The Gift of Project Management
Mark Mullaly is president of Interthink Consulting Incorporated, an organizational development and change firm specializing in the creation of effective organizational project management solutions. Since 1990, it has worked with companies throughout North America to develop, enhance and implement effective project management tools, processes, structures and capabilities. Mark was most recently co-lead investigator of the Value of Project Management research project sponsored by PMI. You can read more of his writing at markmullaly.com.
The theme of this month is philanthropy. Generally, we think about that in the context of giving to others. How we use our project management skills and talents for a larger benefit, in our volunteering, in our communities and more broadly in our lives.
Today, I want to approach that from a different perspective. To look backward through the telescope. To focus not outward, but inward. I want to talk about the gift that project management has to offer—and indeed has offered—to each of us.
Most of us come to project management by accident. It is not an intentional pursuit. Project management finds us. We are trying to organize and accomplish and get things done. As we do so, we seek perspectives and practices and tools that we can use to get our arms around the work and to feel in some way in control. We strive for solutions to be able to successfully deliver outcomes of value that fulfill expectations that have been created and promises that have been made.
At some point, we discover project management. We find that it has practices and processes, tools and templates, structure and sequence that are relevant and valuable.
The insights that this offers can be profound. It can transform your work. It can create a career. In some instances, discovering project management can change the trajectory of your life.
That was certainly the experience for me.
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"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first." - Mark Twain |
