Are You Creating Purpose?

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

  Leadership   New Practitioners  

I recently had a new project manager complain to me that the project that they had been assigned to was one that “nobody cares about.” Their point was that the project they had been given was one that had been on the list of proposed initiatives for several years, but had never been considered important enough to pursue.

However, when this new PM was appointed and needed a first project, they were given it to deliver. The PM was now finding herself dealing with stakeholders and team members who felt that the project was a waste of time—and she was having trouble maintaining focus and motivation.

First projects will be low priority
Ignoring some of the specifics of this particular situation for a minute, let’s recognize that the first projects a new PM is assigned to are likely to be low importance to the organization. New PMs aren’t going to be assigned to large, highly complex, business-critical projects (nor should they be). New PMs need to have a chance to develop skills and experience in an environment that is relatively low risk. And the organization needs to be sure that, if things go wrong, the success of the business isn’t threatened.

As a result, smaller, lower-priority projects are the norm—and new project managers are often supported by more experienced team members who recognize that it’s just as (or more) …

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