The most boring topic ever?

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THE MOST BORING TOPIC EVER?

by Barney Austen on August 31st, 2010
29 Comments

Time to talk about project management and your business.

Don’t Yawn!

This is more than relevant (hopefully!) and will help make your business great.

So grab a coffee and let’s proceed.

Outside of the traditional retail outlet or manufacturing business, most of us are engaged in the provision of client services whether as an individual or part of a bigger business.

Accountants, engineers, designers, florists, landscapers, software engineers, architects, web designers, marketers.. the one thing that they all have in common is that they are all project managers.

(Have a sip of that coffee and keep going – you’re doing great!).

They don’t often call themselves project managers or indeed describe what they do as project management.

But it is!

A florist as a project manager? Get real.

Ok, I grant you that the daily operations of creating a beautiful bunch of flowers is not project management. The flowers for someone’s big day are a project though.

A florist meets the clients, designs the flowers to be used, gets the design approved, goes to the venue and gets it all setup and gets a sign-off from a client once the job is done. During this activity, the florist will encounter as many problems or hiccups that can be found in what is deemed to be the more traditional description of project management in IT or engineering.

Think about your own service delivery – especially those of you who don’t call the work a project. Does it have these standard elements (or something close)?

Client engagement,
planning and design,
creating something from that design,
giving that “something” over to the client for approval and acceptance,
closing off the piece of work and
getting paid.

If this describes you then you are a project manager and what you do is project management.

(Another quick coffee sip – fair play, you’ve stayed awake this long – nearly there!)

So what you ask?

So what indeed! Now you understand that what you do is project management, then there are lessons to be learnt from traditional project management that you can apply to your business.

Why? Because the processes and checks/balances that project managers put in place, when not stifled by poor business management practices, will help you deliver a better project for your clients.

Project management will give you the capability to honestly track and manage your projects so you can better understand how effectively you deliver and continuously improve.

Most service business managers don’t need professional training to be a project manager. The trick is to learn and understand the basic principles of project management that apply to your particular business. Any more than that creates unnecessary overhead.

There is a huge amount of detail to be read on project management. Take some time out and see how you could apply some of the learning to your business.

So go on all you newly identified project managers, be great in your project delivery!

If you enjoyed this post (or stayed awake long enough to get to the end), please give it a vote on Bizsugar. Thanks for reading!

Photo(s): @John, DavidW , Navicore

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Category: Leadership, Sugartone

Tags: effectiveness, Leadership, management, Project management, project manager, small business, Sugartone

The Author: Barney Austen

Budding entrepeneur working on software product solutions for business. My background is mainly operational and senior management roles in mobile telecoms and software houses. Areas of expertise include professional services, out-sourcing, team management and general operations management. I've made the conscious decision to create my own company having spent the last 20 years learning in the corporate world. In my contributions to this forum, I will share some insights and learnings that I've picked up along the way and hopefully they will be useful to some or all! http://www.myprojecttracker.com

Add Your Comment

http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairéad Kelly

Nice post Barney, all it takes is a simple shift in perception and our view of what we are can change dramatically to add a new title. The trick is to not get caught up with all the titles. I once heard someone earnestly say to the person beside them that they were “a food engineering supervisor at a customer interaction point” translated: supervisor at a deli-counter.
Anonymous

OMG that was hard work Barney

I never looked at myself as a project manager before …. As my dad would say – “that’s another feather in my cap”

Nice post – Paul
http://www.btbtraining.com/blog Niall Devitt

lol, great title & a great post, thanks fo sharing Barney
http://blog.myprojecttracker.com Barney Austen

Your just a multi-talented kind of guy Paul . Thanks for reading and the feedback.
Best
Barney
http://blog.myprojecttracker.com Barney Austen

Hi Mairead, thanks for the comment. There are indeed some classic job titles out there – as you say, it’s what we do that counts.
Anonymous

Very funny approach to this topic! I’m still laughing ! LIke Paul, I didn’t consider myself as a project manager. Yet, when you stop to consider how many details go into a successful client experience that it does make sense to see it as a project. I frequently work with my client to systems (or processes) into place so they spend their time doing what they do best. I’m currently working on a project with a colleague who is trained in Agile and it has been such an education so far!

What resources do you suggest we look at first if we’re new to project management?
http://www.stress-solutions4life.com/ Catherine Connors

Great post Barney and I didnt even need to make that cup of coffee …….
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http://twitter.com/demandMCG Market Creation Grp

First off, I appreciate the comment. Second, in a world where tons of marketers are trying to achieve thought leadership, is there a such thing as too much asking? I mean, posing a question like “where do you guys get your news from?” is totally fair game, but is there a point where you could lose some credibility. Are there people who believe you should already know their audience to a T?
http://www.tweakyourbiz.com Niall Devitt

Businesses followed the customer online, they didn’t lead them there! Thought leadership is a symbiotic relationship, and thought leaders listen a lot harder than they talk. The online relationship is one where the message is shared, not owned! It begins with openness and honesty and requires as it’s starting point, the realisation that you don’t know all the answers. New business is the business of the community, where you make your customers the most important people in the organisation.
CBSS

Easy steps to overcome fears of competition. You have summarised marketing management very effectively.
http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairu00e9ad Kelly

I love this post Tina. I’ve always said that competiton is good, it encourages you to play at your best all the time. I have worked with some of my competiton and there are others that I haven’t yet might do in the future. Getting stressed and panicky is only going to affect you which will take from your own performance ability and is a complete waste of energy, better to analysis them the ways you suggested in steps 2-5 above.
http://www.cgonlinemarketing.com/ Christina Giliberti

Hello Mairead,nnO’yes indeed. Its a benchmark and indicator of where you could/should be. Stress is a negative feedback loop emotion – Its feeds itself. Taking a structured approach gives you greater concentration and is much more effective. nnHappy to note that you are partnering with the competition!
Mel Ashworth

I couldn’t agree more Christina, competetion is healthy and,as you said, there is plenty of business to go around. About 70% of our business results from referrals from other associates. We tend to network with people who specialise in an area that we don’t but whose clients are likely be interested in our services. In this way associates are able to add value to their client by introducing our services and it is very easy to secure the business that way. We do offer an attractive referral incentive but that works both ways so we look for work for our associates too. It’s a great model. If anyone wants to hear how it works feel free to call me on 01789 551 665 or email mel@firstclass-training.co.uk. Happy to share.
http://www.benchmarkemail.com/email-marketing/html-email-templates email templates

Definitely a positive way to look at competition! I do agree with you in that competition only makes you better. Researching what’s out there and what others are doing is the perfect way to constantly improve!
http://twitter.com/fredchannel Fred

Cool post Frank. Thanks for sharing this technique. It’s so true… when it comes to concentration, we are our biggest enemy 25 minutes make a lot of sense. It doesn’t feel like it’s a period of time in which you should be sprinting. I’ll give it a try!
http://www.tweakyourbiz.com Niall Devitt

Sounds interesting Frank!nnI know from training people that 25 mins is about as long as humans appear to be able to concentrate. By taking lots of breaks, you actually end up increasing the productivity within the space. nnThe biggest obstacle to running training progammes in this fashion is guess who? Management of course! Who will worry that this technique has the opposite effect. It amazes me how companies continue to completely remain uneducated as to getting their employees to be more productive. nnSales, where I have a lot of experience is notorious in that most sales teams spend vasts amounts of time on the wrong tasks, largely because they are expected to the management. nnIt’s a strange world sometimes
Roisin Bell

I love this post Frank and I’m going to give this technique a try. The 25 minute sessions really appeal to me as they’re short! Previously I’d been aiming for 40 minutes, as I had thought this was the ideal concentration period, but 25 sounds much more do-able! nAre you tempted to look at emails and IMs etc during your 5 minute (and longer) breaks or do you get away from your desk altogether?
http://www.stress-solutions4life.com/ Catherine Connors

This is a super post Frank and a must read for anyone with ‘time management’ thoughts on their mind, I’ll be recommending it to others…..
http://www.seefincoaching.com/blog Elaine Rogers

I want to go out and buy one of those timers right now. So I guess a kitchen supply shop might be more appropriate than an office supply shop then?nThank you for the “timely” reminder to continue trying out this technique, as I learned about it via your own blog.nRe IM and phonecalls, as Sean Gallagher would say “Turn the hoor off!!” (for reference he said that to a woman who complained that listening to Joe Duffy was depressing her)
http://mindfulproductivity.net/ Beverley

Obviously tomatoes have an awful lot to do with productivity. Who would have thought!nn25 mins is a good chunk to get stuff done in…it always surprises me how much I can actually get done when I totally focus.
Anonymous

Thanks for the comment Fred. I hope it works out for you. The key i’ve found is during the first 25 minutes and planning the rest of the day.
Anonymous

Strange indeed. Once I master this technique myself, the next step will be trying to implement in situations with other people. Bringing it into a training situation sounds interesting and very challenging.
Anonymous

Thanks for the comment Roisin. Good luck with the implementation. I’ve seen variations of the technique and most of them aim for the 20/25/30 minute period of focused activity.nnI try to force myself to walk away from my desk during the 5 minute break. I’ve started building in activities to make sure these things happen e.g. brushing my teeth, doing stretches to compensate sitting down for most of the day, making a cup of tea etc.
Anonymous

Thanks Catherine, for reading, commenting and sharing
Anonymous

Thanks for the comment Elaine. I’m thinking of getting a timer myself. Started by using a timer on my phone, but it ate the battery. Currently on a desktop timer, but I find it too distracting.nnGonna have to take Sean’s advice and turn the hoor’s off!!!
Anonymous

Thanks for the comment Beverly. It is amazing what you can do when the focus is there. I find that I’m now getting tasks done in a few hours, that normally took a full day, when I used to pause to deal with interruptions.
June Oh

I have read this somewhere before that to increase our productivity, we could work in blocks of 20-30 minutes and during that time, we should be all focused on doing the task on hand.

Now, I know that this technique is called Pomodomo!
Anonymous

Thanks Christina – you’re quite right, it can be difficult to communicate an idea succinctly and it’s remarkable how often ‘invest-ees’ fail to pay enough attention to the role their own street creds play in investment decisions. Of course these are related – as we know, there is never a shortage of ideas but there is commonly a shortage of top class implementers. So if you can marry crafting a story well told regarding what you want to do with a demonstration of what you can do and have done – your stock as an invest-able proposition is going to rise. Your point is well made, showing personal capability can often attract more weight in an investment call than the idea itself.

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