by ·0 Comments

LogoDropShadow

I’ve been working with the members of my own Mastermind Group: two women with whom I have been meeting with-virtually- now for over a year.  We just launched our own website  MasterMind Meetups which is built to support you as you grow your business by integrating technology with networking.

Here, you no longer are limited physically when networking. We give you the opportunity to share, create and look into new mastermind formats, which enable you to create new alliances and accelerate your business.

We will assist you in connecting with others by:

  • Guiding you in choosing a Focus Level best suited to you.
  • Offering Group Forums for chatting, document storage, emails and an Interactive Community.
  • Pushing physical limitations and providing access to experts and information you might not otherwise encounter.
  • Sharing cutting-edge technology and tools to enable you to thrive within your mastermind network.

Allow us show you how-to use technology to connect virtually.

Join Now_banner

Are you using technology to grow your business network?  Would you like the ability to connect with other like-minded business people so you can create new alliances and explore fresh business concepts -on a global scale? 

If so, join us today and sign up for a free trail subscription!


by ·2 Comments

CompassJust when we thought we got the Project Charter figured out, the book Rework, by Jason Fried & David Heinemeir Hansson, debunks ‘Planning as Guessing’.  In fact, they go on to say, “Unless you’re a fortune-teller, long-term business planning is a fantasy.  There are just too many factors that are out of your hands: market conditions, competitors, customers, the economy, etc.  Writing a plan makes you feel in control of things you can’t actually control.”

They advocate, “…you have to be able to improvise.  You have to be able to pick up opportunities that come along.  Sometimes you need to say, ‘We’re going in a new direction because that’s what makes sense today’.”

Before you stress they do add this: “Now this isn’t to say you shouldn’t think about the future or contemplate how you might attack upcoming obstacles.  That’s a worthwhile exercise.  Just don’t feel you need to write id down or obsess about it.  If you write a bit plan, you’ll most likely never look at it anyway.  Plans more than a few pages long just wind up as fossils in your file cabinet.”

Seems to me, some planning-or having some sort of ‘general guide’ is a good thing….just as good as knowing when to make adjustments.

And Seth Godin doesn’t even want us to call ourselves Project Managers, he prefers the title: Project Runner.

by ·0 Comments

Tandem Bike

The overall project plan support, and are, supported by the Instructional Design [ID] documents as they are constructed in much the same way. Similar to a couple riding a bicycle built for two the overall project plan balances with the ID design document as both work in tandem moving the project forward.

While the design document is composed of learning objectives, key points of content and concepts along with processes and activities. The project plan works with the design document via the initiating  and planning stages [creating project charter & identifying stakeholders].

Both ‘riders’ of the tandem bicycle might take turns riding in the front or back of the bicycle or even propelling the bicycle solo, for short periods of time.  Yet, a bicycle built for two arrives at its destination [the specified project stages of completion], fastest and in best form, when both riders are working in unison.

The instructional design process is similar to the project management process in that both spend a vast portion of their life span in the analysis and planning stages. Just as one may ‘plan and plot’ the path for a long bike ride, adjustments to the bike, changes in weather, and even detours can cause riders to change course and make adjustments yet the bicycle [and riders] do arrive.

The similarities are that it is all about the journey, not the destination.  Both the Instructional Designer and Project Manager are headed to the same destination-project completion.

by ·0 Comments

Light bulb Idea

As I have mentioned, I am currently in an Online Project Management course, whereas we are working in groups on solving a project management issue [ours is partially real and some what fabricated-which is fine with our professor].One task last week was to choose our Project Management Roles.  I am the Idea Developer for our group.

If you want to read some really interesting role titles, check out Automattic This is the startup group who are best known for a little project called WordPress.  It is worth a quick scroll to read some of these titles.

My favorites:

  • Happiness Engineer[they actually have about 6 of these],
  • Digital Entomologist,
  • Systems Wrangler,
  • Outernationalist [his name is Ze Fontainhas],
  • PollDaddy Jr,
  • Design Wacko,
  • Schmooze Engineer,
  • Lightbulb Engineer,
  • and wouldn’t you love to hear your child announce they were going to grow up to be a
    • Bug Exorcist or Master of Suggestion?

Makes you want to re-think your title doesn’t it?