The Project Coach

My New Year’s Resolution is to focus on creativity this year.  Even though today is only December 31, there is no time like the present!  So, let’s get started. 

For the next few weeks, I will be blogging about how we, as project managers, can help our project teams think more creatively.  In my last blog, I looked at the systems and causes of teams that are in a creativity crisis.  Today, I offer the first technique for helping your team break out of a creativity rut.  I will follow with many more techniques over the next several weeks.  › Continue reading…

In the hectic pace that can set in on projects, in spite of our best intentions in the beginning, we often find ourselves racing frantically through the end of one phase of work right into the next – especially if we’re a wee bit behind schedule and need to catch up.  Don’t do it!  Take the time to stop and assess the work effort in a tollgate phase review.   Neglecting to get formal stakeholder approval of the work can backfire later in the project. › Continue reading…

It’s that time of year again.  Whether you believe in New Year’s Resolutions or not, most people are reflecting on the last year and thinking about what we might do differently in the coming year. 

My goal for 2010 is to think more creatively.  Every organization, including my own, is challenged with doing more with less.  We are dared to increase sales, revenue, customer satisfaction or efficiency, while reducing costs, headcount, and anything else that can be reduced. Finding a new way to think seems like the easiest, and most cost effective, way to come up with some new solutions.    › Continue reading…

In our previous installment of this series, ‘Plan your communications with your “wins” in mind’,  we talked about how to plan and set up vehicles for heralding successes or “wins” as they occur on our project as we do our communications planning.  In this final article we’ll now discuss opportunities to be mindful of as your project progresses so that you have great material to feed into these PR machines you have set up. › Continue reading…

Communicating about tasks, roles and responsibilities takes up a great deal of time for most project managers.  After communicating, a project manager documents and tracks task assignments in a project plan.  So everybody has something to do, and the plan forward is clear to all.  But how do you translate those task assignments into a real sense of ownership by individual team members?  How do you make sure that each member of the project team feels accountable for the project’s success, not just the project manager? › Continue reading…