PMcrunch

I just finished reading a book which, among other things, highlighted the importance of having passion in your projects. The results of this passion were many compelling and highly successful projects.

The book I read, "Teach With Your Heart", by Erin Gruwer, really captivated my attention. The author told a first person story in a very emotionally involving way. In fact, Erin’s ability to connect emotionally with people seemed to be the common underpinning of her success as an educator, and later as a speaker, among other things. Her passion resulted in the creation of "The Freedom Writers", which is in large part a creation of the collectivized and personal passions of a diverse group of students.

Erin’s passion was responsible for the creation of many successful projects along the way: 

1. Helping students break through their seemingly helpless and hopeless personal lives, which were ridden with violence, distrust, hatred, and crime

2. Uniting humans who have experienced injustice, including children of the war in Bosnia, children of the holocaust, and children of inner city violence

3. Creating an emotional connection to achieve awareness of problems and opportunities in our world, our media, and our education system

More could certainly be extrapolated from this, but these are the 3 that come to my mind most clearly and resoundingly.

So, it is obvious that passion can result in successful projects. But it was Erin’s and her students’ passion for their cause that brought the success. It was not necessarily sound project management.

Passion results in successful projects, I think, because the project follows the passion. A project sponsor with passion emerges, and the result is a project with great support, great salesmanship, and potential to gain buy-in from all stakeholders.

Passion for project management itself, I believe, is passion for the successful execution. It is a passion for the HOW, such as the HOW we are going to achieve this. Erin, in her book (and surely in the movie, which I have not yet seen, where she was played by Hillary Swank), did show a great deal of moxy, nerve, guts, and whatever else you want to call it in executing her projects. She found financial sponsors, contributors, and support of all kinds in helping to realize her dreams and in the name of the cause. Although it was not the focus of the book, surely there was much sound project management going on behind the scenes.

I can only conclude that professional project management is extremely important and helpful in the execution and management of projects, but the intangible of passion is the secret ingredient that is most critical to success, as many other things can fall into place when it is there. It would serve us all well to look within ourselves for our own passions, and look all around us for passion.