Project Shrink

Think of a soda can as the actual message you are trying to tell someone. Now place this can in an empty shipping container. The container makes up the cues people are looking for to interpret the message. Yes. Huge. On this blog I am mainly concerned with the container than with the actual soda [...]

“Here I am, brain the size of a planet and they ask me to take you down to the bridge. Call that job satisfaction?” Do you know this quote? If you do, we have something in common, we both like the “Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy” enough to know some of its text by heart. [...]

It is important for a project to have a specific culture. It is the culture of a group that determines what we think is essential and how we interact with others. It’s how we do thing around here. But not all individuals like the same culture. People have preferences. Some like plan-driven approaches. Some like [...]

If you want to have a self-managed team (and you really want that), you need to agree on the means of the project, the rules of engagement. One set of rules for everyone. Everyone should know the same set of rules… Humans … have “rules” about how we do things “around here”. It is not [...]

Why isn’t a document on a shared workspace “social media”? Social media is all about having a “conversation”. An exchange of information between persons. You can write your question in a word document. Upload it. Send me a mail. I check the mail. Download the document. Answer the question. Well, you get the idea. Yes, [...]

Ants don’t need central control to get the work coordinated. They use a simple and effective way to communicate and make individual decisions based upon the information. Ants are hardwired to work like this. Nature provided them all with the same set of rules in their body. Every leg has a natural tattoo describing how [...]

Photography by Dylan Parker A couple of years ago I was asked during a sales presentation what I thought was the most essential ingredient for a successful project. My answer was “mutual trust”. People in the room were staring at me like I was some kind of Softy Oozy New Age Treehugger. I switched very [...]

It might not come as a surprise for you, after all those articles that I wrote about this subject, but if in a project I have to follow a procedure just-because-the-company-says-so we have a serious problem. I can try to comply, and I may even pull it of for a couple of days. But there [...]

Turn on your television and try not to look at CSI Miami, NYC or Tonopah. It is amazing how popular crime series are, crime series where the geeks will save the day. It must be a universal thing, as the series are as popular in Europe as in The States. For me as a Project [...]