Films Not About Project Teams:
Part II

Anonymous

Thanks for the tips. I was looking for films for our boy scout troop.

How about The Great Escape? Teamwork, coordination, planning, sabotage, the loose cannon doing his own thing (Steve McQueen). []

Rick: Good one! (though fictionalized, as many are). By the way, in the end, the loose cannon did join the team — by escaping (at the behest of the "project manager") to do reconnaissance, and then letting himself be caught. Even before that, the "project manager" let him do his own thing, because the absence of any escape activity at all would have appeared suspicious. (If I recall correctly, that is) One other thought made clear in The Great Escape: the project manager asked team members to do what they did best.

Anonymous: You are of course correct about the loose cannon, the sacrifice he made, the "project manager" using each members' special skills. By the way, another friend suggested Master and Commander too. [] The ship as the perfect machine, a blending of men and "technology". It is a movie about complex relationships between men (not guys, so common today) and a glorious (and bloody, dirty, ugly) exploration of duty, leadership, sacrifice, responsibility, and...relaxation. An especially important point is the delicate dance to correctly gauge discipline (of absolute importance), punishment, and leniency.

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Diagonal Collaborations: Dazzling or Dangerous?

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See also Personal, Team and Organizational Effectiveness and Project Management for more related articles.

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Managing Virtual Teams for Real Results

Managing global or dispersed teams is challenging — miscommunications, misunderstandings, and interpersonal conflict all thrive in the typical environment of the distributed team. And they're even more common in global teams, because of time-zone offsets and language and cultural differences. We'll inventory the challenges distributed and global teams face, and provide tools for anticipating and addressing them. The focus of this program is practical — attendees will learn concrete techniques for preventing and dealing with the problems that accompany global and distributed teams. Read more about this program. Here are some upcoming dates for this program:

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  your calendarSinclair Community College, Dayton, Ohio: September 16, Monthly Meeting, Dayton Miami Valley Chapter of the Project Management Institute.
   
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  your calendarWherever you are: it's a teleseminar: November 6, Teleseminar, Computer Aid, Inc. (CAI). Register now.
   

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When we talk, listen, send or read emails, read or write memos, or when we leave or listen to voice mail messages, we're communicating person-to-person. And whenever we communicate person-to-person, we risk being misunderstood, offending others, feeling hurt, and being confused. There are so many ways for things to go wrong that we could never learn how to fix all the problems. A more effective approach avoids problems altogether, or at least minimizes their occurrence. In this very interactive program you'll learn a model of inter-personal communications that can help you stay out of the ditch. In those moments of intense involvement, when we're most likely to slip, you'll have a new tool to use to keep things constructive. Read more about this program. Here are some upcoming dates for this program:

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  your calendarNew Orleans, Louisiana: October 15, Monthly Meeting, Greater New Orleans Chapter of the Project Management Institute. Register now.
   
• Richmond, Virginia (West End): February 18, 2009, Monthly Meeting, Central Virginia Chapter of The Project Management Institute. Register now.
   
• Richmond, Virginia (South End): February 19, 2009, Monthly Meeting, Central Virginia Chapter of The Project Management Institute. Register now.
   

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  your calendarWherever you are: it's a teleseminar: October 22, Teleseminar, Computer Aid, Inc. (CAI). Register now.
   
• Albany, New York: January 21, 2009, Dinner Meeting, Upstate New York Chapter of the Project Management Institute. Register now.
   

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There's a lot more to running an effective meeting than having the right room, the right equipment, and the right people. With meetings, the whole really is more than the sum of its parts. How the parts interact with each other and with external elements is as important as the parts themselves. And those interactions are the essence of politics for meetings. This program explores techniques for leading meetings that are based on understanding political interactions, and using that knowledge effectively to meet organizational goals. Read more about this program. Here's an upcoming date for this program:

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