Homework 1Ashley V. Twyman

Project Management Fundamentals 9/29/2008 – 11/9/2008

Dr. Joel Light

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The article that I chose to respond to was “People At Work” by Kathleen Ryan

O’Connor. In the article, O’Connor addresses that while it is important to be able to do

your job, you must always keep in mind that you work with people. People require

different skills in order to keep relationships within an acting group civil. I thought it

was a hilarious observation she made when she quotes Melanie Cullen, a California-

based management consultant, in saying “I’ve seen people darn near punching each other

out in the middle of a project…” O’Connor emphasizes the importance of not getting so

wrapped up in getting the job done that you forget the personal aspects of the job. She

notes that “The best people skills are really basic management skills.” She also observes

that keeping people happy can be as simple as making sure the coffee is always on and

the pens are readily stocked. Many times, leaders get so caught up in the life style of

what I like to refer to as butt-up-face-down, that they forget the people working around

them, and with them, have needs other than what work may fulfill. They tend to get

caught up in the methodology of things. O’Connor quotes Patrick Boylan, CEO of

Intellilink, as saying “I’m not against methodology – no way. But it gets to a point where

some managers might be doing methodology for methodology’s sake.” O’Connor adds

“and this means taking their eyes off business value.” Project managers are asked to look

at so many different aspects of a job in relation to their people, the company, themselves,

time restricts, financial decisions, etcetera, that it tends to be overwhelming to say the

least.

I chose this article because it not only emphasized the very important issue of

human relations in coordination with working environments, but it also re-emphasized

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what our text book states about the seemingly crazy and overwhelmed life of a project

manager.

I am not sure the article presented new information, but I did enjoy how the

article addressed the many different issues that arise for a project manager and the

examples that were given. It did help me see just how crazy project management can be

and how projects can turn south rapidly if you are not an effective project manager.

I did learn a new term from the article. It refers to people skills as “soft skills”. I

have never heard them called this before and liked this new terminology. I enjoy articles

that talk about and quote people who are out there in the professional working world. In

addition, this gives me insight and relates subject matter to real world experiences, and I

value that. Sometimes it’s hard for me to think outside my normal boundaries, and when

I can see another person’s quotes on an issue it gets me to thinking more about it. This

was especially true with the conversations highlighted with Melanie O’Connor in this

article.

This article re-emphasized what our book talks about in relation to being a project

manager. It seems to be common knowledge that project managers live very busy, hectic

and stressful lifestyles. The article, however, put more emphasis on how personal

relationships effect all corporate cycles. It stated that while being obsessed with the

project at hand, it is equally, if not more important, to be obsessed with the people. If

they are not happy, you are not happy.

References

People at Work, written by Kathleen O’Connor, from projectsatwork.com, retrieved

October 2, 2008 from http://www.projectsatwork.com/