Archives

2011 April

• Will Discipline Without Punishment work in my Organization?
• If a Suspension is the Best Final Step Strategy, Why Should We Pay the Employee for the Time He is Away on Suspension?
• Why Should We Suspend the Employee as a Final Step of Our Discipline System?
• Our Discipline System Seems Harsh and Inappropriate for Professional Employees?
• How do I Convince Someone that We Need to Come to Work, On Time, Every Day?
• How do I Solve an Attitude Problem?
• How do I Document a Performance Improvement Discussion?
• How do I Get Someone to Agree to Change and Correct a Problem?
• How do I Get the Discussion off to a Good Start?
• How Do I Make Sure That I’m On Solid Ground Before Beginning The Discussion About Poor Performance?

2011 March

• How Do I Identify Exactly What The Gap Is Between The Desired Performance And The Employee’s Actual Performance?
• I Have An Employee Whose Performance Is Not Acceptable. What Should I Do?
• Should I Evaluate The Employee’s Success In Completing His Development Plan As Part Of The Performance Appraisal?
• How Can I Use the Job Itself as a Developmental Experience?
• Where does Training Fit into a Development Plan?
• What are the Manager’s Responsibilities for Developing Subordinates?
• How do I Create a Development Plan that Works . . . One that Actually Produces Results?
• Why is the Competency of “Impact and Influence” so Important?
• Why Is The “Achievement Orientation” Competency So Important?
• How Do I Determine Where I, Or Someone On My Team, Should Concentrate Development Efforts?
• What Influences An Individual’s Development?
• What Does Building Performance Excellence Involve?
• Internet-Based Application or Purchasing a Web-Based Performance Appraisal System?
• Should Forced Ranking Be Part Of Our Performance Appraisal Procedure?
• What is “Upward Appraisal”?
• How Can We Make Sure That Appraisers Apply Consistent Standards Across Our Organization?
• Should We Evaluate Team Performance in Addition to The Performance of Individuals?
• Both Appraisers and Employees are Confused About What the Different Rating Labels Actually Mean?
• How Can An Organization Determine Whether Its Managers Are Doing A Good Job In Performance Appraisal?
• Should We Provide Managers with Samples of Completed Appraisal?
• Do We Need to Provide Training to Employees About Our Performance Appraisal Process?
• What Kind of Training Do Managers Need to Do a Good Performance Appraisal?
• What Should Top Management, Appraisers, Employees, And Human Resources Professionals Expect From A Performance Appraisal System?
• We’re Getting Ready To Design A Completely New Performance Appraisal System From Scratch?
• What Does An Effective Performance Appraisal Process Look Like?
• How Do We Explain That Getting the Middle Rating is Not a Bad Thing?
• Are These Programs A Good Idea?
• Should The Form Provide A Recommended Distribution Of Performance Appraisal Ratings?
• Should The Form Provide For Putting Different Weights On The Various Sections?
• Should We Use Different Rating Scales For Assessing Different Areas Within The Form?
• What Should We Call The Different Levels?
• How Many Rating Levels Should There Be On The Form?
• How Many Different Forms Should There Be?
• Are There Any Other Elements That Could Be Included On A Performance Appraisal Form?
• Shouldn’t The Individual’s Achievements Be Described Throughout The Appraisal Form?
• Aren’t Goals And Projects Part Of A Person’s Job Responsibilities?
• How Do I Determine The Key Job Responsibilities Of A Position?
• What’s The Difference Between Organizational Core Competencies And Job Family Competencies?
• Why Is It Better To Write The Narrative That Explains What Is Meant By A Competency As A Description Of Master-Level Performance?
• How Does A Company Determine Which Competencies Are Truly Core Competencies?
• Is There An Ideal Performance Appraisal Form?
• What’s The Best Way To Deal With An Employee Who Refuses To Sign The Performance Appraisal Document?
• How Do I Bring The Performance Appraisal Discussion To A Successful Close?
• When Should I Talk About The Pay Increase?
• How Should I React When An Employee Starts Crying During The Appraisal Discussion?
• How Do I Handle Defensive Reactions?
• How Do I Handle Those Awkward Moments That Always Seem To Arise In Performance Appraisal Discussions?
• What Do I Do When An Employee Disagrees With Something I Have Written On The Performance Appraisal?
• How Should I Start The Meeting?
• How Can I Get Someone To Agree With An Honest And Accurate Performance Appraisal Rating?
• How do I Figure Out What the Employee is Feeling?
• What Do I Do When We Disagree About Something Important?
• How Do I Start The Appraisal Discussion With An Individual Who Has A Great Deal Of Experience?
• How Should I Open the Discussion?
• Is It Appropriate To Talk With Others To Get Some Insights Into What I Might Expect?
• What Should I Do Before The Meeting?
• What Are The Employee’s Responsibilities In The Performance Review Phase?
• What Are The Manager’s Responsibilities In The Performance Review Phase Of The Process?
• What is "Performance Review"?
• Is It Okay To Bring It Up For The First Time On The Performance Appraisal?
• How Do I Figure Out The Right Category?
• How Can We Take The "Personal" Out Of A Review And Still Give An Accurate Picture Of The Employee?
• Should Employees In New Roles Be Measured And Evaluated?
• Should I Rate Her A Three, A Four, Or A Five?
• If I Haven’t Discussed My Expectations With The Employee, How Do I Rate Performance?

2011 February

• Should I Consider How Well He Performs Compared With Other People In The Department Who Are Doing The Same Job?
• How Should I Rate Her Performance?
• If The Appraiser’s Boss Approves The Appraisal Before The Employee Sees It?
• How Do I Go About Convincing My Boss (Assuming Her Approval Is Needed)?
• Should I Go Over The Employee’s Appraisal With My Manager Before I Review It With The Individual?
• What Are “Rating Errors”?
• Should I Include The Employee’s Successes And Failures?
• How Can I Appraise Her Performance Accurately?
• Should I Put More Emphasis On The Results The Individual Achieved Or On The Way The Person Went About Doing The Job?
• Should I Use What The Employee Has Written In The Self-Appraisal As Part Of The Official Appraisal I’m Writing?
• What About Collecting Data From Other People To Use On The Performance Appraisal Form?
• What Information Do I Need To Write A Valid Performance Appraisal?
• I Have To Write A Performance Appraisal. Where Do I Start?
• Should I Ask The Individual To Complete A Self-Appraisal Using The Company’s Performance Appraisal Form?
• Should I Ask the Individual Whose Performance Appraisal I Am Preparing to Make Up A List of Accomplishments?
• What are My Boss’s Responsibilities in the Performance Assessment Phase?
• What are the Employee’s Responsibilities in the Performance Assessment Phase?
• What are the Manager’s Responsibilities for Performance Assessment?
• What is “Performance Assessment”?
• Won’t People Complain When I Deliberately Treat Some People Better Than Others?
• Won’t Some People The Better Performers End Up Getting More Recognition Than Others Who Don’t Perform As Well?
• How do I Actually Use Recognition?
• Is Recognition Just A Matter of Heaping on the Praise?
• How Can I Recognize Their Good Performance If I Can’t Demonstrate Financially That We Appreciate Good Work?
• Do People Need Praise Every Time They Do A Good Job?
• We’re Considering Starting an Employee-Of-The-Month Program. Is this a good Recognition Tool?
• Isn’t Recognizing an Employee Who’s Done Good Work an Effective Motivational Tool?
• What Can A Manager do to Create the Conditions that Motivate?
• What About Pay? Isn’t Money the Only Thing that Really Motivates?
• How do I Motivate People to Deliver Good Performance and to Correct Performance Problems?
• Should Employees Have Access to My Performance log?
• How Should I Keep Track of Employees’ Performance?
• What are the Employee’s Responsibilities in the Performance Execution Phase?
• What are the Manager’s Responsibilities in the Performance Execution Phase?
• What is “Performance Execution”?
• How do I Wrap Up a Performance-Planning Meeting?
• What do I do if the Individual Disagrees with the Goals I Want Set?
• How High Should I Set My Performance Expectations?
• What Are SMART Objectives?
• How Should A Goal Statement Be Written?
• How do I Pick the Right Goals? Where Should an Individual Look to Find Goals and Objectives?
• Where Does Goal Setting Fit into the Performance-Planning Process?
• Don’t We Have to be Objective when We Evaluate Someone’s Performance?
• How do You Determine a Method for Evaluating Someone’s Performance in Meeting their Key Responsibilities?
• How do You Determine the Most Important Items?
• How do You Determine Someone’s Key Job Responsibilities?
• What is the Difference Between “Results” and “Behaviors”?
• I Have Never Held a Performance-Planning Meeting. How do I Get the Planning Meeting Off to a Good Start?
• When is the Best Time to Set and Review Expectations?
• What are the Employee’s Responsibilities for Performance Planning?
• What are the Manager’s Responsibilities in the Performance-Planning Phase of the Process?
• What is “Performance Planning”?
• Is Performance Appraisal Really Necessary? Can’t the Benefits that the System Provides to Organizations and the People in them be Obtained any Other Way?
• How do I Make Sure that Our Performance Appraisal System is Legally Defensible?
• What are the Legal Requirements for a Performance Appraisal System?
• Even if they Try to be Objective, Managers Can’t Help But Discriminate on the Basis of Race, Sex, Age, And Other Illegal Considerations. Isn’t Performance Appraisal Actually A Very Biased Process?
• W. Edwards Deming, The Quality Guru, Said that Performance Appraisals Were an Organizational Evil that Should be Abolished. Was He Wrong?
• If Performance Appraisal is Truly Important, Why is it the Butt of So Many Jokes and the Target of Dilbert Cartoons?
• Why Should I Spend all this Time doing Performance Appraisal when I’ve Got Much Better Things to Do?
• How Many Meetings Should I Have with an Employee to Talk About Performance?
• The Performance Management Process in Our Organization has Conflicting Purposes?
• What is the Purpose of Performance Appraisal?
• Where Did Performance Appraisals Come From?
• What is “Performance Appraisal”?
• Can I Apply Your Principles to My Surgical Group?
• Should We Have a Physician Satisfaction Team?
• How Can We Make Nursing Phone Calls to Physicians More Effective?
• What Can I do About Disruptive Physician Conduct?
• What are the Drivers for Physician Satisfaction?
• Is Writing an Apology Appropriate for Service Recovery?
• Can You Help Us Improve Our Cleanliness Scores on Our Patient Satisfaction Survey?
• How Can We Raise Our Food Temperature Satisfaction?
• What Makes a Good Waiting Room Experience?
• How Can We Increase Patient Satisfaction for Meal Service in Hospitals?
• How Can Staff Better Manage Multiple Patient Requests?
• How Can We Improve Response to Call Lights?
• How Can a Support Department Like Human Resources Improve its Score?
• How Can I Get Buy in for Bedside Registration in the Emergency Department (ED)?
• How Can We Better Manage Patients’ Perception of Wait Time in the Emergency Department (ED)?
• How Can the Emergency Department (ED) Institute a New Mentality?
• Should We Focus on Employee or Patient Satisfaction First?
• Does the Rating Point Scale on the Patient Satisfaction Tool Matter?
• What is the Role of Patient Relations?
• What Strategies Can We Use to Increase Response Rates to Surveys?
• How Can We Increase Employee Ownership of the Patient Survey Tool?
• Realistically, How High Should We Set Our Patient Satisfaction Score Goals?
• Is 100 Percent Satisfaction Possible?
• What’s the Best Way to Make Gains in Patient Satisfaction?
• How Can We Communicate Dashboard Data in a Timely Fashion?
• How Can We Foster Open Communication with Our Customers About Patient Satisfaction Results when Our Results are Less than Desired?
• Should Leaders be Held Accountable for Unit-Specific Results?
• How Quickly Should Accountability be Hardwired into the Leader Evaluation Process?
• How Can We Better Create Accountability in Our Organization?
• What are Good Yearly Goals for Facilities?
• How Should the Strategic Plan Align with the Five Pillars?

2011 January

• What Role do Volunteers Play?
• How Can We Fill Nursing Leadership Positions on an Interim Basis?
• How Can We Ensure Our Efforts Speak to All Cultures?
• What is Your Advice for Performance Appraisals for Frontline Employees?
• How Can I Work More Efficiently Reporting to Multiple Leaders?
• What do I do if I Disagree with My Supervisor’s Opinion of My Performance?
• How Can We Help Other Leaders Hold Up the Mirror?
• How Can I Continue to Buy In When My Supervisor Doesn’t?
• How Can We Motivate Staff to Use White Boards Consistently?
• How do We Provide Recognition for Night Shift Employees?
• How Can I Recognize and Reward Non-Patient Care Staff?
• How Do We Handle Anonymous Complaints?
• As a Working Supervisor, How do I Approach My Staff When Handling Complaints?
• What do You Recommend Regarding the Use of 360s in Peer Reviews?
• What is the Best Way to Develop a Standards Team?
• What are the Most Difficult Issues for a New Supervisor in an Organization?
• How Can We Encourage Employees To Submit “Bright Ideas” That Are Financially Sound?
• How Can We Keep Employee Forums Valuable and Energizing for Staff?
• How Can We Get People on Board?
• What Kinds of Questions Can We Ask for Good Interdepartmental Feedback?
• How Can I Make My Staff ’s Jobs Better?
• How Much does Increased Turnover Cost the Hospital?
• Are there Any “Best Practices” for Improving Employee Satisfaction?
• What do You Recommend that Leaders Read Who are Committed to this Journey?
• What Level of Leader Should Attend Leadership Development Institutes?
• How Can I Create a Ripple Effect as a New Director of a Unit?
• How Important are Mission and Vision in Cultural Transformation?
• What is the Difference Between a “Leader” and a “Manager”?
• What Should We do if Leaders Give Late Evaluations?
• Should Evaluations and Raises be Tied Together?
• How do We Overcome Resistance to Common Key Words that All Employees are Expected to Use?
• Can You Suggest Some Key Words to Improve Bed Turnover?
• Can You Recommend Key Words for Response to Call Lights?
• Do You Have Key Words for Communication with Family Members?
• Are Key Words for Phone Answering Necessary?
• How do We Measure Staff Participation in Using Key Words?
• How do You Create Buy in for Key Words (i.e., scripting)?
• Can You Share Key Words for Discharge Phone Calls?
• Is There a Benchmark for Emergency Department Callbacks?
• How Can We Make Sure Discharge Phone Calls are JCAHO and HIPAA Compliant?
• How Can We Prevent Multiple Calls to Patients?
• What if We Don’t Have Time to Make Discharge Calls?
• Can You Share Questions for Exit Interviews?
• What Questions Should I Ask New Employees?
• When the Manager and Peer Interviewers don’t Agree on a Candidate for Hire, Who Makes the Final Decision?
• How do You Calculate the Number of Thank You Notes to Send?
• Is There a Downside to Thank You Notes?
• Can Thank You Notes be Insincere?
• How is Rounding in an Outpatient or Physician Office Setting Different from Rounding in a Traditional Hospital Setting?
• How do We Improve Rounding in Outpatient Surgery?
• What is the Best Way to Approach Rounding in ICUs?
• How Can House Supervisors Round Effectively?
• How do You Maximize Support Department Rounding for Small Areas?
• Do Patients Appreciate Rounding?
• Is Rounding on Patients Simply “Checking Up on Your Staff ”?
• What do We do if the Leadership Team and the CEO Hear Conflicting Messages During Rounds?
• Should Senior Leaders Round on Patients?
• How do We Overcome Resistance to Senior Leader Rounding?
• How Can We Take Senior Leader Rounding to the Next Level?
• How do We Implement Senior Leader Rounding?
• What’s the Best Way to Ensure Unit Managers are Rounding?
• How Can We Turn the Healthcare Flywheel Faster?
• What if an Informal Leader isn’t on Board?
• How Can One Employee Confront Another One on Behavior?
• How do I Deal with a Staff Member Who Thrives on Gossip?
• Do Excessive Unplanned Absences Make an Employee a Low Performer?
• When Re-Recruiting High Performers, What if Certain Departments Don't Agree On Ratings?
• Do You Use Technical Ability in Classifying High, Middle, And Low Performers?
• How do You Sequence The High, Middle, And Low Performer Conversations at The Leader Level?
• What are High, Middle, And Low Performer Conversations?
• What ’s Going to Happen “Around the Courseware”?
• What’s Going to Happen with the Courseware Itself?
• What Makes Me Think I Can See into the Future?
• Will Your Company’s IT Infrastructure Support the Growth of E-Learning?
• Why do You Need to Know About Firewalls?
• Can You Use Multiple Residencies for Your E-Learning System?
• What is an E-Learning Utility?
• Why Would You Use Private Access to A Shared System?
• Why Would You Use a Public E-Learning System?
• Why Would You Host Your Own E-Learning System?
• Where will Your E-Learning System Reside?
• What are E-Learning Standards and Why Should You Care About Them?
• What do You Have to Maintain in Your E-Learning System?
• What are the Steps for Setting Up an E-Learning System?
• Are all Learning Management Systems the Same?
• What is a Learning Management System (LMS)?
• Can You Create E-Learning Courses without Professional Instructional Design?
• How do You Get E-Learning Courseware?
• How do Measurement Needs Affect Your E-Learning Solution?
• How does the Need for Collaboration Affect Your E-Learning Solution?
• How does Needing an Instructor Affect Your E-Learning Solution?
• How do the Starting and Ending Skill Levels Affect Your E-Learning Solution?
• How does Long-Term/Short-Term Shelf Life Affect Your E-Learning Solution?
• How does a Deadline for Training Everybody Affect Your E-Learning Solution?
• How does Time to Build Affect Your E-Learning Solution?
• How does Student Time Available Affect Your E-Learning Solution?
• How does the Number of Students Affect Your E-Learning Solution?
• How does the Learning Problem/Budget Affect Your E-Learning Solution?
• What Factors Affect Your E-Learning Solution?
• How Should You Fit these Building Blocks Together?
• What is Student Tracking and Reporting?
• What is a Virtual Reference Library?
• What are Assessments and Quizzes?
• What is Virtual Interaction with Real Things?
• What are Simulations and Games?

2010 December

• What are Web Books?
• What is Virtual Interaction with Other People?
• What are Virtual Presentations and Lectures?
• What are the Basic Building Blocks for E-Learning?
• What is the “Asynchronous (Collaborative) Learning” Style?
• What is the “Self-Directed Learning” Style?
• What is the “Synchronous Learning” Style?
• What are the Basic Styles for E-Learning?
• James Sharpe – Thought Leader Interviews
• Andrew Sadler – Thought Leader Interviews
• Steve Rae - Thought Leader Interviews
• Janis Morariu - Thought Leader Interviews
• Elliott Masie - Thought Leader Interviews
• What Global Considerations do You need to take into Account for E-Learning?
• How will Instructors Respond to E-Learning?
• How does Student Motivation Affect E-Learning?
• How will Your Employees Respond to E-Learning?
• Do You Need to Scrap Your Classroom Training?
• How Critical is Leading-Edge Technology to E-Learning?
• What does E-Learning Need from Your Management Team?
• What are Typical Barriers for Implementing E-Learning in a Company?
• What is an E-Learning Success for You?
• What do E-Learning “Solution Providers” Cost?
• What are Your Make/Buy Elements for E-Learning?
• How Much Confidence Should You Put in an ROI?
• How do You Develop an ROI for E-Learning?
• What Else Affects the Costs of E-Learning?
• What does the Cost of an E-Learning Solution Depend on?
• What does E-Learning Really Cost?
• Legal Compliance Training
• Informal Technical Seminars
• New HR Benefits Training
• New-Hire Training
• New Salesperson Training in “How to Sell”
• “Ongoing Professional” Skills Training
• Technical Skills Training
• Business Tools Training
• Professional Competency Training
• Technical Certification Training
• Product Sales Update Training
• Where Can You Find Out More About E-Learning?
• Is E-Learning Something Completely New?
• How does E-Learning Relate to Knowledge Management?
• How does E-Learning Relate to Other Interactive Capabilities on the Internet?
• Is E-Learning the Same as Providing Information at a Web Site?
• What’s Wrong with Traditional Solutions Like Classroom Courses and Books?
• Can Companies with Small Budgets Use E-Learning too?
• Is Your Company a Good Candidate for Using E-Learning?
• What does it Mean to Think of E-Learning as a Business Tool?
• Can Your Employees Really Learn with E-Learning?
• Is There More than One Successful E-Learning Model?
• What does a Full-Scale E-Learning Program Look Like?
• How Can Your Company Benefit from E-Learning?
• What does the Internet have to do with E-Learning?
• What is E-Learning?

2010 June

• Answering a Question that's Just too Personal
• Answering when no One Wants to Hear the Answer
• Answering when you can’t Answer
• Answering when there isn’t an Answer
• Answering when the Answer is No
• Answering when the Answer is I don’t Know
• What will the Organization do to Support me? What are my Benefits? What will this Mean for my Career?
• Will Our Values Last?

2010 May

• Who Will be my Leader?
• What’s Going to Change? What’s Going to Happen to my Job?
• What’s the Long-Term Impact of this Crisis?
• Am I Going to Have a Job Next Month?
• What’s Going to Happen to me?
• What's Going to Happen Next?
• What’s Happening?
• What Gives Your Life Meaning?
• What do You do Just for Fun?
• What do You Love About Your Job?
• How do You Re-ignite Your Enthusiasm for Your Job?
• How do You Stay Positive?
• What are You Learning?
• How do You Measure Success?
• What Makes You Angry in the Workplace?
• How do You Take Time to Think?
• How do You Make Decisions?
• How Can I Advance in Our Organization?
• How do You Know what I do in my Job?
• How do You Learn About Our Customers?
• What Gets You Excited About the Future?
• What is the Future of Our Industry?
• What do You See Happening in Our Organization Over the Next Twelve Months?
• What do You Need?
• What do You Need to Know?
• Are You All Right?
• How Can We Support You as You Grow into this Leadership Position?
• What do You Need to Learn to be a Great Leader?
• What did the Best Leader You Ever Had do?
• Why do You Think We Made You a Leader?
• What Work Would You Like to be Doing in Five Years?
• Who in Our Organization do You Need to Know?
• What Skills do You Need to Practice?
• What Skills do You Need to Learn?
• What are the Strengths You Bring to the Workplace?
• What Questions Can I Answer for You?
• What's a Great Question I Could Ask Someone Who's New to Our Organization?
• If You Had to Describe Our Organization in One Word, What Would that Word be?
• Why did You Decide to Join our Firm. . .Really?
• What Gives Your Life Meaning?

2010 April

• What do You do Just for the Fun of it?
• What Brings You Joy in Your Work?
• What's Something You've Learned in the Past Week?
• What Makes You Proud of Working as a Part of Our Organization?
• What Volunteer Work do You do?
• How do You Feel at the End of Your Workweek?
• How do You Feel at the Start of Your Workweek?
• What is it Like to Work on a Team in Our Organization?
• What's a Potential Benefit We Could Offer That Would be Helpful to You?
• If You Could Change One Thing About Our Organization's Collective Behavior, What Would It Be?
• How Could We Communicate Management Decisions More Effectively?
• What's A Recent Management Decision You Didn't Understand?
• What Does Our Leadership Team Do That Gets In The Way Of Your Doing Your Job?
• What Gets in the Way of Your Doing Your Job?
• Who Do You See As Our Competition, And What Do You Know About Them?
• What's Something We Could Offer to Our Customers?
• What's The Most Important Thing You Know About Our Customers?
• How Could You Make Your Job More Effective?
• How Could We Save Money?
• How Does Your Work Contribute To Our Success?
• How Do We Make Money?
• How Can We Effectively Tell You That We're Grateful For Your Business?
• If You Were Me, What's One Thing You'd Change About My Organization?
• What Will You Need From Us In The Future?
• How and When Have We Made It Hard For You to Do Business with Us?
• Why do You do Business with Our Competition?
• Why Do You Do Business with Us?
• Are You Sure You Want To Ask Questions?
• What Are You Afraid of?
• Are You Happy?

2010 March

• What Do You Want to be Remembered For?
• How Do You Feel About Being a Leader?
• What Does Leadership Mean?
• What are the Major Communication Skills a Project Manager Needs to Know in Order to Manage Projects Successfully?
• What are the Major Personality Types?
• What are the Major Barriers to Communications?
• How Can We Increase Accuracy in Communications?
• What are the Major Types of Communications?
• What is Communications?
• What is the Percent Spent?
• What is the Percent Complete?
• What is the Estimate to Completion?
• Is There a Similar Measure to the TCCPI for Schedules?
• What is the to Complete Cost Performance Index?
• Are There Other Ways of Calculating the EAC?
• What is the Estimate at Completion?
• What is the Schedule Performance Index?
• What is the Cost Performance Index?
• What is Schedule Variance?
• What is Cost Variance?
• What is the Budget at Completion?
• What is an Earned Value Report?
• What are the Seven Tools for Quality Management?
• What are the Major Principles of Economics of Quality?
• What are the Quality Management Processes?
• What are the Principles of Modern Quality Management?
• How do Risk Management Approaches Correlate with the Other Parts of Project Management Methodology?
• What is Risk Control?
• What are Risk Response Strategies?
• What is Risk Tolerance?
• What is Risk Quantification?

2010 February

• What is Risk Identification?
• What are the Basic Steps in Risk Management?
• What is Risk Management?
• What is a Change Process and What are its Stages?
• What is Organizational Change and What are the Specific Characteristics of Project Management Methodology as Applied to Change Projects?
• What are the Major Spheres for Change and the Problems Associated with Them?
• How do Organizations Affect the Projects and How Does Project Management Influence Organizations?
• What Does Moving Toward Matrix Management Require?
• Why Would We Want to Use an Unbalanced Matrix Organization?
• What is a Balanced Matrix Organization?
• How do I Organize for Project Management?
• What are the Tools and Rules for Human Resource Coordination in Projects?
• What Does the Staff Acquisition Process Include?
• What are the Main Types of Power?
• What are the Major Theories of Motivation?
• What is Delegation?
• What is a Team Role Structure?
• What are the Concepts of Job Enrichment and Job Enlargement?
• What are the Major Team Leader Skills?
• What is a Project Team?
• What are the Major Theories of Behavioral and Situational Leadership?
• What is the Difference Between Management and Leadership?
• What is Leadership?
• What is Goldratt's Critical Chain Theory?
• What is the Monte Carlo Process?
• What is a Buffered Schedule?
• What is Crashing and Fast-Tracking a Schedule?
• What is a Resource Histogram?

2010 January

• What is a Summary or Hammock Activity?
• What is a Milestone Chart?
• What is the PERT Method?
• What is the Critical Path Method?
• What is a Gantt Chart?
• What is Float or Slack in a Project Schedule?
• How do I Make a Project Schedule?
• What are the Early Start, Early Finish, Late Start, and Late Finish Dates of a Project Schedule?
• What is a Network Diagram?
• What is Depreciation?
• What are the Financial Measures ROS, ROA, and EVA?
• What is the Fundamental Accounting Equation?
• What is the Time Value of Money?
• Why am I Concerned with Cost Budgeting?
• Why do We Have Two Separate Reserves to Take Care of the Risks?
• What is the Cost Baseline?
• What is a Cost Improvement Curve?
• What is the Law of Diminishing Returns?
• What is the Difference Between Estimated Cost and Price?
• What is Statistical Cost Estimating?
• What is Life Cycle Cost?
• What are Estimating Factors?
• What Terms are Used in Estimating?
• What is a Project Estimate?
• What is Scope Change Control?
• How do I Test the Work Breakdown Structure?
• How do I do a Work Breakdown Structure?
• What is a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)?
• What is a Scope Statement?
• What is the Requirements Process?
• What is a Project Justification?

2009 December

• What is a Deliverable in the Project?
• What is the Project Charter?
• Who are the Project Stakeholders?
• What are the Project Baselines?
• What is the Project Management Triangle or the Triple Constraint?
• What is the Project Life Cycle?
• Why do Organizations do Projects?
• What is a Project?

2009 September

• Play Your Part In Influencing The Firm’s Culture
• Think Through A Strategy For Influencing Others To Accept Ideas For Change
• Focus On Problems Before Solutions When Helping Others
• Interpret The Results
• Descriptions Of The Four Styles Revealed By The Questionnaire

2009 August

• Use A Range of Influencing Styles
• Influencing Colleagues And Clients
• Select A Project Team With A Balanced Mix Of Attributes
• Take Action To Deal With Opposition To The Project
• Work With The Stakeholders
• Coordinate And Check Progress
• Plan With Perspective
• Create Options Before Deciding What To Do
• Agree Objectives And Performance Criteria
• Leading Project Teams
• Nurture Your Trainees
• Invest Time And Energy To Help New People To Succeed
• Early Days: Helping New People To Fit In And Nurturing Trainees
• Assess The Results of The Selection Process
• Remember That Selection Is A Two-Way Process
• Use Selection Tests As Well As Interviews
• Interview Effectively
• Achieve A Balanced Team Through Selection
• Would Dating a Colleague Have a Negative Impact on my Career?
• Specify The Critical Abilities And Attitudes That The Successful Candidates Must Have
• What Kind of Handshake Makes the Best Impression?
• Select Primarily For Basic Ability, Attitude And Cultural Fit
• Hold Constructive Performance Review And Career Development Discussions
• How Can I Start Working from Home?
• Evaluate Your Investment In People
• Assess Service Quality
• How Can I Make Traveling Less Stressful?
• Judge Market Performance
• What Should I do to Improve my Relationships with my Superiors?
• Measure Financial Results
• What Can I do if I Expect Termination?
• Handle Crises Constructively

2009 July

• Manage Interpersonal Disagreements
• How Can I Build Networking Skills?
• Tackle The Reluctant Team Players
• How Can I Better Organize My Workspace to Maximize My Productivity?
• How do I Determine What to do First?
• Solving Poor Performance
• How Can I Eliminate Procrastination?
• Difficulties: Resolving Poor Performance, Interpersonal Conflicts and Crises
• Remind The Team That It Is Still A Team When It Is Apart
• Do I Have to Suffer From All Those Interruptions During the Day?
• Encourage Team Members To Help Each Other To Develop Skills
• How Can I Ensure that Ethics and Integrity aren't Just Values Listed on a Sheet of Paper?
• How Can I Ensure that I Get Credit for the Work I do?
• Use The Team To Generate And Evaluate Ideas
• How Can I Minimize Intrusions on my Personal Time?
• Strive for a Genuine Consensus, Avoid Groupthink and Establish Collective Responsibility
• How Can I Balance the Demands of the Workplace with my Family Obligations and Personal Interests?
• Hold Team Discussions On How Well The Team Is Working
• I Seem to Work from Crisis to Crisis. What am I Doing Wrong?
• Teamwork: Getting The Best Out of People Working Together
• How Can I Deal with Workaholism?
• Encourage Team Members To Coach Well
• How Can I Reduce Stress Due to Work?
• Give and Receive Feedback
• Take Account of Different Ways of Learning
• What do I do if I Discover a Project Just Won't Work?
• How Can I Get my Team Through a Period of Change Overload?
• Raise Awareness And Generate Responsibility
• How Can I Create a Culture that will Encourage Flexibility and Innovation?
• Build The Right Relationship
• I've Seen Change Inaugurated, Then Things Return to Before the Change. How Can I Avoid Slippage Back into Old Ways?
• You Have To Want To Help
• How do I Involve Employees in Change Efforts Without Abdicating my own Authority Over the Final Decisions?
• Coaching: Helping Team Members to Get the Best Out of Themselves
• How do I Motivate my Staff to See the Opportunity that Comes with Change?
• Keep In Mind The Distinction Between Extrinsic And Intrinsic Incentives

2009 June

• Play To People’s Passions
• How Can I Use Small Improvements to Build on a Major Shift in Operations?
• How Can I Help Employees Cope with Change that Requires New Skills and Practices?
• Inspire People To Provide Outstanding Service
• Create An Enjoyable Work Environment
• What do I do if There are People on my Staff Adamantly Opposed to the Change?
• I Worry that I Won't be Able to Handle Objections to a Change in a Staff Meeting. What Can I do to Overcome Objections in that Situation?
• Get To Know Your Team Members Really Well
• How do I Get Commitment to a Change from my Staff?
• Encourage The Provision Of Ideas
• How Can I be a Change Leader?
• Emphasize The Interdependence Of Everyone’s Work
• Provide More Interesting And Challenging Work
• How Can I Know when Change is in the Wind so that my Department Can Prepare for it?
• How Can I Measure my Acceptance of Change?
• Increase Responsibility
• Why Should Team Members be Involved in the Selection Process?
• Give Recognition For Performance
• Demonstrate Your Own Drive For Results
• What Can I do to Get My Employees to Think for Themselves?
• Motivation: Creating the Conditions for Outstanding Performance
• What Mistakes do Managers Make that Undermine Team Productivity?
• Foster An Open Communications Climate
• If my Team Develops Action Plans that Could Fail, What Should I do?
• How Can I Engage Employees in this Process?
• Listen
• Communicate By Example
• How Can Involvement of the Team in Department Goal Setting and Planning Improve the Likelihood of Achieving the Plans?
• How Can I Build Trust from the Team?
• Get The Message Across
• As a New Supervisor, How do I Build Rapport with the Informal Group with in the Department?
• Communications: Getting the Message Across, Listening and Creating the Right Climate
• How Can Taking my Employees Away from the Work Environment Enable me to Build a Sense of Teamwork?
• Weld the New Approaches Into the Firm’s Culture
• How do I Choose Members of a Cross-Functional Team?
• Consolidate Gains and Produce More Change
• What are the Four Stages of Cross-Functional Teams?
• Identify and Reward Early Benefits
• Why is it Important to Have Diversity with in my Team?
• Empower People, Throughout, To Remove Obstacles and Implement Ideas to Improve Performance
• What are my Responsibilities as Team Leader?
• Communicate the Desired Outcome and Strategies
• Create a Vision of the Desired Outcome and Formulate Strategies for Achieving it
• If I Build a Strong Team, Am I Abdicating Power or Control?
• How Can I Make New Hires Members of the Team From Their First Day on the Job?
• Put Together a Team of People to Lead the Change
• How Can Pulling Employees Together Into a Team Maintain Productivity During Tough Economic Times?
• Create a Sense of Urgency
• How do I Handle a Talented Loner or Non-Team Player on my Team?
• Lead Change
• What do Successful Work Teams Have in Common?
• Share Team Values And Agree Ground Rules
• Provide Strategic Leadership
• Why Should I Build a Sense of Teamwork Among my Staff Members?
• If I Have to Lay People off to Save Money, How do I Choose Which Ones to Let go When None are Problem Performers?
• Direction: Objectives, Values, Strategy and Change
• Use Your Time Effectively
• What do I Say to the Rest of my Work Group About Termination of an Employee in the Group?
• Develop Both A Willingness And The Skills To Delegate
• What if I Don't Feel Right About Terminating an Employee?

2009 May

• Why is Termination Sometimes a Good Thing for the Employee Being Fired?
• Extol The Leadership Function
• Do I Need to Document the Termination Meeting?
• Reward Leadership Performance
• Create The Time To Do The Leadership Job
• What do I do if an Employee Becomes Very Emotional, Or Even Threatening, When I Terminate Her?
• What is the Best Way to Conduct a Termination Meeting?
• Devoting the Time and Energy to Lead Successfully
• Adapt Leadership Style To Different Situations
• What is Termination for Cause?
• What Alternatives do I Have to Termination?
• Be Aware and Allow for Your Own Preferences
• Can an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Solve Performance and Discipline Problems?
• Accept People’s Differences
• What if Bad Job Performance is Due to a Physical Problem?
• Work On The Leadership Specifics
• Build Trust
• How do I Counsel Employees for Misconduct or Rule Violations?
• Can I be Sued for not Firing Some Employees?
• Be Specific About Ends And Allow Discretion About Means
• How do I Conduct an Internal Investigation?
• What Leaders of Professionals Do
• How do I Conduct Progressive Discipline?
• A Pen Portrait Of A Team Leader With Strong Emotional Intelligence
• What is Progressive Discipline?
• Develop Your Interpersonal And Intrapersonal Skills
• How Can I Use the Evaluation to Set Employee Development Plans for the Next Year?
• Interpersonal Qualities Associated With Emotional Intelligence
• Intrapersonal Qualities Associated With Emotional Intelligence
• What do I do When an Employee Disagrees with Something I Have Written on the Performance Appraisal? If I Accept Their Argument, Can I Upgrade Their Assessment?
• Is There Any Best Way to Conduct the Year-End Performance Appraisal Interview?
• Lead and Manage – Team Leaders Need To Do Both
• How do I Coach an Employee?
• Leadership, Management and Self-Awareness
• If I Bring Up a Problem, What do I do or Say if the Employee Becomes Emotional?
• If the Performance Problem is Due to a Personal Problem, How do I Start Talking About Someone's Personal Life Without Appearing to be Nosy or Invading Privacy?
• How Can I Counsel a Poorly Performing Employee?
• When Should I Discuss Money?
• How Should I Best Approach Quarterly Meetings?
• Why do Most Appraisal Programs Call for Formal Reviews During the Year?
• What are the Most Common Errors Managers Make in Performance Appraisals?
• What is the "Halo Effect"?
• What Should I Document as Part of Performance Management?
• What Can I do to Make Sure my Assessment is Legally Defensible?
• Are There Legal Implications in the Performance Appraisal Process?
• What Are "Stretch" Goals?
• How Can I Get Employees to Accept Being Evaluated?
• How Should I Phrase a Goal or Standard?

2009 April

• Should I Include Individual Credibility as Part of Performance Management?
• What Criteria Should be Used in Setting Performance Standards?
• What Can I do to be a Better Evaluator?
• If I Give my Employees Regular Feedback About Their Work, Why do I Need to Conduct Formal Evaluations?
• How Can I Maximize the Use of Exit Interviews?
• Given the Costs of Recruitment, How do I Reduce Turnover?
• When and How Should I Notify all the Other Applicants that the Job Has Been Filled?
• What Can I do to Help a New Hire Succeed in the Job From the First Day?
• How Can I Make a New Hire's First Day on the Job Productive?
• What do I do if I Can't Hire Anyone From my Group of Winners?
• What Does it Mean for an Employee to be Hired "At Will"?
• How do I Decide Between Two Good Candidates?
• How Can I Conduct an Effective Reference Check?
• How Can I Ensure That Individuals Hired Fit Into Our Corporate Culture?
• What Kinds of Notes Should I be Taking During an Interview and How Should I Use Them?
• How Can I Probe for an Applicant's Weaknesses?
• How do I Legally Discuss Accommodations with the Applicant?
• What are "Reasonable Accommodations"?
• What are the Ten Most Common Interviewing Questions that Could Cause Legal Problems?
• What are the Key Employment Laws Related to Hiring?
• What are the Advantages of Recruiting on the Web?
• How Can I Increase the Number of Prospective Candidates Available?
• How do I Hire the Best Recruiting Firm?
• What Are the Benefits of Working with Search Firms?
• What Can I do to Make a Candidate Feel More at Ease?
• How Can I Effectively Prescreen Candidates?
• How do I Best Use Web Ads to Recruit People?
• What Can I do to Make Help-Wanted Ads More Effective?
• What Constitutes a Well-Written Job Description?
• How Can I Determine What the Requirements are for the Jobs I Have to Fill?

2009 March

• How Can I Make Sure I Hire the Right Person?
• How Can I Skip Meetings to Get Work Done Without Getting Flack From the Meeting Leader?
• What Can I do to Get Members to Follow Through After a Meeting?
• How Can I Work With a Group to Reach Consensus on an Issue?
• How Can I Counter Groupthink?
• How Can I Stimulate Creative Ideas?
• What Can I do to Improve Decision Making at a Meeting?
• What Can I do to Get People to Meetings on Time?
• How Can I Encourage All to Participate at a Meeting?
• How Can I Keep Someone From Dominating a Team Session?
• What is the Best Way of Keeping a Meeting From Wandering Off Course?
• As an Attendee at a Meeting, What Can I do to Make the Meeting More Productive?
• What Are my Responsibilities as Group Leader?
• How do I keep control of a meeting?
• When Should I Hold Meetings?
• Why do Meetings Start Late, Drag on Forever, and Fail to Accomplish Anything?
• How Can I Recognize my Hot Buttons?
• Is it Always Wrong to Express my own Anger?
• How do I Cope with Someone who Becomes Angry with me and Loses his or her Temper Before Others?
• What Should I do if I am Caught in a Personality Conflict?
• How Can I Tell the Difference Between Personality Conflicts and Conflicts Due to Misunderstandings and True Work-Related Problems?
• How do I Handle my Boss if She is a Bully?
• Grow as Both Leader and Follower
• When Should I Seek Help in Resolving Conflicts Between my Employees?
• When I Hear Rumors That an Employee is Angry with Me, How do I Deal with Him?
• Responding to a Moral Stand
• The Role of the Board
• How Can I Resolve Conflicts with in my Team?
• Discernment-What is the Right Action?
• What Can I do to Address Conflicts with Other Managers with in my Organization?
• Creating Protected Communication Channels
• How do I Prevent Disagreements From Escalating Into Violent Incidents?
• How Can I Get Things Back on Track After I Have an Argument with an Employee?
• A Culture of Communication, Not Complaints
• Inviting Creative Challenge
• How do I Go About Mediating a Dispute?
• How Can I Help Employees With a Personality Conflict Get Along Better?
• Appreciating Constructive Challenge More
• Is There Such a Thing as "Good" Conflict and How Can I Take Advantage of it?
• Appreciating and Accepting Support

2009 February

• What Messages Are Number Twos Sending?
• How Can I Motivate Offsite Employees?
• How Can I Encourage Employees to Use Their Initiative?
• Do You Really Wany Courageous Followers?
• If we Decide to Stay
• How Should I Respond When an Employee Says to me, "That's not my job"?
• Evil Behavior
• How do I Create an Atmosphere of Openness and Trust in my Staff?
• How do You Keep an Employee Who Was Passed Over for a Promotion Motivated?
• When Leaders Must be Opposed
• How Can I Motivate Part-Time Workers and Temps?
• Protecting Yourself
• How Can You Motivate an Employee Who Has Reached the Top of Her Salary Range and is not Qualified for Promotion?
• The Responsibility to Blow the Whistle
• How Can I Counteract the Negativity of a Few Employees?
• The Decision to Withdraw Support
• How do I Keep Plateaued Employees Motivated?
• Follower Self-Examination
• How do I Keep Enthusiasm High During Tough Economic Times?
• Values Review
• Is There a Good Balance Between Micromanagement and a Hands-Off Approach to Motivate Employees?
• The Dilemma of the “Unreasonable” Leader
• Threatening to Resign
• How Important is it for Me to Help Employees Find the Work "Fun"?
• How do I Create a Culture of Empowerment?
• The Duty to Disobey
• How Can I Instill Ownership to Motivate Employees?
• Query and Appeal
• How Wise is it to Use Competition Among Employees to Motivate and Encourage Increased Productivity?
• Offering to Resign
• How Can I Adapt my Employees' Jobs to Make the Work Itself Motivating?
• Financial Contingencies
• Difficulty of Separation
• How Important are the Physical Surroundings in Motivating my Employees?
• Leaving
• What Can I do to Motivate my Average or Mediocre Performers?
• How Can I Help my High Achievers to Feel Uniquely Valuable?
• Validation
• How Can I Best Deliver a Sincere Compliment when Praising Employees?
• Persistence
• Realistic Expectations
• What Non-Financial Rewards and Recognition Can I Use to Motivate my Employees?
• How are Employees Demotivated?
• Coping with Recurring Behavior
• How do I Identify Employees' Needs to Motivate Them Better?
• Positive Reinforcement
• How Can I Ask Questions to Get the Information I Need to do my Job?
• Containing Abusive Behavior
• How Can I Improve my Writing Style?
• Modeling Empathy
• How Can I Improve the Quality of Reports I Write? I do Project Progress Reports, Variance Reports, and Proposals.
• Modeling Change for a Leader
• Creating a Supportive Environment
• How Can I Manage the E-mail I Receive?
• How Can I Better Manage E-mail Messages I Send?
• Using an Outside Facilitator

2009 January

• Identifying Transformation Resources
• How Can I Become Better at Making Presentations?
• How Can I Become More Effective as a Negotiator?
• Reactions to Confrontation
• How do I Delegate Tasks That I'm Tempted to do Myself?
• Dedication to Cause as Justification
• How Can I Best Give Directions to my Employees?
• Denial and Justification of Behavior
• How Can I Communicate More Effectively with Employees in Remote Locations?
• Channeling the Leader’s Frustration
• How Can I Present my Ideas Persuasively?
• The Follower’s Role
• How Can I Improve my Listening Ability?
• The Process of Personal Transformation
• One of my Colleagues Continually Interrupts me. What Can I do or Say to End This?
• When is Transformation Possible?
• How Can I Counter Erroneous Rumors?
• The Courage to Participate in Transformation
• How Can I Encourage my Employees to Share Their Ideas or Talk About Problems with me?
• Challenge Thyself, too
• Leaders Who Won’t Challenge Their Leaders
• How Can I Respond to an Angry Employee?
• Leaders Who Have Other Agendas
• How do I Deliver Really Bad News?
• How do I Say "no" to an Employee Request?
• Newly Elevated Leaders
• Personal Issues
• What is the Importance of Body Language in Communication?
• How Can I Best Get My Messages Across?
• Leaders Who Scream
• When Should I Talk to Employees in Person, and when Should I Use Written Documents?
• Arrogance
• Challenging the Use of Language
• Challenging Abuse Early
• The Duty to Obey
• Overcoming Groupthink
• Avoiding Knee-Jerk Rejection
• Challenging Indirectly
• Giving a Leader Input
• Giving a Leader Feedback
• Preparing a Leader for Feedback
• Appropriate Behavior
• The Courage to Challenge
• Building Relationships with Leaders
• Formal Checkups
• Conflict Between Leaders
• When the Leader is Ill

2008 December

• Managing Crises
• Encouraging Peer Relations
• Avoiding Insularity
• Knowing When You Don’t Know
• Presenting Options
• Focusing the Creative Leader
• Defining a Leader Publicly
• Acting in the Leader’s Name
• Buffering Others From a Leader
• Defending the Leader
• Buffering a Leader
• The Responsibilities of Gatekeeping
• Acquiring Access
• Organizing Communication Processes
• Conserving a Leader's Energy
• The Courage to Serve
• Testing Your Ideas
• Improving Processes
• Breaking the Mindset
• Breaking the Rules
• Influencing the Culture
• Initiative
• Passion
• Taking Care of Ourselves
• Self-Management
• Personal Growth
• Eliciting Feedback
• Follower Styles
• Followership Style
• Self-Assessment
• The Courage to Assume Responsibility

2008 November

• Working with Other Followers
• Followers as Leaders
• Trust
• When the Leader isn't an Equal
• Finding Equal Footing with the Leader
• Differences in Elevation
• Mature Relationships
• Balance Through Relationship
• Courage of the Follower
• Value of the Follower
• Power in the Leader-Follower Relationship
• Loyalty of a Follower
• Who Does a Follower Serve?
• The Paradox of Followership
• The Common Purpose and Core Values
• The Dynamics of the Leader-Follower Relationship