This article is the second of a series that we published in a regional magazine a few years back. The concepts that we discussed then and the message of these articles are still applicable today, hence the republication here!
Not long ago, a giant started to turn and toss, stretch and yawn, and hesitantly started to crawl out of its deep and long sleep. Is it our bear waking up from hibernation? Is it the noise of other bears waking up that is forcing our bear to weak up? Or is it a sub-conscious awareness of a challenge ahead, a danger, or a great opportunity that is leading to this awakening? Who or what is this giant? Where did it come from? And how come it doesn’t have any differentiation of gender, religion, race or age? How come this giant manages to get awakened even in many areas of this small globe of ours? How come it even contributed in the awakening of huge conglomerates, as if it has no limits, or better says it allowed no limits or restrictions of its awakening? When it is triggered, nothing could stop it or limit it. Then, the journey begins …
As if it is a hunger that has existed since the very beginning and it was just waiting for the right circumstances and the right environment and the right acquaintances to get unleashed and be revealed to the humans as individuals. This thing is not stopping at the individuals, rather, it is moving to the multifunctional, multinationals conglomerates and into the smaller enterprises. Once you become aware of it, you cannot avoid it or postpone it and it becomes one of the urging priorities.
In other words, our giant is none other than the emerging profession of project management from the tactical into its strategic value and importance.
We at SUKAD have been talking about this giant, the giant of project management that is awakening within us as individuals, as organizations, and in the Region. Thousands of individuals globally have discovered their own giant and either had awakened it or they are learning how to awaken it. The giant is not limited to individuals, we see organizations learning about it and discovering that organizational success could partially be attributed to the power of the giant of project management. This is apparent in global organizations and it is starting to appear more and more in the Middle East – so the region is discovering its giant as well.
Project Management for the Accidental Project Manager (Free eBook)
What is project management about?
- It is about knowledge, tools, techniques, and skills,
- It is about identifying our goals and objectives,
- It is about a focused and disciplined approach that would help us achieve our objectives …
Then how can we effectively discover and learn new concepts so we can use the power of (project management) knowledge instead of depending on instinctual behavior to bring order in our lives and work toward excellence?
If one can agree that project management is a giant, then what is the “awakening within” part about? We see that every individual, whether a professional or a senior manager, whether a woman managing her household or a professional women, is “instinctual” using certain concepts of project management in every day life; yet we do not recognize its relation to project management.
Now to awaken the giant we start by learning to sense that a giant indeed exists and to believe that project management does add significant value. Once we understand this, then discovery is in place and the awakening process starts. With awakening focused learning become of importance. For individuals and organizations that means learning about project management to see how it does relate and could indeed add value.
Here we move to another stage, once the discovery and awakening is achieved, then we shift to training the giant in order to tame it and refine its skills. For individuals, this would be further development through building the foundation and building blocks of excellence via a life long learning approach. For organizations it could mean sponsoring their capital assets to learn and grow in order to enhance performance and effective execution. Professional certification could be a milestone on the learning journey but what is far more important is the learning process that goes into achieving the certification.
Once again, we are in the business of awakening giants! Are you ready to awaken yours?