In my professional career as a Project Manager or project coordinator, I have found myself working in various fields: from education and social work, to today, when I am venturing into an innovative area like the tech world.
When I comment a little on what I do, I like to say that I make things happen. And yes, because the role of the PM has that: it supports teams in fulfilling their tasks and follows up on them; understanding a little beyond the obstacles that arise along the way. Also, like a kind of superpower, it navigates these obstacles to the point of pulling infinite possibilities out of the hat to shuffle and continue the course or, in some cases, start over.
When I started in this role, I was still being taught the waterfall management model, which, if we think about it rationally, responded to a logic that did not allow for sudden changes, as it had a fairly linear format. Currently, work is being done with agile methodologies where there are instances of iteration and review, understanding, of course, that it is much better to find the error before the end of the process when it is going to be more difficult to go back, with the consequences that this brings not only in material or cost terms, but also in terms of energy.
Consequently, I have also seen how tools that facilitate certain processes to make daily work more pleasant appear, such as, for example, monitoring how the team's performance is going. Adding to this is the incorporation of artificial intelligence, which already allows you to organize minutes in a matter of seconds.
Now, the goal of this article is not to explain what a Project Manager does, but to share that behind all those tasks to be fulfilled, there are people who, from their knowledge, must achieve objectives that determine whether something is finished or not. Already here, a world opens up that not even AI can manage, or at least, that's what I believe.
It is complex to apply a method without understanding what group of people we are working or relating to. On the other side coexist diverse teams, with lives or realities very different from ours. Therefore, before starting a new project in a company, I try to find out who I will be relating to; because, although something works in other environments and is socially innovative, it may not adapt if it does not respond to the real needs of the team. It makes no sense to implement Scrum, Kanban, or any other theoretical-practical framework without first understanding aspects or characteristics such as ages, how they communicate, what motivates them, or even what limitations they have in their daily life.
With the above mentioned, the question arises, how many times is it possible to automate and develop frameworks without taking into account the human approach? From my perspective, I believe it does not lead to good results. Before loading ourselves with the bag of acquired tools and knowledge, it is essential to develop empathy as part of the stages of any project. Making way for observation and active listening are skills that add value when generating healthier workspaces and better managing frustrations.
A dashboard can look very nice and pretty to the eye, but there is something it does not reflect: each person comes with an available energy shaped by their context, and this directly impacts how tasks are executed. So, beyond organizing the times in sprints, the true challenge of this era, and even more so with the daily acceleration in which we are immersed, is not only to apply a new method, but to be able to adapt it to the human rhythm without losing sight of the objectives.
As PMs, we are a negotiation bridge between the needs of the business, the client we work with, and what the team can realistically deliver, without exhausting or breaking down along the way.
In my experience, it is worth taking the time to generate such understanding, as there have been many times when I failed wanting to enter with my “little book under my arm” in a space that did not fit the reality. For this reason now, the “What do you need? or "How can I help you?” has become part of my routine. We know that we will not always be able to meet everyone's expectations, but it really makes a difference, and that allows the creation of a conducive space where trust can be built.
Tools like methodologies are being reinvented at a rapid pace, but what does not change is that we continue to be people working with people, and there, more than formulas, we need to connect to continue developing empathy.
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