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 SmartsNOVEMBER 5, 2013 BY MICHAEL LEPAGE 5 COMMENTS

Nov 7th is the 9th annual International

Project Management Day.

International Project Management Dayis a

day to be proud of workingin project

management and to recognize what project

managers contribute to the world, one in

which so much innovation and progress isdue to projects.

I just listened to an interviewwith Frank Saladis, the founderof International Proj

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 industrie

from Technology to Construction to Marketing.

More importantly, Frank mentioned that a recent survey of companies revealed th

the #1 skill most valued in a project manageris:

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

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 l

leader.

But I will say this about the business and project leaders that I admire they are v

resourceful a quality I admire and strive for.

So here are 7 ways to become a smarter, more resourceful project manager, proje

planner or scheduler.

1. Seek out a Mentor

Having a mentor to support, teach and guide you can be invaluable to your job an

your career. Ive worked with mentors and coaches for a long time and have alway

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 g

for both a mentor, who has the reward of sharing his or her knowledge with some

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 amentoring 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 exp

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 bo

different perspective.

2. Listen to Podcasts

Want to feel resourceful?

Learn a new concept and apply it immediately to your job. Podcasts give you acce

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 t

architect of the Burj Khalifa.

Freakonomics From Stephen Levitt himself

The Project Management Podcast

The Oil and Gas IQ Podcast
http://www.oilandgasiq.com/podcasts/http://www.project-management-podcast.com/http://freakonomics.com/http://www.remontech.com/the-burj-khalifa/http://www.remontech.com/category/media/http://www.pmi.org/Professional-Development/Career-Central/Find-Your-Mentor-Online.aspxhttp://www.pmi-portland.org/mentoring-program


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3. Take an Online Course

MOOCs are changing the way we deliver education. Massively Open Online Course

are offered from top universities like Harvard, MIT and Oxford.

Take Peter von Beulows Structures 2course to learn about flinched beams,

reinforced concrete and combining materials for construction. Or take Kent Raga

Financial Managementcourse and take in all you can about asset valuation, risk a

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 te

message, then think again.

Find out if your communicator skills stand up take the Communications Skills Q

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 Articlesfrom their

communications mini-site to hone your craft. After all, when were all stressed outproject deadlines and shortages, clear communication becomes even more

important.

5. Watch MegaBuilders
http://www.mindtools.com/page8.html#personhttp://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCS_99.htmhttp://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourseshttps://itunes.apple.com/us/course/financial-management/id552924121https://itunes.apple.com/us/course/structures-2/id571945644


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On Discovery channel.

Each episode follows a real construction project build team and their real challeng

in building some of the world coolest structures.

Im partial to the episode about the floating bridge build in Kelowna, Canada and uit 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 fre

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 in

and news.

TheJournal of Petroleum Engineering

Information Technology in Construction

If these dont suit you, then search the Directory of Open Access Journalsfor a to

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. Noth

hones your skills like practice, and these games let you practice your skills, take ris
http://www.doaj.org/http://www.itcon.org/http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jpe/http://www.ogj.com/index.htmlhttp://www.leanconstruction.org/lcj/


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and make mistakes in a complex simulated environment. Check them out!

With Virtunomicsyou can test your business and risk management skills in an

economic simulation game. The best part is that its free and wildly popular.

Sharkworldisnt free, but it looks seriously cool! It is THE project managementsimulation, where you are managing the build of a the worlds largest shark aquari

theme park what can go wrong? The game covers not only economic aspects, b

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 encourag

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 willi

to explore deep and wide.
http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/297539/36170af2-e81b-40ef-ac7c-65a96b81829chttp://www.paradigmlearning.com/products-and-services/countdown-a-strategy-game-for-project-teams.aspxhttp://www.sharkworldgame.com/http://virtonomics.com/


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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 heavie

users around. Two things I enjoy most are teaching and technology...and the od

strum of my guitar.

Comments

johnnysays

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 ha

to change the duration for activities just to level the manhours, it could not meet

deadline. Any expert here can help me out? And also i always stuck when there ar

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
http://yourwebsite/https://www.plannertuts.com/project-management/https://www.plannertuts.com/project-controls/https://www.plannertuts.com/oil-gas/https://www.plannertuts.com/learning-oracle-primavera-p6/https://www.plannertuts.com/information-technology/https://www.plannertuts.com/construction/


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kinda new to project planning. Thanks to your all valuable knowledge.

Reply

samasays

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 jo

in planing and control project department & i want to know p6 as a professional

person .thanks a lot

Reply

samasays

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 jo

in planing and control project department & i want to know p6 as a professional

person .thanks a lot

[email protected]

Reply

Michael Lepagesays

November 27, 2013 at 2:30 pm

Sama, please download my ebook here : http://offers.plannertuts.com/primave
http://offers.plannertuts.com/primavera-p6-ebook-how-to-analyze-a-primavera-p6-schedulehttp://offers.plannertuts.com/primavera-p6-ebook-how-to-analyze-a-primavera-p6-schedulehttp://www.plannertuts.com/https://www.plannertuts.com/7-ways-grow-project-management-smarts/?replytocom=949#respondmailto:[email protected]://yourwebsite/https://www.plannertuts.com/7-ways-grow-project-management-smarts/?replytocom=948#respondhttp://yourwebsite/https://www.plannertuts.com/7-ways-grow-project-management-smarts/?replytocom=947#respond


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

M

Reply

Terry Rustsays

December 13, 2013 at 12:46 pm

Johnny,

send me an email at [email protected] i can discuss how to solve you

issue. Thanks!

Reply

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