A couple of months ago, I had a realization: I was a project doer and not a project manager. To be clear, I thought I was actually a pretty solid project manager. But this is what it was really like:

Most of us can relate to Bradley Cooper’s character—the one doing all the work. I thought I had a perfect system in place: Establish the goal, talk to people who need to be involved, create every task and deadline in my Google Calendar—and do most of the work myself, lose sleep and not know why, and then chase the people who didn’t meet their deadlines. Oh, and celebrate the completion of the project by letting out a sigh of relief and making a mental note of changing the timing of my calendar reminders next time. That’s the project hangover, and let’s face it, project hangovers aren’t fun. 

Sure, the way I was “doing” projects worked. But what didn’t work was my ability to anticipate things going wrong; that the three other guys might not meet their deadlines and I’d end up doing the work myself. Or something just doesn’t go as planned. The Project Management for Learning Professionals Certificate Program not only gave me the essential tools I was missing to mitigate the risks in managing any project, but also an understanding of how to respond and adapt to changes in the plan during the process. 

One of the most important things to remember is that even if you manage a similar project four times a year, the risks and changes will be different. Properly defining, planning, managing, and reviewing the project—and avoiding a project hangover—requires specific systems, which you will learn in the course. I am happy to say I am now a project manager, not a project doer. 

End your project hangovers by registering for an upcoming Project Management for Learning Professionals Certificate Program.