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7 Ways to Grow Your Project Management Smarts

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Home 7 Ways to Grow Your Project Management Smarts

7 Ways to Grow Your Project

Management Smarts
NOVEMBER 5, 2013 BY MICHAEL LEPAGE 5 COMMENTS

Nov 7th is the 9th annual International

Project Management Day.
International Project Management Day is a
day to be proud of working in project
management and to recognize what project
managers contribute to the world, one in
which so much innovation and progress is
due to projects.
I just listened to an interview with Frank Saladis, the founder of International Project
Management Day. Heres what he said.
Frank talked a lot about how project management makes the business world go
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round. Project Management is now a foundation for doing business in all industries
from Technology to Construction to Marketing.
More importantly, Frank mentioned that a recent survey of companies revealed that
the #1 skill most valued in a project manager is:

Leadership
Now some of us might not think of ourselves as leaders (thats just the CEO, right?),
but in todays world, a project manager is no longer a manager. Hes/shes a leader, a
specialist in his/her field and a generalist in everything else.
Wait.
Im not going to jump on a soapbox about the things you should do to more like a
leader.
But I will say this about the business and project leaders that I admire they are very
resourceful a quality I admire and strive for.
So here are 7 ways to become a smarter, more resourceful project manager, project
planner or scheduler.

1. Seek out a Mentor

Having a mentor to support, teach and guide you can be invaluable to your job and
your career. Ive worked with mentors and coaches for a long time and have always
found I find more drive and focus because of these relationships.
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Mentorship has a long tradition in project management and the rewards can be great
for both a mentor, who has the reward of sharing his or her knowledge with someone
less experienced, and the mentee who earns valuable knowledge, support,
connections and experience.
If you dont have one, consider finding a mentor. Many PMI chapters have a
mentoring program. PMI also has some great tips to help you find a mentor.
But the most straightforward approach is to ask someone who you admire to explore
taking on a mentor. If you can, I recommend partnering with someone from the
opposite sex. Youll be surprised what you learn when you see the world from a boldly
different perspective.

2. Listen to Podcasts
Want to feel resourceful?
Learn a new concept and apply it immediately to your job. Podcasts give you access to
interviews and thought-provoking stuff from thought-leaders in all industries.
Here are some of my favourites.
The Construction Industry Podcast I had lunch with Cesar Abeid who
publishes this podcast a few weeks back. Be sure to listen his interview with the
architect of the Burj Khalifa.
Freakonomics From Stephen Levitt himself
The Project Management Podcast
The Oil and Gas IQ Podcast

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3. Take an Online Course

MOOCs are changing the way we deliver education. Massively Open Online Courses
are offered from top universities like Harvard, MIT and Oxford.
Take Peter von Beulows Structures 2 course to learn about flinched beams,
reinforced concrete and combining materials for construction. Or take Kent Ragans
Financial Management course and take in all you can about asset valuation, risk and
return, forecasting and financial analysis.
There are over 750 online courses you can try.
Free!

4. Learn to Communicate Better

Project personnel are good communicators, right? If you get project updates by text
message, then think again.
Find out if your communicator skills stand up take the Communications Skills Quiz
over at MindTools. (I scored 62, and was 12 out of 15 in Decoding.)
After the quiz, be sure to check out all 75 Communications Articles from their
communications mini-site to hone your craft. After all, when were all stressed out with
project deadlines and shortages, clear communication becomes even more
important.

5. Watch MegaBuilders
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On Discovery channel.
Each episode follows a real construction project build team and their real challenges
in building some of the world coolest structures.
Im partial to the episode about the floating bridge build in Kelowna, Canada and use
it often in my Primavera classroom training. Its amazing how we make tons of
concrete float!

6. Read Journals
If youre more of an academic mind, then dig into some of the ground-breaking free
journals available on the web to round-out your PM skills and knowledge. Some
recommendations include:
The Lean Construction Journal
Oil & Gas Journal not really a journal, but still a great source for Oil & Gas info
and news.
The Journal of Petroleum Engineering
Information Technology in Construction
If these dont suit you, then search the Directory of Open Access Journals for a topic
that interests you. Theres about 10,000 or so.

7. Play a Game
In the last few years, quite a few project management games have shown up. Nothing
hones your skills like practice, and these games let you practice your skills, take risks
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and make mistakes in a complex simulated environment. Check them out!

With Virtunomics you can test your business and risk management skills in an
economic simulation game. The best part is that its free and wildly popular.
Sharkworld isnt free, but it looks seriously cool! It is THE project management
simulation, where you are managing the build of a the worlds largest shark aquarium
theme park what can go wrong? The game covers not only economic aspects, but
also social aspects, conflict management and diplomatic skills.
For those board game lovers, theres always Countdown great for project team
building exercises.

You and Project Management.

My goal in this post wasnt so much to convince you to sharpen your project
management skills by trying ALL of these resources as much as it was to encourage
you to expand your mind. All in all, if you really really want to excel in project
scheduling, project planning, or project management, youll find a way. But be willing
to explore deep and wide.

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Filed Under: Construction, IT, Learning, Oil & Gas, Project Controls, Project Management

About Michael Lepage

I help people from all over the world learn planning, scheduling and
everything about Oracle Primavera P6. I've spent years teaching
classroom courses and consulting on Primavera P6...and for some of the heaviest
users around. Two things I enjoy most are teaching and technology...and the odd
strum of my guitar.

Comments
johnny says
November 22, 2013 at 3:33 pm
Hi professionals,
Given a case that all activities are given with fix manhours and trades needed to
execute the job. And also given the constraints all of these activities need to be
finished in 30 days. I tried to link all the activities and discovered manhours for
certain days are extremely high and my project have limited manpower for that. I
couldnt leveling the resources to spread the manhour equally because the
manhours for each activities is fix and there are links between the activities. If i had
to change the duration for activities just to level the manhours, it could not meet the
deadline. Any expert here can help me out? And also i always stuck when there are
too many activities do not have direct connection to each other. I have no idea
where to link the activities to and always end up open ended relationships or
relationships that do not drive successors. Any solutions or suggestions to that? I
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kinda new to project planning. Thanks to your all valuable knowledge.

Reply

sama says
November 27, 2013 at 2:52 am
pleas send me some e-book to learn more about p6.i need it .because i found a job
in planing and control project department & i want to know p6 as a professional
person .thanks a lot
Reply

sama says
November 27, 2013 at 2:55 am
pleas send me some e-book to learn more about p6.i need it .because i found a job
in planing and control project department & i want to know p6 as a professional
person .thanks a lot
sama.nayimi@gmail.com
Reply

Michael Lepage says

November 27, 2013 at 2:30 pm
Sama, please download my ebook here : http://offers.plannertuts.com/primaverahttps://www.plannertuts.com/7-ways-grow-project-management-smarts/

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p6-ebook-how-to-analyze-a-primavera-p6-schedule
M
Reply

Terry Rust says

December 13, 2013 at 12:46 pm
Johnny,
send me an email at Terryr@cccgroupinc.com and i can discuss how to solve your
issue. Thanks!
Reply

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