Project Management Blog

Project Management in Eastern Europe

I have been working with a few former Warsaw Pact countries to assist them in developing their project management skills. They are particularly interested in using these skills to develop plans for projects for which they will seek international funding and for two areas internally: emergency response management and environmental resource management.

It seems that, although they had a lot of "central planning" experience under the old Soviet system, they have little or no experience in working in a collaborative manner or in using teams effectively. This may be an over-generalization, but I rather doubt it.

I will be traveling in Eastern Europe throughout the month of January and I will post updates on this posting to give you my insight on how they are adapting to what they see as a revolutionary model.

I would also be very interested in TrackBacks or Comments regarding this posting. Have you had similar contacts and what are your experiences?

PM and Pandemics

Pandemic

¹pan·dem·ic
Pronunciation: pan-'de-mik
Function: adjective
Etymology: Late Latin pandemus, from Greek pandEmos of all the people, from pan- + dEmos people
: occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population

It is coming. Is your workplace ready? Seems to me it is time to begin PLANNING. Since this is what we project managers do well (even though there are a fair number of PMs who move too quickly to implementing), then we ought to be out in front of this.

What can you do?

- Put together a business plan - sell your organizaion on the need

- Volunteer to help your local non-profits and service agencies - places like shelters, blood banks, volunteer fire companies, volunteer EMTs, nursing homes, senior centers, and the like. They will be center stage when the pandemic hits. And I would be willing to bet they haven't a clue on what they will do (other than shut down).

Where can you help - I have added new search items to my SEARCH list: Pandemic, Volunteering, Non-profit agencies. Use them to confgure your own search for your area. Get involved!

Square One - Day One

You have joined me at the beginning of what I hope will be a long and enjoyable journey. This is my first attempt at writing a blog. So, I think it appropriate to set out what I intend to do with this blog. If you bothered to look at my profile, you found that I enjoy teaching new project managers. Therefore, most of the "stuff" I will gather here will be directed at that group. This is not to say that some old hacks won't be able to learn something here. If I have learned anything in all these decades on the planet it is that you never stop learning. Even at death you will be learning what that is all about.

I intend to place some items on this site that I use when I teach project management. I will also put out some new information (well, new in the sense that I haven't used it any of my classes as yet). I welcome comment on any and all of it. Please feel free to let me know the wickedness of my methods.

I am also looking for your help. If you have anything that you would like to have me use in my classes, please send it along.

So, welcome to Square One.

Chuck