To understand how organizations can succeed, let’s briefly recap the lessons from the first two parts of this series on organizational failure. Part One –Framework for Analyzing Organizational Failure1) Every decision has unintended consequences for the future – latent conditions.2) Leaders often make decisions without a thorough analysis of the effects of their decisions.3) EmployeesRead… Read more »
In part one of this series, I wrote about my research that lead to the Framework for Analyzing Organizational Failure. Since I created the Framework back in 2005, I have seen it validated in a number of organizational failures. So, in 2010, I started work on expanding the paper into a book. During the courseRead… Read more »
If you are a project manager, you will have to deal with organizational politics in virtually every part of your work. Whether it’s trying to attract a sponsor, grab a star performer for your project team, or compete with another project manager for scarce resources, every decision you make will have a political impact. IfRead… Read more »
Back in 2005, I presented a “Framework for Analyzing Organizational Failure” after my dissertation adviser doubted that I could find a general explanation for how government organizations fail. After an extensive review of the literature and an in-depth study of four major government failures (the Oakland Development Authority, the Navy’s A-12 project, the Challenger accident,Read… Read more »
There are many training options for training project managers, but you don’t often see a similar effort on training project team members. Project team members are usually subject matter experts and the prevailing belief is that the subject matter expertise is all that is required to be a good project team member. Based on myRead… Read more »
For those of you who have tackled a home improvement project, you will come to a point where semi-assembled parts are scattered all around you. This is usually when someone comments on how it looks like you will never finish what you started. With some of the more complex projects, even you doubt that youRead… Read more »
In 1999, the reigning world chess champion played against 50,000 people through the Internet. Entitled “Kasparov versus the World,” chess players (experts and amateurs) collaborated to play the black pieces while Kasparov alone played the white pieces. Anyone can suggest a move, discuss the moves, and vote on moves. Whichever move received the highest voteRead… Read more »
A project war room used to make sense especially if you are managing a complex project. Having a central place to hold project team meetings, brief stakeholders, and analyze data that helps you to control the project was needed as late as the early 90s. However, as with many other management methods, the rise ofRead… Read more »
“Ninety percent of a project manager’s work is communication.” You have probably seen this commonly quoted statistic but what you don’t see is a statistic that tells you how much of the 90% is devoted to listening. Why is that important? Because, poor communication is at least one of the three causes for failed projects.Read… Read more »
Around this time, various IT and professional web sites list what they consider the top skills for the coming year. It’s interesting to look back and see what skills stay on the lists, what skills fall off the list, and the new skills that appear. I haven’t seen such a list for government workers soRead… Read more »