Project Orienteering: A Field Guide for Project Leadership - Hardcover

by Denise Brinkmeyer (Author)

EVERY PROJECT IS A JOURNEY.
Many of us still approach project management as a set of best practices and processes that follow a structured and linear path to delivering a project's intended outcome. But what often happens during the course of a project is that communication generates confusion, schedules get off track, sponsors disengage, and teams can end up far away from their intended destinations.
You'll be well prepared to address whatever might go off course in any project if you anticipate and plan ahead by following the guiding principles outlined in this book. With Project Orienteering, author Denise Brinkmeyer takes readers through every phase of a project's journey, with attention to a project's most variable elements--its people. She argues that the most important skill we bring to a project is an ability to adjust, flex, and pivot in ways that remain sensitive to the delicate balance among time requirements, funding allotments, and a project's overall value.

Brinkmeyer speaks primarily to project managers but has something to say to everyone involved: from stakeholders, sponsors, and project teams to customers and end users. She shows that successfully achieving a vision within a project's designated budget is possible, as is creating a collaborative team environment in which everyone remains focused on the value being delivered, expectations are aligned along the way, and team members practice an adaptive, predictive approach to navigating the project's changing terrain.

Back Jacket

In Project Orienteering, Denise Brinkmeyer introduces the idea that project management is first and foremost an exercise in leadership communication.

The ability to engage stakeholder groups based on their differing needs requires careful listening and communication skills, a capacity for real-time problem solving, the ability to adapt nimbly to changing circumstances, and the desire to facilitate others' success.

By approaching every project as a journey, Brinkmeyer emphasizes the necessity of good communication and the importance of setting out with as good a map as possible, knowing full well that exploration along the way will influence both the level of detail the map acquires and the travelers' capacity to anticipate the nature and quality of as-yet-unexplored territory.