June 22, 2013
By Julie Peachy.
Cross-posted from Leadership Beyond Boundaries.
Just over three years ago, I found myself in a developing country managing a project that would help about 350,000 poor people save money. The project was essentially an organizational transformation of a large microfinance institution. We’re winding the project down now and I’m reflecting on what we did well, not so well, or maybe not at all. I often thought of my role as Project Manager like that of an air traffic controller. We had so many consultants on the project — from internal controls to financial risk management to marketing to human resources — I had to manage the runway and make sure there were no collisions in the comings and goings of the consultants or senior management. Not just physically, but emotionally. I spent a good bit of time that first year making sure that the work of each consultant would be seen as a success by the senior management and that they would embrace and implement the various recommendations. I made sure that everything was happening according to plan. But there were a few line items on the project plan that just were not tangible to me...
Comments
I really like the analogy likening a project manager of a complex project to an air traffic controller ! Nice job with this write up, Julie.
Nice clarification about how
Nice clarification about how the plans can be implemented properly through your post. That is why we take prior to train ourselves before having any collission in our daily professional life. By applying those hectic sophisticated project management thoughts we could easily achieve our daily schedule makes easy to adoptable. So project management training is not needful its an essential part for everyones professional which could help to improvise your professional career with an elegant touch of perfection. http://bit.ly/1aum4qz