) framework I introduced here on PMThink several months ago, you may want to check out the free webinar I did with Mindjet software on the use of their MindManager product with SOPM.

As many of you know, I'm a big proponent of mind-mapping software for brainstorming, organizing, and presenting, and it's invaluable when used with SOPM. The recorded version of the webinar is available on Mindjet's webinar archives page (below), and a free white paper on SOPM is available there as well.

Enjoy...

Mindjet: Webinars

Managing from the Bottom Up

Yesterday I entered a post about Best Buy's new Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE), and how allowing employees total freedom as to where and how they work, focusing instead on results, has shown a 35% productivity improvement. Granted, this may not apply in every environment, but the premise of focusing on results over rules is sound.

What I failed to mention is that this initiative didn't come from the top. In fact, CEO Brad Anderson didn't even know about it untill it was well under way and showing tangible benefits. And that's just the way he likes it.

Kudos to Anderson for allowing the flexibility in his organization for innovation from within, and the courage to try new things. That is what a learning organization is all about.

Anyone who ever brought about major transformation (think Martin Luther King, Ghandi, Jesus), usually did it in a bottom-up approach, not by first convincing "management."

One other thing I failed to mention. While it's uncertain to what extent it played in encouraging this particular situation, a primary consultant to the Best Buy organization is Marcus Buckingham, the talent management guru and author of three of the most enlightening management books I've read (First Break All the Rules, Now Discover Your Strengths, and The One Thing You Need to Know). I'd venture to say that his influence has at least indirectly encouraged this people-focused mentality.

IT Governance: Steady Progression

IT governance is a journey and CIO realize they cannot implement the process overnight. A wise choice is to implement a few basic building blocks and then expand through cycle of learning and continuous improvement. ...

... "While expectations about the role of IT in growing the business and governance are expanding dramatically, CIOs are cautious about how quickly they can rise to the challenge. " ...

Via CFO: Link

Control vs. Accountability: Are We Our Own Worst Enemy?

In our never-ending struggle to gain more control over the chaos in our organizations, and with more and more focus on change management, who would think of going in the opposite direction and allowing more freedom?

Let's take a look at a story with some surprising results (sent courtesy of my old friend, Larry Beane).

Thanks to a project initiated by the European Union, seven sities and regions in Europe have completely done away with traffic signs. The originators of this idea must have been on to something. Contrary to the normal expectation that this would result in pandemonium, the accident rate went down!

Now arguably, this may or may not work in a congested city, but it got me thinking about the need for accountability. Perhaps the more rules we inflict, what we're really doing is relieving people of accountability---the paradox being that we need to give people freedom to make them fully accountable. Otherwise, we claim ownership of the problem instead of delegating it.

This is not unlike Toyota's policy of trusting their work teams to solve problems independently, and trusting that if their solutions are wrong, they'll work to correct it and learn from the experience. This is what a learning organization is all about.

This isn't to say we should just abandon all change management processes. On the contrary, providing people with effective processes can lead to successful outcomes. But for each rule we devise, we should consider an alternate approach of holding people accountable for outcomes, and insuring they have the capacity to succeed. Yes, provide processes, training, principles, guidelines, etc. But then focus on outcomes and accountability. And allow for learning-based corrections.

It's a radical thought, but a little anarchy may just bring the control that we need.

Here's the article about the successes of traffic anarchy...

Controlled Chaos: European Cities Do Away with Traffic Signs - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

User Interface Projects: Increase Cycles of Learning

In supply chain management, the concept of faster turns translates into lower inventory and more responsive to customer needs. In user interface design, faster turns leads to more robust customer experience. However, the path there can challenging as user feedback guides the releases through each cycle. Netflix and Google are profiled. ...

... "Since only 1 in every 5 to 10 ideas work out, the strategy of constraining how quickly ideas must be proven allows us to try out more ideas faster, increasing our odds of success. " ...

Via User Interface Engineering: Link

21 Success Secrets of The Beatles

One thing I enjoy doing is studying excellence. There's something about unique, extraordinary human achievement that I find fascinating.

I love studying it, dissecting it, and extracting lessons from it. It's what attracted me to write about Napoleon. It's what led me to explore lessons from Einstein. And it's what leads me to dive into lessons from The Beatles.

Like them or not, nobody can argue that The Beatles didn't achieve amazing feats. I doubt there will ever be another musical group that could rival them for sheer impact on the music scene and the world.

They were the first pop artists to record in stereo. They were the first band to experiment in the studio. They were the first band to list lyrics on their album. The list goes on and on.

But what made them so successful? And are the lessons applicable to building successful and innovative individuals and teams in business? Here are 21 lessons that answer definitively "yes."

1) Focus on Strengths - They focused on their strengths, doing what they do best (songwriting and performing).

2) Engage a partner - They got help (from Brian Epstein, their manager, and George Martin, their producer). They couldn't have achieved such heights on their own.

3) Differentiate! - They dared to be different, whether it was their suits, their hair, the instruments they experimented with, their neverending search for new chords, and so on.

4) Have key values - They stuck to principle themes, such as love, peace, and the search for truth.

5) Adopt a cause - In the band and in their solo careers, they always had a cause that they were passionate about, whether peace, vegetarianism, eastern philosophy, or some other passion.

6) Worship change - They weren't afraid to change, even in the midst of success. At the top of the moptop craze, they changed their style, then they changed again with Sergeant Pepper, which was a virtual celebration of change.

7) Broaden your horizons - They continuously sought self-growth, learning new philosophies, new chords and instruments, etc.

8) Be passionate about everything you do. They treated each deliverable (i.e. song) as THE hit, which is why their "B-sides" did better than most people's A-sides.

9) Embrace conflict - They readily embraced creative conflict and friendly competition. It was precisely the conflict and competition between Lennon and McCartney that made each of them strive for new heights.

10) Keep moving - Fast! - They recorded constantly, always looking for some new and unique angle. They recorded first and asked questions later.

11) RMF (Risk Magnificent Failures) - They experimented with new chords, new concepts, and had some celebrated failures (Revolution #9-although some liked it; the Magical Mystery Tour Movie, in which they filmed everyone on a bus in the hopes that something neat would happen--nothing did). In a sense, each album was also an experiment in some way.

12) Aim for the Skies - They thought big ("To the toppermost!" they used to say) and they believed it! Similar to Napoleon Hill's principles in Think and Grow Rich, they aimed high and got there.

13) Talent matters - When all is said and done, they had the right talent. All the other elements wouldn't have helped if they didn't have a natural talent for music. Luck helps, but if you have the right talent in the right job, the luckier you get.

14) Use your whole brain - They used the left and right sides of their brain---using the right side when freeflowing creativity and innovation were needed, and the left side when the proper structure was important.

15) Have Fun!!! - Above all, they had plenty of fun, and even stressed the importance in the song "She's Leaving Home" (about a girl who left home to explore "something inside that was always denied for so many years---She's having fun, bye bye.")

16) Never Conform - They didn't conform to standard education, which led to their unorthodox style. In fact, I've noticed most great pop musicians hold their instruments "the wrong way." Tom Peters pointed the same thing out about great Tennis players and their rackets.

17) Field the right team - They were built for synergy -- each were different but shared the same values. The whole was truly greater than the sum of its parts.

18) Get noticed! - They wouldn't have gotten anywhere if they didn't get noticed in the first place. How did they get noticed? By playing in public, where they could get noticed. This should stress the importance of networking. Be seen.

19) Prototype and Test! - They prototyped and tested zillions of versions of their songs. For each hit, there were about 20 alternate takes in different styles and genres. And they practiced each version over and over.

20) Study the greats, Then forget them. - They didn't begin in a vacuum. They studied their idols, such as Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, Fats Domino, and others. If you want to succeed at something, a good place to begin is studying those who have succeeded before. But then make your own way, just like The Beatles did. Carve your own niche.

21) Be Authentic - They were authentic to who they were - British lads from Liverpool.They could sing colorful lyrics about places like Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields, and could talk about TV shows like "Meet the Wife" ("It's time for tea and Meet the Wife" from "Good Morning"). They could sing about these things because it's who they were, not because they were trying to be cute or clever. It's important to be true to who you are, not who you'd rather be.

Einstein Project Management Tip #1: Goals Rule

To celebrate the one-year anniversary of PMThink (yep, we've passed the one-year mark and now have over 1,000 posts - meeting our goal for the first year), I've decided to have a little fun by tapping the mind of the greatest "thinker" of all time----Albert Einstein.

To many, Albert Einstein is synonymous with the word "genius," and rightfully so. In fact, the part of his brain responsible for mathematical and visual/spacial thinking was discovered to be 15% greater than the average human. In addition, it lacked the usual groove that runs through that area, which supposedly enabled his neurons to communicate more effectively. In other words, he's someone worth learning from.

Over the next few weeks, I'll enter some posts highlighting his quotes as they apply to project management. Think Einstein doesn't have anything to do with project management? Think again. Here's the first one...

"Confusion of goals and perfection of means seems, in my opinion, to characterize our age."

The same could be said for project management today. With all the focus on execution and delivery, many project managers fail because they make a huge assumption that the goals and requirements are clear. As we strive to perfect the ability to finish on-time and on-budget, let's not forget the need to make sure that the goals of the sponsor are crystal clear, since that's where most projects fall short.

Stay tuned for more "Einstein project management tips."

Sage Advice for New Project Managers

Mark Mullaly has a great editorial in Projects@Work, titled "What I Wish I'd Known." It's an honest, heartfelt answer to an inquiry from a reader asking what he wished he'd known before entering project management.

Mullaly makes some great points, especially around the importance of asking questions. A career project manager, he learned the ropes the hard way, through trial and error, and discovered what worked and what didn't.

As Albert Einstein said, "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."

I recommend that those new to project management read the article, if for no other reason than to understand what the real paths to success are, such as communication, business acumen, and a true understanding of people and what makes them tick.

http://www.projectsatwork.com/content/Articles/232486.cfm

IT Project Missing Ingredient: Professionalism?

UK computing leader sees genuine professionalism as key ingredient for transforming IT project success rates. This is a good thing, if interpreted as developing our talent in the industry. Is industry accreditation the answer? It should not be a substitute for creating leadership in achievement in an enterprise, where an environment of continuous improvement supports learning from lessons, improving processes, and expanding the knowledge of project management practitioners. ...

... "It would make my day if somebody brought me a failed IT project that had failed for novel reasons. Of course, nobody ever did, because his contention is that we understand why IT projects fail, and we keep making the same mistakes. " ...

Why IT must get more professional: Via ZDNet Asia ...

Project-Based Instruction: Technology Educator Recognized ...

Project-based instruction is fun, yet challenging for students, and integrates multiple perspectives into the learning process. Penn State instructor recognized for technology education. ...

... "Samir Shah, an instructor in information sciences and technology at Penn State York, was recently honored by the Technology Council of Central Pennsylvania (TCCP) as the 2006 Technology Educator of the Year. Most of his advanced courses are project-based and designed to bring both local and international experience to students by incorporating real-world classroom projects. Shah's areas of research interest are in global IT project management and software development. Shah has earned his Masters degree in Engineering Sciences from Penn State Harrisburg. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). " ...

Project-Based Instruction: Technology Educator Recognized: Via Penn State York: Faculty Member Named Technology Educator of the Year ...

Personal Value Proposition: Assess Your Business Impact ...

Nice article, by Pete McGarahan, challenges the reader to assess how they contribute value to an organization and be accountable for their future by taking risks, learning, and owning their personal development. Quick and worthwhile read ...

... " ... a business mentor once asking me, What's your value proposition to the organization? I was taken aback by the question and began rattling off what I did for a living. He quickly stopped me and said, No, Pete, what value do you provide to the organization on a daily basis? " ...

Personal Value Proposition: Assess Your Business Impact: Via CCN: Being the CEO of You (PDF) ...

Organizational Project Management; Why Should CEOs Care?

Paul Dinsmore and Pedro C. Ribeiro's article in Chief Project Officer talks about why CEOs should care about project management. He lists several areas where project management can directly impact the bottom line, including working capital, sales growth, and profit margins.

People are beginning to realize that project management is much more than managing individual initiatives; it's about transforming everything an organization does into a project-based approach.

In the article, Celina Antunes, CEO South America Region for Cushman & Wakefield Semco comments:

“For decades, project management has been a discipline in engineering, construction and other industries, where a key management skill has always been the ability to complete a job on time and on budget. Yet it's only been in recent years that the discipline has moved to its current status as one of the leading reasons for success in some of the world's best companies. When you need an outcome done right, on time, and within a budget, you definitely need project management to assure results”

Of course, to be truly effective, this requires a strong committment to becoming a "learning organization." Here's an excerpt from another quote, from Robert Cook, former CEO Latin America for Unisys Corporation:

“The importance of excellence in project management could not be over rated. I would guess that all of us as senior operations people have been involved in projects that have created shareholder value and those - that have reduced
shareholder value... We need to be in a continuous learning process. A well structured lessons learning process in project management is key to seamless execution and ensuring that the direction of the project is correct from the beginning of the effort”.

For the full article, read on...

Chief Project Officer: Why Should Project Management Matter to CEOs?

Microsoft Project 2007

Thursday's Microsoft Webinar was the latest event in the gradual unveiling of the future version of Project. It now has a name - Project 2007 - not really more imaginative than the development name of P12 but it does give a clue as to the intended release date. After the news about the postponement of Vista's release date, one can believe that Microsoft would tend towards caution rather than optimism in deciding a release year.
The product itself still shows its credentials as a beta release. The demonstration of the client functionality suffered from a couple of minor glitches. The functions shown include some which will be popular with people who have struggled with some of the constraints of earlier versions of MS Project.
The multi-level undo feature - instead of the current single step undo - gets a lot of attention. It does seem to have been a major technical challenge to provide the function and now one can afford to be a little less careful about keeping track of changes as you go through an editing session.
A neat feature is change highlighting. This is the one that shows what dependencies cause a task date to be the way it is. Useful when you have a lot of predecessors, calendar constraints and other factors.
Anyone who has finally mastered the nuances of Outline codes and custom fields will have a new learning experience. Outline codes are no more. They are just treated as another variants of custom fields with fixed value lists.
And more functions for organisations that track costs - resources can be flagged as budget resources and assigned at the project summary level.
Something that sounds like a good idea but will probably take a bit of getting used to is the notion of team resources. Resources are defined as belonging to a team using a custom field value - and the team resource is assigned to the task. Sounds like you need to be careful about working with max units, particularly if a team member could be on multiple teams.
Plenty to get familiarised - and plenty of time to get familiar before the roll-out.

Innovation and Project Management - Part 3 of 3

This is a continuation of Part 2, and shows how Tom Kelley's The Ten Faces of Innovation is living proof that innovation and project management are not mutually-exclusive, and in fact, must coexist for true success.

In Part 1, we talked about the Learning Personas described in Kelley's book (the Anthropologist, the Experimenter, and the Cross-Pollinator). In Part 2, we discussed the Organizing Personas (the Hurdler, the Collaborator, and the Director). Now we'll examine the final batch of personas, The Building Personas. Again, these are all adapted from Tom Kelley's book, which offers much more details and many real-life stories to illustrate these personas in action (and no, I don't get commission).

The Building Personas

7) The Experience Architect – Designs the customer experience, beyond just the functionality of a product. Comes up with new and creative ways to awe the customer, yet with the same basic product functionality. An example is Cold Stone Creamery, which creates an entertaining experience where the server mixes ice cream with any number of desired toppings on a slab of cold stone. The servers even put on shows. [my added comment is that The Experience Architect can learn from observing others, even in other genres, and as such can gain from the “Cross-Pollinator” and “Anthropologist” personas.]

8) The Set Designer – Creates a fun and vibrant physical working environment that can spark creativity and collaboration. Allows employees great latitude in their personal work spaces. Avoids dull, repetitive spaces. Creates formal and informal public spaces where people can collaborate and brainstorm, with all the appropriate supplies and accommodations.

9) The Caregiver – Anticipates customer needs before, during, and after the engagement, and goes above and beyond normal expectations. Makes it easy for the customer to select the right services, provides useful and quick information when needed, insures easy accessibility by the customer, and builds lasting relationships with the customer.

10) The Storyteller – Builds internal morale and external awareness through compelling stories and case studies that reinforce key values or traits. Builds “corporate legends” that get passed around. Not “spin doctors,” the storytellers get their stories from first-hand accounts from customers or employees. Storytelling builds credibility, unleashes people’s emotions, helps teams bond, and generates lessons learned.

Well, that concludes my summary of Tom Kelley's The Ten Faces of Innovation, and its applicability to project management. As you can hopefully see, what project manager wouldn't benefit from these learning, organizing, and building personas that can lead to a better customer experience, a more satisfied team, and a memorable result?

Sure, we can (and should) still define the scope of the project, manage changes to the agreed-upon scope, and use project scheduling and budgeting techniques (we don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater). But we can take our projects to the next level with a strong dose of innovation, and these personas are as good a way to do that as any.

Innovation and Project Management - Part 2 of 3

This is a continuation of Part 1, and shows how Tom Kelley's The Ten Faces of Innovation is living proof that innovation and project management are not mutually-exclusive, and in fact, must coexist for true success.

In part 1, we talked about the book's three Learning Personas; The Anthropologist, The Experimentor, and The Cross-Pollinator. Now we'll talk about The Organizing Personas, again adapted from Kelley's book.

The Organizing Personas

4) The Hurdler – Bends the rules to get around roadblocks. Hurdlers tend to be street smart and can cleverly work around the system, undeterred by adversity. Seemingly stubborn at times, they listen to experts, but don’t let them have the final word.

5) The Collaborator – Brings diverse groups together, even if leading from the middle of the pack. Wins over skeptics and creates solutions that cross boundaries. Breaks through silos by being the glue that holds the diverse group together. Works “with” the client instead of “at” them. Prefers to coach rather than direct, coaching behind the scenes and letting the team run with the ball and have the glory. Doesn’t second-guess people from the sidelines.

6) The Director – Assembles the right people and gives them an environment that will allow their creativity to flourish. Has good strategic vision and sets the right theme. There’s no one style that works best. Some lead with calmness and others are bundles of energy. But they all give center stage to others, love sparking new ideas and projects, aim high, and embrace the unexpected with a variety of techniques, strategies, and resources. This role can be on a specific team and does not necessarily have to have a position of “director” authority in the corporation.

Just as an ideal project team should have the learning personas in order to position their project for success, these organizing personas can help turn chaos into order, and failure into success. As Tom Kelly mentions in his book, not every team must have every persona accounted for (and some people can adapt multiple personas), but like any toolbox, we need to know the available tools and use them when they're needed.

Up next in part 3, TheBuilding Personas...

Innovation and Project Management - Part 1 of 3

As I had mentioned previously, The Ten Faces of Innovation, by Tom Kelly of IDEO, with Jonathan Littman, is an excellent book on how to create a truly innovative environment (as opposed to just saying "from now on, we're going to be innovative").

Some think that innovation has nothing to do with project management---that innovation is about generating ideas, and project management is merely about executing them. In my view, this is absolutely wrong, as you will hopefully see as I share a summary of Tom Kelley's "Ten Faces of Innovation."

Even as a summary, there's a lot to share, so I'm breaking this into three parts. Each part will share one of the three groups of "personas" Kelley covers in the book; The Learning Personas, The Organizing Personas, and the Building Personas. In this post, I'll summarize The Learning Personas.

As noted in the book, it's important to note that each persona is just that, and not a "position". Some people can have multiple roles, and not all roles are needed on every project. But in general, the more roles that are covered, the more successful your venture will be.

Meanwhile, here are the first three personas, adapted from the book, with my own comments added (keep in mind that the book offers a heap of antectodal information that supports these personas---real stories from real companies).

The Learning Personas

1) The Anthropologist – Observes human behavior and empathizes in order to determine what’s really needed. Fanatically keeps lists of issues and ideas. [As Toyota's slogan goes, “Go and see for yourself.” Don’t judge by a needs survey alone.] Henry Ford said, “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse.”

2) The Experimenter – Likes to try new avenues, using fast, inexpensive prototypes. Not afraid to think out of the box and “fail often to succeed sooner.” Uses enlightened trial and error. Can also do "implementation by experimentation" for multi-locations by engaging remote sites in prototyping, and letting them adapt to their site as needed (as opposed to a rigid “rollout”).

3) The Cross Pollinator – Examines other industries, genres, and cultures, to mine for ideas and look for analogies. These are typically “T-shaped” people, with a deep understanding of at least one core area and a broad interest in many other topics. Well-rounded, and with many interests, these people are a core source of ideas.

As you can hopefully, see, these learning personas are quite applicable to project management and cannot be divorced from the process of taking an idea and turning it into reality---and isn't that what project management is all about?

Up next in part 2, The Organizing Personas...

Managing Global Projects; Don't Be a Tourist

Ladies first, No steamrolling, Swastika greeting cards....

No, I haven't lost my mind, and this isn't some weird form of free association. These are all examples of cultural misunderstandings that are pointed out in an insightful article from Computerworld.

It reminds me of that old series of TV advertisements with a "Don't be a tourist" theme (one example had Richard Nixon giving the "OK" hand gesture while getting off a plane in Latin America--and nearly causing a riot). Of course, I forget the product being advertised, so the ad couldn't have been too effective. But I digress.

In all seriousness, having done quite a bit of travel myself, I can vouch for the importance of avoiding the stereotypical American trait of steamrolling your ideas or values, or assuming everything works as it does here in the U.S. (yes, I realize not ALL Americans are like that, but a sad number are).

Better to engage people's input, and have them be part of the solution. A little bit of humility and cultural awareness (and, dare I say, learning at least a few phrases of a foreign language) goes a long way. It's especially important when managing projects that span geographic and/or cultural boundaries.

Here's the article from Computerworld (and just so nobody thinks I'm picking on Americans, the article shows that cultural misunderstandings are a global issue) ...

Culture Clash - Computerworld

Fighting the Status Quo; A Lesson from an Education Reformer

Reading Dennis Littky's The Big Picture: Education is Everyone's Business has been very inspiring. Just as Littky challenges the status quo in the education system, we must do so in our organizations.

Here's a quote I especially like in the book:

"No matter how far you have gone on a wrong road, turn back"
- Turkish Proverb

I've listed 21 key points, paraphrased from the book, to illustrate how the same issues that face the education system apply to creating a learning environment in business...

1. Teach how to think flexibly, not that there's a right way and a wrong way for doing everything. It's worth noting that the best tennis players hold the racket the wrong way.
2. Create an environment that allows students the freedom to find themselves with the support and motivation of inspiring adults [leaders]
3. Teach students to fish; don't give them fish. Quote: "We have plenty of people who can teach what they know, but very few who can teach their own capacity to learn" - Joseph Hart
4. Use collaborative learning - i.e. "What do we think of this passage as compared to this one?" etc.
5. Teaching and learning are about problem solving. Put teachers and learners in the best possible environment for them to do this together.
6. Don't dismiss someone as "dumb in math" or "uninterested in science." Cater to their strengths [as Peter Drucker says, "Make weaknesses irrelevant" and pair people with complementary strengths if need be]
7. Don't measure education [or any kind of success] by the number of minutes a kid sits at a desk.
8. Remember the Three R's: Relationships (with teachers, community, parents, etc.), Relevance (to the students lives and passions - i.e. "what's in it for me"), Rigor (allow them to concentrate intensely in an area of their interest - build depth, not breadth)
9. Insure a shared philosophy among the principal and teachers [i.e. management]
10. Fix the atmosphere. Create an environment for learning. Fun, happiness, respect, kindness.
11. Build celebration into the culture. Celebrate often, for various occasions.
12. Know who really sets the culture of a school [or organization]. It's the senior students [middle management and vocal champions -- what Seth Godin calls "the sneezers" --those who can spread an "idea virus"]. Engage them in recreating the culture, and others will follow suit. You can't change the culture by holding a special assembly [or a meeting or a memo]
13. Never make rules based on the exception.
14. To build trust and respect, provide responsibility and decision-making to students, and control over their environment, tools, and learning
15. A culture can thrive and grow on its own stories. Every interaction helps build the culture.
16. Start with the student, not the subjects or classes. Quote: "One size never fits all. One size fits one." - Tom Peters
17. Use real world examples - or better yet, real projects. Students can tell when things really matter and when they're contrived. [so can business people learning project management]
18. Don't give grades. The real world is based on giving feedback and showing people what they need to do to improve. It helps students succeed. Grades are meaningless, subjective, and can destroy morale. Use a narrative instead. It's a tool to help learning, not evaluation for evaluation's sake.
19. Quote: "Nobody grew taller by being measured." - Phillip Gammage
20. Measure what counts. There is no one indicator of success that fits every student. Instead, measure how often a student talks to teachers about their problems [builds the right culture]; measure if parents agree the school is a safe place and that it views parents as partners [i.e. customer satisfaction]
21. Friends of change [6 C's] are: concentration (on your philosophy), commitment, conversation, collaboration, caring, conviviality

Mining for Talent; Fielding a Good Project Team

Tom Peters has been blogging about a book by Dennis Littky called The Big Picture: Education is Everyone's Business. Now I can see why. I purchased the book and it's revolutionary. Littky is a pioneer in the education industry and has achieved startling results with his focus on students as individuals. But the book isn't just for those in education, it's for anyone in a leadership role.

Much like the theme of How Full is Your Bucket, the subject of my previous post, it focuses on finding the hidden talents in the individual, and not just basing decisions on grades, scores, or averages. I'm still reading it, so I'm sure I'll be posting more on it in the near future, but so far it's a very enlightening book, and makes so much sense it's scary.

I've always subscribed to this philosophy, as I feel that fielding a good team in business is no different than fielding a good team in sports. You need to find people's desires and areas of talent (nearly everyone has some), encourage them to build on that talent, and put them in the right positions to exercise that talent. Combined with positive reinforcement (which elevates their self-confidence), they will shine as individuals, and if well-matched with others (team dynamics), the team will shine as well.

I recently saw yet another source that supports this theme of "mining for talents." I just subscribed to Leadership Excellence magazine (and in fact have been asked to submit an article to them, which will most likely appear in their April issue). On their website, I saw this quote from leadership guru Warren Bennis...

“It became clear to me that to understand Drucker’s philosophy of management, you need to know his philosophy of education. In fact, they are one and the same: Honor individual differences. Take people as they are. Don’t attempt to change or manipulate them to be like or to become somebody else. There is no one right way. Organizations are as much learning environments as they are socially useful institutions established to produce goods. At their best, they make available sufficient roles where individual strengths can contribute to productivity and where individual weaknesses are irrelevant. There is virtually no such thing as an ineffective worker, only a worker whose areas of competence are inappropriate for a particular role.”

—Warren Bennis, consultant,
Leadership Excellence, January 2006

Very inspiring words.

Learning from Project Experience

In the continuing quest to learn from others' experience, this paper came to our notice. It is interesting for many reasons, not least because this was definitely not a high tech project. The fact that it was a community project adds extra relevance to the principle that beneficiaries are stake holders too. Thed three main lessons reported were the need for beneficiary involvement, missing a requirement for solution flexibility in the requirements statement and not learning from other projects.
This last item calls to mind a curious bit of selective blindness that often afflicts pilot projects. That is the absence of metrics built in to the design of pilot projects - so no formal means of determining whether a pilot was a success or not.
India - Learning from Experience in India's Watersheds

Research Project: The Mobile Always-On Generation ...

Martin Raymond shares his observations on the emerging generation of mobile technology enthusiasts, who use technology routinely to enable their lifestyles. Data shows that teens are well equipped with devices that enable an online experience throughout a typical day. ...

... "In various research projects designed to asses the impact of mobile technology on how we learn, work and play, Future Laboratory researchers have already noted the emergence of trends such as continuous computing among the late teens - where students use mobiles, laptops and (authorised and unauthorised) hotspots to log on, tune in and bliss out on everything from exam sheet cribs to in-depth studies of the subjects they are working on. " ...

Via EducationGuardian.co.uk: E-learning: Wired-up students ...



The Future Laboratory was established in November 2001 and is recognised for its innovative approach to forecasting, using ethnographic research tools and a creative, qualitative outlook to help programmers, brands, retailers, designers and marketing departments gain better insights into market directions and the future products or brands consumers may need. It also offers lifestyle analysis, brand development and consumer network building.

Keeping Projects Positive; Watch Out for Those Seagulls

From the Wall Street Journal Executive Career site comes some good advice for managers leading organizations (or project managers leading projects) through dark times. And dark times are the norm these days, with offshore outsourcing, cutbacks, and short-term focus an epidemic in America.

Three bits of advice are:

1) Avoid Seagull Management: Don't focus on the negative by swooping down, crapping all over everything, making a lot of noise, and then flying off. Avoid negative judgment and try to "catch people doing something right" Positive reinforcement is key.

2) Embrace Conflict: Conflict isn't a bad thing if it's managed. On the contrary, it can lead to true progress. If everyone agrees all the time, things can get stagnant. The main thing is to encourage a collaborative atmosphere and work to solve the problem instead of assigning blame.

3) Good Comes Out of Bad: Look to make lemonade out of lemons. If there are problems or issues, look at it as an oppportunity for improvement.

I would say that these rules should apply in any circumstance, whether amid economic strife or not. They're also very much aligned with Peter Senge's "learning organization" approach. For more, read on...

CareerJournal Management -- Career Advice for Managers

Project Management Success Stories; Learning from the Past

There's nothing like learning from others who have "been there and done that" to expedite our attempts to try something new. It's sort of like asking for directions versus driving around for hours fruitlessly.

For example, for those considering implementing Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM), here's a list of CCPM Success Stories from the Goldratt Institute.

And if it's Agile Project Management you're considering, here's a great Agile Project Management success story from Computerworld, which shows how Sabre Holdings Corp. spent $125 million on a failed project to overhaul their reservation system in the late 80's, and then tried another attempt more recently, this time with a more agile approach, and had tremendous success.

All too often, organizations attempt to undertake huge initiatives without learning from others' successes, and more importantly, their failures.

And the past doesn't have to only include the recent past. I've been writing about project management "lessons from history" for years now, and some of the successes and failures of such notables as Caesar, Augustus, Napoleon, and many others bring lessons that are directly applicable today. For instance, Napoleon was using Earned Value before it was "invented" 200 years later.

I am absolutely convinced that the search for the "next big thing" will undoubtedly bear its best fruit through closer examination of the past.

For Project Success, Ask Plenty of Questions

Tell me about your father and your mother. Did they feed you often? ... What were some of your other memories growing up? How about...


OK, so maybe we don't want to overdo it. But it's vital that we not hesitate to ask questions during preliminary project research, at status meetings, and behind the scenes.

This is one of the most frequently cited problems with rookie project managers. They hesitate to ask questions for fear that someone will think them incompetent, and as a result they appear incompetent.

In fact, I've noticed that the more experienced a project manager is, the more questions they tend to ask. I once knew a manager who purchased pens as promotional gifts for all of his staff with nothing but the company logo and a question mark on it, as a reminder for everyone to never stop asking questions. This really got the point across, and helped build the culture of a learning organization.

Project De-Motivators; The Trouble With Criticism

Charles Schwab once said, "I have yet to find the man, however exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than under a spirit of criticism."

When trying to encourage our teams or mentor project managers, we need to understand the natural learning progression (see my previous post). Many organizations resort immediately to criticism and judgment. They don't realize that this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, and serves no purpose other than to de-motivate employees.

Let's take heed of Dale Carnegie's advice; "The resentment that criticism engenders can demoralize employees, family members, and friends, and still not correct the situation that has been condemned."

So, next time you feel compelled to criticize or judge someone, don't forget to think twice about the consequences versus the results you're hoping to achieve. Instead, think of ways to boost the learning progression through support and positive reinforcement.

Project Management Competency; Using the Learning Ladder

I was recently reading Peter Fogel's If Not Now, When, a humorous book about reinventing yourself, and he referenced the four stages of learning any new skill. It reminded me how valid this is in organizations trying to implement project management.

I've seen these stages also referred to as the "learning ladder" or "The Four Stages of Competence." It's not clear who created it. Some sources date it as far back as Socrates or Confucius, but its modern form has been in psychology books since the 80's.

The four stages are as follows (I'll paraphrase the explanations):

1) Unconscious Incompetence - Eveyone knows you're clueless except you. You don't realize why or when you're not achieving results, and are surprised when people complain.

2) Conscious Incompetence - The light bulb goes off. You suddenly "get it" and realize you need to do something different. You begin taking actions to change.

3) Conscious Competence - You're becoming more confident, and accomplishing goals through checklists, reading, learning, and mentoring. Things don't feel totally natural yet, nor should they, but you're achieving small successes.

4) Unconscious Competence - This is the ultimate goal. Some call it situational awareness. The French call it coup d'oeil. It's like riding a bike or driving a car, and only happens with adequate experience, and some trial and error.

This is funny, but very true---perhaps still the best example of a maturity model I've seen to date. Unfortunately, many organizations think they can mandate this fourth level. The fact is that it can only be reached by progressing through the paths above. You can't just jump levels, although good principles and an adequate support system can speed the path forward.

The bottom line is that we must allow time to progress through the levels and not criticize too harshly. Secondly, we must seek ways to provide principles and support to ease the transition through these levels.

Criticism is not the way to promote maturity. More on this coming up...

VOIP Project: Voice-Over-IP ...

The VOIP transformation project is relatively high-risk: newer technology, questionable scalability, increased cultural change, and impact to a critical business function: communications. J. Nicholas Hoover discusses the pitfalls of a voice-over-IP phone project

... "Anyone thinking a switch to a voice-over-IP phone system will be smooth and easy should remember Ruth Harenchar's ruby-red nail polish. At the Hobart West Group, where Harenchar is CIO, the company's VoIP project required tough decisions, like whether to spend money training existing IT staff or hire expensive consultants. It meant learning to live without certain common telecom features in order to get the savings the company wanted. And it involved helping employees through the culture shock of replacing the familiar ... " ...

Via InformationWeek | Voice-Over-IP | VoIP Gotchas ...



Here are some relevant references on VOIP implementations:

Via NetworkWorld: The ROI of VoIP: "When it comes to VoIP, most network managers are satisfied that the technology works. The challenge is developing cost analyses: What will the new technology cost to roll out and support, and what benefits can companies expect to reap? "

Via NetIQ: VoIP in Action: "OK, you've moved beyond the deployment stage of your VoIP project. Your first group of VoIP phone users are happy and you've got high levels of availability and call quality. Now what? In the management stage, you need to keep those users happy with consistent availability and high call quality. "

Managing VoIP Implementations Effectively: "Voice over IP (VoIP) is the hottest telephony technology. Consumers and corporations are looking to reduce costs by deploying VoIP systems. The challenge, however, is that the technology is so new that few project managers have expertise in managing VoIP implementation. If you are interested in or responsible for implementing VoIP at your organization, this is the course for you. "

Innovation: Learn From Experiments ...

Increase your cycles of learning. Tom Kelley explores the culture of innovation, where learning faster than the competition drives competitive advantage. ...

... "Rely on The Experimenter to increase your organization's rate of enlightened trial and error. If you learn from each experiment, and run those experiments quicker and cheaper than others in your industry, you can accumulate more insights and convert them into value at a faster pace. " ...

Innovation: Learn From Experiments: Via Fast Company Now

Innovation: Agile Project Teams ...

Companies are trying to break out of "commodity hell" through new product innovation. Embracing innovation requires acceptance that most projects fail and that project teams must be agile - quick, light, etc. Every "failure" yields something of value: data, information, experience, learning, prototypes ... which must be leveraged and reinvested to continue the hunt for the next great idea. ...

... "Bezos isn't just stubborn. He makes his constant experimentation economical by keeping project teams small and nimble. That way, even when they fail, they haven't spent much time or money. " ...

Innovation: Agile Project Teams: Via Business Week: Building An Idea Factory

Project Management Baby Steps; Start Simple

One of the biggest mistakes organizations do when trying to roll out project management practices is start with a big-bang approach. Project management success does not happen overnight. Best to start with a good set of values or principles, and very lean processes.

Have you ever seen people on the dance floor who recently learned to dance? They're so busy looking at their feet and counting that they forget to have fun and feel the music.

Same thing with learning the guitar, which is probably an even better example. Better to start by learning some simple chords, so you can start playing some tunes and feel good about accomplishing something (in my day, everyone started by learning to play Neil Young's "Heart of Gold"). Then you can learn theory. In fact some of the best players never even learned theory or "playing by the rules" (including the Beatles, Crosby, Stills and Nash, and others). Boy I'm dating myself.

It's the same with project management. Understand the principles first. Learn some basic lean processes (i.e. solve the problem, define the goals and requirements, document the scope, develop a plan... you get the idea). Then learn all the methods and rules for your toolbox.

Then break all the rules and focus on results and passion. Same as playing the guitar.

Project Management Continuous Improvement ...

Project management offices (PMO) perform, at a minimum, an assessment or debriefing of projects during close-out. Those lessons-learned need to be incorporated into a continuous improvement program to drive project management maturity and quality higher. Recent government report demonstrates that lessons-learned from government IT projects are not really learned from until root causes are identified and/or process defects are eliminated. ...

Via IT Week: Project breakdowns avoidable, says MPs report ...

... "Major government IT project failures over the past decade could have been avoided by learning from past mistakes, according to MPs. " ...

Via Committee of Public Accounts, UK Parliament: SEVENTEENTH REPORT: ACHIEVING VALUE FOR MONEY IN THE DELIVERY OF PUBLIC SERVICES ...

... "The Committee has identified seven key areas which departments need to focus on if improvements in the delivery of public services and their efficiency are to be achieved: planning carefully prior to implementation; strengthening project management; " ...

Why Are Projects Over Budget?

It's a project management epidemic. For years now, the figures have remained pretty much the same. Seventy-five percent project failure rates, many of which come in over budget.

I believe there are three reasons for this.

1) Project managers not tracking the budget closely enough. My view on this is that this is the least frequent reason. Project managers are under siege to monitor costs closely (and it's an indelible part of the process in some organizations), and still the projects don't come in on budget.

2) Bad estimates. Now we're getting closer. Are we learning from mistakes? Do we have checklists to alert us to necessary resources and standard execution times for tasks? If so, much of this can be remedied fairly easily.

3) Pressure to lowball the budget to get the project approved. Ah-ha! This is the silent killer of projects. I contend that project managers frequently either feel compelled to promise a low budget or are pressured to succumb to a low budget in order to get a project approved, and that this is the reason why most projects end up over budget.

In a worst-case scenario, all three reasons exist (and, indeed, this happens more often than we care to admit), but I contend that the third is the most overlooked cause of project failures.

Lesson: Don't feel pressured to come in with a lower budget than you anticipate the project will really need. Stick to your guns when it comes to presenting the case. If the project gets declined, you're better off.

PMI Lowers Passing Score on 2005 PMP Exam; Breaking News

Point Advantage, a PMI education provider of PMP exam prep courses, project management training programs, and learning tools, announced on their website that PMI has lowered the passing score on the new PMP exam from 81.7% to 61%.

We reported the other day that PMI was reviewing the exam questions, as they usually do after releasing a new exam, and this is the result. Of course, they'll retroactively adjust the scores of those who have already taken the exam.

More details below on the Point Advantage site...

Project Management Certification Training PMP Exam Prep Courses

Business Process Matters, But Does IT?

First time that I agreed with Nicholas Carr on something - business process matters... Does IT? I still believe that most major business processes in today's enterprise benefit from IT, and when done right (people adoption, simple process, and cost-effective technology), competitive advantage can be gained. ...

Business Process Matters, But Does IT?: Via Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Process matters ...

... "In fact, meticulously defined and managed processes continue to be a powerful source of competitive advantage for many companies. Look at Toyota, for instance. Its highly engineered manufacturing processes not only give it superior productivity but also provide a platform for constant learning and improvement. " ...

Project Management e-Learning; Praxis Announces Virtual Campus

Praxis Learning Networks recently announced the Praxis Virtual Campus for project management, an online catalog of e-Learning solutions for PMP study, general project management topics, and MS/Project-specific activities.

Prices range from $20 to $845, so it's a cost-effective way to learn. Best of all, if you have a PMO certification, you can earn PDUs.

Welcome to Praxis Learning Networks' e-Learning Campus

Free Webinars on Project Management - (Earn PDUs!)

My post yesterday touched on how important it is to get respected and relevant certifications. Attention all PMP's who need to get more PDUs - this is the place for you! Save the link below as one of your favorites! There are several FREE Webinars offered on this site that you may find interesting, such as:

• The New PMBOK Guide - an Overview
• Project Management for IT Professionals
• Managing multiple projects overview
• Quality Improvement in Project Management Overview
• Benefits of becoming a Six Sigma Green Belt

Check out this link for more. Happy learning!

International Institute for Learning Free Webinars

Project Failure: A Success Strategy

Tom Kelley, GM of IDEO and author of The 10 Faces of Innovation, explores the concept of successful failures and the role they have in guiding us forward. Learning from project failures is not just about what went wrong. ...

Project Failure: A Success Strategy: Via Fast Company: Failure as a Success Strategy ...

... "At IDEO where I work, we try to maintain a sense of joyful failure about quick early prototypes, knowing that learning from those first rough versions will point us in the direction of future successes. " ...

Systems Thinking for Project Managers

We couldn't call ourselves PMThink if we didn't talk about the importance of thinking now and then, could we?

Much has been made of Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline, and its focus on Systems Thinking. Another Senge principle is to create and foster a learning organization. The enlightened organizations that have embraced this approach have discovered its substantial rewards.

One of the best sites I've come across on Systems Thinking (and thinking in general) is the Thinking Page. It offers a wealth of information on Systems Thinking, Creativity, Cybernetics, and more, which can hep us make better decisions and become more well-rounded project managers. The site received a "Top 5% of the Web" award from Lycos. Having read through it, I can see why.

I encourage all PMThinkers to explore this wonderful site, not only to challenge and inspire yourself to new heights, but to inspire others in your organization as well. Spread the word!


Thinking Page: better thinking using systems thinking, creativity, cybernetics, cognition research

Project Manager: New PM Discussion ...

Project Manager: New PM Discussion: Via Random Thoughts from a CTO: View from the ground floor ...

Via Skip Angel: An interactive weblog for sharing the learning curve of new PM's and seeking the advice of seasoned PM veterans ...

... "That's the premise for a new blog that I am happy to introduce - Rookie PM. Casie Hulden is the author of this blog, and she is fairly new to project management. She will be sharing with other project managers that are just starting out her experiences. I am sure that she would also like to get feedback from those veterans out there of lessons that they have learned and would be willing to share with all project managers. " ...

PMP eLearning Alliance Drives Project Manager Development

PMP eLearning Alliance Drives Project Manager Development: Praxis and Measure Twice Announce Alliance: Via Praxis Learning Network

Praxis Learning Networks and Measure Twice, creator of the PM Final software testing tool for project managers, create alliance to advance project manager development for the PMP exam ...

... "Praxis will develop and maintain the question bank used in PM Final to test project managers in preparation for the Project Manager Professional (PMP) certification exam. Measure Twice will focus on further developing the PM Final tool to provide greater capability for individuals and training organizations to track exam results, test by knowledge area, and build comprehensive content exams. The Praxis question bank has been completely redeveloped and aligned with the Project Management Institute's Project Management Body of Knowledge, Version 3.0. " ...

ITTraining Education: Balance Business and Technical Perspectives ...

IT Training Education: Balance Business and Technical Perspectives: Via Computerworld: Ask a Premier 100 IT Leader: Peter Presland-Byrne ...

Sage advice about curriculum choices for aspiring information technology (IT) professionals, such as balancing business training, in project management, with technical training, in programming languages. Peter Presland-Byrne, SVP, Countrywide Financial Corp. provides his perspectives in a question and answer format ...

... "Based on the high-level topics of database and project management, I would suspect that Perl programming would be the one to substitute. I remember learning the virtues of BBC Model B Basic, and I can honestly say I've never had to write a single business application using it. " ...

Project Management: RSS Learning Networks

Via ottergroup.com :: Kathleen Talks about RSS Learning Networks at Mass-ISPI Meeting

Kathleen Gilroy will speak about technology-enabled learning ...

... "Look at a prototype of an RSS learning network and two use case scenarios where RSS networks are used for innovation in a large financial services company and for resource and project management at a global engineering firm. " ...

Project Management Oversight: Key Learning

Project Management Oversight: Key Learning: Via courant.com | UConn's Great Leap University's Enormous Strides Wrongly Overshadowed

Karla Fox, professor of business law at the University of Connecticut, explores the growth at UConn and identifies opportunity for improvements in project management ...

... "Among the many successful building projects, there have been a few notable construction issues resulting from weaknesses in oversight. In some cases the university should have been more diligent in its project management. When problems were identified, President Austin demonstrated strong leadership by working to correct them and improve procedures. " ...

Project Failure Rates; Are the Statistics Tainted?

We've all heard the horror stories about 50-75% project failure rates (depending on the industry). But how many projects that come on over-budget or behind schedule do so because the project manager succumbed to pressure to set an unrealistic target to begin with?

I'd argue that by increasing persuasion skills and learning tactics to negotiate proper targets, we'd see project success rates go up exponentially. Certainly there are issues with scope creep, lack of planning, lack of communication, etc., but many projects fail because the project manager was forced to meet an unrealistic and/or arbitrary deadline.

See my entry on Tuesday, August 30th on "Managing Projects with Unrealistic Deadlines," which points to an excellent article for dealing with this issue.