Aug 17, 2010
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Linchpin Project Management: Operations v Projects
Part Two of Four
In the last article we introduced the concept of Linchpin Project Management.
- Linchpin Project Management fosters linchpin project managers;
- A linchpin project manager is someone who drives change in an organization.
- A linchpin project manager needs to be willing to be a driver of change, as a person and
A linchpin project management environment
fosters remarkable change and can make
your company indispensable to your customers.
This article focuses on one factor that determines the environment for project management.
Operations or Projects?
Is the project manager working on operations or projects?
This might seem like an academic distinction, but it is fundamentally important in how the project manager sees their role in the organization and the standards to which they are held.
For example, if they manage operations, the fact that the business is still going means they are doing their job.
But if they manage projects, they are doing their job only if the company keeps improving.
Operations are things you do every day to keep the lights on, the company working and customers happy.
Projects are unique undertakings. They have a distinct start and end date. Often they are used to help move operations from status-quo to some new (and hopefully improved) state. A project means change.
A project manager is, therefore, in charge of something unique, something that is bringing change. Something that’s never been done before.
People who run operations are sometimes called project managers. This is because the operations of the company require producing distinct work- product for specific clients.
(I see this a lot in creative groups like marketing or art departments. In fact, the next article in this series is dedicated to project management for marketing or art departments.)
Calling an operations manager a project manager leads to confusion, accentuates the project administration role and dilutes the role a project manager can have as an instigator and facilitator of change.
Don’t get me wrong, every company needs project administrators. They are indispensable to the smooth flow of operations. But there is a difference between project managers and administrators.
Project managers are linchpins that get things done. Projects are all about change and project managers are all about making change a reality.
Bringing it back to Godin’s recommendation – to have a linchpin project manager, decide whether the role you have called “project manager” is one to oversee what it takes to keep the lights on, or if it truly is a position of change.
If it is a position of change, let the project manager ask tough questions of the stakeholders and the team, let them question why things are being done a certain way, let them hold people accountable. Then, they can be agents of the remarkable.
Stay tuned to the next article in this series for further guidelines on how to create a culture of linchpin project management.
[...] and creative agencies have a unique challenge when it comes to project management. How do you distinguish between operations and projects when you do projects for a [...]