Here is my takeaway #1 from one of the most useful practical books in my field, “Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager”:

I have a hardcopy of this book that I have gone through and highlighted different points that have really jived with my own experience of performing Project Management in unorthodox, informal, “unofficial”, environments and/or capacities. This book is about how to get things done and done as well as possible in those circumstances…

My first takeaway comes from the testimonials section at the beginning of the book actually, and I quote…

1) “Too many times we are focused on the work without recognizing that it’s people and relationships that have the biggest impact on project success.”

So true about projects and business itself. One of the truest, most important things I have heard, learned, and found in business is that business is about people relationships. If you have good working relationships it becomes easy to work together. It starts with caring about people and at least connecting on everything that is important in your work with one another and for your customer.

It is no different for business in general as it is for project specific progressions of business and our relationships with one another. Business and projects should first be about people, then processes, and then tools (PPT). If business processes (and projects) connect people to each other to then use tools in the right way, it will all flow. Businesses serve people, not programs or tools. Start with people internally and externally when meeting the demands of your market and your profession.

This is true for building the whole of your business culture. Some of the best people to work with have made projects and progressing business and its culture a delight. Some of the worst people to work with have made projects and progressing business and its cultural gains come to a screeching halt. The good thing is it only takes one person in the right position to make a noticeable difference for good. The bad thing is it only takes one person in the right (or wrong depending on how you look at it) position to make a noticeable difference for bad. We tend to separate out our conversations as business or personal, when everything we discuss at work is either building or breaking down our working relationships. Don’t be the toxic one in your organization, but don’t be the social butterfly either. Find the balance, enjoy the people you work with, and enjoy the work.

Story time: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” to steal a line from Charles Dickens novel, “A Tale of Two Cities”. I will share a general story that applies to any place I have worked and probably any place you have worked too. Every place has strengths and weaknesses of characters that influence their individual and collective actions. The sum total forms a work culture. As far as project management goes, no project is standard because the very nature of projects is such that there is something unique about it that you have never done before together as a team. It has a clear beginning, middle, and end and gives us the perfect format for example stories.

Projects, like any other work, require people working together, only with projects teams come together for a short amount of time so you must get acclimated to one another quickly in this shortened format. As the story goes, it is rare to find a team without a challenging co-worker. Even if that person is not on a given change project team your project and your business progress may be disrupted. Our project also functions within a bigger culture that is the organization and its interaction with the team can and does affect every project to some degree.

You must factor in all of the relationships of leaders, managers, subject experts, stakeholders, change adopters, and customers alike. I can tell positive and negative stories of good and bad relationships involving persons from any of these areas that had everything to do with the success or failure of projects I have been a part of. It all depends on how professional the business relationships and how caring the relationships, in general, are. We should not only work with each other amicably, and the good of the company, but for each other’s good and each other’s success at all levels and side to side wherever our influence can be felt for someone’s betterment.

Even if your work doesn’t seem to touch someone else’s work, be good to everyone you come in contact with in one way or another. One day you might work together on a project. You might even discover projects that can further your company’s goals when you get to know people around you and what they are working on.