Category: Project management
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V is for Volunteering
One of the criticisms of modern professional discourse is that there are too many opinions — including this one. Lists abound: “10 things to do.” “10 things not to do.” “10 things you thought were true but aren’t.” It’s endless advice in search of a verb. The only advice that really matters, though, is simple:…
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Factfulness Part Two – Rules of Thumb
Our first article explored Rosling’s Dramatic Instincts—the biases that lead CIOs and Project Managers to overreact to crises, vendor hype, and boardroom pressure. This article explores the very humans tendency to take a ‘good enough’ approach to problem solving. “Heuristics” is the official name, but it is also known as the ‘Rules of Thumb’. Are…
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Factfulness Part One – Our Dramatic Instincts
Humans have a tendency to dramatise. Can we as IT professionals — from the CIO to the project manager to the IT technician — overcome these dramatic instincts?
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From Firehose to Filter: Effective information flow for CIOs, Portfolio Managers, and everyone else.
This piece borrows from fluid mechanics to give leaders a practical way to keep information laminar: a simple yardstick (IRe) and a few high-leverage moves—batch the message, narrow the audience, set a steady cadence, right-size scope. With three quick examples, we show how to turn a firehose into a controlled flow of information.
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Want to improve job performance?
“People’s mental wellbeing has been worsening. In the last 10 years, the number of people expressing stress, sadness, anxiety, anger or worry has been on the rise, reaching its highest levels since the Gallup surveys began.” But there is a practical step we can take to reduce the effects of negative stress…. Walk. Or take…
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Delivering Better Customer Service through Better Project and Program Management
“Customer service” — along with “value-add” or “quality assurance” — is one of those traditional phrases that can remind us of a different era. Whilst the focus on customer service has changed in recent years, it is still needed, and many organisations suffer from a lack of customer service design and understanding.
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Fast Breaks and Gantt Charts
After 30+ years of portfolio, program and project management, it felt good to encounter a new discipline that brought fresh perspectives and give me new insights on how to lead great and successful winning teams.
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A parable for failed project management, and how to find success …
Working with a team, managing a successful one, and leading for success allhave at their core a similar problem. How do we ensure that all team membersview the project — the drawbacks and the benefits — with the same insights andunderstanding? This is the Blind Men and their elephant problem. In the classic Indian tale,…
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Better vendor management through program management
The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) defines vendor management (also known as supplier relationship management) as the process that “involves reviewing the portfolio of suppliers, categorising supply relationships by their significance, devoting resources in proportion to the relationship’s significance and managing processes between the parties torealise the relationship objectives.” Traditionally procurement is a…

