Project Schedules, Hamster Wheels, and Your Team's Hidden Superpower

Andrew Filev , Tuesday, June 11, 2013 comment

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"Failing to plan is planning to fail," - some sources attribute this saying to Winston Churchill, while others refer to Benjamin Franklin, or Alan Lakein, author on time management. Whoever the author really was, his succinct wisdom could help many project managers avoid costly mistakes. It seems that there are many project teams who suffer from inaccurate plans and their consequences. In fact, this challenge ranked as no.3 in the list of the biggest productivity killers, according to our recent survey. In this post, I'll observe some ways to keep your team safe from this threat and make sure your project's timeline is accurate.

Simple Tips for Eliminating Procrastination Within Your Project Team

Andrew Filev , Friday, May 31, 2013 comment

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In the previous post, we discussed an essential soft skill for project managers - recognizing and beating productivity killers within your team. We started with ways to deal with unproductive interruptions, which almost 41% people see as the no.1 enemy for their work performance. Now, let’s move on to the productivity battle against procrastination, the second most dangerous efficiency killer according to our recent survey.

Any habit, be it a good or a bad one, largely depends on the personality of the individual. For example, some people are naturally less organized than others and it's harder for them to stay on track. According to Dr. Piers Steel, who can be referenced as a procrastination researcher, 95% of people admit that they procrastinate occasionally, and for as many as 20% this is a chronic problem. Let's take a look at several common reasons why people procrastinate, regardless of differences in work styles, and how to deal with this problem within your team.

An Essential Soft Skill for Project Managers: Recognizing and Beating Productivity Killers

Andrew Filev , Wednesday, May 15, 2013 comment

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Based on your experience, what soft skills do you think a successful project manager should possess? Some aspects that are frequently emphasized within our industry are leadership, communication, problem solving, mentoring, and more. I completely agree with the high importance of these skills, but I would name one more that deserves to be in the top 5: recognizing and beating productivity threats within your team. It’s equally important whether you’re leading just three employees, or managing a large global team spread across several continents. In either situation, a project manager needs to spot the threat to the team’s efficiency as early as possible, before it affects more people, and be lightning-fast in addressing the problem. Different teams have different challenges, so it’s hardly possible to outline a one-size-fits-all action plan to handling them. But let’s take a look at the ways to fight the productivity hindrances that employees find the most dangerous: interruptions, procrastination and inaccurate plans.

Tips for Introducing Granular Workload Organization to Your Project Team (Inspired by the Discussion at PMI LA Chapter)

Andrew Filev , Tuesday, March 12, 2013 comment

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Meet-ups with fellow project managers keep bringing up thought-provoking discussions and interesting ideas on how to maximize the efficiency of project teams. This time, I want to share some notes from the February dinner meeting of the PMI LA Chapter. After my presentation that focused on the ways of making distributed teams efficient, one of the most interesting questions that I heard from the audience was how to introduce a team to a granular work breakdown.

No matter how talented and experienced your remote worker is, it might still be unproductive to assign him a huge, month-long task. There’s always some risk in thinking that he’ll do just fine figuring it out all on his own. This way, you severely limit your visibility into the work progress, and if the course goes wrong, you might discover it too late to clear things up. When you can’t discuss things with some of the team members directly and frequently, having more granular assignments might be a helpful tactic and make life easier for both parties. So how exactly do you make it work?

How to Build a Culture of Sharing in Distributed Project Teams,
and More Questions from PMI Dallas Chapter Dinner

Andrew Filev , Thursday, January 31, 2013 comment

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After the short holiday break, the new year quickly gained momentum. The first event on my 2013 speaking calendar was the dinner meeting at PMI Dallas Chapter. The topic of remote collaboration and its efficiency brought up a great discussion. The engagement of the audience is a clear sign of how many project managers face the challenge of dealing with mobile workforce today. And the trend will only expand: as Wrike’s survey revealed, every fourth worker foresees his or her office going virtual in the near future. Of the numerous post-presentation questions, there were a couple that were especially interesting, and I’d like to share some takeaway notes with you.

Andrew Filev at PMI Dallas

Open Innovation and Its Success Stories:
Sneak Peak at My E2 Innovate Presentation

Andrew Filev , Thursday, November 01, 2012 comment

Comments (0)

Collaboration, collective intelligence, social business and innovation are some of the hottest topics of this blog. And how much hotter does it get, if they get combined? You can check that out for yourself by attending the upcoming E2 Innovate Conference in Santa Clara, CA. On November 14, I will be speaking about open innovation and the benefits a social enterprise can reap through applying this model. My co-presenter is Damon Gragg, global project manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific. He has a lot to share on how open innovation helps his company be the global leader in scientific and healthcare equipment.

In Anticipation of PMI Global Congress North America 2012

Andrew Filev , Monday, September 17, 2012 comment

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Some great news that I’m thrilled to share with you: on October 21, I am going to speak at PMI Global Congress North America, which will be held in Vancouver this year. The presentation is titled “The future of remote teams: How to fine-tune virtual collaboration?” With the ongoing expansion of the distributed workforce, this topic seems to be gaining even more importance among fellow project managers. The first part of the speech will cover the most interesting findings of a survey recently conducted by Wrike with 1,000 respondents (how many people work remotely, how this compares to their work style 2-3 years ago, what they value the most about telecommuting, where they see this trend going, etc.) For instance, the vast majority of surveyed people believe that a fully virtual office will be a reality in the future. Later, the presentation will focus on efficiency tips for managers of virtual teams, based on my own experience of working with globally dispersed employees.

If you haven’t planned a trip to Vancouver yet, it is worth consideration! I’m just as eager to hear the other presentations as I am to give my own. Speaking of the event agenda: this is one of the things that we recently discussed with Paula Jayne White, PMI’s Director, Professional Development. Read our full conversation to find out about the focus of the upcoming event and discover some lessons that such a huge project like PMI Congress can teach.

Agile Collaboration in a Virtual World: Takeaways from PMI Global Congress North America

Andrew Filev , Friday, October 28, 2011 comment

Comments (4)

On October 22-25, PMI gathered its members and friends for the annual Global Congress in Dallas to discuss the core features and emerging challenges of the project management profession. One of the key areas of focus for the Congress was the new project management trends, i.e., those trends that may impact the industry in the coming years. Together with Elizabeth Harrin and Cornelius Fichtner, seasoned project managers, popular bloggers and my fellow PMI New Media Council members, we held a session addressing agile collaboration in virtual teams. With over a third of projects being agile and more work being done by virtual teams, we aimed to look at how project managers can successfully combine the two. Having combined our expertise in managing distributed teams, we came up with a few practical, battlefield-tested tips in the area of communication practices, Web 2.0 tools and beyond, which can help bridge the gap for agile teams working across geographic boundaries.

5 Practical Tips on Making Virtual Collaboration Efficient

Andrew Filev , Tuesday, January 25, 2011 comment

Comments (5)

My post about The Secret Ingredients of a Successful Distributed Team turned out to be quite popular, so I decided to follow up on it by sharing a slide deck I recently presented to the Information Management Forum members (IMF). I was invited to speak about virtual teams, as well as how companies can easily overcome challenges connected with their set up. The presentation has 5 practical tips on how to make your virtual project team more efficient. The list is not complete, and there’s always room for more! I hope to extend this list in a future post with your help.

The Secret Ingredients of a Successful Distributed Team

Andrew Filev , Tuesday, January 18, 2011 comment

Comments (7)

Recently, I really enjoyed my time attending Net:Work, a new conference that was presented in San Francisco by GigaOM. The event evolved around the topic of remote collaboration, or as the organizers described it, the opportunities that new technologies “have created for connecting work and workers.” Infrastructure changes, the impact of the cloud, “mobilocracy” – those are just a few trends in the wide range that the speakers covered. There’s no doubt that today’s workplace is not what it used to be several years ago. In the modern creative economy, work extends the boundaries of a traditional office, and it has also become quite common for peers to be spread across several cities, countries and cultures. But how can we ensure that remote collaboration is efficient in such an environment? Is there any solution that would work for all companies? In this post, I’ll share my ideas on this topic.

Project Schedules, Hamster Wheels, and Your Team's Hidden Superpower

Simple Tips for Eliminating Procrastination Within Your Project Team

An Essential Soft Skill for Project Managers: Recognizing and Beating Productivity Killers

Tips for Introducing Granular Workload Organization to Your Project Team (Inspired by the Discussion at PMI LA Chapter)

How to Build a Culture of Sharing in Distributed Project Teams,
and More Questions from PMI Dallas Chapter Dinner

Open Innovation and Its Success Stories:
Sneak Peak at My E2 Innovate Presentation

In Anticipation of PMI Global Congress North America 2012

Agile Collaboration in a Virtual World: Takeaways from PMI Global Congress North America

5 Practical Tips on Making Virtual Collaboration Efficient

The Secret Ingredients of a Successful Distributed Team

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Project Schedules, Hamster Wheels, and Your Team's Hidden Superpower Andrew Filev , Tuesday, June 11, 2013 Comments (0) Tweet "Failing to plan is planning to fail," - some sources attribute this saying to Winston Churchill, while others refer to Benjamin Franklin, or Alan Lakein, author on time management. Whoever the author really was, his succinct wisdom could help many project managers avoid costly mistakes. It seems that there are many project teams who suffer from inaccurate plans and their consequences. In fact, this challenge ranked as no.3 in the list of the biggest productivity killers, according to our recent survey. In this post, I'll observe some ways to keep your team safe from this threat and make sure your project's timeline is accurate. Continue reading >> Simple Tips for Eliminating Procrastination Within Your Project Team Andrew Filev , Friday, May 31, 2013 Comments (0) Tweet In the previous post, we discussed an essential soft skill for project managers - recognizing and beating productivity killers within your team. We started with ways to deal with unproductive interruptions, which almost 41% people see as the no.1 enemy for their work performance. Now, let’s move on to the productivity battle against procrastination, the second most dangerous efficiency killer according to our recent survey. Any habit, be it a good or a bad one, largely depends on the personality of the individual. For example, some people are naturally less organized than others and it's harder for them to stay on track. According to Dr. Piers Steel, who can be referenced as a procrastination researcher, 95% of people admit that they procrastinate occasionally, and for as many as 20% this is a chronic problem. Let's take a look at several common reasons why people procrastinate, regardless of differences in work styles, and how to deal with this problem within your team. Continue reading >> An Essential Soft Skill for Project Managers: Recognizing and Beating Productivity Killers Andrew Filev , Wednesday, May 15, 2013 Comments (0) Tweet Based on your experience, what soft skills do you think a successful project manager should possess? Some aspects that are frequently emphasized within our industry are leadership, communication, problem solving, mentoring, and more. I completely agree with the high importance of these skills, but I would name one more that deserves to be in the top 5: recognizing and beating productivity threats within your team. It’s equally important whether you’re leading just three employees, or managing a large global team spread across several continents. In either situation, a project manager needs to spot the threat to the team’s efficiency as early as possible, before it affects more people, and be lightning-fast in addressing the problem. Different teams have different challenges, so it’s hardly possible to outline a one-size-fits-all action plan to handling them. But let’s take a look at the ways to fight the productivity hindrances that employees find the most dangerous: interruptions, procrastination and inaccurate plans. Continue reading >> Tips for Introducing Granular Workload Organization to Your Project Team (Inspired by the Discussion at PMI LA Chapter) Andrew Filev , Tuesday, March 12, 2013 Comments (0) Tweet Meet-ups with fellow project managers keep bringing up thought-provoking discussions and interesting ideas on how to maximize the efficiency of project teams. This time, I want to share some notes from the February dinner meeting of the PMI LA Chapter. After my presentation that focused on the ways of making distributed teams efficient, one of the most interesting questions that I heard from the audience was how to introduce a team to a granular work breakdown. No matter how talented and experienced your remote worker is, it might still be unproductive to assign him a huge, month-long task. There’s always some risk in thinking that he’ll do just fine figuring it out all on his own. This way, you severely limit your visibility into the work progress, and if the course goes wrong, you might discover it too late to clear things up. When you can’t discuss things with some of the team members directly and frequently, having more granular assignments might be a helpful tactic and make life easier for both parties. So how exactly do you make it work? Continue reading >> How to Build a Culture of Sharing in Distributed Project Teams, and More Questions from PMI Dallas Chapter Dinner Andrew Filev , Thursday, January 31, 2013 Comments (0) Tweet After the short holiday break, the new year quickly gained momentum. The first event on my 2013 speaking calendar was the dinner meeting at PMI Dallas Chapter. The topic of remote collaboration and its efficiency brought up a great discussion. The engagement of the audience is a clear sign of how many project managers face the challenge of dealing with mobile workforce today. And the trend will only expand: as Wrike’s survey revealed, every fourth worker foresees his or her office going virtual in the near future. Of the numerous post-presentation questions, there were a couple that were especially interesting, and I’d like to share some takeaway notes with you. Continue reading >> Open Innovation and Its Success Stories: Sneak Peak at My E2 Innovate Presentation Andrew Filev , Thursday, November 01, 2012 Comments (0) Tweet Collaboration, collective intelligence, social business and innovation are some of the hottest topics of this blog. And how much hotter does it get, if they get combined? You can check that out for yourself by attending the upcoming E2 Innovate Conference in Santa Clara, CA. On November 14, I will be speaking about open innovation and the benefits a social enterprise can reap through applying this model. My co-presenter is Damon Gragg, global project manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific. He has a lot to share on how open innovation helps his company be the global leader in scientific and healthcare equipment. Continue reading >> In Anticipation of PMI Global Congress North America 2012 Andrew Filev , Monday, September 17, 2012 Comments (0) Tweet Some great news that I’m thrilled to share with you: on October 21, I am going to speak at PMI Global Congress North America, which will be held in Vancouver this year. The presentation is titled “The future of remote teams: How to fine-tune virtual collaboration?” With the ongoing expansion of the distributed workforce, this topic seems to be gaining even more importance among fellow project managers. The first part of the speech will cover the most interesting findings of a survey recently conducted by Wrike with 1,000 respondents (how many people work remotely, how this compares to their work style 2-3 years ago, what they value the most about telecommuting, where they see this trend going, etc.) For instance, the vast majority of surveyed people believe that a fully virtual office will be a reality in the future. Later, the presentation will focus on efficiency tips for managers of virtual teams, based on my own experience of working with globally dispersed employees. If you haven’t planned a trip to Vancouver yet, it is worth consideration! I’m just as eager to hear the other presentations as I am to give my own. Speaking of the event agenda: this is one of the things that we recently discussed with Paula Jayne White, PMI’s Director, Professional Development. Read our full conversation to find out about the focus of the upcoming event and discover some lessons that such a huge project like PMI Congress can teach. Continue reading >> Agile Collaboration in a Virtual World: Takeaways from PMI Global Congress North America Andrew Filev , Friday, October 28, 2011 Comments (4) Tweet On October 22-25, PMI gathered its members and friends for the annual Global Congress in Dallas to discuss the core features and emerging challenges of the project management profession. One of the key areas of focus for the Congress was the new project management trends, i.e., those trends that may impact the industry in the coming years. Together with Elizabeth Harrin and Cornelius Fichtner, seasoned project managers, popular bloggers and my fellow PMI New Media Council members, we held a session addressing agile collaboration in virtual teams. With over a third of projects being agile and more work being done by virtual teams, we aimed to look at how project managers can successfully combine the two. Having combined our expertise in managing distributed teams, we came up with a few practical, battlefield-tested tips in the area of communication practices, Web 2.0 tools and beyond, which can help bridge the gap for agile teams working across geographic boundaries. Continue reading >> 5 Practical Tips on Making Virtual Collaboration Efficient Andrew Filev , Tuesday, January 25, 2011 Comments (5) Tweet My post about The Secret Ingredients of a Successful Distributed Team turned out to be quite popular, so I decided to follow up on it by sharing a slide deck I recently presented to the Information Management Forum members (IMF). I was invited to speak about virtual teams, as well as how companies can easily overcome challenges connected with their set up. The presentation has 5 practical tips on how to make your virtual project team more efficient. The list is not complete, and there’s always room for more! I hope to extend this list in a future post with your help. Continue reading >> The Secret Ingredients of a Successful Distributed Team Andrew Filev , Tuesday, January 18, 2011 Comments (7) Tweet Recently, I really enjoyed my time attending Net:Work, a new conference that was presented in San Francisco by GigaOM. The event evolved around the topic of remote collaboration, or as the organizers described it, the opportunities that new technologies “have created for connecting work and workers.” Infrastructure changes, the impact of the cloud, “mobilocracy” – those are just a few trends in the wide range that the speakers covered. There’s no doubt that today’s workplace is not what it used to be several years ago. In the modern creative economy, work extends the boundaries of a traditional office, and it has also become quite common for peers to be spread across several cities, countries and cultures. But how can we ensure that remote collaboration is efficient in such an environment? Is there any solution that would work for all companies? In this post, I’ll share my ideas on this topic. Continue reading >> Older posts	Andrew Filev is an experienced project manager and a successful entrepreneur. He has been managing software teams since 2001 with the help of new-generation collaboration and management applications. The Project Management 2.0 blog reflects his views on changes going on in contemporary project management, thanks to the influence of collaborative web-based technologies. 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