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1973 by Alan Lakein

I have this book published in 1973 by Alan Lakein (I was 7 years old) that I pulled back down from my bookshelf and re-read with interest his advice on handling 3^rd level importance tasks. Now that I’m revisiting his book again, it still comes across as a fresh, relevant time management book.

Apart from computer tools beings absent, it is very reminiscent to today’s popular and well-deserved reputation of the “Getting-Things-Done” methodology by David Allen.

Here’s a tib-bit from Alan Lakein’s chapter 10 entitled “Tasks Better Left Undone”:

“When Not to Do C’s: One of the best ways to find time for your A’s is by reducing the number of C’s that you feel compelled to spend time on. The main question with C’s is “What can I not do?”…Some C’s need to be deliberately deferred to test to see whether or not they die a natural death. Such possible CZ’s include: watering the lawn when it looks like rain,…preparing a meeting topic that probably won’t come up.”

I picked this book up at a used book sale for $1.

Book Title: How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life by Alan Lakein

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Effective Meetings

• Reunião mais produtiva: como preparar, executar e encerrar com efetividade
  
• The Top 10 Reminders for Running Effective Meetings
• Running Effective Meetings
  

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кто хочет поработать?

Как я и обещала в первом посте, немного расскажу о себе и о том, чем занимаюсь, а также сделаю небольшой анонс.

Итак, меня зовут Дарья, я работаю в компании WantMore - мы создаем интернет-проекты и сервисы на основе цифрового контента.

Если вкратце о моей работе, то начинала я в качестве проджект-менеджера видеогида по беременности "40 недель". А с недавнего времени к моим обязанностям добавился менеджмент музыкальных проектов компании, развитие партнерской сети площадок и общее проектное планирование. Посему появилась необходимость в человеке, который возьмет на себя координацию и развитие уже работающих проектов/сервисов. Что будет написано на твоей визитке мы придумаем вместе. :)

Никаких специальных навыков не требуется, однако тебе будет легко и комфортно работать в нашей команде, если:

• ты активный юзер, но при этом интернет для тебя не ограничивается сайтами Вконтакте и Одноклассники - для работы полезно иметь представление об интернет-рынке в целом и об УАнете в частности;
• ты знаешь, в чем отличие между "хостом" и "хитом" - придется много работать со статистико;
• ты нацелен на результат и умеешь добиваться своего, обосновывая при этом свою точку зрения;
• ты умеешь внятно излагать свои мысли устно и письменно - общение будет регулярным;
• перед тем, как что-либо спросить, ты будешь уверен, что сделал все, чтобы узнать ответ самостоятельно и даже гугл тебя не спас.

У нас молодой и дружный коллектив. Все мы разные, но каждый участник по-своему уникален и интересен. Если тебе интересно развиваться в сфере новых медиа и онлайн-маркетинга, давай общаться!

О своем желании прийти на чашку чая пиши коментом тут или директ месседжем в твиттере или на мыло daria.rosyuk[at]wantmore.ru.

p.s. Ниже ты видишь картинку из популярного американского комикса об офисной жизни. Будет круто, если пофантазируешь, что ответил интервьюируемый на вопрос директора компании или предложишь свой вариант ответа! ;)

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Project Managers Need To Be Confident

One of the qualities of a project manager is confidence. Successful project managers let their team know that they are confident in the course taken. Confidence is not about lying to your team. If a project is going to fail, the best course is to acknowledge the difficulties, rally around the team, come-up with a good strategy, and stand behind it. These actions show confidence.

A project manager shows-up to meetings first, when appropriate takes the lead, supports the team's ideas, and fosters discussion. The benefits of a confident project manager mean that team members will focus on the job at hand instead of second-guessing the project manager's approach.

At a previous job there was a management change that shook the status quo. Some team members got nervous and suddenly lost focus of their work. The project manager in charge gathered everybody for a quick meeting.

The team held two views in this meeting; the management change was no cause for concern and that their jobs were on the line. The project manager acknowledged the situation, expressed the same concerns that some had and was confident in re-assuring the team that this would not have an impact on their jobs. A positive net result was gained from those 15 minutes. People that were anxious and lost their focus were re-assured that everything would be okay. The teams focus switched back to the project at hand and countless productive hours were saved.

As project managers we walk confident and not much shakes us but we have to have empathy to be able to react to situations where the team needs re-assurance. Being a confident project manager and projecting confidence will make you a strong leader.

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Unearthing the PRINCE2 methodology

For developing project managers, one of the most frequently asked questions concerns the nature of the PRINCE2 methodology – what exactly does it involve and how can it better my project management practices?

The give you a little bit of insight into the history of the PRINCE2 course, the concept of PRINCE2 is a derivative of an I.T. project management methodology originating in the UK, which has since been adopted as a general project management methodology. Today, PRINCE2 is considered one of the most powerful and successful project management methodologies used in excess of 150 countries worldwide.

When observed in practice, the PRINCE2 methodology implicates a fascinating and meticulous hierarchical structure that places strong emphasis on process driven project management. The project is divided into manageable and controllable stages, providing an inherent contingency plan for achieving project completion in working under the assumption that not all resources will be producing maximum levels of output from the conception to completion of the project.

In Australia, PRINCE2 is one of two favourable project management methodologies, particularly for larger organizations. The PRINCE2 methodology is deployed across Australian state government bodies as a sturdy framework for controlling the output across a large expanse of organizational resources, and is also prevalent amongst companies with head offices in the UK and Europe. One of the primary advantages of the PRINCE2 framework is that it is highly malleable, so yeah, if you’re a small-medium business owner and you feel like you’re missing out on one of the best project management methodologies known to man – you can tailor your own PRINCE2 framework for your company, hence the warm acceptance and high demand of this methodology!

At PM-Partners, our PRINCE2 training sessions will teach you the mechanics of this methodology and how to effectively apply them in an organization of any size – we’ll also go one further and prep you for all you need to know to get your PRINCE2 certification in less time. With the soon to be released online student website PM Partners students will be able to spend less time in the classroom and more time preparing for the Prince2 Examination.

Thanks for reading! We hope you found this post helpful. Should you have any questions or comments requiring more of an explanation, or you simply want an in-depth discussions, feel free to give us a call on +61 2 9900 1400.

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I'm Pumped by this Webinar

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Phone Calling is Dropping - Yes!

Have you noticed how much phone calling in general has dropped in the last year or two? When I first started doing project management about 6 years ago, it seemed as half of my time involved being on the phone. Either I was receiving calls, making calls, or sitting on way too many conference calls. In between time, you nervously kept expecting the phone to ring to interrupt you.

Then about 2 years ago, I noticed a drop in incoming calls. I certainly was personally striving for more succinct emails to thwart interminable phone calling. Maybe others have been doing that to. Or maybe the cause is collective calling exhaustion or the downturn in general economic activity, but whatever the case I embrace this change as a change for the better. A better email on most routine business items is far more efficient than another phone call. A little more work up-front, but more than makes-up in saved follow-up work.

Now whatever still needs and should be handled by phone (e.g. delicate news, very sensitive information, special human touch for encouragement) is no longer drowned out by the cacophony of incessant conference calls. What’s left for the phone now gets better attention.

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Google Wave features provide lots of possibilities

As Google Wave stutter-steps through its odd introduction (although it's considered pre-Beta, enough people have access that the rest are feeling left out) users are still feeling their way around the utility of such a tool. "Stephanie" of the developer conference video describes Wave as "email if it were invented today," but I think that is a modest description. With its predisposition for collaboration and the right extensions, Wave has the opportunity to be so much more.

Project Management - Wouldn't it be cool if you could have a series of waves, linked to one main wave: one for requirements, one for development, one for testing...that would include all the conversations between the customers and the development team so that a detailed reference would be available throughout the dev process?

College Class Groups - Collecting research, assigning roles, adding "virtual" group meetings and keeping track of tasks has the potential to be so much more organized within a single platform like Wave.

Core Competency Groups - Corporations are always fighting "the silo effect;" the difficulty of sharing knowledge across departmental lines. Competency centers are one method for breaking down these lines, but even though the spirit may be willing, there is much strength to be gained from collaborative tools that make it easier to share best practices and ask questions.

Process Improvement - I just saw this great video about how SAP Gravity has created an extension for Wave that exports into their full-featured client. This kind of hands-on interactivity provides real value.
video

Update: Here is a great related story from Mashable.com.

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Project management best practices mind map

I plan to share my 10 years experience in project management on my blog.
Before starting, i quickly drafted a mindmap of the topics i plan to address. Here it is. Any ideas?

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All You Need to Know about Web Design Project Planning and Process | Woobzine

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