Ron Krukowski's Blog

So the other night, my 6 year-old daughter Isabelle, had a homework assignment where she had to articulate what she is thankful for this year. When she finished with her list of things she looked at me and said, "Daddy, what are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?" "Isabelle, daddy is thankful that he has so much to be thankful for," I replied. She rolled her eyes and gave me this look as if I didn't really answer her question. Isabelle then said, "No really, what are you thankful for daddy?" I knew she wasn't going to let me off of the hook so I replied, "Daddy is thankful for everything in his life!" She contemplated my answer for a moment and then said, "that's cool." And with that, there were no further questions. However, my little 6 year-old had planted a seed that led me to reflect and think about the things I am truly thankful for. Here are a few things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving: I am thankful for my lovi...

Recently, I have been grappling with joining Toastmasters International. For those of you who are not aware, Toastmasters International is a world leader in communication and leadership development. I have been working in Corporate America for more than 25 years. I have had 15 years of success as an employee within major financial firms rising through the management ranks. Since 2001, I have enjoyed and continue to enjoy much success as an independent management consultant. Along the way, I have given many PowerPoint Presentations to various levels of management both as an employee and now as a consultant. I continue to get asked to speak at various events and really enjoy sharing my knowledge, insights, and stories from my life and business experiences. It really inspires me when someone comes up to me and says that something I have said is relatable and helpful to them. I have been getting requests to increase my speaking engagements. With that, the thought oc...

Have you ever been in a meeting that was totally out of control? In that meeting, did you notice that there was no formal agenda? In that same meeting, did it keep going off point and end up going down the road of too many tangents? During this time, was someone allowed to pontificate on things that had nothing to do with the advancement of the current meeting? In that meeting, was it apparent that the key people needed were not there since every item needed to be followed up on with someone who wasn’t at the meeting? Anytime during this meeting, did you feel that this meeting was going nowhere, your time was being wasted and that you should be doing something more productive? After the meeting, did you notice there was no communications regarding what was discussed, no key decisions or next steps? And finally, at the next follow-up meeting, were you totally "checked out" because the same things were being re-hashed from the last meeting with no evident progress? If you an...

I have personally managed many projects and now in my consulting practice work for clients assisting them in the Creation, Buildout and Management of Project, Program and Portfolio Management Offices. In my experiences, I have been amazed at what various organizations accept as a means to determine the health of a project. I have witnessed organizations where a verbal, "We Are On Time, On Budget and There Are No Issues to Report" statement by a project manager as an acceptable status without any quantification. I have also seen the reverse where a panic is created based on a manager stating, "We Are Behind Schedule, Over Budget and There Are Major Issues!" Again, based on a verbal status update without providing the evidence to support the statement. Conversely, I have witnessed organizations rally around the Earned Value concept which is widely taught to project managers. Crunching numbers to eventually come up with the Cost Performance and Schedule Performance Met...