Pro-Focus has been appointed to the training provider panels of two Melbourne Councils - City of Port Phillip and Frankston City Council. Pro-Focus joins other selected providers of training in the areas of leadership and people development and project management on these two large and progressive councils. These appointments reinforce Pro-Focus' standing as a trusted provider of training and development services to local government.

 

"The Project Manager", the magazine of the Australian Institute of Project Management, has started a new column called "Trends". In the October / November 2010 issue, it reports on a discussion thread on the question: "Are accountants with little or no project management experience qualified to be the sole judges on a project's viability?"

 

One of the contributions quoted (in edited form) is by Ed Robins, principal of Pro-Focus P/L. The original post (on LinkedIn) is as follows: 

 

"We all understand that the "chief bean-counter" will have a major influence in any project / program funding decision, but these decisions are strategic business decisions, and surely must be made by whichever individual or (preferably)group is responsible for all the organisation's strategic decisions. This should include project / program managers, but hopefully marketing / HR / operations and all other key components to ensure a balanced decision.

Similarly, if the organisation has a good program / project scorecard, the decision criteria should represent the full range of values and strategic factors to ensure that the finance head (or any other single area) doesn't have excessive influence.

My experience has been that a well-run "portfolio steering committee" overcomes this problem."

 

 

Did you see Leon Gettler's article on "How to run better meetings" on the Smartcompany website on April 6? Leon, the well-known Age business analyst and journalist, interviewed Ed Robins at Pro-Focus (among others) to gather material for this thought-provoking article.

 

To get a feeling for our approach to managing meetings, check out Leon's article at

www.smartcompany.com.au/managing-people/20100406-managing-a-good-meeting.html. Then, check out our meetings workshop "Running Effective Meetings" on our website at www.pro-focus.com.au/run-effective-meetings.

 

 

Ed Robins 

 

AND MORE about Working Smarter!

 

See the Smart Company article 6 Ways to be More Productive of September 17 at