I would like thank the Chapter Meeting of PMI Southwest Virginia for allowing me to present, the event was fun, the interaction and engagement (and the meal) were well worth the 5 hour drive. I have been thinking on the interactions from the presentation and I feel compelled to writing something that I think will […]

 by Shawn P. Quigley Evolution of Motivational Theories Since the beginning of man’s socialization people have been attempting to understand what motivates an individual or group to act in the manner they do.  However, official theories of motivation did not start to develop until the early 1900’s.  The first few theories of motivation viewed man […]

by Shawn P. Quigley What is ERG? Today we will discuss a theory by Clayton P. Alderfer called the ERG Theory of Motivation. No, Alderfer was not a physicist and ERG in this case is not a unit of energy equal to 10-7 joules. Aldefer is an American psychologist known for his further development of […]

by Shawn P. Quigley and Jon M. Quigley In our previous post we have discussed Maslow’s Human Motivation Theory (Hierarchy of Needs) and Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory (Hygiene and Motivation Theory). However, to be aligned with our recent post about Pavlov’s Employee we should look at the Expectancy Theory of Motivation developed by Victor H. Vroom. […]

By Jon M. Quigley and Shawn P. Quigley Negative Motivational Lessons Learned We have been spending considerable time on lessons learned and the learning organization.  Lessons learned can have various perspectives, personnel, project, and both.  We will take a break from the pure project aspect, and consider project and personnel.  Lessons learned by personnel can […]

By Rick Edwards and Shawn P. Quigley How projects and processes are related If one were to describe their project to someone, they would most likely describe the end deliverable or objective of the project (a.k.a scope), the expected completion date (time) and the expected resource requirements needed to faithfully execute the plan (cost).   Nowhere […]

Common Lessons Learned Mistakes, Misconceptions and Things Left Unsaid By Rick Edwards and Shawn P. Quigley Why organizations fail to exploit their own lessons learned. “There is only one thing more painful than learning from experience and that is not learning from experience”.   – Archibald MacLeish Lessons Learned – Really? Too many organizations understand Archibald’s […]

Why Lessons Learned are vital to the long-term vitality of organizations To best discuss any topic, we must first establish a common foundation from which to build. Let’s start by defining some key terms: 1. Lesson: an activity that is done in order to learn something; also: something is taught, a single class or part […]

By Shawn P. Quigley More on Maslow In our previous discussions we have referred to Maslow’s Theory of Human Motivation (Hierarchy of Needs) and how this relates to work place motivation. To best continue our discussion we must first review some of the tenets of Maslow’s theory in more detail and dispel the misconception that […]