Mega-projects descending into chaos and litigation embarrass governments all over the world, as the public sector presides over fiascos that waste billions and destroy reputations. Inquiry after Inquiry finds the damaging and costly failures of major government projects can be traced back to the contract establishment process. Procuring Successful Mega-Projects, is a mentor's guide for project directors, providing frank, fearless, practical advice on how to set up a major government contract that won't end up in court. It's all there: How to develop and negotiate a contract that doesn't contain undeliverable obligations or perverse incentives but does contain the necessary provisions for successful project management. How to navigate the pitfalls of the public sector environment, from hiring freezes and governance frameworks to the complexities of managing the relationship with the Minister. How to select and manage the lawyers and other advisers, build the adviser-client relationship and recognise that unwelcome advice may not be unhelpful. How to structure and follow a bullet-proof procurement process that is fair to bidders and delivers great outcomes. Procuring Successful Mega-Projects is essential reading, not just for the project director, but for everyone with a stake in the success of a mega-project: public sector executives; Ministers; private sector tenderers; infrastructure lenders; legal, financial and technical professional service providers; and procurement and project management professionals.

At birth, we begin life as truthful, open, curious, and creative beings. As we grow older, our wings may be clipped by dysfunctional family and social systems. Building layer upon layer of self-protection in order to negotiate such social systems. Building layer upon layer of self-protection in order to negotiate such social systems, we learn to cut ourselves off from that original expansiveness. In essence, many of us go through a sort of reverse metamorphosis: we start out as beautiful butterflies, and turn into caterpillars. It is the goal of this book to help you become a butterfly again. Working with the uplifting metaphor of a caterpillar's metamorphosis, Wings explores three stages of personal transformation in this user-friendly book: Reaching In, Reaching Out, and Reaching High. Through these stages, readers learn to listen to themselves, accept themselves, set personal boundaries, and formulate goals, and each chapter offers exercises that explain exactly how to do this. Once emerged from our former cocoon, we are ready to approach the world anew, armed with the self-esteem necessary to soar.

Based on real events in a real haunted house, Haunted House Diary tells the story of two fathers, two daughters and their families. In an effort to understand his own daughter, a developer reads a tattered diary found by his workmen in an old abandoned house. Seeking to learn if the diary is real, the developer searches but cannot find the author. Seeing the parallels between the family in the diary and his own, the developer begins to fear that what happened to the mysteriously missing diarist could happen to his own duaghter, unless he acts.