Critical Knowledge inSight: Resilient Project Management

April 8, 2024

Resilience is a crucial skill for a successful project manager.

In this video from 2019, Murat Bicak, who was at the time the Executive Vice President of Strategy for the Project Management Institute, explains what makes a resilient project manager and why resiliency is such an important quality for project managers to have in an ever-changing work environment.

Video key learning points:

1.
A resilient project manager is adaptable, flexible, guiding, and nurturing. A resilient project manager can take a project team and make sure they succeed even with the complexities surrounding a project and reach the desired objectives.
2.
A project manager needs to understand their organization’s dynamics. The project manager should build, motivate, and coach their team, and be able to operate in constantly changing context.
3.
Project managers must create an environment that will allow learning to take place throughout the project.
4.
A project team with various capabilities and backgrounds helps a project be successful by finding new solutions to problems. A project manager needs the leadership skills to create a safe space that allows and encourages their project team to share these diverse ideas and solutions.
5.
Critical thinking with a strategic mindset is important for a resilient project manager. Strategic clarity and getting the project team to understand the project objectives is important for a project manager.
6.
Learning to be resilient is a skill that can be developed by gaining experience and learning from all of the projects and people you work with in your career. Each project will provide the opportunity to develop different skillsets and learn from new people. Take time to reflect on what worked well and not so well on the different projects in your career.
7.
Context is very important to a project’s success. A project manager needs to read context and understand what will work in their organization’s environment.