I’ll be presenting to the PM Lessons Learned community later this month. You are welcome to join.
Presentation: Are You a 97 pound PM weakling?
Date: Thursday, August 21st
Time: 9:00 pm EST
Conference dial-in: (269) 320-8300 Access Code: 767 616#
The presentation will be available via replay through September.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Mark // Aug 20, 2008 at 11:51 pm
John:
I have just viewed your presentation in advance of the PM Lessons Learned conference call for tomorrow. I found it to be cogent, astutely insightful, and right on target.
It has been the observations of my colleagues and mentors, and I share their belief, that it is not about the widgets, the technology, project methodology, the tasks, or even the customer…but the “behavior” of the team that is the greatest single determining factor in achieving the mission.
If the weather (despite Tropical Storm Fay) holds up here in Florida and there are no power outages, I look forward to hearing your full elaboration during the “live” presentation tomorrow night.
Regards,
Mark
2 John Langlois // Aug 21, 2008 at 7:01 am
@Mark,
I grew up in Florida and attended Rollins and FSU. Check out my personal bio on my projectEZ website. We may have crossed paths in the past.
3 Mark // Aug 26, 2008 at 8:46 pm
John:
Just finished listening to your presentation from the August 21 session of the “PM Lessons Learned” podcast.
While I regret not having had an opportunity to attend the conference call, I must admit that I found the podcast to be very helpful. Your elaborations on several of the methods and techniques to address “bad” behavior, both in tone and delivery, were particularly useful and I intend to instill and experiment with many of them in my project management processes going forward. I particularly benefitted from, for lack of a better description on my part (my apologies), your “PM Philosophy” mission statement. I found this element concise with easily understood metaphors.
On your next iteration, please provide more elaboration on your thresholds or standards for “directionally correct data” and its criticality on team processes and collaboration. I believe that this is also a hidden gem on lessening the project static and “bad” behavior on teams. [Your thoughts?]
In addition, the strategically placed mission statement at the “gateway” to the project workspace or repository is, in my opinion, a stroke of genius.
On this latter point, the naysayers and negative stakeholders are often the first to dismiss such efforts as trivial or only words; yet, as is so often the case they are the first to complain at the slightest “perceived” affront to “their” core values. Yet, your method at the project “gateway” does lend greater credibility and continuity to the project effort and is a technique that I would also like to employ going forward.
In closing, I agree with your final comments that the most common distinction shared by outstanding project managers is their ability to guide the team’s evolution to the next level. This requires, as Jack Welch and Ram Charan advocate, proactive confrontation (candor) and the “practiced” execution of a repertory of soft skills.
Keep up the good work.
Best wishes,
Mark