Integrating Personal Development

Advertisement [Contact Us](mailto:contactus@projectmanagement.com) [About Us]( [Update Profile]( June 7, 2017 How do you define complexity? Plus, lessons for continuous personal development, improving your interview questions and dealing with the complexity elephant. Our Knowledge Shelf improves your meeting management, while our Topic Teasers assign blame. Our blogs help you motivate your team and share procurement tips, while readers ask about ethics and changing industries in our forums. And don't forget to check out all of the [ProjectsAtWork content]( new to the site! Advertisement [Don't compromise: do the right projects right]( PMOs must align strategy and execution to effectively manage change. But it's hard to get the real-time insight needed to adapt. With the combination of [PPM and EPM]( you no longer have to choose between 'doing the right projects' and 'doing projects right.' Read the paper - do the right projects right. "I shut my eyes in order to see." - Paul Gauguin []PM HEADLINES [Complexity Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Does]( As we are becoming more (excruciatingly?) aware, we live in a world of increased complexity. But just what does that mean, exactly? And in particular, what does it mean in the context of our projects? [The Complexity Elephant]( Complex projects can be intimidating. A good PM will help the team focus on its own work and not be overwhelmed by the bigger picture—but the PM has to strike that balance. [Lessons Learned for Continuous Personal Development]( Learning to live each day as a participant in the process—and as an observer of that participation—takes practice. How can you integrate formal personal development into a daily routine? [The Problem with Your Interview Questions]( Where do you see yourself in five years? This question has plagued the interview process for too long. It's high time we start asking better questions to get better answers from our prospective PMs. [Managing a Presales Project: How Different Is It?]( We generally talk about managing projects that were sold to our customers. But how about the management of a presales project? Is that just like managing any other project? Do we have the same constraints? Is it less stressful? [Responding to Issues in Highly Complex Projects]( Be ready for surprises in high-complexity projects by developing an action plan for an ad hoc issue response team. Lay out the steps and meeting agenda necessary to tame the most convoluted problems no matter what the cause—or which groups are impacted. "It's funny, but you get to a time in your life when you think you have all the friends you will ever have." - Liam Neeson [Department of Defense PM: Forget About the Baselines!]( Some baseline calculations become much more intricate when dealing with large projects, especially when fielding new technologies. But at the end of the day, the premise is the same. Is our project within scope, on schedule and within budgeted costs? [First-Cost Estimates in Engineering Projects]( This is an exploration of the importance of first-cost estimates in engineering projects and how they are used to decide whether to go ahead with market studies and engineering development—or dismiss the project. [Welcome ProjectsAtWork!]( ProjectsAtWork has joined forces with ProjectManagement.com! Combining resources, expertise and energies, we will be more focused than ever on delivering the content that helps you get things done in the real world. Check out all the content new to our community! [PMXPO 2017: On Demand!]( Thanks for making the 10th edition of PMXPO our biggest one yet! If you missed any of the sessions—like our keynote by Alison Levine, the first American Women's Everest Expedition Team Captain and a bestselling author—you can still catch them on demand until July 27! And be sure to take our [attendee survey]( to tell us what you thought! []KNOWLEDGE SHELF [Meeting Management: Lessons for the Project Manager]( As a project manager, you need meetings in order to increase collaboration and resolve obstacles, but you may be taking productive time from the team member’s workday. Recognizing this helps you understand that maximizing your time together is essential. Learn how to make your meetings efficient, purposeful and interesting. [Digital Transformation]( Cloud computing and services are central to digital transformation. The cloud improves an organization's agility to rapidly roll out new IT solutions to meet business needs. The cloud by its fundamental nature reflects an adaptive (agile or value-driven) approach to delivering products or services. How does that fit into the usual five-gate phases in IT project governance? The mission of [Knowledge Shelf]( is to help project professionals advance our practice by sharing their experiences and viewpoints. It is comprised of practitioners from a wide range of fields, covering both popular and niche topics. From lessons learned and case studies to opinion pieces and articles, this platform gives a voice to peers new to our online community, and allows for longer form contributions. For more information on how to submit your own article, please see our [Editorial Guidelines](. []TOPIC TEASERS Welcome to Topic Teasers, which tests your managerial prowess every other week! In Vol. 96, we look at [Assigning the Blame](: Question: Okay, I’m not proud of how this project ended, but management is blaming me…me! There were lots of moving people and parts to this one, and we knew from the beginning it would be a challenge. But how do I react to the accusations? I want to be sure no one goes away thinking it was my fault, because I don’t think it is. What do I say so that the proper culprits will be blamed and my reputation comes out unscathed? A. A great number of projects fail because upper management fails to properly and completely share the goals and accompanying evaluative metrics they will use to decide successes from failures. Not knowing what is expected of you, your team and your suppliers means you cannot then be blamed when you fail to meet their dreams. B. The rule is that project managers are not supposed to ever do the actual activity or user story work of a project. If you are only in essence the “supervisor,” how is it fair to be held accountable when others do not do as they have promised? If participants led you to believe that your schedule and budgets were acceptable, they should be reported to management by name and I.D. number when things “go south” or fail. C. If you work in an industry where you rely heavily on contractors, sub-contractors, suppliers and even other third-party technical entities, your success is directly related to their reliability. If a project fails because of their non-compliance to contracts or promises, get in writing from your procurement team that they will never hire this group again—at least for any of your projects. D. If you are the project manager, then one of your roles is to represent all the bits, pieces and assembled individuals who had their fingers in this endeavor—whether it was a success or a failure. As a result, you need to step up and assume the blame, not passing it on even if it could be objectively done with great accuracy. All you can do is learn from it. Check the answer [here](, and [send in your own question for consideration]( []THE PM POLL Is there a question you've been itching to ask? [Create a poll]( today to get some PM help from your peers! [Q; Imagine that your organization only allowed you to choose one of these...which would you prefer?]( - Company car with expenses - Remote work - Flexibility with hours or days - Amusement areas (pool, gym) - Kindergarten in the building - Social benefits (401K, retirement, health) - Training programs including tuition for college - Free days at birthday, anniversary - Other (share in comments) TOOL SPOTLIGHT PPM: [Mavenlink]( [Search for your solution on our Tool Finder]( []BLOG IT Voices on Project Management by Peter Tarhanidis and Jess Tayel When market environments or conditions shift, organizations must often make fundamental changes to how they operate in order to cope. Jess looks at [Business Transformation with the End in Mind](. Plus, Peter looks at how [Leaders exert influence for success](. The Money Files by Elizabeth Harrin One of the issues Elizabeth often hears is that project managers don’t have the resources to motivate and reward their teams. You can if you focus on the right things: achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility, advancement and growth. [How to Motivate Your Team]( has more. Plus, Elizabeth shares [5 Tips for Better Project Procurement](. People, Planet, Profits & Projects by Richard Maltzman Our culture has become a throw-away culture. Smartphones are tossed, laptops are only expected to last a year or two and people buy clothing to wear maybe once or twice, and then those also get tossed. How does this apply to our projects, and what can we do about it? [The Fix is In]( has more. Wish I Had Me When I Was You... by Laura Barnard What do we do to get bad projects back on track? Laura provides a cheat sheet of things to consider (or to tell that “other” poor soul that’s having issues on their project) to get back on track [When Good Projects Go Bad](. Game Theory in Management by Michael Hatfield If you come across an idea that makes your organization far more effective in bringing in projects on time and on budget, why would you want to share this idea, particularly if your organization’s competitors might have employees in the room at the time? [What's Our Motivation?]( Plus, Michael explores [The Price of Snake Oil Outside of North America](. The Critical Path by Marjorie Anderson We are excited to announce the [ProjectManagement.com June Book Club](, open to all ProjectManagement.com registered users. The book club provides an opportunity to participate in webinars and discussions around selected books relevant to the overall practice of project management! []Q & A Did you know that help is just a click away? Our discussion forums give you access to the ProjectManagement.com community: more than 500,000 experienced minds and growing! Take advantage of their expertise...your question could be posted here for even more exposure to our vast readership. Pose your question today or stop by to help out other members in need of advice, including these recent and ongoing discussions on... [Changing Industries]( "I would like to learn and practice project management in industries other than IT, but I am not sure how to start. How much domain knowledge matters for a role of PM? What are the skills that would be needed to venture into a new industry? What are the suggested steps to get myself introduced into a new one?" [PM Dissertations]( "Has anyone completed a PM dissertation (Masters or Doctors)? I would like some insight into the experiences of previous PM dissertation writers." [Encouraging Ethics]( "Sometimes, individuals are involved in behaviors/actions that are 'unethical' but not necessarily 'illegal.' How do we encourage behavior change to ensure that the individual resumes ethical behavior in these situations? What are some of the strategies that have worked for you to address this issue?" [Leadership Buy-In]( "How to get senior/executive leadership's buy-in on departmental projects?" "You are richer for doing things." - Jessica Tandy []PREMIUM PICKS Did you know that we have an extensive library of PDU-earning webinars? Here's just one of the latest valuable offerings you can check out! [Coaching for Project Managers: Improving Personal Efficiency]( This webinar brings you coaching concepts that will help to boost your personal efficiency, helping to align your personal goals, priorities, activities and more. These are important concepts for any professional who wants to improve results, not only in their professional life but in their personal life. As always, your feedback and suggestions are welcome. How can we make your experience better? Is there something you haven't been able to find? Something you want to see that we don't have yet? [Let us know](mailto:cameron@projectmanagement.com). We'll handle it. If you do not wish to receive ProjectManagement.com's PM Insider Newsletter, you can [unsubscribe here]( or send an email to unsubscribe-pminsider@reply.projectmanagement.com and let us know. We will exclude you from future mailings. You can also change your e-mail address and other settings in [My Account](. ProjectManagement.com is located at 14 Campus Boulevard, Newtown Square, PA 19073.