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| Personal Success |
Project management is generally thought of as a business or
organisational term, and it is true to say that project management
techniques are normally applied to major projects within an
organisation. For example, the installation of a new computerized
accounting system would (or should) be managed as a project; the design
and build of a new aircraft would be managed as a project; a major
restructuring of a company or organisation should be managed as a
project.
Before I had my own business, I was involved in project management in
some quite different types of projects. Those experiences were
invaluable, with each project being quite complex in its own right, and
affecting many people in many departments and disciplines. Their daily
working lives were to change; their working practices were to be
changed. As well as the technical, administrative, organisational,
financial and practical aspects of each project, change itself had to be
managed.
One thing that is always present in any project is the personal
element. The successful outcome of a project does not only depend on the
planning and implementation of the project detail. It will always
depend on the people affected and the people on the project team; how
those two sets of people interact is also critical, and especially how
the project team will deal with concerns, or even outright opposition,
of the individuals, or groups of individuals, who will be directly
affected by the project on completion.
From observation and experience, if the people element of a project
is not managed well, the project is at risk of delay or even total
failure. So, the people affected do have to be embraced as an integral
part of the project. For this reason, I would spend as much time, as a
project leader, in dealing with the personnel to be affected by the
project’s implementation, as I would with team members, and technical
and planning issues.
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| Project Management |
It is because of this experience that I have got used to the idea of
project management, and individuals affected, being closely related. I
then began to wonder whether, in a non-project situation, individuals
could make use of project management techniques and principles, to
manage key aspects of their personal lives.
My thoughts turned to personal success: if an ambitious person had a
vision of success, could they not take that vision, treat it as a
project, plan what is needed to achieve that vision, and then implement
that project much the same way a company would with a project to install
a new computer system? After all, a new computer system started out as a
vision of someone within that company or organisation.
At the very least, some lessons from project management may be of help to an individual who has a desire to succeed, whatever that success might entail. The route to that ultimate success can be broken down into different elements, much as the installation of a new computer system can. Surely a plan to achieve success can be devised and implemented in much the same way? And then managed accordingly?
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