I recently gave my “Project Management for Humans (No Robots Allowed)” talk at Web Design Day in Pittsburgh.
I loved Pittsburgh. I have not been there in a really long time, and was really impressed by the city. But, really, I was most impressed by what seemed to be a really friendly, passionate web community. These guys showed up for a full day event on a Saturday and stayed engaged all day long. The (other) speakers were great, so I guess that wasn’t too hard to do! Continue reading
We’ve been on a big manners kick in my house lately. I have a two-year-old daughter who has not yet grasped the value of the “magic words.” It’s tough to get her to remember to say “thank you,” but it’s even harder to make her understand how important it is to say those two simple words. I am certainly no etiquette or communications expert, but I know the value I place on simple courtesy. And I’m pretty sure it’s not out of line with how many people want converse. What my daughter has yet to learn is that saying or not saying “thank you” can make an impact on circumstances in life—both in business and personal matters. (My two-year-old’s business is very serious and unrelated to this blog.) Continue reading
It’s been a while since I’ve shared my adventures in project management here. Is there a term for professional blogging hiatus? Anyway, here’s why this blog has gone dark for over a month: my wife and I had a baby girl and all of my spare time has been focused on my family.
Everyone knows, or has heard, that having a baby is mentally and physically taxing. It’s been six weeks and I just now am sort of starting to feel like my old self, plus one. Not only have I been sleep deprived (the obvious complaint, I know), but I’ve been full of energy at the same time. It’s like a life high! It’ so exciting to have this new little creature to stare at and show off. So exciting, in fact, that I ended up not thinking about other things that I was doing in my spare time. Like writing. Continue reading
Before I get started…
Have you ever been in a relationship where you were not fully sure that the other person was 100% committed? Paranoid that they were kissing someone else behind your back? If yes, I hope you weren’t married. Or, I hope that it turned out you were just paranoid and nothing was going on. In any case, if you are familiar with that feeling of paranoia, you might understand where I am trying to take this really lame analogy. Continue reading
I’ve been away from the blog for a few weeks. Vacation was extremely relaxing and fun. I came back refreshed, jumped back in to work, celebrated my 6th wedding anniversary and found out that our next child will be a girl. Needless to say, a very exciting May.
As I write this, I am on a train home from An Event Apart in Boston. I’m feeling all giddy and inspired (and pretty tired). I’ve got some new ideas for things to discuss, but want to share a couple of quick thoughts on conferences and what project managers can get from non-PM specific conferences. Part of this comes from the fact that there was really only one presentation that directly related to project management. But, really, PM is a part of everything, so I found inspiration in the details. At a very high level, these are my takeaways on attendance: Continue reading
