Voices on Project Management

by Dave Wakeman

As a project manager, it is easy to get caught up in handling the situation right in front of you.

Do the tasks needed to complete the current project.

Put out the fire that is consuming all your time. (“Oh crap, I need this stakeholder report…”)

But what if we moved our gaze ahead a little bit and thought about the skills needed to be a successful PM in 2030? What would that look like?

From my vantage point, the 2030 PM will need to focus on three key ideas:

• Being a strategic leader and not just a project facilitator
• Having master communicator vibes.
• Acting as a tech conductor and not just a tech user

1. From Facilitation to Strategy

This is probably one of my key themes in these posts: the importance of always having an eye on the big picture.

The rise of concern about AI stealing “everyone’s” jobs has given this idea a new moment of urgency. Why? Because jobs that can be outsourced to computers and machines are likely to remain in danger.

We are seeing that already. Businesses are trying to offload things like customer service to chatbots. Sometimes, this works. Other times, it doesn’t. The failures will be swept under the rug. The successes will be used to increase the “need” for automation.

This is why keeping an eye on the big picture is key. You can anticipate what is going to matter to your organization. You can be the leader of what comes next.

You can focus on value. Strategy.

2. Communication Mastery
Here’s another topic I return to. Why? It matters a lot.

I have always had a few rules about communications that I’ve taught:

• It isn’t what you say, but what the other person hears that matters.
• If the person you are communicating with is confused, that’s on you.
• If you aren’t the one communicating, someone else will fill the void in your absence…and you won’t like the results.

Effective communications isn’t a skill that’s going to go away. Not even close.

In fact, the more that technology takes over the role or the task of communicating with people, the more important it is to be an effective communicator.

Just think about the frustrations you have dealing with customer service menus if you must call a company for support. How about when you deal with an AI service chatbot online? Sometimes, they work great. Other times, you just want to talk to a person. Then when you get to the person, you are so frustrated that you can’t even put together your thoughts.

Think about that in terms of managing complex projects.

• Your team may be getting instructions from AI.
• Your stakeholders may be frustrated because of a challenge finding the information they need in your tech stack.
• Or you could just encounter a situation where your tech or team isn’t dealing with the right tasks.

All of these will stress test communication skills.

Because of situations like this, the 2030 PM is going to need to be a master communicator.

3. Tech Orchestrator

I wrote about whether AI was taking everyone’s jobs a few months back. I’ve offered you a warning in this piece.

The honest answer about AI and jobs is that none of us know the answer, but we know that technology can be disruptive. I would never advocate ignoring a tool or idea that has gained purchase in your business. I would always advocate taking a contrary viewpoint.

That’s led me to believe that the 2030 PM is going to need to be an orchestrator of technology and not just an implementor. This goes beyond knowing how to input prompts for AI. It goes beyond being good at spreadsheets or whatever other technology your team is using for tasks and tracking.

Being an orchestrator means conducting the business of your projects by understanding what tools you need, how they can amplify and assist your team, and checking the quality of the work being created.

This idea of a “tech orchestrator” feels like the ultimate outcome of the marriage among strategy, communication and tech. Because the PM of 2030 will have demands that are different than today. How different, none of us can say with certainty.

But using these three skill ideas, I think you can be better prepared than a lot of your contemporaries.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

by Peter Tarhanidis, Ph.D.

Today’s hybrid work environments, ethical demands, stakeholder complexity, and organizational pace require new success criteria. According to PMI’s 2024 Pulse of the Profession report, only 34% of projects are considered successful by traditional measures of scope, time and cost. For leaders to thrive in this new reality, project guardrails must be modernized to inspire autonomy while aligning purpose, ethics, and sustainable outcomes.

Rethinking Guardrails: From Control to Catalysis
Traditional project governance structures emphasize compliance, change control, and rigid escalation paths. But in environments characterized by complexity, ambiguity, and constant change, rigid control can undermine innovation and engagement.

McKinsey & Co.’s research shows that projects with adaptive governance outperform peers by 25% in delivery of value and 30% in stakeholder satisfaction. Leaders must introduce guardrails that promote empowered decision-making within clearly communicated boundaries, and encourage distributed leadership and agility without sacrificing accountability.

5 New Guardrails for Today’s Project Leaders

1. Value Over Output: PMI’s 2023 Global Megatrends shows organizations that prioritize value over delivery metrics achieve a 42% higher rate of strategic goals. Teams that connect features to customer outcomes develop deeper alignment with mission and increase stakeholder confidence. These leaders define value-centric KPIs rather than milestone attainment.
2. Ethics Over Expediency: Edelman’s 2024 Trust Barometer indicates 71% of employees expect their companies to take a public stand on ethical issues, expect their leaders to anticipate unintended consequences, and apply ethical analysis into key decisions. Ethically governed projects report 30% fewer incidents of rework and stakeholder backlash (MIT Sloan Management Review, 2023). Empowered teams build a culture of integrity and long-term resilience. These leaders add ethical risk as part of project risk registers, ethical checklists and stakeholder impact maps.
3. Psychological Safety Over Hierarchical Control: Harvard Business School’s Amy Edmondson shares teams with high psychological safety are 27% more effective in cross-functional collaboration while enabling openness, faster error detection, and greater innovation. Projects with psychologically safe environments complete 18% faster and report 35% greater team engagement (Google’s Project Aristotle). Team members are more likely to raise early red flags and offer solutions without fear of reprisal. These leaders model curiosity, not criticism. Shifting to questions such as “What can we learn?” versus “Who’s accountable?”
4. Agility Over Certainty: Only 16% of organizations report that traditional planning methods are effective in today’s fast-paced environment (PMI, 2024). Agile projects are 2.5 times more likely to succeed than waterfall counterparts in dynamic sectors like tech, finance and healthcare (Standish Group CHAOS Report, 2023). Teams working in short feedback loops are more responsive to customer needs and regulatory changes, resulting in better user adoption. These leaders use rolling-wave planning and commit to decision-making during sprint steering reviews.
5. Stakeholder Integration Over Stakeholder Management: The modern stakeholder is no longer a passive recipient but an active participant. Projects that actively engage stakeholders experience 29% fewer change requests and 41% greater satisfaction scores (IBM Business Value Institute, 2023). When stakeholders are engaged early, then resistance turns into advocacy. These leaders manage stakeholders by listening and integrating their inputs. Use stakeholder empathy interviews and involve them in prototype testing or solution design.

Making Guardrails Operational
Putting these principles into action requires a shift in mindset and structure. Here are five ways to support your practice:

1. Formalize guardrails. Document in project charters and playbooks the team norms, governance models, and onboarding practices.
2. Measure guardrails. Use KPIs like Net Promoter Score, stakeholder sentiment, innovation speed, and compliance metrics.
3. Empower coaches and champions. Appoint internal coaches or culture champions to reinforce these behaviors during stand-ups, reviews, and retrospectives.
4. Build guardrails into decision trees. Create frameworks where teams can operate with autonomy while escalating only when critical guardrails are approached.
5. Conduct quarterly guardrail health checks. Conduct quarterly “guardrail health checks” to audit, reflect and adapt. Use team surveys and external facilitators to refine policies and culture.

Conclusion
Now more than ever, project success requires leaders who can lead with precision and principle. This requires one to balance execution with empathy, speed with substance, and strategy with stewardship. The new project guardrails of value, ethics, safety, agility and integration do not constrain; rather they are cultural enablers that empower high-performance delivery within purpose-driven boundaries. These guardrails provide structure for leaders where trust replaces control, adaptability replaces rigidity, and purpose becomes the new metric of success.

What actions will you take to ensure guardrails turn from control to catalysis?

References

1. Pulse of the Profession: The Future of Project Work, PMI (2024)
2. Unlocking the Power of Agile Governance, McKinsey & Company (2023)
3. Creating a Culture of Psychological Safety, Harvard Business Review (2023)
4. CHAOS Report: Project Success Rates, Standish Group (2023)
5. The Stakeholder Experience Advantage; IBM Business Value Institute (2023)
6. Trust Barometer: Expectations of Ethical Leadership, Edelman (2024)
7. Ethical Decision-Making in Fast-Paced Projects, MIT Sloan (2023)

By Peter Tarhanidis, Ph.D.

In the ever-evolving landscape of corporate strategic planning, organizations face the perpetual dilemma of choosing between capital spending for growth—and optimizing operations for efficiency. Striking the right balance amidst economic trends and leveraging organizational strengths becomes paramount when navigating through strategic projects. Meeting shareholder and stakeholder needs, while aligning with the organization's mission, presents a constant challenge.

To anticipate potential initiatives, project managers must consider global macroeconomic conditions and CEO outlooks. A preliminary assessment based on the United Nations World Economic Situation and Prospects and OECD Economic Outlook reports for 2024 reveals a projected global economic growth slowdown from 2.7% to 2.4%. This trend suggests a delicate balance between slow growth and regional divergences. Key considerations include:

• Global inflation showing signs of easing from 5.7% to a projected 3.9%
• Slowed global investment trends due to uncertainties, debt burdens and interest rates
• Fading global trade growth attributed to shifting consumer expenditure, geopolitical tensions, supply chain troubles, pandemic effects and protectionist policies
• Notable regional examples include the United States expecting a GDP drop from 2.5% to 1.4%, China experiencing a modest slowdown from 5.3% to 4.7%, Europe and Japan projecting growth rates of 1.2%, and Africa's growth expected to slightly increase from 3.3% to 3.5%

Examining the corporate landscape, a survey of 167 CEOs in December 2023 indicated a confidence index of 6.3 out of 10 for the 2024 economy—the highest of the year. The CEO upsurge assumes inflation is under control, the Fed may not raise interest rates and instead reverse rates, setting up a new cycle of growth. Furthering the CEO agenda, McKinsey & Co. identified eight CEO 2024 priorities:

• Innovating with GEN AI to dominate the future
• Outcompeting with technology to drive value
• Driving energy transition for net zero, decarbonization, and scaling green businesses
• Cultivating institutional capability for competitive advantage
• Building out middle managers
• Positioning for success amidst geopolitical risks
• Developing growth strategies for continued outperformance
• Considering the broader macroeconomic wealth picture for identifying growth

As project managers, navigating the uncertainty of economic shifts necessitates staying vigilant. The year may bring variables and predictions that impact the execution probability of strategic projects. Shifting between growth plans and efficiency drivers demands different preparation. To stay prepared, consider the following:

• Regularly monitor global economic indicators and CEO outlooks
• Foster agility within the team to adapt to changing priorities
• Develop scenario plans that account for potential economic shifts
• Collaborate with key stakeholders to gather real-time insights
• Continuously reassess project priorities based on evolving economic conditions

In an environment of perpetual change, proactive monitoring, adaptability and strategic collaboration will be key to successfully steering projects through the dynamic economic landscape.

How else can you stay prepared as the demands shift on you and your team?

References

1. JP Morgan: Economic Trends
2. Economic outlook: A mild slowdown in 2024 and slightly improved growth in 2025
3. UN: World Economic Situation and Prospects 2024
4. McKinsey: What matters most? Eight CEO priorities for 2024
5. CEOs Gain Confidence About 2024 On Hopes Of Lower Rates

Business Transformation in Disguise

By Jess Tayel

In the quest to uplift capabilities, better serve customers, improve the bottom line or acquire market share, organizations rely on a mix of projects and programs.

Some projects are scored as critical and complex. Some organizations have a clear and defined scoring system of what is critical and what is not, while others settle for a subjective measure.

But even after you’ve determined a project is critical, there’s more to consider.

Is it Change or Transformation?

When it comes to big, critical projects, ask yourself: Are you delivering a change initiative or a business transformation initiative?

Why is this distinction important? Because they both have different characteristics that dictate how they should be brought to life.

Change initiatives execute a defined set of projects or initiatives that may or may not impact how things work across the entire organization.  Examples include introducing a new payroll system, moving into a centralized shared services model or executing an office move.

Business transformation, however, is a portfolio of initiatives that have a high level of interdependencies, leading to change across the organization. They’re focused not just on execution but also on reinventing and discovering a new or a revised business model. That model is based on a significant business outcome that will determine the future of the organization.

With that in mind, business transformation is more unpredictable and iterative, and it’s about a substantial change in mindset and ways of doing business. The “how” may not be as defined as it is in change initiatives, which means you need to try different methods and be more experimental.

Set Your Organization up for Success

Because of these distinctions, business transformation should never start with finding a solution, i.e., bring in this technology, hire this firm, change model X to Y. It should instead focus on the following:

• Why?
  • Define the purpose and the platform of urgency.
  • Why is this important?
  • What would happen if you do not achieve this transformation?
• Who?
  • Who is your customer (internally and externally)? Tip: Internal customers, i.e., employees, are as important as your external customers. Understanding their point of view and what impact they will have on the success of this program is critical.
  • What would that mean for your customers?
  • What competitive advantage are you bringing to your customers and to the market?
  • What changes to behavior and mindset is required to make this change a success?
• What?
  • Define success.
  • How do you measure success?
  • What does success look like in the future? Tip: Be as detailed as possible. Tell a story of success X months into the future.
  • What are the barriers to success?
  • What are the top three risks that may affect this transformation?
  • What are the top three opportunities that you need to capitalize on to deliver success?

You may say that these questions can be part of the initiation phase. But in my 20 years of experience around the globe, I have rarely seen the above steps executed diligently from a customer centricity point of view before teams start to dig for a solution.

That said, time spent clearly articulating those elements is well spent and directly contributes to the success of the transformation, while reducing rework and change fatigue. It’s like spending time to sharpen your saw before starting to cut the tree.

In my next post, I will talk more about what is required from the leadership and internal transformation teams to facilitate and create success.

Feel free to comment below and send feedback; I would love to hear about your experiences with business transformation

Make it or break it!

In the world of Business Transformation (BT), project management plays a critical part in the successful delivery of the business transformation programs to an extend where I can say it is a “Make it or Break it”

And why is that?

Imagine a school music play and the effort required to coordinate everything to get it done successfully. Of course, there is a lot of planning, coordination and execution that goes into it to produce a high quality school play

Now imagine an orchestra and the effort required to get this done successfully. In essence and to the inexperienced eye, the tasks may be similar but the effort and complexity are just a different ball game altogether

This is the same thing when it comes to managing a non-BT project and a BT project. The main tasks of initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and closing may look the same on the surface but underneath the skeleton,  is a different level of complexity

Having said that, BT project management requires a different calibre of project managers to help get the beast out of the door while achieving business outcomes

To be on the same page, let’s define what business transformation is. Business transformation is a significant change that an organization goes through impacting its people, process and/or technology. The change is usually a complex one with long term business outcomes to be achieved   

Project management becomes the core part of delivering the business transformation and ensure that business outcomes are achieved. The calibre of the BT project manager is therefore a lot more complex and at a higher level of maturity. Below are the key characteristics for a successful business transformation project manager  

Exceptional Business Acumen

• Ability to lose the jargon and speak to the business in their own language
• Come from a place of wanting to understand what the business wants and needs
• Makes no assumptions about what success looks like but instead co-create with it with the business
• Understands the business vision and direction and how to best position the project to fulfil the business outcomes
• Keep everyone accountable to achieving measurable business outcomes  

Visionary and can see beyond the short term goals

• Able to mentally fast forward the current events to predict issues and resolve them early on
• Proactively seek guidance and collaboration to ensure alignment
• Understand the art of the unspoken word and the goal behind the goal
• Able to manoeuvre and venture into the political landscape of the organization and foster relationship building

Can see different angles and prospective

• Understand the business interdependencies, people impact and technology constraints
• Able to see the logic in the various stakeholder groups’ points of view and make sense of them all to come to a well-rounded conclusion
• Understand the different motives of the various levels in the organization i.e. executives, management and front liners

Diversified skill set

• Having a diverse skill set is key in the success of BT project management. This allows the project manager to properly articulate what is required and most importantly see the missing links
• Able to work better with the project team members coming from a land of similar experiences (not necessarily at the same level of depth)

Knows and understands failure

• A project manager who have seen this, done that would have a higher level of exposure to different setups and problems which enriches their ability to problem solving
• Have seen the good, the bad and the ugly means they can smell failure from a mile away and able to take action to set proper direction to avoid it or have the proper contingencies in place

Knows the job and acts beyond it

• In the world of BT, project managers hardly have a job description to follow. For hiring purposes, yes they might have one but when doing the doing and working day-in day-out; they work on ensuring that the BT project is delivered successfully. This will take them beyond the scope of works to understand the wider environment of the project and resolve problems and issues that may “technically” be out of the project scope “the agreed baseline scope”
• BT project manager does not say “Sorry, this is not my job!”