Read the blog
There have been big changes at the APM's People SIG in 2011; with Jane Roydens appointment as the new Chair and the new activities, we caught up with Mark Oliver from the People SIG committee to see what's going on and what the future holds.
'
Mark Oliver' is a practising programme director in the Aerospace industry. He is also on the committee of APM's People SIG, working on its future direction and how it engages with the project management community. The People SIG has gone through some interesting changes this year and so Steve Lloyd, People Matter Editor, asked Mark 'what's going on?' It could be that readers of People Matter will be interested in getting involved...
Resistance is futile! - No, actually resistance is good, and necessary
People Don't like Change, we hear so often. Well, if change is brought upon me, and it is not my choice, and I can't control it, and it affects what matters to me, then of course I don't like it. And guess what? I will resist. Well here is an interesting idea....my resistance not 'bad', it is good. In fact it is necessary, because it reflects my 'energy' for my world and how I contribute. I may be seen as a problem , but perhaps by seeing the opportunity in my resistance, I can be engaged in a different way, and I may yet become a positive force for the change, when I am ready.
This could be any of us, truly. In this blog, I'd like to make a case for positively embracing resistance.
Is an ambidextrous project pipeline enough?
The journey from new ideas to value generation can involve many steps, follow a variety of routes with a plethora of twists and turns as well as the occasional blind alley. However, the vehicle for most of these journeys is the Project. It is hence worth asking whether the project management discipline is up to the job of driving the delivery vehicle.
INSIRPATIONAL INNOVATORS and Gantt charts rarely mix. People deliver great projects; tools don’t.
Project management processes, be it Prince2, APMP, PMI or another, give more assurance of safe delivery, but therein lies a hidden risk. Creative ideas, and the risk taking and freedom needed for true innovation, can be stifled by the controlling framework and mindset. This is not easy to deal with. We need creativity and we need control.
Let' stop calling them 'soft skills'. We need to get more serious than this about growing from project managers into leaders. The expression 'soft skills' drives me nuts, especially when I hear things like: 'the problems we have are more on the softer side'. What's soft about it anyway? It's the hard bit after all. The term has become pejorative and I propose we banish it. I think it is a reflection of our lack of good thinking on the people aspects of projects that we fall back on this (soft!) phraseology.
On a recent training module covering difficult conversations, the Group were debating this issue - in fact it's one we find is discussed a lot.
A female participant, a strong character (and someone I had every reason to imagine to be an effective project manager) said "If I show my emotions I'm just going to get labelled as an emotional woman".
So, why this anxiety? How do we respond to people who display their emotions in the course of getting things done? Which works best, to reveal or contain our feelings? And is it different for men and women in the world of project delivery?