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September 2, 2010, Sponsored by RMC Project Management, Inc.
From the Founder
It's time to move from summer play (or winter doldrums) back to serious work. This week we're highlighting help to make the transition smoothly, with as little pain as possible. In this issue:
- Check out new approaches for having more influence than you probably thought possible.
- See how you can use a single project to test Agile techniques and see if they're for you.
- Get some post-vacation advice for digging out from the piled up work, without going insane.
— Cinda Voegtli
Featured Article
Counting to Ten
by Carl Pritchard, PMP, PMI-RMP, EVP
Coming back from vacation, you would think that we'd suddenly all be far more accommodating, understanding and relaxed. Strangely enough, I seem to note that the folks that I'm dealing with seem more pressured and stressed than they did before they took off on holiday. Here are ten simple suggestions on how to either be or appear less frustrated the next time someone pushes you near the edge of frustration.
Read the rest »
Upcoming LIVE Webinar – September 23
Try It Before You Buy In – Trying Out Agile One Project at a Time – 23 September 2010, 10 a.m. PDT - 1.5 PDUs
Seating is limited; sign up today to guarantee your spot.
Cautious, committed, or just plain curious—wherever you stand on Agile methods, you don't have to change the entire company to try them out. This session with Kent McDonald, co-author of Stand Back and Deliver, will explain how you can test Agile in your organization without convincing anyone to throw out the current rulebook—by trying it carefully, one project at a time.
In this practical 90-minute session, Kent will address your questions about how to try Agile without committing the entire organization. Find out how to pick the right project for your test, how to get the right resources, and how to launch your test-balloon successfully, step-by-step. Plus, PMPs can earn 1.5 Category-3 PDUs for attending. Registration includes the post-event recording download and related resources, for just $39.95.
Reserve your spot today »
How-To Course Announcement
Our August how-to course, Deciding How to Respond to Risks, is still available for a few more days, but we thought you'd like to know what's coming up after the holiday. By popular request, our next course release will be Staying In Touch and In Sync: Planning Team Communication. You can see the full survey results from our Premium Home Page. Stay tune for the course release—and a new course poll— in the next newsletter issue.
Awesome Influence, Powerful Communication
This week we feature several resources and tools to help you get what you need from your huge cast of project decision-makers, stakeholders, and participants.
NEW – Webinar Recording – It's So NOT About Authority: Critical Influence Skills for Project Managers
Do you have an office door and a fancy title? Do your team members report directly to you in a nice straight line that everyone can see on the org chart? Turns out, it doesn't really matter how you answer those questions. Your influence on your projects and your project teams isn't limited by your direct authority. And if you're lucky enough to have that authority, it's no guarantee that you'll have the influence you need to get things done.
So what does matter? That's what this 90-minute webinar covers. This recording of our June 23 webinar—now available for just $39.95—explains how to identify your current influence shortfalls and do something about them fast. The art of genuine, well-meaning influence can be unexpectedly fun and liberating for people in the challenging role of project manager, no matter what your actual title is or where you are in the organizational chart. In the end, it's so NOT about authority!
Find out more »
NEW – 5 Steps to Tough, Timely Project Decisions that Stick
Made right and made to last, a project decision is not a point in time, but results from a critical process. This article discusses how to influence and manage tough decision-making—including understanding the assets and liabilities of your decision-owners, avoiding unchecked rehashing of decisions that will kill your credibility, and not getting sidetracked by inevitable "transitional pain" from tough decisions.
Read more »
NEW – Start by Hiding the Cutlery – Intervening with Dueling Executives to Resolve Big Delays – PREMIUM
"Two high-level people in my company do not agree on the goals of my project and are creating delays. What techniques can I use to bring them to a common ground and get the project back on track?" See our advice on using an influence process to unwind the underlying issues and wind the project back up.
Read more »
From Blamestorming to Brainstorming – How do I communicate bad news without getting blamed for everything? – PREMIUM
When something has gone wrong on the project, here's our quick advice on the right mindset, important actions, and several helpful tools, all to help you communicate effectively and moving people from laying blame to reaching a solution together.
Read more »
Fierce Conversations – Getting Truth on the Table and Tackling the Real Problems
Tough problems will never get solved if the parties involved can't even face and discuss what's really going on! And how we communicate with others has everything to do with the influence (or lack thereof) we achieve in those situations. This week we point you to a favorite book, Fierce Conversations, which maintains that our relationships and endeavors succeed or fail one conversation at a time.
Learn more »
Speaking Up – How to Make Your Case – SPECIAL
This Premium resource is free to registered Members until September 16!
You may have heard that it's better to ask forgiveness than permission, but that kind of thinking can send a project seriously off the rails. If your grand idea has unfortunate side effects, wouldn't you rather know before you go skipping down the yellow brick road? And if it really is a perfect idea, you'll have much less resistance if everyone supports it. You're far better off getting everyone on the same page. Speaking up can be intimidating, but the advice and model in this guideline make it just a little easier, and should make you more effective at selling the idea. (This guideline is also included with the webinar bundle "It's So NOT About Authority," featured above.)
Start making your case »
Let's Stand Up While We're at It – Agile Technique Brief: Standup Meetings – PREMIUM
If your team meetings are lost in endless commentary and bickering, with little actual work getting done, maybe it's time to hide the chairs. Standup Meetings just one example of how Agile methods can move teams out of stagnant patterns and toward more productive interactions. This technique brief by Kent McDonald explains when and how to try standup meetings, who to involve, and what results you can expect to see if you and your team make an effort to change old habits.
Find out how »
Don't forget to check out Kent's September 23 webinar on Trying Out Agile One Project at a Time.
Find out more »
Advice from the Trenches – Project Practitioner Blogs
DeAnna Burghartjust survived returning to the fray after a big vacation, and offers us her quick tips and can-do attitude for tackling the overload on all our plates (and lurking in corners and hiding in drawers). She advocates a few decisive actions we can take to confront the landscape of our undone to-dos and incomplete mini-projects, regain our productivity, lose that overload-induced anxiety, and sleep better at night to boot.
Morley Selver weighs in on the importance of presenting a consistent team-wide interface and image to the owners, partners, and customers involved with our projects. He also provides advice for understanding and documenting their critical preferences, to avoid project misunderstandings, mistakes, and misplaced efforts.
Sinikka Waugh lobbies strongly for serving up bad news immediately when project crises happen, rather than waiting for all the information, potential solutions, or even a clear path forward—and how to pull off this prompt communication with partial information plus candor and empathy for the impacted audience.
Corporate Subscriptions and Licensing
Want your team members to have their own access to templates and how-to resources for their project work? Need to share documents and deliverables beyond your project team? We make it easier with affordable corporate subscriptions and licensing. Detailed information regarding corporate options is available online. Give your whole team, or even the entire organization, cost-effective access to our comprehensive online library of resources. You already know how helpful it's been for you. Now it's time to share with everyone else. Find out more »
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