Beyond the Toolkit: People Over Process Makes for Successful Projects

Beautiful images can be drawn with a ballpoint pen. Incredible songs can be written on a pawn shop guitar. Effective tools make life easier but they don’t actually produce anything. Amazing work requires talented people. Let’s talk about working with them.

This session will be about looking up from the spreadsheets and past the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). We’re going to focus on the people that run the projects. 

• Do you know – and are you taking advantage of – the superpowers on your team?
• Are you educating your clients and/or stakeholders and allowing yourself to be educated by them?
• Can you adjust your process to the needs of the project team, or will you shoehorn the team into the demands of your process?

We will talk about inspiring people to help them realize their best work, getting ahead of risk without alienating your client, and the right kind of nagging. After all, when a project starts to go sideways – and they all do to some extent – you want everyone running toward the fire, not from it.

This session proposal comes with some free (a/k/a unsolicited) advice:

• The individuals on your team should be referred to as “people,” even better “talented people,” but never as “resources.”
• If you believe your sales team throws grenades over the wall, knock down the wall.
• If you think a project is going smoothly, you’re not paying close attention.
• Don’t just talk about client empathy. Have it. Show it.
• Honesty is the best policy because the truth is apparent to everyone.
• The ultimate KPI for a project’s success: act with integrity.

This session will talk about the simple things you can do as a project manager to set your team up for success, value the people you work with, and level with your client/stakeholders. And, of course, there will be a fancy spreadsheet for everyone who attends.