It is that time of year again when I am faced with the rising fear of what the latest series of The Apprentice will showcase as the future talent of business. Once again the show has thrown project management into the hype of reality TV stardom.
Every week we will now see individuals, who in most cases have never worked in the change arena, volunteer to be project manager (PM) for their team.
However this is not project management as we may know it. This is project management gone native. This is in the most part diving in at the deep end with no forethought or plan, a “devil may care” attitude and as for the team – “do as I tell you to do, do not think for yourself”
The latter is the thing which most sticks in my throat – as a young project manager my mentor at the time said to me – “you need to look behind you and make sure your team are with you”. Whilst as a project manager you have to take the lead and make difficult decisions you have to take the team with you on that journey otherwise you, the team and ultimately the project are destined to fail.
What is interesting is, when speaking to Philip Taylor, a previous candidate on The Apprentice (2009), he agrees: “The Apprentice tasks would be a struggle for any well rounded Project Manager. We would do something in 2 days that in real life would take 6 months. I admire anybody that can manage a huge team of massive egos in a hugely pressurised environment.”
In true reality I believe the well rounded and PM covers off 5 stages in any project, no matter its size or stature this being born out of the Project Management Institute.
Initiation
With any project start up there has to be a concerted joined up effort on understanding the end goal, the strategy – the raison d’être and therefore the measure of success. This should not be focussed on the separate element of the project but the impact this will have to the business from an end to end perspective.
Planning
This is always seen as the core of a project however too often is seen as just the actual plan with tasks, dates and resource. We can forget that projects need lots of planning from communication, finances, benefits & business readiness and all these factors should be planned for. This then creates that foundation and base with which to start a successful project.
Executing this is really operationalising what has been planned for and becomes the workhouse of the entire delivery mechanism.
Monitor & Control
As the saying goes there is nothing surer than change and despite best endeavours there will always be a need to adjust scope, delivery etc. but this should be done in a robust fashion. Equally at this point is where so many project managers hide behind the adage ‘I must deliver on time and to budget’. Whilst true, this should not restrict the need for controlled changes and this is where the PM can ensure the project is flexible enough to cope with all that is thrown at it. The project is an integral part of the business and therefore needs to be able to react with the business.
Closure
I think this is the one phase which is too often forgotten. Where the project team implements and throws the solution over the wall for some poor unsuspecting business area to pick up. Any PM worth their salt will ensure that the business readiness areas are engaged well ahead of implementation and that the appropriate support and close out is undertaken. This must include handing ownership over to the relevant business area and that a sponsor has accepted the benefits realisation plan to which they must now deliver (a whole other blog in its own right!)
The perception that these core principles will slow things down or the old chestnut of “the exec team have told us to just do it, so we don’t have time for this” will always play out in these situations but this is where chaos occurs. Yes, these things happen but without the core principles your sponsors are relying on false benefits resultant from a knee jerk decision by which a project implements. The reality is a self-perpetuating cycle of projects to repair and fix the previous legacies left by making such decisions.
I guess this illustrates The Apprentice does not really have projects, they have tasks to complete. In his role as PM, Philip acknowledges that he won the task not “because of his PM skills it was simply down to selling.” That said you have to put yourself forward to be a Project Manager in order to be in with a chance of winning. The only goal of this however is to not be sat in the boardroom at the end of the task waiting to be told “Your fired”.
Lord Alan Sugar’s autobiography is titled “What You See Is What You Get” and that is very true for the candidates selected for The Apprentice very few have ever been PM’s, so we should lose the PM label and call them what they are, team leaders.
Of course this show is also about the entertainment value and Philip does have a valid point to make around his time on The Apprentice: “It was wonderful experience and I have to say if there hadn’t been bad project management then we would never have had Pantsman! Now that would make the world a sad place.”
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