Highly Effective Teams & Leadership
How to transform a group of people in a highly effective team? This playlist includes episodes related to teams and leadership.
This playlist has 40 episodes.
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Crisis Management in Projects
(06 Aug 2007)
After the air accident happened in Brazil thereabout 15 days ago, Ricardo Vargas talks about crisis management concept, use and process. This podcast was recorded only in Brazilian Portuguese. The link below is for the Brazilian Portuguese version.
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Project Team Management
(24 Sep 2007)
In this podcast Ricardo characterize the project teams and how to dimension them. He discuss the importance of diversity and common objectives during the team building, as the main stages faced by teams, according with Tuckman principles. This podcast was recorded only in Brazilian Portuguese. The link below is for the Brazilian Portuguese version.
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Stockholm Syndrome
(27 Oct 2008)
In this prodcast, Ricardo talks about the Stockholm Syndrome when it comes to projects. Ricardo shows that sometimes the project manager fails to report relevant events in order to not harm the relationship with the customer. This protective relationship to the customer can be bad for the project. This podcast was recorded only in Brazilian Portuguese. The link below is for the Brazilian Portuguese version.
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Crisis in Projects
(09 Mar 2009)
In this podcast, Ricardo Vargas talks about crises in projects. He explains that when the executive team see many projects being cancelled in other companies due to a crisis, they panic and cancel their projects too, using criteria that may harm the company in the future. Ricardo also mentions that a crisis in the project is a challenge that the project manager needs to find the best way to minimize its bad effects.
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Virtual Teams
(10 May 2010)
In this podcast, Ricardo talks about the management of virtual teams in projects. He explains that this is a big trend in the business world and shows the benefits of leading a virtual team, as well as the major challenges that must be dealt with like cultural, communications and geographic issues.
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Conflicts and Project Phases
(06 Sep 2010)
In this podcast, Ricardo talks about the conflicts during the project life cycle. He explains that when the conflict happens in the initial phases of project, the project manager should encourage to discuss the differences and clarify the understanding of the goals, but when the conflict happens in the stages of implementation, monitoring and control means that the project is being poorly managed.
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Feedback in Communications Management
(13 Dec 2010)
In this podcast Ricardo discusses the importance of the feedback during the project communications. He approaches the "screen" concept regarding personality and perception and that understanding the cultural and social differences can influence directly the project results.
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Crisis Management: 5 Good Thinks Came out as Decisions to Remove People from Libya
(10 Mar 2011)
In this podcast, Ricardo talks about the removal of foreign professionals who were in Libya when the political crisis happened. He explained that this was a crisis situation, where changes and variations in the environment are not supported and you have to take an action that is unusual. Ricardo says that this work of removal was extremely successful and gives five tips for managing crises in projects.
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When the Boss doesn't Accept the Project Manager Opinion
(08 Sep 2011)
In this podcast, Ricardo talks about the relationship between the project manager and his boss in the organization. He explains that different opinions are part of the work and when the project manager suggests a direction to a superior, he must have grounding through data and facts, so hardly he will be challenged.
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Crisis Management: The Denial Problem
(18 Oct 2011)
In this podcast, Ricardo talks about crisis management. He explains that the first reaction in crisis management is the denial and that this is the worst option. Ricardo also explains that the crisis is caused by a "trigger" that is triggered by some event that will generate a chain reaction and can cause an uncontrolled situation in the project.
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Understanding the 3 Factors to improve the Project Team sizing
(12 Nov 2012)
In this podcast, Ricardo talks about how to make a better project team sizing according to three factors: the complexity and geographic dispersion of the work to be done and the team's maturity.
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Getting to know the World of Megaprojects: The Big Challenges - Part 1 of 3
(19 Nov 2012)
In this podcast, Ricardo starts a series of podcasts about the world of mega projects. What makes a project a megaproject? Ricardo talks about the characteristics, risks, and impacts of the failure or success of a megaproject. He also begins to introduce the concept of FEL (Front-end Loading), which will be discussed in the next podcasts.
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Getting to know the World of Megaprojects: The FEL Process - Part 2 of 3
(26 Nov 2012)
In this podcast, Ricardo continues the series of three podcasts about the world of megaprojects. In this episode, he talks more about the concept of FEL (Front End Loading) and its great importance. In the next and final episode, Ricardo talk about teams, communications and how to engage the community in megaprojects.
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Getting to know the World of Megaprojects: Communications and Teams - Part 3 of 3
(03 Dec 2012)
In this podcast, Ricardo concludes the series on megaprojects, talking about communication, teams and some success factors. He comments especially the importance of forming the core team of the project as soon as possible and to be careful on planning the outsourcing of some roles.
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Software Development Projects: Are There Too Many Tribal Chiefs to Few Indians?
(18 Mar 2013)
In this podcast, Ricardo comments an article that criticizes the current model of project management in software development companies. The article says that several companies are allocating more project managers than developers in their teams, generating lack of effectiveness among other problems. Link for the cited article (Brazilian Portuguese): http://rvarg.as/5l
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Cultural Differences: Why Awareness and Respect are Vital for the Project Success
(20 Nov 2013)
In this podcast, Ricardo talks about the cultural differences within a project environment. He gives valuable tips on how the project manager must address the differences within his team, the sponsors and the stakeholders and can thus create an effective communication process, based on respect and cultural integrity of all parties.
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Project Director, Manager, Coordinator or Leader: Who am I?
(16 Nov 2014)
In this podcast, Ricardo raises one question and makes assumptions about why some organizations sometimes provide different titles for whom is responsible for the project management.
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Building Highly Effective Teams – Part 1 of 2
(09 Dec 2014)
In this podcast, Ricardo gives tips on how to transform a group of people in a highly effective team, a subject he addresses in his new book, in partnership with the author Michael Nir. Stay tuned for continuation of this podcast next week.
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Building Highly Effective Teams – Part 2 of 2
(15 Dec 2014)
In this podcast, Ricardo continues to talk about Highly Effective Teams, subject of his new book. He comments on the trust between members, effective decision-making, conflict management and how to recognize the work and create opportunities for the team and for each member.
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Conflict Management and the Project Life Cycle
(29 Dec 2014)
In this podcast, Ricardo talks about managing conflicts. Are conflicts always bad? Listen to the answer of this question and know the different types of conflict that can arise during a project.
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How to Convince without Power?
(26 Jan 2016)
In this episode, Ricardo commented on the types of power and how each one of them can be used in our professional and personal relationships.
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If you want to succeed with your projects you need to embrace diversity
(17 Jan 2018)
In this episode, Ricardo goes back one more time to the diversity topic. After all the news around sexual harassment and all sorts of people’s discrimination because of race, sex, sexual orientation and religion, Ricardo comes back to explain one more time how diversity contributes to creativity, to unlock new ideas and help the project to succeed.
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Understanding Positive Psychology in Projects
(19 Jun 2018)
In this episode, Ricardo talks about a concept of psychology that seeks to address professional (and life) challenges by reinforcing the positive aspects of the challenges rather than the negatives: Positive Psychology. Video mentioned: Positive Psychology / Author mentioned: Tal Ben-Shahar
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You Must Get Your Most Talented Employees out of their Cocoons
(14 Aug 2018)
In this episode, Ricardo discusses his recently published article on human behavior in the face of change and how safety nets need to be replaced by ropes to allow advancement. He discusses the paradox we live in today where change is the natural condition of organizational survival and, at the same time, one of the things we most fear as individuals. The original article is available at www.linkedin.com/pulse/you-must-g…ns-viana-vargas/
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Regardless of Everything: Self-Esteem and Self-Respect Determine your Success
(21 Aug 2018)
About a year ago, Ricardo was approached by a young project manager whose appearance did not reveal his age. Physically he seemed much younger than his real age (28 years). A few days later he received an email from this young man talking about the challenges he had for appearing so young.
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Cognitive Bias: Understanding the Impact of Irrationality in our Decisions - Part 1 of 3
(03 Sep 2019)
In the first episode of a 3-episode series, Ricardo discusses the main concepts of cognitive bias and why we often suffer from poor decisions that are made according to irrational criteria, disregarding knowledge and analytical thinking to make decisions.
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Cognitive Bias: The Birthday Paradox - Part 2 of 3
(09 Sep 2019)
In the second episode of a 3-episode series, Ricardo provides the example of the birthday paradox, a simple probability exercise that demonstrated that the perceived probability of matching birthdays in a group tends to be much lower than what it is in reality.
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Cognitive Bias: The Dunning Kruger Effect and Impostor Syndrome - Part 3 of 3
(16 Sep 2019)
In the third and final episode of the cognitive bias series, Ricardo discusses two types of opposed behaviours: the Dunning Kruger effect and the Impostor Syndrome. Both are related to the actual competence x competence that we think we have. At Dunning Kruger, we find ourselves more competent than we are. In impostor syndrome, we have a hard time admitting the real competence we have.
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Organizational and Personal Resilience: The Ability to Cope with Change
(03 Apr 2020)
In this episode, Ricardo discusses the concept of organizational and personal resilience. The issue becomes even more critical when we are faced with the uncertainty of an unprecedented crisis that we are having with the coronavirus. In this sense, the rapid recovery capacity becomes a critical factor for companies, governments and professionals. The infographic referred on this episode is available for download here.
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How to Become Optimist if you are Surrounded by Pessimism
(20 Apr 2020)
In this week's episode, Ricardo talks about being optimistic in a pessimistic work environment. He addresses that one of the leading causes of pessimism is our inability to understand that what we are not able to control much, and this uncertainty is often counterintuitive. This inability to control everything usually generates an ever more distorted and pessimistic view of reality.
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Regaining Control: Leading Projects and Delivering Results in Turbulent Times
(08 Jun 2020)
In this episode, Ricardo talks about the free ebook he just released. The book was written alongside Vince Molinaro, one of the top names in leadership research. It discusses how leadership became paramount to delivering actual results in these turbulent times. The free ebook can be downloaded at https://rvarg.as/regainingcontrol
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Agility and Agile are Not Necessarily the Same Thing
(13 Jul 2020)
In this episode, Ricardo discusses the organizational and individual behaviour that shapes the concept of agility: rapid decision making, flat structure, decision close to the execution, adaptation to change. He also discusses the Agile methods or approaches that intends to help organizations embed the concept of agility inside their organizations. However, the problem goes above and beyond a technique.
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Why is it so Hard to Make Smart People Work Together?
(17 Aug 2020)
In this episode, Ricardo reflects on five aspects that could explain why some intellectually gifted professionals have such a hard time working in teams. He discusses aspects related to confidence, education, ego, EQ, and IQ, among others, and their impact on a “smart” person’s desire and effectiveness to work together.
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Accountability: We Have to Live With the Decisions We Make
(05 Apr 2021)
In this week's episode, Ricardo talks about accountability and the discomfort we face most of the time when making decisions. Having the chance to make decisions are one of the most significant freedom examples we have. However, it comes with a lot of pain because we do not know precisely a decision is correct or not. If we take only the professional lens, we have to make decisions constantly, bringing stress, but we have no other option.
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3 Tips for Aligning Divergences in a Project in Crisis
(14 Jun 2021)
In this week's episode, Ricardo shares three tips that can help align disagreements and accelerate action when a project is in crisis. Listen to the podcast to learn more.
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Your Example is Your Best Leadership Skill
(28 Jun 2021)
In this week's episode, Ricardo talks about the relevance of being a role model and an example to foster leadership and improve results. Without being an example of behavior, character, ethics, and determination is impossible for you to lead a team effectively. Listen to the Podcast to know more.
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Why Do We Often Ignore the Obvious?
(09 Aug 2021)
In this week's episode, Ricardo reflects on why we often overlook the obvious. PMI principles that have often been forgotten or the Voluntary Blindness that prevents us from seeing what is in front of us. Why do we insist on preferring inertia or denial? Listen to the Podcast to learn more.
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Conflict of Interest and the Impact in your Project: 5 Ethical Principles to Be a Great Steward
(30 Aug 2021)
In this week's episode, Ricardo explains what conflicts of interest are. He also shows some examples where decision-making based on personal interest can harm the project, the organization, and other project stakeholders. He also presents the 5 ethical principles (based on the Harvard Program on Negotiation) that must be considered in project decisions to avoid a potential conflict of interest.
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Why Self-knowledge Improves Your Projects Results: 3 Golden Tips
(27 Sep 2021)
In this week's episode, Ricardo talks about self-knowledge and how it can improve the results of your projects. He explains that when you are more aware of your strengths and weaknesses, you can adjust your project approach, assuring the project's success.
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Why We Must Pay Attention to the Great Resignation In Our Projects
(18 Oct 2021)
In this week's episode, Ricardo talks about "The Great Resignation", a term created by Anthony Klotz, a professor at the University of Texas, A&M University. He explains that in the first few months of this year, 4.3 million people resigned in the United States. This phenomenon is not unique to the US. It is happening worldwide. Ricardo comments on the influence of the pandemic on this behavior and on four factors that lead people to resign.
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