Running Like a Hamster in a Cage
From the PM Network Blog
by Cameron McGaughy,
Aaron Smith, Deryn Zakielarz, Jill Diffendal
PM Network is the award-winning magazine for members of the Project Management Institute. This blog will highlight some of the publication's valuable information and insights, keeping you up to date on industry trends.
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As business cycles accelerate, schedule compression appears to become the norm. But squeezing more project into less time doesn’t have to be a losing proposition. March’s PM Network cover story provides antidotes for this situation—some of them are counterintuitive.
Have senior leaders show their support for the changed schedule and spell out the business case. This will help get your team on board. Hold bonding activities—this will increase team adhesion in a pressured work environment. Communicate more by making meetings more frequent, as long as they are focused. This can bring up solvable obstacles to the compressed schedule.
Do you have tips on dealing with the “more, faster” conundrum? Let us know in the comments below.
An additional topic for discussion: Which type of PM Network article is more valuable to you, an article about an interesting project such as renovating the Colosseum in Rome or an article about project management techniques such as this month’s schedule compression? Please help us guide your PMI professional magazine (and member benefit) by telling us your preference.
Posted
by
Dan Goldfischer
on: March 07, 2017 03:19 PM |
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Comments (6)
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Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
March 2017 issue of the PM Network is a very interesting one if compared to others as it contains various articles about projects.
The choice between an article about an interesting project such as renovating the Colosseum in Rome or an article about project management techniques is very difficult as both are very important, interesting from two completely different angles as the first gives you a glimpse about interesting projects around the world and the other deals with technical issues that will assist in managing projects so my personal opinion is to strike a balance between Interesting Projects & Technical Articles as variety is good and will attract more reader and contributors.
Thanks for the great post and efforts.
LORI WILSON
RETIRED - Technical Project Manager| RETIRED - LifePoint Health
Clarkston, Wa, United States
I often make the comment it feels like we are all tap dancing on a moving floor as fast as we can. Between the business cycle acceleration and schedule pressure, we feel squeezed. There are cost pressures and many other types of pressure that compete for our time and energy. At one of the hospitals where I am blessed to serve as a project manager, I have been asked to share meeting efficiencies and meeting effectiveness strategies with leadership. This is opening so many opportunities to openly talk about these issues with our Administrative team and begin to make changes. Thank you for your blog, it reinforces that what we were feeling in our hospital is much more common than we could have realized. I appreciate the tips you have shared. Some of our tips are: before scheduling meetings, make sure a meeting is the best platform - know and the understand the cost of each of your meetings - have a mentor who provides honest feedback on your meeting facilitation and looks for ways to improve and hone your skills. Sometimes we have to step back and analyze what we are doing so we are sure remain on track. We have to do this to keep up with the fast dancing!
Vincent Guerard
Coach - Trainer - Speaker - Advisor| Freelance
Mont-Royal, Quebec, Canada
I would go with Rami comments.
I add that Interesting Project can provide some Technical side, often they are very visible and require specific technical skills. The Colosseum had some challenges, engineering, communication, location, keeping site open and many more. The article about Intersting Project can cover some problematical side and how they where resolved.
Thank you for requesting member input.
Drew Craig
Sr. Agile & Product Coach| Vanguard
Philadelphia, Pa, United States
Great comments.
I have changed up my meetings; shorter, more focused, more frequent. This seems to keep up momentum, reduce the meeting dread, and help tackle the biggest items/issues at that time with easier prioritizing.
On the choice of articles - both. A case study of an executed project would definitely be an interesting read, while reading about various PM techniques is also valuable information. The topics are quite different and could be incorporated into each issue - Case Study and Techniques Corner.
Thank you for reaching out for our input and sharing considerations.
Mudassar Khan
Program (Project )Manager| Woodward Canada Inc
Peterborough, ON, Canada
I agree with Andrew and i have also shortened my meeting times and focused on frequency
I find any article with examples of project management techniques to be helpful.
I like reading about renovating the Colosseum, but for my day to day work project techniques are something I can use immediately. Thank you.
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