RECONNECTING

WITH
PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
Project HEADWAY Webinar Series

MARK MULLALY, PH.D., PMP

mark.mullaly@interthink.ca
@markmullaly

21 01 2021
Webinar Objectives

Understand How We Start Our Project Management Journey

Recognize The Challenges We Encounter In Growing Our Skills

Reconcile What Has Worked—And What Does Work—Going Forward

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 3

Webinar Process – Things to Know

This Is Cisco WebEx Presentation

• PowerPoint
• Computer-based audio stream

Problems or Help?
• Contact Heather using the Q&A box

Questions?
• Submit a question in the Q&A box
• Questions will be answered during the Q&A session
• We may not be able to answer all questions

This Presentation Will Be Recorded for Future Reference

PDUs

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 4

Agenda

• Introduction
• Defining Our Terms
• Starting Our Journey
• Growing Our Skills
• Reconnecting With Project Management
• Question & Answer Session

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 5

DEFINING OUR TERMS

Reconnect

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Defining ‘Reconnect'

'Reconnect' Means:
• To connect again
• The project … is reconnecting a road that was buried after a massive landslide …
• The organization also hosts family workshops that allow returning servicemen and women to reconnect with
their children through woodworking projects such as bird houses.

Source: merriam-webster.com
• Definition taken on 18 January 2021

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 7

Defining ‘Connect’

‘Connect’ Means (in a sense that matters here):

• As an intransitive verb:
• To have or establish a rapport
• As a transitive verb:
• To join or fasten together by something intervening
• To place or establish in relationship
• To link together logically related elements in order to draw a conclusion

Source: merriam-webster.com
• Definition taken on 18 January 2021

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 8

And Why Do We Care?

Especially If We Have Been Project Managers For Years?

• Aren’t we already connected?

• What’s to reconnect?

Great Question, And Thanks For Asking It

My Purpose Here Is Two-Fold:

• To explore how we connect with project management in the first place

• To examine why reconnection might be the most vitally important thing we do

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 9

And What Does The PMBOK Have To Say?

Not A Great Deal, Specifically

• And that is neither unexpected nor unreasonable

In General, However, There Are Some Important Principles To Keep In Mind

• “The project management body of knowledge includes proven traditional practices that are widely
applied as well as innovative practices that are emerging in the profession.”
--page 1
• “This PMBOK Guide identifies a subset of the project management body of knowledge that is
generally recognized as good practice.”
-- page 2
• “The project manager works with the team and other stakeholders to determine and use the
appropriate generally recognized good practices for each project.”
-- page 2
• The essential structure of the PMBOK Guide has not changed in over 30 years

• Source: PMBOK Guide, Sixth Edition

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STARTING OUR
JOURNEY

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 11

Reflecting On Where We Start

For Many Of Us, We Don’t Start As Project Managers

• We start simply trying to get things done
• The realization that the things that we are doing are ‘projects’ and that we are applying
‘project management’ doesn’t come until much later

We Wrestle With Progress

• How to plan
• How to coordinate (especially when others get involved)
• How to maintain visibility and progress

We Look For, Learn And Develop New Tools To Help

• This is often as much a process of creativity as it is research and learning

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We Often Operate Without Structure

We Do The Best We Can With What We Have

• We work with the tools and strategies that we know and have available to us

We Try To Figure Out Better As We Are Able To Do So

• Where something doesn’t work or fails, we try to find better practices
• This might involve borrowing from elsewhere or inventing on our own

We Evolve And Adapt Along The Way

• We keep changing and refining what we do and how we do it
• There is no ‘done’ in this process; there are simply challenges we confront and
attempts to do differently as a result

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This Is The Journey Of The Accidental Project Manager

We Don’t Set Out To Become A Project Manager

• We may not recognize it as a role
• We don’t know there is structure or process behind it

Our Focus Is On Getting Results

• We enjoy tackling complex, difficult, interesting things
• We navigate our way through what it takes to be successful

Figuring Out What Works Is An Evolving Journey Of Exploration And Adaptation

• We try things out
• We keep what works
• We change, refine or throw out what doesn’t serve our purposes

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 14

What Characterizes This Journey Is A Search Outwards

Starting From Where We Are, We Are Trying To Expand What We Have And Know
• Finding other approaches

• Learning from others

• Figuring out solutions to problems

• Evolving our own practice

The Motivating Question Is “Does This Help Me?”

• This is an expansive question without limits

• The qualifying criteria is the discovery of better

• As we discover better, we figure out how to incorporate it in what we know

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 15

We Eventually Discover Formal Practice

Eventually, We Come Across Project Management

• We realize that project management is a thing

• We recognize ‘project manager’ as the role we play

• We delight in the recognition that there are tools and approaches that solve the
problems we have been wrestling with

That Starts Its Own Journey

• One of embracing and learning project management as a discipline

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 16

GROWING OUR SKILLS

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 17

Moving Past Accidental Project Management

As We Recognize And Learn Project Management, We Stop Being Accidental

• We realize that there is a role

• We appreciate that the role comes with process, structure and guidelines

Our Focus Shifts To Learning Project Management

• What we are learning has a name

• It has a structure

• There are areas to focus on and specific techniques to learn

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 18

What We Have Done Is Named What We Do

Naming Things Has Consequences

• Giving something a name gives it a fixed and identifiable form

The Consequences For Our Particular Journey:

• ‘Project management’ becomes a defined box

• At the outset, there are boundaries to it, but also a lot of blank spaces

• We work to fill in the blanks and understand fully what is in the box

• We often start with one perspective or view (often the one that we first discover)

• We keep building on that perspective

• Eventually we reach a presumed level of expertise in that perspective

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 19

There Are Positives To This

There Are Advantages To Recognizing Project Management As A Named Concept

• At the outset, it frames what we are trying to learn and understand

• It gives us structure on which we can hang newly gained knowledge

• It shows us how previously separate parts fit together

This Is Particularly Valuable As We Are Learning

• It guides us in our learning

• It provides a framework in which we can learn

• It allows us to gauge our progress and identify gaps in our understanding

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 20

There Are Also Downsides

We Started With A Creative Search Outwards

• Solving problems and figuring out a way forward

We Have Shifted To Filling In A Box

• This has the consequence of setting boundaries on knowledge
• What you can know
• What you need to know

It Prescribes A Perspective And A Worldview

• Particularly where we have adhered to one particular perspective or model
• This can discourage us from going beyond
• This is when reinforcement of “best practice” as an idea becomes a limiting construct

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 21

What We Risk As A Result

Getting Fixated On One Viewpoint

• Because it was what we were introduced to
• We have invested our time and attention in learning and mastering it

Not Being Aware Of Other Perspectives

• Even ones that are related or analogous

Not Thinking Beyond The Box

• We start to consider what is in the box as the scope of accepted practice
• We work with the tools that are present—and don’t look beyond them
• In worst-case scenarios, we are actively discouraged from looking beyond

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 22

RECONNECTING WITH
PROJECT
MANAGEMENT

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 23

Let’s Go Back To The Original Problem

Figuring Out How To Get Things Done

• This is a process that started as an open, expansive and on-going search

• An iterative process of exploring, adopting, adapting and applying

This Is The Basis Of All Self-Directed Learning

• It is not just about project management

It Is Also How Project Management Was Developed In The First Place

• Exploring new approaches to planning, managing and organizing

• Experimenting, adapting and evolving based upon what worked

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 24

Confronting Project Management As We Know It Today

What Has Been Defined Serves As A Useful Framework

• It also has its limitations

The Best Processes (And I Mean This Generally) Will Work In The Majority Of Cases
• Which is not to say they will work in all cases
• In some situations, they require adaptation in order to work
• In a select few situations, they can be ineffective or downright destructive

“Best Practice” As A Concept Is Inherently Limiting

• It implies that there is one best way
• This is only true in the simplest of problems
• It quickly stops being true as problems become more complicated and complex

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 25

We Need To Reflect On The Challenges We Are Trying To Address

One Of The Reasons That Project Management Is Attractive Is That It Is Varied

• It draws on numerous domains and subject areas
• Without attribution, many of our tools are borrowed from elsewhere

The Challenge With Borrowing Is That We Stop Adapting

• Even as the domain that we have borrowed it from continues to evolve

The Most Valuable Part Of Our Original Learning Process Was The Adaptation
• The discovery, figuring out, application, experimentation and evolution
• What we started with was learning how to learn
• What we got to was learning the practices and ideas of others

We Have Replaced The Ability To Learn With Rote Acceptance

• The practices we call project management emerged in a certain time, place and problem
• They are not necessarily as relevant for where we find ourselves today

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 26

The Scope Of The Problems That We Work With Are Many

Under The Label Of “Delivering The Project” There Are Many Challenges We Address
• Project
• Problem
• Process
• People
• Politics
• Organization

There Is Both Science And Art In Managing These Areas—And In Doing So In The Context
Of One Initiative
• There are routines that can support planning, doing, monitoring and communicating
• There are also exceptions and circumstance we must anticipate or respond to

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 27

What Works In These Situations Varies

There Are An Enormous Number Of Factors With Significant Influence On What We Do

• What the PMBOK Guide broadly defines as:
• Organizational Process Assets
• Enterprise Environmental Factors

They Are Treated As Separate, Distinct And ”Over There”

• Orbiting around a core, consistent and relatively unchanging process framework

These Factors Are In Fact Central To The Whole Problem

• It is not about “here’s what works, apply it over here”
• It starts with “here is your reality, what is possible to do in this context?”

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 28

We Know That What Works “Depends”

Different Practices Yield Different Results

• Which means that what we draw on as framework and process will change
• There is no fixed, unvarying box of knowledge that we are working with
• There are many and varied components that will work in varying degrees

Research Has Demonstrated That Better Approaches Depend Upon Desired Outcomes
• Why you are doing the project—and why you are implementing project management—
fundamentally shapes the practices that will be relevant
• Different objectives and outcomes require very different approaches
• Successfully managing in varied contexts means thinking about process very
differently

The Bottom Line Is That One Size Does Not Fit All
• The adaptations that are needed are not tweaks, but wholly different practices

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 29

Connecting With Project Management Is Connecting With Learning

Remembering How We Started

• Facing a problem
• Figuring out what we needed to address the problem in front of us
• Exploring, adapting, evolving and applying

Structure Is Useful In Learning—At Least At The Outset

• Naming and recognizing project management helps to understand what is in the box
as defined
• We need to remember that what is in the box is not everything
• Mastery of the box is not mastery of the whole domain of knowledge

What Works Might Relate To Our Core Processes And Structures

• It can also be very different
• It may wind up being either far more simple, or far more complex
Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 30
IN CONCLUSION…

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 31

In Conclusion…

Project Management Starts As Getting Things Done

• We don’t necessarily recognize the structure
• We often begin our careers as accidental project managers
• We adapt, explore and do what works

Once We Discover Project Management, We Often Commit To Learning It

• We thrill in discovering tools and approaches that solve problems we have encountered
• We commit to learning what is contained inside the box

The “Box” We Learn Can Quickly Become Limiting

• It is often framed by the viewpoint or approach we first discover
• It doesn’t necessarily acknowledge the domains and subject matter it draws on

What Actually Works Varies Considerably

• The right answer has always depended
• Our learning approach is what got us through at the outset—and is still the most valued skill today
• The unique circumstances of context, culture, organization and expectations are not ‘off to the side’
• They are central to figuring out what is needed and how we need to adapt our approach and practice

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 32

Q&A

RECONNECTING WITH
PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 33

 In Conclusion…

Quick Review:
Process to Pose a Question

Questions?

Mark Mullaly, PhD, PMP Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 34
PMI PDU Information

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• PDUs will be batch submitted to PMI (usually by the following Monday)

To Be Eligible For One PDU:

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If After Two Weeks You Don’t See The PDU On PMI’s PDU Credit Recording Web
Site:
• Please contact CommunitySupport@pmi.org

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 35

Webinar Survey

ØFeedback Survey
• A feedback survey link is being provided in the chat section

• Please input your feedback and let us know what you think

• It only takes about 3 min to complete

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 36

Mark Your Calendars!

Project HEADWAY

What We Can Automate… And What We Can’t

Thursday, 18 February 2021

@ 3:00 PM EST

Reconnecting with Project Management 21 JANUARY 2021 37

THANK YOU
QUESTIONS FOR THE PRESENTER?

MARK MULLALY, PH.D., PMP

mark.mullaly@interthink.ca
@markmullaly

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