Project management is the first step to promotion to management

Coming up, I would like to ask you to take a multiple-choice question first. If a manager on your team is leaving, there are now two candidates to replace him. Option A is the manager of another team at the same level, and option B is the backbone of your team with the best performance. What would you choose?

I guess many people will choose B and promote key personnel. Give young people a chance, and he is the most familiar with the team, so there is no running-in cost. But what I want to remind you is that mature leaders will also give the backbone of the team an additional layer of test, that is, first let the backbone of the team lead a project. If this business backbone can lead good projects, he has also proven that he is highly likely to be qualified for a management position.

Why is project management the first step for career advancement?

We all know that just because the backbone can take care of their own affairs does not mean they can lead the team well. So what is the layer in the middle? We say that management is nothing more than grasping with two hands, one hand grasping management and the other hand developing people. Someone who can lead a good project has at least proven that he can "get things done." Therefore, whenever a mature organization gives you the opportunity to "lead projects", it is also sending a signal to you: you have entered my management reserve army.

This is also one of the motivations for me to study project management. I have seen a lot of outstanding professionals who do their jobs very well, but when they take charge of projects, they fall into a quagmire: many difficulties and grievances. , there are many pitfalls.

Three major difficulties for project managers

It is indeed difficult to be a project manager. I have summarized there are three major difficulties:

First, you have to face a high degree of uncertainty. Certainty;

Second, you have to deal with complex interpersonal relationships;

Third, you may encounter new problems that exceed your knowledge.

I have experienced these three problems repeatedly in various projects and have a deep understanding of them.

Take the New Year’s Eve speeches that you are familiar with as an example. In addition to the complexity of the project itself, the last two New Year’s Eve speeches also faced a huge uncertainty, which was the epidemic. For the 2021 New Year’s Eve speech in Wuhan, we were informed that users from outside the province could not enter the venue until the last three days of the event. It was only at the last moment that we were forced to decide to hold the New Year’s Eve speech in 2022 without an audience. The pressure brought by this uncertainty is felt throughout the entire project. Moreover, it activates the whole body. From ticket sales strategies, to online and offline promotion strategies, to on-site construction, as the project leader, all my decisions are closely related to it. On the one hand, I have to make a plan, and on the other hand, I have to keep the plan flexible so that I can respond to changes at any time. This is the first difficulty, the difficulty brought about by uncertainty.

Let’s talk about the second difficulty. New Year's Eve Speech There was a crisis moment last year. That is when it was confirmed that it would be held without an audience, we had to issue a refund announcement, which was already December 28th. Who is this short announcement addressed to? It seems to be written to tens of thousands of users who have purchased tickets, but in fact it is much more than that. As the project leader, I still have to keep advertisers in mind. What will they think when they see this refund announcement? Will they temporarily withdraw advertising? Also, can the project partners, Douyin and Shenzhen TV, cooperate with this adjustment? There are also project teams and suppliers. Will their morale be unstable after seeing this announcement? Going a step further, how will the public opinion media evaluate it? How would tens of millions of users view this? What do they think of teachers, investors, and partners who work closely with you? How can you write a reasonable refund announcement that not only provides good notification, but also takes into account such complex interpersonal feelings? This is the second difficulty, the difficulty brought about by interpersonal relationships.

Let’s talk about the third difficulty. A project is the process of exploring a new field or problem. This determines that most projects are for those with little experience and will inevitably need to pay tuition. Although the New Year's Eve speech has been delivered for the seventh year, there are new topics every year. For example, if the venue changes, how do you make a plan that suits the new venue? The city has changed, how can we cooperate closely with the local government and enterprises? The platform has changed, how do you find a strategy that fits the new channel? The needs of advertisers are changing. How to design new solutions that are in line with the interests of all parties? The same project, filled with new problems every time. This is the third difficulty, the difficulty brought by new problems.

In this process, the project manager seems to be in the center of the storm, torn apart by internal and external demands, and constrained by budget and manpower. Do you think it is not difficult? It is indeed difficult. Project managers in the eye of the storm will inevitably feel aggrieved.

Do we often hear complaints like this?

I just said it has not changed, and here comes the document again. Customers, leaders, and project members all have their own ideas. Who do you listen to?

I am not a leader, I have no authority, and I am insignificant. How to win the support of the boss and win cross-department cooperation? How can I get customers and team members to listen to me?

The project involves many majors, and I don’t understand many things. Everyone comes and asks me, what should I do?

I have had this kind of mentality before, and I have also been in trouble. But luckily, my team and I supported each other and got through it. More importantly, after repeatedly understanding the characteristics of the project, my mentality also changed.

Characteristics of projects

I can summarize the characteristics of all projects in eight words: temporary unique, progressively detailed.

Because it is temporary and unique, the project will inevitably have new problems that you have never encountered before. Because it is gradually detailed, the project requirements will definitely change frequently, and it is gradually detailed. Every project is different. As project managers, what we can control is not the needs of others, but our own mentality.

What mentality should a professional project manager have? I think it’s these three points:

First, by taking uncertainty as a premise, we can mobilize our initiative and comprehensively think about the direction of the project. Begin with the end in mind and seek knowledge amid uncertainty;

Second, by taking complex relationships as a premise, we can better understand the other party's position. Manage the experience of customers, leaders, team members, and collaborators well, and seek balance in the struggle;

Third, by taking new problems as a premise, we can obtain resources in advance and consciously, and fully grasp experience, Seek innovation in the face of new challenges.

The leadership of a project manager lies in mastering three comprehensive aspects: comprehensive things, comprehensive people, and comprehensive knowledge dimensions. Remember one sentence: Comprehensiveness itself is project leadership.

The mentality of project managers

Professional project managers are like tour guides, leading a group of people to the goal. You know all the difficulties you will encounter on this road, the pitfalls you will encounter, and the methods to avoid danger or resolve difficulties.

And I hope to be your tour guide in this training camp. We treat this training camp as a project, and the goal is to improve your problem-solving abilities. I will impart to you my practical experience, my mentality in dealing with problems, and the knowledge resources that my team and I have developed for you.

On this journey, there is also a spiritual mentor who has been guiding me. I especially want to introduce him to you. He is Taleb, the author of Antifragility.

Why is Taleb the spiritual mentor of our training camp? Because Taleb is a risk management theory scholar, and project management is essentially a discipline that manages risks. He made a clear proposition in "Antifragility": "In the face of changes, we should not react to stress, but learn to embrace changes. We must also find those parts of changes that are conducive to our growth and strengthen them." This is the best endorsement of the mentality we should have when facing changes.

The philosopher Nietzsche has a famous saying, which also confirms this sentence: "What doesn't kill me will eventually make me stronger." I want to give this sentence to every project manager. Even a failed project can have a successful project manager. With this spirit of becoming more courageous with every setback, go and meet the challenge.

Who is suitable to study?

Okay, then who is this training camp suitable for? There are three types of people in my mind:

The first type is the backbone of the workplace and high-potential employees.

A soldier who does not want to be a general is not a good soldier. But being a general is not just about thinking, you also have to prove your abilities to the organization. From the backbone to the manager, the first battle that must be fought is to manage a project well.

The second category is professionals distributed in various industries.

Normally others may call you product managers, customer representatives, designers, engineering experts... but in fact, you are all more or less responsible for the work of project managers. From inconspicuous small projects to complex large projects, almost all intellectual workers are like this. Intellectual workers themselves are relatively self-disciplined and smart. Although you lack project management skills, you can still push the project forward. In the process, you will inevitably fall into many pitfalls, and occasionally encounter huge pressure and make unnecessary mistakes. In fact, most of these problems can be avoided by understanding project management methods. The more you work properly, the less detours you will take.

The third type of people are managers.

A very important part of a manager’s work is driven by projects. Many managers often run multiple projects in parallel and run 3-5 projects at the same time. It is inevitable that they will control the west and start a fire in the east. Most managers can manage projects, but it also consumes a huge amount of their time and energy. The key for managers to learn project management is to master methods and routines, study systematically, and scan blind spots, thereby helping managers save valuable mental resources. Of course, it would be great if after you finish learning, you can transfer this method to your team and train the next batch of excellent project managers. They can take care of your worries.

These three types of people have one thing in common. They are top students who strive to make progress and continue to grow in the workplace. There are actually not many opportunities for growth in our career, and almost every opportunity is accompanied by a new project. Ali likes to say that you can cultivate the truth through falsehood. For people in the workplace, projects are just a way of cultivating the truth through fake work. While accomplishing your goals, you must also achieve self-growth.

For these three types of friends, the project management training camp can help you.

Introduction to the R&D team

Next, please allow me to introduce the R&D team behind this product.

I am the lecturer of this course, my name is Wu Bo. In this product, I have two roles. The first role is that of your "observer". I will accompany you to stand high and see the whole picture of project management through the best practices of different industries. My other role is that I hope to be your "observer". War Correspondent".

Before I joined Ogilvy, I had been in the advertising industry. I also stayed at Ogilvy, known as the "Whampoa Military Academy" in the advertising industry, for five years and worked on countless advertising projects. After joining, I have been leading various large-scale activities of the company, including the New Year's Eve speech mentioned just now. So over the years, I have accumulated a lot of practical experience. I will take you back to the scene of "The Rumbling of Cannons", get closer to those critical moments, and see those thrilling or touching moments.

Behind this product, there is also a strong academic team. Teacher Tong Yao is the external brain and academic consultant of this product. Mr. Tong has worked for well-known foreign companies such as Ericsson and Bell Labs. He is a well-known project management training expert and gold medal lecturer in the industry. The total amount of projects handled exceeds 3 billion. In addition to serving as an academic consultant, Teacher Tong will also be a guest in the live broadcast room to answer questions for everyone.

In addition, there are teachers including Teacher Luo, Teacher Tuobuhua, Teacher Sun Xiaoying, Teacher Luo Yan, Teacher Zhang Chen, etc. They are all deeply involved in the research and development and quality control of this product.

How to learn and practice project management

Finally, let me show you how to take this course. I have attached the class schedule at the end of the article, you can click on the article to view it.

Three weeks of study, I will help you divide it into four major modules:

In the first lecture, I will deliver to you the three underlying principles of project management. As we said before, comprehensiveness is project leadership. But it’s difficult to be comprehensive. How to be comprehensive? I will deliver the corresponding tools and methods to you in the first lecture.

After talking about the three principles, we will enter module one, which is the highlight of traditional project management-setting goals and plans. Project management is a preventive discipline. Once the goals are understood and the plan is well prepared, 80% of implementation problems can be solved theoretically.

Module 2, we are engaged in solving three major problems for you: demand has changed, progress is late, and budget is exceeded.

I know that the endless lectures on knowledge and reasoning in class are mostly accessible to the ears but not the heart. Instead of waiting for you to come back to check information when you encounter difficulties, we can throw you into the difficult situation from the beginning. Only by learning by solving tasks can you remember them deeply.

I will throw you into the dilemma of extreme problems and take you to review the reasons for these problems like "hindsight". Because you have experienced pain and sadness, you can realize which problems should be prevented in advance.

In module three, I will take you three lectures to solve complex interpersonal problems. This is also a feature of this training camp. Many times when our projects get stuck, it’s not because we don’t know what to do, but because we get stuck on relationships. In fact, the important relationships are as follows: how to manage customers and leaders; how to motivate project members; how to manage conflicts; and how to communicate well across departments. Here, I'll give you the tools to run a relationship.

In module four, I will focus on project delivery and review. You may have questions, what is difficult about project delivery, and is it necessary?

Very necessary. Many projects seem to be completed, but the learning cost for customers is very high. How to deliver well so that the project is not only completed, but also survives and achieves the ultimate goal? There is a way here.

In addition, we must not only care about getting things done, but also about self-growth. The saddest situation is that the project is completed, but the project manager offends everyone and loses the next opportunity. You may say that in order to achieve the goal in the process, there is no need to worry about so much. It doesn't matter, cramming the Buddha's feet temporarily is still effective. I will teach you how to hold the Buddha's feet.

Finally, and most importantly for you: How can we turn our experiences into real experiences and enhance our own abilities? I will teach you how to review a project.

Like other training camps, this training camp has courses, live Q&A, exercises, and graduation exams. Finally, based on the special features of learning project management, I would like to ask you three learning requirements:

First, take 10 minutes to preview before class. This training camp has a lot of tools and knowledge points in the PMP professional field. These contents are very basic. I will sort them out and send them to you before class. In class, I will also take you to sort out the most important logic, but we will not spend a lot of time repeating knowledge points. Instead, we will set aside precious class time to pick out important and difficult questions and guide you through them. Use cases to break it down.

Second, I hope you can ask me more questions in the course message area. This training camp hopes to really help you solve your problems from the moment you think about it. The situation of each project is very different. Although the idea behind solving the problem is the same, the specific means of solving the problem may be innovative. I am ready to discuss how to solve your specific problem with you at any time.

Third, I invite you to actively share and share your unique project experience with your classmates. Because sharing itself is a process of review, it is also an opportunity for us to learn something from our past selves again. Your unique case is a treasure for you and for us.

What will you take away after 21 days?

In general, if you follow these 21 days of training seriously, what will you take away?

What you can take away is:

The underlying mentality of professional project management;

A complete set of project management ideas;

In-depth lectures on difficult problems in hundreds of industries;

Practical guide to 50 major project tools;

A three-week Q&A course on essential questions;

A group Students who encourage each other and think of solutions together;

Also, become a professional and mature project manager.

I hope you can master the ability to think comprehensively and develop leadership skills from projects.