What everybody got WRONG about Project Management!
A typical question in the 1st day of class, any class, is usually the introduction.
The next question that the teacher/trainer or instructor will ask "What do you hope to get out of the class?" This is when the students or participants say the reason why they are willing to spend the money (sponsored by their parent or their bosses) or the time to be in the class - be it 2 days, 5 days, weeks or month to attend the class. Some answers include "I want to learn about Project Management", or that :I wish to explore what i can do as Project Manager" or perhaps "I want to know how to apply Project Management in my job", among others. In case you are wondering, just 1 answer is correct, i.e. the latter.
So here goes...
PROJECT MANAGEMENT is NOT the GOAL,
but a MEANS of achieving the GOAL....
According to the definition from the Project Management Institute, the main body that certifies project managers worldwide: a project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result, while the project management is the means of organizing the activities which cannot be addressed under normal operational limits.
Based on the definition, the PM is just the skills and tools and techniques that are used to get the product, service, result. It is to enable us to obtain what we want, the ultimate destination. How do we begin? The important thing about project management is what Stephen Covey advocates in his excellent book "7 Habit of Highly Effective People", that we begin with the end in mind.
So what's the end?
Let's be super drastic and say that the end is really the end...when we are lying in the coffin, and someone is giving us an eulogy. Let's examine the eulogy:
- What will he or she say about us?
- Will it be how much money we have accumulated?
- Will it be how many places we have travelled?
I suspect that most of us will want to be remembered that this person is a good man, that he is a man after God's heart, that he is a giver, that he is a good husband, a good parent, a good friend. Based on this, Michael Hyatt and David Harkavy, the authors of "Living Forward", created a chart on how we can examine our live our life and perhaps have a project to bring back those out of line to be back on line...
The inner circle which consist of the most important things in life - the physical (our body), the intellectual or mental (our state of mind) and the spiritual (our connection with God). The middle circle will be the social us (our friends), marital (our relationship with our spouse) and parental (our kids). The outer circle will be the vocational (our jobs and career), the avocational (our hobbies) and financial (how much money we have and how much more we can make).
Lose the outer circle and there is a still a chance for recovery - we can still get up after falling and walk again. Lose the middle circle and it is not so easy. Lose the items in the inner circle and we are pretty much done for - once we have cancer, high blood pressure, depression, etc. Sadly, way too many of us put our efforts in the outer circle such making money or in our hobbies that we forgot about what's important.