Tuesday with Morning Links: February Edition

Posted on | February 2, 2010 | Author: | DanS | 2 Comments

I have to admit, in January and February I was in an absolute fuzz. I had no one on board. It wasn’t that I didn’t know what I was doing, but we didn’t have all the pieces put together.

Donna Shalala

Not unlike Shalala, I was on the verge of a meltdown only the late Oliver Reed would have appreciated. The Morning Links had metaphorically withered under a series of chain breaks, ripped through like a chain saw through Spam:

• Mondays at the Camel needed to be opened up again
• Communications had become overemphasized
• The feel of community needed to be expanded
• I couldn’t stay away from sporting analogies
• Moreover, those sporting analogies were a bit “Yank”

We figured it was time for a revamp at the Monday Morning Links HQ, much to the disdain of those PMs seemingly secured in earning the Employee of the Month Parking Spaces each week. To do that, we had to put some pieces together.

Here’s how we addressed each concern:

• We’ve taken out the weekly element, switching to any day in the first week of a new month. So Mondays could mean anything from now on.
• Communications won’t be ignored, but won’t be here each week, either. Going monthly took care of that.
• Yesterday’s announcement here at The Camel of the month-long Freedom of Speech February is a grand way for project managers to start with the community expansion.
• Anything ’sporting’ will have to be of significant relevance to the project management industry…
• …and a lot less Yank.

We thank you for browsing upon the Monthly Links Community, everyone! You are always welcome.

January’s Ten For Twenty Ten

1. Kareem Shaker at kareemshaker.com draws upon a memorable acronym (safe for work thanks to the strategically-placed asterisks) from ‘Saving Private Ryan’ to help one’s recognition that a project is gassed - http://kareemshaker.com/project-management/100-ways-to-know-your-project-is-fubar/
2. Elizabeth Harrin of pm4girls and PMTips will never relinquish her parking space. For PM Tips, she delves into the findings of Hiscox on why IT projects fail - http://pmtips.net/projects-fail/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+pmtips+%28Project+Management+Tips%29
3. Nick Corcodilos of Ask the Headhunter fame has – much to his chagrin – been nipping at the heels of jobs board The Ladders for awhile. This well-research post offers several critical reasons why - http://corcodilos.com/blog/1390/theladders-job-board-salary-fraud
4. Richard Young of bnet offered an eye-opening insight into the damage texting and instant messaging does to your actual work productivity. The Camel does advise you to not read TOOOOOO much into the title. If you do, we absolve ourselves! - http://www.bnet.com/2403-13242_23-383397.html?promo=808&tag=nl.e808
5. Sean Silverthorne at The View from Harvard Business (bnet) wants to help you put the right team together. “Right leader, right mission, right core team” – http://blogs.bnet.com/harvard/?p=5389
6. Carl Pritchard of Project Connections gave some of his students their chance to provide input into effective communications - http://blog.projectconnections.com/carl_pritchard/2010/01/falling-in-love-with-great-communications.html
7. Todd Williams of BackFromRed paints an effective portrait of a project plagued with demoralized team members. Williams draws on a conversation to help resuscitate shattered project morale - http://ecaminc.com/index.php/blog/59-generalblog/177-2010-01-25
8. In our January edition of Project Management Tipoffs, we answered the enquiries of a military veteran wanting to translate their project skills into gainful civilian project roles. Glen Alleman at Herding Cats draws upon principles presented by Dan Ward, Blogger at Rogue Project Leader, about how the U.S. Navy Seals credo serves as a project manager already made – http://herdingcats.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/01/navy-seals-are-project-managers.html
9. George Huhn at Data Machines noted that the Gantt Chart turned 100 in January. Maybe - http://blog.datamachines.com/blogdatamachinescom/bid/31291/Happy-100th-Anniversary-of-the-Gantt-Chart
10. Bas de Baar at the Project Shrink blog wants you to reconsider how you deliver sound, memorable advice - http://blog.softwareprojects.org/stupid-advice-you-must-do-this-now-2310.html

January’s Arras People Happenings

1. Solicited, verified and closed the 2010 Project Management Benchmark Report
2. Participated as an Expert for the Guardian Careers Live Q&A Forum on project management recruitment
3. Earned invitation to Aberdeen APM event in February to host free CV Workshop
4. Released the January issue of Tipoffs on Project Management and Social Media
5. Welcomed posts from four different guest bloggers at The Camel
6. Introduced novices to the nuances of Tweeting about project management
7. Posited a New Year’s Resolution

Tweeter of the Month

@pawelbrodzinski – Pawel is a software building veteran from Krakow, Poland, a deliverer of straightforward Tweets that have all the subtleness of a Mike Tyson knockout blow. Short of adding search tags at the end of each Tweet, I can’t recommend a better way to get your message across on Twitter. The subsequent blog posts at Software Project Management are must-read in their straight-forward detail. Wasted words are rare, much like Pawel himself.

To leave a comment as part of Freedom of Speech February, click on Comments at the top of the post and let us know what you think. Your comment could win you free software for the Method 123 Project Management Methodology. Click to learn more about Freedom of Speech February.

Related posts:

1. Tuesdays with Morning Links
2. Monday Morning Links – 18th January 2010
3. Monday Morning Links – 23rd November
4. Monday Morning Links – 11th January
5. Monday Morning Links – 7th December

Comments

2 Responses to “Tuesday with Morning Links: February Edition”

1. Elizabeth
   February 5th, 2010 @ 8:49 pm

   Thanks for including me in your list of links!
   Elizabeth´s last blog ..So What? giveaway winner

2. Kareem
   February 6th, 2010 @ 12:49 pm

   Hi Dan,

   Thank you so much for including me in your list!

   I’d love to hear from you about the ones you liked out of the 100!

   Cheers
   Twitter: kareemshaker

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