(This article was originally published on www.svprojectmanagement.com)

A recipe alone doesn’t make cookies, but it’s a start. And great chefs don’t need a recipe book, but someone with the discipline to follow a recipe can cook like a great chef with discipline and a little practice. And the same is true for the recipe for family success. What is this common sense recipe that can enable any family to dramatically increase the odds of living a life tending more toward excellence and true happiness than survival? It’s a matter of dodging the predictable and avoidable pitfalls outlined in this series. Based on tried and true principles of project management, this approach has been proven to triple the chances of achieving success in the business world, and there’s no reason to believe this same benefit won’t be realized in your family. This series contains practical guidance for avoiding the “dirty dozen” pitfalls of the most important project of your life, your family. Don’t risk falling into these all too familiar traps! The guidelines are grouped into stages, and you should tackle each stage in this order to build a solid foundation for the next. Read more »

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(This article was originally published on www.svprojectmanagement.com)

We are Family. Sure, but if you’re like most families, you use what I call the “random chaos” approach to life. In a splendid demonstration of hope triumphing over experience, two people embark on what could be a decades long adventure. They get married, have kids, survive raising ‘em, maybe buy a house to contain the mayhem, and finally eek out a bit of retirement before languishing in a dilapidated physical and financial state for their last less-than-enjoyable years on Earth. Looking back I’m sure many families wonder “Where did our lives go?” Read more »

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(This article was originally published on www.svprojectmanagement.com)

This is the final post in my series exploring post-quake Japan. Read more »

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(This article was originally published on www.svprojectmanagement.com)

Here’s another article in this series where I squeeze meaning out of seemingly purposeless tragedy. Read more »

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(This article was originally published on www.svprojectmanagement.com)

In my continuing quest to make meaning out of tragedy, here’s another in the series. Read more »

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(This article was originally published on www.svprojectmanagement.com)

In my quest to make sense of the recent tragedy in Japan I’m writing about my experiences from Tokyo, where I’ve been working for the past 2 weeks. Read more »

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(This article was originally published on www.svprojectmanagement.com)

This time of year in the US many people, including me and my family, celebrate Christmas. It’s the most important holiday for us, and it’s a time of year when people seem more tuned in to the connections among all human beings. It seems to me that people are a wee bit nicer to each other. We take time to be with our families, and we tell our friends how much they mean to us. As far as holidays go, it’s a very big deal. Because I’m traveling on business 2-3 weeks a month I’m typically arriving home in Silicon Valley, California, from Japan just in time to be jet lagged all through the holiday season. This year, however, my last week of work before Christmas was in Houston, Texas, so instead of being jet lagged I’m merely burnt out. Well, burnt to a crisp, actually – like a piece of bacon cooked in a greasy skillet on extra high heat for about an hour longer than normal. Toast! Read more »

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(This article was originally published on www.svprojectmanagement.com)

In my timezone I’ve got just a bit over one more day to go in 2011. Personally I always welcome the end of one year and the beginning of the next. It feels like a fresh start to me. It’s been a great year in many ways, but now that I have worked with people from over 50 different countries I tend to feel personally impacted by most of the disasters that occur around the world (Japan, Thailand, etc.), and I’m eager to put a few of this year’s catastrophe’s behind me. And I prefer looking to the future to thinking about the past. Before we bid farewell to 2011, however, let’s reflect on the significant events of the past year. Read more »

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(Originally published on ProjectConnections.com in Nov. 2011 and published on SVProjectmanagement.com in Feb, 2012.)

Lately I’ve been fascinated by a book, Creativity in Business, based on the famous course in the Stanford University MBA program by that name. In fact, I’ve been carrying it with me non-stop for the past couple of months and practicing the numerous creativity exercises recommended at every opportunity. Read more »

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(This article was originally published on www.svprojectmanagement.com)

Some of the best mentoring I’ve ever received is from executives. Even when I was a mere pawn in the corporate chess game I longed to understand the game from the view of the king. Working in the basement of the building which is now the Facebook headquarters, I mostly had a view of the shipping and receiving dock. Although I had plenty to do in the bowels of what was then an analytical instrument manufacturing facility, I found working without a clear vision of where we were headed as on organization unsatisfying. And in my state of youthful exuberance I was truly convinced that I could make a meaningful difference to the success of our organization if only I knew what the goals were. Read more »

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