Influencing Others to Use Project Management Practices

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The majority of my working life has been spent in the public sector and, more specifically, in health care. Traditionally, project management processes and expertise in health care have rested in the areas of facilities management and development and/or Information Technology implementation. Although many of those in leadership roles within health care operations have spent a significant amount of time implementing new programs and introducing new equipment, for example, solid project management practices have not been known and/or utilized in areas other than facilities and IT.

Within the past nine or ten years, I have been given the lead for a number of significant operational change initiatives involving realignment of services and implementation of new patient safety programs. It was as a result of my work in one of these large program implementations that I realized the necessity of acquiring and utilizing proper project management skills in order to be successful.

In seeking out more information and support from my colleagues, it surprised me to find that the concepts of project management were not generally known or part of their repertoire of skills. They described situations where their efforts were scattered and they fumbled through, using out-of-date processes to move the work forward, never paying attention to issues, risks, or even the appropriate …

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