Jeremy Akin

Dana Barnett

PMG 320

1/15/23

Module 1 Paper: Project Management Skills Reflection

Throughout my career, I have practiced retail management and learned important

lessons on how to communicate with, motivate, and support those who work around me. Little

did I know that project management has a science behind it that can equip managers with the

tools they need to be effective leaders when organizing and driving a project. The insights I

have gained from this class fall into three main categories of project management: project

management vocabulary, project management organizational tools, and project management

skills. Educating myself in each category will provide me with resources to be a better leader

and follower in future projects I may participate in.

The first insight within module one was realizing that I am not versed in project

management vocabulary. I am experienced in executing projects and problem-solving towards

a specific goal, but key terms discussed in the first chapter of our textbook by the Harvard

Business Review Press gave structure to tools I have used in past work experience. One

example is understanding a work breakdown structure as taking a work job and breaking it

down into specific tasks (Harvard Business Review Press, 5). By organizing these tasks, it

becomes easier to identify the scope of a project. Jennifer Witt covers the top ten project

management terms in her video from ProjectManager.com where I was able to expand my
project management vocabulary further. I have heard terms such as: baseline, stakeholders,

and triple constraint used in the workplace, but I have never learned what they mean or

intentionally integrated them into my leadership approach. Exercising the use of strong project

management vocabulary is one of my top goals after reading module one.

The second insight I had in module one of this course revolves around the use of project

management organizational tools to set and communicate goals. One example of this is the use

of Gantt Charts when scheduling work. This process involves organizing task sequences into

coded boxes to provide a visual that provides a “big picture in a single glance” (Harvard

Business Review Press, 6). Prior to this class, I practiced the use of setting S.M.A.R.T. goals

(specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time bound). I never considered translating those

goals into visuals that could assist my team in project execution. An example of a Gantt Chart at

my previous employer was the break aid supervisors would use to run employee lunches. There

would be bars showing coverage during hours of the day and little gaps that meant a break was

present for that specific employee. The chart gave supervisors something tangible to take notes

on or record progress. Learning how to create organizational tools such as these will help my

professional career as I will be able to develop a portfolio of tools that I have designed to

improve or facilitate work projects.

The third insight I had during this module revolves around project management skills

that I hope to develop. The project management skills assessment I took through Mind Tools in

module one was based off my current management team at Costco. The score was sixty-four

meaning that when projects are simple within my Costco warehouse, the outcomes are often

good. As projects become more complex, the more likely the outcome is to become faulty. The
questions in the assessment that scored the lowest were those that measured risk

management, project adaptation, and efforts to get off on the right foot (Harvard Business

Review Press, 8-10). Within the Costco warehouse I work at, risk management is poorly

executed in the daily scheduling as employee call-offs are not planned for. The warehouse

experiences about three to seven call-offs a day and does not have a solid plan for call-offs

happening within the same department. Project adaptation could be improved as unanticipated

risks, such as software systems or payment processing going down have caused the warehouse

to cease to a halt several times this past year. System failures cause the company to lose

several thousands of dollars every fifteen minutes. Efforts to get off on the right foot discussed

on page ten of our textbook are not prioritized within the Costco warehouse I work at.

Expectations are not clearly shared, and little incentive is given to go beyond the expectation.

Simple projects are executed well where I work, but sometimes things fall apart when the

project or project environment changes. Staying ahead of problems and being proactive, as

opposed to reactive, would help the warehouse I work at to have project results that are

consistently good.

Shifting to an introspective assessment of my own project management characteristics, I

would say that I have a strong work ethic, I consistently think critically, and I am flexible in my

approach. My heart is in the right place as I want the best outcome for the whole team. I try to

be empathetic in my approach as internal and external factors change, however my weakness is

on the organizational side of project management. Where I struggle the most is shifting from

“big picture thinking” to detail-oriented planning and my organizational skills when gathering

and monitoring data. I have a vision established yet I lack the ability to create a step-by-step
plan to execute it. Most of this comes from lack of organization of ideas or consistent

assessments of data tracking tools.

One explanation as to why I am the way I am is my personality type. According to the

Myers and Briggs assessment, I am an INFP (introversion, intuition, feeling, perceiving). I lean

more towards feeling rather than thinking and I prefer to follow hunches over concrete data.

My approach is not very systemic, and I rarely create tools for myself within my leadership

approach. This is an area I have a lot of improvement to make as the organization and

preservation of data is important when attempting to reach project milestones. Recording and

organizing project management data will let me learn from my failures and build a portfolio of

my successes.

As a developing leader studying organizational leadership, refining my project

management skills will give me the vocabulary and organizational tools to lead successful

projects. Before this class, I based most of my learning on manager experience. Complex

situations would arise, and I would have to address them in a timely manner. During my time as

a manager there have been projects where I felt as if I were constantly putting out fires within

the store. Developing project management skills will let me rely more on prevention than on

reaction to project obstacles. The insights I have gained from this class fall into three main

categories of project management: project management vocabulary, project management

organizational tools, and project management skills. Though my experience has mostly been

with the management of people in the service industry, project management strategies will aid

my organizational skills and allow me to develop a professional portfolio while becoming a well-

rounded leader equipped for diverse projects.