How do you spot the phony? By testing and comparing it to the authentic, of course. Until there is a course in management authentic comparison, we’re here to help out!

Here in our table we have made it easy for you to spot the obvious:

This handy table will help, in a humorous way, spot the fake management styles.. Even if sometimes the fake project manager… is you!

All of the courses, all of your practice and experience, and all of the knowledge in your head.

Being a wizard is easy. It’s the work that isn’t always so.

In the Harry Potter movies series, training is key. In fact, learning takes a long time. Practice helps. But as usual – in movies and in life – luck and friends are needed pull you through the tough times.

The plot of your own projects in life, and in your career as a wizard, will unfold as you go. Destiny is there in the background, whether you love it or not. You find out that your future was not as you had planned, because there was another plan already happening.

Like Harry, you are born with gifts… wizardly powers… that perhaps are not known by those around you. Whether you train at Hogwarts, or you do your management training at Harvard, you learn. And in a sense, you’re always in school. Besides the benefits of continually stretching your brain, everyday life presents constant changes and knowledge for you to absorb.

And as you advance in your wizardly levels, you find out the “truths” you knew earlier are not the same. You grow up, and your world grows up.

But inside of you is the same young wizard, with the potential, and the magic inside to rise up to the challenges you face.

Curiosity
Compassion
Control
Privacy
Secrecy

And more.  It is shocking in its scope, because it was kept under the lid for so long.

These aspects combine together:

Curiosity – we want to know about how this happenened, and the story is unfolding hour-by-hour

Compassion – the original root of the story’s viral attraction: we feel for the families involved in the missing girl’s situation.

Control – there are several areas here, including control over secrets, control of the authorities (and apparent mis-use), and in general lack of control over our own privacy.

Privacy – if the privacy of everyday people cannot be supoorted by those we trust it to, we feel exposed and want to learn more (and how it could happen to us).

Secrecy – we all have curiousity about once-secret activities that are being revealed, especially as this can reveal how people really think and act.

What can we learn from this in terms of managing our lives, and our projects?

First, know what you stand for… principles matter.  Of course you cannot change the culture of an organization overnight, but you can know yourself. 

Second, ask questions.  Learn what is really going on.  You may have to trust your intuition (which is really your ability to spot mis-alignments that cannot be aligned).

Third, communicate to your team(s) about your commitment to integrity, accountability, and transparency. You do have influence over the culture of your team. 

And lastly, beware of social engineering.  Set up a password on your phone/handset, your voicemail, and if possible on your phone account (to access customer care or to make subscription changes).  Be aware of account information of yours that you can get without verification.  Think like a hacker before they do.

Project types may vary, but risks tend to be categorized in a fashion similar to brainstorming. Since generally brainstorming is random, this may not be a workable approach.

Your project will be successful in some degree by identifying, planning for, and avoiding risk. Once an initial plan is made, carrying it out is fairly mechanical. But risks are the gremlins waiting along way to your eventual project completion.

Brainstorming is one initial approach to identifying risk. Having a free flowing discussion allows these risks to be captured for later analysis. And in every meeting, there is the possibility that a new risk comes to surface. Capturing and communicating these risks is important, especially since not everyone attends each meeting.

Communication is always important in project management, and this is true for handling risks. And face-to-face communication, via discussion, is a key method of analysis that can often be overlooked. Our brains process information in both a linear and a non-linear fashion. In person discussion allows both methods to be used to advance an idea that simply writing (via status) or via email threads does not handle well.

At the base of project risk management, there is the need to track risks over time. Risks can rise or fall in importance or in the ways they can be managed. There is an old saying that a problem identified is a problem that is half solved. This applies in concept to risks, in that once a risk is captured, described, and communicated, the impact of the potential damage is significantly reduced.

(part 2 of this write-up will further the risk management presentation)

Okay, so you have the job, and you’re taking courses to improve your management skills. Then reality hits. You’re a little shocked.

“There is something else I need to learn.”

But it’s not in the courses, not really. It’s described in cartoons such as Dilbert, but you think it’s not real.

1. No one really minds your meetings, if you make their attending worthwhile: attention to them, compliments, entertainment, or brain growth. Meetings are social events, which is something that our biology is designed to enjoy. Keep the meeting pace and content relevant, and greet people who attend, and show real interest in them.

2. No project plan lasts through the first hour of real work. Same for your WBS (Work Breakdown Structure), etc. You cannot foresee all events that affect your plans. Get used to it, but…

3. You have to act like your plans are set in stone. This is especially helpful when you have to ask some other group or person to change their plans.

4. Your team loves you. You help give them additional purpose in their day/life/career, and this is what most people crave. The sense of purpose, even if you’re just passing the purpose on down from above.

5. Your team hates you. You give them priorities that don’t make sense. Especially if you’re passing the priority on down from above! They want you to stick up for them and their individual constraints, in spite of what may need to be down in the larger scheme of things.

6. Every project is unique. This is great, since your brain will enjoy growing new knowledge, which keeps you sharp all your days. If something seems similar from a past project to the one you have now, don’t get too comfortable with that…

7. You have to always be looking for what can go wrong. Great management relies on not stopping your worry circuits from working constantly. It’s a habit once you do it often enough, and it’s a helpful habit to improve. Look for the negative possibilities, but…

8. You will do better if you are an optimist. What has gone wrong is past, what will go wrong is perhaps fixable, but you will have better ideas if you maintain a positive outlook.

9. Be comfortable with estimates that are not accurate at first. People will throw out a number, like “10″, when they know they only have 9 to give you. Or they just like round numbers. Assume everything is an estimate, and keep refining.

10. (see #9).

5 pitfalls that derail EVM success – an article in FCW details these areas, along with ideas for solving the issue. The pitfalls are executive ambivalence, poor data & data overload, poorly chosen software, and inexperienced contractors.

Law firms look to process management – for both in-house counsel, and independent firms, use of a model other than the billable hour method gets a look by law.com, as a way to streamline and increase effectiveness.

Who Knows What in the Wall Street Journal discusses how organizations need to make it easier to find experts, and how blogs and wikis can help, along with social networks and “tagging”.

The Project Management Tip You Can’t Ignore – a blog post on Articulate.com that highlights the importance of getting email communication right.

The video is about 8 1/2 minutes long.

Strictly speaking, giving praise to team members won’t cost you anything. It’s free. So, if you see any of your project team players doing a spectacular job, don’t hesitate to acknowledge their efforts.

If someone deserves praise, why not provide some? Some managers are old-school, maintaining “work is it’s own reward” thinking. But in a competitive modern hiring & retention environment, even people who don’t report to you are usually people you want to have ‘retained’ for your project continuity. Even people who always give praise, to almost everyone for even small deeds, are generally seen as conducting beneficial acts for the group.

Meanwhile, your words of praise would do wonders for your project team’s self-esteem, and will also encourage continued dedication.

Project Management Course homepage

More news stories will be posted on a recurring basis.

- A project management methodology should define all of the stages of work. These stages of work may vary based on how an organization wants to chunk out the work, but should define all five “W”s. These five are: Who, What, Where, When and Why, and they should all be established. In order for you to be able to define the direction of your project you must be able to synchronize all of the work responsibilities and relationships between all of the different steps in the methodology. The definitions should have all of the following characteristics:

a – They should be measurable. You should be able to evaluate each stage of work in terms of how long it is going to take for you to perform You should also provide criteria which will substantiate the completion of deliverables, allowing you to essentially ensure that a quality product will be delivered.

b – They should be independent of techniques and tools. These techniques and tools may be deployed as they are required, but they should be independent of the project management methodology.

c – They should be independent of other aspects of project management. These methodologies can exist with project management systems or even without them.

If your methodology does not match the criteria listed above, then the odds are that it is not really a methodology, but rather is a specific technique or a tool.

There are three types of project management methodologies, which will be covered in part 3 of the methologies series.