The Best PM Motivation

Advertisement [Contact Us](mailto:contactus@projectmanagement.com) [About Us]( [Update Profile]( July 18, 2018 As our month-long theme continues, we try to define "organizational culture," stress the importance of creed over greed and tell you to stop with all this "PM culture" stuff! Also in store: Transforming your team, refreshing the PMO and a look at hybrid scheduling. The Knowledge Shelf explores post-merger consolidation, while our blogs share five tips for estimating and warn us about relying on "percent complete." And a reader asks about your most successful project in our forums! "The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." - Nelson Mandela []PM HEADLINES [Creed Over Greed]( When we can appeal to people’s desire for meaning, and when we can support them to make valuable contributions to a worthwhile purpose, they will experience motivation beyond the economics that dwindle over time. [A Career of Evolving Culture]( What’s your definition of organizational culture? This practitioner has asked himself many times as he probes for a defining answer. [Stop With All This 'Project Management Culture' Stuff!]( This PM has lost track of how many times he has heard presentations or read articles on "project management culture." Enough, already! That’s not what organizations need! [Transforming Your Team]( Project managers understand transformations, but the purpose of this article is to discuss another transformation opportunity: The transformation of the project team into a group of positive-thinking leaders. [The PMO Brand Needs a Refresh]( There are as many different definitions of the purpose of a PMO as there are colors in a rainbow. Has “PMO” become somewhat of a generic term? What can we do about that? "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children." - Nelson Mandela [Begin With the Endgame]( Endgames help to clear a path for specific outcomes—learning the micro to understand the macro. Projects are all about the finished product or service. How you get there starts with your determination of the endgame. [Hybrid Scheduling: Naming the Elephant]( Project scheduling has long been formally defined in binary terms. It’s time to recognize and name the third form that combines the two: hybrid scheduling. []KNOWLEDGE SHELF [Efficient Project Team Consolidation in Post-Merger Companies]( When evaluating the acquisition of a company, many organizations emphasize the financial aspects but downplay facets of the consolidation dealing with project execution. This paper examines the major considerations and discusses how to improve the integration process to avoid negative impact. The mission of [Knowledge Shelf]( is to help project professionals advance our practice by sharing their experiences and viewpoints. It is comprised of practitioners from a wide range of fields, covering both popular and niche topics. From lessons learned and case studies to opinion pieces and articles, this platform gives a voice to peers new to our online community, and allows for longer form contributions. For more information on how to submit your own article, please see our [Editorial Guidelines](. []THE PM POLL Is there a question you've been itching to ask? [Create a poll]( today to get some PM help from your peers! [Q: What activity do you prefer as a stress buster?]( - Sports, meditation, yoga or tai-chi - Dining out with family and friends - Doing community service - Reading or writing - Other (please share) TOOL SPOTLIGHT Statdash is a communication tool for working with team members on activities, tasks or projects and visually sharing statuses with clients or stakeholders. It eliminates the frustration of continually tracking down team members to get their status. [Learn More]( [Search for your solution on our Tool Finder]( []BLOG IT Voices on Project Management by Christian Bisson, PMP Calibrating a project sponsor’s expectations is often a good idea. While the automated services generated through [Machine Learning May Seem Magical](, getting to that point involves challenges—and a lot of work. The Money Files by Elizabeth Harrin When estimating feels like nothing more than a best (even educated) guess, how can you improve your project results? In her latest infographic, Elizabeth shares [5 tips for making estimating a little bit easier](. Easy in Theory, Difficult in Practice by Kiron Bondale Through education or experience, most of us learn early in our project management careers about [The Dangers of Using Percentage Complete]( for any activity where the work completed cannot be reliably measured. This is unfortunately the case for most knowledge-based work. PM Nerd by Kevin Raney Welcome back to Kevin's adventure in studying for the PMI-PBA® certification. So far, he has made it through Chapter 3 of Business Analysis for Practitioners: A Practice Guide. In [Identifying the True Need or Opportunity,]( he shares what he has learned—and where he is headed. People, Planet, Profits & Projects by Richard Maltzman When a new project is launched, we carefully identify stakeholders—broadly and deeply. We could think of releasing new regulations meant to reduce the impact on the environment as projects—and for that, we also think about stakeholder management. [Shipping Off]( has more. The Professional Project Manager by Sean Whitaker In the same way that project management practitioners can be described as beginner, intermediate or advanced, organizations can also be described as having low, medium or high levels of project management. Read [Why You Need to Understand PM Maturity](. Game Theory in Management by Michael Hatfield As his colleagues address July’s theme of organizational culture by providing insights on how to improve it for greater efficiency and effectiveness, Michael takes the opposite angle: [How to Wreck Organizational Culture Like An Epic Villain](. Step by Step by Mayte Mata-Sivera What if we could leverage the opportunity to see all the possibilities that we will have in the future? What would happen if we enabled our collaborators or employees to strengthen their learning by focusing on a positive future and not a past of errors? [Feedback vs. Feedforward]( has more. PM View from Rail Transit Programs & Projects by Henry Hattenrath The Construction Management Office (CMO) interprets that the construction manager (CM) is not responsible or accountable for contractor quality and workmanship, or for quality assurance, in the construction management plan. Henry's [latest entry]( delves deeper. PM Network by Dan Goldfischer Are you ready for robotic coworkers? Is your organization ready for a partly automated workforce? If these questions are coming up where you work, you don’t want to miss the July PM Network® article “Bots Onboard.” Dan shares more in his [latest entry](. []Q & A Did you know that help is just a click away? Our discussion forums give you access to the ProjectManagement.com community: more than 500,000 experienced minds and growing! Ask your question today or stop by to help out other members in need of advice, including these recent and ongoing discussions on... [Your Most Successful Project]( "What was the most successful project in your life, and why?" [Killer Q&A]( "Post your killer project management interview questions and answers." [Why Do You Visit Us?]( "What motivates you to visit and participate on ProjectManagement.com?" [Introducing an IoT Platform]( "I'm going to run a project to implement an IoT platform. Has anyone done that yet and want to share insights and templates?" [Common Mistakes to Avoid]( "No matter where you are in your career, knowing how to manage up (managing your boss) as well as managing down (managing your subordinates) and managing across (managing at the same level) is an important skill to have..." [Cross-Portfolio Resource Management]( "I would be keen to understand approaches and best-practices for starting the journey towards resource management and pooling of resources cross-portfolios." "It always seems impossible until it's done." - Nelson Mandela []PM ON DEMAND Did you know that we have an extensive library of PDU-earning webinars? Here's just one of the latest valuable offerings you can check out... [Making the Most Out of Existing Data: Squeezing the Lemon to Make Lemonade]( Projects are rich in data by nature and use technical, business, schedule, cost and additional types of data on a daily basis. However, much of the data that's already in existence is either not being used, partially used or is hard to get to. The trick is not to use all the data available, but ask the right questions and support answers with smart data. A simple maturity model will be presented in this webinar to help project professionals navigate their way through the different options. As always, your feedback and suggestions are welcome. How can we make your experience better? Is there something you haven't been able to find? Something you want to see that we don't have yet? [Let us know](mailto:cameron@projectmanagement.com). We'll handle it. If you do not wish to receive ProjectManagement.com's PM Insider Newsletter, you can [unsubscribe here]( or send an email to unsubscribe-pminsider@reply.projectmanagement.com and let us know. We will exclude you from future mailings. You can also change your e-mail address and other settings in [My Account](. ProjectManagement.com is located at 14 Campus Boulevard, Newtown Square, PA 19073.