The Project Coach

The Art of War Room

I just established a war room for the beginning of a new project.  In its simplest terms, a war room is a workspace dedicated to a collocated project team, enabling team members to work together to quickly create a solution to a business problem or address a business opportunity. 

 Over the years, I have been responsible for many war rooms and I have been collocated in war rooms run by other project managers.  I love a good war room.  When done well, I think a war room contributes to better work, shorter cycles and a really positive team experience.  When done poorly, a war room is just another meeting space.  › Continue reading…

I just established a war room for the beginning of a new project.  In its simplest terms, a war room is a workspace dedicated to a collocated project team, enabling team members to work together to quickly create a solution to a business problem or address a business opportunity. 

Over the years, I have been responsible for many war rooms and I have been collocated in war rooms run by other project managers.  I love a good war room.  When done well, I think a war room contributes to better work, shorter cycles and a really positive team experience.  When done poorly, a war room is just another meeting space. 

This got me thinking about my own personal “war room best practices”, which I will share here.  I would love to hear your best practices on this topic, if you have any you’d like to share.  › Continue reading…

Undoubtedly, the masters would agree hands down that the recommended approach for any project team practicing agile methods would be co-location. The benefit of this arrangement is all the casual conversation that team members naturally tend to engage in, or are forced to overhear from their co-workers, which in turn promotes collaboration on the project – or so the theory goes. Unfortunately with the fabric of today’s multi regional, global, or outsourced organizations, co-located teams are not always an option. › Continue reading…

In last week’s article, Susan discussed the emotions involved when a project is terminated, “back burnered” to death, or mercifully euthanized.  But what about those projects that don’t or can’t get cancelled when they should?  Whether due to mandatory regulatory requirements, or being beyond the point of no return some projects simply leave us no choice – they must be finished.  Managing a troubled project to prevent it from becoming a failed project, and then turning it around and steering it back to a successful project requires super star skills.  Typically project specialists at the highest end of the project management spectrum are brought in as an outsider for these jobs to function as a special recovery project manager.  › Continue reading…

It’s the end of the 2^nd Quarter and the first half of the year, and for many organizations, it’s a time when projects and programs are reviewed and analyzed.  Some will ultimately be nurtured:  more money, resources, attention, whatever the scare resource is.  Other projects and programs will not fare so well and will be terminated outright or “back-burnered” to death. › Continue reading…

In this week’s episode of Celebrity Apprentice, the losing team fell into a common trap that often plagues presenters everywhere – TMI: too much information.  This week was a tough one for the board room, as even Donald said he felt that both teams produced an excellent product and performed well.  No one team member or project manager made any particular blunders.  As usual, with the typical TV show diversion tactics, the audience was led to believe that one team – Rock Solid – was on a path to defeat, due to Bret’s blatant disregard for the sponsors request for levity, › Continue reading…

This week’s episode of Celebrity Apprentice offered a lesson for project managers the world over about recognizing the power of mixing up stagnant teams. 

The guys had been doing pretty well as a team and had learned to play to each other’s strengths after the first six episodes.  The women, not so much.  Cyndi’s initial flakiness has progressed to outright boorishness.  Holly continues to grate with her sledgehammer finesse.  Maria takes things too personally and Summer is the classic peacekeeper.  Sharon has been absent for the last few shows (tolerated because she is The Donald’s pet this season) so her brusqueness has been in short supply but still evident enough to ruffle a few feathers.   › Continue reading…

Is winning at all cost, despite the consequences of team trust and relationships worth the price?  That is the question we contemplate after this week’s episode of celebrity apprentice.  This week the teams were each assigned a rising country music artist, and the task was to perform an image makeover, including a press kit and media coaching to prepare the artist for an interview with “PEOPLE Country Magazine” and a live concert.  › Continue reading…

After five episodes, the stress of the show is taking its toll on both teams.  The ladies are not nearly as courteous as they were when they started, and are eager to comply when The Donald  sets them up to throw each other under the bus in the Board Room.  The guy’s team, no longer forming or storming, has moved on to norming, the stage where team members adjust their behaviors to the team dynamics. In this week’s episode, Curtis provided strong leadership for Rocksolid.  After weeks of watching Bret dither, Curtis managed him well and led the men’s team to their first win after a string of losses to Tenacity.  › Continue reading…

In week 4 of The Celebrity Apprentice, there were a couple of dominant themes.  More important even than in past weeks, communication emerged early in the task as a vital discipline that set the stage as a differentiator.  Also, I think we saw a poor execution of delegation which contributed to the downfall of the losing team. 

As this week’s task assignment began, Donald called both teams to the boardroom, and asked each team to select a project manager without disclosing what the task was.  › Continue reading…