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From Voices on Project Management:
By Mario Trentim

These days, many of us have traded in-person meetings for videoconference calls and business casual for sweatpants. We’re spending much more time working in front of our computer screens and in an astonishing number of new meetings.

The time spent on video chat apps has …

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“We’re All in this Together” – that has been the mantra since the COVID-19 lockdown began – and it elucidates Dave Wakeman’s idea that world has acted as parts of system in dealing with the pandemic.  In much the same way, we can apply a systems approach to the complexity involved in project management.  After -all, projects involve a large number of interactions between different components.

From Voices on Project Management:
by Dave Wakeman

I’ve continued to watch as the world works its way through the coronavirus pandemic, keeping an eye on leadership styles around the world. The successes in places like Australia, New Zealand and Germany can teach us a great deal about what a great project manager can do and …

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From Voices on Project Management:
By Cyndee Miller

With the global death toll now over 410,000, COVID-19 is recognized as a clear and present danger to public health. But lurking just beneath the surface is another disturbing—often less visible—crisis: the damage to our mental health.

People aren’t just livin…

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Lenka Pinkot’s post regarding improving the impact of lessons learned touches on three, specific after-action methods for maximizing learning in a project.  I’ve personally gotten into the habit of launching the lessons learned process at project kick-off, capturing and collecting data and adding it to the regular status meeting agenda so it can be reviewed by the team routinely. Whether it is a traditional project or agile methodology, this is the one element that I try and maintain a formal structure around.  I like to take a continuous improvement approach and I rely on all the project stakeholders to provide feedback as to what metrics and measured should be collected and what methods should be used to gather them.  Its also often helpful to rely on other project managers to share knowledge if they have lessons learned from similar engagements.  I have been part of organizations that have striven to develop a shared body of knowledge.

What methods and practices have you found effective to maximize your lessons learned?

From Voices on Project Management:
By Lenka Pincot

Project management affords a great opportunity for professional and personal learning with the identification of lessons learned as one of its standard practices. Discussing the lessons learned within the team or sharing them with other colleagues outside of the project is all abo…

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Early in my membership with PMI I volunteered as an Operation Adviser for my local chapter. Unfortunately, having three, young kids and a demanding job took a toll on my available bandwidth and I had to relinquish my volunteer position within a year. However, my time spend as a volunteer was highly rewarding, and I would recommend it to anyone who has the passion and time to commit to an effort. Yasmina Khelifi’s points regarding volunteering in her article should be weighed with the proper  consideration because they are absolutely correct, but they shouldn’t absolutely prohibit you from researching an opportunity. Sometimes, the benefits outweigh the detriments.

From Voices on Project Management:
By Yasmina Khelifi, PMP

Are you passionate about a cause? Do you want to lend a hand? Whether you’re interested in volunteering in the project management community or using your project skills to help a non-profit, you may be unsure where to start.

As a newcomer to the volunteer world my…

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From Voices on Project Management:
By Lynda Bourne

Calculating a project cost estimate is the easy bit. Having the estimate accepted by either a client or your management—or both—and then delivering your project on budget is far more difficult.

The technical processes involved in developing a realistic and achie…

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I’ve always said that the measure of a good team isn’t how they operate when everything goes right – its how they conduct themselves when they face adversity.  Do you look at issues as problems or as opportunities for excellence?  In his book, Adversity Quotient: Turning Obstacles into Opportunities, author Paul Stoltz defines the three levels of adversity as Individual, Workplace, and Societal and represents them in a pyramid.  The individual is on the bottom level, illustrating how workplace and societal pressures can crush us if we cannot climb to the top.  It also shows that, “positive change at all three levels starts with you, the individual, and works up, affecting the workplace, and ultimately society-at-large”. (Stoltz, 1999).

Can you describe an occasion when your team has faced adversity and you have been the positive change that influenced the group to face it head on?

Stoltz, P. (1999). Adversity quotient: turning obstacles into opportunities. New York: Wiley.

From Voices on Project Management:
By Conrado Morlan

When it comes to project management, Murphy’s Law often rings true: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. So it’s up to project leaders to be ready and willing to pivot at a moment’s notice. And it’s a lesson learned that I’ve taken from a numbe…

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Cyndee Miller poses a challenging question when she asks if projects can simultaneously bring back the economy and protect the earth.  Lester Brown seemed to have the same challenge on his mind when he wrote in his book, Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth, “transforming our environmentally destructive economy into one
that can sustain progress depends on a Copernican shift in our economic mindset, a recognition that the economy is part of the earth’s ecosystem and can sustain progress only if it is restructured so that it is compatible with it” as well as, “it is up to governments to foster the national vision of an eco-economy and to adopt the ecologically-defined economic policies needed to build it.  This will require a systematic effort to incorporate input from ecologists in economic policy formulation, especially in restructuring taxes and subsidies to help the market reflect the ecological truth” (Brown, 2003).

Do you agree with Brown’s admonishments and advisories?

Brown, L. R. (2003). Eco-economy: Building an economy for the Earth. London: Earthscan.

From Voices on Project Management:
By Cyndee Miller

Climate change … heralded as the greatest and most pressing existential threat to humankind.

Or rather, it was … until COVID-19.

With the world at a virtual standstill, greenhouse gas emissions plummeted, air quality shot up and ecosystems thrived sans interve…

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Marat Oyvetsky points out a number of considerations critical to successful completion of international projects during these challenging times.  In my opinion, these tips are equally relevant for domestic projects, as well.  In particular, increasing team meeting frequency may be necessary. Frequent, formal communication may be required to replace the spontaneous, ad-hoc discussions that may have taken place around the water cooler or passing by a colleague’s office door.  Try to schedule in some time for brainstorming sessions and see where they lead…

From Voices on Project Management:
By Marat Oyvetsky, PMP

Global companies often struggle to get international projects across the finish line because they have to mitigate risks or issues that are outside of typical budgeting and resource availability constraints. In many cases, companies must work through issues such as language…

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Great post from Yasmina Khelifi about making the most of any free time you may have during the week and leveraging technology you may already be using to boost your skillset.  If you find that you don’t necessarily have the bandwidth to devote, how about scheduling in some personal improvement time in your future calendar?

What are the best online platforms you’ve used for learning? What are the pros and cons?

From Voices on Project Management:
By Yasmina Khelifi, PMP

As the world works to return to some sense of normalcy, you, like many others, may find yourself spending more time on your digital devices than ever before. Whether it’s completing work tasks, communicating virtually with project teams or staying in touch with famil…

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