Photography by Kyknoord.

Wild Success in 2008 through Optimism and High Self-esteem

"Unrealistic optimism and high self-esteem are key factors in individual and team success. However the project management environment isnt exactly brimming with unbridled optimism and positive reinforcement. Quite the opposite. Many projects are highly challenging, some are carried out in unsupportive environments, and sometimes success is measured only by what percent of some impossible task was achieved."
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In the previous post I used a picture of myself leaving the medina of Fes, Morocco through the gate. For me, this old city is a great illustration of human complexity.

When discussing abstract concepts like networks of humans, complex adaptive systems and their fractal nature (a society is a large organization, an organization is a large group of people etc …) you sometimes can loose the link to reality. What is the picture you have in your mind when dealing with these concepts? While we are discussing the fish pond as metaphor, I want to share with you the image of the medina of Fes, Morocco.
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This is a blog about way cool Project Management. This post explains its purpose and serves as an introduction.

We are currently in the era of agile methodologies. Before that we had our plan driven approaches. Software development had its structured design and its object oriented design. I am not suggesting that they are all the identical, this is not an post about how we recycle the same ideas again and again in different packages. I am not even saying that they are all bad, or even all good. As our profession progresses and matures we can just add more tools to our project management toolbox for software development and implementations. We are all waiting for what the next big thing will be. Read more

How are people coordinating work when there is no central control? You might read about all this self-organizing, no-command, treehugging teams, but you just keep on wondering how this can work?

Ted.com brings us again a great presentation that provides us with the answer to how ants do exactly this. Watch it, and watch it till the end. You'll be amazed about the simplicity and effectiveness.

Thanks to BioTeams.com for pointing out this video.

With large groups and a lot of time pressure you don't always spend enough effort in communicating the overall perspective of the project. Too bad, because emphasizing the "bigger picture" helps stakeholders to keep in line and, if done properly, enhance motivation among the team (they wanna be part of something cool). Here are two tips to save you time and help you out in this department.
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Earlier this month Ted.com published a presentation by Howard Rheingold called "Way-New Collaboration". He talks about how the old paradigm of command-control is being replaced by Way-New Collaboration. He connects his story with social dilemma's like Prisoners Dilemma and Tragedy of the Commons. This is the best presentation I've seen that is telling the story I am trying to tell!" Why didn't I come up with this

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