In the world of project management, one of the highest and most recognized accolades a project manager can achieve is PMP® certification. In return for the many hours of studying and proven project success, as a certified PMP® one of the requirements we are held to by the Project Management Institute® is continuing education to maintain the certification. Despite the costs, time and effort involved in earning "PDUs" (Professional Development Units) to maintain the certification, PMP®s welcome the opportunity - albeit involuntary - to learn new and enlightening facets of the field. Given the international recognition and proliferation of PMPs, many companies are offering webinars and other online learning opportunities to make PDU-acquisition that much less painful! I recently attended a free webinar entitled "A Sixth Sense for Project Management," which spoke to the need for projects managers to find and invoke an intuitive "sixth sense" to overcome and identify that which empirical business acumen and planning simply cannot supersede.

And, so I began pondering....how we, as project managers, must essentially invoke ALL of our senses to manage projects and ensure success.

Sight: A good project manager not only "sees" the vision and scope for the project, as derived from stakeholder requirements, but also keeps the project "visible" throughout the organization and throughout the project life cycle.

Touch: In the world of project management, "touch" is synonymous with impact. Without a doubt, a project manager's ability to lead and influence are paramount to a project's success. Your priority is not only to capture requirements and obtain stakeholder buy-in from inception with a strong scope statement and kickoff, but also to continually "touch" the resources assigned to your project and on whom you rely for its completion. There's a lot of meaning behind the phrase "All hands on deck" when you need stakeholder, resource and project manager cooperation to ensure a project's timely and successful completion.

Hearing: It goes without saying that a project manager must have an acute sense of hearing in order to catch all of the requirements, scheduling constraints and deliverables which are part of every project. However, project managers need to be able to "hear" undercurrents of emerging risks, schedule constraints and resource apathy which will all adversely affect a positive project outcome. Tuning in to such inaudible signals is crucial so that you can avoid hearing stakeholders shout at the top of their lungs when a project gets off track. 

Smell: A project manager does not need to be a bomb-sniffing dog to know when the wheels are stuck, rubber is burning, and a project is veering off track.

Taste: A good project manager must be able to taste for "done-ness" to know when requirements have been fulfilled and a project is fully ready for implementation. And, much like a restaurant tasting, all members of the project team must agree on the level of "done-ness" in order for the product to be offered. Ultimately, there is no sense a project manager likes more than this one and the taste of sweet success when milestones are met, schedules align, budget constraints are not exceeded and stakeholder expectations satisfied!

When managing a project, whether large or small, personal or professional, you need not be a certified PMP® like me to appreciate that you will engage 100% of yourself and your senses. It is important to recognize the relationship between a project manager's "sense-ibilities" and the innate ability to initiate, drive, and guide a project to success.

What do you think?


Photo Credit: Snowpea&Bokchoi