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Good tips on how to problem-solve as a project manager. These seem to be geared more towards corporate settings, but could be adapted for educational settings as well. - Sara Lohndorf

Very informative article from the Harvard Business Review. Using many real life examples, this article reviews the problems and solutions to managing a multicultural team. Problems can be overt such as language and accents to something subtle such as how to deal with conflict. Four categories were identified by the researchers that could create barriers to effective teamwork. These categories are direct versus indirect communication; trouble with accents and fluency; differing attitudes toward hierarchy and authority and conflicting norms for decision making.

I think that one thing that was interesting is that it stresses being careful in how you establish groups and subgroups otherwise you may see a strengthening of differences. It is something that I see in the classroom all of the time. Kids break up based on common culture, language, or backgrounds.

Andy Crowe gives the top 10 characteristics of a great project manager. Project management requires more than just meeting a deadline or moving a milestone it require more. Read and see.

This is a great list! I like how it lists not using information as a weapon. It's amazing to see managers ignore this rule. It comes with the territory of holding back one's emotions or personal preference. Letting go is a quality that is hard to find in management.

This article describes 10 tips about how the best project managers operate. - Sara Lohndorf

MindMeister is a leading online mind mapping tool, allowing individuals from around the world to simultaneously collaborate on problem solving, business planning, note taking, etc. with nothing more than a browser and an internet connection. We've taken cues from the scientifically proven mind mapping methodology, and applied them to an easy-to-use, online application.

Jennifer, I posted a tool very similar. I really love mind mapping and think it has huge benefits in the area of project management. It is nice when multiple people can work on the same visual. These maps help you to organized your ideas and see potential problems. Both huge things in Project Management.

Michael Greer's site that composes a list of questions as the project moves along. It starts with identifying lessons learned from other projects in order for the team to be refreshed for the new project.

I liked the idea of preparing responses in advance of a face-to-face meeting. That gives people the opportunity to reflect and provide quality answers.

These are good suggestions, but I think it would be even better to also instruct team members to jot down issues and solutions as they come up. I find that when we wait for a debrief after one of our huge events, many of us recall some of the problems that came up over the past months, but not all. There have been many times we've sat there looking at each other saying "what was that thing we had to deal with a few months back?" Sometimes we remember, sometimes we don't. Or conversely, we remember the problem, but didn't document exactly how we solved it and have to recreate the solution in the following year's event. So definitely something to be said for documenting feedback in the heart of the matter rather than in a recap, and reviewing the list in the recap meeting rather than trying to reconstruct it then.

This article provides proof why a little time spent planning your projects can go a long way towards achieving success and avoiding common pitfalls.

This article really summed the ways eLearning projects can go wrong. I found the on on not meeting the needs an interesting problem. The project was either not clearly defined in the begining or the scope changed and then the direction of the project never adapted. good and inlightening read.

How detailed should your WBS be? This was a problem I had when thinking about doing a WBS I automatically wanted to make a list...still having trouble thinking outside that box...

teaching children project management through designing a video game. This is something I do now with my students. The video discusses the process of creating and setting up the video game as project managers. How they problem solve issues along with creating the game.