Peter Taylor

Autora: Sonia Akamatsu

• Dynamic and commercially astute professional who has achieved notable success in Project Management; currently a head of PMO at Siemens PLM Software, a supplier of global product lifecycle management solutions. Also with 25 years background as a PM across three major business areas. With this background you do not sound like a Lazy PM. So, with this intriguing title we would like you to tell us how all started, and how you ended up writing a book and being a public speaker.
  
  

  Well if I am truly honest it all began with an insult from my manager. At the time I had been working on a training program for our project managers and one of the common questions people asked me was ‘how do you manage to seem so relaxed and yet run a large business operation with hundreds of projects?’.
  I was on my way back from Milan, Italy, and travelled with my manager. Now we have worked together for the last 15 years across three companies and he does know me very well. As we chatted about what would we like to do in life I mentioned that I enjoyed writing and speaking/presentations and that could be fun to do. He agreed saying that I would probably be very good at this but that I was too ‘lazy’.
  And there you have it – an insult? Perhaps but more an insight really, he had identified the key to describing my approach to work and life. From this came ‘The Lazy Project Manager’ and the world of productive laziness.
  At first it was a website in November 2008 and then a book in September 2009. Now I would love to share the world of productive laziness with the world through speaking engagements.
  

• Why did you feel the need to write another book about project management?
  
  

  I believed there was gap in the market, plenty of reference books, plenty of theoretical books to excite the readers, plenty of governance type documents that need to be consumed and obeyed. But a general lack of light-hearted, easy to read, user-friendly books that speaks about real life experiences in a way that could be useful to other project managers.
  I also noted that very few books ever talked about project failures but generally showcased best practice. In my book I unashamedly expose the readers to many of my greatest learning experiences that were a result of getting it completely wrong.

• Some of our readers attended the seminar and had the chance to get in touch with your methodology, but for those who did not have this chance I would ask you to explain it briefly.
  
  

  By advocating being a 'lazy' project manager I do not intend that we should all do absolutely nothing. I am not saying we should all sit around drinking coffee, reading a good book (such as The Lazy Project Manager) and engaging in idle gossip whilst watching the project hours go by and the non-delivered project milestones disappear over the horizon. That would obviously be plain stupid and would result in an extremely short career in project management, in fact probably a very short career full stop!
  Lazy does not mean Stupid.
  No I really mean that we should all adopt a more focused approach to project management and to exercise our efforts where it really matters, rather than rushing around like busy, busy bees involving ourselves in unimportant, non-critical activities that others can better address, or indeed that do not need addressing at all in some cases.
  The book covers the science of laziness, the intelligence of laziness, and then looks at each of the major stages of a project and at the key areas of project management focus with a view to helping project managers do a more effective job.
  ‘Progress isn’t made by wise men; it is made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something’ Robert Heinlein.

• Have you ever thought of changing the format of your seminar to something more dynamic with individual participation like, a workshop, where people can have the opportunity to use your concepts and really assimilate the idea?
  
  

  Actually yes, I am partnering with an ex-colleague to develop a training course based on The Lazy Project Manager right now. There has been a huge interest in the concept and it seemed only natural to take it to the next level with a training course. We hope to be able to pilot this course next March.
  

• As we discussed, many project managers are struggling with time constraints in their project right now, and it looks like a vicious cycle which is hard to get out of. What would you suggest they do in order to change this scenario and become a lazy project managers?
  
  

  The very first step is to be honest with yourself and look at the reasons for why you may be struggling. It may be because of what you are doing, it may be because of what others are doing, it may be because of organizational constraints or probably a mixture of all three.
  To become ‘lazy’ will take time and some education and support from your organization and peers. But to start with look at your communication skills and process. It is said that at least 70% of as project managers time is spent ‘communicating’ so here is a huge area that you could perhaps save some time and reduce some pressures on yourself.
  Validate that people are providing you with the right quality of information and at the right periods. Do they understand why you need this information and what you will do with it and how it is important to the project?
  Check again that everybody that you communicate to still requires the same information every day, week, month or whatever period they receive it. Perhaps things have changed and they may need it less often, less detail, or even in a different format.
  Try this technique at the next project meeting – team meeting, not steering meeting. Make the meeting 30 minutes only and get everybody to stand up. You will be amazed at how focused people become when they are not settled in a comfy chair with a cup of coffee and nothing else to do for 90 minutes!

• As a matter of fact, we know that more and more, it is a demand that the project manager acquires in their career skills that are more managerial than technical. And finding time to develop those skills can be challenging. Where should such professionals start?
  
  

  This is true, there is a growing appreciation that project management is a core skill within the group of general business skills which makes it a challenge for project managers to gain other ‘management’ skills,
  That said, the good (and ‘lazy’) project manager has a good start here since successfully managing a project covers a whole range of skills from ‘soft’ people skills, to financial ‘budget’ skills, to communication and meeting management and so on.
  Perhaps, with their focus on delivering projects to time and to budget project managers may be better suited to management roles that the traditional managers are.
  But to gain better skills I would always use to key point in a project, that of project closure and the ‘lessons learned’ or retrospective to firstly identify where you could improve your own skills, and secondly to request supportive training or mentoring from senior management. The better skilled you are then more likely it is that the next project you manage for your company will be in safe hands.
  

• As a project manager grows in his career and more and more management skills, strategy, and broad vision of the entire organization are required, PMs need to learn how to manage, and also knowing that many business man is doing the contrary way, means learning more about PM, I wonder and our readers too, in your point of view, what is the future of project manager going to be like?
  
  

  Well I may have to get back to you on that one. I am running a survey right now on precisely this topic.
  Project management is fast becoming the preferred way for companies to get things done. In a global economy project management will make a company more competitive that the traditional methods of managing work. So for all managers there is now the need to understand the dynamics of projects and the skill and process of project management in order to make the most out their organization’s investments.Is Project Management therefore no longer a niche capability, the home of project management office members and external contractors; is it now a core skill that all executives and senior management need to understand?
  What I can say is that the initial survey results indicate that the older the respondents were the more that they saw project management as a niche skill, safe only in the hands of project managers. Conversely, the younger respondents saw the world in a different way, with project management being a core skill for all managers.
  I will happily share my full report at a later date. It is certainly an interesting debate.

• After your trip to Brazil, could tell us how did you feel about the maturity of our professionals and the PMs here?
  
  

  I was impressed with all the people that I met at the PMI event and the subsequent conversations that I have had with many of them. LinkedIn has proven a great tool for connecting to people and in exchanging ideas and discussions. That said, it was a short trip and I would love to come out to Brazil once again for a longer period and to see some project managers in action.
  

• To finalize, when your workshop will be available for Brazilian PMs?
  
  

  Well linked to the previous comment, I had a great time in Sao Paulo (thanks again to all at PMI) and I would love to come back out again. The training course will be available from April 2010 so please get in touch if you would like more information.
  Thank you!

< Voltar