Have we now lost thinking?
Historically and, dare I say, academically, thinking was logically sequenced: identifying problems, gathering information, seeking alternatives, consideration and selection prior to decision. In modern times many have handed over their thinking to technology. Algorithms automate the process and simply direct the human to the ‘answer’. Beware my friend, the robots are hungry and want this […]
Identifying the improvement
Who doesn’t want to improve things? Albeit with the best intentions not much comes to fruition. Too often improvements fail due to their knee jerk implementation; we see a problem and seek to solve it, half way through we realise the problem is bigger than we imagined, we are out of resources and well we […]
The invisible art of leadership
The invisible art of leadership Some things should remain invisible; a magician and his tricks, photos of your food on the internet and leadership. Somethings simply work best when they remain hidden. However, the allure of personal ego can be more overpowering than the sanctity of these magical moments. Using these examples: A magician’s […]
Not everyone wants to collaborate
Not everyone wants to collaborate Workplaces are centred around different departments [teams] in order to deliver. Arguably, if these teams didn’t exist the organisation would not be able to perform. The underlying assumption in most workplaces is that team work yields results; get a bunch of randoms together and magic will happen. The practical […]
What does risk management actually look like?
This is a great question, one which should be asked more often. As managers, we are often asked to also become managers of risk. Whilst we can quickly define risks as events of uncertainty, the management of these events is going to vary based upon the situation. Story 1: The fundamentalist approach I recall conducting […]
Assessments in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) Environment
Background If studying a program in the Vocational Education and Training sector you may find that things are a little different to school, university or other assessments you may have encountered in your adult life. The major reason for this is that the assessments are based upon a competency model; aiming to determine if candidates […]
The order of operations
Facebook and linkedin are littered with seemingly simple puzzles For some reason these tend to draw masses of comments and create pretty sizable arguments. This is largely as many people are not aware (or overlook) the concept of the order of operations. Whilst the video on the order of operations explains it quite well […]
Make or buy analysis
Make or Buy Decision In each instance of defining procurement, we consider an acquisition from outside the organisation (or agency). Procurement is, effectively realised in the establishment of a legal contract. For this to occur we must therefore have a party to which we are to enter into a contract with, and since you can’t […]
What is a Murder Board?
What is a murder board? A murder board is an arranged exercise designed to critically expose risks in a future project or event. The term murder board has its origins in the military in which context it was applied to assist in exam preparation and subsequently to prevent mistakes arising from poor consideration of underlying […]
Shooting down the plane
Shoot down the plane (destroying the idea) I find amongst project and program managers an optimistic outlook in the initial phase of the project; a childlike view that everything will be fine. As the project elapses this view often becomes tarnished by the harsh reality, which was, casually ignored. This attitude has the potential […]
What is a monitoring and evaluation strategy?
A monitoring and evaluation strategy enables at a high level, an effective strategy to allow for the ongoing review, analysis and understanding of the performance of a project (or program) through its life. This sets a framework to enable correct and accurate reporting, provide a basis for continuous improvement and mechanisms to evaluate the successes […]
What is a Process Contract?
The Process Contract This post is not intended to provide legal advice, nor be specific to your individual situation. It is to provide a broad view of process contracts within a procurement framework. What are Process Contracts? With regards to the procurement process it has been a long held belief that there is a single […]
Business Case
The Project’s Business Case It’s a shocking reality that many Project Managers have never sighted their project’s business case. It’s true that a Business case takes many different shapes and sizes and called by many different names for that matter, however there are some identifying elements which should be present in every business case. What […]
I got 99 priorities but the list ain’t one!
Life is busy! Constant requests coming from everywhere; our work, personal life, need to exercise, eat well, have fun and get things done. We need goals, or whatever you call them; some form of marker to set our direction. I find if we don’t have these we kind of just drift aimlessly reacting to whatever […]
Ethical Marketing
2016 VET Conference in Parramatta Ethical Marketing Presented by Nic Thomas This video covers the first part of the presentation, due to tech issues ( which seemed to plague the session) only half the session was recorded. The remaining can be viewed through the slides below. The full presentation slides