Are you a human? You’re a project manager!

Photo by Thomas Park on Unsplash

Yep, that’s right. We’ve come to the ultimate point in this multi-week blog series: You, my friend, are a project manager. Yep, you. No matter how disorganized, chaotic or totally random you think you are, I guarantee you that you manage projects every day of your life.

That draft of a report that’s due mid-week? That’s a significant milestone in the project of writing a report. The bathroom remodel you’re attempting this year? Project. Your resolution to read one book a month? Yep, that’s a project, too.

By the way, we are not the only people noticing these trends. Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, former head of the PMI, lays out his take on the importance of project management in today’s business world in his HBR article “The Project Economy Has Arrived.” He argues that we are shifting from an operations-focused business environment to a project-focused business environment and that companies and organizational structures need to change to better accommodate the shifting nature of work.

I think Antonio is onto something, and I would add that not only do organizations need to change and shift how they view themselves, but individual people would also benefit from a shift in how they see themselves. If people looked at the evidence, they couldn’t help but conclude that they are in fact project managers, regardless of what their job title says. Anyone who manages deadlines, competing priorities and communication challenges is doing project management. Anyone who leads a team is doing project management. Anyone who reports out on the status of a budget or work they’ve done is doing project management.

And, we’d all benefit from making this identity shift, because project management has an awful lot to teach us about how to get things done. Good planning is a hallmark of project management- imagine how much easier work could be if everyone at your company spent 5-10 minutes more per day planning their course(s) of action. Good estimation is another hallmark of project management- imagine what would happen if everyone on your team had the skills to estimate the time it would take them to get a task done with 20% more accuracy than they currently have. If you happen to be the leader of that team, do you see the immense benefit you could receive if that were to happen? If you happen to be the leader of a company, can you imagine how those benefits would compound at a company-wide scale?

And that’s just two little areas- planning and estimating. Project management covers so many more facets of leadership, management and teamwork- I could write on this topic every week for a year and still only scratch the surface of all that project management has to offer us as professionals. But for now, I hope to simply plant the seed of the simple idea that you a project manager, and that is awesome.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Do you like the idea of being a project manager, no matter your job title? If you thought of yourself as a project manager, and embraced some best practices like planning and estimation, how would it benefit your working or personal life? Leave me a comment or a DM with your thoughts! I’d love to hear from you!