I was a volunteer. I lost count of how many hours of community service I donated over 13 years of providing first aid cover at school fetes, amateur dramatic theatre productions, Remembrance parades, or in teaching others. But I don’t volunteer any more. Instead, I have a standing order that pays an amount to charity…
“Many of the most popular books on change address its psychological aspects, and focus on people and their internal states or motivations,” write Gregory P. Shea and Cassie A. Solomon in their book, Leading Successful Change: 8 Keys to Making Change Work. They go on to say: This psychological perspective taken alone, however, can promote…
I have met Michel Thiry, author of Program Management, and he is a nice guy. However, I was disagreeing with him by page 1. He writes: “Project managers lack the proficiency and/or capability to understand or question strategic language and are often not aware of expected benefits.” If you are not aware of the benefits,…
Six women share their tips for making a comeback at work after maternity leave. Research shows women can lose their earning power when they take time out to have children, so planning your return to work (as far as you can) will make you feel more confident about turning up to the office again.
I’m delighted to welcome back Shawn Kent Hayashi of The Professional Development Group, who last wrote an article for us back in 2010. This time she’s sharing some great ideas about making the most of criticism at work. There’s one radical idea that will transform workplace interactions. Here it is: Criticism is a form of…
I’m going back to work. It’s my first day in the office and on leaving the house I bump into a neighbour. In the terribly British way we have, we talk about the weather. “Isn’t this sun great?” he says. “It’s like being on holiday. I wish it was like this all the time.” I…
This is a contributed article by Ian Needs, Marketing Manager at KeyedIn Solutions. It’s been about a year since the London Olympics. Imagine you were the manager of transportation programmes during the Games. That’s a huge responsibility. Where would you start? How would you stay organised? For most of us, Olympic project management is a…
I take it back. We aren’t getting more sleep. In fact, I’m too tired to come up with any parenting/project management cross-over lessons this month. Here is a picture of Jack’s feet instead.
As regular readers will know, I’ve been on maternity leave since January, and I’m now easing myself back into work. I spoke to Janice Haddon, a coach and management consultant who specialises in helping people return to work successfully (amongst other things). This is what she had to say about returning to work after a…
15 weeks in and we are starting to get a bit more sleep in the Otobos household. And as with anything new, we’re also getting better at it. At least, I think we are – we’ve managed an overnight trip to the seaside staying in a hotel and a couple of long weekends away staying…
I did not expect to be the kind of parent that dressed my child in comedy outfits – in fact, before Jack was born I was adamant that I wouldn’t do that. Parents are embarrassing enough when you are 18 without having them bring out all the embarrassing photos of you as a child. But…
Recently I spoke to risk expert Dr Wilhlem Kross about risk communication and the challenges facing project managers talking about risk. Here is the second part of that interview, in which Wilhelm and I talk about how project managers can best communicate about risk on their projects. Wilhelm, you talked about how sometimes people communicating…