8 Life Lessons from a Maven of Project Management
Special thanks to Aninditta Savitry for providing the insights and Vicario Reinaldo for hosting the informative Follow the Flow podcast, on which Aninditta was a guest in the episode: “How to Become a Super Generalist”.
If I may be upfront, project management is not exactly my forte — although I had had to report to a project manager during my tenures as an audiovisual translator (both freelance and in-house/full-time in a language service provider) since 2016 and as a business development staff for 6 months from mid-2020 until early 2021 in a budding Indonesian fintech startup; and as yet I know so little of the workings of project management in practice “under the hood”, but then I read posts by Aninditta (also generally known as Bu Anin [lit. Ms. Anin] in LinkedIn, where she frequently shares anecdotes and misadventures drawn from 20-year experience in the world of project management) and connected with her there.
My public speaking skill is, as of the time of writing, nothing to write home about, but Anin encouraged me to show my (added) values, and the impression I have had of her is that of a seasoned maven (i.e., a reputable expert — which is further confirmed by Vicario in his podcast who called her “a legend in McKinsey Indonesia”), young at heart (her sparks of passion for her professional calling can, indeed, be somewhat contagious), and a very approachable mentor figure.
Furthermore, Anin has piqued my interest by her generous sharing of wisdoms derived from being a veteran in the industry — who somehow also managed to deliver an animated and passionate ode to her role as a “generalist” (i.e., acting, figuratively speaking, as an unofficial “tailor” who bridges the gaps among silos in an organization by “sewing” the threads of communication to minimize the inter-departmental divide).
I am, by trade, a localization specialist and an audiovisual translator (and a content-writer-in-training to boot), but, with newfound respect toward the world of project management thanks in no small part to Anin’s enthusiastic endorsement, I thought it best to put the invaluable lessons imparted by her into this writing — her pieces of advice are, in my opinion, quite universal, and, therefore, warrant to be dubbed as life lessons.
The following are some key takeaways distilled (with minor paraphrasing) in English from the original Indonesian version of the podcast session with Aninditta Savitry and Vicario Reinaldo, the host and co-founder of the educational-yet-entertaining podcast Follow the Flow:
“I am, perennially, a curious person.”
- Always Be Curious.
“Curiosity kills the cat,” they say, but I beg to differ (as does Anin). She is, by her own admission, “perennially curious”, always asking questions such as “how does this work?” and “how do you solve that?” There is, of course, a thin line between being nosy and being genuinely curious, but, it seems that (as she pointed out once to me) the difference lies in the execution. It’s all in the delivery.
“We have to possess immense curiosity, balanced with enough brainpower to process the problems and drive them into solutions.”
2. Creativity (Divergent Thinking)+ Analysis (Convergent Thinking) = Solution
Being a curious soul in itself is not enough, we need to be creative as well to be able to connect the dots from the data and information gathered (i.e., think out of the box and create necessary disruptions with our questions). Afterwards, we have to feed it all back into the “black box” (by means of rigorous analysis) effectively and efficiently in order to arrive at the desired solution — a marriage between divergent (creative) and convergent (analytical) modes of thinking, so to speak.
“We generalists tend to be problem solvers; we tend to be project managers; we tend to be agnostic to the industry . . . and we usually do not handle business-as-usual problems .”
3. For Problem-Solving Generalists, Flexibility is Mandatory
Project managers who are generalists are often tasked with handling new business setup (e.g., acquisitions), business revamp (i.e., restructuring), crisis management, scaling up or down; instead of BAU matters (which often already have specific posts assigned to perform normative functions in daily operations)
“A really good project manager would definitely want to know about these three preliminary factors: scope, time, and resources.”
4. “The Initial Three” of Project Management: Scope, Time, Resources
This might be no surprise for experienced project managers, but now I learned from Anin that competent project managers should know beforehand what they are trying to achieve and/or deliver; how long the estimated term of any given project is; and what the available resources are.
“Be transparent; invite participation; get the gist of the matter and follow through.”
5. Transparency + Early Advocacy + Bottom Line + Follow-Up = Profit
It is instrumental to admit upfront what we know and what we don’t know — to show our “true colors”; we also have to find early advocates (or adopters) to our cause; we have to present the crux of the matter for all to see; and, ultimately, follow through with the measures to be taken to carry out a project to its completion.
“The soonest you can show your value, the better; because then you will get people to accept you.”
6. This is her concluding remark in the episode; when we can show everyone what value we can add to the organization unique to ourselves, people who matter will recognize your true potentials — which would lead to greater chance of acceptance of your ideas.
“Ego is the most expensive thing for nothing.”
7. Unchecked Ego Equals Recipe for Disaster
The penultimate message Anin conveyed in the podcast; ego (and, if I may add, insecurities) can prove (and has proven to be) detrimental to the lifecycle of a project. Pride can get in the way of connecting and exchanging useful information with others to improve both ourselves and the organization we are in.
“I think even though you are not a generalist — whether you are a specialist or a generalist; in life itself, the most important qualities to have are critical thinking and problem solving.”
8. Stay Creative, Stay Critical
We have to keep on our toes and keep honing our skills on recognizing patterns that are often overlooked, while also keep questioning underlying assumptions about established beliefs and principles in an organization (or, for that matter, anywhere) so as to bring out fresh perspectives to the table — provided such inquiries are indeed made after heeding all caveats and exhausting all possible answers.
Honorable Mention:
(The host of the Follow the Flow podcast, Vicario, posited this food for thought, which prompted a response from Anin. Minor paraphrases in brackets mine.)
Vicario:
One of the biggest consequences [if not necessarily setbacks] of becoming a generalist is that the output and/or outcomes are [often] not clear . . .
Anin:
Project Management is a passion, where you don’t just see what’s in it for us, and, in fact, sometimes [the pots of gold at the end of the rainbow are not there.]
To me, a harder and more complicated project management matter is like a bigger and harder puzzle to solve.
Vicario:
[So the main takeaway here] is to enjoy the process.
