PmChange.Me

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The less traveled path to boosting performance

The less traveled path to boosting performance

In privileged industries and in good economic times individual and team performance often goes under the radar for years. As long as cash flows keep pouring in nobody really wants to rattle the cage. But when the ship does hit some rough waters, all eyes turn immediately towards the company’s KPIs: margin, costs, operations, quality, customer satisfaction, innovation – the organization seems to…

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The last believer - sifting boys from men in PM

The last believer – sifting boys from men in PM

There comes a time when a project manager is the last believer in the success of a project. And that is exactly the moment that sifts the boys from the men in project management.

Whether it’s the third week in a row that not a customer walks in your store (happened to me and they were the most frightening three weeks), or when you have a show stopper technical breakdown, or when a key supplier…

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Do you have a project saboteur on your team?

Do you have a project saboteur on your team?

“Saboteur” is one of my favorite games when hanging out with my friends on a late Friday night, chasing away the working week stress and unwinding to some nice playful atmosphere. For those of you who haven’t played the game, it’s about a team of miners hunting for gold and a secret saboteur player who destroys the hard worked tunnels leading to the ore.

It is also the game which drew my…

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Projects? More leadership not management!

Projects? More leadership not management!

If we are to single out the one most important cause for project failures is the lack of leadership, especially from the project manager. Leadership is what everyone wants. So what’s a great source of inspiration for project leadership? I found mine in the styles of great orchestra conductors.

A wonderful leadership lesson from Itay Talgam

https://embed-ssl.ted.com/talks/itay_talgam_lead_like_the…

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10 years and the best is yet to come

I never wanted to become a project manager.

At first, I wanted to be a lawyer (the kind of “what you want to become when you grow up” thought). But then I realized, I’ve got a poor memory and would never be able to remember all the laws.

Then, I wanted to an opera singer and put all my heart and time into it for a couple of years. That was until I had a vocal chords accident and was unable to…

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You don't save a project, you save the team

You don’t save a project, you save the team

When time comes, nature has this sarcastic style of making you go through similar experiences until you learn from them and act differently. I see it a bit like video games, you are bound to repeat the same level until you get it right and move to the next.

In projects this is very often, so after a failure chances are you aren’t getting an easier project, on the contrary, you might be getting an…

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A project from my heart (8) - First weekend in Cluj

A project from my heart (8) – First weekend in Cluj

On 17 July 2010 I took the night train from Bucharest to Cluj, to join Stelian who had been making preparations for a few weeks now. The Asteco villa, a handful of newly recruited young doctors, and the promise of a big dream were waiting for me beyond the Carpat mountains.

As always, the train was late to come from Constanta. I remember I thought it was going to be hours late to arrive in Cluj…

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A project from my heart (7) - The first six weeks

A project from my heart (7) – The first six weeks

It took just six weeks to make Astecohappen. They were some of the most intense forty days of my life. I remember the day I told my manager about my decision (a maverick leader himself, for whom I had gone through fire and blade , knowing that he’d always have my back), and was quite nervous about his reaction. He looked at me and smiled, telling me that he knew this day would come from the day…

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A project from my heart (6) - Taking risks

A project from my heart (6) – Taking risks

As I was amusing myself today with a collection of motivational quotes, I saw this one related to entrepreneurs: Henry Kravis once said that “A real entrepreneur is somebody who has no safety net underneath them.” As the Asteco story unfolded in the first five episodes, I’ve been thinking about what would be the next thing that I would share with you. There are lots of things, from how I set up…

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Are corporations lost in restructuring on repeat?

Are corporations lost in restructuring on repeat?

Ever since I started writing about business transformationI have been reluctant to discuss the topic of layoffs and restructuring. It is just so sensitive and to me personally it is painful. After having worked with more than 14 companies, in an employee, contractor or entrepreneur capacity, I have my fair share of scars left from being part of scars due to losing esteemed colleagues, witnessing…

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How many PMs does it take to change a light bulb?

How many PMs does it take to change a light bulb?

Short answer: never more than one.

Long answer: leaving the joke aside, one of the sensitive issues which project managers are confronted with when dealing with projects with a perceived high degree of complexity is the assignment of multiple PMs.

It happened to me on a couple of occasions, once as I was ramping-up with a new company, and another time when being assigned to a project with many…

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Serial project killers - 5 ways to pull the trigger

Serial project killers – 5 ways to pull the trigger

Okay, so we all know what a project is. It is a finite endeavor with a specific purpose for which dedicated resources have been allocated. Today I am straining the word “finite” to entice you to think about how a few ways a project meets its end.

Oh, and since they say that more than two thirds of projects never actually get to their planned finish line, this makes for a lot of ways to kill a…

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A project from my heart (5) - The location

A project from my heart (5) – The location

One of the biggest questions after envisioning the very first idea of the Asteco medical start-up, was where to locate it. At the moment when we decided to take this leap of faith, both my partner and myself were employed in Bucharest, in the fields of scientific research and oil and gas respectively.

We gave it a lot of thought   whether it was worth staying in Bucharest, which is, after all,…

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The Project Sales Cycle and a Project Manager's best friends

The Project Sales Cycle and a Project Manager’s best friends

A tale about selling a project even long before and after you have executed it

Whoever says they are a “project manager” not a “sales person” are a little delusional in my opinion. Depending on when you board a project (and, believe me, you want to board the team as early as identifying and qualifying a project opportunity) you will be involved in selling that idea, because sales is a cycle that…

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Corporate pyramid or business network?

Corporate pyramid or business network?

Business transformation with a twist of dark humor

What do you think? Do companies with more structured and detailed procedures have an edge over the ones with more internalized processes? Is the corporate pyramid more efficient than smaller businesses? Is integration the key, or divestiture and decentralization?

Here is one example of a customer project where the project team was asked to…

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A project from my heart (4) - The little things

A project from my heart (4) – The little things

I know I said that in this episode I would write about how I selected the location of my medical start-up, but thinking about it, a few memories around little things that make and break entrepreneurs surged and I want to share them with all of you out there who are living this or will at some point.

These are the little things that one doesn’t quite grasp before becoming an entrepreneur for the…

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Business transformation 101 - what triggers it?

Business transformation 101 – what triggers it?

Today I am taking off my entrepreneur hat – just for a brief break – and switching to the corporate world to comment on a hot topic these days: business transformation. As a personal history, I have been “transformed” :) through corporate reorganizations, restructuring decisions and other cultural and management changes several times now, culminating with the past few years. Most of the times I…

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