CIO.com has an interview with Linus Torvalds that I’d just had to share…very interesting commentary from Linus on managing software projects. In the article, Linus provides five ‘tips’ for managing projects…they are: Find people you can trust. Be trustworthy yourself. Be honest—sometimes painfully honest. You also have to let the others get their say in. [...]
a sense of urgency
August 1, 2008 By 13 Comments
Reasons for Resisting Change
July 23, 2008 By 8 Comments
Peter Vajda has a great post over on Slow Leadership titled “Why People Resist Change” that is well worth the time to read. Peter argues that the reasons people resist change is that they are ‘told’ to change….rather than being ‘asked’ to change. He writes: What’s the most common process for introducing change in our [...]
Moose on the Table
July 18, 2008 By 1 Comment
Just finished reading “Moose on the Table“by Jim Clemmer. Before I get into the review, let me define “moose on the table.” According to the author, it is a rephrasing of the old saying “the elephant in the room”…as in…the thing nobody wants to discuss (or can discuss, etc). Jim Clemmer uses a fable to [...]
From Project Manager to IT Leader
June 11, 2008 By 4 Comments
Information Technology Leadership & Alignment
June 2, 2008 By 10 Comments
If you’re in business today (especially in the Information Technology space), you’ve no doubt heard of the need to ‘align IT to the business’ or something similar…you may have even heard me talk about it (see here and here). The majority of my time in my consulting practice revolves around the idea of alignment and [...]
The Strategic Project Leader
May 29, 2008 By 3 Comments
I just finished reading The Strategic Project Leader: Mastering Service-Based Project Leadership by Jack Ferraro….not a bad book. In section two of his book, Mr. Ferraro writes: In project management, leadership is desperately needed; leadership that is adaptable, perceptive, timely, meaningful, authentic, and unselfish. This one sentence sums up the core of The Strategic Project [...]
Factors affecting Productivity – IT, Management and Process
May 22, 2008 By 7 Comments
Interesting analysis today over on Jeffrey Phillips’ Thinking Faster Blog in an article titled “Productivity Barriers“. Note: if you have an interest in productivity in this digital age, check out Bit Literacy: Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload (Affiliate Link)…great book. In the article, Phillips discusses a recent newsletter from IFS (an [...]
It’s Your Ship
March 27, 2008 By 3 Comments
Just finished reading the book “It’s Your Ship” by Mike Abrashoff. At first glance, this book looks like it would be something that I wouldn’t like at all…the picture of the naval officer (the author) on the front really turned me off. I read the book at the urging of a friend and was pleasantly [...]
Strategy and the Fat Smoker
November 17, 2007 By 2 Comments
I’m about half-way through an advance copy of David Maister’s latest book titled Strategy and the Fat Smoker and I have to say I like what I’ve read so far. The book condenses all the ‘strategic planning’ discussions down to two main points: Figure out the strategy to get where you want to go. Do [...]
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