When The Solution Is Not Enough March 20th, 2015

When I was a kid, my dad often gave me math exercises to solve. He called them ‘math problems’, how true! This was over and beyond the regular homework I got given from school. Yes, I was very fortunate to have the best dad in the world, God bless him! The first thing I struggled[...]

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Know Your Customers Better February 26th, 2015

Introduction Knowing your customers better. How often do we hear this? Do companies really know their customers at all? Attention If you spend time with someone, you have lots of shared experiences - the highs, the lows and the in-betweens. You don't have to tell them what to do, you are there just to share their company and[...]

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Positioning PRINCE2 In An Unforgiving Business World January 15th, 2015

Introduction The objective of this paper is to provide the project management practitioner with some practical advice on ways to gain business approval of PRINCE2. This paper focuses on practical methods to ‘sell’ PRINCE2 to senior management, particularly in an environment where a number of past projects have failed or were closed prematurely. When a project fails,[...]

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The Project Manager as Psychologist December 27th, 2014

Introduction The purpose of this paper is to discuss some of the issues that the project manager faces in the quest to maintain team members’ motivation levels during a project. Further, this paper suggests a practical technique, grounded in human psychology, for the project manager to better understand team members and what they are thinking. There are[...]

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Leadership is ‘doing the right things’ October 26th, 2014

It was Peter Drucker who famously said “management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” This theme is shared by others like Jim Collins, author of the book ‘Good to Great’. Jim talks of “level 5 leaders” as “ambitious first and foremost for the cause, the organisation, the work – not themselves[...]

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Project Leadership: It’s Mental August 26th, 2014

As the project management field develops and matures, it is becoming clearer that project management requires project leadership to succeed. Project leadership goes beyond project management in significant ways. A good quote to sum this view comes from Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper "you manage things; you lead people." Project management is not merely the[...]

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