‘The Apprentice’: Project Manager – You’re Fired!

Is ‘The Apprentice’ real Project Management?
Every week I watch the TV programme ‘The Apprentice’ and every week the same disasters happen. Two project managers are appointed, they are called Project Managers but don’t seem to have any clue about what they are doing or how to work together as a team. It is always a shambles, we all laugh at their stupidity and everybody thinks they could have done a better job but it does make compelling TV watching!!
 
Project Management is Rocket Science
For the opposite of ‘The Apprentice’, Google ‘Project Management’. You will get a very complicated, complex view of methodologies, templates, processes, skills and experience – it makes your brain hurt! All of which must be completed in a certain order, involve lots of people and money and woe betide you if you don’t follow this to the letter then your project will definitely fail.
 
There must be some middle ground
Then how come the majority of projects still don’t complete on time, to budget and to specified quality? There must be something in the middle between the utter shambles of ‘The Apprentice’ project managers and complex overkill methodologies?
 
How did the Pyramids get built, bridges suspended across huge gorges get constructed and hundreds of miles of canals dug out of the landscape? These all happened without a computer and complicated methodologies! Well it might not have had a name but they were definitely doing some sort of large-scale organised effort. I like to call this ‘Project Management Light’; it’s the difference between being over complicated or doing nothing and winging it!
 
What is Project Management Light?
Project Management Light is all about being organised, keeping it simple (stupid!!), using common sense and doing what works for you and your business.
 
It’s about doing what works and not doing what doesn’t work. Most of it is learned from knowledge and experience. Stuff that you can’t get in a book, stuff that you only get from actually managing projects.
 
Fergus O’Connell is a big advocate
One of my go to guys for Project Management is Fergus O’Connell. If you’ve not heard of Fergus, he is a writer of both fiction and non-fiction. The non-fiction being Project Management and he’s been running his own Project Management consulting business since 1992. He’s also a down to earth guy that writes in a no nonsense, keep it simple, do what works style. He’s a big advocate for the ‘Project Management Light’ style of Project Management.
 
If you are looking to get into Project Management or want to know what works from years of experience, then I recommend you read one of Fergus’s Project Management books (available on Amazon).
 
What Next?
Do you want to know more about ‘Project Management Light’ and how it can help you get your projects completed? Contact us, we can be your Project Manager or provide coaching on how you can do ‘Project Management Light’ yourself – our 1st meeting is always free.

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