Andy Crowe, Author at LiquidPlanner

How to Be a Great Leader

February 14, 2018 | Andy Crowe

Here’s an interesting problem in today's business world: One of the most indispensable skills for career advancement as well as for delivering successful projects is rarely taught at the university level....

5 Ways to Lead a Change Management Initiative: Project Manager As Change Manager

January 25, 2018 | Andy Crowe

Project managers can also be change managers. If you're in this position, learn how to lead a change management initiative and get your team on board....

5 Ways AI and Automation Will Change Project Management

June 20, 2017 | Andy Crowe

The coming artificial intelligence and automation movements will have a major impact on the field of project management -- mostly for the better. In this article, Andy Crowe highlights how technology can help increase efficiency, reduce monotonous tasks, and make life easier for PMs....

7 Steps to Build a Continuous Improvement Culture

April 18, 2017 | Andy Crowe

Kaizen is not flashy, nor instant. But implementing a culture of continuous improvement can have a profound impact on your business. Andy Crowe offers seven steps to get you there....

What Puts Manufacturing Teams Ahead: Lean Six Sigma

January 9, 2017 | Andy Crowe

In any given year, I attend a lot of project management conferences. There are always common themes that come up at these conferences, but these days it seems that you can’t turn around without getting smacked in the face by Lean Six Sigma. It’s everywhere, and it’s not a fad. Lean Six Sigma has been...

Why Is Six Sigma Important to Manufacturing Teams?

October 11, 2016 | Andy Crowe

Anyone who has ever led a manufacturing project can attest to the fact that they have unique challenges. Nearly all projects iterate through some version of the “planning, execution and control” cycle, but manufacturing takes that to new levels. This is particularly true when you are going to be churning out a high volume of...

An Introduction to Critical Path Project Management

July 6, 2016 | Andy Crowe

Modern project management was born around the time of World War II. Germany built the first interstate highway system, the Reichsautobahnen, in the 1930s, and the United States began The Manhattan Project approximately a decade later to create the first man-made nuclear weapon. These massive projects required planning on a staggering scale, and the people...

Your Project Budget Just Got Slashed, Now What? How to Do More With Less

March 23, 2016 | Andy Crowe

In the mid-90s, I managed a project for a utility company that included a team of 20+ people. I have always liked to start my workday early, and one particular Friday, I was already hard at work when my team started trickling in around 8:30 a.m. About 90 minutes later, the CIO, (earning leadership bonus...

3 Ways to Play the Project Management Long Game

April 28, 2015 | Andy Crowe

One of the joys of my life right now is teaching my last teenager how to drive. In case you’ve forgotten, when someone is first learning to drive, it’s all about the mechanics (smooth acceleration, braking, maintaining the lane, and handling turns). While the budding driver may think these driving basics are easy, she will...

4 Ways to Be a More Responsive and Less Reactive Project Manager

March 25, 2015 | Andy Crowe

One of the best things about my job is that I travel around the world working with project managers. This has taught me something: Managing projects is not the easiest way to make a living. Project managers easily get caught up in the demands of the team, senior managers, stakeholders, the customer—and then find it...

Using the 5 Whys in Project Management

January 22, 2015 | Andy Crowe

Nearly 2,500 years ago, Socrates (when he was not occupied with founding Western philosophy and instructing his star student, Plato) pioneered a method of asking questions that led people to draw conclusions and pursue deeper truths and realities. His practice of relentlessly picking apart ideas earned him the deserved reputation of being the gadfly of...

5 Steps to Managing Project Scope

December 15, 2014 | Andy Crowe

During a particularly tumultuous two-year period in my career, I was dispatched by my organization to troubleshoot three separate projects that were in trouble. Each time I was sent in with the expectation that I would quickly assess the situation, replace some team members, institute new processes, improve communication, and implement reporting and tracking. All...

Andy Crowe