Project Junction

I’ve been buried by a blizzard of emails from a manager who always requests that the task/deliverable be completed “Today.” The “today” prompt shows up in variety of amusing ways. The funniest variant was the note written at 10:00 pm requesting that a trivial assignment be completed “tomorrow.” Of course, when I [...]

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EA sports designed a brilliant football video game with a feature called “momentum.” After you score or force an interception momentum shifts your way. With momentum your players are a bit sharper, you drop fewer passes, and you make bigger hits. You hear the term momentum discussed regularly during sporting events. Have you ever [...]

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Have you ever said to yourself, “Nothing good happened today?”
You were wrong.
Discuss.

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“It will take two weeks,” a wonk(fn) told me last week.
“Why?” I asked
“That’s our process. It is documented,” the wonk answered.
Only that really isn’t an answer, is it? It is more like a brush off.  A better response might be, “I wasn’t sitting on my hands waiting for you to pass me work … I’ve [...]

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Team’s become disillusioned when they spin endlessly trying to make a decision. Just this week I heard someone say, “Let’s wait 12 months to collect actual data to see how we are trending before we make this decision.” Really? Since the first three months of data already show that we are running far below plan, [...]

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The Democratic National convention kicked off with flurry of lights and celebrity speeches last night at the Pepsi Center in Denver. It reminded me of a scaled down version of the Olympic opening ceremonies with the vast crowd waving mass produced signs and chanting in unison.
[spoiler alert] I’ve seen this movie before. Candidates will make [...]

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A colleague at work commented, “You are the most efficient project manager I know. You’re always in control.”

He obviously hasn’t seen me walk my dog, Andy. My dog is a pig headed bull terrier that drags me along on his walk every day. I’ve used every PM soft skill technique I know to coax him [...]

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Folks,
If you attended the worldwide conference call last night, I’d appreciate your direct feedback.
+  What went well?
++  What could be improved?
Here’s the slide deck for reference.
Are you a 97 pound PM weakling?
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: softskills leadership)

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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.

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My Grandpa Joe owned a gas station back in the day when an “island boy”ran out to your car to perform a full inspection of your tire pressure, wipers, and fluids while filling your tank with gas. That’s right, long ago in a far away land, someone once filled your tank while you sat in [...]

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