Series: Villanova Friday «

Villanova Friday: Week 1: Understanding Your Leadership Style

February 4, 2011

This entry is part 1 of 9 in the series Villanova Friday

I’m taking a course with Villanova University called Maximising IS/IT Team Effectiveness. This is Week 1, and already I’m overwhelmed. The first time I log in, there are already messages on the message board, documents to download and entries on the class roster. I can’t make the video lectures work despite reading the help files [...]

Villanova Friday, Week 2: Personal Productivity

February 11, 2011

This entry is part 2 of 9 in the series Villanova Friday

Last week, I started the Maximizing IS/IT Team Effectiveness course with Villanova University. The online course has a weekly live session, but it’s held in the middle of my night, so I’m not able to attend. The sessions are recorded, so this week I listened to the transcript of the first chat. It was a [...]

Villanova Friday, Week 3: IT Leadership Alchemy

February 18, 2011

This entry is part 3 of 9 in the series Villanova Friday

This video discusses the course text book I’m using for my Maximizing IT/IS Team Effectiveness studies. For those of you who would prefer to read the transcript, it’s below. This is the course book that I’m using for the Maximizing IT/IS Team Effectiveness course that I’m taking with Villanova University at the moment. It’s called [...]

Villanova Friday, Week 4: Effective Communication

February 25, 2011

This entry is part 4 of 9 in the series Villanova Friday

This week on the Maximizing IS/IT Team Effectiveness course I am taking with Villanova University the focus has been on communication. We’ve looked at effective strategies for one-on-one spoken conversations with people, including how to determine the preferences of the person you are speaking to. About two thirds of people prefer to take in information [...]

Villanova Friday, Week 5: Holiday

March 4, 2011

This entry is part 5 of 9 in the series Villanova Friday

I’m on holiday this week and have done no studying at all. The good news is that the Maximizing IS/IT Team Effectiveness course I am taking with Villanova University is very flexible and I’ll be able to catch up the online classes next week. The bad news is that I have twice as much studying [...]

Villanova Friday, Week 6: Team Productivity

March 11, 2011

This entry is part 6 of 9 in the series Villanova Friday

This week I had two weeks of lectures to listen to on the Maximizing IS/IT Team Effectiveness course I am taking with Villanova University. Given a busy day job, this was a challenge. So much for my week off last week. This week it has been all about managing teams in the most effective way. [...]

Villanova Friday, Week 7: Damage Control

March 18, 2011

This entry is part 7 of 9 in the series Villanova Friday

This week on the Maximizing IT/IS Team Effectiveness course I am taking with Villanova University we looked at managing expectations. There was a whole lecture on damage control, which could have been subtitled When Project Managers Lie About Progress. I once worked with a contract project manager who routinely reported that all his tasks were [...]

Villanova Friday, Week 8: 3 Steps to Build Resiliency in Project Teams

March 25, 2011

This entry is part 8 of 9 in the series Villanova Friday

It’s the last week of the Maximising IT/IS Team Effectiveness course that I am taking with Villanova University. The focus this week has been on managing others and establishing an environment that moves others through change. One of the lectures was on creating resiliency in your project team. Why do we need resiliency? IT projects [...]

Villanova Friday: The conclusions

April 1, 2011

This entry is part 9 of 9 in the series Villanova Friday

For the last 8 weeks I have been taking the Maximising IT/IS Team Effectiveness course with Villanova University. I’ve been blogging about my experiences of the virtual learning environment in this series. Over the years I have tried classroom courses, a weekend project management courses and distance learning. The Villanova experience added to the range [...]