Teachable Moments: The Cloudy View from the Top

Eric Stevens, PMP is a Sr. Consultant, Project Management Professional, at QuantumPM, Inc. who has over 15 years of experience in project management beginning his career in Oil & Gas as a project controls engineer. Prior to QuantumPM, Eric has consulted with many organizations in a wide range of private and public industries, domestically and internationally delivering enterprise project management solutions and project management best practices.

 

Teachable moments are formed when you have done something--regardless of the outcome--and learned from the experience. Learning makes us better at what we do and provides a great opportunity to develop others and sharpen skills. We’ve compiled our best Teachable Moments from our community members for you to learn from and share with other project managers.

It’s human nature to more easily retain lessons learned from error or poor judgment than from success. However, the key to applying the lesson to future projects is to self-reflect on what went wrong and adapt the principle to the new situation.

I have learned the hard way not to blindly agree to the scope, budget and timelines on a project simply because they came from the C-level executive. I have assumed in the past that these executives knew their business, and who was I to question?

In truth, as an experienced project management consultant, they needed me to see the situation with a fresh perspective. Their view was obstructed by poor peer-to-peer communications and no effective collaboration system. The takeaway from this experience is that the view from high on the corporate ladder is not necessarily the clearest. My position provides a closer look at the real problems. Now I trust my instincts and don’t allow the “C” title to cloud my vision.

I applied this lesson …

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