To be successful, a project manager (and just about everybody else too) needs to see the world in diffferent ways than their default ones to be successful. They need to understand the context from the perspective of the client, the technologist, the builder, the team, the sponsor, management, finance .... etc. They need to be able to adjust their communciation and message and style and methods to the different contexts that are created by people with different perspectives - and still be true to their message. They also need to form a functioning team from a group of people that will certainly have different perspectives on many things. The more rapidly they can understand these, the faster their team can move through the storming phase of team building.
My theory is that we can flex and grow our perspective muscles by using them more. If you are inquisitive and acknowledge and celebrate some different perspectives on things in contexts where it is not critical to do so, can that make you better at doing it when it does matter? I honestly don't know but I think it could.
So back to the conference and different perspectives....
- I heard about a PMO in an organization that has 27,000 project managers - wow that is different!
- I learned of different perspectives on politics and perceptions from people from South Africa and France(Vive la France!) and other places around the globe and found some common ground
- I learned about different perspectives on prices and value (of beer and houses esp.) from around the world
- I sat next to a four year old who had never flown before and was very excited about it and climbed over me several times to see out my window!
- I looked out the same window myself and saw tiny perfect rectangles and squares of farmland - I bet the farmer does not see it that way. (That's about the size, where you put your eyes....)
- I heard about PMOs that get by on shoe-string budgets or that don't have PMs or that are at the Enterprise level, or that don't manage resources or that participate in strategy and Portfolio Management -- many different types of PMO perspectives and contexts.
- I attended sessions where attendees perceived great value and I saw none - and vice-versa
So, maybe you can try flexing that perspective muscle in the next few days/weeks and see what happens I will let you know if I have any great break-throughs and you do the same!
Do Great Things! - With your Perspective Muscle!
Ed Sullivan, PMP
