PMcrunch

I love basketball and I enjoy each March here on the United States when March Madness and NCAA basketball tournament arrives. In watching the games this past weekend, I could not help but be amazed at the number of game changing plays made by the players. In many of the games, it was a matter of how many game changing plays each team made. And the one that made more won. But the fact of the matter is that, these teams are full of game changers and made every game changing play they could. What can we learn from this for project management?

As with so many of the games in the NCAA basketball tournament, our projects have many moments of truth where we are called upon to execute with a high degree of skill. Sometimes, this game changing execution is in a form of developing an innovative plan, finding a unique insight that changes the paradigm for everyone on the project, or perhaps it is an act of brilliance on the part of the team member to solve a perplexing problem. As project managers, one of our great opportunities is to uncover potential game changing opportunities. It is our great opportunity to place our resources into game changing positions.

One of the greatest human resources moves we can make is to put one of our team members in a pivotal position to make a game changing performance. Like the basketball coach, who lays out the play to get one player open for that final shot. We have the opportunity to organize our project teams for action and put everyone in a position to make key plays throughout the project.

It is our great opportunity to be the architect of game changing performances. As project and program managers, this is one of the greatest satisfactions we have in our job. Let’s take advantage and define the tasks that would make our team a group of game changers.

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John Reiling, PMP
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