Project HEADWAY
Webinar Mark Mullaly is the host for
today’s webinar. Mark is a
management consultant with
Knowing What To Focus On more than 25 years of
project management
experience.
Mark Mullaly, Ph.D., PMP He brings a wealth of
mark.mullaly@interthink.ca experience in managing
projects in a broad array of
@markmullaly sectors and industries.
We will be starting at 3:00 PM EDT 2
Webinar Objectives
• Explore How We Come To Project Management...
And Learn To Be Project Managers
• Reframe How To Think About Project
Management Education
• Define Strategies For On-going Growth And
Learning In The (Very Broad) Field Of Project
Management
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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
4
Agenda
• Introduction
• Defining Our Terms
• Exploring How We Get Here
• Reframing Where We Go Next
• Defining Strategies That Work (For Us)
• Question & Answer Session
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Defining Our Terms
Focus
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Defining ‘Focus'
• 'Focus' Means:
• A center of activity, attraction, or attention
• A point of concentration
• Directed attention : EMPHASIS
• Direction
• A state or condition permitting clear perception or understanding
• Adjustment for distinct vision
• Focal length
• Source: merriam-webster.com
• Definition taken on 12 August 2019
7
Defining ‘Learning’
• ‘Learning’ Means
• The act or experience of one that learns
• a computer program that makes learning fun
• Knowledge or skill acquired by instruction or study
• people of good education and considerable learning
• Modification of a behavioral tendency by experience
(such as exposure to conditioning)
• Source: merriam-webster.com
• Definition taken on 12 August 2019
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What Does The PMBOK Have To Say?
• Not A Great Deal, Directly
• There Are Indirect References
• The influence of development and learning on culture
• Mostly focused on others
• Particularly the need to train and build expertise in our team and
our stakeholders
• Implicitly, It’s Woven Through
• From the perspective of learning to be a project manager
• Framed specifically in terms of attaining certification
• Actual development is mentioned exactly once
• Grounding in the professional discipline and the building of project
manager competences
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Exploring How We Get Here
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How We Develop As Project Managers
• Most Of Us Don’t Start Off Intending To Become
Project Managers
• Often, we don’t even know project management exists
• We Focus On The Problems We Are Having
• And we welcome tools that help solve them
• We Attack Specifics
• Without necessarily seeing the larger picture
• We Start From Where We Are
• And pursue what seems helpful and useful from there
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What That Has Often Meant
• For Many Project Managers, Development Has
Been Fragmented And Sporadic
• Develop Is Often Informal And Inconsistent
• We Focus On The Skills We Think We Need
• And also the things that most interest us
• We Pursue Specialist Domains
• And often adopt a more narrow focus as a result
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We Fell Into This By Accident
• What For Many Is Closest To The Truth
• We are accidental project managers
• We started off endeavoring to organize and do stuff
• Somewhere along the way we discovered project
management is actually a thing
• We embraced, learned, and adopted the practices that
made a difference for us in our role
• Part Of This Is Simply Pragmatism
• Running into challenges, and finding solutions
• Where we take it depends on motivation, interest,
direction, opportunity and perseverance
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At Best, We’ll Teach You The Basics
• If Skills Development Happens At All, It’s Around The
Basics
• Training in the essential, basic principles of project management
• Emphasis Is On The Level Of “Project Management 101”
• Introduction to an essential process
• How to get through a project from start to finish
• Typically Presented As Activities, Processes And Steps
• Provide structure to explain and differentiate ideas
• How to apply those ideas is still left as an exercise for the
participant
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Recognizing How We Learn
Stage 1:
Having an
Experience
What?
Experience
Stage 4:
Testing the Stage 2:
Implications of Reviewing the
Concepts In New Experience
Situations
Application Reflection
Now What? Stage 3:
So What?
Formation of
Abstract Concepts
& Generalizations
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Acknowledging Need For Experiences
• Adults Learn By Doing
• We start with an experience
• We commit to trying to learn from and build on the
experience
• Learning Requires Reflection
• We need to take the time to do it
• We are stepping out of our normal day-to-day to gain
insights
• Continued Learning Requires Application
• We need to take the conscious steps necessary to apply
our new approaches
• We need to commit to an on-going cycle of learning
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Appreciating How Else We Learn
Stage 1:
Having an
Experience
Experience
Assess Values
Explore
Assumptions Behind
Stage 4: Action Strategies
Testing the Stage 2:
Implications of Reviewing the
Concepts In New Experience
Situations
Design New Values &
Assumptions
Generalization
Stage 3:
Formation of
Abstract Concepts &
Generalizations
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Acknowledging Critical Thinking
• Essential Learning Loop Takes Experience At Face
Value
• Something happened
• How do I want to approach future events differently?
• Double-Loop Learning Forces Reflection Over Time
• Why do experiences repeat themselves?
• What are the underlying principles and assumptions that I
need to challenge?
• What are new principles and assumptions I need to adopt?
• A Crucial Step: Recognizing We Are Fallible
• Having enough presence of mind (and egolessness) to
learn from when things go wrong
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Where Does The Talent Triangle Fit?
• The “Talent Triangle”
Calls For Development
Of Three Dimensions Of
Expertise:
• Technical – the
discipline of project
management
• Leadership – broader
communication, team
and leadership
capabilities
• Strategic & Business
Management – industry
and organizational
understanding
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Reframing Where We Go Next
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Thinking Beyond The Talent Triangle
• The Talent Triangle Only Goes So Far
• It defines what it understands within project management
• Project management itself draws on numerous other
dimensions
• We’ve borrowed techniques and concepts, and then
forgotten where we borrowed them from
• What We Actually Leverage As Project Managers Is
Enormous
• It is the ultimate generalist skill
• We need to be able to draw on a range of different
dimensions
• Which means we need to understand what it means to be a
generalist
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Thinking Beyond Project Management
• A Fundamental Reality Of Generalism
• What we draw from in insight and understanding is incredibly
broad
• We Think About Project Management As Its Own Thing
• It actually draws on a wide variety of other subjects, domains and
disciplines
• Being Able To Excel In Project Management Requires
Mastery
• Knowing where ideas came from
• Knowing why those ideas are relevant and applicable
• Understanding their limitations—and how to adapt appropriately
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Thinking About How PM Became PM
• Modern PM Has Its Roots In 1950s
• Industrial and defense projects
• Particularly the source of CPM and PERT techniques
• Focus On The Management Of Highly Complex
Projects
• Resulted in highly complex and detailed solutions
• Modern project management associations started
• Intent to popularize these techniques with a broader
audience
• Progressive Evolution Of Standards From There
• Adding to expectations and perceived 'best practices'
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Actual Practice Has Evolved Considerably
• Our Understanding Of PM Has Been Challenged From
A Number Of Perspectives
• Pragmatic approaches to ‘what works’
• Industry-specific practices
• Solution-specific practices
• Methodologies & models
• Many Different Philosophies & Perspectives Have
Emerged
• Agile
• Lean
• Work-Face Planning
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Thinking About How We Learn
• Each Of Us Learns Differently
• We have different comfort levels in how learning works
• Adult Learning Presumes An Experiential Focus
• The emphasis of those experiences depends
• We will be receptive to different experiences and situations
• We Can Certainly Learn By Doing
• We also learn by formal education, informal discussion,
mentoring and reading—or simply watching others
• What works best depends on our receptiveness and
comfort
• Partly that’s driven by being open to learning; part it is
driven by what is available to us
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Thinking About What We Focus On
• This Is Where It Becomes Complicated
• Because there is literally so much that we could focus on
• The breadth of opportunities are enormous
• Our ability to respond to those opportunities is limited
• Recognizing There Is A Fundamental Depth Of Knowledge
Needed
• Scratching the surface means we are aware but unable to apply
• Deep mastery is unlikely (but can be built over time)
• Learning requires a fundamental depth of understanding that we can
at least (with thought) apply what we aspire to develop
• Possibly The Most Uncomfortable Thing About Being A
Generalist
• The more that we know, the more that we know we don’t actually know
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Defining Strategies That Work (For Us)
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For Starters, It Has To Work For You
• Recognize That—Generalism Aside—This Is A
Personal Journey
• It has to work for you
• That Applies On Numerous Levels
• The topics that you pursue
• The specific skills you seek to learn
• How you go choose to develop those skills
• The manner in which you subsequently apply them
• There’s Still A “You’re Doing It Wrong”
• But that’s judged by you
• You are the one that has to learn and grow and develop
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Defining A Particular Target
• Guidance From Others Is Possible (And Possibly
Helpful)
• Understanding the realities of a particular organization
• Recognizing the challenges of a particularly type of project
• Providing mentoring feedback on skills and development
opportunities
• Pick A Thing And Focus On It For A Period
• Don’t list everything and go after it all at once
• Prioritize what you need to look at
• Learn to do that well (enough)
• Move on to the next challenge from there
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Figuring Out How Best You Learn
• Part Of This Will Be Driven By Learning Style
• Knowing how you learn best
• Building on the approaches that have worked for you in the past
• Part Of This Will Be Influenced By Comfort Level
• Admitting you are trying to learn
• Attempting to practice using the skill
• Being comfortable (enough) that you are not (yet) competent in
applying the skill
• Still being willing to follow through and try to learn
• Part Will Be Framed By What’s Available
• The opportunities that exist to learn what you are trying to
understand
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Figuring Out Where We Want To Go
Behavioural Problem
Decision Bounded The Carnegie
Decision Solving
Making Rationality School
Making Strategy
Heuristics &
Psychology
Biases Each of these
areas can
support deep
dives of their
Prospect Organizational own
Theory Behaviour
Evolutionary
Uncertainty
Economics
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Defining A Plan
• This Is Where We Need To Remember Our Own Fundamental Principles
• There is value in taking the time to plan
• Rather than just jumping in and tackling the next exciting thing
• Be Specific About What You Need To Focus On
• What does that look like?
• How competent do you need to be?
• What are the steps to build, practice, apply and internalize it?
• Be Clear About How To Focus On It
• What approach will you take?
• What resources do you need? What resources are available?
• Think Through Your Approach To Each Of The Learning Stages
• Building awareness and understanding
• Finding opportunities to practice and apply
• Evaluating and assessing how that goes
• Redeveloping our approach and committing to reapply it
32
Following Through
• Keep The Plan Front And Centre
• Remember what you are trying to do
• Keep focussed on the path you’ve chosen for yourself
• Make The Time To Focus On It
• Carve out the time to do the work
• Do that in meaningful enough chunks to make a difference
• Have The Humility To Get It Wrong
• Practice is everything—but we make ourselves vulnerable by
practicing
• Be willing to practice even when you aren’t very good
• Care Enough To Keep Trying
• Be persistent about what you are trying to accomplish
• Our urge to walk away is often highest just before it all comes
together 33
Finding Serendipity
• Once We Start Focussing On Something, We Start Seeing
Similar Examples Everywhere
• This can be the result of simply being aware
• It can also be a by-product of “Once you have a hammer,
everything starts to look like a nail.”
• You’ve Invested In A Skill—And The Temptation Is To Use It
• Is what I can contribute relevant here?
• Is this what I need to be focussing my attention on?
• Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should
• Yes, You Have Another Tool In Your Toolbox
• The goal of the exercise isn’t about how many tools you have—
or certifications you hold
• The real value is the capacity to learn—and to keep learning
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In Conclusion…
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In Conclusion…
• Project Management Started With An Idea
• It defined practices that allowed for management of the complexities
of the day
• It has evolved from there to become what we know it as today
• As Project Managers, We Draw On An Array Of Skillsets
• We are—and should be proud of being—the ultimate generalists
• The challenge is that what we need to know covers a lot of ground
• There Is No Right Answer In Terms Of What We Need To
Learn
• Each of our learning journeys is going to be personal
• Focussed on the skills that we need and the challenges that we face
• The Value Of This Journey Isn’t In The Results We Get
• It’s about our capacity to continue to grow and evolve
• There is no “done” here—just “done that, what’s next?”
• Learning is the reward in and of itself
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Q&A
Knowing What To Focus On
37
Questions?
• Quick Review: Process to Pose a Question
• Questions?
Mark E. Mullaly, PMP
What Is project HEADWAY?
• projectmanagement.com’s Process For Project
Management
• Designed to Provide
• Organizations
• Project managers
• Project teams
With the Processes to Manage Projects, Programs &
Portfolios Within a project Framework
• Simple and Straight-forward
• Available To Premium & Paid PMI Members
39
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40
Webinar Survey
• Feedback Survey
• A feedback survey link is being provided in the chat
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• Please input your feedback and let us know what you
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41
Mark Your Calendars!
Project HEADWAY
You’re Not As Agile As You Think
Thursday, 19 September 2019
@ 3:00 PM EDT
42
The End
Mark Mullaly is the host for
today’s webinar. Mark is a
Questions for the Presenter? management consultant with
Mark Mullaly more than 25 years of
project management
mark.mullaly@interthink.ca experience.
@markmullaly He brings a wealth of
experience in managing
projects in a broad array of
Interested in project HEADWAY? sectors and industries.
http://projectmanagement.com/membership 43
