The PM Fundamentals Book Club

After certifying PMP, I embarked on a concentrated effort to share and build those skills with my organization. My excitement as I prepared for certification was contagious, and my staff had even begun to ask me to share some of that new knowledge. While we had very little PM practice, we do projects, and recognized instinctively the need to improve our efficiency and effectiveness in our project work.

Choosing format

So, the first question was how to delivery that knowledge. Lots of choices: formal off-site classes, formal on-site classes, custom classes, etc. All of these involved a fair amount of cost, but worse, they posed scheduling problems and required dedicating a lot of time to learn a lot quickly. Such courses are also focused on deep dive knowledge, usually, and I was concerned that this approach wouldn’t be applicable to all my staff. Further, I was concerned that even for PM types, such training may not be as immediately applicable as a team.

Book club format

My wife is in a book club. And somehow, probably on the freeway or over the weekend, I put 2 and 2 together and figured out that a book club format at work would probably meet my needs:

• The right book could provide an end-to-end view of PM practice, high level tool and process knowledge.
• Written at the right level, a book could be applicable for PM types while not overwhelming non-PM project participants.
• By focusing on high-level knowledge, we created a common vocabulary and tool set from which to pull immediate or later, even for non-PM types.
• A book club format could mean spending only an hour a week on the topic. It’s very easy to schedule, and if someone misses a week, they can still continue with the team.
• Spreading the learning out over time allowed time for internalization and consideration.
• Book club format also allowed us to pursue this knowledge as a team, not just as individuals. Knowledge could become part of the group consciousness.
• Book club format encourages discussion, sharing of experience, and application of new knowledge to past experience better than a formal course usually does.

The book

I read through several books. I settled on the book, Fundamentals of Project Management by James P. Lewis. The book had these key characteristics:

• It was not too long, only about 150 pages.
• It was not over-thought or over-written. It was a straightforward read.
• It was PMBOK-aligned, but not PMBOK-constrained.
• It presented core principles and tools, such as WBS, without getting bogged down is more specialized tools and ideas.

So, I ordered the book and off we went.

The results

Part of my team was going to quickly begin a new project that had too tight a time line and would require much greater focus and team coordination than we’d ever used. I knew that we’d need proper PM focus on deliverables, tasks, and schedule than we were able to execute well. I had a natural PM on the team, but I knew that even our combined efforts would meet resistance and be perceived by the team as administrative overhead: “Let’s just get to work and get it done!”

Early on in our book club, I was pleased to see team members having lots of “ah-ha” moments. They could see how the ideas were applicable, could save frustration and rework, and make things better. They were actively considering past projects and getting new insights on what had worked or not and why. When we started the project half-way through our book club schedule, we started with some good PM practices — not over thought or overdone — and there was no resistance. As a result, we had clear deliverables, clear tasks, clear ownership, and we were able to deliver a good results, on time, with good value-add to the organization.

This week, the team was formally recognized by our larger organization for that solid work last quarter. It was a great validation of their teamwork and the results they produced.

It happened because we had a talented, effective, committed team who were eager to embrace better practices. They explored PM with me, we implemented it, and it paid off very quickly.

By invitation, I’m now repeating that process with another team in our organization. I highly recommend it!

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