Sorin Dumitrascu

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About Sorin Dumitrascu
Sorin developed and delivered on management, project management, computer literacy, human resources, career development, soft skills for employees and even corrections incidents management.
Currently working as a prison service consultant, he is a certified trainer and project manager, holding a master degree in International Relations and Policy Making and a bachelor degree in Law and Public Administration.
Sorin coordinated during the last 15 years projects in the areas of rule of law, regional development and human resources.
He has more than 15 years of middle/senior managerial experience within the civil service (justice, corrections, internal affairs, training), private sector (project management, consultancy, training) and NGO (industrial relations, rural development).
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Books By Sorin Dumitrascu
Sometimes work seems to combine unlimited needs with limited available resources. A situation like this sets up a world of immediate crises, rapidly shifting priorities, and reactive instead of proactive management. And these difficulties make it hard to focus on anything except the task right in front of you.
But managing work on a portfolio level takes projects, programs, and portfolios, and groups them together to facilitate their management. This ensures that they produce the planned benefits and meet the strategic business objectives that you're striving toward.
Managing from a portfolio perspective can give you both the high-level and wide-angle viewpoints needed to bring all the work under control.
Portfolio management, as set out by the Project Management Institute (PMI®), can reduce the chaos by enabling an organization to do the right work at the right time.
Portfolio management processes help to ensure the organization addresses the projects and programs that are the most essential to strategy execution and effective corporate performance.
While projects and programs are critical to organizational success, portfolio management extends beyond the simple completion of these components and focuses on strategic objectives and outcomes.
It changes how people work together – even across organizational boundaries – to accomplish project- based work.
Whether you are currently a portfolio manager or are just interested in the ideas involved in portfolio management, an increased understanding can give you a high-level perspective about how your work contributes to your company's goals.
This high-level view is what portfolio management is all about. Instead of viewing projects and programs in isolation, it allows you to consider the dependencies and interactions among these portfolio components, as well as between them and other organizational areas.
between them and other organizational areas.
This book is aligned to PMI's® The Standard for Portfolio Management. The Standard for Portfolio Management expands on the work presented in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) and the Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3®).
The Standard for Portfolio Management is PMI's® companion to the PMBOK® Guide. The Standard shows the links between portfolio management and program and project management, and between portfolio management and the organization.
Just as the PMBOK® Guide sets out the good practices for project management, The Standard for Portfolio Management presents a documented set of processes showing generally accepted good practices in the area of portfolio management.
In this book, you'll be introduced to the core concepts involved in portfolio management. You will discover how important it is to understand the management of portfolios, as well as learn about the relationships between portfolio management and project and program management.
You will also find out about the role of portfolio management within organizations, and about the roles and responsibilities of portfolio managers. You will be introduced to the links and relationships between portfolio management and organizational strategy, governance, and operations, and learn how metrics and reporting relate to it all.
Given what's at stake, it's critical that you prepare this communication properly and professionally. Doing this will not only impress the senior executive, it will maximize your chances of successfully achieving the goal of the communication.
Proper preparation begins with considering the characteristics and drivers that influence a senior executive's decision-making. You also need to be clear about the parameters of your communication. What is it you want to communicate? What are you trying to achieve?
If your communication is going to succeed, you also need to follow certain other principles. For example, your message must be to the point and relevant. It must correspond to the executive's personality and decision-making style. And you need to be on top of the financial and customer implications of what you're saying.
This course will help you shape and clarify your communications with senior executives. It will outline the principles to follow and present some very important tips on building credibility with senior executives. These principles and tips are all crucial to ensure that you're taken seriously.
Finally, this course will provide detailed guidance on how best to approach and plan your meetings with senior executives. Overall, the course will help you make your communications with senior executives more productive and beneficial to all concerned.
Does the idea of communicating with senior executives in your company make your heart race, give you chills of terror, or make your mind go completely blank? Communication isn't everybody's strength, but in business, having the skills to effectively communicate your ideas to senior executives will make you a better manager.
You probably know there's a big difference between a meeting and chatting with a senior executive in the parking lot. Or between presenting a new idea to senior executives and reporting on how your project is progressing.
You must be prepared to communicate with senior executives in both formal and informal settings. You'll also explore different communication platforms like presentations, e-mail, phone calls, and elevator pitches, and learn about the advantages and disadvantages of each. Then you'll be able to use what you've learned to choose the most appropriate platform to deliver your message.
You'll also learn how to adapt your approach for different purposes depending on what you're trying to achieve with your communication. The purpose of your communication may be to report, propose, or make a request. But whatever your purpose, this course will teach you appropriate principles and guidelines to follow so you get your message across effectively.
An IT project is essentially a project that delivers a new or improved IT product or service. Like all projects, it has a definite beginning and end, and it results in a noticeable change. To succeed, the IT project has to be managed through all its phases.
Because companies rely on IT so much, it's vital that IT projects succeed. A failure, such as the breakdown of an internal IT system, or the release of a faulty software application, is often a highly visible failure. This can negatively affect a company's reputation in the market and lead to lost sales and customer dissatisfaction. A successful IT infrastructure is essential to business success. And IT project management helps ensure the success of all IT processes and products.
Traditional project management processes and techniques can be applied to any IT environment. However, the project manager must have a good grasp of the unique challenges of IT projects.
To succeed, IT projects have to be carefully managed through all phases, from Initiation to Closure.
In this course, you'll learn about how IT project managers can use project management tools, such as the work breakdown structure and Gantt charts, to plan and monitor their IT projects. These tools enable project managers to deliver an effective IT infrastructure to their organization.
Good managers are usually familiar with the saying that a good start is half the job done. This applies to every project, and to IT projects in particular. If you want your IT projects to succeed, don't underestimate the early stages of the process – the initiation and planning phases. The initiation phase is about clarifying the project goals and requirements. The planning phase is about working out what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, and how much it's likely to cost.
There are two key reasons why you need to pay attention to these phases. First, if you don't know what you're aiming for, you're unlikely to hit the target. And second, if you haven't carefully considered the work to be done and the resources needed, you're likely to run into trouble sooner or later. It can be tempting to ignore the initiation and planning phases because they seem to delay the project, but they'll save you time and money in the end.
This course describes the basics of initiating and planning an IT project:
• you'll learn about some methods for defining the nature and scope of your project from the start
• you'll be introduced to the work breakdown structure, which breaks down the project deliverables into all the tasks that must be done to complete a project
A project to install upgrades at two sites breaks down into installation of upgrades and user training. The installation further breaks down into installing at Sites A and B. The training breaks down into two components: develop training and deliver training. The latter breaks down into deliver training at Site A, and deliver training at Site B.
• you'll learn about the techniques for sequencing tasks and scheduling for maximum efficiency in completing the project, and
• you'll find out about different techniques for estimating project costs
This course will provide you with important foundational knowledge about initiating and planning IT projects. This will make you more effective as an IT project manager and make it more likely that your projects will succeed and benefit your organisation.
Lean is a methodology that incorporates a powerful set of tools and techniques designed to maximize customer value while constantly working to reduce waste. It focuses on improving overall efficiency, quality, and customer satisfaction.
Because of its ability to improve customer satisfaction and deliver bottom-line financial gains, Lean is a preferred strategic choice for many organizations. This course introduces you to the basic principles of Lean, which will help you create more efficient processes and get you on the road to successful operations management.
This course also outlines the five-step process for implementing Lean. By learning how to implement Lean in your organization, you can reduce the costs of developing your company's product, increase production efficiency, and improve safety, quality, and performance levels. Finally, the course explains how Lean integrates with the Six Sigma production management system. Using this hybrid approach enables you to minimize process and product defects, and to identify and resolve pervasive problems.
Today's markets are very competitive and customers insist on the best quality products for their money. This means that businesses must actively pursue perfection to keep their customers and to retain their market share. Pursuing perfection and excellent quality are important principles of Lean thinking. Continuous improvement, the elimination of waste, and striving toward zero defects all help organizations attract and keep customers, and so increase their profitability.
This course introduces four Lean tools organizations use to strive for perfection and improve quality – 5S, Hoshin Kanri, jidoka and poka yoke, and standard work. As you work through this course, you'll find out what these tools are, their purpose, and how the tools are used. You should then be able to recognize how the tools may be used in your own organization.
The course provides examples of how the Lean tools can be applied in both manufacturing and service organizations. It will help you assess your own organization's needs and determine how you can apply the tools to perfect what you offer.
How can you make your organization more efficient? The simplest way is to eliminate waste from your processes. This waste can be caused by many factors, such as untidy workspaces and surplus inventory. Or it might be caused by inefficient distribution of work. Using Lean tools, you can make your processes smoother and your workspaces tidier.
To implement a Lean solution, you must know what tools and techniques are available, and which ones would best help you. You have to select the best blend of Lean techniques for your organization. You can use a number of Lean techniques to make your organization run more smoothly. These include the visual workplace, just-in-time, kanban, and line balancing.
The visual workplace uses signs and other visual cues to convey information quickly. The visual cues include work instructions, process flow diagrams, and status boards.
Just-in-time ensures that you have exactly the right amount of supplies needed at any time. This helps to reduce surplus inventory. Kanban cards are triggers that alert the team to send more parts or supplies. The parts are then "pulled" into the system, based on demand. Line balancing results in the even distribution of work among workers. No workers are overburdened, and no workers are left idle.
Albert Einstein said imagination is more important than knowledge. He knew it's only through creativity that remarkable things are created. Many people get frustrated because they think "I'm just not a creative person." But everyone has creative potential. Being able to identify and develop the characteristics you already possess can boost your creativity and enhance your creative output in the workplace.
But what exactly is creativity, and how is it linked to innovation? Creativity is the ability to develop something new. It relates specifically to the art of being creative – seeing things in a new and different way. Innovation is often the end result of being creative. When creative ideas are implemented, this results in innovation.
Creativity is evident in the development of original artwork, literature, music, scientific theories, and inventions. In the workplace, brainstorming for new ideas and the development of new products are examples of creativity.
Examples of workplace innovation include the introduction of different procedures into a department, using new processes to improve work methods, and the development of new product lines.
Organizations are increasingly turning to creativity and innovation because the ability to develop innovative new products gives a company an advantage over its competitors. And generating ideas for new products – creativity – is the first step in that process.
A creative imagination – just like a healthy body – needs regular attention and exercise. It's easy to get stuck doing what you've always done, thinking the way you always have, and producing what you've always produced.
To break out of the norm, you need to think differently, keep your imagination healthy, and most of all, believe in yourself and your own creativity. In this course, the focus is on enhancing personal creativity so you'll be able to generate creative and innovative ideas. You do this by first assessing your creativity, identifying and overcoming any barriers to creativity, and then by boosting your creativity quotient.
This course includes strategies to help you recognize how various personal characteristics foster creative ideas at work. Everyone possesses or can nurture these characteristics, which include open- mindedness, making connections, risk-taking, communicating, and persistence. You'll be introduced to techniques to help you recognize and overcome any barriers that limit your creativity, whether the barriers are organizational or personal.
You'll also learn the strategies to enhance creativity, such as thinking outside the confines of the problem or situation, listening to your unconscious mind, using analogies, and drawing ideas from different sources.
Think back to a time when you sat around with coworkers and brainstormed to find ways to address an identified problem or opportunity. As you searched for answers, you might have let your rational, judging mind take a break and instead relied on a more creative, open approach. Perhaps some of the ideas were fanciful or overly ambitious?
But in your brainstorming session, you knew that it's normal for some ideas to stretch the bounds of reality. You and your colleagues may have abandoned some of these fanciful ideas because they were unsuitable. But some ideas, or parts of them, were undoubtedly kept, or they sparked a more suitable idea.
This book covers strategies and techniques to help you become an effective and valued member of your team. Specifically, you'll explore ways for adopting a positive approach to being on a team, like recognizing the benefits of working on a team and learning to tolerate team member differences. You'll also learn how to work proactively and collaboratively with members of your team as you achieve your team's goals.
Regardless of how talented the individual members of your team are, they can only get your team so far alone. To maximize their potential, teams rely on the participation, input, and opinions of all team members. Learning to speak up and encouraging others to open up are important to a team's success. Effective communication is the fuel that will keep your team going to the finish line.
In this book, you'll learn the importance of fostering a team environment that encourages open and supportive communication. You will learn to recognize common verbal barriers that can seriously interfere with team productivity and learn strategies for eliminating those barriers. This course also covers active listening and presents techniques for listening more effectively to teammates, thereby encouraging the sharing of ideas within the team.
Three elements are always present in any effective, cohesive team: open communication, cooperation, and trust. Like the strands of a cord, these elements hold the team together and give it strength. Without these elements, team members will not participate fully in team activities and they won't find true satisfaction in their work. When trust and open communication is present, ideas flow and people find solutions to problems. When there's cooperation, team members feel connected to each other, and morale is high.
This book introduces techniques for building a cohesive team and highlights how poor communication, a trust-deficient atmosphere, and a lack of cooperation among team members leads to failure of the team achieving its goals. This course covers what needs to happen in order to reach true unity and cohesiveness, which will in turn take the team to new heights.
All individuals have strengths that allow them to achieve goals consistently and successfully. In a team setting, those individual strengths can combine to lead the whole team to success, or they can create conflict and tension. To harness individual strengths and personalities, you need solid ground rules for the team. You also need to allocate roles and responsibilities for maximum efficiency.
This book outlines initial steps that should be performed when building a team, including establishing the team goal and assigning roles to individual team members in a way that ensures the team will collectively meet its goal. The course also discusses the importance of fully understanding one's responsibilities and how the various roles work together to achieve the goal.
A crucial component of optimal team performance is the ability of all team members to openly express their ideas, goals, and needs, as well as share thoughts about each other's performance – both positive and negative. The same principle applies when it comes to receiving feedback. It's far better to hear the truth directly than to assume your performance is the best it can be.
In this book, you'll learn how to deliver feedback to other members of your team using a direct, honest, and assertive style that strives to eliminate uncertainty.
Successful presenters are made, not born. They have all learned good presentation skills and techniques and then honed them through practice. You can do the same.
This book explains that, though there are different basic types of presentation, every presentation you make involves four important components: the skill of the presenter, your audience, the venue, your message.
In this book, you will discover how these four elements must interact to produce a presentation that you can be proud of.
You will also find out how to: meet the needs of the audience and venue, prepare and structure your presentation, conquer your nerves.
As with anything else, presentations are built from the bottom up. This book will give you a solid foundation of knowledge and skills, so that you can plan and construct presentations that get your messages across successfully.
You have a presentation to give. You have prepared and rehearsed it. Great. But when you stand up in front of your audience members, they're interested in your delivery, not your preparation.
The challenge now is to powerfully deliver your presentation so that you do justice to your message and yourself.
This book is about getting your message across as well as you possibly can, and the techniques you need to do that.
In essence, good presentation delivery requires three things. You need to: create a good first impression, hold the audience's attention from start to finish, ensure that the presentation is memorable.
Delivering your presentation in a way that does justice to your message can seem daunting, but it's not. This book teaches you the simple techniques you need to look, and sound, good from the moment you begin speaking.
You'll learn how to hold your audience's attention, and how to make sure your presentation stands out from the crowd so that people remember it.
The thought of speaking in public is a frightening prospect for many people--it seems like a lonely situation. But of book, this is absolutely not true. When you speak in public, you are not alone. You can call on powerful resources. And you should be prepared to do so.
Organizational change is change that affects the entire organization rather than a localized change.
When organizations make externally-driven changes, they are reacting to the immediate business circumstances they are in. However, making an internally-driven change is proactive and is often a result of innovative ideas.
Organizations strive to create stability, but they are forced to adapt to changing environments. The incremental tactical changes that organizations implement on a day to day basis are strategic adjustments. It's relatively easy to adapt to a strategic adjustment. A few small things change, but most people's work stays very much the same.
Sometimes, organizations have to change their ways of doing things more significantly with strategic reorientations that involve changes to strategies and new ways of working. When an organization experiences strategic reorientation, people often have to acquire new skills, and the nature of their work may change significantly.
Organizations that experience major change are going through transformational change. This is uncommon, but when it happens it represents an upheaval and a change in the goals, identity, or nature of an organization. Transformational change has a very strong impact on employees and can be difficult to handle.
Common reactions to high-impact organizational change are negative, instigative, passive-aggressive, neutral, and positive.
When organizational change occurs, each person may move through six stages of reaction – shock, denial, anger, passive acceptance, exploration, and challenge.
Your reactions to change affect the stages of reaction that you move through. The more positive your reaction, the quicker you move into the more positive stages of reaction.
Organizational change is inevitable, but can lead to feelings of fear and anxiety. It's important to be prepared because the ability to handle organizational change is highly valued by employers, and because the stress that accompanies change can have negative effects on your personal and professional life.
The characteristics of people who handle change effectively are the ability to acknowledge and share their feelings about the change, a willingness to take risks, an openness to the unknown, and having a good support system of family and friends.
Two kinds of skills needed to handle change effectively are self-management skills and stress management skills.
Self-management involves identifying and constructively addressing your emotional responses to change, while stress management involves knowing how to deal with anxiety, tension, and frustration.
The self-doubt, confusion, and despondency that often result from organizational change can rob a person of all motivation and enthusiasm. So it's important to stay self-motivated by believing in yourself, thinking positive thoughts about the future, having strong goals to focus on, and cultivating a motivating and supportive environment.
To effectively deal with difficult people, you first need to be able to identify the type of difficult person you're dealing with. Then you can have a better understanding of the person's motivations. This will enable you to determine how best to deal with their behavior.
Identify difficult people
Difficult people can exhibit different behaviors. However, they can be categorized into a few common types. Think about some difficult people you've encountered. Perhaps someone who complained all the time. Or someone who seemed to be out only for themselves. By being able to identify the type of difficult person you're dealing with, you can better prepare a strategy to use to deal with that person.
Understand motivations
Difficult people are motivated by many things. One person might be motivated by a need for attention. Another might be motivated by a fear of failure. By understanding what motivates difficult people to act the way they do, you'll be in a better position to begin to be able to deal with them.
In this course, you'll learn a few steps you can take to cope with the difficult behavior and do just that. Keep in mind that each person is an individual and what works for one may not work for another.
Dealing with difficult people is never pleasant. They can cause all kinds of problems and uncomfortable situations. Learning how to best deal with difficult people is a skill that will serve you well. In this course, you'll learn about some common types of difficult people and their motivations, as well as steps you can take to deal with their behavior.
Have you ever encountered someone who broke into a sudden rant? Maybe they said something like "I have never heard anything so ridiculous in my life! You're kidding me right? Why am I the only one with the intelligence to see a problem here?"
This behavior is aggressive – hostile-aggressive, to be precise – and it's one of the most difficult behaviors you'll face.
You may have also encountered the more subtle passive-aggressive behavior. Whether subtle or overt, you have to be prepared to deal with these expressions of aggression in the workplace. Hostile-aggressive and passive-aggressive behaviors are learned, and the basis of each is anger. However, each type also has its own traits.
Hostile-aggressive behavior is relatively easy to spot. Individuals who behave in a hostile- aggressive manner are openly angry. They'll often yell and use personal, verbal attacks to get
what they want. They're difficult to work with because their personal attacks can raise your own anger and stress levels. It's hard to stay calm and focused when you're being treated with disrespect.
Passive-aggressive behavior is more subtle than hostile-aggressive behavior. Passive aggressive individuals are experts at manipulation and go to great lengths to hide their true intentions. They don't show anger. Passive-aggressive behavior is hard to deal with because you never know what's really going on. You can't trust the intentions of a passive-aggressive person.
This course outlines behaviors to look for to recognize hostile-aggressive and passive-aggressive people. It also explores strategies for dealing with both when you encounter them at work.
The number one tip for dealing with hostile-aggressive types is not to take the aggressive behavior personally. A seven-step procedure that can help you deal with the incident and move forward is covered in this course.
Procrastination makes you a less effective employee, and causes you stress at the same time. In this course, you'll learn about the reasons people procrastinate. Fear of giving up control, lack of self- discipline, being overwhelmed, lack of interest, and fear of failing are some of the reasons behind procrastination. and the rewards you'll reap when you overcome procrastination. You'll learn how to build self-discipline and fight time wasters. And finally, you'll find out how to set priorities and focus on achieving them, and how to say no when you need to.
While your time is limited, it's possible to do more with your time by being more productive – producing more value in the time you have. In this course, you'll learn about managing tasks in a way that maximizes your productivity. You'll discover the benefits of assessing the time and value of your tasks, identifying your priorities, chunking your time, building a schedule, creating an effective to-do list, and making effective use of your to-do list.
It's difficult to stay on top of a busy work schedule and at the same time balance family responsibilities, personal goals, and trips away. Achieving productivity in your personal life will help you keep a sensible balance between home and work. In this course, you’ll learn how to prepare for trips, plan personal and household tasks, and become more organized as a parent. You’ll also explore tips for getting out the door in the morning and for maintaining your well-being.
There are four main benefits of preparing a business plan. It helps you clarify what developments your business should focus on. It also gives you a framework within which to develop your business strategies. It acts as a benchmark against which actual performance can be measured, and it gives you influence over the direction your business or department takes.
Business plans differ from strategic plans. Business plans are created by start-ups and established businesses alike. However, business plans created by the latter are usually exclusively for internal use.
Your business plan should include four main elements. It should describe the opportunity it addresses and then the solution you've come up with. It should then detail the plan's execution, and finally it should include the desired outcomes of the plan. Once you've considered each element, you can create a narrative from them.
Preparation is of great importance when developing a business plan. Prepare for the development by discussing, thinking, researching, and analyzing your business ideas.
There are six steps you should take when preparing to develop your business plan. The first of these is defining your mission. The second step is doing research to identify key issues related to your idea. The next step is establishing goals. Next, you need to identify strategies to achieve your goals. And finally, you'll assess resources and identify risks.
Your business plan will vary depending on its purpose. It typically comprises four major parts. These are the executive summary, the market opportunity, the implementation, and the contingencies. Complete each of these with your target audience in mind.
Performing Key Analyses
A business plan will typically include an executive summary, information on market opportunities, the implementation details of the plan, and any necessary contingencies due to unexpected changes in market conditions.
Benefits to performing situational analyses include informing the future direction of your business plan, identifying resources and capabilities, and allowing you to explore any potential issues that may arise.
When conducting an internal analysis, there are four areas to consider: assessing market strategy, assessing resources, evaluating organizational and management strategy, and evaluating your organization's financial position.
An external analysis of a business environment includes careful consideration of political, economic, societal, and technological factors – otherwise known as a PEST analysis.
Scenario planning takes these important factors and examines how a business plan might change under different political, economic, societal, and technological circumstances.
A market analysis consists of identifying customer groups, inspecting the industry, and analyzing the competitors within that industry.
A SWOT analysis uses information from your internal and external analyses to define strategies to maximize competitive advantage. The internal analysis identifies strengths and weaknesses in your company's strategy, resources, and financial position. An external analysis will provide information on the political, economic, societal, and technological environment. It will also outline customer needs, competitors' capabilities, and industry trends.
Preparing for Implementation
You should view the planning, implementation, and control phases of a business plan as part of a continuous strategic process. This should help you implement it successfully and achieve real benefits.
To coordinate the implementation of your business plan, you should follow a number of steps. First, develop action plans that outline the tasks that need to be completed. Next, ensure that implementation can be supported in your organization.
The first step on the journey to solving these problems has to be made in your head. That is, you must examine and modify the way you think about problems today if you want to achieve success in the future.
It's hard to overestimate the power of effective thinking. Every thought you have today is in some way determining your future.
The goal of this course is to give you the tools necessary to turn yourself into a mental superhero. This change won't happen quickly. But with time and effort, you'll be able to solve problems you once found almost impossible. In this course, you'll learn to:
¥ think effectively about mental shortcuts,
¥ overcome biases and flawed assumptions,
¥ refine your problem-solving mind-set and decision-making style,
¥ cultivate the right state of mind.
Thomas Watson was chairman of IBM in 1943 when he said, "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
Watson certainly wasn't the only person to have ever made an inaccurate assumption about a business problem. What is an assumption? It's any facet of a business problem that you take for granted or assume to be true without calling it into question.
Roughly seven out of ten new businesses fail within three years. That failure rate often hinges directly on faulty business assumptions. Examine your assumptions and you're more likely to beat the odds.
Just as businesses receive benefits when employees examine their assumptions about given business problems, you as an individual reap personal rewards.
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