Tag Archives: Leadership

New PM Articles for the Week of June 26 – July 2

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New project management articles published on the web during the week of June 26 – July 2. And this week’s video: Brendon Gouveia presents a short animation breaking down the concepts of emotional intelligence and how it’s an integral part of thinking and decision making.

Must read!

  • Katie Benner caps a week in which Uber CEO Travis Kalanick stepped down with a report on the culture of harassment of women in technology.
  • Tyler Cowen looks at how the iPhone has changed not only the behavior of the people who use it but the way complex products are mass-produced.
  • Rich Maltzman and Dave Shirley apply the ancient metaphor of the Fox and the Hedgehog to project management and sustainability.

Established Methods

  • Harry Hall compiles ten commandments of risk management, expressed in ye Olde English of King James (but with an embedded Leo Tolstoy reference).
  • Mike Clayton explains why he prefers the term “stakeholder engagement.” Just over 5 minutes, safe for work.
  • Elise Stevens interviews Payson Hall on the most effective relationship between the project sponsor and project manager roles.
  • Barry Hodge explains the project champion role with a video, just over a minute and safe for work.
  • Kerry Wills notes the key activities in planning an off-site meeting.
  • Pat Weaver reports on an exciting development: PMI will allow candidates to take an on-line proctored CAPM certification exam through Pearson VUE, beginning this summer.

Agile Methods

  • Stefan Wolpers curates his weekly list of Agile content—making the transition from project thinking to product thinking, quantifying the cost of delay, and Product Manager vs. Product Owner.
  • Cornelius Fichtner interviews Stas Podoxin on how he prepared for the PMI-ACP exam by taking a university course. Just 34 minutes, safe for work.
  • Dave Prior and Jesse Fewell discuss whether the PMP Is still worth having if you are doing Agile. Just over 45 minutes, safe for work.
  • Bart Gerardi lists a few things to look for when hiring candidates for a job where Agile methods will be used.
  • The Clever PM explains how to overcome passive resistance from stakeholders.
  • John Goodpasture answers a student question: no, there are no stage gates in Agile. But it might be simpler to adapt DSDM than Scrum. And links to a presentation that demonstrates the idea.

Applied Leadership

  • Susanne Madsen identifies the connection between our values and the experiences from our childhood that influence our leadership style.
  • The partners at McKinsey & Company polled the leaders of some very visible organizations to ask what they’ll be reading this summer. Read like a CEO to think like one?
  • Geraldine O’Reilly describes the key skills required to successfully manage projects with a cross-cultural team.

Technology, Techniques, and Human Behavior

  • Ben Longstaff explores the moral challenges of creating error handling for self-driving cars that can’t empathize with the humans they may impact— When an accident is inevitable, whose life should be saved?
  • Nick Heath prepared a summary of where ransomware comes from and how to protect yourself from it.
  • Eshe Nelson reports on a PWC estimate that AI could increase global GDP by $15.7 trillion by 2030, with almost half of that amount accruing to China.
  • Garrett Kinsman evangelizes the coming wave in the Internet of Things (IoT), explaining how it will change the world forever.

Working and the Workplace

  • E. Goodman-Wilson explains why he left a good gig in San Francisco at Slack to take a position in Paris. Yes, the one in France.
  • Tim Herrera makes the business case for taking a nap at work. Note that napping during meetings is still not good practice.
  • Katrina Davies shares some simple techniques for de-stressing without leaving your desk. Note: leave your desk, anyway—this stuff is the last resort.

Enjoy!

New PM Articles for the Week of June 19 – 25

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New project management articles published on the web during the week of June 19 – 25. And this week’s video: Elizabeth Harrin shows how to create a video version of your presentation using Lumen5.com. Less than seven minutes, safe for work, and highly recommended!

Must read!

  • Darragh Broderick links us to six TED talks that can help us master critical communication skills. Definitely, take the time to listen to the talks by William Ury and Colin Camerer.
  • Harry Hall suggests some ways we can apply the principles described by Joshua Becker in “The More of Less: Finding the life you want under everything you own” to project management.
  • Dan O’Sullivan details the losses in the newly discovered leak of data collected on behalf of the Republican National Committee. Personal data on nearly all of 200 million eligible voters—the mind boggles that this much data could be left completely exposed.

Established Methods

  • Michel Dion observes that there is an objective to each meeting, beyond the one reflected in the agenda.
  • John Goodpasture shares a great picture of F-35 program manager Vice Admiral David Venlet standing in front of a low-tech, high-information dashboard. Paper still gets it done!
  • Alex Puscasu posted eight more articles fleshing out his Risk Management Guide. This is the one on Risk Assessment; click on the Guide link for the rest.
  • Mike Clayton explains the history and details of the Tuckman model of group development, and how well it applies to project teams. Just six minutes, safe for work.
  • Glen Alleman clarifies some common misinterpretations of the Cone of Uncertainty.

Agile Methods

  • Stefan Wolpers curates his weekly list of Agile content, from abandoning Scrum in favor of Kanban, to how effective teams work, to crappy product roadmaps.
  • Natalie Warnert explains why carrying unfinished work over to the next sprint is wasteful.
  • Dave Prior posts links to three podcasts that explain Cost of Delay in terms that even he understands. Just 35, 26, and27 minutes, respectively. All safe for work.
  • Johanna Rothman concludes her series on “scaling” Agile, with a look at how change works at the culture level.
  • Leigh Espy lists nine best practices for the Daily Scrum meeting.
  • The Clever PM has some recommendations on how you can expand your product management skill set. Good suggestions for Scrum Masters and project managers, too.
  • John Maher suggests that the Drexler / Sibbert team performance model might be more useful for Agile teams than the Tuckman team development model.

Applied Leadership

  • Bertrand Duperrin quotes Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, “Speed is the new currency of business.” And since humans are still the linchpins of business, that’s a problem.
  • Scott Berkun comments on Netflix’s newly updated description of their culture: good, questionable, and off the mark.
  • Art Petty notes that good leaders ask questions and listen to the answers, while bad ones talk about themselves even though nobody cares.

Technology, Techniques, and Human Behavior

  • Adam Shostack tutors us on threat modeling. “Under attack” is the new normal, folks …
  • Charles Roe explains Data Governance, Data Modeling, and Data Management. The differences are significant.
  • Mike Girdler explains why our process mapping techniques and outputs suck. But, there’s hope.
  • Faisal Hoque links mindfulness to productivity and effective leadership. Sweep the floor and then drink some tea …

Working and the Workplace

  • Maddy Osman has eight suggestions for making Email a less demanding part of your working day.
  • Richard Moy identifies four warning signs that you need to get up and take a five-minute break so you can get back to being productive.
  • The Daily Mail conducted a survey to determine the fifty most annoying office jargon terms, from “blue-sky thinking” to “ASAP.”

Enjoy!

New PM Articles for the Week of June 12 – 18

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New project management articles published on the web during the week of June 12 – 18. And this week’s video: a compilation of the things project managers say, do, and otherwise share. Just over three minutes, and more or less safe for work.

Must read!

  • Rich Armstrong suggests that we should start developing an inclusive culture by working less and focusing on professionalism.
  • Adam Greenfield takes a (very) long look at the smartphone, which has completely transformed our society and social interactions in only ten years.
  • Brad Stulber and Steve Magness describe the positive effects derived from letting the brain rest, from insights to preventing burnout.

Established Methods

  • Alex Puscasu begins a 12-part series on risk management, with a description of project risk and a list of the articles to come.
  • Harry Hall offers some risk management metaphors from the beach.
  • John Goodpasture quickly summarizes “Algorithms to Live By: The computer science of human decisions,” by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths.
  • Elizabeth Harrin interviews Linky ven der Merwe—just two of the most influential women in project management having a chat.

Agile Methods

  • Stefan Wolpers curates his weekly list of Agile content, from the evolution of the Agile manager to the illusion of measuring what customers want, to when and how to say “no.”
  • Scott Sehlhorst explores four potential gains from Agile methods, requiring only lots of hard work.
  • Dave Prior interviews Parikshit Basrur on his Agile Transformation Playbook. Just 34 minutes, safe for work.
  • Ron Jeffries reflects on why we need a concept of “done” in Scrum, and why shorter sprints might help us learn to get everything done.
  • Mike Cohn helps us get ready for summer with a list of things to do before the Scrum master goes on vacation. Agile is about responding to changes, right?
  • Johanna Rothman continues her series on scaling Agile with an examination of Agile management, with a focus on flow efficiency.
  • The Clever PM looks at the contribution that accepting uncertainty makes to Agile teams.
  • Verena Frey points out the opportunity we get in a retrospective to reinforce the positive.
  • John Wood explains how to develop a user experience strategy.

Applied Leadership

  • Dmitriy Nizhebetskiy coaches us on how to fire people from our projects.
  • Art Petty extols the inspirational value of the highly competent.
  • Andy Kaufman interviews Andy Molinsky on his new book, “Reach,” and helping people step outside their comfort zones. Just 56 minutes, safe for work.

Technology, Techniques, and Human Behavior

  • Seth Godin points out some recent revolutions that completely changed the human experience, and a couple of new ones already in progress.
  • John Yorke presents a short biography of Henry Ford, the man who first introduced what would become the Theory of Constraints, Lean, and workflow optimization to the workplace.
  • Grace Windsor shares some “pro tips” on preparing effective Powerpoint presentations.

Working and the Workplace

  • Madeleine Dore recaps the case for managing our energy, scheduling idle time, and preserving our focus.
  • Kat Boogaard lays out some strategies for getting the most out of the sleep you can get, if eight hours is out of the question.
  • Patrick Allen quotes Epictetus: “It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.”

Enjoy!