New Year, New PM, New Tricks?

Michael R. Wood is a Business Process Improvement & IT Strategist Independent Consultant. He is creator of the business process-improvement methodology called HELIX and founder of The Natural Intelligence Group, a strategy, process improvement and technology consulting company. He is also a CPA, has served as an Adjunct Professor in Pepperdine's Management MBA program, an Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and on the boards of numerous professional organizations. Mr. Wood is a sought after presenter of HELIX workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Europe.

  Career Development   Leadership   New Practitioners  

It is said that an old dog can’t learn new tricks, but can a new PM practitioner learn new tricks from one with over 30 years of experience? I am hoping the answer is yes!

Like many project management professionals, my journey into to project management was not by design. I started out as a CPA with a heavy emphasis on IT. That led to becoming a student of structured design, which led to me leading development projects. With no formal PM experience or education, I found myself leading large projects--so my learning was done in the trenches and on the job.

Along the way I attended some workshops and read some books, but essentially I was self-taught. In the 1970s, that wasn’t such a bad way to go. Today, it is more complicated as the field is replete with frameworks, tools and methods, each vying for dominance. And while having mastery of these tools is important, it isn’t what will make you a great PM. So, here is some of what I have learned in my over 35 years in the realm of PM. I hope you find it useful in your journey…

1. Build relationships. Perhaps more than anything else you can do to advance your career is to build meaningful and productive relationships with influential stakeholders within the organizations you serve. As a project manager, you will most likely have opportunities to interface with people throughout the organization. …

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