Random Quotes from New Books This April

It may be April Fools’ Day, but there’s no fooling about our new books! Check them out. No joke.

Negotiation at Work by Ira G. Asherman

“The big problem is that the glasses you have in stock are not clear, but have a blue tint. Each glass also has a basketball, a baseball,and a football engraved on it. Your boss has told you to figure out a way to get the client to buy the blue-tinted glasses. She does not want to carry the inventory any longer. The glasses have been sitting in the warehouse for six months. They are all packed and ready for shipment and are of higher quality than the ones the client wants. What would you do? ” (page 37)

Persuasive Business Proposals by Tom Sant

“Of the thousands of proposals I read each year, the majority do not recommend anything. Most of them lapse into informative writing simply describe a product or service. Descriptions have their place, but they can come across as evasive in a proposal. In addition, descriptions typically consist of standard verbiage that provides a general understanding of the product or service, but nothing specifically relevant to the customer. An effective solution links specific features of the product or service back to the customer’s needs and outcomes, constantly answering the question, ‘So what?’ In a solution, each feature has relevance. It either solves the customer’s problem, or it delivers value, or it does both.” (page 160)

The Power of Reputation by Christopher Komisarjevsky

“Most of the time, we have the opportunity to address a mistake, find a solution, make a correction, and give it another try. We are also in a unique position to achieve a longer-term goal: to make sure similar mistakes do not happen again. We need to take a candid look back at how the mistake happened and perform a two-part analysis: factual and person. The factual, or practical, analysis requires us to understand the facts and take what some call a ‘deep dive’ to examine the circumstances that led up to the mistake. Straightforward answers to some tough operational and management questions are the start. We start that process by collecting facts and digging as deeply as possible to make sure that there is nothing we have missed.” (page 179)

Project Management for Non-Project Managers by Jack Ferraro

“The term for the process of alignment and project tracking is portfolio project management. The idea is to keep the organization’s resources focused by making sure the proeject is doing the right work to facilitate achievement of the organization’s strategic goals. Remember, even if your project is approved, you must maintain a clear focus on your project’s link to strategic objectives. Project team members want to work on successful projects that have significance. Don’t make them work on a project in which they can’t see the organizational value. This sounds obvious and simple, but organizational behavior can be strange. ” (page 92)

Raising Capital, Third Edition by Andrew Sherman

“Many established businesses have a desire for rapid growth. After a certain point in their life, however,  most firms experience a growth slowdown. While some companies are satisfied with their position in the market, others want to jump-start their growth. Some angel investors and angel investor groups provide business accelerators that cater to these companies. Many angels who are not affiliated with the accelerators will also look to them for potential investment opportunities. With the help of an accelerator, a firm can get its growth onto the fast track to a degree  that it was not previously able to achieve.” (page 89)

The Secret Language of Influence by Dan Seidman

“Internal buyers make decisions based on their own experience and internal standards. An internal person can have difficulty accepting other people’s opinions, even good ones. These individuals also give little feedback to others, so you may be in the dark when trying to figure out what’s going on in their mind. Evidence is only useful if it agrees with their opinions.” (page 25)

Want to sample other AMACOM books? Check out our Random Quotes from New Books series.

Random Quotes from New Books This March

Spring has almost sprung – or so we hope – but books from our Spring 2012 season are in full bloom. Why don’t you give them a try?

Brand Real: How Smart Companies Live Their Brand Promise and Inspire Fierce Customer Loyalty by Laurence Vincent

“What impedes a brand’s ability to deliver a great experience? Let’s return to the two mental models I just gave you. Imagine a brand experience as an EKG line that spikes when something catches our attention, good or bad. Every time there’s a significant peak, our brain captures a snapshot that allows us to picture and remember the essence of the moment. If we went back over our tape and looked at the peaks that were associated with the negative parts of our experience, the most common culprits would be interruptions.” (page 202)

Enterprise Project Governance: A Guide to the Successful Management of Projects Across the Organization by Paul D. Dinsmore and Luiz Rocha

“The challenging situation faced in the sixties was doing business as usual. In the twenty-first century, projects are bigger, more complex, and more ambiguous, and they require a closer focus on integration to deal with countless interfaces. Great flexibility and a tenacity to deliver in the face of unknown obstacles and difficulties are also required, along with skills to manage the growth of interconnections and interdependencies.” (page 161)

I Got My Dream Job and So Can You: 7 Steps to Creating Your Ideal Career After College by Pete Leibman

“Belief in yourself will make you more resourceful because you will be more open to the opportunities around you, many of which you cant even see right now. Belief will also make you more resilient because you will know it’s just a matter of when, not if. In order to get your dream job, you eventually need to shift your thought process from ‘I’ll try’ to ‘This is absolutely going to happen. I am destined for this job.’ That might sound crazy for you to believe at this point. Be patient. Development of a solid belief system is unfortunately not something that happens instantaneously.” (page 90)

Leading at the Edge: Leadership Lessons from the Extraordinary Saga of Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition, Second Edition by Dennis N.T. Perkins with Margaret Holtman, Paul R. Kessler, and Catherine McCarthy

“Shackleton  displayed a unique ability to understand each person’s temperament and skills, and then to match those qualities with the needs of the expedition. As a result, all crew members contributed as best they could, and Shackleton avoided many performance problems that have otherwise arisen. There were, nevertheless, time at which he had to bring people back in to line. His ability to manage poor performers is somewhat surprising, given his unusual sensitivity to the feelings of others. This sensitivity is illustrated by one incident that occurred in the perilous journey to South Georgia [island]. The plug tobacco carried by the crew eventually disintegrated through the constant pounding of waves. The leaves washed around in the ballast and mixed with hair from the reindeer-skin sleeping bags, creating an odoriferous concoction. An ingenious seaman collected the leaves, dried them with the Primus stove, and created cigarettes using soggy toilet tissue for rolling paper. When the creator offered this special treat to the Boss, Shackleton would take a few obligatory puffs, then quickly pass it on as soon as the donor’s back was turned.” (page 92)

Mastering Import & Export Management, Second Edition by Thomas Cook with Rennie Alston & Kelly Raia

“Regardless of the rhyme or reason, exporters need to understand this new customs policy because many exporters are also importers–they have returned good, and circumstances often arise where good are being brought into the United States.” (page 252)

Want to sample other AMACOM books? Check out our Random Quotes from New Books series.

Random Quotes from New Books This January

New year, new you, new books, new quotes. Yes, it’s the first installment of Random Quotes from New Books in 2012. Let’s kick-off the new year with some new perspective and change our professional lives and organizations for the better.

Quick Brainstorming Activities for Busy Managers:50 Exercises to Spark Your Team’s Creativity and Get Results Fast by Brian Cole Miller

• This activity can work for any group size. With larger groups, however, give participants fewer chips, say five or six, or the activity will take too long.
• Be prepared for participants who finish early want to help others get rid of their chips. You must declare at the start of the exercise whether this will be “legal.”
• Go around the room and get on chip/response from each participant just to get things started. Then open it up for responses from anyone in any order. If the team stalls, go around the room again, soliciting one response from each participant.

The First-Time Manager, 6th Edition by Loren B. Belker, Jim McCormick, and Gary S. Topchik

“No doubt you have been advised to lead by example. It’s excellent advice. There is, however, another level beyond leading by example—authentic leadership. Authentic leadership is about gaining the regard of your team by being real and genuine. There are two inseparable elements of authentic leadership—exhibiting the behavior you seek and matching your actions with your statements.” (page 169)

Results Without Authority: Controlling a Project When the Team Doesn’t Report to You, 2nd Edition by Tom Kendrick

“Leadership also involves communication outside your project team. Regardless of your authority or formal position, as the project leader you are responsible for providing periodic project updates and presentations. Your communications with customers, stakeholders, and leaders of related projects provide them with a window into your work. What you report allows you to emphasize aspects of the project that you particularly want others to be aware of. Increasing the visibility of accomplishments that matter to these people increases your profile with them and improves your influence.” (page 41)

Lean But Agile: Rethink Workforce Planning and Gain a True Competitive Edge by William J. Rothwell, James Graber, and Neil McCormick

“In real-life settings, there are too many factors and too much complexity to consistently and accurately predict potential. We might consider five to ten factors, but dozens could be important Intelligence and learning agility might be valuable and statistically correlated to high performance in leadership jobs. However, deficits in carious areas of ‘emotional’ intelligence can easily derail intelligent, learning-agile individuals from leadership success.” (page 72)

Don’t you feel refreshed already?

Archived Webcast: Crucial Steps for Ensuring Project Success

Our American Management Association New Media Team held a webcast with Todd C. Williams, PMP, author of Rescue the Problem Project: A Complete Guide to Identifying, Preventing, and Recovering from Project Failure, last week. He discussed how to provide more accurate information when a project starts and creating a team of people that can work with your customer to set expectations and align stakeholders. Sign up to listen to an archived version of the webcast.

Crucial Steps for Ensuring Project Success
Meeting Number: 17495-00001
December 14, 2011
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EST
Fee: Complimentary
REGISTER HERE.

Doing it right the first time

A question that plagues executives and project managers alike is “What do we do about problem projects?”

Stop them, bring in a new team, throw money at them, and so on, are some of the answers that float around the room and keep you up at night.

What if you could avoid them almost entirely?

In this webcast, you’ll learn the two crucial steps that ensure successful projects. Without a solid foundation, projects are doomed from the start. Most problems can be traced to the earliest points of project inception—long before that delivery team is involved.

To combat this, you need to introduce the concept of a guidance team that stays with the project from customer’s first inception through deployment.

The advantages of a guidance team are numerous. They provide continuity and guidance to the project, maintain alignment of expectations on the deliverables, and a baseline intent for the project.

This team is present to guide the conversation back to what is needed when the project starts to creep get off track or lose focus.

Second, include project staff with the customer during their initial planning process. This provides clarity to the roadmap, makes sure what is promised is delivered, and assists the customer in identifying the “what” and “when” and the “what after that.”

By including project staff during inception, the delivery and customer teams will be aligned and the project charter will be much more realistic, comprehensive, and include the correct scope, features, functions, and risk.

By making sure you have a guidance team and involving project staff during inception, you will eliminate many problems before they have a chance to derail your project.

Click HERE to sign up for the webcast: Crucial Steps for Ensuring Project Success with Todd C. Williams, PMP.

Click HERE for more information on Rescue the Problem Project: A Complete Guide to Identifying, Preventing, and Recovering from Project Failure by Todd C. Williams, PMP.

Todd C. Williams, PMP, is president of eCameron, Inc., and a senior project audit and recovery specialist with over 25 years of international experience. He is considered an expert in rescuing projects and preventing their failure. He maintains a blog that has been quoted on ZDNet, The Center for CIO Leadership, CIO Essentials, IT Business Edge, and Project Managers Planet. He is the author of Rescue the Problem Project (AMACOM). For more information, visit: toddcwilliams.com.

Reminder Webcast: Crucial Steps for Ensuring Project Success

Our American Management Association New Media Team will be holding a webcast with Todd C. Williams, PMP, author of Rescue the Problem Project: A Complete Guide to Identifying, Preventing, and Recovering from Project Failure, next week. He will discuss how to provide more accurate information when a project starts and creating a team of people that can work with your customer to set expectations and align stakeholders.

Crucial Steps for Ensuring Project Success
Meeting Number: 17495-00001
December 14, 2011
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EST
Fee: Complimentary
REGISTER HERE.

Doing it right the first time

A question that plagues executives and project managers alike is “What do we do about problem projects?”

Stop them, bring in a new team, throw money at them, and so on, are some of the answers that float around the room and keep you up at night.

What if you could avoid them almost entirely?

In this webcast, you’ll learn the two crucial steps that ensure successful projects. Without a solid foundation, projects are doomed from the start. Most problems can be traced to the earliest points of project inception—long before that delivery team is involved.

To combat this, you need to introduce the concept of a guidance team that stays with the project from customer’s first inception through deployment.

The advantages of a guidance team are numerous. They provide continuity and guidance to the project, maintain alignment of expectations on the deliverables, and a baseline intent for the project.

This team is present to guide the conversation back to what is needed when the project starts to creep get off track or lose focus.

Second, include project staff with the customer during their initial planning process. This provides clarity to the roadmap, makes sure what is promised is delivered, and assists the customer in identifying the “what” and “when” and the “what after that.”

By including project staff during inception, the delivery and customer teams will be aligned and the project charter will be much more realistic, comprehensive, and include the correct scope, features, functions, and risk.

By making sure you have a guidance team and involving project staff during inception, you will eliminate many problems before they have a chance to derail your project.

Click HERE to sign up for the webcast: Crucial Steps for Ensuring Project Success with Todd C. Williams, PMP.

Click HERE for more information on Rescue the Problem Project: A Complete Guide to Identifying, Preventing, and Recovering from Project Failure by Todd C. Williams, PMP.

Todd C. Williams, PMP, is president of eCameron, Inc., and a senior project audit and recovery specialist with over 25 years of international experience. He is considered an expert in rescuing projects and preventing their failure. He maintains a blog that has been quoted on ZDNet, The Center for CIO Leadership, CIO Essentials, IT Business Edge, and Project Managers Planet. He is the author of Rescue the Problem Project (AMACOM). For more information, visit: toddcwilliams.com.