Why Project Management Isn’t Enough Anymore
Something happened to Project Management.
It used to be a means to deliver positive outcomes within a set of constraints. Projects were vehicles for delivering Strategy, and Project Leaders were in the driving seat. The destination was clear and it was all about getting there as efficiently as possible.
Today, project management has become the project. It stopped serving the project and started serving itself in an ecosystem of it’s own. It became the destination, not the vehicle. We reached peak project management and the vehicle went over the cliff. Only the driver survived.
Here’s the problem with project management today:
- It’s not enough in itself, and never was. The map project managers use is not the reality of the territory. Leading projects extends beyond reading the map.
- It’s brimming with obfuscation. Because it's easier to sell something as true when it's clouded in complicated.
- Project managers forgot they were leaders - and started believing they were the project. That only they could single handedly push the car up the hill. Moving away from project controls and planning as the key, towards managing people and performance.
- It fails to recognize the people component. That most project problems are just people problems masquerading as something else.
- It became a protectionist endeavor. Project managers became incentivized to look down and protect their corner of the world. To optimize for the local maximum.
It doesn’t have to be like that, projects that matter deserve better. True project leadership resists this. It’s humble in its unwavering focus on value first. It's a series of decisions made with the understanding that our plans are a best estimate, not the destination. It adapts to a range of behaviors and styles at any one time. It’s differentiated by situational judgement that set the dials of behavior. It recognises that projects are about people and connections. That you need to have empathy in understanding others so that you can lead them. It’s organizationally aware, and optimizing for the global maximum. It’s optimistic and strategic, believing in better even if that causes short term problems.
Projects form different scales, stretched across fields, and serve different strategies. Above all they Matter, and deserve deliberate leadership. Most pursuits can be re-framed as a project, so it makes sense to try to do them well. To give yourself and your team a chance of delivering, you need to lead them well.
If everything is a project that requires leadership, that's a worthwhile effort. Project Matters is a place for project leaders who share these beliefs. Who want to increase their awareness of themselves. Who want to understand their impact on others. Who want to lead and inspire their teams to deliver better outcomes.
Project Matters, for projects that matter.