Posts

Project Management Warning Flag 3 – Frequent Re-baselining

Changing circumstances and constrained resources challenge the on-time, on-budget completion of every project. And in the real business world, some projects incur significant scope changes and others will fall behind schedule.


Hi there! Gain access to this article with a StrategyDriven Insights Library – Total Access subscription or buy access to the article itself.

Subscribe to the StrategyDriven Insights Library

Sign-up now for your StrategyDriven Insights Library – Total Access subscription for as low as $15 / month (paid annually).

Not sure? Click here to learn more.

Buy the Article

Don’t need a subscription? Buy access to Project Management Warning Flag 3 – Frequent Re-baselining for just $2!

Standards and Expectations Warning Flag 1 – Standards Creep

StrategyDriven Standards and Expectations Warning Flag articleHave you ever been confronted by a customer’s challenge that your product or service quality just isn’t what it used to be? Or notice the number of quality defects in your products or services has somehow increased over the past months, quarters, or years? Or felt so much pressure to get something done that you deemed the quality to be ‘good enough for government work?’

All of these are signs of standards creep; not a beneficial raising of the bar but rather an allowance of ever worsening performance.


Hi there! Gain access to this article with a FREE StrategyDriven Insights Library – Sample Subscription. It’s FREE Forever with No Credit Card Required.

Sign-up now for your FREE StrategyDriven Insights Library – Sample Subscription

In addition to receiving access to Standards and Expectations Warning Flag 1 – Standards Creep, you’ll help advance your career and business programs through anytime, anywhere access to:

  • A sampling of dozens of Premium how-to documents across 7 business functions and 28 associated programs
  • 2,500+ Expert Contributor management and leadership articles
  • Expert advice provided via StrategyDriven’s Advisors Corner

Best of all, it’s FREE Forever with No Credit Card Required.

Adaptive Project Framework is not your Father’s Project Management

We all agree that projects are unique. They will never happen again under the same set of circumstances or conditions. Given that, wouldn’t it be reasonable to expect the management of those projects to also be unique?

The world doesn’t stand still just because you are managing a project. That is one reason why requirements cannot possibly be completely documented at the initiation phase of a project. Whatever management approach you choose to use for your project must be adaptable to changing conditions. Traditional project management models are poorly equipped to accommodate change.


Hi there! This article is available for free. Login or register as a StrategyDriven Personal Business Advisor Self-Guided Client by:

Subscribing to the Self Guided Program - It's Free!


 


About the Author

Robert K. Wysocki, Ph.D., has more than forty years of experience as a project management consultant and trainer, information systems manager, systems and management consutant, author, and training developer and provider. His sixteen books on project and IT management include the PMI-recommended Effective Project Management, Fifth Edition (Wiley, 2009). In 1990, Robert founded Enterprise Information Insights, Inc. (EII), a consulting and training practice that specializes in helping large organizations run projects more effectively. His clients range from AT&T and Aetna to the U.S. Army Signal Corps, Wal-Mart, and Wells Fargo.

Happiness at Work: Fact Not Fad

I’ll never forget one of my first business meetings. Super keen but very green, I sat down with my new boss and other team members on my first six-month placement at a large financial institution. I was one of 20 graduate trainees and one of only three women to be taken on.

Understanding about 10% of what was actually being said – it sounded like English but made little sense – I was asked a question. What did I think? Did I, the new graduate trainee, have an opinion? My stomach lurched. I was being tested and needed to say something useful.

My reply started with ‘Well, I feel…’ But my boss cut in. ‘We’re paying you to think, not to feel.’ I was crushed. Welcome to the world of work as it was in the 80s, my first taste of a very macho industry. It was a long time before I had the courage to use the word ‘feel’ again in any work place.


Hi there! This article is available for free. Login or register as a StrategyDriven Personal Business Advisor Self-Guided Client by:

Subscribing to the Self Guided Program - It's Free!


 


About the Author

Jessica Pryce-Jones is author of Happiness at Work: Maximizing Your Psychological Capital for Success, published by Wiley Blackwell. She lives in Oxford. For more information, visit www.iopener.com.

StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 30b – An Interview with Lynne Lancaster and David Stillman, authors of The M-Factor, part 2 of 2

StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 30b – An Interview with Lynne Lancaster and David Stillman, authors of The M-Factor, part 2 of 2 examines how to successfully integrate Millennials into the workforce from the perspectives of the Traditionalists, Boomers, and Gen Xers already there and the incoming Millennials themselves. During our discussion, Lynne Lancaster and David Stillman, authors of The M-Factor: How the Millennial Generation Is Rocking the Workplace and co-Founders and Partners of BridgeWorks, shares with us their insights and illustrative examples regarding:

  • why Millennials appear to have a sense of entitlement and how it is different than that of other generations
  • how managers should handle Millennial parents who want to be involved in every aspect of their children’s workplace activities
  • what managers can do to harness the tech savviness and speed of Millennials to their business’s benefit
  • how to deal with Traditionals, Boomers, and Gen Xers who feel they are forfeiting their value to the organization and job security when tasked with sharing hard earned knowledge with Millennials
  • actions Millennials should take to better integrate with their organization

Additional Information

In addition to the incredible insights Lynne and David share in The M-Factor and this special edition podcast are the resources accessible from their website, www.Generations.com.   Their book, The M-Factor, can be purchased by clicking here.

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider rating us on iTunes by clicking here. Rating the StrategyDriven Podcast and providing your comments online improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.

Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!


About the Author

Lynne Lancaster is one of today’s foremost cultural translators. An expert on the generations, she is co-founder of BridgeWorks, a company that advises leaders, managers, and employees on how to conduct business more successfully by bridging generation gaps at work and in the marketplace. Her keynote speeches and workshops have enlightened and entertained high level audiences from many of America’s best companies, including 3M, American Express, Best Buy, Citigroup, Coca-Cola, Lockheed Martin, and Wells Fargo, as well as from numerous public sector and nonprofit organizations. To read Lynne’s full biography, click here.

David Stillman is co-founder of BridgeWorks and one of the youngest keynote speakers to hit the national circuit. He co-authored the best selling business book, When Generations Collide, with Lynne in 2002. David has appeared nationally on CNN, CNBC, and the Today show and has been featured in such prestigious publications as TIME magazine, Entrepreneur, The New York Times, and USA Today. To read David’s full biography, click here.