Employees Are One of Our Top Priorities

Ask any executive of an company what their top priorities are and inevitably you will get a response of employees are top priority. If this is the case, how do we explain the enormous popularity of the comic strip Dilbert and television show The Office, which often tend to mock how companies don't create environments to build or develop employees. Companies will often focus on acquiring the best employees in the marketplace but once they have arrived don't spend much time to continue developing them. Furthermore when it comes to developing in house talent, companies will focus on developing training classes and programs for employees, while those are all fine I don't believe it is enough. From my perspective what companies should be doing is developing environments to enable development. Similarly to the theory of motivation, individuals are motivated by conditions of their environment not by words of encouragement. This motivational environment often leads to employees feeling fulfilled by what they do which drives better performance in the work place.

H-1B Visas Could Soon Cost Companies More

I recently ran across this article about a bill that is currently working its way through the legislature.  Could this mean then end to IT outsourcing as we know it?  What does it mean for all the companies that bring on non technology H-1B visa holders?  Once again I don't believe that our legislatures are looking at the big picture here.

What are your thoughts?

http://tinyurl.com/2bmz3q8

The Theory of Project Management Proactivity

The other day somebody said to me, "Life is 10% what happens and 90% about how you react."  Now most of us have heard this many times over, but I started asking myself, does this really apply to project management?  Project Managers spend a lot of time planning their project and performing risk mitigation. Thus, Project Managers are proactive and can often predict what is going to happen before the event actually occurs. Therefore I am making the statement that project management is 90% about being proactive and 10% reactive.  Now this theory may not be new to some, but it has yet to be documented on the web anywhere, at least according to Google and Bing

What are your thoughts?

Adjunct Faculty, A Professional Responsibility

A few years ago I was approached with an opportunity to join a local college as an adjunct faculty member.  At first I was somewhat hesitant because of the time commitment that would be required above and beyond my current professional and personal responsibilities.  However after a short conversation with a colleague I realized that educating others should not only be a part of my professional responsibilities but that I also have a social responsibility to be educating others about my profession.  Teaching gives you a new perspective on client communication.  Often the students that are in my classes have very little to no professional experience, while the clients that I work with often have multiple decades of professional experience. thus teaching has forced me to come up with creative ways to describe my professional experiences as it to relates to class topic in a way that my students will understand.  In turn my classroom communication experiences have now given me a different perspective when communicating with clients which ultimately leads to a better engagement with my clients. 

If you ever have the opportunity to educate and influence those who may eventually be a part of your project team, I would highly suggest jumping in feet first by becoming an Adjunct Faculty Member of a college or university.

Can a Project Manager with a non IT background understand and be succesful in managing IT Projects?

In today's economy where more and more Project Managers are crossing over between industries and looking for new opportunities, often the million dollar question is "Can a Project Manager with a non IT background understand and be successful in managing IT Projects?"  From my perspective as long as an individual has a solid understanding of the base project management skills a Project Manager can be successful regardless of  the specific technology, industry or business the project is for.

What are your thoughts on this topic? 

There is also an interesting thread about this topic going on within the Project Manager Networking Group on LinkedIn - http://linkd.in/aFhMAy