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= Chris Croft (Author) =

Chris Croft (born February 12, 1960) is a British author, video-maker and public speaker. He is the author of 16 books and 60 video courses which have been translated into Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Japanese and French. He is known for teaching Project Management with a particular love of Gantt charts, and also for his interest in happiness.

Early Life and Education
Chris has a Norwegian mother, Brit, and an English father, also called Christopher. His father was a naval Commodore. He was brought up in Hampshire and attended Durlston Court School as a boarder from the age of 8, followed by Sherborne School and then Cambridge University where he studied Engineering at Queens’ College. Later he took an MBA.

Career
Chris Croft is based in Poole, Dorset, UK. His first job was at Westland Helicopters in Yeovil where he was a technologist apprentice, then a Production Engineer, and Production Manager. He then worked as operations manager at DRG in Bristol, Corvus (KAB Seating) in Cwmbran, and Dolphin Packaging in Poole. He then moved to Bournemouth University as a lecturer in operations management, before becoming self-employed in 1997.

Chris has worked as a trainer, mainly in the UK, since 1997. He has also been writing books and recording video courses for LinkedIn Learning (originally Lynda.com) and for Udemy. He is mainly known on LinkedIn Learning for Project Management, and on Udemy for Negotiation , Leadership  , and Sales   but also on both platforms for Time Management   , Assertiveness Careers and Happiness.

Chris Croft has created the following unique ideas and models:

 * Five Options When You Don’t Have Enough Time ,
 * Three additions to the important/urgent matrix ,
 * Spiral graph of Achievement, Stress and Quality of Life ,
 * Gantt of Gantts for viewing multiple projects at once ,
 * Six career options ,
 * Six lifestyles illustrated by six animals ,
 * Model of management style based on combinations of Monitoring and Support ,
 * Jobs To Do app which has sliders for size and fun as well as urgency and importance ,
 * His Project Management QuickStart Guide contains new ideas on the definition of Schedule Performance Index, how to calculate the optimum level of contingency , and why it’s important to use both network diagrams and Gantt charts in conjunction when planning a project.

Most of his books are self published but Time Management was published originally by Routledge in 1996, now Cengage Learning, with a second edition due in 2024, and Project Management QuickStart Guide is published by ClydeBank Media (2022).

Other Work
In 2020 he founded the World Happiness Project with Gerry Clarke.

In 2021 he began a project to give his video courses for free to local schools as a careers planning resource and to help young people prepare for the world of work

In 2021 he began work on Mr Gantt, a unique software-based approach to running projects at the same time as learning about project management, using the software and the embedded videos.

In 2023 he began filming other authors for LinkedIn Learning, under the name CRFT Productions.

Selected Bibliography

 * Croft, Chris (1996) Time Management, Cengage Learning EMEA, ISBN 978-1861522245
 * Croft, Chris (2015) Leadership: Practical Leadership Skills, udemy.com (1)
 * Croft, Chris (2016) The Big Book of Happiness, lulu.com, ISBN 978-1326724047
 * Croft, Chris (2016) Efficient Time Management, Linkedin.com
 * Croft, Chris (2016) Successful Negotiation: Master Your Negotiating Skills, udemy.com (1)
 * Croft, Chris (2017) Management Vegetables, amazon.co.uk. ISBN 979-8840424704
 * Croft, Chris (2017) Handling Workplace Change as an Employee. Linkedin.com
 * Croft, Chris (2017) Problem Solving Techniques. Linkedin.com
 * Croft, Chris (2017) Happiness Tips. Linkedin.com
 * Croft, Chris (2018) Leadership: Practical Skills. Linkedin.com
 * Croft, Chris (2018) Life Mastery: Achieving Happiness and Success. Linkedin.com
 * Croft, Chris (2018) Bad Boss: Dealing with a Difficult Manager. Linkedin.com
 * Croft, Chris (2019) The Top 10 Project Management Mistakes—and How to Avoid Them. Linkedin.com
 * Croft, Chris (2019) Success Habits. Linkedin.com
 * Croft, Chris (2019) Anxiety and Stress - Best Practices for Reducing Stress. Udemy.com (1)
 * Croft, Chris (2019) Customer Service Mastery: Delight Every Customer. Linkedin.com
 * Croft, Chris (2019) Cost Reduction Tips - How To Cut Costs And Maximize Profits. Linkedin.com
 * Croft, Chris, and Rose, Doug (2019) Comparing Agile versus Waterfall Project Management. Linkedin.com
 * Croft, Chris (2020) Process Improvement Foundations. Linkedin.com
 * Croft, Chris (2020) Project Management Simplified. Linkedin.com
 * Croft, Chris (2020) Teamwork Foundations. Linkedin.com
 * Croft, Chris (2020) Inspirational Leadership Skills: Practical Motivational Leadership. Linkedin.com
 * Croft, Chris (2020) Planning Your Career and Your Life. Linkedin.com
 * Croft, Chris (2020) Persecutors, Victims, and Rescuers: How to Deal with Psychological Games Players. Linkedin.com
 * Croft, Chris Croft, Chris and Croft, Miles (2021) Your Sales Questions Answered, udemy.com
 * Croft, Chris (2021) Practical Influencing Techniques. Linkedin.com
 * Croft, Chris (2021) Positive Self Talk - Affirmations & Mindset. Udemy.com (1)
 * Croft, Chris (2021) Negotiation Skills. Linkedin.com
 * Croft, Chris (2021) Motivate Remote Teams. Linkedin.com
 * Croft, Chris (2021) Managing Resources Across Project Teams. Linkedin.com
 * Croft, Chris (2021) Project Management Simplified, Linkedin.com
 * Croft, Chris (2022) Project Management QuickStart Guide, ClydeBank Media. ISBN 978-1636100586
 * Croft, Chris (2022) How to Be a Better Boss. Linkedin.com
 * Croft, Chris (2024) Seven Paths to Happiness. ISBN 979-8878993623