ICPM

Total Participation Starting From the Top

This point speaks to the need for
(1) commitment from top management and
(2) commitment from everyone else in the organization.
Quality is everyone’s job, and if any implementation is not total, it will not fulfill its full potential. 

In project management, I see this point alluding to executive formation and support of a company-wide Project Management Office. That PMO must be the central source of all project management knowledge, under continuous development by the practitioners of project management. Lessons learned and any potential improvements to the project management methodology used by all PM’s in the company should be evaluated, tested, and implemented as a positive change.

Break Down Departmental Barriers in Pursuit of a Common Goal

Many processes are cross-functional. The same is true of projects. {mosimage}This point is about dissolving the “us versus them” scenario that so often exists in one form or another within organizations. In most projects that I work on, there are individuals from departments such as operations, central services and other support functions, MIS, IT, Service Engineering, etc. The “us versus them” attitude comes about when project managers and project team members look at their own interests at the exclusion of others, and instead of working towards a common goal, work towards their own separate and distinct goals.

I have a friend who used to work for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as a tax collector for the United States.  When he performed an audit he expected you to be honest and work with him to determine what was owed.  He had the authority to make your life miserable if you chose to mess around.  After trying unsuccessfully on one case to work through issues with an individual he showed up at the company before 6:00 AM with padlocks and chains to impound all of the vehicles.  In concert with this move he froze all financial assets as soon as the bank opened. 

Can you do everything? If you can, please stop reading and start writing. Please reply to Margaret@MeloniCoaching.com with your secret, right away. I know the rest of us would benefit from your expertise.

Growing up in rural western New York we had cold, long winters.  Natural gas wasn’t cheap even then.  With 4 sons and a chain saw, my dad would cut enough firewood to heat a big, four-bedroom, 2-story home from October to April. 

Multi-tasking is a subject I'm passionate about. Passionate about NOT doing actually, whenever possible. Let me start by identifying two types of multi-tasking, bad and required. 

Bad multi-tasking is working on two things simultaneously, or switching between things because something else is suddenly urgent, but not important enough to justify dropping everything you are working on. Many of us never stop to think about it though, we automatically equate urgency to priority. Just because something seems urgent doesn't mean you should drop everything. Remember Mr. Covey's 4 quadrants:

Sally was planning a big surprise party for Jim. Next week marked his tenth anniversary as a senior developer at Acme Software Company. Sally saw this as the perfect opportunity to recognize Jim. Jim was never in the spotlight and yet he was consistently a strong project team member. Sally was one year away from her fifth anniversary as a project manager with the company and she could not wait for her celebration!