I was taught risk management the classic way. You know, risk log, voting for probability and impact, finding out which risks are the most painful, deciding on mitigation plan, discussing results etc.

A cool thing in this old-school process is that it activates different members of the team. Even those, who wouldn’t be asked otherwise. Even those, who would tell you that the project is doomed unless you decide to do something about that performance issue found last month.

At the same time in small teams this kind of process looks like complete overkill. In small teams   (more…)

Feeling Like a Fraud

Have you ever received praise, or even an award, for being great at something despite having no clue what you’re doing? Do you feel like a fraud, wondering what sort of voodoo you’ve unwittingly conjured up to make people think you know what you’re doing, when the reality is quite the contrary?

I recently had a conversation with my girlfriend (going to school for her nursing degree) when she expressed her confusion with some praise she had received from her professor. Her professor had told her that she was the best nursing student she had had in years. “But how the hell could that be true?” she asked me. (more…)

It is 7:00 AM and I am waiting for a candidate for a job interview. I have his resume lying in front of me with some areas underlined which I want to know more about. Also I have written down a dozen questions on a piece of paper. In other words, I am well prepared for the interview. Unfortunately the candidate does not show up at seven and at 7:20 I call my agent where he is. A while later they call me back to inform me that he is delayed by heavy evening traffic. That is not something one would expect in the evening I answer but my sarcasm is not heard. Anyway he would be at my office in 5 minutes. When the candidate arrives finally at 8:00 in my office he doesn’t find it necessary to apologize neither to explain the reason why the person who needs to hire him has waited for one hour outside office hours. Let’s start the interview…

I have learned from my mistakes and read resumes only when people really show up, let my recruiter confirm the appointment 30 minutes prior and try not to plan any interviews outside office hours. I estimate that more than 50% of the candidates won’t show up for an appointment, often without informing us. Rather curious is that   (more…)

In a professional environment the expression “The New Way of Working” (TNW) appears everywhere and very frequently nowadays. Many already heard about it, some didn’t. Many organizations want to introduce it, others don’t. TNW can offer a lot of advantages and opportunities to various organizations and their personnel in many different ways. Most organizations don’t know the exact meaning of TNW and just consider it as working from home allowed by the opportunities of IT. But what is TNW exactly, what are the advantages and opportunities and what are the conditions to let it become a success for both the organization and its staff?

The New Way of Working ….what is it?

TNW is a way of working, where activities are performed wholly or partly on a different location than the office, allowed by the use of modern IT. One can work when, where and how they want. TNW is a perception to make work more effective, efficient and more pleasant for both, the organization and its employees. These are mainly activities that can be performed independently of place and time which can be taken into consideration for TNW. Examples are: information processing, editing advice, text writing, preparation and organization of meetings, conducting telephone sales conversations. (more…)