The Project Manager’s Role as Client Educator/Mentor
By Phillip Infelise, Chairman
In this 15th edition (have we really been tuning in for two years now?) I want to discuss a critical and expanding role of the Project Manager that is rarely articulated – that of Educator and Mentor to our clients (and other project team members) while steering them through the project processes.
In many cases the client is engaging an outside Project Manager very simply because there is no internal expertise or practical experience to execute such a project. Consequently, we are relied upon to articulate, explain, educate, mentor and provide additional perspective to the client throughout the process. In a very circuitous way our intent is to elevate the game of our principal client contact to the point that they could manage any subsequent projects without our day-to-day assistance (but may still rely upon us for item-specific expertise). Yes, I know that can mean educating ourselves out of future work, but that is our way of “doing the right thing.” Examples of this result abound among our clients new and old.
It is always important to start the education process off on the right foot, and we can do so by assuring that everyone around the project table speaks in a common vernacular. To that end, we make our Project Management Lexicon available to all of our clients, prospects, and team members. The Lexicon covers more than 20 pages of industry definitions and acronyms, some conventional and some rather eclectic or irreverent—even including fun additions from our clients themselves. Believe me, it is an interesting read.
We may also have an expanding role in educating our project team members and collaborators about our client’s specific needs and wants: how they want to operate, their style of decision making and, yes, even their specific vocabulary. Every client has unique internal processes and politics (whether they know it or not or admit it or not) and we need to tune the Project Team into those nuances if we are going to have a successful project team dynamic. One large client, for whom we are currently developing a build-to-suit headquarters, has such a specific brand of internal communication and team-wide approach that we have developed a Client Lexicon to distribute to project team members so that they everyone knows what we are talking about.
Opportunities for education and mentoring abound throughout the course of a normal project. We make a point of trying to understand what the client knows and doesn’t know from day one, so that we can adapt our style of communication to meet their needs. Likewise some of the documentation is presented very differently, depending on the client’s prior experiences. Certainly, during Project Team meetings, we make it a point to sit next to our client contact, so that we can answer questions and discuss options whenever serious issues are presented to them. Often it is trying to explain a very technical issue in non-technical terms. Or simply letting them know what something costs before they commit to loving it as a solution.
Walking the space together at various stages of development is also an opportunity to educate: not only about how the construction is progressing, but also about facilities management issues and approaches that are more understandable when looking at the raw, unfinished space. Another fun education is to provide the client with insight into the “games our vendors play” and how to control those games to work in our project’s favor.
Many clients have no idea what trauma they may be facing during the relocation phase of the project. We often educate the entire staff on what to expect during the relocation and how to cope with the issues that will arise during general staff orientations and specific move captain training.
The expanding role of the Project Manager as educator/mentor brings a new welcome dynamic to our perspective. This is simply because we too, as enlightened, new day Project Managers, are in the business of always educating ourselves and applying new learning and approaches to our client’s benefit.
In our next edition, stay tuned for a discussion about resolving internal project team conflicts and issues.
Tags: corporate real estate, educator, PM, project manager, vendor
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 29th, 2011 at 9:57 am and is filed under Project Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.