Our Blog
6 Tips for Managing Scope on a Project
One of my favorite books I used to read to my kids was The Mitten. It’s the story of a young boy walking in the woods and loses his mitten. A mole comes along and crawls in it to stay warm. Then, a rabbit sees the mitten and squeezes in with the mole. After that the...
Applying the 80-20 Rule Every Day
I recently met a college student who was studying psychology. He was one of the brightest and most ambitious young men I’ve met. He had dreams. He wanted to own his own business. “Not just a little sole proprietorship,” he told me. “I’m willing to start small. But I...
4 Components of Business Alignment
If you’ve ever been to an air show in a major city, chances are that you’ve seen the Blue Angels perform. The Blue Angels are a flying aerobatic team. They fly six F/A-18 Hornet aircraft and perform maneuvers such as formation loops and barrel rolls. It amazes me that...
The Secret Sauce of Project Management: Beyond Art and Science
Brian Williams became the NBC Nightly News anchor in December of 2004. In February of 2015, he was suspended for six months for incorrectly claiming that he had been in a helicopter that came under fire in 2003. The incident created a firestorm of debate regarding...
Management By Criticism and Other Ways to Demotivate
I once worked for a manager that had very little positive to say. He criticized just about everything anyone ever did. The term "Good job" just wasn't in his vernacular. I wrote it off as just an oddity. I was fortunate enough to move on in my career to work for some...
Stakeholder Management for Project Managers
Case study – The stakeholder from hell Melvin was a project manager on a software development project. On a weekly basis, he reported status via a conference call with project stakeholders that were distributed around the world. The meeting was usually a formality....