Projects Pivot
With decades of experience managing all types of projects, we're ready to share our invaluable tips, tricks, and tidbits. Don't just tick boxes—master the art of managing people and projects. Sign up now!
A Little Chaos
Hi Reader, Sometimes it takes a little chaos “When you arrive at the store and can’t remember why, and you forgot the vet appointment, and almost missed the dentist even though they called you yesterday, and the bills are late, and your kids need homework help, and you are behind at work, and haven’t exercised in weeks, and you’ve been eating fast food while vegetables wilt in your fridge, and your garden is turning into compost, and the one time you try to cook you leave the granola in the...
Rethinking Happiness
Hi Reader, There’s no shortage of advice out there on how to be happy. You’ll find tips, formulas, and promises everywhere. One of my articles from earlier this year, Are Happy Project Managers a Myth, has been getting a lot of re-reads lately. Maybe that says something about what people are looking for in their work. The latest World Happiness Report , just released for International Day of Happiness, ranked Finland as the happiest country in the world for the ninth year in a row. But is...
Removing Blinders
Hi Reader, Horses are beautiful, majestic animals, but sitting on one reminds you just how powerful they are. I’ll admit that I’m a tad afraid of them. When my kids were young, they loved horseback riding, so one day we took them and their friends out for a trail ride. I was given a horse named Betsy. I was nervous, and Betsy moved so slowly that I believed she sensed my fear. Later, I learned the truth: she wasn’t reacting to me at all. Betsy was simply old. In fact, she was not only the...
Fixing Stuff
Hi Reader, Did you know that over 60 tons of household waste is thrown away each second globally? I’ve gone through my purge phases before. Once, I lived in a condo-townhouse complex with a large dumpster nearby and I took full advantage of it. I went through my belongings with determination, throwing out anything broken. The rest I either donated or sold. What I didn’t realize at the time, though, was that many of the things I threw away were not really at the end of their life. Some could...
Bird On Your Shoulder
Hi Reader, What are some of the things your gut tells you? That you're hungry, or you have an upset stomach? Or that you’re nervous? But what about the quieter signals, the subtle nudges that seem to come from somewhere deeper? The feeling that something is not quite right, or the sense that you need to lean in or step back. We call it a gut feeling for a reason, because it’s felt deep down inside you. Others may use different names. For the Spiderman fans out there, some describe it as their...
A Snowy Project
Hi Reader, Have you ever turned snow into a project? Growing up about six hours north of Toronto, Canada, winter was not just a season but an opportunity to create something from nothing. My friends and I would gather outside often with a plan to construct, carefully cutting and stacking blocks of snow to build elaborate forts. Somehow, I always ended up in charge, making sure everyone stayed focused and the walls went up as planned. Our goal was simple: build it high, strong, and clever...
Inner Wisdom
Hi Reader, I recently learned that one of my earliest project management mentors has passed away. Fred was in his early 90s, and his life was filled with fascinating work, bold projects, and adventures that could fill volumes. But what I will remember most about Fred is not his resume. It is the steady presence he offered me over the past decade of my career. Fred was always there. Not to hand me a project management manual, but to listen, to challenge my thinking, and to gently push me...
Call To Service
Hi Reader, A few weeks ago, someone popped back into my life completely out of the blue. This was a person who meant a lot to me and who helped me through a pretty rough time. They were the one that helped me sort through things when my head was spinning. In a lot of ways, they became my mentor. They challenged some of the assumptions I was making about my career and helped me see decisions differently, even the ones I didn’t realize I was stuck on. They originally came to me with a...
Seat of Your Pants
Hi Reader, Did you know there’s a style of managing projects out there that’s basically “by the seat of your pants”? Officially, it’s called Just-In-Time project management, or JIT, which originated in the construction industry. You’re constantly on the move, creating deliverables as they pop up, often before you even knew they existed. Some people would say this is just how we manage projects these days. Others might argue it’s basically agile in action. Others just call it plain old chaos....
Flashing Warning Lights
Hi Reader, One of my project sponsors recently asked me, “Isn’t that what project managers do?” The funny part? What she was asking me to do had absolutely nothing to do with project management. It was more like a vague, hand-wavy instruction to “create a thing”, with no details, no direction, and no clear definition of what done even meant. I laughed it off and told her I’d take care of it. What “it” actually was, though, I still had to figure out. Everyone's a PM It reminded me of something...
With decades of experience managing all types of projects, we're ready to share our invaluable tips, tricks, and tidbits. Don't just tick boxes—master the art of managing people and projects. Sign up now!