The following is adapted from The Irreverent Guide to Project Management.
Every successful team has a robust set of tools to back up their efforts. Skills, expertise, experience, confidence, and passion are essential to seeing a project through to a happy ending. But there are some tools that hang out at the bottom of the toolbox, promising to break or wreak havoc the first time they are put to use.
The following is adapted from The Irreverent Guide to Project Management.
Over the course of my career, I have had the great fortune to contribute to global transformational efforts within organizations like DirecTV, Trader Joe’s, Sony Pictures, and Mattel. During these transformations, I’ve learned a lot about what kinds of cultures lead a business to success, and which ones don’t pan out over the long run.
Overall, a business’s goal is to continuously deliver value to customers, which is a deceptively simple thing to promise. Even some of the largest companies let that central goal slip from time to time. There are some values, though, that will help keep you and your business on track. Here are five major values that I keep coming back to, time and time again.
The following is adapted from The Irreverent Guide to Project Management.
In project management, one of the most important things we do is to create a daily status report. Every day, we publish a list of the things we accomplished, the things we’re planning to accomplish the following day, and three things for which we’re grateful. These reports are designed to communicate to our team and clients that we are moving our projects forward as aggressively as possible, thereby ensuring transformational outcomes.
Even if you aren’t in project management, communicating your daily progress is an extremely valuable habit to develop—even if you’re just communicating it to yourself. Read on to find out how this simple practice can radically alter your perspective on work.
The following is adapted from The Irreverent Guide to Project Management.
Any time you get enough people together, you are likely to encounter friction, and work is no exception. It’s wonderful to have a supportive, sympathetic, open-minded, egoless team, but realistically, there are few cohorts that can measure up to that Utopian dream.
When the inevitable bumps and glitches arise, it’s best to already have an idea of how you can get them under control. If they aren’t managed right away, interpersonal tensions have the power to derail an entire project, and what’s worse, they can foster grudges and animosities that linger amongst team members moving forward.
No one plans to be a Project Manager when they grow up. Many people gravitate to Project Management as an entry into software development, or more vaguely, “Tech” or “IT.” Project Management is what you do if you’re not an Engineer. Or a Designer. Or QA. Or any of the many positions that are viewed as a “value-add.” A needle mover.
The following is adapted from It’s Never Just Business.
When your team sets a goal at work, how do you track progress to see how you’re doing? Are you more prone to using a lag measure or a lead measure?
Uh oh, did I lose you?
The biggest obstacle to achieving business agility is culture. You’ve heard this … But have you heard why? If not, keep reading.
Command and control business management is about control and achieving smooth, consistent results. Generally, mistakes or disruption are not safe for employees. In this environment, being perceived as always having everything under control with an ability to completely avoid setbacks is the hallmark of success and the path to promotion.
The following is adapted from It’s Never Just Business.
I don’t know anyone who gets excited when the topic of accountability comes up.
Most of us see it as a chore, a burden, or a necessary evil because we start out lives with a negative perception of accountability. When we are toddlers, our parents set boundaries to keep us alive. However, as toddlers, we can’t possibly see those boundaries as anything other than a punishment. We want to do something, and they won’t let us! So, we keep pushing, and the third time I try to put my hand on the hot stove, my dad smacks it in an attempt to deter any further exploration.
I don’t know a single IT executive that feels their teams are driving change fast enough to support the promises being made by their Sales and Marketing teams. According to DXC, 52% of Fortune 500 companies have disappeared since 2000. And, according to research performed by Michael Gale co-author of “The Digital Helix,” 84% of the Forbes Global 2000 have failed in some way at Digital Transformation and more than 50% failed completely.
Whenever I get the opportunity I ask people to close their eyes and tell me what they see when I say the word “leadership” or “leader”. Almost everyone imagines a superhero type looking off into the distance with a bunch of people standing behind ready to follow. Ironically, that is not at all what leadership actually looks like. Leadership… is what took place before all of those people lined up to follow.