Troubled Projects

In this episode, Ricardo talks about the difficulty of recognizing a project in crisis and offers three reasons why this is challenging. First, cultural stigma prevents leaders from admitting failure, as it can imply incompetence. Secondly, the belief that problems can be solved unnoticed is misleading since recovering from a crisis requires much more effort than avoiding it. Third, fear of job loss causes individuals to hide problems.

In this episode, Ricardo digs into the uncanny world of zombie projects - the projects that refuse to die despite their draining effects on organizational resources. He explores the mystery behind their existence, highlighting factors such as the fear of failure and the misgivings around abandoning sunk costs.

Crisis Management in Six Steps with Ricardo Vargas … Follow Ricardo Vargas on a journey to manage one of the most complex challenges we may face: crisis management. With a simple, direct, and realistic approach, Ricardo Guides you to the Awareness, Evaluation, Decision, Action Feedback, and Learning process when facing any type of crisis.

Presenting the fourth edition of the FREE compendium of Ricardo Vargas’s work, which brings twenty-six articles from 1999 to 2021 that will help you understand better transformation, project economy, blockchain and other topics.

Whether you are managing a project to bring people back into full participation in the economy following a pandemic, or you are merely overseeing the deployment of a new information technology solution, you will need leaders who can demonstrate the necessary compassion and empathy to cultivate confidence. In their new book, Ricardo Vargas and Vince Molinaro discuss how to regain control over our projects through a new leadership contract.

Whether you are managing a project to bring people back into full participation in the economy following a pandemic, or you are merely overseeing the deployment of a new information technology solution, you will need leaders who can demonstrate the necessary compassion and empathy to cultivate confidence. 

In their new book, Ricardo Vargas and Vince Molinaro discuss how to regain control over our projects through a new leadership contract.

In this episode, Ricardo discusses the concept of organizational and personal resilience. In this sense, the rapid recovery capacity becomes a critical factor for companies, governments, and professionals. The issue becomes even more critical when faced with the uncertainty of an unprecedented crisis that we are having with the coronavirus. The infographic referred to this episode is available for download here.

Infographic with the 4 possible scenarios after getting hit by a crisis.

An exposure assessment to help you understand the actual impact of coronavirus in your project, initiative or product development.

In this episode, Ricardo explains the assessment he developed to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 Outbreak in your project. He shares a 20 statements assessment that helps the evaluation of the potential exposure of your project to the implications of the COVID-19. He also shares actions we should put in place to protect the team and the reduce the damage in the project work.

With the surge of COVID-19, Ricardo Vargas developed a quick COVID-19 Assessment and Action Plan for you to evaluate the actual impact of coronavirus in your project, initiative or product development work. The COVID-19 Assessment and Action Plan comprises 20 statements about aspects of your project or initiative that may be directly or indirectly impacted by COVID-19. These are divided into 3 groups:

In this episode, Ricardo discusses four aspects that make the work of deciding and acting to cancel the project a real nightmare. It shows how fear, ego, and inertia play an extremely negative role in decision-making.

In this episode, Ricardo gives 5 tips on how we can get a troublesome project back on track: • Seek support from the sponsor; … • Evaluate the scope; … • Deliver a minimum viable product (MVP); … • Rebuild the credibility and motivation of the team; … • Re-negotiate deadlines and costs with the sponsor and the client.

In this podcast, Ricardo talks about what characterizes an early closure of a project. He clarifies that it is not the same as abandoning the project. He mentions possible causes and explains that there's an entire closing process to follow after making the decision.