Finite games is easier than infinite games.
Project admin is easier than project management.
Ticking checkboxes is easier than mastering a craft.
You know what they say…
The path of least resistance ALWAYS leads to donuts. 🍩🍩🍩
… or something like that 😁
You know what I mean… there’s the easy path, and the difficult path.
Most of the time, people will default to the path of fewer obstacles, myself included.
This is true ESPECIALLY if I am not thoughtful about the choices I make in life.
That’s why many project managers focus on the project administration part of the job, because they are so much easier.
They are checkboxes that give instant gratification once the items get ticked off.
The true art of project management is a lot harder.
It’s the Infinite game of mastery.
It’s learning about human behaviour, about what makes us tick.
It’s about our
– Motivations
– Emotions
– Triggers
– Hopes
– Desires
– Fears
And learning how to lead with empathy, to be compassionate and kind while keeping our eyes on the goal – to deliver a successful project.
It’s doing all of those things and remembering that we are humans beings, and taking care of each other so that we can do the hard and amazing things that we are capable of.
It’s not
– Have you done the user story
– what’s the status of that fix
– when can we deploy to prod
– why is it taking so long
… yes, it can be some of that, but real #ProjectManagement is so much more.
At its heart, it’s really all about human relationships.
That’s the infinite game that project managers need to be playing.
Not just the short-term, instantly-gratifying, checkbox-ticking activities that comprises the project admin tasks (they are important, just not AS important as the project management stuff).
Do you know any project managers who just love to focus on the left column?
I know one or two. Or three. Or more. 🙄
