Category Archives: communication

Is a list of tasks enough of a plan?

When projects struggle with planning sometimes the teams create lists of tasks. To add detail the lists contain names of people, they estimate how many days are needed for each task and even list beginning and end dates. So what’s the problem? Continue reading

Posted in communication, Planning, Professionalism | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Project data base for questions and answers

I received an email tell me to check out askaboutprojects. I’m naturally suspicious of unsolicited emails but then I looked closer, the email had come in response to my latest blog post – yay, someone is reading my posts. Continue reading

Posted in communication, Innovation, Tools | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Communication – why is it so hard?

I’ve been looking around at blogs for inspiration for today’s post. It seems like communication is the topic of choice for bloggers. It is complex, even though it sounds simple. How hard is it to be clear, paraphrase for clarity, follow up, listen… and all the other tips people have out there. Continue reading

Posted in communication, organizational savvy, Professionalism, Team management | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Are you getting the truth?

A project manager needs to hear the truth from the team and the sponsor. In a project that is making significant changes in an organization, the PM can only be successful if they get the truth. It’s not a case of “you can’t handle the truth” but more of a case of “you can handle anything as long as you get the truth.” Continue reading

Posted in communication, organizational savvy, Professionalism, Team management | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why you should welcome conflict?

Most people would say they hate and avoid conflict. In this environment of staff cuts, there are probably a lot of people ducking conflict to keep under the radar. In my experience it’s not conflict, but confrontation that people hate. Continue reading

Posted in communication, organizational savvy, Team management | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

How to manage the schedule for a 1200 line project

I was at a PMI chapter event last week and the presenter asked how many people in the room had heard the term work breakdown structure. Only about a 3rd of the hands went up. I have to admit I was surprised at how many people hadn’t heard of it, we were all project managers after all. I did wonder, though, of the third who had heard of it, how many had used it. Continue reading

Posted in communication, Planning | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Is there a difference between project management and people management?

People hear and understand things from their own perspective. That means you have to try to find a way to communicate outside your own perspective. Continue reading

Posted in communication | Tagged , , | Leave a comment