PM Quote of the Day — Anonymous

If one person tells you that you have a tail you can ignore it; if two people tell you, turn around and take a look. 

PM Quote of the Day — Harold Geneen

It is much more difficult to measure nonperformance than performance. 
Hat tip: Jonathan Becher at Manage By Walking Around.

Project Management as “table stakes”

Regular readers know that I’ve been harping on the increasing importance of program management, especially when it comes to realizing the benefits or value of projects.  Project managers who simply run projects without reference to the larger business environment are becoming a commodity. 
During the recent Global Corporate Council forum, I heard two thoughts that illustrated [...]

WSJ Interview on “The Experience Trap”

FYI, a Wall Street Journal article (“Dangers of Clinging to Solutions of the Past”) based in part on interviews w/ yours truly came out today (link here, page B4 in the paper).  Thanks to Kishore Sengupta of INSEAD for pointing the WSJ my way and to Phred Dvorak of the WSJ for conveying the perils of [...]

Surviving PMO Success — The Process Maturity Trap

One of the unexpected challenges in our PMO journey has been that success can make an enterprise-level PMO appear less relevant.  A PMO must transform its approach to stakeholders or it won’t take full advantage of the improvements it fostered.  One manifestation of the problem unfolds thusly:

An enterprise PMO composed of PM thought leaders executes a [...]

PM Quote of the Day — Bernard Ibbings Bell

A good education is not so much one which prepares a man to succeed in the world, as one which enables him to sustain a failure. 

PM Quote of the Day — Herb Kelleher

“A company is stronger if it is bound by love rather than by fear.”

Saying “No” the right way

A colleague of mine, Schalk Klee, has a couple of posts of interest (Schalk’s blog is here).  I had forgotten to link to his original post on saying “No” as a PM (here), so his follow up post on when and how to say “No” (here) was an appreciated reminder.  Schalk highlights the balance that must be [...]

It’s a start to know you have a problem…

Good to be back from break.  Over the years, I’ve found that the paradox of a really good vacation is that by the end I’m raring to get back home and off to work.
Yesterday, I saw a great WSJ article on the travails of Toyota (here) that shows even great companies stumble — the company is facing [...]

PM Quote of the Day — Herbert Spencer

There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance – that principle is contempt prior to investigation. 
I’ve always liked this quote and I happened upon it last night again.  Regardless of Spencer’s  (somewhat unearned) academic infamy [...]