Enough!

Chapters from the book "Enough: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life " by John C. Bogle.

Buy this book if you have had Enough.

"Too Much Cost, Not Enough Value"
Too Much Speculation, Not Enough Investment"
"Too Much Complexity, Not Enough Simplicity"
"Too Much Counting, Not Enough Trust"
"Too Much Business Conduct, Not Enough Professional Conduct"
"Too Much Salesmanship, Not Enough Stewardship"
"Too Much Focus on Things, Not Enough Focus on Commitment"
"Too Many Twenty-first Century Values, Not Enough Eighteenth-Century Values"
"Too Much 'Success,' Not Enough Character"

Mr. Bogle begins with this:

"At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut informs his pal, Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history. Heller responds, 'Yes, but I have something he will never have; Enough".

Project Management Office Setup Thoughts

• Clearly define the roles and responsibilities of existing project managers and project support personnel
• Develop a basic project management training plan for the entire organization to familiarize all with the project management verbiage and practices
• Identify and provide specialized advanced training for all project leaders and functional managers
• Develop a project management office (PMO) to provide enterprise coaching, and to develop and manage your organization’s project management methodology
• In addition to the methodology, the PMO should develop and maintain standard project management templates for the organization to use
• Ensure that existing projects are audited and meet your organization’s minimum project management standards
• Setup a program where your PMO provides coaching to less experienced project managers and oversight of all enterprise projects
• Ensure all projects have Lessons Learned captured

Cleverness and Problems

Albert Einstein said "A clever person solves a problem; a wise person avoids it". After reading this quote, it reminded me that project managers spend a lot of time (or should be) avoiding problems. One thing that can help project managers to avoid problems is following a defined process, or more specifically, a Project Management Methodology (PMM). At its core a PMM is a set of agreed-upon processes that assists project managers to deliver predictable project outcomes.

To create a PMM you need to define all project management processes, procedures and policies used to deliver your organization's projects. Also, don't forget to develop or obtain a set of project templates as they are an important part of any PMM. Finally, you must develop a training program to introduce and educate your organization about the new PMM.

KEY POINT - When developing a PMM ensure you must include input from your lead project managers and any other personnel that have a stake in your project management outcomes.