Module 6 Paper

Catherine Brawner

PMG 321 – Project Leadership

Professor Pandya

18 June 2023
Catherine Brawner

PMG 321 – Project Leadership

Professor Pandya

18 June 2023

Module 6 Paper

How did these resources enhance your knowledge of project management? By now, you

have gained so much expertise in PM, what changes will you make in your next project?

The reading from this module helped me to enhance my knowledge as a project manager

by outlining the importance of ethical behavior. I have had some experience with the concepts

from the reading in my past; I studied ethics for my accounting certificate and explored it further

in a business ethics course. It was helpful to revisit it through the lens of a project manager

because they, like any leader, are in a position of power and thus have a higher obligation to act

ethically. I feel that, beyond learning strategies for becoming an effective project manager, ethics

is one of the most important facets of leadership and management. It is of paramount importance

that leaders adhere to a code of ethics and act with integrity so that their practices benefit not

only the organization, but also the project team and all of the affected stakeholders. Leading by

example is one of the best ways to ensure that organizations have a strong culture of trust,

integrity, and accountability, so it is always helpful to reflect on how our behaviors and practices

adhere to ethics.

One of the challenges that I anticipate in project management is ensuring that the team

stays motivated and committed. I chose one of my resources, “How To Set Weekly Goals To
Keep Employees Motivated,” because I feel that it offered some helpful tips and insight into this.

The author, Sara London, describes how redundant tasks or long projects can be detrimental to

team morale and motivation. She explains how she uses weekly goals to help keep her team

energized and motivated and maintain synergy in their workflow. Much like decomposing large

tasks for a project, she describes how she breaks down big work items or tasks into small,

manageable weekly tasks that are easily achievable and always celebrated. She says that they

should be “fashioned intentionally to fuel their focus.” I feel that this is helpful as, in my

experience, it is helpful to see measurable progress and achievement. Additionally, recognizing

and celebrating these achievements helps to ensure that the team feels that they are a valuable

member of their team and that their contributions are visibly helping to achieve their goals.

I found the podcast “Meetings are Toxic” by Jason Fried and David Hansson to be

insightful as I tend to be overly fond of meetings (an anomaly, I am sure). I thought that this

would be an interesting perspective as it challenges my beliefs that meetings are a great way to

build team cohesion and foster collaboration. More than anything, I found this resource to be

helpful as it helped to understand the true cost of meetings, how different people perceive them,

and their impact on productivity.

Do you agree with all of their assertions? Which assertions stood out for you the most?

Why?

I agree with all of the assertions given in this module’s reading. I have always believed

that integrity and a strong ethical code are one of the most important facets of business, and

without them there would be little hope for a sound economy or society.
 In “Meetings are toxic,” Jason Fried made one statement that stood out to me: Meetings

can be an incredible hindrance to productivity due to how they break up the workday. In his

example, he describes the scenario where an employee has 45 minutes until a meeting starts.

Rather than diving into a big task, this time is often spent on insignificant activities or

completely wasted. I have seen this in my experience, and it seems that it would hold true for

most. While I still think that meetings are a valuable tool for collaboration and updates, I feel that

they should be reserved for times where the meeting contents couldn’t be conveyed through

other methods.

In Sara London’s blog, she describes the process of breaking down large tasks into small,

manageable weekly activities. I thought that her rationale behind this was sound: “taking on a

considerable mission all at once is like cramming for a big exam. You scramble to accomplish

whatever seems the most useful without a strategic plan… Weekly goals need to be realistic and

doable because setting yourself up for failure before you even start isn’t fun for anyone.” Much

like how project managers decompose large items into smaller activities, I feel that this

methodology would be enormously helpful for all facets of productivity.

Citing specific examples from Simulation earlier in this module, discuss any connections

you may find that can be drawn.

There were not many opportunities in the simulation to explore ethics, but I feel that

some connections could be drawn. For example, I sometimes try “what if” practice runs where I

completely disregard budget to see how a large and experienced team would accomplish the

tasks. In real life, this would be unethical; project managers are in a position of power to make

important financial decisions for companies. If they abandoned the objectives agreed upon and

tried to serve their own agenda or interest, this would be unethical.

 I feel that the “Meetings are toxic” podcast is helpful for real-life scenarios, but meetings

are one of the most important variables in the simulation. I try to minimize the number of

meetings as much as possible to maximize the amount of time spent on tasks, but they are

essential to communication, status updates, and training for the team. I feel that a significant

portion of the simulation’s outcome is finding the right balance between having enough meetings

and having enough time to accomplish tasks.

One of the elements of the simulation that I wish we could control was how the tasks and

activities of the project are scheduled. The key to success in the scenario is maintaining morale

so that productivity is maximized for each week. Sara London mentions the value of rewarding

hitting weekly milestones or goals, and I feel that having the opportunity to do this would help to

maintain morale in the later weeks when stress rises or the team feels frustrated with recurring

tasks.

Discuss any personal experiences that relate to the reading or blog entries from your past

and/or how these takeaways may be related to future plans or goals.

While this isn’t necessarily related to project management, I had one experience in the

Navy which gave me a lot of perspective on the value of ethics in the workplace, especially when

laws and regulations are involved. I had one shipmate in my department who was caught trying

to sell our reactor plant schematics to Russia. He thought that defecting would be the easiest way

out of his contract but ended up facing court martial and a slew of legal ramifications. While this

is certainly an extreme, it reinforced the belief that these decisions can have serious

consequences.
 Beyond this, the blog and podcast that I read both helped me to visualize the kind of

leader that I hope to one day be. I think that both resources provided valuable insight into

maximizing productivity and morale within a team. I hope to use tools such as mindful planning

of meetings and manageable weekly goals and rewards to foster an environment of empowered

and driven team members. Above all, I hope to lead by example; organizational culture often

starts from the top, so setting the standard of integrity and ethical behavior would hopefully

translate to my team’s behavior as well.

 References

Fried, J., & Hansson, D. (2022, September 6). Meetings are toxic. Rework.

https://37signals.com/podcast/meetings-are-toxic-season-2/

London, S. (2023, May 25). How to set weekly goals to keep employees motivated. Hive.

https://hive.com/blog/weekly-goals/

PMI Code of ethics and professional conduct. Project Management Institute. (n.d.).

https://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public/pdf/ethics/pmi-code-of-ethics.pdf