Always Grow Your Knowledge

Always Grow Your Knowledge
By Peter McBride

It is truism that we must maintain and grow our professional knowledge and skills, or somehow be left behind. Never mind being left behind – how about simply not knowing what to do? A Project Manager faces new and sometimes unusual challenges with every project. Over time, it becomes more and more difficult to face these challenges, especially if we have an aging or inflexible mental toolkit.

It is difficult to keep up with the latest best (meaning proven) practices in the face of a busy work environment, but it is crucial to one’s continued success. Changes to PMI’s PMBOK, emerging technologies, new business models…all demand our attentions. Not request. Demand!

You can keep up by dedicating a certain amont of time every week to reading relevant journals, a certain amount of time every month to reading new books or attending seminars, and a certain amount of time every year taking professional development courses.

Plan this time and expense it into your work and home schedule, much the way you plan and save for your annual vacation. We can use our own PM skills and training to manage ourselves – and we are great planners, after all. If not – there is your first opportunity.

Peter McBride, PMP is a project manager in Vancouver, BC, Canada. You can read more from Peter on his blog.