The benefits of Project Management in New Jersey in education surfaced at  the annual Congressional App Challenge,  a nation-wide effort to spur interest in coding, STEM and computer-science education.  Last month New Jersey Congressman Donald Norcross (NJ-01) from Cherry Hill, NJ announced that four students in his district have won the 2018 Congressional App Challenge for New Jersey’s First Congressional District.  One of the winners stated, “Throughout the process of creating the app, we learned many new skills. Prior to building the app, we had to learn web design and how to code. Not only did we learn how to create an app, we also developed project management skills and strengthened our ability to work together as a team.”    Source: http://www.snjtoday.com/story/39593285/norcross-announces-south-jersey-winners-of-2018-congressional-app-challenge

I am especially delighted to Project Management in New Jersey in education credited as one of the main contributors of these students success.  Project management is a combination of what are referred to as hard and soft skills.  Generally with Project Management in New Jersey in education, we see schools focus more on the technical or hard skills such as scheduling, cost planning, and risk management.   But as students progress, soft skills become increasingly important. Here’s what I called the “Nine Essential Soft Skills of Project Management” which include: team building, managing conflict, active communication, strategic perspective, focused leadership, organization savviness, agile balancing, practical realism, and perhaps the most important of all self-compassion.

You may ask “self-compassion” is a soft skill to develop in a Project Management education?  I learned a long time ago that managing complex projects is challenging and sometimes nearly impossible to satisfy everyone. On a good day I make a few small mistakes, but on a bad day I can really screw up. However, paralysis and indecision are usually even worse enemies. Thus, recognizing that I am not perfect, that there is always room for improvement, and that I can forgive myself and learn from the experience, is a hallmark of a professional project manager.

I would love to see Project Management in New Jersey in education stress the importance of not allowing perfect to be the enemy of good.  Practice being self-compassionate and stay mindful the goal in fact is not perfection. The goal is continuous improvement on the way to perfection (a basic tenet of lean project management).  Thus and so we must not allow continuous improvement to get clouded or otherwise obscured by the quest for perfection.

PMO Advisory is committed to furthering Project Management in New Jersey in education by working with Stevens Institute and NJEdge.net to reach young people in delivering project management training and boot camp courses.  I am also on the faculty at Montclair State University working to nurture project leaders in our community. As an aspiring B-Corp that embraces a social agenda, we offer a free monthly webinar on selective PM topics. You can also read our latest thoughts at www.pmoadvisory.com/blog or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pmoadvisory. For full-time students and working adults can also take advantage of our special discounts and promotions at www.pmoadvisory.com/promotions.

Dr. Te Wu, CEO