Over the past few years I've written about type I micro-management where managers being so involved in the work that they interfere with the creativity and performance of the team. I ...

As discussed in my previous article, traditionally defined micromanagement is easy to spot. Type II micro-management is a variation that has negative effects on the organization’s performance that are more far ...

Almost universally loathed by employees, and almost universally embraced by managers as a tool that is sometimes required, micro-management is around us all the time. A synopsis of the ...

I see too much drama in the way people interact. Sometimes it’s a byproduct of the complexity of normal interactions, and generally it slows progress. Office politics is a particular kind ...

The way people interact in meetings tells a lot about them and what they value. I see four basic styles: raucous, tag-on, structured, and reflective. Here are some ideas on how ...

Is complexity an artifact of incomplete thinking or something we benefit from? At some level, we all like to keep things simple. But at the same time we ...

I was reminded this week about the wonder of the 80/20 rule when a small company looked at their product portfolio through that lens and found one more example of the ...

Yes, words count, but meaning counts, too! One challenge of communicating in technical projects is being able to express unclear concepts, talk about uninvented products, and then commit to ...

Everyone will tell you to build a prototype and then throw it away. With mechanical design, it’s done routinely; with electronics, we plan on it. But entire methodologies have been designed ...

I want to introduce a new word into your project management vocabulary -- "herding." Herding in this sense is traditionally defined as “to associate; to ally one's self with, ...

Every now and then I come across a technology that initially appears to have little to do with project management, but with my growing understanding comes to be a tool that ...

The Focus Group Show A while ago I went to a focus group; it was the first time I have been a subject instead of an observer on ...

Building a visual representation of future projects or product lines is a complex, discussion-centric, and long-term activity. The linked article provides insight into what I mean by this process and some ...

Training is often one of the first expenses to be reduced in a down economy. Here are some ideas on how to make sure you get your money's worth for training ...

Avoiding the Political Swamp When someone tells you that there are no politics in their organization, consider that their opening political statement. What is office ...

How a business deals with risk is a predictor of how that business will move into the future. Hiding or ignoring risks usually just postpones the inevitable. Luck notwithstanding, risks ignored ...

The web is abuzz with talk about Social Networks but what is missing are the specifics about how to move forward if your interests are in business and not on social ...

It's hard to do the risky work first! One of the challenging practices for project planning is to place the riskiest tasks as early in the project as possible. ...

A "Golden Moment" is the instant in a project when large numbers of features come together for testing and must work, or the project is in trouble. Golden Moments ...

Ever Lose a Project Plan? I know people who have lost it…one team in particular who spent one beautiful weekend trying to fix a file, only to give up ...