Just read the June 15 issue of Business Week. They reviewed Management Rewired. Not surprising, it was a far better review than I did in my last post. Here are two statements BW chose to emphasize:

Feedback, praise, criticism — all useless. Instead, put human psychology to work for you, this book advises.

As contrarian as it sounds, Jacobs says employees should set their own objectives and critique their own performance.

This is a book every project leader should read.Performance reviews and project 'post mortems' are not just uncomfortable…they don't produce the kind of value that is intended. We need frequent team member-led assessments that can lead to in-the-moment changes in behavior. That will lead to better projects and more satisfied project participants. This is a book every project leader should read.

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Jacobs calls on neuroscience (the study of how the brain works) to explore what works and doesn't work with leadership behaviors. His conclusions are both reassuring and surprising. I've read many studies that say for most of us, performance-based incentive plans don't work. It's not just that they are ineffective, incentive compensation — rewards and punishment — often produces the opposite effects. Jacobs explains our brain adjusts our behavior to managers who put themselves in a dominant role. On the surprising side, Jacobs says that traditional performance appraisals including the 360° reviews don't work. So what does work?(...)
Read the rest of Project Managers Learning to Be Leaders (129 words)

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What do The Sopranos, In-N-Out Burger and Jim Collins have in common? They are featured in Matthew May's book In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing which ships today. This is a little book about a big topic, how elegant design comes to be. Matt takes his readers through a series of stories that reveal the elements of elegant design. Why might that be useful for project managers? My first answer is we are all designers.

Start rethinking your role, whatever it is, as a designer.

Projects come to be when we make a big promise to someone. That big promise requires us to assemble a temporary organization to deliver on the promise. How we do that is completely up to us and our team. We design the temporary organization and we design the approach or path that we will take. For the most part, we don't think of our roles as designers of projects. Instead, I hear project managers speak of our role as conducting a project putting our attention on getting things done rather than creating a space or setting for doing. Does this matter? You bet. One way we characterize great projects is by the freedom project participants have to explore, experiment and express themselves. Designing for that is our challenge.(...)
Read the rest of Big Day for Project Managers Designers (147 words)

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Ever see a hornet's nest? I have. It happened after my post yesterday. I got a bunch of emails taking exception to my call for making project management a profession. One person claimed I was shilling for the PMI.¹ To set the record straight, I shill for no one. Having said that, I stand behind my call for professionalism.

There are a number of avenues to professionalism. The PMI's PMP® is the best known and most criticized path. For now, I won't go into the criticism except to say, a lot of work needs to be done to make project management a full profession. There is a bigger issue. That is a commitment to career-long learning. Recognized professions take this very seriously. All have a form of continuing education units (CEUs). Members of a profession are required to maintain a level of on-going engagement in their education. That's right, required. It is one of the ways that registration or certification actually means something. Members of the profession are keeping up with the advancement of the profession. It's not a lot of time; for most professions it's about 30 hours of learning/course work/seminar attendance for every two years. Why is this important? Because the vast majority of project management people I speak with don't put in that time.(...)
Read the rest of Professional Status for PMs, Yes or No? (258 words)

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Is project management a profession? The experts in the matter of establishing conditions for a profession say no. Why? Most of it has to do with the accumulation and study of theory. I've been on the fence about whether or not we should seek professional status for project managers. I'm married to a registered nurse. Her brother is a registered engineer. My cousin is a licensed physician. One son is finishing his law degree so he can sit for the Bar while the other is studying for the landscape architect's exam. I know what these people have done to become professionals. It's time that project managers do the same.

The world needs project managers who know how and why projects succeed and can create the circumstances so they do.

We live in a project age. An age that I predict will last for generations. Sure, the industrial age was less than 200 years. The information age surrounds us. Some say the knowledge age is upon us. But the project age — this time where great things happen in a project setting — is only going to become more important as companies, communities, and professions deal with the rapidly changing technological environment. The world needs project managers who know how and why projects succeed and can create the circumstances so they do.(...)
Read the rest of Project Management Professional (119 words)

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Better than who? Better than what? What does better mean? Seth Godin wrote this morning about zippers vs. buttons on jeans. From a technological and ease of use many people would assess that zippers are better. However, after years of wearing jeans with zippers Seth has switched to buttons. Why? Because for him buttons are better. That is the key point.

"Better" is always personal.

"Better" is a value statement, an assessment, that we make as customers. I've never owned jeans with buttons. I can't imagine thinking they would be better than a zipper. But, don't make that decision for me. This reminds me of my new home. A year ago, the framer decided that he should center a window on the back wall of the garage because it would look better. He even spoke with the project manager about it. She agreed. When I saw it installed I was surprised they had not followed my plans. The project manager said it would look better. But what she didn't know is how I intended to use my garage. It was worse for my use, not better. "Better" is always personal.(...)
Read the rest of Does the Project Manager Know Better? (154 words)

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One of my project blogging friends, Bas de Baar, has begun a compilation of his posts that he's calling the Project Shrink Linear Edition version 0.1. It's an unbook. I don't know if Bas is calling it that, but he's creating it in that way. I'm a big fan of his thinking and his writing. Bas hits the nail on the head when he says, "Projects are about humans."

Projects are about humans.

You'll like his writing. He mixes personal experience with stories and just enough philosophy to be interesting, but not boring.

(...)
Read the rest of Projects Are about What? (145 words)

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I've been writing about "dumb" questions. While compiling the list of 45 reader questions I got thinking, why would someone not ask a question? Engaged people, in whatever they are doing, tend to be curious. Does it follow that people not asking questions, dumb or not-so-dumb, are just not engaged?

Have you voted on the Top 42 Not-So-Dumb Project Questions? Please do so now.

Get everyone involved in satisfying the needs of the customer

On further reflection I remembered a very short article in Industry Week (IW) by Ralph Keller. Ralph is the President of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME). He has a monthly column he calls Continuous Improvement. In December 2008 he wrote Engaging the Hearts and Minds of Your Employees. Ralph makes a very familiar case:

Failure to win over the hearts and minds of all of your people will result in less-than-desired results, and will not achieve the sustainable continuous improvement efforts that conditions today demand in order for companies to succeed.

He describes a few of the successful approaches.

(...)
Read the rest of Engaging Leadership for Not-So-Dumb Project Questions (257 words)

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Time to help me select the top 42 not-so-dumb project management questions. I created a Squidoo lens that has a great vote up, vote down tool that will let the readers arrange the list in their order. You don't need to be a Squidoo member to vote. You can even add to the list. So, go to Not-So-Dumb Project Management Questions to vote.

I'm not planning to keep it up very long, so get over there now! …please

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My last post created some interest and a little controversy. I don't think there are any dumb questions among team members. As the cliche goes, only the un-asked questions are dumb. Projects go much better when there is a free exchange among the participants. We all know this. Yet, for whatever reasons, usually having to do with fear, people often fail to ask when something looks unusual. Enron, Madoff, AIG…these tragedies in some way all involve people failing to ask questions.

Help generate a list of great dumb project management questions

I proposed 10 questions that are worth asking on our projects. The list was my list. Not scientific. No survey. Just based on my experience working on projects. A number of people left comments proposing other questions. Some sent me emails. So, let's try something together. I'm getting a book ready based on my project e-tips. It's in editing. I'm not sure when it will be published, although I have it on the front burner. What if we make my list of 10 dumb project management questions your list, but bigger? Let's see if we can generate a list of 42 really good dumb PM questions. (I'll tell you later why 42.) I'm looking for at least another 32 good dumb questions. Once I have a bunch, then I'll create a survey where you can vote up or down the questions. The top 42 will get published.

(...)
Read the rest of Looking for 32 or more Dumb Project Management Questions (134 words)

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Cliches become cliches because there's so much truth in them that they are spoken so frequently. We've all heard, "The only dumb question is the one you didn't ask." But, do you? Ask, that is? Or like most of us at some time or another, are you as afraid as me to look stupid in front of others? Thought so.

Dumb questions are good project controls.

Seth Freeman, writing in USA Today, 1-13-2009, says Ask the 'dumb' questions.

"Danger," he says, "lies in the fear of asking questions. That fear is helping to ruin people and destroy our economy."

Wow. He blames investors (and the SEC?) for Bernie Madoff's long-running Ponzi scheme. One question is all anyone need ask, "What were the trades that allowed you to make money regardless of how the market moved?" Any large fund exercising due diligence and prudence on behalf of its members should have asked that question and deserved an answer. Even the SEC could have asked that question and got an answer. But no one risked asking that dumb question? So what does this have to do with projects? Dumb questions are good project controls. So, let's look at some of the dumb questions we need to ask.

(...)
Read the rest of Top 10 Dumb Project Management Questions (113 words)

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Project managers take note. There's more evidence that multitasking is doing you (and your project) harm. The latest is from Dave Crenshaw, The Myth of Multitasking: How doing it all gets nothing done. The book is a fast read. And, it comes with Seth Godin's blessing.

Dave has a novel take on multitasking. He doesn't fault all our multitasking behaviors. For instance, background tasking is one where we perform two or more tasks simultaneously however only one of those tasks requires our full attention. I can't think of a set of project management tasks that fits that situation. Can you? Dave goes on to say that the deadliest practice is switchtasking.

(...)
Read the rest of Myth of Multitasking (176 words)

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