How Premera Blue Cross Uses Innovation Software to Drive Employee Engagement

When Premera Blue Cross needed a way to attract new customers and retain existing ones, they didn’t turn to a team of expert consultants or research firms. Instead, they went to the people closest to their customers – their employees. But Premera lacked the innovation software it needed to help gather those ideas and collaborate...

Improving Flow through Integration in Santa’s Workshop: A Fictional Case Study

This weekend, I was watching the movie Elf and it got me thinking – how does Santa’s Workshop keep up with the demands of a booming population? I saw the manager keeping track of production quotas on a clipboard. There’s a single magical book that contains what everyone wants for Christmas, but it’s unclear how...

Automation and Project Management: Where Does it Fit In?

The precise future of project management is unknowable, but we can make a pretty solid presumption that quite a lot of what project managers do on a daily basis now will be radically changed by technology moving forward. Automation is one of the biggest of these elements of change, with the potential to thoroughly shake...

The Unicorn Project Review: Finding Flow with the Five Ideals 

A year ago Gene Kim and I were sitting at a bar in Detroit, discussing the Gemba Walk that we were invited to by Chris O’Malley, the CEO of Compuware. That conversation quickly turned to a problem that Gene had with the current state of The Unicorn Project. The characters were there, the plot was...

Procore Integration to Help Construction Companies Improve Agility

Planview AdaptiveWork and Procore Partner to Help Construction Companies Improve Agility Before and After the Bulldozers Break New Ground Peanut butter and jelly. The mouse and keyboard. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Just a few examples of products and people that are great on their own, but after you pair them together, you wonder how...

Agile Release Trains are Key to Scaling Outcomes

The software industry developed Agile methods decades ago to help it deliver code updates on a timely basis. Over the years, Agile has been adopted elsewhere in the enterprise since many areas in business require continual updates delivered on a routine, predictable basis. Agile typically starts with small teams focused on contributing parts to a...

How to Protect Your Time Without Saying “No”

Overstretching your mental and physical resources is a common occurrence for many of us, especially those who have trouble saying no to extra tasks on top of a full workload. Avoiding burnout at work can then involve trying to manage expectations while at the same time not seeming like you’re slacking or being a team...

Infographic – What’s stopping your enterprise from having an agile marketing team?

Agile marketing is constantly evolving, like the Jedi skills of young Luke Skywalker, as new best practices emerge. Meanwhile, traditional technologies need a helping hand to manage industry changes. Enterprises must embrace the fact that agile marketing isn’t optional — it’s essential to staying competitive and appealing to customers. What’s stopping your enterprise from having...

Which Is Better: The Waterfall vs. Agile Debate

Since organizations are constantly exploring new ways to enhance the way teams work, Waterfall vs. Agile has become one of the more popular debates. Once confined almost exclusively to software development, Agile methodologies are being used by organizations across industries as an alternative to the Waterfall method. But does being popular make Agile a better...

Anti-Managing: How to Loosen the Reigns without Losing Control

We’ve already taken a good look at the future of management, or should we say “anti-management”? This involves throwing off the shackles and constraints of traditional management structures and hierarchies, which can constrict innovation and places decision-making in the hands of people who might not actually know the most about what they’re deciding on. Many...