Teaching and Project Management
Project management has been a cornerstone of my business career, serving as the primary tool for navigating change. While my academic background lies in mechanical engineering, I now identify as a project manager more strongly than an engineer. Over the years, I have accumulated many experiences— successes and failures—which have become invaluable lessons I now share as an instructor.
As I continue to improve my teaching skills, I have found a strong connection between teaching and project management, particularly in Brookfield’s The Skillful Teacher (Brookfield, 2015). Brookfield outlines 16 maxims of skillful teaching that helped him stay reasonably sane as a teacher. Those maxims resonate deeply with me, especially his insights on the limitations of standardized models and approaches:
“Teaching and learning are such complex processes, and teachers and learners are such complex beings, that no curricular model or instructional approach will ever apply to all people in all settings.” (p. 268)
This quote attracted my attention and resonated deeply with me about the complexities and ambiguities of project management. Just as effective teaching requires a nuanced, adaptable approach, project management demands similar flexibility and intuition.
Project management has experienced a significant evolution during the last 30 years. This evolution has given rise to various Agile frameworks, altering how projects and products are managed. Some organizations started implementing those frameworks, assuming they would rid their projects of ambiguities, problems, and contradictions. It turned out that that was not the case. Directly applying these standardized approaches without considering the unique circumstances of each situation led to disappointments and failures in many transformation projects (Cohn, 2023).
Brookfield notes that (2015) “Learning, by definition, involves change (p. 213), and similarly, projects are tools for implementing a change. Therefore, change management is a common concept for both teachers and project managers, requiring a structured approach. Although standard methodologies, frameworks, tools, and techniques offer opportunities to manage a change, each project has specific circumstances and distinctive needs. Similarly, each course creates a unique experience for a teacher with its unique participants and circumstances.
Ultimately, success in both teaching and project management depends on the ability to adapt, innovate, and tailor approaches to suit the specific needs of the situation. No philosophy, theory, methodology, or framework can guarantee success in achieving the expected change; instead, success lies in the skillful integration of diverse ideas, techniques, and activities to address the complexities of real-world scenarios.
References:
Brookfield, S.D., (2015). The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom (Third Edition) Jossey-Bass
Cohn, M. (2023, March 15). YouTube. Agile Transformations Explained https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q31g4G8mNc8