Category Archives: Project Managment

I was at an HRDC seminar and many of the usual work issues came up include perennial favorites communication and team work. We had some productive discussions, but one of the most fascinating was about the SRDP annual review process.… More On: Anthropology and HR Rumors

A question a lot of us at Penn State struggle with is how to get buy-in from partners to work with us on our projects. I don’t have any magic bullets, but I do have an interesting insight. In Jan… More On: Collaboration: Really Letting Go

A question that comes up frequently in ETS is what sorts of projects we should take on. I think it’s a given that supporting university-wide services such as ANGEL, Blogs at Penn State, and Media Commons is crucial. So is… More On: Role of Small Projects in the Educational Tech Ecology

An ongoing discussion we have had at ETS and in the instructional design community has been how to communicate what we are doing. We have discussed different tools, communication flows and how many times we have to do it. But… More On: What this Inquiring Instructional Designer Wants to Know

Those of you who have been working with me a while (say a month or more), know that I care very deeply about documentation…maybe to the point of a (minor) obsession. But how and why did this happen? Do I… More On: Obessed with Documentation?

Today I completed most of the “Crucial Conversations” program, but this time led by ITS Training Manager Lisa Lacombe. I have to say I found both Lisa and the program very worthwhile…which is saying a lot because I am a… More On: Another Crucial Conversations Review

A common theme in these parts is enable different areas of Penn State to effectively work together. I have been on a few projects where cross-unit projects which have come out reasonably well – the products are still in use,… More On: Facilitating Cross Unit Communication by Mixing Levels

Instructional designer Stevie Rocco invented a great term for the perfect meeting – the short (but frequent) “punch meeting”. I try to squeeze these in to most projects (like Blended Learning Courses). It should be noted that the initial meetings… More On: Behold the “Punch” Meeting

I’ve been viewing a training video on Web design project management that my colleague Audrey Romano suggested and I ran into an interesting concept that I think will help me understand navigating personnel dynamics in future projects. The training was… More On: What’s your Personal Brand?