doug smith training

How do you feel about the status quo? In the project management world, status quo is not enough. We must keep moving. We must act relentlessly on our plan. We must stay creative. I'm fond of quoting my friend Andrew Oxley about this: "In nature there is no stasis. We can choose growth or we can choose decay but there is no standing still. Life only knows those two directions." That's your project. There is no standing still. If it's standing still, it's decaying or getting worse or falling behind schedule or running over budget. There is no stasis. There's no standing still so we might as well move in the direction we need to go. Keep moving. It's your best option. What part of your action plan has been standing still lately? What will it take to get it moving? -- Doug Smith

When you're working on a project, do you ever wonder why common sense is in such short supply? People make mistakes that seem silly. Standard procedures are sometimes ignored creating havoc. Relationships that should be sound and happy feel haggard and lost. Where IS all this common sense? When I'm the leader, I sometimes forget that not everyone shares my same view of common sense. Not everyone on the team has experienced the kinds of things that lead me to believe that certain project concepts are common sense and so they don't share that view. We all have places in our work that seem simple to us but more complicated to others. Just because something is common sense doesn't mean that people are doing it. We may need to tell them about our version of common sense. We may need to make processes fool-proof. We need to make things easy. The next time you think to yourself, "why are they missing that thing that is clearly common sense" consider the o

Does your most important project include a financial business case AND a compelling story? I've noticed that project leaders tend to forget one or the other. You need both. Why? Because half of the world is laser-sharp focused on the financials while the other half cares about the financials but needs a compelling story. A compelling story is the cool reason why you are doing a project. It's the people side. It's the part that when the project is finished makes you and your constituents feel warm and fuzzy. Maybe you're not a warm-and-fuzzy kind of person. I'm not. But, I've learned that the chances of sustaining support and achieving the project goals improves dramatically when the project includes both a business case and a compelling story. The business case shows the financial impact of your project on the organization. It shows how will your project improve your results in any of these areas: Revenue Expenses Customer Happiness Team Member

Have you ever noticed that one of the toughest parts to solving a problem is getting people to adapt the solution? We just don't like to change. Sometimes our solution feels tougher than living with the problem. The discipline of doing something differently, and better, is challenging. Some of the biggest problems have the easiest of solutions. The challenge is influencing people to change. What are your easy answers? What do you think prevents people from doing those changes? How can we influence them quickly and collaboratively? Answer those questions successfully, and lots of problems melt away. -- Doug Smith Front Range Leadership: High performance leadership training doug smith training: how to achieve your goals

You probably already have reports in place for your project. How certain are you about your project's progress? Is it moving as fast as you want it to move? Are you energizing your team with the progress your project makes? A project without progress is begging for attention or closure. If it was scoped correctly, planned carefully, and resourced properly your project should be making significant progress. People need to see that progress. People need to feel that progress. If the energy has drained out of the progress, it's time to make a decision: ramp up the energy, or shut down the project. What's your choice? -- Doug Smith doug smith training: how to achieve your project goals

Those pesky project problems! Do they ever bother you? Wouldn't you love a project that had NO problems to solve so that you could race right through to the end? That's not likely to happen very often and it's probably best. Solving problems exposes us to new ideas. Solving problems helps us focus on our project goals. Solving problems is the way to that faster conclusion. The purpose of solving problems is to better achieve our goals. When you look at it like that, they don't seem so annoying, do they? -- Doug Smith Front Range Leadership:  Training Supervisors for Success doug smith training:  how to achieve your project goals

Where do your best project ideas come from? When we're creating something new we need lots of new ideas. The ones we bring with us are great, but we might need more. We probably need more. We certainly need more. As the project manager, part of your job is to find the best sources of new ideas. To spark some inspiration, think about where great ideas come from. They don't even have to be related to your project because great ideas from unrelated areas might just get your team going in a spectacularly new and creative direction. Sometimes several unrelated ideas can produce the best solution to your project problem. Get lots of ideas! Why not invite some new ideas into your next project meeting? -- Doug Smith doug smith training: how to achieve your project goals