Ryan

Scope creep rarely arrives as a big request. It shows up as a small favor, asked politely, many times. #StoicPM #ScopeManagement

It's live. NORTHING is out now — e-book and paperback, both at the link. A cutter, the Arctic ice, and a crew running out of options. Thanks to everyon who pre-ordered. a.co/d/04NWRxeY

Epictetus: 'Men are disturbed not by things, but by the opinions which they form about things.' A late delivery is a fact. The story you tell yourself about it is optional. #Epictetus #StoicPM

Watch out for 'percent complete.' A task sitting at 90% for three weeks is a task nobody defined clearly. Break it down until progress is binary: done or not done. #ScheduleMgmt #StoicPM

I wrote a book. NORTHING (True North: Book One) — a Coast Guard thriller set in the Chukchi Sea, above the Arctic Circle. Out Monday, October 26 at 5 PM Pacific. E-book is up for pre-order now; paperback lands the same day. a.co/d/04NWRxeY

📅 Oct 24 is United Nations Day, marking the UN Charter's entry into force in 1945. Bringing 51 founding nations to one charter was stakeholder alignment on a scale few projects will ever face. #UNDay #Stakeholders

Your team will copy how you handle bad news long before they copy how you handle good news. #StoicPM #Leadership

Seneca: 'We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.' Most of the disasters you rehearsed at 2 a.m. never showed up. Plan for the real ones, then get some sleep. #Seneca #StoicPM

Write risks as cause, event, effect. 'Vendor delay' is a worry. 'Because the vendor shares one engineer across three clients, delivery may slip and push integration testing' is a risk you can manage. #RiskMgmt #PM

📅 The Sydney Opera House opened on this day in 1973, about ten years late and many times over its original budget. It became an icon anyway. Both facts are true, and a good PM learns from each. #OTD #MegaProjects

Marcus Aurelius: 'The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.' A blocked critical path is information. It tells you where to put your best people next. #MarcusAurelius #StoicPM

The schedule tells you when. The team tells you whether. Listen to both. #StoicPM #ProjectManagement

Before you add a task to the schedule, ask who will do it and what they'll stop doing to make room. Capacity is finite, even when optimism isn't. #ResourceMgmt #StoicPM

#catsofblusky #caterday

📅 It's National Boss's Day in the U.S. The best gift a manager can get is a team that tells them the truth early. You earn that by never punishing the messenger. #BossDay #Leadership

Hello bsky fam! In case you missed it, and a bit of self promotion: My first #fiction book, NORTHING, is available for pre-order!!!! It's a Coast Guard thriller, with betrayal, tech, good guys, bad guys, and grey in betweeners. #writter #uscg #coastguard #firstbook #selfpubish a.co/d/04NWRxeY

Seneca: 'If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.' A project without a clear objective treats every request as progress. Name the port before you raise the sails. #Seneca #ProjectScope

📅 Dwight D. Eisenhower was born on this day in 1890. He later said plans are worthless but planning is everything. The document will age badly. The thinking you did to write it won't. #Eisenhower #Planning

Bumping my own post/tooting my own horn. Did I mention that I'm excited?

Well this is pretty exciting! My first #fiction book, NORTHING, is now available for pre-order! Thank you to all who helped with the advance reading and feedback! #firstbook #writing #uscg #military a.co/d/0e2AN8dH

Calm is a speed advantage. The PM who doesn't panic sees the next move first. #StoicPM #Leadership

Status reports should make decisions easier. If yours only describes activity, add one line: what do you need from the reader, and by when? #StakeholderMgmt #StoicPM

Epictetus opens the Enchiridion with one idea: some things are within our power, and some are not. Split your risk register into two columns, what you control and what you can only prepare for. Work the first column. #Epictetus #StoicPM

The Stoic PM closes the 90 days where they started: with virtue. Wisdom in decisions, courage in communication, justice in leadership, temperance in execution. #StoicPM #Virtue thestoic.pm

Integrated change control is not bureaucracy—it's discipline. Every approved change reshapes your baseline. Manage the baseline or the baseline manages you. #ChangeControl #PMBOK

Epictetus: 'Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.' Planning is within your control. The outcome is shaped, not owned. #Epictetus #StoicPM

🎂 PMI was founded October 1, 1969, by five volunteers in Atlanta. 57 years ago, a profession was born. Every PM who earns a credential honors that founding act. #PMI #PMHistory pmi.org

End of Q3. The Stoic PM asks: Did we deliver what we committed to? Did we lead with virtue? What does Q4 demand of us now? Review honestly. Plan deliberately. #StoicPM #Q3Review

The PMO (Project Management Office) is not a police force—it's a center of competence. A well-run PMO accelerates delivery; a poorly run one creates friction. #PMO #ProjectMgmt

It's been a long road. But we're Al Most there. thestoic.pm/its-been-a-m...

Seneca: 'We should every night call ourselves to an account.' End-of-week project reviews are not a management ritual—they are a Stoic discipline. #Seneca #ProjectReview

Agile metrics—cycle time, lead time, throughput—measure flow, not just output. What gets measured shapes what gets improved. Choose your metrics with intention. #Agile #Metrics

Epictetus: 'The more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.' The Stoic PM measures success by the quality of decisions, not just results. #Epictetus #StoicPM

A project governance framework defines decision rights, escalation paths, and accountability. Without governance, authority is assumed—and assumptions create conflict. #Governance #PM

Marcus Aurelius: 'Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.' Self-regulation is the PM's most powerful project tool. #MarcusAurelius #StoicPM

Extreme Programming (XP), developed by Kent Beck in 1996, introduced pair programming and test-driven development. Discipline in craft produces quality at speed. #XP #Agile

🍂 Autumnal Equinox: Equal day and night—a natural reminder that balance in workload, planning, and rest makes for sustainable project delivery. #StoicPM #SustainablePace

The Stoic PM treats team feedback as a gift. Criticism from a trusted colleague is more valuable than praise from a stranger. Seek honest input. Act on it. #StoicPM #Feedback

Seneca: 'Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.' Project closure is not an ending—it's the data and discipline that feeds the next project's start. #Seneca

The PMBOK 8th Edition reintroduces five focus areas: Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring & Controlling, and Closing. The cycle is timeless. Work it deliberately. #PMBOK

Musonius Rufus taught that philosophy must be lived, not merely studied. For the Stoic PM: methodology is only valuable when it changes how you actually work. #MusoniusRufus

A project manager who can't say no is a project manager who will eventually fail. Scope, time, and budget are finite. Saying no is a service to the project. #ScopeManagement

Saw this quote in a book I'm reading right now: “In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not.” ~Albert Einstine, Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut, or Yogi Berra (who knows)

Epictetus: 'He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.' Count project wins—even the small ones. #Epictetus

PMI's Pulse of the Profession reports consistently show that organizations with mature PM practices waste significantly less on failed projects. Maturity is a business case. #PMI #PMMaturity

The Stoic dichotomy of control applied to team performance: you control how you coach, equip, and support your team. You cannot control their every output. Lead, then trust. #StoicPM

Seneca: 'Begin at once to live.' Project managers who wait for perfect conditions to improve their process are waiting for a day that will never arrive. #Seneca #ContinuousImprovement

A sprint backlog belongs to the development team. The product owner owns the product backlog. Respecting that boundary is how Scrum stays healthy. #Scrum #Agile #ProductOwner

📅 A day for reflection. Great projects—like resilient communities—are built on trust, preparation, and the courage to keep going when plans fall apart. #Leadership #StoicPM