Pinto Offers Three Key Points During Commencement Address
On Saturday, May 17, Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, conferred 482 degrees at its spring commencement. To see more photos of the ceremony at Tullio Arena, click here.
Dr. Jeffrey K. Pinto, the Andrew Morrow and Elizabeth Lee Black Chair in Management of Technology in the Sam and Irene Black School of Business, was the featured commencement speaker. Pinto has written or edited twenty-three books and over 120 scientific papers on project management, including Prentice-Hall’s best-selling book Project Management: Achieving Competitive Advantage. His latest book, Cost and Value Management in Projects, was published in February.
His address, titled “Managing Your Most Important Project,” appears below:
Graduates, family members, and distinguished guests, it is my pleasure to speak with you today in this celebration of your final hours as students. By the end of the day, as you get used to the idea that you are now a graduate of Penn State, much of this ceremony will seem like a blur but I can promise you that as the years go by, you will find yourselves thinking back to these moments and remembering with great pleasure your participation here.
I have been asked to serve today as your commencement speaker, a very great honor but equally, a great challenge. It has led me to ask myself honestly: What can I contribute to this day that won’t automatically be eclipsed by the event itself? As I was considering this question, I had an interesting experience. I was flipping the pages of a book that I had written some years ago and I came across the dedication page. I had dedicated this particular book to my three children and the actual text went like this: “To Emily, AJ, and Joseph: three ‘projects’ that are definitely over budget but are performing far better than I could have hoped.”
As I reflected on that dedication, I thought about my own experiences as a project manager in its most special sense, both in raising my children and also in pursuing my career. It occurred to me that part of what makes today truly memorable is that it represents a fundamental shift in our lives. Today is the day we hang out a sign that says, “Under new management.” And so, I believe that the real audience I would like to speak to today is composed of two groups: You graduates, obviously, but equally, parents and family members who are here celebrating this event with you.
Parents, you have had a huge impact on the performance of these projects to date. Now, you graduates are about to take your project to its next level. Once I put things in terms of how to manage your own project, I could draw on some lessons I have learned from over twenty years of studying this activity. And so, I have titled today’s talk, “Managing Your Most Important Project.” With this in mind, I would like to offer just three key points for you to consider as you prepare to move your project into a new stage of its development.
1. Know Your Mission. Your mission is your ultimate goal. What is it you seek? Yearly, I see hundreds of expensive projects undertaken by organizations that have only the vaguest idea of what they hope to achieve. Predictably, these projects either fail outright, costing the organizations millions, or they spin on and on; never being successful, but never being completed either. Having a plan is critical to achieving your goals. The two cannot be separated from each other. With your project, ask yourself: What’s next for me? Where do I expect to be in three years? How about ten years?
In projects, we often devote significant time and money to nothing other than getting our plans together, making sure everything makes sense, and that the activities all fit together and are designed to contribute to the project success. One thing research and experience have taught us is that the single biggest cause of project success is a clear sense of purpose.
The corollary to my first point is this: Don’t expect your plan to succeed unchanged. General Dwight Eisenhower once said that “Plans are nothing; planning is everything.” His point was that we have to get in the habit of setting goals for ourselves, whether or not those goals actually come to pass. Projects are like that. Planning is a critical activity for success but we know from long experience that projects NEVER go according to plan. Lots of things can disrupt them: The economy, technical difficulties, team conflict, egos, conflicting signals from top management, the list goes on and on. Each of us here has to come to terms with the simple fact that the plans you have created for yourself will change. That is not a sign of impending disaster; actually, that is a simple recognition of how life works.
In fact, successful projects are typically those that recover the fastest from potential disaster. Let’s get personal for a moment. Many of you here today started out in college with a completely different goal for your future than the one you now hold. Likewise, some of you have had to deal with incredible hardships and life changes over the course of your college experience. You are not the same person today that you were when you started this journey.
Do these circumstances make your success today any less than the person sitting next to you? Of course not! In fact, for those of you who had to overcome significant personal circumstances to complete your education, I offer my sincerest congratulations on the way you responded to the curve balls life throws our way. My point here is that the attitude each of us brings to managing our project is key. How we deal with life’s roadblocks speaks volumes for how successful our project is likely to become. Attitude is your greatest ace in the hole or the biggest millstone around your neck – it’s your choice.
Jim Taylor is a futurist. He has made a career from analyzing economic and social trends to give organizations insight into potential opportunities and threats. He is also the author of a bestselling book on these trends, “The 500 Year Delta.” I heard him speak at a large conference once and he offered a powerful insight. He said that he is often asked for predictions on what is going to happen in the future, and says, “One thing I know for certain: Optimists will have a better than average life and pessimists will have a worse than average life and the same things will happen to each of them!”
Our plans will change. Although I am not a futurist myself, that is the one prediction I can make with confidence here today.
2. It’s The People Who Matter. In project management, we spend a lot of time teaching techniques. You each learned a variety of techniques here in college. Whether they were techniques for public speaking, for calculating net present value, for solving differential equations, or for effective writing, chances are you are leaving here today with a big bag of techniques under your arm.
That’s fine and it’s important. We DO need to know how things work. We need the skill set that college provides us. It is these techniques and many others like them that make us attractive candidates for potential employers. But there is a hidden trap here. Techniques are what we use to get our project started. They won’t keep the project on target, they won’t ensure that the project is not behind schedule or leaking money.
Techniques get us in the game but playing the game well requires us to take a larger look around. Are you paying attention to the people? When I lecture or consult with corporations, one of the themes I return to again and again is that “Project management is about paying attention to your people.” Those who are involved in a project ultimately determine whether or not it succeeds.
To state this point another way: I can do everything right with the techniques of project management but if I forget about my people, the project is doomed. The same reasoning applies to everyone here. We were not wired to make it alone. We need a support network of friends and family. With support, anything is possible. Without it, everything starts to become overwhelming.
I had the opportunity to speak once with a project manager who was routinely responsible for billion-dollar projects and phenomenally successful at managing them. I asked him if he could synthesize down for me his keys to success and his answer surprised me. He was very direct about the reasons behind his accomplishments: “I had good people working with me; I had a spouse who always believed in me; and I never lost sight of God’s role in my life. Also, I never confused money with what really makes life valuable.”
Bernice Weissbourd put it very well: “We cannot exist each unto ourselves; commitment and a sense of obligation to the welfare of others, to the community, and to the nation are ingredients of being human.” If there is one prediction I personally can make for you today, it is this: At some point, looking back over the way your project has progressed, you will each come to the same conclusion: It was the people who mattered.
3. Celebrate the Successes. Sometimes in long projects, we get so caught up in the daily grind and the long-term goals that we forget to pay attention to the short-term milestones.
Today is the opportunity to celebrate just such a milestone. One stage of your most important project has completed, and a new phase is just about to take off.
Today, you have clearly demonstrated that you have been giving your mission serious thought and I congratulate each of you on your success. I genuinely hope it represents only the first in a series of future achievements.
For more information about Jeffrey Pinto's work, click here.