What is This Obsession about Project Management All About?
Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT
Life is a series of projects. The more successful you are with those projects, the more successful you are in life. Mastering Project Management leveraging your natural strengths puts you on the fast track to success.
Since last Wednesday’s facebook live event that is nearing 100,000 views, I have received a number of inquiries about why I have this obsession with project management. The queries go something like -” this all looks fascinating but I really am not interested in being a Certified Project Manager. ”
Let’s take the term “certified” out of the picture. Afterall – that can carry some negative connotations as in “certifiably crazy.” And look at the term “Project Management” on its own.
We all do projects. Every single one of us. Let’s say you get a great job across the country and you have to move. Yup – this move, it’s a project. It’s a unique effort with a distinct beginning and an end. If you know about the five phases of a project (Initiation, Planning, Execution, Control, and Closeout) and you have some simple processes for doing your projects, this move can be an exhilarating event rather than a dreadful nightmare. By learning and applying some simple project management techniques like budgeting, scheduling, risk management, quality control, communications & resources management, change control – in your move across the country, you can enjoy it rather than have an unforeseen disaster blow your happy mojo and derail your efforts to get situated in your new environment.
The better you are at doing the projects of your life, the more success overall you can have. And just what is it that most stimulates projects? CHANGE. The example above, you landed a great job across the country and had to move to take advantage of this opportunity. It was a big change. Considering in our lifetimes, we experience the same magnitude of change every 18 months that our grandparents experienced in 50 years, I’d say becoming good with CHANGE might be helpful to move beyond mere survival to thriving in today’s environment. To become good at change requires that you become good at PROJECTS. Mastering Project Management can help you become very good at projects and therefore very good with change.
Let’s take this one step further. When you learn how to inspire others to be their best as part of working with you on projects, when you know how to change fast using your innate strengths, when you know how to quickly complete projects, you can pursue significantly better opportunities. For our example of the move across the country – do you think your new employer would be more impressed if you made the move quickly, easily with minimal challenges, or if six months later you were still struggling with how you were going to get your life situated in your new environment? Well, we both know the answer to this one. And this is what you can accomplish by becoming a Cheetah Certified Project Manager – you show the world through your consistent results that you can, in fact, bring out the best of everyone while making things happen fast in your life and in theirs.
“The first thing my boss said when I told him I was interested in getting my PMP certification was that if I was going to do it, he’d heard Cheetah Learning was the best.”