New project management articles published on the web during the week of February 8 – 14. And this week’s video: Eric Weiner on why some places excel at fostering creativity.
Must read!
- Nancy Settle-Murphy shares some fascinating insights for those of us hosting virtual meetings with global teams, based on Erin Meyer’s book, “The Culture Map.”
- Naomi Caietti shares insights from eight successful women on how they established themselves as project management leaders.
- Kathleen Turner interviews Frank Costanzo of Caliper on how firms are using predictive analytics for recruiting and retention, and on organizational barriers to leveraging the soft skills.
Established Methods
- Harry Hall identifies seven project manager productivity problems and suggest solutions for each of them.
- Elizabeth Harrin tells how to manage your first meeting with a project sponsor, with input from five project managers (including me).
- Bruce Harpham notes the value of standard operating procedures in maintaining quality, and tells how to create them efficiently and effectively.
- Ken Ashe critiques a fictional project manager: Harvey Keitel’s character from “Pulp Fiction,” Winston Wolf.
- Rajakumar Ramakrishnan identifies some challenges common to DevOps projects.
Agile Methods
- Rasmus Kaae aligns his experience growing up with sport horses to his experience with Scrum: collaboration and teamwork require clear communication and feedback.
- Joe Kelley says that, despite what the Agile Manifesto says about documentation, there is a need (and a place) for a knowledge management tool.
- Mike Cohn considers the question: should a Scrum team include a “stretch goal” when planning their Sprints?
- Dave Prior interviews Steve Elliott and Dennis Stevens on bi-modal operations, e.g. a deliberate mix of Agile and traditional methods in a new approach. Just 44 minutes, safe for work.
- The Clever PM argues that the Scrum Guide is just a starting point – once a team has experience, they should adapt and adjust.
Applied Leadership
- Johanna Rothman recounts three anecdotes that exemplify servant leadership.
- Colin Ellis extracts an interesting point about introverts and extroverts from research into project manager personality types.
- Coert Visser identifies five characteristics of effective teams at Google.
- David Cotgreave analyzes a story of service recovery at a restaurant where the team is having a bad day.
- Elise Stevens interviews Jana Axline about productive (and unproductive) ways to react to a crisis. Just 16 minutes, safe for work.
- Jacqui Spencer explains why self-reflection is so critical to developing leadership skills.
- Kerry Wills describes another meeting failure mode: a one-on-one with several spectators. Take it off line, guys …
Pot Pouri
- Cornelius Fichtner provides a detailed explanation of PMI’s continuing certification process and professional development units. Just 35 minutes, safe for work.
- Jerry Ihijerika looks at the proliferation of project management credentialing bodies and “instant PM” courses, and the proper role for academic programs.
- Joe Toscano shares a designer’s view of our changing expectations of communication and how we’re working to make “meaning” universally obvious.
- Brendan Toner reviews “Zen to Done,” by Leo Babauta. Neither David Allen nor Steven Covey, but apparently influenced by both of them.
- Maria Konnikova reviews research on how people learn to become resilient, when faced with potentially traumatic events. The key is how we perceive these events.
Enjoy!
Thanks for linking to my blog 🙂
Keep up the good work, Ken!