Where There's Smoke

Farmer.  Teacher.  Cop.  Firefighter.  Engineer.  Doctor.  Builder.  Developer.  Artist.  Grocer.  Scientist.  Soldier.  Sailor.  Airman.  Marine.  Writer.  Butcher.  Baker.  Candlestick maker. What do you do for a living? If you can't describe what you do for a living in one word, you're not a producer.  You're not bringing anything to the table.  If you can't describe what you do in one word, you're making a living off of the labors of others, suckling at the teat of those around you. The more words in your title, the further removed you are from actually producing something of value to society. Don't believe me?  Try this one: Chief Executive Officer. Now that's a doozie of a title.  But what does a CEO actually produce ? This doesn't mean that you're gonna get rich in a one-word profession.  But is that the point?  To get rich? The day after Ayn Rand's bellwether novel, "Atlas Shrugged," finally made it to the big s

Two of the most frightening words a Project Manager can hear: "Matrixed organization." While the concept of assigning members of one team to support a project is fine on paper, too often organizations confuse "matrixing" (assigning a person full time to support another organizational element's objectives) with "jam more crap down people's throat while taking no organizational accountability for the successful completion of the project." Frankly, if matrixing an organization were such a good idea, don't you think combat units would give it a go? Coming soon:  A systems approach to building project a project TEAM.