Tag Archives: organization

Life is a learning game, and it is constantly full of mini-exams to test the knowledge you should have acquired. It is through the trial and error of experience that people learn, grow, and thrive. In a post for the PM Perspectives Blog, Lindsay Scott explores how this concept is especially true for beginning project managers. There are five skills a new project manager should work on developing in their first few years: The foundation …

It is an adventure when your organization decides to make the full jump from project management infrastructure to a formal project management office (PMO). However, if you are tasked with leading this transformation, you may find yourself wondering where to begin. In an article for Project Smart, Brad Egeland discusses the four questions that need to be asked in order to establish the best PMO: What types of projects will the PMO be responsible for, …

The motivation behind every project is to successfully implement change that will help the organization to progress further. Change management helps the people affected by the change to smoothly transition. In a post for the PM Perspectives Blog, project leadership coach Susanne Madsen explores the basics of starting successful change management. Changing the Way We Change Change management will never be effective if it sets out to “sell” a person the change, they should be …

Mistakes are seldom the end of the world. In fact, mistakes often provide wonderful learning opportunities for organizations to grow. What becomes a problem is when organizations forget what they have learned from project failures and go back to making the same mistakes. In an article for Harvard Business Review, Francisco Polidoro Jr. explores why businesses so quickly become amnesiacs. What Do You Remember? NASA unfortunately provides a quintessential example of lessons learned and forgotten from …

Every organization inevitably develops a treasure trove of valuable knowledge, but when you do not transfer it effectively among relevant employees, it becomes like a pirate’s buried chest, forgotten and inaccessible. In a post for Voices on Project Management, Lynda Bourne elaborates on how to effectively implement knowledge management. A Socratic Process Knowledge management is a discipline that extends beyond simple lessons learned. Lessons learned are explicit knowledge that can be “transmitted” to other people. …

Do you have the guts to change with the times? If you do not, you can just watch the business rust. But if you do, continual service improvement provides the means to maintain the business’s sheen for all times. In a guest post for Joe the IT Guy, Ian Clayton discusses the seven essential elements of a successful improvement program: Define the problem. Focus on the customer. Obtain the commitment of leadership. Socialize the program. …

In an article from Harvard Business Review, Ron Carucci reveals the details of a 10-year study that closely analyzed great executives and isolated the best practices they engaged in. Through the course of the study, 2,700 leadership interviews were conducted, which ultimately uncovered seven performance factors that correlated with strong leaders. These factors then lead to the discovery of four reoccurring patterns that distinguish the best of the best: Executives are knowledgeable about the entire …