#program

Bill Holmes

Jul 31, 2020
2 min

Chaos isn’t a pit, it’s a ladder

“Chaos isn’t a pit. Chaos is the ladder, and the climb is all there is.” Petyr Baelish, Game of Thrones “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.” Sun Tzu How many of you have people in your lives that thrive on chaos? I know that I do! They seem to create disruption and turmoil everywhere they go, and they seem completely unaware of what they are doing. But they are aware. Why do they create chaos? As a project manager, I love predictability! In fact, predictability

Coring Pineapples and Other Management Follies

Bill Holmes

Jun 17, 2020
4 min

Coring Pineapples and Other Management Follies

“Listen to those under your supervision. Really listen. Don’t act as if you’re listening and let it go in one ear and out the other. Faking it is worse than not doing it at all.” Robert I. Sutton, Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best... and Learn from the Worst “Lots of folks confuse bad management with destiny.” Kin Hubbard Did you know that many pineapple farmers “core” the pineapples they sell? They drill out the middle of the crown so you can’t grow one from the fruit

The Importance of “framing” Part 5 – Getting it Wrong – The Challenger

Bill Holmes

Feb 21, 2020
3 min

The Importance of “framing” Part 5 – Getting it Wrong – The Challenger

“After the Challenger accident, NASA put in a lot of time to improve the safety of the space shuttle to fix the things that had gone wrong.” Sally Ride “In 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded and crashed down to Earth less than two minutes after takeoff. The cause of that crash, it turned out, was an inexpensive rubber O-ring in the booster rocket that had frozen on the launchpad the night before and failed catastrophically moments after takeoff.” David Autor I can

You don’t know what “good” looks like until you see it! Part 2

Bill Holmes

Jan 13, 2020
3 min

You don’t know what “good” looks like until you see it! Part 2

You don't know what “good” looks like until you have seen it. This applies to almost every field!

You don’t know what “good” looks like until you see it! Part 1

Bill Holmes

Jan 5, 2020
3 min

You don’t know what “good” looks like until you see it! Part 1

Providing honest feedback is a crucial habit to pick up as a manager.

Bill Holmes

Dec 28, 2019
3 min

The defect that is now a feature

We all accept "defects" in our personal and private lives!

Bill Holmes

Dec 10, 2019
2 min

Friction changes things

“Friction changes everything” Scott Adams periscope broadcast “It's not the work which kills people, it's the worry. It's not the revolution that destroys machinery it's the friction.” Henry Ward Beecher The other day a friend of mine called to complain about how things were going in his organization. He works in a completely different organization and normally the conversation turns to tales of bureaucratic ineptness. On this particular call he told me that “leadership” iss

Bill Holmes

Dec 3, 2019
3 min

Some thoughts about Ego

"Not everything is about you," Clary said furiously. "Possibly," Jace said, "but you do have to admit that the majority of things are.” Cassandra Clare, City of Glass “There are two circumstances that lead to arrogance: one is when you're wrong and you can't face it; the other is when you're right and nobody else can face it.” Criss Jami, Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality The other morning I put on a nice suit and headed out the door. It was around 5:30 AM, and the early

The Project Management Plan is the ultimate delegation tool!

Bill Holmes

Nov 24, 2019
2 min

The Project Management Plan is the ultimate delegation tool!

“Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don't interfere as long as the policy you've decided upon is being carried out.” Ronald Reagan “Don't be a bottleneck. If a matter is not a decision for the President or you, delegate it. Force responsibility down and out. Find problem areas, add structure and delegate. The pressure is to do the reverse. Resist it.” Donald Rumsfeld At first glance, the Project Management Plan might be seen as the ul

Bill Holmes

Nov 14, 2019
2 min

Delegation Makes It Easy!

“If you want to do a few small things right, do them yourself. If you want to do great things and make a big impact, learn to delegate.” John C. Maxwell “Focus on what you are good at; delegate all else. Steve Jobs doesn't direct animated movies or woo Wall Street. He concentrates on what he's good at.” Leander Kahney I have a lot of experience in educating people. I have coached new executives, taught hundreds of students to prepare for the PMP® Exam and mentored scores of f

Bill Holmes

Oct 24, 2019
3 min

Rules, Rules, Rules

“Rules are mostly made to be broken and are too often for the lazy to hide behind.” Douglas MacArthur “In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.” Friedrich Nietzsche I was driving home from work when my car told me that the key fob battery was getting low. I am impressed when technology has a common sense solution to a problem like this! Since this has happened in the past, I have a supply of the required 3V batteries. If yo

Project Communications Part 12 – Pulling it all together

Bill Holmes

May 14, 2019
2 min

Project Communications Part 12 – Pulling it all together

The purpose of the Communications Management Plan is to provide key stakeholders the information they need.

Project Communications Part 4 – What is an “artifact”?

Bill Holmes

Feb 14, 2019
3 min

Project Communications Part 4 – What is an “artifact”?

“No permanence is ours; we are a wave that flows to fit whatever form it finds” Hermann Hesse “The search for something permanent is one of the deepest of the instincts leading men to philosophy.” Bertrand Russell When you practice Project Management, you come across terms of art that are exceptionally useful but aren’t really emphasized by PMI®. I include Channels of Communication and the Triple Constraints in this list. “Artifact” is another one of those helpful terms. In

Project Communications Part 2 – Assessing Key Stakeholders Temperament

Bill Holmes

Jan 25, 2019
4 min

Project Communications Part 2 – Assessing Key Stakeholders Temperament

“Invariably, micromanaging results in four problems: deceit, disloyalty, conflict, and communication problems.” John Rosemond “Team members need to feel trusted and valued, and micromanaging communicates the opposite. Founders who are prone to manage every detail of their businesses will ultimately kill themselves as well as lose the support of team members. Learn to delegate key tasks and give credit.” Martin Zwilling In my last post I began a series on project communication

Project Communications Part 1 – Assessing Key Stakeholders as a Function of Project Length

Bill Holmes

Jan 18, 2019
4 min

Project Communications Part 1 – Assessing Key Stakeholders as a Function of Project Length

“Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say infinitely when you mean very; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.” C.S. Lewis “If you can't convince them, confuse them.” Harry S Truman I thought it would be interesting to do a series on project communications. A disclaimer for anyone who is prepping for the PMP® exam. My thoughts in this area differ from PMI® in several areas, so make sure you know and understand the

Standing up the Portfolio Management Office (PfMO) Part 12 – Bringing it all Together

Bill Holmes

Jan 11, 2019
3 min

Standing up the Portfolio Management Office (PfMO) Part 12 – Bringing it all Together

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” George Bernard Shaw “A mass of data is not the same as a report.” Simon Moore In my previous blogs I described what a portfolio was and the need to explain Portfolio Management to the leaders of your organization. I described the types of PfMO’s and we analyzed the usefulness of a Results Management Office, the PfMO’s role in resource allocation and we spent several posts discussing “measur

Standing up the Portfolio Management Office (PfMO) Part 11 – Measures (Part 4)

Bill Holmes

Dec 31, 2018
3 min

Standing up the Portfolio Management Office (PfMO) Part 11 – Measures (Part 4)

“Consistency is the hallmark of the unimaginative.” Oscar Wilde “It's not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives. It's what we do consistently.” Anthony Robbins With all due respect to the great Oscar Wilde, when it comes to Project Management consistency of process is everything. The project itself can be innovative, cutting edge and incredibly complex, but it is the responsibility of the Project Manager to ensure that processes are followed and that the work is go

Standing up the Portfolio Management Office (PfMO) Part 8 – Measures (Part 1)

Bill Holmes

Nov 28, 2018
3 min

Standing up the Portfolio Management Office (PfMO) Part 8 – Measures (Part 1)

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” Peter Drucker “The first rule of management is delegation. Don't try and do everything yourself because you can't.” Anthea Turner Developing measures will most likely be one of the easiest activities in standing up the PfMO from a technical perspective, but one of the most difficult politically. And make no mistake, the politics will be extraordinarily challenging! The basis of the PfMO’s measures shou

Standing up the Portfolio Management Office (PfMO) Part 7 – Resource Allocation

Bill Holmes

Nov 24, 2018
3 min

Standing up the Portfolio Management Office (PfMO) Part 7 – Resource Allocation

“I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive.” Henry Miller “Managers today have to do more with less, and get better results from limited resources, more than ever before.” Brian Tracy How does your organization strategically allocate resources? I am sure you have a planning process where budgets are developed and resources are assigned to various sub organizations, and those organizations also have planning processes where resources are deployed at

Standing up the Portfolio Management Office (PfMO) Part 6 – Do you need a Results Management Office?

Bill Holmes

Nov 19, 2018
3 min

Standing up the Portfolio Management Office (PfMO) Part 6 – Do you need a Results Management Office?

“A leader must have the courage to act against an expert's advice.” - James Callaghan “Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream.” - Malcolm Muggeridge We are discussing the Results Management Office (RMO) and comparing that to the functions of a directive Portfolio Management Office (PfMO). This is part of a broader discussion in my series on how to stand up a PfMO. Because the topic of a RMO has come up in several questions, I thought it deserved a short discus

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