Managers and project managers are often told that “engaging stakeholders” is critical to success. However, they rarely receive guidance on what it means or how to “engage stakeholders.” It is similar to when I started practicing yoga, the teacher told us to “release our sacrum.” […]
Stakeholder management is one of the most critical project management functions. Stakeholders are our customers, organizational leaders, members of our project teams, and people we may not even know. The project manager’s ability to effectively identify, understand, and engage stakeholders is a key determinant of […]
The Project Management Institute (PMI) is making a bold pivot toward agile. As a project manager and an agilist, I am excited by these moves. At the same time, it is hard to envision both this transition and the future state. In this article, I […]
Knowledge Management (KM) is broadly defined as the process of creating and sharing information across the organization. Its goal is to enable learning. KM became a formal business disciple in the 1990s even though it dates back centuries. I believe that project management follows the […]
Organizational change and transformation efforts are often challenging. Most fail to meet their planned objectives with 30% failing outright. In last month’s article, ”Road Trippin’ Organizational Change: The Beginning”, I recommending using adaptive-agile planning practices and treating the effort like a road trip: Set the […]
Most organizational change efforts do not succeed. They fail to achieve the desired results. They are disruptive and sometimes leave the company worse-off. An oft-cited statistic is that 70% of organizational change efforts fail. This metric is attributed to Hammer and Champy’s 1993 classic, “Reengineering […]
Lean and Agile organizations have harnessed the power of the stand-up meeting as a valuable process tool. The stand-up is an efficient and effective way to communicate. It promotes transparency into the progress of work and highlights issues. The meeting fosters a collaborative work environment and […]
Kanban is a versatile and powerful tool to help you manage your work. It can be used to track personal projects, complex operations and large programs; for example, it can be used to: Efficiently manage the flow of inventory in a factory, Help students manage their homework […]
“All good lessons come at a cost. Try to learn them inexpensively.” Howard Zucker When I made a mistake as a child, my father would remind me that all lessons come at a cost. The goal was to learn them cheaply. I did not always […]
“Improving Communications with DISC,” George Washington University’s Masters of Project Management Program Webinar, October 30, 2018. Communications theory tells us that communications are about the receiver. As project managers we can become more effective communicators by adopting our style to be more compatible with our […]