Leaders arrange work and teams so that they connect people to each other in meaningful ways. Use the CAMP acronym to help you do it.
Category Archives: Management
How Organizations Change
Organizations are constantly confronted with the need to change. So let’s look at what change management experts say about changing an organization.
How People React to Change
Change always swirls around us – it is one of the hallmarks of our era. But it is especially visible in this unprecedented time of pandemic, economic disruption, and pressing social concerns. From an organizational perspective, what new directions must we embrace? How do we take care of employees and customers? Has our use of […]
The Bozo Box
I suddenly remembered the Bozo Box! Let me explain. Last week, the Portfolio and Project Leaders’ Forum hosted Dorota Shortell, CEO of Simplexity Product Development. She spoke about how she built a company culture that enables excellent project work. She referred to herself as a “culture evangelist.” That grabbed my attention. I believe that a […]
Tailoring management approach to project characteristics
One size does not fit all Not in clothing (I am tall so I feel this first hand), nor in managing projects. Tailoring is required, whether for a high level decision such as selecting which framework a project-based organization will use, or for details, such as how to apply a standard technique on a specific […]
Poor project portfolio management (PPM) criteria
Sorry for being silent this fall. I’ve been teaching my class in OHSU’s MBA in Healthcare Management program, and it took just about every minute I could find. During the class segment on project portfolio management, we read the article “Evaluation Methods for Hospital Projects” by Buelow, Zuckweiler, and Rosacker. This article looks at how […]
Persistence by CEO required
These real stories illustrate how a CEO successfully builds a project-based organization. The first story is about persistence. Executive Shuffle Projects at a high tech manufacturing company were missing schedules, blowing budgets, and not delivering expected benefits. Worse, management wasn’t finding out about project surprises until just before the projects were supposed to deliver. They […]
Engage leaders in projects: the CEO’s role
My previous post described the first two aspects of a CEO’s role in a project based organization. The remaining aspects are to engage leaders at the right points in projects and to use systems thinking for consistency and repeatability. Engage leaders Ensure that key projects have effective sponsors. I think of a sponsor as […]
Project culture: the CEO’s role
“What is the CEO’s role in a project-based organization?” Recently a group of CEO’s who run SMB businesses (from $5M to $400M USD in annual revenues) asked me to address that question. I thought through the list of organizations that I’ve helped enhance project capabilities. Five common threads emerged despite the wide variety of industries […]
Transformation projects need early victories
Creating early victories is essential in transformation projects. Recently the Transformation Center asked me to run a workshop and some coaching for the current cohort of Oregon’s Clinical Innovation Fellows. Sponsored by the Oregon Health Authority, these clinicians spend a year learning about transformational leadership and working on projects that have the potential to transform […]