SPMS Insight 024
Leadership Rule #8: Adhere to the Schedule...or Change the Schedule
The best project teams don't treat the schedule as something they create at the beginning of a project and forget about.
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Perspectives on Leadership, Risk, and Project Effectiveness from SPMS
Practical perspectives on project oversight, safety leadership, construction management, and performance improvement for complex industrial and high-consequence environments.
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Explore practical perspectives from Smith Project Management Services on project oversight, safety leadership, construction management, and organizational performance in complex industrial environments.
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SPMS Insight 023
Leadership Rule #7: Be Receptive To New Ideas
The strongest organizations never stop learning because the strongest leaders never assume they've learned everything.
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Leadership Rule #6: Be a Good Listener
Hearing is automatic. Listening is intentional.
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Rule #5: Leave Your Ego At The Door
Projects rarely improve because someone wins an argument, but I've seen plenty improve because someone was willing to admit they didn't have all the answers.
Read ArticleSPMS Insight 020
Rule #4: Encourage and Solicit Input at All Levels
That's why I've never believed leadership should wait for information to arrive, they should go looking for it.
Read ArticleSPMS Insight 019
Rule #3: Work Through Disagreements in a Positive Fashion
Attack the problem. Never the person.
Read ArticleSPMS Insight 018
Rule #2: Encourage Open Communication
The goal isn't agreement. It's understanding.
Read ArticleSPMS Insight 017
Rule #1: Understand Craft Needs
Leaders don't fail because they don't care. They fail because they assume they already understand the work..
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Knowing Isn't Enough
Knowledge is valuable - Action is transformational.
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The Pattern Behind Every Successful Project
Projects rarely succeed—or fail—because of one major event. They succeed or fail because of hundreds of small decisions..
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The Risk Register Isn't the Product
The tools support the process, but they are not the process.
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Information Is Safe. Observations Are Personal.
The technology isn't the issue. What concerns me is something else and it's that the posts no longer sound like they come from a real person with real experience.
Read ArticleSPMS Insight 012
We've Always Done It This Way
The challenge isn't determining whether something has always been done a certain way, it's understanding why.
Read ArticleSPMS Insight 011
The Evolution of Organizational Culture Maturity: The Difference Between Compliance and Commitment
Culture reveals itself when nobody is watching.
Read ArticleSPMS Insight 010
Normalization of Deviance
Most organizational failures don't begin with a major mistake. They begin with a minor deviation.
Read ArticleSPMS Insight 009
Respect the Process
Regardless of their form, processes exist for a reason.
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Accountability: The Difference Between Responsibility and Ownership
Every project has responsibilities. Far fewer have real ownership.
Read ArticleSPMS Insight 007
Institutional Knowledge: The Asset Organizations Undervalue Most
Documents preserve information, but institutional knowledge preserves context.
Read ArticleSPMS Insight 006
The Best Project Managers Don't Simply Report Risk. They Identify It Early.
They identify risk before it becomes status.
Read ArticleSPMS Insight 005
Project Drift: How Small Problems Become Major Problems
Major project issues rarely emerge overnight. They are usually the result of numerous small disconnects that individually appear manageable but collectively create significant vulnerability.
Read ArticleSPMS Insight 004
Visibility: Why Problems Are Usually Visible Before They Become Expensive
Most significant project issues begin as small disconnects that appear long before anyone labels them as problems.
Read ArticleSPMS Insight 003
Alignment: The Project Risk Most Teams Underestimate
But in my experience, many of the most significant project issues have little to do with technical complexity and far more to do with alignment.
Read ArticleSPMS Insight 002
Safety Performance Is Usually an Execution Issue
Many safety issues are not truly safety issues. They're execution issues that happen to manifest themselves in a way that creates risk to people.
Read ArticleSPMS Insight 001
Oversight Isn't About Finding Fault
The purpose of oversight is not to catch people doing something wrong. The purpose is to help projects, organizations, and people succeed.
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