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Theme of the Month: Personality Management - Personality and Perfume By Bill Richardson, PMP |
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Published on Nov 26, 2008 |
This month’s suite of articles in allPM.com places the spotlight on a very important element of managing projects in today’s global environment – the role of personality in how we lead, manage our team and ultimately relate to our stakeholders. One of the most interesting things about humans is their personality. When looking at the same situation or event, we are all different in behavior, reactions and feelings. These wonderful personality traits make our life refreshing and sometimes totally unpredictable.
Charles M. Schwab said it best – “personality is to a man what perfume is to a flower.”
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The Power of Stories: Knowledge Sharing at NASA By Dr. Ed Hoffman and Matt Kohut |
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Published on Nov 26, 2008 |
Anyone who has worked on a project team knows about tunnel vision. It's almost unavoidable in a project setting. While this intensity level is essential to project success, it also poses a challenge for project-based organizations. How do you build a sense
of community and common purpose among geographically dispersed teams that are tightly focused on their individual projects?
The NASA Academy of Program/Project & Engineering Leadership has addressed this by devising a professional development framework for the agency's project management workforce that concentrates on three levels: individual, team, and organization.
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Five Key Elements to Process Improvement Project Success By Harry Rever, PMP – Director of Six Sigma, IIL |
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Published on Nov 26, 2008 |
Originally published as a part of 2008 PMI Global Congress Proceedings – Denver, Colorado
Introduction
The Project Management Institute’s Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), Third Edition, defines a project as, “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.” In terms of “process improvement projects”, projects can be defined as those temporary or short term endeavors designed to improve a process resulting in improved performance in a key performance indicator of the business. After all, what business leaders care about is improving results. That is the bottom line; improved performance. This fundamental objective is accomplished through projects, in particular process improvement projects. To improve results implies that results are actually measured; therefore, process improvement projects are focused on improving key metrics of the business.
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Launching Successful Projects By Marsha B. Hughes, PMP |
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Published on Nov 26, 2008 |
Project teams often take considerable time at the beginning of a project coming up to speed. The time the team spends planning and putting effective team methods into place can be shortened considerably with a focused project launch. Getting out of the starting
gate quickly and effectively is especially important for projects facing difficult constraints, such as an aggressive schedule. A project launch can be conducted as a facilitated workshop in which the team works on the activities as a group; the outputs of
the activities are documented and form the basis of their project plan. The launch is typically held at the start of a project, and includes all members of the project team.
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Negotiation: Know Before You Go! By George Bridges, PMP |
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Published on Nov 26, 2008 |
As a Project Manager, can we always create or reach an outcome that is acceptable to all parties? In my previous position as the IT Director for a large non-profit organization, we conducted a meeting with a user of systems applications to determine how we
could produce an upgrade. The IT department tried to negotiate an acceptable solution for a revised automated check-in/check-out system. The users came to the table with what seemed to be no intention of coming up with an acceptable solution. It was very difficult,
if not impossible, to reach an agreement for a new system. After several hours at the table, as IT director, I decided that the best alternative was to escalate the problem to upper management. This process until that point had failed to produce a win for
either party. This scenario describes a case where the negotiation process failed and escalation was needed to reach a decision for a new solution. We were not able to produce a win-win solution for this project.
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PMBOK® Guide – Fourth Edition Changes By Cynthia Synder-Stackpole, PMP |
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Published on Nov 26, 2008 |
Change is good, or so they say. As project managers we know that change is good if it is
appropriate, managed and communicated. There have been some changes to the
PMBOK® Guide in the Fourth Edition. Since the PMBOK® Guide is an ANSI standard, PMI must assess it every 4-5 years to determine if an update is needed. Based on that assessment we made some changes to a few processes and did some work to make
the document internally consistent. We had discussions on web site forums and with the core team and determined that the changes were in fact
appropriate. And, since I was the project manager, I can definitely attest to the fact that the change was
managed! Finally, given that PMI has distributed more than 1,000,000 copies of the
PMBOK® Guide- Third Edition, I am sure the Fourth Edition will be communicated and distributed even more widely.
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Positive Leadership In Project Management – Leadership Laws By Frank P. Saladis, PMP |
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Published on Nov 26, 2008 |
Leadership is a subject that has been discussed for generations and there are many perceptions about the characteristics of a true leader. I enjoy visiting book stores to see what’s new in the business and management area and there is always at least one new
book about leadership or something very closely related to the topic. It seems there is an unending supply of leadership books and a large assortment of “how to” books that describe winning strategies for motivating people.
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Teamwork Basics By Tom Bartoli, PMP |
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Published on Nov 26, 2008 |
We all know teamwork is essential to the success of a project. But how do we develop a sense of team spirit in our project teams and how do we restore that spirit if it is lost? Here are some basic guidelines that will help establish a good foundation for any project manager.
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Globalization: Eyeball to Eyeball By Giancarlo Duranti, PMP |
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Published on Nov 26, 2008 |
Introduction
During a certain point in my life, I found myself working 3,500 miles away from home in a completely different business and life-style environment. Since that experience my life has been changed, and since that time I’ve started reflecting upon becoming integrated
as a project manager but also as a human being, as much as possible, as well as possible, and as fast as possible with people who look at life in a different way than I do. Time passed and more international assignments arrived giving me the opportunity to
share my beliefs with people from other cultures, who had values deeply different from mine.
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Tip of the Day
Tip of the day # 8 - Personality Management By Bill Richardson, PMP
The mismatch between peoples' personalities and their job doesn't mean that they are unable to do the jobs they are in. It does mean that they are not playing to their strengths and they are likely to find their incompatible jobs more stressful than if they had one more compatible with their personalities. Remember personality can be skewed by what we want to be like or alternatively by what other people have told us we are like.
© 2008 allPM.com
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