Face to face interaction provides for the most effective form of communication. The sixth Agile Manifesto principle advocates face-to-face conversation. A sticking point for adopting Agile is the dominance of virtual teams within an organization and among different organizations (in a vendor – customer relationship or within a supply chain for example). Bringing virtual… [Read more…]
February 3, 2011 by David Kohrell
One of my favorite movie lines is from the Princess Bride. In it the hero is told he must go back to the beginning. When the movie reaches one if its many climaxes – Indigo (hero) exclaims “I am waiting for you, Vizzini. You told me to go back to the beginning. So I have.… [Read more…]
January 31, 2011 by David Kohrell
Various technologies have various levels of media richness. Media richness means communication media have varying capacities for resolving ambiguity, negotiating varying interpretations, and facilitating understanding. Media is said to be very rich when it provides: the availability of instant feedback; the capacity of the medium to transmit multiple cues such as body language, voice tone,… [Read more…]
January 29, 2011 by David Kohrell
Typically listening is not the first thing that comes to mind when communication is studied. This is unfortunate because we spend about 45 percent of our communication time listening. Tests have shown, however, that we are usually only about 25 percent effective in listening (Huseman, Lahiff, & Hatfield, 1976). That is, we listen to and… [Read more…]
January 27, 2011 by meryljourneybeyond
Part of the project manager’s (PM) role is to delegate tasks to resources to get the work done. Mostly these people report to functional managers, not the PM leading the project. So, what do you do when assigned tasks don’t get done because a resource’s first allegiance is not to the project, but to their… [Read more…]
January 27, 2011 by David Kohrell
In the sender / receiver model of communication it’s the responsibility of the sender to verify the message has been received by the receiver the way you intended. Here are three tips. Understand that some communication loss will occur – some studies indicate that over 90% of communication is through non-verbal cues (tone of voice,… [Read more…]
January 26, 2011 by David Kohrell
Lack of communication can be the kiss of death for information technology projects. Industry data often points to a breakdown in communication as one of the primary reasons for project failure. Reluctance to share information regarding barriers to a project’s success is the nail in the coffin. This absence of information sharing is known as… [Read more…]
January 25, 2011 by David Kohrell
Prove it Maneuvering the political gauntlet through artful conversation and word-smithing will not resolve conflict. Nothing will stop conflict the like graceful execution and control of a project that leads to on time, on budget completion. This is the area where the project management fundamentals are a focal point. Earned value may not be glamorous,… [Read more…]
January 24, 2011 by David Kohrell
The stage is set. Successful conflict resolution now depends on actively monitoring the three essential legs – risk, environment and team. Update the conflict elements on a weekly basis. If conflict does surface, determine the threshold for engaging the contingency plan and corrective action. Another effective way to monitor conflict is to talk about it.… [Read more…]
January 21, 2011 by David Kohrell
We have IQ, there’s Emotional Intelligence (EI) – I say we add EQ – environmental intelligence based on applying that Emotional Intelligence to what’s going on with stakeholders. A quick recap, a stakeholder is someone who has a professional interest in the outcome of a project. That interest may be acknowledged and formalized – corporate… [Read more…]
January 20, 2011 by David Kohrell
Step Two of Resolving Virtual Team Conflict is to treat it as a potential risk. The advantage of looking at team conflict as a risk is it’s an easier to say “hey let’s treat team conflict as a risk element, something that might happen” rather than “gee, we’re conflicted and at each others throat, upper… [Read more…]
January 19, 2011 by David Kohrell
Conflict. The mere term evokes a strong response. In today’s environment, examples of conflict are replete: Middle East, War on Terrorism, Political Divides. Intra personal conflict also appears to be increasing. Project managers also encounter a variety of conflicts: inadequate resources, changing organizational direction, project direction, disagreement among stakeholder groups, clash with functional teams, role… [Read more…]
January 18, 2011 by David Kohrell
Swift Trust as an academic topic seems to have emerged by Meyerson et. al in 1991 within the context of temporary groups. Lynda Bourne shared about it recently, 2010, in a PMI blog. Philip Merry developed the RICE Analysis for improving and cultivating “swift trust” in 2002. He is a global speaker and trainer who’s… [Read more…]
January 17, 2011 by David Kohrell
While delivering over forty Effective Virtual Team workshops at TAPUniversity since 2006, one question we encourage participants to ask is "well, OK, how does this differ from team members we see in person?" Swift Trust is one concept worth digging in to help answer the question of differentiation.
January 14, 2011 by David Kohrell
TAPUniversity has shared and learned with over 310 professionals concerning virtual teams since August of 2005. Those professionals completed an in-depth survey of best practices for virtual teams. As we prepare for 2011 we want to know what your opinion is regarding what makes for effective and ineffective virtual teams. The results from previous students… [Read more…]
January 11, 2011 by David Kohrell
Virtual teams are geographical dispersed teams (GDT) who are formed for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the virtual team is formed as a result of mergers and acquisitions (M&A), or a collaboration among organizations may trigger it, perhaps a key employee moves or a company wishes to get some “boots on the ground” in a… [Read more…]
December 28, 2010 by David Kohrell
Synonymous term or a different term, that’s a common question we receive in our course delivery for secondary versus residual risks. Those two terms do sound quite a bit a like. Are they? They’re similar concepts but are different! Secondary risk occurs once a risk event triggers and the appropriate management response strategy deployed. The… [Read more…]
July 24, 2010 by David Kohrell
A Request For Proposal (RFP) is a common way to select for a vendor based solution or product. They are used when what is needed can be identified and described, but a detailed step by step method may not be known. RFP’s may result in a fixed bid or cost plus performance contract awarded to… [Read more…]
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February 9, 2011 by David Kohrell
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