Category: Lessons Learned

Sorry seems to be the hardest word

I’ve been getting a lot of stick about my car. Jeremy Clarkson berates me every week calling me a “Pious Driver”. But it suddenly got a lot worse. Now it’s open season for Toyota drivers: first with the accelerator pedal problems, then with the brake problems on newer models of the Prius than mine, and now the …

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I have a cunning plan..

Building your project plan is the most critical step in any project. Your plan is the basic way of measuring the progress of the project – and if you can’t measure it you can’t manage it. If your project is to be successful it must start with a solid plan. Much of comedy of BlackAdders sidekick and servant …

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Drive a stake through this cliché

Kill off “Stakeholders”. Not my esteemed business partners, suppliers, customers, technology, providers, shareholders, backers, funders, board members: I love you. Really. It is just the word. “Stakeholders”. Worse still the phrase: “Stakeholder Management”. It is very convenient shorthand – and I have been guilty using it in CVs and general project communications. So what’s wrong? …

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Passing the point of no return

Pilots will know that when you are taking off there is a speed called V1. The plane has reached such a speed that there is not enough runway ahead of you to stop. So you are committed to take-off. Unfortunately V1 is usually less than V2 – the speed at which the plane can safely …

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