&-&-& Paradox

Doing more with less || Monitoring things closely while also giving the team sufficient autonomy || Recognizing uncertainty and making a commitment.

The growing demand for and-and-and turns a project manager’s life on its head.

Breaking through the &-&-&-paradox requires expertise, leadership and creativity.

The TomTom

The TomTom GPS navigation system teaches us about Agile leadership. This makes us goal-oriented, flexible and helps us to act as a proactive influencer.

The TomTom is always looking for the optimal path to the goal and communicates the consequences to the client.

Keep taking action as long as the goal has not yet been reached, especially when things are not going your way!

The Heartbeat

Rhythm leads to progress without coercion for self-organizing teams and professionals. Without heartbeat no PDCA-Cycle and learning ability.

You can compare your project to a ten-kilometer ice skating race. This race is actually 25 laps of 400 meters.

If you meet your (weekly) “lap times,” you know your project is on schedule!

The Blind Check

Checking off tasks is rewarded with a shot of dopamine that makes you want it again and again. However, beware of the blind check!

The blind check gives an illusion of progress and leads to unexpected corrections later on.

A task is only done when it brings you closer to the final goal!

Blog

The complete project manager

       .

A book about the how of project management.
How to integrate and combine the many available methods.
How you can use a proactive attitude to stay in control even during difficult situations.
How to transform yoursef from a controller to an influencer.
How to be Agile even in traditional organizations.
How to integrate project management in your personal style and daily work process.
How to make sure you actually start using it!
How can you stay true to yourself throughout all this.

Today’s project managers have to meet high expectations. Challenging goals, a strong focus on cost management and lead times, serving the interests of different stakeholders and many dependencies between subprojects make project management an increasingly complex affair – especially in an environment where change and uncertainty have become the new norm. In addition, the creative abilities of knowledge workers have to be optimally utilised, which requires less hierarchical organisational structures and more multidisciplinary collaboration. Having the right project management skills is therefore essential at virtually every level of an organisation.

As a result of these challenges, there is a growing demand for comprehensive methods and the popularity of Agile is on the rise. On the other hand, the increased complexity also results in a need for simplicity. That is what this book is about: going back to the basics, being able to combine useful elements from different methods and focusing on the most important aspect of all: the person behind the project manager!

The book contains a wealth of practical descriptions with useful examples and anecdotes. Readers are constantly stimulated to internalise the essence and put it into practice in a manner that suits their own style and personality. That is the only way to keep at it, be successful and make others believe in you!

What this book will bring you:

  • What are the basic techniques of a project manager that can be used in both Agile and traditional environments?
  • How can you integrate the many available project management methods into your own work process?
  • How can you use smart leadership and certain forms of behaviour to massively increase your effectiveness and efficiency by always taking the initiative (the factor 10)?
  • How can you combine traditional (waterfall-oriented) product development with Agile (software) development?
  • How can you make uncertainties and changes work for you, rather than against you?
  • How can you structure a complex project in such a way that it becomes an insightful and delegable series of interim results?
  • How can you measure the true project status from the very beginning of the project using the critical parameters?
  • How can you create the frameworks within which teams of knowledge workers can operate in a self-organising manner?
  • How can you safeguard progress, learning ability, communication and goal orientation in any situation with the help of the project heartbeat?
  • How can you turn the collaboration with your stakeholders into a coproduction, regardless of the circumstances?
  • Above all, how can you stay true to yourself throughout all this?

If you own the book you can download the CPM toolkit for free in the download section from this website:

Publisher:  Van Haren Publishing
Language:  Dutch and English
ISBN:           9789401800419 (Dutch hardcopy), 9789401804004 (English hardcopy)
Author:       Roel Wessels

About Roel

Making complicated things simple, that’s what drives me. It was one of the main reasons for me to study Applied Physics in Eindhoven, a programme that focuses extensively on understanding the what and the why and on discovering analogies and structures.

At the same time, I could not and did not want to choose between becoming a physicist or a musician. Going to the conservatory and studying physics on the side didn’t appeal to me, so I did it the other way around. Whenever I got a chance to get out of the lecture halls, I would play in bands, work as a sound technician during concerts or create music for an ad agency.

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Masterclass PM & Agile Leadership

If you want a personal makeover when it comes to project management in just four days, the Project Management masterclass is for you. During four intense yet humorous days, you will learn everything you need to know about the essence and application of project management and Agile leadership.

During this masterclass, each participant will receive plenty of personal attention and there is a focus on learning as a group. Each group therefore consists of no more than eight to ten participants. You can sign up by yourself for masterclasses in Eindhoven and Enschede, but this concept is also commonly used for in-company training sessions that are tailored to the needs of each organization.

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