You're a project manager, not Super(wo)man!

There is a tendancy for people to be sent on project management training courses and expected to come back ready to transform the organisation. The reality is that only the trainee has received the training; the rest of the organisation is blindly (sometimes blithely) following the "old way" of working.

During project management training, it's often a revelation to people that the organisation structure that is wrapped around the project, and intended to steer it towards a successful outcome, is quite often the source of much frustration for the project manager. I describe it as being like a fish trying to swim upstream; you are working hard and long and feel you are doing all the right things but the project is not making progress.

The structure around any project needs to be considered and tailored to that project. An internal project with a small discretionary budget and resource requirement is different to a large project requiring cross-functional collaboration. Yet, often the same governance structure is used for all projects. The organisation has options it is not aware of; for example, functional versus projectized governance, weak, balanced or strong matrix arrangements, agile self-regulating team structures or use of delegated tasks, and so on.

So if you find yourself being "volunteered" for a project management training course, be sure to ask what the organisation is doing by way of governance and team structures for your future projects that will ensure you become the best project manager you can be.