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Managing your body budget – your brain’s most important job
You have a body budget, and managing it your brain’s most important job! How many people do you know who: are stressed, overwhelmed or on the edge of burnout? have reached for a self help book, and are disappointed with the results? It happens because Nobody has told them they have a body budget,…
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Project controls that name the elephant before it reaps havoc
A black elephant is ‘an unholy mix of the black swan and the elephant in the room and the conspiracy of silence that surrounds them’ Jonathan Norman was speaking about human-centric data when he introduced this metaphor. He went on to give a more precise definition: ‘A black elephant is when something catastrophic happens, ostensibly…
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Do your project controls miss the pivotal moments?
Have you considered the possibility your project controls miss pivotal moments? Ask a project leader what they find most demanding in project delivery and they’re likely to tell you it’s the people rather than technical issues. The authors of Gorilla in the Cockpit, Vip Vyas & Thomas Zweifel, put numbers on it people, capability, and…
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The secret ingredient for power skills – a pinch of neuroscience
Why describe neuroscience as the secret for power skills? Some figures make you sit up, others stop you in your tracks. At a current investment of $20 trillion per year on major projects, we are ‘flushing $13 trillion down the drain. Practitioners find people problems more challenging to resolve than technical problems – by a…
Read More →Neuroscience for Project Success: why people behave as they do
Neuroscience for Project Success: why people behave as they do, the latest book from Carole Osterweil and the Association for Project Management is available to order here. Imagine understanding how the brain works. What if you knew what drives emotions, behaviours and decision making – in you and others? If all actions were informed by…
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When High Performance Turns Toxic
We asked about building high performance project teams and found a recurring theme of brutal cultures and mental health issues Whilst this CEO was interested in leadership on major projects, (big budget infrastructure, engineering and IT projects for example), we see a similar pattern in many sectors. The lessons are universal. They apply outside…
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How do you measure psychological safety?
How do you measure psychological safety? I am often asked this question by leaders who have read that psychological safety is a pre-requisite for high performance in teams and organizations. This post offers a 3 step process to measure and build psychological safety. It also considers the pitfalls to look out for, the source of…
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Stop speaking about human factors in project management
Speaking about ‘the human factor’ and ‘the human element’ in projects is no longer helpful. The term is far too amorphous. It’s been a useful fig leaf and it’s coming off in the wash. I’m not blaming anyone. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. Stop for a moment. Can you imagine asking an engineer to…
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Ways to encourage positive thinking in your team
Ways to encourage positive thinking in your team. As we grapple with the fallout from the corona virus pandemic one question comes up again and again ‘How can I encourage positive thinking in my team when everyone is so stretched?’ There are no easy answers. Plenty of people have written about learning to manage…
Read More →Neuroscience for Better Projects – advice for IT professionals
Neuroscience for better projects. Carole Osterweil writing in ITNow offers this advice to IT professionals. Take time to understand how the human brain works and you can enjoy higher productivity and better project outcomes with less complexity and less stress. How does neuroscience lead to better projects? Harnessing the power to deliver …
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