Pandemic offers a once-in-a generation opportunity for change

Note from the CEO

The rollout of successful vaccines for COVID-19 has given businesses everywhere hope that the pandemic may be finally nearing a turning point. The organizational energy that helped many companies pivot quickly during the pandemic’s early days has, in many cases, been replaced by fatigue. Yet even as project leaders take action to reenergize their people and teams, the most forward looking see a larger opportunity—the chance to build on pandemic-related accomplishments and reexamine (or even reimagine) the project management organization’s identity, how it works, and how it grows. The pressure to change had been building for years. Well before the COVID-19 pandemic, portfolio executives routinely worried their organizations were too slow, too siloed, too bogged down in complicated matrix structures, too bureaucratic. What many project leaders feared, and the pandemic confirms, is that many project offices were organized for a world that is disappearing—an era of standardization and predictability that is being overwritten by four big trends:

a combination of heightened connectivity: rising interconnectivity speeds disruption
lower transaction costs: barriers to entry and costs to achieve scale are evaporating.
unprecedented automation: increased automation undercuts the foundational processes many project organizations are founded on.
and shifting demographics: expect more learning, more leadership and promotion opportunities, more social impact, and more career mobility.

Project organizations have zero time to lose. In an increasingly winner-takes-all business environment, any organization that is not seeking new approaches is on borrowed time. The good news? Companies everywhere are recognizing that the pandemic offers a once-in-a generation opportunity for change. Indeed, the much-anticipated—and yes, inevitable—transition from today’s COVID-19 crisis mode to the next normal offers project executives a unique opportunity. By seizing the initiative, project offices can discover organizational “unlocks” and create new systems that are more flexible, more interconnected, more profitable, more purposeful— and simply more human.

Misty Mayes, CEO

Government Climate Policy Changes and the Effects on Project Management

Regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum, a change in government administration affects every single industry from banking to construction to manufacturing and farming - no industry is immune. Policy and regulatory changes disrupt some industries while creating opportunities in others. In either scenario the changes can have broad implications.

One of the first policy changes ushered in by the new U.S. administration in early 2021 is focused on tackling climate change at home and abroad. The orders are multi-faceted, so the changes are sure to trickle down into every aspect of business.

Some would argue that climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing the world which poses the question for us, what is the profession of project management to do about it? In his report, Climate Change and what the project management profession should be doing about it – a UK perspective, University College London professor, Peter Morris argues that project management has a significant role to play in reducing the causes and consequences of climate change. Morris recommends a holistic approach and outlined below are some of his top-level approaches to tackling the challenge:

Have a ‘single point of accountability’ (SPA) where all actions relevant to achieving the project’s or program’s objectives as they relate to climate change are centered.
Establish a Project Management Office (PMO) to define the expectations and methods to be used in the very early stages of projects; defining the major task elements, interdependencies, durations, risks, benefits, and organizational roles, processes and structures.
Project managers adapt to climate change from “business as usual” projects to larger R&D projects.

As with anything of this scale and complexity, collaboration and forming partnerships is essential. The profession has a major role to play and must be integrated if it wants a strong voice and influence. Much of the work needed from project managers in addressing issues arising from climate change needs to be done from the very earliest stages of the project. For a deeper dive into Morris’ recommendations visit his report here.

Solving the Talent Shortage in Project Controls Starts with One

When CEO, Misty Mayes dreamt of starting Talent Solutions and its flagship certificate program, Project Controls Training Institute (PCTI), it began primarily as a desire to create well-paying, sustainable careers for aspiring project controllers - especially those in rural or economically disadvantaged regions. As the plan began to unfold, she soon realized it would be more than meaningful work for people, but that it would also provide a solution to the country’s as well as the world’s growing project management and project controls talent shortage.

Launched in the middle of a pandemic, the premier project controls training, workforce development, and recruiting firm have expanded its offerings to both Government agencies and commercial clients across the country and the globe.

Project Controls Training Institute (PCTI) is initiating another class of graduates who will be leaving the program as competent and holistically trained project controls professionals. There are multiple graduates who have ascended into full time positions where they will continue their development alongside more senior staff members.

Brooke Sodahl is one such graduate. With a background in business, Brooke enrolled in the PCTI to further develop her knowledge in project controls and expand her career opportunities.

“I was working for an aircraft company when I started the Project Controls Training Institute and was wearing multiple hats in a hybrid role as part project manager, part business development and part client relations,” said Brooke. “I had always been interested in project management/controls but in my role at the time, there was not a lot of knowledge to draw upon.”

After meeting one of Management Solutions senior project managers while taking a class at University of Tennessee, Brooke was introduced to Talent Solutions and the Project Controls Training Institute.