I am off to Darwin early October to attend the Australian Institute of Project Management annual confernce - I can hardly wait!  500 Project Managers in the Darwin Conference Centre for three days, can you imagine?  This will be my first AIPM Conference - any excuse to get back to the Top End.

While in Darwin I am working with Tourism NT to deliver my Fundamentals in Project Management workshop - these are such great days working with their marketing and communications team.  And I am also going down to Kathryn for the weekend, last time I was there I was 16, but have vivid memories of the beauty of the area.  It's going to be an exciting week and a little piece of early summer will be very welcome.

Project Wendy continues - how stressful is it selling a house?  Friends now know not to ask 'how's it going?' ...... s-l-o-w-l-y is all I can say, lets hope its not too much longer and we can move into the delivery phase - Wendy back in Sydney!

Rock on October!

Love your work
M-J

My mother called me in May and announced that she would like to sell her home in Goulburn and move back to Sydney.  I could hardly contain my excitement after years of unsuccessfully trying to nudge her out of Goulburnand back closer to me in Sydney.  I have never been a fan of the country life.

So we started with a bit of a scatter-gun approach – so many things to do – prepare a home for sale, find an alternative, what to do with 50+ years of accumulated stuff of four daughters – I am pleased to say that my year 12 text books are now landfill.

I quickly realised a bunch of enthusiastic people were making it impossible to keep track of  who was doing what.  So, I did what comes naturally and created a plan.  Yep, my mothers move back to Sydney is now known as Project Wendy.  And what a difference, having a plan has made - ensuring that everyone works efficiently and to our strengths.

It’s a classic case of working with stakeholders who are not dedicated to the project – my sisters all have ‘day jobs’ and have helped where they can by referring to the plan and picking up a task they are able to deliver – and there have been surprises – never in my wildest dreams would I have thought my baby sister would get so much pleasure out of a pressure hose! 

So what are the key lessons for any Project Manager we can apply to all projects? 

1. Start with a plan and scope
2. Engage your stakeholders and ensure they are able to deliver
3. Communicate clearly and consistently – so we all know what everyone is doing