Early in my professional career I realized the joys of working in the customer service world: making my customers happy and confident in the work I provided, and getting my hands dirty. This is why the Steel industry was a good fit for me. I took care of customer orders, organized company events, traveled to see customers and whatever other administrative work needed to be done. I even got down and dirty in the plant a few times.

Taking a Leap of Faith

… coming from the steel industry to project management was terrifying but I knew that if I didn’t take a leap of faith, I’d spend the rest of my career wondering if I made the right decision.

Over a year ago I found myself “stuck” in my career. I don’t mean “stuck” as in “I wasn’t enjoying it,” but I was stuck because I had plateaued.  There was nowhere else for me to go and no other chances to grow. 

Then I was given the opportunity to interview at Advisicon for a position that I thought was completely out of my realm of skills.

You have to realize, coming from the steel industry to project management was terrifying but I knew that if I didn’t take a leap of faith, I’d spend the rest of my career wondering if I made the right decision. 

After the first couple of months I realized I had been completely wrong about how my skills fit in project management. Everything I am currently doing is right in my wheel house but in a different way than it had been in the steel industry.  

Project management challenges me, my skill set and my knowledge while giving me an opportunity to grow.

Project Management Was Always There

Project management is everywhere, even if you can’t see it.

Looking back I’ve come to realize I was involved in project management from the very beginning, I just didn’t know it.  From taking the customer’s order and making sure it was complete and on time to organizing our company picnics is all project management related. 

Project management is everywhere, even if you can’t see it. 

Over the past year I‘ve learned that most everything we do in our career is – in one way or another – related to project management. But what sets this company apart is the fact that I, the little old girl who came from the steel industry, can actually earn her PMP! Me!  Who would have thought?

An Opportunity Worth Taking

A chance arose for my coworkers and me to take an internal class prepping for the upcoming PMI PMP exam this July.

To say the least I was a little hesitant to sign up for the course.  I felt I didn’t meet any of the qualifications, plus I would be missing some classes due to my vacation and other meetings already scheduled. 

After talking with a coworker and her basically telling me I’d be nuts not to take advantage of this opportunity I gritted my teeth and signed up.  

We are a month in and I cannot believe I even considered not taking this course.

The Sky’s the Limit

After a few short weeks of reading the PMBOK Guide, Kim Heldman’s PMP Study Guide and taking advantage of the internal course, everything is starting to come full circle. 

I am able to relate the information to my past and current positions and it all makes sense. 

By getting the opportunity to challenge myself and expand my knowledge and skill set, there is no more being “stuck”. The sky’s the limit and I intend to reach as high as my willingness to learn will take me.

This post was written by Amy Wachsnicht.

No one is given a pass.

If we don’t proactively manage our time and resources we risk missing good opportunities – or worse – wasting what we have at our disposal.

Project Portfolio Management

Ensure that resources are assigned in the best way to facilitate timely delivery of the highest-priority projects

In today’s business terminology, PPM is the structured process an organization follows to identify opportunities, to determine how those opportunities align with the organization’s strategy, and to analyze their cost-benefit. Potential projects are prioritized and an agreed-upon governance process is followed to approve selected projects for funding. The portfolio of all active projects is continuously monitored against the constantly changing landscape of possibilities versus risks in order to ensure that resources are assigned in the best way to facilitate timely delivery of the highest-priority projects.

Many organizations have recognized the importance of establishing a structure with processes and tools that make sense in their context to identify, analyze, filter and select opportunities to fund as projects that hopefully will produce desired outcomes.

Idea Generation

Fewer organizations have a structured process to systematically capture, assess and refine ideas, nurturing them to the point of being added to the mix of initiatives included in the PPM process.

Project Portfolio Management

The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.

Ideas are the conceptual “raw materials” that lead to new products, new services, improvements in operations and cost reductions. Perhaps the greatest intellectual capital that an organization has is the knowledge and insight of its workforce and customer base. However unless there is a mechanism for collecting their insights and suggestions, those ideas go uncaptured and are consequently unavailable for serious consideration.

Why not extend the front end of the PPM process to include idea management, incorporating appropriate tools so the best ideas can be matured into actionable projects? An organized process and structure can help ensure that all those good ideas won’t get lost, but will create value.

Linus Pauling, winner of two Nobel prizes, said “the best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.” The initial goal ought to be to collect a lot of ideas, engaging people from all parts of the organization as well as people external to the organization. Some of the most valuable suggestions come from those who are close to the action, so we shouldn’t be relying only on management to come up with the best ideas that will drive change.

Once ideas are collected, the challenge is to filter them, ensuring they are applicable to the organization’s need and that they align with its strategy. Pick the best ones, give more substance to them, and develop those ideas into something that offers value.

Now, what are we going to do with that good idea?

This post was written by Rick Gardner.

Taking Action

… she explained to me what MS Project is used for and how she currently uses it and I became very interested.

A few months ago, a co-worker and I were discussing her upcoming exam for Microsoft Project. Being in the accounting office, I haven’t really been exposed to a lot of what our resources do or what programs they use. I have been very content with the accounting software I have been using for the past 15 years. As I listened to her talk about areas that she needed to focus on, she explained to me what MS Project is used for and how she currently uses it and I became very interested. At the time, my co-worker needed someone to help her study, and from her description of the program, I really wanted to learn more about it. So between the two of us, we came up with a plan to present to the President asking for a small amount of time each week to start internal “study-buddy sessions”.

Making Project Study Sessions Work for US!

I can think of a million ways to use Project as a Mom.

The main idea was that she would teach me MS Project and tolerate my forty million stupid questions, and this in turn would help her learn by instructing and finding the answers to any of my questions that she didn’t know. Little did we know that so many people in our office would be so interested in the study sessions! I think I speak for everyone when I say that we enjoy and really look forward to “study-buddy Wednesdays.”

Unexpected Outcome

Being a procedure junkie, I have found that MS Project is a far more effective tool for step by step instructions on how to process my weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly deadlines.

After a few sessions, I was so excited about all the ways that MS Project could make accounting more efficient. Being a procedure junkie, I have found that MS Project is a far more effective tool for step by step instructions on how to process my weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly deadlines. My entire job can be plugged into Project to ensure that I never miss a thing! I am hoping in the near future to transfer a lot of my accounting functions into Project.

Being a Mom of teenage twin boys I am forever running around getting them to school, practice, games, etc. I can think of a million ways to use Project as a Mom. Prep schedule for college, sport seasons & schedules, finances, budgeting, vacation planning, even household chores & improvements!

So, I guess you could say that I have really taken advantage of these mini study sessions. I am thankful to my coworkers for their time, effort, and enthusiasm. Never stop learning new tricks!

This post was written by Pam Greensky.

Most of those discussions land on the following:

• Project management is a significant effort on a project and should be tracked.
• Project managers are not working full-time on one project and their work effort should be adjusted.
• One long task that represents project management screws up the critical path because it may assume that it is the true critical path when instead the rest of the project contains the information you need to see for the critical path.

After exploring numerous techniques to address this and working with solutions I have created myself or received from others, I have discovered an approach that can work.

Solution: Describe Project Management as a Summary Task

In general the concept is to create a summary task for project management and within that summary create two milestone tasks that link to the start and end of the project. Assign the project manager to the summary task at the desired percent allocation for the project.

Details in the Solution

Review the highlighted sections in the schedule below.

Track Project Mangement as a Summary Task in order to reflect its persistent nature throughout the project.

Notice my use of Start to Start link, Finish to Finish link, and milestones.

Notice the Start and End dates of the project and the Project Management summary task.

Benefits

• The total project management phase auto adjusts as the project adjusts.
• The project management hours for the PM assigned to the task auto adjusts.
• The critical path is still properly displayed in the schedule.

The clients I have shown this solution to find it very useful and many have adapted it based on variations in how they run projects.

I would love feedback from the project management community on this approach and how you have modified it to fit your needs.

This post was written by Cindy Lewis.

On many occasions I pondered how the CBT did not meet the objectives of its authors despite the significant investment that had been made to develop it. The objective was to transfer knowledge and increase my understanding of a topic, while engaging me to think critically and challenge me to synthesize it with knowledge I already possessed. 

Now I’m not the smartest person on the block, so I often have to go define a word to fully capture its meaning, so I zipped on over to dictionary.com in order to lookup the word learning.  Here’s what it had to say:

Learn – verb (used with object)

• to acquire knowledge of or skill in by study, instruction, or experience: to learn French; to learn to ski.
• to become informed of or acquainted with; ascertain: to learn the truth.
• to memorize: He learned the poem so he could recite it at the dinner.
• to gain (a habit, mannerism, etc.) by experience, exposure to example, or the like; acquire: She learned patience from her father.
• (of a device or machine, especially a computer) to perform an analogue of human learning with artificial intelligence.

As a teacher, I am constantly looking to revise my delivery methods in order to increase the probability that “learning” can occur. In the past I have modified delivery techniques, instructional material, pace and paths in an effort to continuously increase the probability that the learner will retain the information. 

That moment when the “light comes on” and you see a reflection in your student’s eyes as they understand

This pedagogy has often been derived from traditional delivery methods. For example I lecture, demonstrate, then encourage (and sometimes hope) the learning occurs. I’ve targeted the visual, auditory and tactile learners, pushed to understand the linear and global learners, and ultimately attempted to find a mean by which the highest probability of success might occur. This probability is often measured as I test a student through actual tests or practical application of the material. In this method I have also often asked myself if I am testing myself as well as the student, as the score leads me to believe the student and I both achieved a measure of success with a passing grade. 

What if we could alter that model, and deliver instructions that are designed not to just teach, but truly transfer knowledge?  If you have ever taught anything to anyone you know well that moment when the “light comes on” and you see a reflection in your student’s eyes as they understand.  They just added a measure of learning to their repertoire and you stand satisfied that knowledge was in fact transferred.

As a PMI member working for a company that is a PMI Registered Education Provider, I am cognizant of the need to protect the body of knowledge, add to it, and give back to the community of project management.  Now working for a company with over 25 years’ experience in project to portfolio management, I further feel the weight to ensure we “transfer knowledge” and not just teach someone.  The measure of our success rests in our client’s statement that they understand more than when we first engaged them, and that the relationship fostered the transfer of knowledge.

By jscreationzs, compliments of freedigitalphotos.net

“While we have enjoyed many years teaching live courses in classroom settings, we recognize the need for a lower cost, more convenient solution.”  The world’s economy has diminished, companies coffers are reduced, and the requirement for us to remain in the workplace to perform our primary functions while we learn is driving an interesting dynamic:  How can instructional material be transferred in a learning environment efficiently, quickly, with efficacy and success?  How can we rapidly respond to a market that quickly changes?  How can we ensure that we are teaching the skills necessary to achieve our business objectives while investing in our human (and in my opinion most important) resources, yet do so in a fashion that ensures we are not simply wasting money on training that may just be no more than a CBT at the end of the day?

I feel that comes in the model by which we choose to deliver.  Our goal is to reduce the time impact required (online delivery) while maximizing the concepts (nuggets) of learning to achieve a goal of knowledge transfer.  This is a core philosophy of Advisicon:  Knowledge Transfer.  What if we reduce courses to smaller one hour blocks of time, dispersed across a period of time, reduce the costs slightly to allow companies and individuals to engage in their own learning effectively while choosing to deliver instructions in a problem-solving approach?  This while we deliver it through an online environment, reaching multi-lingual nations globally, and delivering content that can rapidly be altered to meet needs of the industry as a whole?  Successful model?  I think so.

This post was written by Joe Brewer.

As fast as I published my blog post I shot a copy off to Lou. Within a week I received the email below from none other than Lou himself:

Jambo Danielle!!!!!

Happy New Year and THANK YOU for sharing with me and including me in your blog; I’m truly humbled! Would love to chat with you! Let’s have coffee! You rock.

Be more Give more,

Lou Radja

To say the least, I was elated.

Coffee with Lou

Fast forward to Starbucks. I walked in with something weighing heavy on me, internal company conflict.

When you work with the A team you have a group of extremely defined personalities. Everyone has their niche. Each person is respected and given room to do what they do best. We win together and we fail together. Camaraderie.

In the world of high performers there are always a dozen balls in the air. Each one of those balls has a dollar amount associated with it. Long hours, a fast paced environment, and stress come with the territory.

What happens when you have conflict with a peer on your team? It’s simple: find Lou, buy him a tall hot chocolate, and unload.

The Conflict with Jack

Let me start off by introducing my not so close friend, Jack.

It is estimated that more than 65% of performance problems result from strained relationships between employees – not from deficits in individual employees’ skill or motivation.

Jack is the guy that you try to avoid at the water cooler. He is known for being pushy, argumentative, and impossible to rid yourself of. He has managed to stake a claim at every company you have ever worked for or ever will work for. Jack is the guy your significant other refers to as Jack***.

Disclaimer: By default everyone you know, including yourself have at one point or another held the misfortunate title of Jack. We are going to discuss an encounter I had with one of the many Jacks of the world at my previous place of employment.

In the past, I have tried to avoid Jack. I have apologized to Jack. I have definitely considered throwing in the towel and blaming Jack. None of the above made Jack disappear. In fact, it made going into the office equivalent to walking the plank.

Jacks Facts

By the time I was done giving Lou the low down on Jack he was smiling.

He reminded me, “There are 1,000 Jacks. Jack will always be Jack. You can’t change Jack. You can’t avoid Jack. It’s not about Jack. It has never been about Jack. It’s always about you. Jack is frustrated with you. It’s his truth. You have to own that.”

In summary, Lou gave me 27 analogies to illustrate this quote:

Seek first to understand, then to be understood.

“Ultimately, when you focus on Jack you lose sight of the goal.”

In hindsight it is as clear as day. Of course it’s not about Jack; it’s about how I choose to respond to Jack.

The faster I make Jack’s needs a priority the faster my needs get met.

From Jack*** to Jedi

Jack turned out to be my teacher.

Taking the time to give Jack what he needed in turn gave me exactly what I needed. It’s safe to say that I do my best to avoid assuming that Jack and I are on the same page. When I think I have communicated, I do it again.

I validate Jack.

Lou signed off with,

Listen to the whispers and you won’t have to hear the screams.

I pulled my head out of the sand and started paying attention.

I started listening to Jack’s whispers before they evolved into overbearing screams. If what I’m doing doesn’t work, I make adjustments and it minimizes Jack’s response each time.

Forecasting out, Jack and I will be BFF’s in no time – not because Jack has changed but because I embraced Jack.

I am committed to the outcome not the process.

This post was written by Danielle Johnson.

Encouraging collaboration and inspiration – but also interruption

I’m going to let you in on my deep, dark secret. I had to retreat to my company’s training room to write this blog post. As a longtime advocate of collaboration for fostering workplace productivity, I am feeling very hypocritical at the moment.

Allow me to catch you up to speed… Towards the end of last year I knew it was time for a change. After many years marketing and teaching the sport of gymnastics (something that I love), I had reached a ceiling; there ceased to be room for further career advancement.

I love a good challenge though. My realization was also my exit cue.

Finding an organization that regarded this type of work environment as highly as I do was my top priority.

My main goal in selecting my next career opportunity: find an environment that would foster collaboration and socialization.

Having worked hard to create and encourage this environment with my former staff, I have witnessed the benefits it affords first hand. Finding an organization that regarded this type of work environment as highly as I do was my top priority.

Isolation vs Collaboration

I had no idea how difficult it would be to transition into a consistently collaborative, shared work environment.

In my former position it was a requirement to create content in a private, quiet, uninterrupted location. A routine I have unknowingly become very accustomed to. Yet suddenly I consistently exist in a workspace full of unavoidable distractions and interruptions.

Leverage your highest level of productivity by harnessing your ideal workspace.

The very collaboration I so fiercely sought after has turned out to be the most challenging aspect of my new position. When it comes time to create, I often find myself longing for the level of concentration that I am only afforded by solitude.

It turns out my most effective work environment for fostering genuine productivity is dependent entirely upon the task at hand. Simply because I appreciate the ability to poke my head over my cubicle and request my co-workers’ assistance or chat with someone as they pass by, doesn’t make that the ideal work environment for me to sit down and write this blog post in.

My work style and creative process vary depending upon the task I am completing. So why shouldn’t my environment?

I came to the realization that if I don’t leverage the benefits of the physical layout of my surroundings it’s no one’s fault but my own. I felt the need to insert some control over my environment and began fostering a sense of place.

Where in my new space could I most effectively accomplish the projects I am tasked with?

Working Where I Work Best

First thing in the morning, that space is my desk. This is when I appreciate my co-workers the most.

When it comes time to create however, those benefits no longer apply. So when all else fails… I escape.

We communicate on the latest industry news, company changes, everything and anything project management. This collaboration aides tremendously in the content mining and information sharing that has become my morning routine.

When it comes time to create however, those benefits no longer apply. So when all else fails… I escape.

As I finish this post I am sitting alone in the training room (which I reserved for myself this morning) appreciating the solitude and the creativity it lends to my writing process.

Lesson Learned: If working at your full potential means utilizing more than one workspace do it.

Productivity Through Variety

Regardless of the tasks on my to-do list during any given day, sometimes a break from my cubicle and typical surroundings is the fix I need to leverage my highest level of productivity. For example, I often sneak down to this very training room to stretch and do a little gymnastics. Nothing like some handstands to aide in untangling a nagging project away from your desk!

If you take one thing away from this post and my experience let it be this: Your surroundings are essential to maximizing your productivity, and should aide in the completion of whatever task you are working to accomplish. Whether that task demands solitude or team collaboration is for you to decide and act on.

As I bask in the quiet solitude for one last moment… I realize there’s not a single task on my remaining to-do list for the day that I can complete without the assistance of my coworkers. So as I finish my thoughts I prepare to return upstairs and join them in the office. But not before one last handstand.

This post was written by Nicole Brown.