We are listening

There is much written with respect to the importance of the people factors and their role in enabling project success. To build on this knowledge base the People SIG conducted a survey of the APM community to establish the significant factors in project success from our community’s perspective.  The survey was well supported with in excess of 100 respondents.

The survey identified the following key factors influencing the outturn of a project (listed in descending order of importance): communication, leadership, stakeholder management, sponsorship, delegation and empowerment, change management, influencing skills and culture.

The survey also sought to explore the development needs of our members with respect to the key people skills. The priority areas identified where our members consider that their skills need further development were as follows (again listed in descending order of priority): influencing skills, conflict management, aligning multi-company teams, managing the non project resource, sponsorship, leadership, stakeholder management, change management and managing anxiety and stress.

The survey suggests that some of the key success enablers are well recognised and not perceived by respondents as key development needs. This is re-assuring. It is also of note to recognise that conflict management, aligning the multi-company team, Managing the non-project resource and managing anxiety and stress are growing factors in today’s projects and areas where development support is required.

The survey results are a rich asset to help the SIG understand the needs of our community and are being used to shape our work. Following assessment of the results and comparisons with personal experiences and “war stories” around the committee table we have launched our “Year of resilience” as an umbrella theme for a series of events exploring differing aspects of resilience for the project manager. Watch the SIG calendar for an event near you!

The People SIG would like to thank all those who participated in our survey and hope that you get involved in some of the coming events.