New project management articles published on the web during the week of December 5 – 11. And this week’s video: Dr. Andrew Weil demonstrates the 4 – 7 – 8 breathing exercise. Useful for dealing with stress, getting to sleep, and avoiding criminal charges when some half-wit swerves into your lane. Just five minutes, and safer for work than driving in Las Vegas.

Must read (Holiday Prep Edition)!

Seth Godin helps us with gifts for smart friends by name-checking ten excellent books. I’m going to read at least two of them over the holiday break – the best way to begin a new year is with new ideas.

Elizabeth Harrin re-tunes the old carol, “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” for project managers and their sponsors.

Margaret Meloni shares five tips for getting through the holiday season “in peace and not in pieces.”

Established Methods

Karen Chovan expounds on social responsibility and the intersection of sustainability and risk.

Dave Prior interviews Philip Diab on a new concept: Rapid Start PMO. Just 41 minutes, safe for work, and fun to listen in as two smart guys just chat about what we do.

Stuart Easton describes five ideas that are transforming the PMO landscape.

Barath Balasubramanian describes the steps to set up a new PMO.

Harry Hall tutors us on breaking down a project into deliverables and the activities that will create them.

Agile Methods

Stefan Wolpers curates his weekly round-up of Agile content – from critiquing Agile as a dumb process to smart applications of Agile for other tasks.

Janna Bastow describes theme-based product roadmaps, and how they facilitate innovation by grouping by time horizons.

The Clever PM identifies other roles (besides product manager) that must lead through influence, and so merit collaboration.

James Hammon and Scott Weiner offer the executive-level view of managing global teams who are using Agile methods.

Tom Churchwell explains the shift away from managing quality assurance as teams practicing Agile methods mature.

Tom McFarlin points out that unit tests are only cost-effective to the extent that they improve code quality to “good enough.”

Johanna Rothman raises objections to the way cost accounting is applied to teams using Agile methods, and triggers a lot of comments.

Applied Leadership

Michael Lopp shares five of his leadership hacks, all of which are simple behaviors. “I understand the compounding awesomeness of continually fixing small broken things.”

Nicolas Cole lists the building blocks effective leaders use to create successful cultures.

Cornelius Fichtner interviews Kim Wasson on applying emotional intelligence to leadership. New phrase: “Emotional contagion.” Just 24 minutes, safe for work.

Jenny Chapman reports on a study which indicates that managers, lacking the time to process both objective and subjective information, rely more on subjective information.

Technology and Techniques

Michael Blaha warns us to be cautious about how we use derived data. Don’t try to store the results, as it won’t stay in synch with the source!

Jeff Collins tutors us on business process management.

Grace Windsor explains how to use OneNote for task management. I’ve been using OneNote in conjunction with Outlook for a couple of years now, and can vouch for the combination.

Working and the Workplace

Nancy Settle-Murphy describes the keys to one of her client’s virtual meeting process, which sounds like something we all should aspire to.

Lisette Sutherland extracts snippets from past interviews that address “getting the work-life balance right.” Just 18 minutes, safe for work.

Liz Ryan identifies ten signs your boss appreciates you, and ten that they don’t.

Enjoy!

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