I help project professionals get more done with less stress. Having been a project manager for over 20 years, I share tried-and-tested tips that work in the real world, every Tuesday. Join our community of over 15,000 project professionals (and accidental project managers too!).
Where do you go when you need to think something through?
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Hello Reader, One of the things nobody really prepares you for in project management is how isolating it can be, not in a dramatic way, just in the ordinary day-to-day sense of having problems you can't fully articulate to your team, questions you can't ask your stakeholders, and situations where the textbook answer is technically correct but completely useless in the actual context you're dealing with. Most project managers don't have a peer group. You might have colleagues, but they're busy with their own projects. You might have a manager, but they're not always someone you can be fully candid with. And the internet is full of advice that's either too basic or too abstract to apply to the specific, messy, political situation you're actually in. Project Management Rebels is the community I set up because I wanted a place where that kind of conversation could happen — real discussion, between people who understand the job, about the things that are actually hard about it. Not tips and tricks. Not tool recommendations (although that does come up from time to time, and I've learned about a few amazing tools from the community!). We focus on honest, peer-level conversation about the work. If you've been curious about it, you can find out more and join any time, there's no intake window, just an open door, and you're not tied in to a lengthy contract. Have a great week! Elizabeth, Other things for you and your team:
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Calling all Rebel Project Managers!
I help project professionals get more done with less stress. Having been a project manager for over 20 years, I share tried-and-tested tips that work in the real world, every Tuesday. Join our community of over 15,000 project professionals (and accidental project managers too!).
Hello Reader, Most project managers don’t actually manage “their” team. We manage people who report to someone else. Welcome to matrix life! If you’ve ever tried to: Negotiate resource availability Handle conflicting priorities Run a meeting that doesn’t derail Get alignment without formal authority …you know the plan is only half the job. Most of what I seem to spend my days doing is negotiating, trying to get the right people to show up, slotting my work around other people's priorities...
Hello Reader, I've been asked more than once by project managers who are quietly worried about it: what do you do when your RAG status doesn’t tell the full story? The traffic light is green. Technically everything is on track. And yet you have this nagging feeling that something’s not quite right, a dependency that’s wobbling, a sponsor who’s gone quiet, a team that’s delivering but only just, and they're not as proactive as they used to be. RAG is a simple tool for a complicated job, and...
Hello Reader, Let’s talk about your schedule. Is it: A) Calm, realistic and under controlB) Optimistic but technically possibleC) Held together with hope and conditional formatting No judgement. (At least, not much!) Scheduling is one of those core PM skills that looks simple… until you’re actually doing it. I’ve pulled together my best articles on project scheduling into one place, from estimating and building timelines through to managing slippage and dealing with reality when it hits....