The Lazy Project Person

Here are some gems I gathered from Peter’s talk:
The best project managers are both smart and lazy – they will look for really effective ways to do things with the minimum of effort! Insiration came to Peter from a Prussian soldier (von Moltke) and a medieval Italian (the 80:20 rule).

Peter’s talk was full of fabulous images. One was of a dinosaur (Monty Python fans might know the one) which was thin at the start, thick in the middle and thin at the end. Our planned effort as Project Managers should be completely the opposite: thick at the start as we get everything set up, thin in the middle (allowing for plenty of time for all those issues which will arise) and thick at the end to allow for a proper closedown including reviews).

Above all, Peter advised us to breathe normally (just as we need to when oxygen masks descend in a plane.) I heard this message repeated at the IPM Day in Stevenage last week – Peter was presenting on what to do when things go wrong.

Since then, I’ve been reflecting and realised that ‘lazy’ as Peter uses it is just what I am! So here’s for lazy project managers, lazy business analysts and lazy trainers!
(As an example of a ‘lazy’ training session, this afternoon, ten business analysts presented back the course we’ve been following over three days. They used lots of colour, pictures, words and quizzes. They chose to present the areas that they were least confident in, to make sure that they knew it inside out before the end of the course. Very effective, and the trainer got to sit down throughout for a change!