… or why developing your organisational structure around personalities is a killer ... Yes, in an ideal world, the management team gets along very well, complements and supports each other and aligns the efforts to achieve the strategic goals of the company in a effective manner. However, different personalities and leadership styles can easily lead to frictions between the members of an executive team. What can the CEO do when he realises tensions between individual members of his top team? Rearranging responsibilities and changing the organisational structure looks like a solution - but does this really make sense?  

… or how to treat your strategic top priority projects ... Many organisations find themselves in a situation where they have THE most important project. A project of high strategic importance and value which has the potential to be THE game changer, a huge milestone towards a new strategic direction. Often these large strategic projects deal with challenges like „developing and establishing an integrated IT system (ERP) across a global organisation“, „develop a new, revolutionary brand“ or „change the core business of an international organisation“. Among project managers, these projects are often called „500 pound“ or „silverback Gorilla“, not as a hint to the weight of the project manager, but as an indication that this project is expected to be treated seriously. If you are in a room with a 500 Pound Gorilla, you should probably listen carefully. 

Why does this plan make no sense???  Project management by templates, a root cause for confusion.  All members of the project team provide their input using the same template, a masterpiece carefully designed and crafted by the project manager. However, the output of the plan doesn’t make sense. Maybe the project manager has taken too many shortcuts to success. 

An increasing number of organisations are adopting agile project management methodologies to improve the outcome of non-IT projects. But there are also opponents, who believe Agile is just for software development and not for other projects. Does this work only in software projects, or does this work on REAL projects, too? How can organisations implement agile principles in their project management?

Involvement vs. Commitment: To be implemented effectively, self organisation needs a culture of mutual accountability.

Project meetings and presentations can be fun, interesting and engaging. They also can be a painful exercise, especially when the project manager communicates from inside a bubble, stringing together over-used buzzwords and reading from overloaded PowerPoint presentations, rather than engaging with his audience. Just a cliché or potential problem?

Fishbone diagram is a most widely used tool for identifying root cause(s) of a problem. But the tool has limitations. Fishbone diagram does not single out the cause of the problem nor helps in identifying immediate measures to mitigate the problems effects. What will you do when you are unaware of the case of the deviation? How will you find appropriate measures or monitor their effectiveness?