Recently, a colleague made a statement that I love and thought I would explore that with you. She tells her teams, “Don’t make the same mistakes, make new ones.” This resonated with me for several reasons.

First, she gave her team members permission to explore, be creative, and make mistakes at work. If you are never wrong, never fail, or never make a mistake, then you aren’t pushing yourself and growing personally. The same goes with work. If you have never worked on a project or initiative which has had trouble or has not succeeded 100%, then you haven’t stretched yourself. Anyone who has worked on larger initiatives or more complex projects has had problems, even failures. Not everything succeeds. What we want to do is take control where possible and avoid those issues or problems which can be properly managed, minimizing the occurrences of problems or failures that are beyond our control.

Second, this statement emphasizes the rule to avoid repeating past mistakes. How do we avoid making the mistakes that have been made before? By reviewing lessons learned and familiarizing ourselves with the problems and issues that prior similar projects have had. We can also interview our SMEs (subject matter experts), those who have been involved with similar initiatives in the past. They have a wealth of information if we make the effort to talk to them and ask the right questions. I would suggest that when you initiate a discussion with a SME that you are prepared with the right questions to gather the information you need.

Another way to avoid making the same mistakes is to involve SMEs in the project or initiative. We cannot do all of our work alone; unfortunately many managers or project managers believe they are supposed to. That is not true. Involve your team, talk to SMEs inside and outside your team as well as outside your organization where possible, use all the resources you have. If at first blush you don’t think you have many resources or help, think about it some more. With some thought, you’ll probably realize you have access to more sources of information and knowledge than you think. Be proactive. I’ll bet you know of managers or project managers who are able to gather intelligence better than others. Emulate them.

In closing, keep this phrase in mind when managing your own work as well as other people. Be the role model you need to be.

How have you helped yourself or your team stretch beyond the comfortable while avoiding making the same mistakes?

When I learned of an opportunity to sit in on a major NASA project review as a “fly on the wall,” I jumped at it. This seemed like a great way to learn about the new Kepler project. Kepler is a special purpose mission in the NASA Discovery Program, with an objective that the project’s principal investigator William Boruki says is to “explore the skies for terrestrial-like planetary systems around other stars, in order to answer one of the most enduring questions humans have asked throughout history: Are there others like us in the universe?”

Fly-on-the-wall was an experiment in knowledge sharing, offering project practitioners an opportunity to learn from observing good project-related meeting processes as they occurred in real time. This idea surfaced after several senior project managers commented that they had little, if any, training or experience in holding reviews, making presentations, holding team kick-off meetings, or in many other project management activities until they “had to do one.” A common refrain was, “I’d never even seen one!”

To participate as a fly began an interesting and revealing odyssey for me, watching and listening to peer review presentations and discussions from the Kepler-Ground Segment development team to other NASA and contractor managers. These were the key players who would decide how the project would be structured and who would establish a preliminary schedule for this portion of the project.

Now operating in space, Kepler was a joint project between two NASA Centers. Mission control and overall data management were the responsibility of the Ames Research Center, and the telescope and the launch portion were to be managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The primary instrument of Kepler is a specialized one-meter diameter photometer telescope, positioned in Earth’s orbit to “stare” for four years at a small portion of the night sky, containing over 100,000 stars similar to our sun, and to capture images of Earth-like planets rotating around them. This peer review of the project’s ground segment portion emphasized that Kepler was not a large, complicated project.

I was impressed that the meetings started on time, stayed on time, and even finished a little ahead of schedule, despite a lot of active discussion about the control and management techniques to be employed in the project and who had what responsibility. No fewer than eight separate functional organizations with integral roles in the project attended the meeting, from across three continents including North America. And this was said to not be a complex mission! My hat went off to the Kepler project team for their thoroughness, professionalism and ability to stick to the purpose of the meeting. Some useful tips that I picked up as an observing fly for future use in meetings include:

1. INTRODUCTIONS: Not introducing everyone in the room; only the key players at the main table. Other important contributors, who gave parts of the presentation or contributed to the discussions when appropriate, introduced themselves. Some of these people were high-level representatives who did not seem to mind their secondary roles in the meeting.
2. PURPOSE: Clearly stating the purpose of the meeting at the beginning and, even more important, clearly stating what the meeting “was not” about. This set the stage for efficiency and minimized distracting comments. A facilitator kept the meeting moving along but never “squashed” anyone who had a relevant comment or contribution.
3. OMBUDSMAN: Assigning a key member at the table as an ombudsman with a strong enough personality to cut off discussion when it would be part of a later presentation (not relevant now), or to end comments that contributed little (those who love their own voice) or when it would be more appropriate for an off-line conversation (those who can’t let go but just-might have something important to say). This process worked well and was conducted in a polite, professional manner.
4. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: A particularly useful chart on one wall, referred to often during the meeting, showed a roles and responsibilities matrix with the key organizations involved in the project, listed across the top as column headings, and the project functional elements as role headings down the left-most column. The row-column intersections in the matrix clearly identified the organization responsible for each of the functions, removing much confusion that might otherwise have occurred.

I believe fly-on-the-wall is an extremely simple but valuable knowledge-sharing technique, easily duplicated in any organization. Tips from observers in well-run meetings can be shared with project managers and teams, and have high potential for encouraging an outcome of project success.

In what ways do you think the  fly-on-the-wall technique can help your projects?

Subject matter experts (SMEs) are generally a very valuable asset to a project manager (PM). However, as a PM, you must be prudent in how much authority and control is given to or taken by a SME. Additionally, you must be aware that a SME can slowly erode your authority, even without a direct confrontation.  When a PM begins to have the authority slowly taken away by a SME, it is called “SME creep.”

I’ve been there. You have been assigned a project to manage and you don’t have experience in the area that you’re about to manage; a project that could make or break your career.  As Frank, the boss, gives you your assignment, you’re wondering if he is speaking English. He is throwing acronyms and technical jargon at you so fast that your head is swimming. However, as if to wish you lots of luck, he reassures you by saying, “Now I am asking Bob, our SME in this area, to give you support and be there to help, if you should need him. Of course, he has his full time job, and so he may be a little slow in responding to you.”

Just great. You’re responsible for the project – assuming you can untangle the jargon into plain English – and someone else has all the knowledge. Your team is looking to you for guidance and direction. Bob is working a 50 hour work week, just trying to keep his head above water. You want to set up a meeting with Bob.

You send Bob an email and say, “What is a good time for us to meet to talk about this project?” You’re trying to be understanding and cooperative. That is a nice consideration. However, you are sending the wrong message to start the project. What you are subliminally saying is, “I recognize your time is more valuable than mine, so I will let you take the lead.”

Some may disagree with my interpretation of this situation, and that is OK. I realize there are SMEs out there that would not take it that way and would be thankful that you where being considerate. Then there are others that would, perhaps subconsciously, take it just the way I presented it. Bob sends you back an email stating that he will be able to squeeze you in tomorrow at 5:30 PM, knowing that the standard working hours are 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM at his office. You realize that you are a salaried “professional” and sometimes (most of the time) you have to work a “professional day” (which means no overtime), so you agree. Strike two for you. By letting Bob set the location, you once again are giving him the upper hand and implying that you must go to Bob instead of him coming to you.

You show up at his office two minutes early. He is on the phone talking “technical speak.” He motions for you to come in. He raises up one finger, indicating that he will just be a minute. So you sit there looking around the room at all the technical posters and books that have multi-syllable words in the title. You glance at your watch and that one finger minute has turned into ten minutes and Bob’s conversation shows no sign of slowing down.

Strike three. Bob obviously does not respect your time or he would have ended the conversation when you walked into the room. You haven’t spoken a word about the project and you have already lost control.

It just goes downhill from here. After you have waited for 15 minutes, Bob finally gets off the call and apologizes profusely. Don’t let that fool you. You begin the conversation by giving him a little background on yourself. He stops you after about two minutes into your opening and says, “Frank,” (your boss), “tells me you’re a little ‘weak on experience’ on this project.” He clears his throat. “Don’t worry, I know enough about this project for both of us.” This is another bad sign. He does not want to listen to you because he thinks he knows everything, and the boss has confided in him that you are “weak” on the subject.

I could go on with this scenario, but that would be just more to read and you wouldn’t get much out it except more ways of identifying that you were in trouble.

Consider this approach: Interrupt Bob and say that you are glad he is on the team. This is very subtle way of telling him he is a team member, not the team leader. Secondly, say, “This meeting has run over the time I had allotted. Do this for me,” (in a friendly tone), “put together a list of the deliverables. Do you know how to do a WBS? After drafting a WBS, would you put together resource requirements with roles and responsibilities, and then a time estimate, based upon your suggested resource requirements, and show me a time line and the critical path? You’re probably the best choice to do this since you are so familiar with the project requirements.”

Wow, what did you just do?! By him making the statement that he knew enough for the both of you about the project, he just said, “I am the only person that knows what to do.” So you loaded him up with enough work to “choke a horse”!

If he is all “techie,” he won’t know how to do those tasks, so he will have to refer back to you for guidance and it will be clear that you have taken back the leadership role. If he does know how to do all those assignments, that’s great; you can grade his papers. In either case, you are clearly the one in charge. Be fair with your evaluation of his work, but make it obvious that you are supervising him, not just taking everything he does as gospel. This will reinforce your authority. If you can, get together a committee that you obviously run and put his work in front of a committee, reinforcing the point that he is part of a team.

As with most everything in project management, this is a “situational” scenario. You must adapt to the personally of the SME and the operational process assets of your organization. I hope you are never put in this situation. However, if you are, you might consider this approach.

Good Luck.

I don’t know about you, but one of my biggest frustrations in the workplace is meetings that go on long past their scheduled time allotment or those that finish within their scheduled time, took a crazy turn, went completely off topic and seemed to accomplish nothing related to the original meeting subject.  I’m sure most of you can relate, so I’d like to share my experience about a recent meeting I was in and how it influenced me to improve the ways I’ve conducted all my meetings since.

Not so long ago I was invited to attend a meeting via conference call. The meeting was scheduled for 30 minutes and was to cover quite a bit of material and training. I automatically blocked out 60 minutes on my calendar as past experience has told me, many times over, the meeting would last quite a bit longer than the scheduled 30 minutes. I dialed in, connected to the assigned WebEx screen and introduced myself to the other attendees. The meeting sponsor started the meeting immediately and explained there was only 30 minutes and all topics to be discussed had to be completed in those 30 minutes, no exceptions. Guess what? It got done – really. As I sat in amazement during this meeting about how much was discussed and accomplished in a very short period of time, I made sure to listen as closely as I could to learn this meeting magic.

After several meetings with this meeting sponsor, I’ve learned and now use the following to lead all my group meetings:

• Schedule your meeting for the time you truly think you can accomplish what needs to be done and stick to that time frame.
• Throughout the meeting, remind attendees of the topics at hand and how much time is left to discuss the topics.
• Be sure to speak up and let someone know if they are off topic. Make sure to let them know you will follow up with them to discuss what they would like to talk about and also include any other people who may be needed. Most of the time, the off-topic items can be discussed and resolved very briefly after the meeting.
• If the meeting topics truly do not fit in the allotted time, schedule a follow up meeting instead of going over time and creating conflicts in others’ schedules.
• Be diligent in moving along the topics of the meeting, keeping careful watch of the time.

I hope these points are as helpful to you as they have been to me. What are some of the things you’ve done to successfully keep meetings within their scheduled time allotment?

Perhaps the most common environment a typical project manager works in is a matrix organization.  Given this circumstance, a lot of project managers not only have no formal authority when it comes to our clients, but also have limited formal authority within our own company. Often the most successful project managers are the ones who develop a methodology and leadership style that allows them to effectively overcome formal authority limitations.

Typical concerns that arise from limited authority situations are: lack of decision-making power, less responsiveness from within the project team and weaker negotiation positions for potential scope and schedule change requirements, to name a few.

So, is managing without authority an art, a science or a technique?  The good news is that there are effective ways to overcome the situation with all of the above, and you can tailor your approach based on your personal management style and preferences. Of course, the process will require significant effort, continuous fine tuning and a good amount of patience and flexibility.

Established Project Processes
The first and most widely accepted way to control the project is through the project process.  The key feature of this approach is that processes provide the necessary structure for your project delivery. Controlling through the process is more likely to be effective in teams where the processes have been established for some time and have been used repeatedly and consistently through multiple projects.  In other words, when your team members understand exactly what to do and how to do it and have been through the process multiple times, your project runs a lot smoother and situations where a strong formal authority is required are few and far apart.

Another nice thing about controlling through the process is that the project manager’s authority is implicit as that of a person responsible for managing the process.  Clear project documentation will have a significant positive effect if controlling a project through process is your primary management mechanism.

Varying Processes
What if you work in an environment where projects vary significantly, driven by major differences in scope, stakeholders’ priorities and project team structures? If you are a consultant, this situation is probably what you live in. Here, controlling through the process is probably not as effective. If the processes have been developed before you joined the project, you have to learn and adopt them. If those processes are not in place yet, developing and establishing them will take some time.

Controlling your project though metrics may become a good addition to your tool kit.  It is generally accepted wisdom that you get what you measure. Carefully study objectives of a project and stakeholders’ expectations and priorities.  Most people cannot allocate appropriate focus to more than three to four measurable parameters on any particular project.  Pick three or four metrics to monitor that would have the biggest impact on the success of a project and on stakeholder’s satisfaction. Measure, review, document diligently, and publish the results in a way that is visible to the team and is easily accessible.

Leveraging Your Personal Style and Competence
The more experienced project and program managers may also rely on developing and then leveraging their personal leadership style. They sometimes control their projects through influence.  The key to using this approach effectively is competence.  Competence does not necessarily mean knowing more than our team or client. How many times have we all felt that the specialists on the team know more than we do? It is not that they know more, they just know different things.

For a project manager, competence is about being able to successfully and effectively deliver on agreed upon objectives while maintaining a positive attitude within the project team. If you are able to demonstrate competence consistently, you will be on your way to developing a reputation of a great project manager and earning the trust of stakeholders and team members.  If people trust you, they are rather likely to imply you have an informal authority, which is perhaps more powerful than any formal kind.

Every project manager finds a unique way to be successful, whether through different combinations of the above mentioned approaches or by developing their own secret sauce. It is fairly certain that at some point in our careers we find ourselves wishing we had more authority to be able to resolve some situations. So please, do share your experiences with your colleagues. Maybe our gathered experiences and lessons learned will help us collectively better manage with limited authority to deliver project success.

Let’s start here. What successful ways have you discovered to manage with little authority?

I would like to share an invaluable resource for running effective meetings. This concise book goes beyond the obvious high-level discussion of running effective meetings such as what to do before, during and after the meeting, but really gets into the heart of how to practically run an effective meeting, both with large and small groups. The book is called Great Meetings! Great Results by Pam Plumb and Dee Kelsey.

What I like about this book is that they discuss everything with regard to getting people together and getting results. This includes everything from understanding the purpose of the meeting and the audience to the techniques used to generate then classify and then select ideas to handling conflicts to breaking through creative blocks to making sure everyone clearly understands the outcome. Where else can you get so many concrete ideas in one concise place? I have found this to be a good reference book and have recommended it in my classes for years with good feedback from those who have used it.

One strength of this reference book is the section on breaking through creativity blocks to generate, evaluate and select ideas. We have all heard of various analytical techniques, but rarely are they used well. The most basic technique of all, that of brainstorming to generate ideas, is presented in ways to help your group avoid the most common pitfall of evaluating ideas too quickly. There is also a section on getting and keeping everyone involved at the appropriate level. Never again will you have meetings where people are allowed to sit and not participate. Anyone with ideas or knowledge will be engaged.

One of the techniques outlined in the book for large groups is an exercise called “Something in Common” which lets team members get to know each other a little better and to break the ice. Even if people have been working together for a long time, this is a fun and quick exercise.

First, pair participants up and ask each pair to find something unusual they have in common that they are willing to share with the larger group. Encourage them to go beyond the obvious and get creative. It is always amazing what people will come up with. Quickly go around the room and have each pair share their findings. I have had a lot of fun with competitive groups who try to outdo each other and be the pair with the most outrageous and true similarity. Then put two pairs together so that four people are now finding something in common. Again, encourage creativity and something else besides the items previously found. You can go around the room again and let each group share their results. Again, I direct them to do this quickly or else this exercise can take all day. J Lastly, you can let 8 people meet each other and find something in common if you choose. Obviously, the larger the group, the more “common” their similarities will be. The important thing, though, is not what they come up with but the sharing and discussion beyond normal work that they have.

I like that the book offers practical tips. For example, there are 3 case studies of one page each in length outlining how to handle:

• An undercurrent of hostility between group members
• When a participant attacks the facilitator
• The nay-sayer during brainstorming sessions

There is a nice section with tips and examples on staying true to your values as well. I like that reminder, because we get tempted to stray from our gut and don’t hear that message often enough.

I hope this helps you. Please let me know what you think of this reference.

Editor’s note: This is the third post in a series about implementing PeopleSoft projects. The second post on initial considerations for PeopleSoft implementations can be found here. 

It’s no accident that there are two processes in Project Initiation and twenty in Project Planning according to the Project Management Institute.  Many organizations make the costly mistake of diving right in because there is “no time to plan”.  On the contrary, most projects fail in the beginning as planning efforts are sacrificed for “action”.

In spite of the organization’s impatience, it’s your responsibility as the Project Manager to educate senior management in the advantages of compiling a thoughtful and reasonable plan before jumping into project execution.  

What are the key points to consider when planning a PeopleSoft implementation? Here are some factors to consider: 

1. Scope Definition:  Even if the organization compiled the world’s best Request for Proposal for a suite of software, the process of reviewing and verifying those requirements (and discovering new ones in the process) is absolutely essential for the proper scope definition of a PeopleSoft project. Especially if more than one module is to be implemented, requirements must be considered in light of a tightly integrated system. For example, configuration of the budget and general ledger modules can have a substantial and often irreversible impact on the sub-modules of Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable. It may be worth dedicated PeopleSoft training for the project team and subject matter experts to increase their understanding of the system in order to articulate those requirements more definitively. 

2. Work Breakdown Structure:  Once the requirements are fully understood and gaps between what is and what should be are clearly identified by your seasoned PeopleSoft integrator, the WBS can be crafted with a solid foundation. However, software configuration and modifications to bridge gaps are only two out of potentially hundreds of other work packages including the elements of communications, stakeholder management, quality, risk management, hardware procurement and set up, testing, and training. 

3. Project Schedule:  Once scope is fully defined and a solid WBS is in place, employ the best possible experts to define, sequence and estimate required resources and time for each work package. When you develop it to your satisfaction and present it to management, resist the temptation to meet their often unrealistic expectations to implement such a game-changing system within their timeframes. If the timeframe doesn’t meet with their approval, craft at a scope that will. Even though the notion of the Triple Constraint (Time, Scope and Cost) is losing favor according to PMI, it is still true in concept. Something’s gotta give!

If the above considerations aren’t daunting in and of themselves, that’s not all. There are seventeen additional processes (according to PMI, that is) that the PM should at least consider before Execution begins in earnest.  Again, it is your duty to lead your organization through these processes even while senior management is questioning what your team is doing all this time.

How will you convince your senior management to invest serious time and effort in the planning process?

I’m sure it’s been quite a while since many of us who have earned PMP certification actually studied the PMBOK in preparation for the exam.  It is not surprising, then, that we move forward in our careers as project managers utilizing our own style.  Some of that style may be based upon selective PMBOK concepts tailored to our unique personalities and skills sets.  But more than likely, much of what we do as project managers is based upon the corporate culture in which we find ourselves, particularly in larger organizations which develop their own sets of tools and techniques.  Nevertheless, having a point of reference, such as the PMBOK, is useful, if not comforting, because it attempts to foster continuity and standards within our profession. 

To refresh my memory, I recently reviewed old notes taken while attending a PMP boot camp several years ago.  The exam questions were based upon the following areas of project management knowledge: Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring/Controlling, Closing and finally Professional/Social Responsibility.  Specific topics found within these areas include project charters, scope management, work breakdown structures, team organizational structures, cost control, quality control, risk management… well, you get the idea.  The list goes on and on.  And although these topics are presented in a generic, project-agnostic format, each is addressed in significant detail.  So much detail, in fact, that sometimes we may lose sight of one of the main roles of the project manager – looking at the larger picture and taking a reality check.  Allow me to explain.

I often work on innovative pilot projects that are proof of concept endeavors with specific objectives, deliverables and relatively brief timelines.  Accordingly, these projects have limited resources, not only in dollars, but also limited in scope, time and particularly limited in staff.  That last point should be underscored, because limitations in staff resources require the project manager to assume many roles and wear many hats.  Sometimes we might act as a second set of eyes for quality assurance.  Other times, we may get involved with finding technical solutions to specific problems.  And of course, we are always managing the project sponsor’s expectations.  So viewing the project from a larger perspective and applying proactive, commonsense judgment is a critical PM talent.  Yes, the templates, methodologies and concepts presented in the PMBOK are important, but remember that these are simply tools to be used at the discretion of the PM.  Projects are comprised of a unique mix of cultures, personalities, objectives and constraints that often cannot be approached mechanically in a “paint by numbers” fashion. 

To illustrate, I once worked on an innovation project sponsored by a rather large healthcare organization.  The vendor selected to provide the technology was a relatively small company with limited staff.  So limited in fact, that many of the vendor’s employees had roles and responsibilities that were somewhat blurred and interchangeable.  That said, it was not surprising that this vendor had some weaknesses in areas of quality control.  So I took it upon myself to act as an impartial Q/A analyst, if only for a few days.  By temporarily offering my services as a pinch-hitter, we were able to identify three or four critical errors in workflow and functionality prior to implementation. It was a reality check utilizing common sense in a proactive fashion appropriate for the scope and limitations of this particular project.  It could be argued that the responsibility for quality assurance belonged to the vendor, but in reality they had their plates full with too many competing tasks.  Only the PM had the larger perspective to assess the Q/A situation and identify the weakness.  And the temporary role assigned to myself spared the project for failure and also saved the healthcare organization from embarrassment.  The reality check allowed me to identify a need that might have been missed under a template approach with tasks checked off.

So make it a practice to take a reality check at least once a week.  Use your unique perspective as PM to ensure that issues are identified and resolved before they become someone else’s headache after implementation.  Don’t get lured into repetitive, templated motion.  In contrast, take time for some serious, objective assessment of the project’s status and health.  This habit requires insight and judgment, but then again, but that’s why project managers are put in charge.  That’s reality.

How do you remember to take a step back and give your project a reality check? How often do you do that?

I had a boss once who loved to draw on the white board. It became something of a joke on his team, that at the beginning of a meeting we would hide the dry erase markers before he came into the room. It never stopped him; he started carrying them around. Only recently do I truly appreciate his approach.

Sidebar for a personal story: My daughter’s soccer team recently ended their season and part of my end of season gift was a coloring book and crayons and the missive that it was something to help me reduce my stress (something of a gag gift). At home after the party, I sat down with the coloring book and colored a picture. I took the time to work slowly and carefully, experimenting with different colors and used shading to highlight areas. It took me back to a calmer time: I worked on the image for me, not for my boss, or my kids, or for the executive committee – just for me. I loved it.

I am known among my peers as the visual learning guy. I push hard on the team to use fewer words and more pictures in both the training materials we produce and the presentations we create. If an image is worth a thousand words then we should we be creating voluminous training in images, not pages of text. Too often, the push back is, “I can’t draw” or “I’m not creative.” Let me say now that everyone can take this approach given some processes and tools.

1. Take some time to tap into your creative side. A quick search on Google yields a plethora of sites on coloring to relieve stress. I’m not saying you should make it a daily habit, but why not take a few minutes once in a while to doodle? It unlocks a thinking habit that thrives on free association and random connections that you might not have considered. Those links are the foundations of innovation and might lead to bigger and better ideas.
2. Incorporate a process for thinking differently. The Six Thinking Hats framework developed by Edward de Bono is a wonderful starting point for organizing meetings and encouraging a style of thinking. Assign the role of Green Hat to various team members and have them work at being the creative, “blue sky” thinker. By assigning the role to a person you give permission for ideas to flow and remove limitations.
3. Encourage mind-mapping as a technique for organizing information. On many occasions I find myself in meetings struggling to grasp how all the parts of a program or initiative are tied together. The various stakeholders have input into the problem and the resulting maelstrom can be hard to decode. A mind map can help illustrate the interconnectedness of all the ideas and make concrete the linkages that the entire team needs to see.
4. Seek out visual representations of complex ideas. I have two sites I visit regularly to keep my mindset firmly planted in a visual approach. One is the RSA.org channel on YouTube. This British think tank does a fabulous job of linking thought leaders to artistic displays of the concepts. The images drawn in the videos make the presentations so much more vivid. Another is visual.ly a web site that shows how information can be presented visually and, in my opinion, more memorable.

Finally, let me say that visuals don’t have to be high end art work to be effective. A very simple visual can speak volumes to the reader and communicate at more levels than a paragraph of text. Visuals are great for learning, meeting management, brainstorming, even project management (what’s a WBS but a visual of all the tasks in a project?). Don’t fear the creative side, embrace it and take your projects and work into a different, better, more holistic place.

How are you using visuals and creativity to work more efficiently in your role? If you aren’t using them now, how could you?

While talking with the team, we thought it would be fun to share some of the recent books that we have been reading and hear from you what you find interesting and relevant now. There is never a shortage of professional (and fun) books, so together, hopefully we’ll all find something new to read and enjoy!

Recent books from Vicki:

Books that I have recently completed and have enjoyed are as follows. Note: I listen to more books than I read, and not only are these good books, they are also well-narrated.

• On Second Thought: Outsmarting Your Mind’s Hardwired Habits by Wray Herbert – Interesting list of the shortcuts and biases that our brains use and how to become aware of them so we can enjoy the positive aspects and avoid the negative consequences of each. These biases include why 99.9% of the citizens of France but only 28% of Americans are organ donors, why people who are hungry for lunch donate less money to charity and why early birds serving jury duty are more likely to give in to racial stereotypes when the day gets late.

 

• If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t) by Betty White – this is a fun, light-hearted read. I listened to this in audiobook form and it was wonderful hearing Betty White read the book. Listening to her talk was like sitting down with a good friend and learning from her 7-decade career.

 

• The Steve Jobs’ Way: iLeadership For a New Generation by Jay Elliot, William L. Simon – read Vicki’s review of this book here. Listening to Jay Elliot, Sr. VP at Apple and one of Steve’s early employees, read this book and tell the story makes you feel like you were there.

Recent books and suggestions from Jerry:

Books that I have recently completed and have enjoyed are as follows. (This book’s theme parallels the book Vicki mentions, On Second Thought, which I can’t wait to read.)

• Thinking on Purpose for Project Managers: Outsmarting Evolution by Bill Richardson – If you’ve ever wondered why so many poor decisions are made on projects, this book identifies why, and what can be done about making better ones. In clear, no-nonsense writing, the author provides the background for why we make decisions the way we do, what is sometimes (often it turns out) wrong with the way we make them, and how to make better decisions through what he defines as thinking-on-purpose. A major problem in projects, Richardson says we’re often thinking on autopilot, which he defines as reacting to events as they occur using quick-and-dirty or good-enough solutions. He takes the reader through a series of simple steps to help recognize ineffective patterns of thinking, biases, emotions, and blind spots that cause these problems, and he describes how to improve awareness of them—how to think about what you think about.

 

• It’s Your Ship: Management Techniques From the Best Damn Ship in the Navy by Naval Captain Michael Abrashoff – read Jerry’s review of this book here.

What books have you recently read?