The Only Person that Likes Change is a Baby with a Wet Diaper. Anon By nature we hate change; seldom will we quit our old home till it has actually fallen around our ears. Thomas Carlyle(1795-1881) Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. James Baldwin(1924-1987) […]
The Advantages of Conflict in Projects
“The absence of conflict is not harmony, it’s apathy” (Eisenhardt) “God does not play dice” (Einstein)… would God be so cruel to structure so much conflict if it could not be constructive (Tjosvold)? I come from a Canadian middle class family with a British lineage. At a young age we were taught to be quiet […]
The Importance of Mentorship
When I was doing my undergrad in the early 90’s, it was widely understood that when you graduate and find an entry-level job, the employer would provide you with the training and development to ensure your success in your role. This approach to new hires was the practice at Anderson Consulting (now Accenture) when I […]
Career Paths for Those Interested in Project Management
“If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.” Laurence J. Peter. 2011, The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong (p. 145) The Traditionally Perceived Project Manager Career Path There is a perception in our profession that the following graphic represents the traditional career path for project managers. […]
Sustainable Development Goal #17 of 17. Partnership for the Goals and Project Management.
At the UN Global Compact Leadership Summit, our 5th, as a stakeholder, it was stated as part of the plenary that business cannot thrive if the people and the planet aren’t. This also includes that the 17 UN SDGs are on target. They are universal, transcend borders, industry, and societies. It is the world’s greatest […]
Sustainable Development Goal 16 Peace & Justice, Strong institutions and Project Management
SDG 16 of 17 aims to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels. This is an important SDG for project management. This goal has ten specific targets to achieve by 2030. Significantly reduce all forms of violence and related […]
Mother Earth vs. Humanity
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein I recently watched a Google talk on YouTube by Alex Epstein called ‘The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels’. As I lean towards the other side of this debate, it was interesting to get a fossil fuel (oil, […]
A Mercenary Perspective on Sustainability
I am blessed and cursed with never having had a boss. Despite the image above, I actually consider myself a capitalist and believe that it is vital to generate jobs and improve the overall economic well being of society. All of that said though, I do believe we need an overhaul because the existing US-based […]
The Key Attribute of a Project Manager
I recently enjoyed a discussion on the key attribute of project managers. It started from a conversation about whether a project manager should just do what they were told, or if they should do their best to deliver the greatest value and benefits to the organization. I am biased towards sustainable project management, so the […]
EVM and Agile – Project Reporting
Context This post was modified from one I developed several years ago for the Mercure AACE 2013 program I took, called W17_PM_EVM-KPI-Reporting. It is a follow on to a recent post “EVM and Agile – Can they work together?“. Once again, this post is not specifically about sustainable change delivery. It does provide useful considerations, […]
