Everywhere I go I am starting to notice consistent problems or patterns of behaviour that hold back some of the best people in the teams I work with. I think they are starting to rank right up their with the Peter Principle as ways to stop good people from reaching their true potential and really… Continue reading Succession planning as an idea whose time has come
Category: Leading change
A project charter for lazy teams
I have been creating a couple of blogs on context recently. The idea is that if you know a bit about your users and the product that you are building. Both can take months or years, but I like to think we can even spend an hour or less to understand our project. When you… Continue reading A project charter for lazy teams
Become a Certified Strum Muckster (or CSA)
With certification in agile becoming all the rage, I have decided to create a new international certification for trainers. To become a Certified Strum Muckster you need to meet the strict sounding entry criteria for the International Strum Alliance and then abide by a number of rules that have been deemed by the International Strum… Continue reading Become a Certified Strum Muckster (or CSA)
Complications when motivating people on projects
I wrote an article on how to motivate people on projects and I still think that the article contains everything a project manager really needs to know in order to motivate people. But there are some consistent forces at work that enhance or upset your ability to motivate people in each project. So I thought… Continue reading Complications when motivating people on projects
Ways to motivate people on projects that often backfire
I recently posted an article about motivating people on projects and as a result we had an interesting conversation with one of my colleagues. We discussed several approaches that are sometimes successful and sometimes detrimental. So here is a collection of some of the approaches we discussed. Tell the team they are the most elite… Continue reading Ways to motivate people on projects that often backfire
How do you motivate people on projects?
Its amazing what a small group of motivated people can achieve when given the chance. It is also amazing how many project managers launch into planning and running their projects without thinking about how to motivate the people delivering the project and then struggle against the tide to try and deliver the work they planned.… Continue reading How do you motivate people on projects?
Creating a basic communication plan
The world’s simplest communication plan might be this one: Who I am communicating with? What should I be telling them? How should I communicate with them? Even thinking about those three questions on the bus on your way to work might help create better communication. But I thought I would break the questions down to come… Continue reading Creating a basic communication plan
Would you hire a project manager to plant a tree?
Many great ideas fall on deaf ears. So organisations bring in project managers to make sure we implement good ideas properly. Good project managers define and clarify the idea, break the idea into features and then deploy the features into production. But quite often, people just don’t make use of the shiny new features they… Continue reading Would you hire a project manager to plant a tree?
Understanding the background to power in a group
To really understand any team, it is important to understand the distribution of power within the group and how that power is exercised. Similarly, in order to understand the challenges of implementing change in a group, it is useful to understand what impact that change will have on the power within the group. Some of… Continue reading Understanding the background to power in a group
Assessing a team’s readiness to adopt agile practices over coffee
I just finished an article on assessing the likelihood that a team will successfully adopt a change, such as a new process. So this arrtice provides an example of how the approach I discussed might work in practice. Lets say that my client, Jenny, wants to implement “Agile practices” in her organisation. So she buys offers me… Continue reading Assessing a team’s readiness to adopt agile practices over coffee
James King 