Teachable Moments: The Importance of Being Earnest

Justin Horning, PMP, is a consultant and mentor, and co-chairs a non-profit learning group founded to promote project management practices across the many lines of business at Morneau Shepell. Justin is an accomplished project manager and aspiring leader. His passion and enthusiasm have made him a sought after lead for complex initiatives.

 

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.

When I read through old project closure surveys, I can almost pinpoint the exact moment that the team member formed their submitted response. Probably because so many of the responses are results of those small teachable moments we find ourselves with in every project--those small opportunities to both fix the issue and coach the team member. They’re really wonderful for the team and can help them grow in so many areas, but who remembers to find those teachable moments for the project manager?

We often focus so hard on what’s being done around us by our teams that we neglect to take a step back and look at the things that directly involve us. I don’t mean the stuff that sits in our project plan, work breakdown structures or RACI charts. I’m talking about “our work”--our most powerful work (and I’m still not talking about deliverables). I’m speaking about the bigger but more subtle pieces that can impact us all as PMs--relationships.

Now, conventionally …

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