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How to Deal with Project or Initiative Overload

Do you find yourself trying to manage too many conflicting priorities?  Do you have to keep multiple bosses happy, or have more new ‘initiatives’ start than you can complete? If so, you are not alone, but there are ways to manage these situations effectively.  Although you need to be careful not to fall into the […]

Case Study: From Initiative Overload to Project Portfolio Management

Business people stood on puzzle pieces

This case study demonstrates the importance of having visibility and robust oversight of your entire portfolio of change.  It summarises an assignment I completed some time ago, but have repeated similar projects for many other businesses and achieved similar results. The Company The private wealth management arm of a well known global banking group, with offices […]

Is Your Business Getting the Best out of Technology?

One of the problems with the question I have posed in the title of this post, is that ‘best’ can be very subjective.  In this context, unless you know what you can achieve with technology it is impossible to know whether your business is getting the best from its technology or not.  So, let’s explore that […]

5 Best Practices to Manage Project Portfolios

The success of a business can depend highly on its ability to effectively manage and deliver its portfolio of projects.  This helps ensure business goals and strategic objectives are met on time and on budget. The importance of managing project portfolios should not be taken lightly. Here are my top five best practices to help effectively manage project […]

The Importance of Communication During Change

I have written before about communication (click here), where I stated the importance of adapting your message to suit your audience, i.e. communicating the right message, to the right people, at the right time. In this post I am focusing on the effectiveness of your communication and providing some techniques for improvement. How we listen […]

Do you Worry About Things you Can’t Influence?

In 1989 Stephen Covey published his successful book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  In this book he introduced the concepts of ‘circles of concern and influence’, using a diagram similar to that below.  Covey’s premise was that we spend a lot of time and energy focusing on things that concern us but we have […]

What Could you do with a 40% Increase in Efficiency?

Arrows in the middle of a target

Solitaire Consulting is delighted to have been asked, once again, by Manx Business Solutions to speak at one of their technology seminars.  This time the event is being held at the Sefton Hotel, in the Isle of Man on Thursday 19th March 2015. Following their recent award for technology solutions that enabled clients achieve a 40% increase in […]

Fix the Root Cause not the Symptoms!

I spend a lot of my time in a wide range of businesses helping them to identify and implement measures to improve performance.  These types of assignment generally start with a review of the current state of affairs (the ‘as-is’ situation).  Whether I am working with operational processes, technology, organisational structure or governance, a consistent theme is that the […]

Case Study: Law Firm Preparing for High Growth

Photo of a set of scales and a gavel

The Client A law firm specialising in intellectual property within emerging markets.  They have a global client base of high profile bluechip companies.  The firm has approximately 400 staff with offices throughout Africa. The Problem Following some changes within the Senior Management Team, including the appointment of a new Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer, […]

Effective Use of Technology Seminar 2014

Last week I presented at two business seminars in the Channel Islands, hosted by MBS Business Solutions.  The focus of the presentations was on how technology, in particular Document Management, can help solve the key problems being faced by businesses in 2014.  A copy of my presentation is available for download, by clicking the link […]