Imagine if we were using the same medical techniques today that were used during the Industrial Revolution, including the practice of bloodletting using leeches. Medicine has come a long way since then. So why do organizations and corporations cling to management techniques that are just as obsolete as the bleed-and-leech model? In a global workpla

When Fortune Magazine estimated that 70% of all strategies fail, it also noted that most of these strategies were basically sound, but could not be executed. The central premise of Strategic Project Management Made Simple is that most projects and strategies never get off the ground because of adhoc, haphazard, and obsolete methods used to turn their ideas into coherent and actionable plans. Strategic Project Management Made Simple is the first book to couple a step-by-step process with an interactive thinking tool that takes a strategic approach to designing projects and action initiatives. Strategic Project Management Made Simple builds a solid platform upon four critical questions that are vital for teams to intelligently answer in order to create their own strong, strategic foundation. These questions are: 1. What are we trying to accomplish and why? 2. How will we measure success? 3. What other conditions must exist? 4. How do we get there? This fresh approach begins with clearly understanding the what and why of a project - comprehending the bigger picture goals that are often given only lip service or cursory reviews. The second and third questions clarify success measures and identify the risky assumptions that can later cause pain if not spotted early. The how questions - what are the activities, budgets, and schedules - comes last in our four-question system. By contrast, most project approaches prematurely concentrate on the how without first adequately addressing the three other questions. These four questions guide readers into fleshing out a simple, yet sophisticated, mental workbench called "the Logical Framework" - a Systems Thinking paradigm that lays out one's own project strategy in an easily accessible, interactive 4x4 matrix. The inclusion of memorable features and concepts (four critical questions, LogFrame matrix, If-then thinking, and Implementation Equation) make this book unique.

No project management training? No problem! In today’s workplace, employees are routinely expected to coordinate and manage projects. Yet, chances are, you aren’t formally trained in managing projects—you’re an unofficial project manager. FranklinCovey experts Kory Kogon and Suzette Blakemore understand the importance of leadership in project completion and explain that people are crucial in the formula for success. This updated and revised edition of Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager offers practical, real-world insights for effective project management and guides you through the essentials of the value, people, and project management process: Scope Plan Engage Track and Adapt Close If you’re struggling to ensure multiple projects are finished with high value and on time, this book is for you. If you manage projects without the benefit of a team, this book is also for you. Change the way you think about project management—"project manager" may not be your official title, but with the right strategies, you can excel in this project economy.

As executives build and nurture their organization’s strategic agility in today’s turbulent, uncertain business environment, the ability to lead strategic change has become more critical than ever. The Strategic Project Leader: Mastering Service-Based Project Leadership, Second Edition will help project managers lead with confidence in temporary, ambiguous team structures that execute risk-laden work in an increasingly agile project environment. Like the first edition, this edition encourages readers to take ownership of their leadership agenda and become disciplined in the processes of building a framework of leadership skills. Readers are introduced to a new role: the service-based project leader. This role serves the entire project organization by creating a meaningful experience for team members, customers, and critical stakeholders. The book provides practical guidance to help you move from project manager to service-based project leader. Detailing a framework for developing and refining leadership skills, it explains how to build a leadership competency pyramid and then execute a self-directed plan for building leadership competencies. The leadership competency pyramid includes an intuitive model that will be helpful to project managers at any level. The book elaborates on the components of each layer of the pyramid and how each layer relates to the others. A chapter is dedicated to each layer of the pyramid, with supporting evidence for the necessity of each of these layers, as well as practical advice on how to build and practice these component layers.

GET MORE DONE IN LESS TIME Whether it’s getting on top of your workload, finding the time to start something new or simply making more time to relax, How to Manage Your Time will help you to get there.

Badaracco (business ethics, Harvard) observes that the most effective leaders are rarely public heroes or high-profile champions of causes. His study of "quiet leadership," carried out over four years, presents a series of stories describing quiet leaders at work and drawing practical lessons for executives and aspiring corporate leaders. The cases include a hospital CEO dealing with a case of sexual harassment; a bank president under pressure to remove underperforming but longtime employees; and a high-tech marketing rep who learned that his company was dumping obsolete equipment on its small customers. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Project Management Leadership is a comprehensive guide to the human factors involved in Project Management, in particular the leadership skills required to ensure successful implementation of current best practice. It provides the latest insights on team building, motivation, collaboration, and networking skills, and the way these can be harnessed to manage a successful project. Exercises and worked examples are provided throughout.

Why do so many software projects fail? The reality is that many of these projects are led by programmers or developers thrown into the role of project manager without the necessary skills or training to see a project through successfully. Patricia Ensworth has written a hands-on survival guide designed to rescue the "accidental project manager" and help them to quickly ramp up on all key areas involved in software project management. This book provides a no-nonsense, jargon-free approach to getting the job done. With the help of useful templates, checklists, and sample forms, as well as pointers to essential resources, Ensworth gives concise, easy-to-understand advice on everything needed to hit the ground running--including phases of project development, role assignment in the development team, the tools of the trade, and criteria for success.

“Glue offers a rare gift to project managers. It artfully blends specific step-by-step recommendations of how to move from project management to project leadership with the psychological rationale for taking those steps.” - Robert B. Cialdini, author of Influence and Pre-Suasion An Essential Guide to Get Stuff Done How many books have you read on project management? On leadership? Too many, right? But no other book combines the practice of project management and leadership into one balanced approach with practical examples—except this book. You don’t even need Project Manager in your title to employ the lessons in this book. You can be any person on any team who has stepped up to take a leadership role on a critical initiative. You’ll learn the critical blend of management and leadership skills that will make you indispensable to any project. You’ll learn what it takes to become the binding agent—the glue—that creates cohesive, engaged, high-performing project teams. The author’s methods have been battle-tested against real technology projects. Her insight and vision reach beyond theory into application and can be used immediately regardless of the length, scope, or phase of your project—whether it’s planning a wedding, remodeling a home, or leading a team in a major website revamp or product launch or company start-up. You’ll learn— How to get started when you don’t know much—yet How to lay a solid foundation for your project How to support a project and a team that’s in flight How to communicate (yah, that’s a thing), how to reward (candy works), how to take notes (yes, please), and how to map out your project with Post-it notes

In today’s lightning-fast technology world, good product management is critical to maintaining a competitive advantage. Yet, managing human beings and navigating complex product roadmaps is no easy task, and it’s rare to find a product leader who can steward a digital product from concept to launch without a couple of major hiccups. Why do some product leaders succeed while others don’t? This insightful book presents interviews with nearly 100 leading product managers from all over the world. Authors Richard Banfield, Martin Eriksson, and Nate Walkingshaw draw on decades of experience in product design and development to capture the approaches, styles, insights, and techniques of successful product managers. If you want to understand what drives good product leaders, this book is an irreplaceable resource. In three parts, Product Leadership helps you explore: Themes and patterns of successful teams and their leaders, and ways to attain those characteristics Best approaches for guiding your product team through the startup, emerging, and enterprise stages of a company’s evolution Strategies and tactics for working with customers, agencies, partners, and external stakeholders