I was brainstorming for some ideas to keep me busy the next few months (only got a gazillion ideas, currently prioritizing them :)), and I came up with an idea that I used for my first blogging experience… yep, it was still 2004, and I had this illusive idea to compare project people with animals… below the only entry that came out of that brainwave…

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The most interesting postings of this month can be attributed to Glen Alleman at Herding Cats. Although I don't always agree, these are provoking postings that trigger your brain, and helps you to become more aware of a question I asked earlier this month: "Why Do You Do What You Do in Project Management?"

Killing the Sacred Cows of Project Management
Three Simple Questions
Thermostatic Control
The BIG Question for any project management process
Sacred Cow: Teams

Read the links above and come back and think again: why do you do what you do?

Change is the norm. Change is happening fast. The projects you are managing are not your daddy's projects. To be able to handle the ever morphing environment, you need to become agile, flexible as you have never been before. ""If you are talking about "agile project managers", this would be the key aspect of my definition. A project manager that has a lot of mental models about projects available, and can adopt his mindset according the situation without problems, is what I call a true "agile" PM." I wrote previously.

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This is really my favorite Project Management question to which I don't have a real answer: are our industry's best practices really that, or do we merely say they are because as a PM we are expected to say so? You know that when you fall, you experience pain. You have felt that as a child. But how did you know that if you look cross-eyed and the clock strikes, your eyes will stay crossed forever? Because momma said so. But if momma was always right, why did she run away with the neighbor?

Photography by The Gold Guys.

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Its time for a reader suggestion thread and todays question is:

What is the best way to motivate project team members?

I have talked enough for a moment. Now it's you who can have a go at this topic. Please place a comment with your tip to motivate team members; how do you excite your team?

EDIT: The following offer is not valid anymore, but feel free to add your two cents.
As a little incentive (bribe :)) I will give an ebook version of my book "Surprise! Now You're A Software Project Manager" to the most original entry (so make sure you include your email address in the comment box)…

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