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Tag Archive 'target'

How to listen carefully to your team–Reflective listening skills overview (Part 3)

Posted in Change Management, Process Discovery, Process Improvement, Project Management on Dec 15th, 2011

Benefits of reflective listening: Lets the other reaslize he or she is heard, understood and supported and thereby helps the other stay in touch with others on the project. Gives the other feedback on what he or she said and how it came off. Lets the listener check the accuracy in hearing what the other [...]

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Processes as instruction tools

Posted in Process Mapping on Nov 21st, 2011

At this time of year in the north east, I get ready to put the skis on again, as I have a weekend job as PSIA instructor. The ski industry in recent years, has become dominated by lessons for children and young adults, 80% of lessons are given to that group. So each year, at [...]

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The need to refine

Posted in Change Management, Legal processes, Process Analysis, Process Improvement, Project Management on Nov 5th, 2011

Yesterday I had a long lunch with a great friend of mine from Sweden. Over the years we have set up new companies together, skied the slopes of New England, seen our families grow together. We have also been through some ups and downs, but have always stayed in touch. We have one of those [...]

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Happy Anniversary BPM Blog: A good first milestone

Posted in Change Management, Compliance, Legal processes, Process Analysis, Process Discovery, Process Improvement, Process Mapping, Project Management on Nov 3rd, 2011

My mother used to chide me “Michael, self praise is no praise at all!”. When I congratulated myself on achieving something as a child; or if the truth be known, also as a adult. Well at the risk of invoking her comments from heaven, I will congratulate the team and myself on our first full [...]

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Additional displays: Are they worth the money?

Posted in Process Mapping on Oct 24th, 2011

I spent a good deal of time today on a support call to a company that had provided us with a USB based graphics controller which stopped working on Friday. I was down to 2 displays and was amazed at the impact on my personal productivity. When you do a lot of process work, or [...]

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Thoughts matter: How thoughts affect our actions in everyday life

Posted in Change Management, Project Management on Oct 20th, 2011

I recently was at a meeting where someone outlined how we sometimes get off track and react negatively to situations. The presenter was talking about was Dorothy Day and a book called Tools Matter; while not in the arsenal of most Project Managers, I liked the way the information was presented. How thoughts affect us [...]

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Towards Perfection

Posted in Project Management on Sep 29th, 2011

On occasions, I get to do some volunteer work in Prison. I visit a facility weekly in Massachusetts and have recently been running a Setting Goals program. There are always nuggets of wisdom that I come to expect come from these sessions; and this week I am running a workshop one improving our personal performance.

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Creating Organization charts in Visio – Part 1

Posted in Org Charts in Visio on Aug 25th, 2011

Creating org charts can be a challenge, and it doesn’t take long before products like PowerPoint run out of steam when building and maintaining organizational charts. However, with a little preparation, charts can be created with Visio 2010 that are good looking, easy to maintain and can even be updated in Excel. Starting out We [...]

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Organization and Document naming relationships- Part 2 of 2

Posted in Process Mapping on Aug 18th, 2011

Naming your document collection guidelines Once you have gathered the relevant documents to a single location, or have created an index so everyone knows where they are, spend some time reviewing the naming conventions in use. Over many years of setting up new process centric document collections, our best practices for naming include: Be consistent. [...]

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BPM Blog summary for week ending 12 August 2011

Posted in Change Management, Process Analysis, Process Mapping, Project Management on Aug 15th, 2011

Last week’s blog had a number of interesting topics, from web publishing with Office 2010 to the use of SWOT analysis techniques in your BPM project. Hope you had a great weekend. Mike Cunningham Using the SWOT technique in your BPM project Posted in Change Management, Process Analysis, Project Management on Aug 12th, 2011 To [...]

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Setting Goals 101

Posted in Change Management, Project Management on Jul 19th, 2011

Most Wednesday evenings, I facilitate classes in at the local prison. This week we are introducing a new 4 hour class on Setting Goals. Because we do this frequently at the beginning of every BPM project, it’s been interesting to simplify this process for those that may have never done any systematic goal setting. In [...]

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Getting your BPM project started

Posted in Change Management, Process Mapping, Project Management on Jul 12th, 2011

To ensure that your BPM project is going to be a resounding success, or at least reduce the risk of failure as much as possible, use this check list. Ensure the business goals and benefits are agreed by management. Engage executive sponsorship for the project and keep them involved. If a budget is needed, make [...]

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The lifecycle of a process map

Posted in Process Analysis, Process Discovery, Process Improvement, Process Mapping on Jul 7th, 2011

Process maps have a lifecycle of their own, but is often not recognized by those authoring, reviewing or receiving them. Here is the cycle as we see it. For each step of the Lifecycle you may want to increase or reduce to the amount of information available to the audience involved. For example: Discovery of [...]

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On being undefeatable

Posted in Change Management, Project Management, Uncategorized on Jun 30th, 2011

Someone recently made me ponder the difference was between being undefeatable and undefeated. Few of us go through, I could say none of us, go through life undefeated. We lose a battle, mess something up, come second in a two team game. It happens. Observers smarter than me, and all historians and psychologists I know [...]

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A question of time

Posted in Project Management on Jun 29th, 2011

Time keeps on ticking …ticking, ticking … into the future. A line from a Steve Miller song in the seventies. We look at time many different ways in our lives, quality time, down time, time management. There often seems like there is either not enough of it, or it’s poorly allocated. When we don’t have [...]

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When Chaos reigns … what to do

Posted in Project Management on Jun 22nd, 2011

Sometimes things just get out of hand. Often it just a series of mishaps or new and unexpected deadlines; at other times it appears that evil forces are at hand in the workplace. If you get really unlucky, some personal issues will add themselves in to the mix, a broken car, accident at home, or [...]

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Obama technology Czar leaves government for Harvard fellowship

Posted in Project Management, Uncategorized on Jun 20th, 2011

Article first published as Obama IT Czar leaves D.C. for Harvard on Technorati. Will his successor follow his ambitious 25 point plan? After two and half years on the job, Vivek Kundra has resigned as Chief Information Officer of the United States government. No reasons were given, but the Harvard fellowship must have been attractive [...]

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Ten tips for better time management in your projects

Posted in Change Management, Process Mapping, Project Management on Jun 2nd, 2011

One of my favorite phrases to get people thinking is: There are only two variables in life: Time and How you use it But enough of the philosophy, we need a little more practical advice when it comes to time management. It is really irritating to see how some managers seem to be able to [...]

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  • Recent Posts

    • Business Process Modeling
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    • A VERY SHORT HISTORY OF PROCESSES
    • Process Dashboards: Identifying and flagging risk levels
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    • THE CASE FOR PROCESS DASHBOARDS
    • Is 2012 the year that version control finally takes hold?
    • How to listen carefully to your team–Reflective listening skills overview (Part 8)
    • How to listen carefully to your team–Reflective listening skills overview (Part 7)
    • How to listen carefully to your team–Reflective listening skills overview (Part 6)
    • How to listen carefully to your team–Reflective listening skills overview (Part 5)
    • How to listen carefully to your team–Reflective listening skills overview (Part 4)
    • How to listen carefully to your team–Reflective listening skills overview (Part 3)
    • How to listen carefully to your team–Reflective listening skills overview (Part 2)
    • How to listen carefully to your team–Reflective listening (Part 1)
    • TaskMap Update: version 4.0.5
    • BPM BLOG Summary for week ending 2 December 2011
    • The Tutorials are coming … the tutorials are coming
    • The psychology of spending and how it can help BPM ;-)
    • Happy Thanksgiving
    • BPM Blog–The need to refine
    • Processes as instruction tools
    • BPM Blog Weekly summary 11.18.2011 with video blog
    • Project and Processes (responses to the questions)
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    • Happy 11.11.11 and BPM Blog summary
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    • The need to refine
    • Happy Anniversary BPM Blog: A good first milestone
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    • BPM Blog summary for week ending 28 October 2011
    • Customized process mapping
    • Agile methodology: The case for a blended Agile
    • Additional displays: Are they worth the money?
    • BPM Blog summary week ending 21 October 2011
    • Thoughts matter: How thoughts affect our actions in everyday life
    • BPM Summary of automated tutorials on the TaskMap menu
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    • Check my TaskMap
    • BPM Blog summary week ending 7 October 2011
    • Renumbering Tasks in TaskMap
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    • BPM Blog Summary Week ending 30 September 2011
    • Towards Perfection
    • BPM in the Legal Profession
    • BPM BLOG SITE MAP
    • Rigor and our business processes
    • BPM Summary Week ending 23 September 2011. The Case for a Blended Agile
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