While your mind is on your own individual goals for the new year, why not also take the opportunity to look at where your PMO is and where you want to take it in the coming months? If you’re stuck for ideas, we’ve put together some resolutions you can use as a launch pad.

Improve communication. Even PMOs that are really good at communicating should make improvement a yearly goal. http://www.duration-driven.com/2011/02/be-a-better-communicator/ Talking with end users, providing stakeholders with progress reports, and maintaining good lines of communication within your team are all critical to project success.

Boost career development efforts. Now is not the time to let your project professionals grow stagnant—if you don’t give them a path toward greater opportunities, there’s a good chance your competitors will. Encourage team members to set goals that keep them motivated http://www.duration-driven.com/2010/10/setting-individual-goals-9-tips-for-success-2/ and facilitate mentoring relationships whenever possible http://www.duration-driven.com/2010/06/find-the-right-business-mentor/.

Increase ongoing education. As project workloads ramp up, training is one of the first things moved to the back burner http://www.duration-driven.com/2011/10/training-mistakes-most-pmos-make/. Instead, resolve this year to keep your team’s education on the priority list. Schedule classes early and be sure everyone on the team has the opportunity to learn something new.

Develop a more robust network. Reach out to fellow professionals before you need help.http://www.duration-driven.com/2011/02/be-a-better-communicator/ Your team will have better access to resources—including consultants, market research specialists, equipment suppliers, and potential new employees—and will also be more in tune with regional and industry trends.

Market your PMO. In many organizations, it’s no longer enough to be good project managers. Your ability to engage stakeholders and end users http://www.duration-driven.com/2011/09/more-tips-for-good-project-management-pr/ is increasingly important, and could influence everything from budget approval to staffing levels.

Commit to creativity. Your team’s ability to develop innovative solutions can help manage any problem http://www.duration-driven.com/2010/12/project-management-creative-problem-solving/. Implement some creativity-building activities and watch your team triumph over challenges.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

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Project teams often require a high level of collaboration to achieve their objectives, with team members relying heavily on interactions among the group in addition to partnerships with outside players. While this type of environment can be conducive to innovation and cross-pollination of ideas, it has the potential to lead to reduced productivity if distractions aren’t closely managed. A few basic principles will help you to reap the many benefits of a successful collaborative environment.

Set objectives for every meeting. Your team’s structure and personality will tell you if every gathering requires a formal agenda, but every meeting should at least have a clearly stated objective. This open framework will allow team members the opportunity for freeform brainstorming (which is often not compatible with rigid agendas), while still defining a measurable, expected result. Even if the objective is simply to produce additional ideas for discussion at the next meeting, everyone involved knows the expectations, and will understand the need to stay on-target.

Use meeting facilitators. If possible, employ the use of a meeting facilitator for events that are likely to wander off-topic. Facilitators must have a keen understanding of the meeting’s objectives, and shouldn’t interrupt discussions that are slightly tangential but still relevant. Nudging the team back toward the meeting’s central focus should occur only when the discussion becomes unproductive. It’s a fine line to walk, but leveraging the skills of a knowledgeable facilitator can help increase meeting productivity tremendously.

Monitor individual performance. Collaboration does not equal a lack of individual accountability. It’s not uncommon for project leaders to focus solely on their project’s overall performance, and realize much too late that particular individuals are distracting other team members, or aren’t contributing sufficiently to the project’s success. By closely monitoring individual performance, you’re more likely to spot—and successfully correct—trouble behaviors such as excessive chatting, inattention to critical details, and lack of progress on tasks. The rest of your team will quickly see that they’re taking up the slack for less productive members, and your efforts to address and resolve individual performance problems will help you avoid energy-sapping morale issues later.

Allow time for socializing. Make peace with the fact that employees will engage in some level of non-work-related socialization. If your team’s dynamic is one of strong collaboration, then discouraging this type of behavior is setting yourself—and your team—up for failure. Realize that successful collaboration is built on a foundation of trust and understanding. Each team member must understand the perspectives of others in the group, and trust their coworkers enough to give full consideration to their ideas, as well feel comfortable sharing some of their own.

Consider proactively providing activities that encourage folks to mingle, while also building subtle limits on distractions. Thoughtfully implemented, the following activities offer socialization opportunities without detracting from the team’s productivity.

Brown bag gatherings allow employees to engage in a bit of lunchtime chatting while gaining new information. These typically work best for visually intensive seminars or presentations, where munching employees won’t interrupt other attendees. Not recommended for highly interactive meetings, as employees could feel they must choose between eating and participating.

Late afternoon parties give employees time to blow off a little steam, and knowing they’ll have a chance to socialize later may help them maintain better focus earlier in the day. Good for combining groups with infrequent face-to-face contact, such as remote team members or faraway business partners. Parties are particularly successful when held after a team meeting, as employees often choose to continue informal discussions of work issues if there are unresolved points or new action items.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

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Long projects offer a unique set of challenges for your PMO team—deadlines are months or even years away, significant milestones are often few and far between, and the initial rush of “new project” enthusiasm eventually subsides. How do you maintain your group’s morale, encourage long-term innovation, and keep all eyes firmly on the project’s goals?

1 – Maintain regular communication. Team members will have an easier time managing their own slow periods if they’re aggressively connecting with others in the group on a frequent basis. Team meetings help to focus attention on the project’s overall progress, members receive regular reminders about upcoming activities, and any issues brewing in one area can be tackled by the group’s collective expertise.

2 – Identify interim milestones. Critical path items are always at the top of the list, but don’t forget that many other mid-project deliverables are worthy of recognition, too. With the project’s final success a long way off, it’s important to show folks that today’s efforts continue to be important. Letting the team know that their hard work is recognized and appreciated offers a good morale boost.

3 – Remember what you’re improving. A glimpse at the problems or inefficiencies your project will address is often a quick way to give folks new enthusiasm. Whether it’s struggling with an outdated piece of software or visiting a too-small manufacturing facility, your team can once again see how their efforts will make a tangible difference.

4 – Consider shifting resources. If team members possess the expertise to contribute in different areas of the project as time and needs allow, it may offer a good way to minimize the use (and cost) of external resources, while also giving folks a taste of something new or different. Understanding your team’s strengths is the key to successfully mixing things up once in a while.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

• 6 Tips to Tame the E-mail Monster
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• 5 Strategies to Persuade On-the-fence Stakeholders
• 6 Steps to Being a Good Mentor
• 4 Project Management Tips for “Scattered Team” Success
• Project Management Teamwork : When Good Confrontation Goes Bad
• Project Management: Three Important Tips for Better Business Writing
• Project Firefighting – Lessons Learned from Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow
• Project Management Tips: Regulatory Oversight 101
• Project Management Tips: Decentralize Your Thinking

Most project professionals have a number of projects going at any given time. Many are in the pre-approval phase (from which they may never emerge), some are in full swing, and others are wrapping up; some may be small, and others large.

Keeping your objectives straight, knowing what needs to be done now (and what must wait for later), maintaining various channels of communication, and adhering to each project’s budget and schedule takes focus, excellent organization, and winning time management skills.

Color code

The simple act of visually separating projects is often helpful in creating order when things are busy. There are several common methods; choose the one that’s right for you:

• Assign a different color to each project
• Assign colors based on each project’s phase (pre-approval, active, punchlist)
• Assign colors to different locations, departments, or project leaders
• Assign colors based on the type of project (software, construction, training)

If color coding isn’t a viable option, then consider a naming convention that contributes to better organization. You may want to start all software project file names with SW, all active files with ACT, or all projects in New York City with NYC.

Prioritize your tasks

It’s important to prioritize your project activities – so that you’re always sure to be working on the tasks that are most important for moving your projects forward. However you choose to manage your task list, you should always be able to quickly sort all tasks by priority as well as by due date, project, area of focus, person responsible for the task, and the resources needed for completion.

Tame your information

Create files for each project, in both paper format (manila and/or hanging folders, binders, etc.) and electronic (folders in your e-mail, word processing, and spreadsheet programs). Once a new piece of information arrives, whether it’s an e-mail message, a memo, this week’s status report, or updated budget information, immediately move it into its proper folder.

Do the same for any shared documents—again, both paper and electronic—that your group may use. Be sure everyone on the team is using similar naming and filing conventions for anything that may be accessed by more than one person. If possible, assign someone to take charge of your group’s shared documentation to ensure it’s tidy, always current, and readily accessible.

Keep important information easy to find

Contact lists, budget data, and pending tasks should be included in your project folders, but this type of information should also be in your go-to place—pinned to your cork board, entered into your smartphone, or in a single file folder on your desk that you can quickly grab. This leaves you less to locate when an impromptu meeting is called, and ensures you have the majority of data you may need at a moment’s notice.

Schedule dedicated time

Blocking out time on the calendar for each project is a useful way to ensure you’re on track. While it’s usually most effective to group like tasks together (phone calls, filing, etc.), you may want to buckle down on each project once a week for some uninterrupted working time.

Create distribution lists

Remembering who should be copied on each project’s communications can eat up valuable time. Instead, set up a distribution list for each project. Creating and forwarding information will happen more quickly, and you’ll be sure that all the appropriate people have been contacted

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

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Project professionals know that consensus among stakeholders is a critical component in moving a project forward and meeting final objectives. But consensus is just one component of many that must be addressed, and sometimes even the most foundational agreements are too flawed to withstand the future challenges that typically arise.

How can you ensure that your project achieves the level of consensus it needs? Getting all involved parties to agree on something doesn’t procure the funding, timeframe, or other resources that are often needed to shepherd a project through to a successful completion. What happens when you’ve achieved consensus nirvana, and things still aren’t going the way they should? Original agreements sometimes don’t fully support the fundamental objectives your project is supposed to meet. Below is an overview of how the consensus phase sometimes goes wrong, and tips for steering it back on course.

What type of consensus have you reached? Beware the final agreements that required foundation-level compromise. If too much has been negotiated away, your team may soon be looking at a project that is so far diminished from its original scope or intent that it no longer meets everyone’s needs (and may, in fact, meet no one’s needs). Have you lost necessary support or resources? Have you agreed to conditions or objectives that leave no wiggle room for managing the occasional glitch? If you’ve finally reached consensus only after stripping the project to its lowest common denominator, chances are good that your project is lacking some critical pieces. Agreeing that you need additional manufacturing capabilities isn’t sufficient to clearly define your project’s objectives, let alone plan and execute a project that meets that goal. Scope, cost, impact, timeframe, and other factors must still be worked out. Reminding stakeholders that “this is what we agreed on” will not resolve the fundamental errors in planning or execution that may result from a poorly-supported consensus.

What’s still left to do? Especially when negotiations have been protracted or tense, it’s important to constantly evaluate the objectives of the project against the agreements you’ve been able to reach so far. Is the price your organization will pay—in terms of financial cost, impact to operations and personnel, market standing, and any other area which may be affected—still worth it when viewed against the project’s compromised objectives? Have your project’s objectives been chipped away to such a degree that your access to funding or other resources has been hindered? Have your stakeholders lost their passion for the project? Has the timeframe been compromised as a result of an extended negotiation or planning phase? Has your PMO lost key talent or expertise since the project’s inception? Ensure that your team is still capable of fulfilling its role, that needed resources are available, and that the scope continues to meet the necessary metrics to be considered a success.

How do you tackle a too-soft consensus? Your approach will depend heavily on the type of organization and complexity of the project you’re supporting, but some good first steps include returning to your project’s original scope and re-opening negotiations, conducting a new cost-benefit analysis to demonstrate any diminished ROI, gathering updated market data to reaffirm your need for additional resources or other support, and working with end users to highlight any potential negative effects of moving forward with your project’s current plan. You may also want to evaluate your decision-making team—if negotiations have in any way been based on a lack of proper authority to commit funds, staff, or other resources, then you may consider elevating the discussion to include individuals with increased authorization levels.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

• Project Firefighting – Lessons Learned from Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow
• Project Management Tips: Read for Success
• A Phased Approach to Project Management Implementation
• The Project Office

Many people think confrontation is something to be rooted out and stopped. On the contrary, the right kinds of confrontation can actually make your team more productive and your project more successful. Before you decide to invite your coworkers over for a grudge match, be sure you’re supporting the good sort of confrontation, and preventing the bad kind from hampering your team’s efforts.

Good confrontation is ultimately productive, and will help team members move the project toward its objectives. Keep an open mind, and make an earnest effort to understand the opposing opinion(s). You’re likely to build team morale while achieving better-than-planned results.

Progress – your team may take time during the confrontation to explore options, research alternatives, and understand what’s at stake, but productive confrontation ultimately leads to progress. Once a disagreement has been sorted out, team members should have a positive result—a more feasible set of resources, more reasonable deliverables, better contracts with vendors, etc.—to support their efforts.

Re-examine objectives – disagreements have the potential to force your team or the project’s stakeholders to re-examine the project’s objectives in a new (and more fundamentally sound) light. This doesn’t mean the objectives were flawed originally. Any number of factors—resources, needs, market conditions, corporate strategy—might have changed along the way.

Increased efficiency – confrontations focused on methodology or processes have the potential to bring people to a new plane of efficiency, as long as everyone involved is truly committed to the project’s success, and not their own egos.

Remember that when you or your team is involved in a confrontation, attitude is imperative. If a team member gets positive results only after alienating the rest of the team and infuriating vendors, you may be headed for trouble in the long-term. Adhere tightly to the codes of professionalism and common courtesy at all times.

Bad confrontation has the potential to spread stress and animosity throughout your team. Keep an eye out for these telltale signs of unproductive (and often highly damaging) confrontation among your team members, stakeholders, end users, and vendors.

Distraction – if a disagreement is becoming a focal point beyond what you feel is reasonable, it’s time to step in. The success of your project and the achievement of its objectives are far more important than how a disagreement plays out. Keep the confrontation among the responsible parties, and discourage others from taking sides or getting into the discussion unnecessarily.

Lack of progress – good confrontation will result in some sort of progress, either in the form of additional buy-in, consolidation of resources, or a positive change in direction. If your team seems to be stalled, take another look at the disagreement and see if there’s a way to defuse it or reach a more agreeable compromise.

Breakdown in morale – stress among the team can quickly escalate to critical levels, requiring significant effort to bring everyone back to the table and re-focus on achieving objectives. A disagreement that fractures a team is unlikely to bear any worthwhile fruit in the end, and a group meeting to discuss the situation and get everyone back on track is essential.

Your ability to quickly spot and eliminate unproductive confrontations will play a significant role in the success of your team and your project. Rebuilding morale, soothing hurt feelings, dealing with potential personnel issues that may arise as a result, and restoring relationships that could have suffered real damage are all activities that take time, effort, and focus. The more adept you are at staving off problems early, the more you’ll be able to concentrate on productive tasks.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

• 4 Ways to Stay Fresh During a Long Project
• 6 Tips to Tame the E-mail Monster
• 5 Ways to Defend Your Project Budget
• 5 Strategies to Persuade On-the-fence Stakeholders
• 6 Steps to Being a Good Mentor
• 4 Project Management Tips for “Scattered Team” Success
• Project Management: Three Important Tips for Better Business Writing
• Project Firefighting – Lessons Learned from Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow
• Project Management Tips: Regulatory Oversight 101
• Project Management Tips: Decentralize Your Thinking

Most projects require some amount of writing—memos, reports, status updates, budget justifications, personnel requests and other communications all call for clear, and sometimes persuasive, writing. If writing isn’t your thing (and for most of us it isn’t), then read on for tips to help streamline your writing tasks while improving your skills.

Clarity is key. Remember that the aim of most business writing is to convey information; readers are looking for solid, current data. If you’re missing information, outline what’s still unavailable, and clearly identify items that are preliminary or pending approval. If you know when you’re likely to have final clarification on this type of data, express that in your communication and be sure to follow up on it in a timely manner.

Be organized. Group similar topics, either by the type of data (dollars, results, timelines) or by project phase (budget, schedule, deliverables). Use bullet points to highlight key information, and provide data in a graphical format—charts, bar graphs, tables, etc.—if it will make the information easier for readers to understand and digest. Good business writing provides information with as few distractions as possible.

Maintain a no-nonsense approach. Jokes and clichés will only get in the way of your message. Clearly state the purpose of your communication. Titles like “news,” “update,” and “budget” are too vague to be sufficient; instead, “New York site inspection news,” “second floor furniture installation update” and “proposed revisions to expense budget” will let readers know exactly the type of data you have for them.

Business cases and other documents requiring persuasive writing should follow these same rules. Clearly state your request, outline the benefits to the organization, and provide the potential impact of inaction or lack of approval. If you have a deadline for the decision, state it up front.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

• 4 Ways to Stay Fresh During a Long Project
• 6 Tips to Tame the E-mail Monster
• 5 Ways to Defend Your Project Budget
• 5 Strategies to Persuade On-the-fence Stakeholders
• 6 Steps to Being a Good Mentor
• 4 Project Management Tips for “Scattered Team” Success
• Project Management Teamwork : When Good Confrontation Goes Bad
• Project Firefighting – Lessons Learned from Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow
• Project Management Tips: Regulatory Oversight 101
• Project Management Tips: Decentralize Your Thinking

Many a great catastrophe has started from humble roots. Consider the Great Chicago Fire of 1871: The initial cause of the fire is still unknown (popular legend holds that Catherine O’Leary’s barn on the south side of Chicago was set ablaze when her errant cow, Daisy, upended a lantern), but that it left the city devastated is incontrovertible. Though the loss of a barn is no small tragedy, further calamity could have been avoided if the response had been swift, measured and well-implemented. Instead, firefighters were initially dispatched to the wrong location. Corrected information was later relayed to them, but only after a significant delay. By the time firefighters arrived at Mrs. O’Leary’s barn, the conflagration was well and truly underway, and had in fact ignited a number of nearby structures. Firefighters and residents alike then assumed the spreading inferno would be quelled by the natural fire break of the Chicago River – it wasn’t. The string of delays, insufficient responses and incorrect assumptions resulted in the decimation of 34 city blocks, which ultimately left nearly a third of Chicago’s population homeless.

As every firefighter knows, it’s only prudent to expect the occasional fire. Savvy project management professionals are no different, and they understand that no amount of planning can eliminate every potential problem. Your ability to control, mitigate and stamp out the inevitable fire will depend heavily on avoidance – planning that reduces risk and exposure – and rallying a quick and appropriate response when something does go wrong.

Good project planning requires the ability to identify all the what-ifs that might come to pass: What if we don’t have consensus on the objectives? What if a potential risk bites us? What if a key stakeholder leaves? Your team and its stakeholders must agree on a number of factors before you move ahead. Get your assumptions into the open – are they correct? Determine the risks you’re likely to encounter – does everyone understand their potential impact? Put your scope front and center – do others have different expectations? Ensuring that everyone involved in your project has the same information, assumptions, and understandings is critical for steering your project safely through any problems you may encounter.

Once your team has ferreted out every potential problem and risk, it’s time to prepare strategies to avoid issues where possible, and mitigate the damage done by problems that do crop up. The energy you put into this phase of the project could save you headaches – as well as real disasters – later.

Remember the following 5 steps when responding to a project fire.

Identification: Most problems don’t announce themselves until they’re wreaking widespread havoc on your project. Identifying issues quickly takes diligence and attention, so be sure each member of your team knows their responsibilities inside and out.

Communication: When a problem or potential problem is discovered, it must be quickly communicated to the rest of team. Other areas might avoid being impacted if given early warning.

Strategy: Devising and implementing a successful solution takes teamwork and focus. Your response must be feasible and appropriate to the problem, and you need to identify all aspects of the issue as well potential negative effects your solution may have.

Implementation: Assign actions to appropriate team members, and put your solution into practice.

Review: Examine the original issue, and ensure the problems have been solved without inadvertently creating tangential issues that could themselves become fires. If there are still unresolved issues, then you haven’t yet put out the fire – continue addressing the problems until the team is confident there isn’t anything else burning.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

• Project Management Tips: Read for Success
• A Phased Approach to Project Management Implementation
• 4 Ways to Stay Fresh During a Long Project
• 6 Tips to Tame the E-mail Monster
• 5 Ways to Defend Your Project Budget
• Why Consensus Doesn’t Always Equal Project Success (And What You Can Do About It)
• 5 Strategies to Persuade On-the-fence Stakeholders
• 6 Steps to Being a Good Mentor
• 4 Project Management Tips for “Scattered Team” Success
• Project Management Teamwork : When Good Confrontation Goes Bad

Projects of every size and in any industry may sometimes require regulatory oversight or approval. Working with a regulatory body has the potential to affect every facet of your project, from where documents are archived to how long a particular activity must take.

Regulatory oversight may seem daunting at first, but some basic research and preparation will go a long way toward making your project successful.

What information do you need? The following breakdown is by no means all-inclusive, but it will give you a good starting point.

Who

Contractors with particular licenses or certifications; regulatory inspectors, reviewers, and other contacts; internal team members with specific responsibilities (life safety, insurance, licenses, etc.); vendors able to provide agency-approved goods (equipment, tools, chemicals) and services (storage, cleaning, documentation).

What

Scope of oversight; text of codes and regulations; documentation that must be posted, submitted, filed, stored, signed or discarded; requirements for insurance, licenses, certifications, insurance and training.

When

Deadlines for requests for information; expiration of permits, certificates or licenses; actions that must be completed in sequence or require mid-project review and approval; limits on the types of activities that can be completed concurrently.

Where

Locations for meetings, tests, procedures, reviews, inspections, and the submittal of documents or data; storage requirements for documentation, equipment, test results, chemicals and other materials.

How

Approved procedures; deviation reports; requests for information; submittal of data; signatures required on internal and external forms; recordkeeping and reporting requirements; security of data, computers, software platforms and documents; restrictions on quantities of chemicals and other materials.

Now that you have an idea of the information you’re looking for, it’s time to begin your research.

Visit the regulatory body’s Web site. Review online copies of the regulations or codes, and sign up to be notified when changes are made. Consider ordering a hard copy of the current regulations, so your team can reference a single common information source. Depending on the agency, you may also be able to find a list of recent actions. The results of past inspections, pending permit requests and recently completed projects are all good learning tools.

Network within the client’s industry. Others have likely dealt with the same regulatory requirements, and can help you understand them and their potential impact. If you’re able to find local contacts experienced in dealing with regulators, all the better – regulatory agencies often have regional offices, with inspectors or reviewers responsible for your particular area. Familiarizing yourself with the working style and expectations of the local regulators will put you a step ahead.

Ask the client. If you’re comfortable approaching your client, you can learn a great deal by examining past projects completed under the same regulations. Review the documentation, deliverables, and results; become familiar with the potential impact to your project’s schedule as a result of necessary inspections, leadtime for onsite regulatory visits, availability of specialty contractors, and activities or processes that require a set period of time to complete; make note of any can’t-miss deadlines; identify internal resources; and plan for outside experts you may need to involve.

Look for industry and professional associations. Locate groups that are comprised of companies frequently under the same regulatory oversight as your new project. These organizations often maintain information on the status of regulations and recent developments, and can provide you with additional resources. Their members have a deep knowledgebase of past projects – be sure to ask about projects that failed, or were significantly hampered by incorrect actions or poor decisions. Understanding how to avoid these situations will teach you a great deal about managing your project correctly from start to finish.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

http://www.pm-alliance.com

• 4 Ways to Stay Fresh During a Long Project
• 6 Tips to Tame the E-mail Monster
• 5 Ways to Defend Your Project Budget
• 5 Strategies to Persuade On-the-fence Stakeholders
• 6 Steps to Being a Good Mentor
• 4 Project Management Tips for “Scattered Team” Success
• Project Management Teamwork : When Good Confrontation Goes Bad
• Project Management: Three Important Tips for Better Business Writing
• Project Firefighting – Lessons Learned from Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow
• Project Management Tips: Decentralize Your Thinking

Single minded focus throughout the most critical phases of a project is a must, but it’s also important to maintain a strong, ongoing awareness of the needs and challenges facing your clients and end users. Getting away from your desk and pursuing interactions outside your project team will give you a new perspective that really can make you a better project management professional.

Make the rounds. You should regularly visit your end users and stakeholders on their turf. Not only will you form better connections capable of supporting you through the demanding projects ahead, you’ll also get an on-the-ground view of the environment you may one day be affecting. You can take stock of the challenges your end users are facing — staffing, space, etc. — and better understand how your efforts can help them overcome these obstacles.

Attend non-project meetings. Steering committees and other groups unrelated to your current project load are often good ways to connect with a wider range of people. These folks may one day be your internal customers or even your champions, so making contact with them in a project-agnostic setting could be highly beneficial down the road. Through this peripheral exposure to your expertise and capabilities, others in your organization who had not previously considered the benefits of leveraging an experienced project management team might now be prompted to involve you in future endeavors.

Don’t forget the fun. Your project team’s morale and cohesiveness is a critical concern, but so also is your own job satisfaction. Seize the opportunity to interact with others in support of fun activities, such as company parties and community volunteer efforts, without the pressure of a project looming over the conversation. You’ll add some spice to your work day, and also connect with innovative people outside your normal sphere.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

• 4 Ways to Stay Fresh During a Long Project
• 6 Tips to Tame the E-mail Monster
• 5 Ways to Defend Your Project Budget
• 5 Strategies to Persuade On-the-fence Stakeholders
• 6 Steps to Being a Good Mentor
• 4 Project Management Tips for “Scattered Team” Success
• Project Management Teamwork : When Good Confrontation Goes Bad
• Project Management: Three Important Tips for Better Business Writing
• Project Firefighting – Lessons Learned from Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow
• Project Management Tips: Regulatory Oversight 101