Eliicia Villasenor

OGL 321
Final Essay
Final Essay

Taking this class has enhanced my knowledge of project management in many areas. I

had taken a project management class before, but I was unfamiliar with strategic management.

Although I have no personal experience with project management, I took the quiz “How Good

Are You Project Management Skills?” as if I were in a project manager’s perspective. The first

time I took the quiz, I would say that my leadership style was not as developed as it is now. I am

the type of person that has to have organization, structure and a plan in order to feel confident in

what I am working on, so learning more about strategic leadership and project management was

something beneficial for me as I have learned ways to apply it to my leadership skills. My

experience with the Harvard Simulation scenarios was challenging the whole way. The biggest

takeaway I took from the simulations is that it is crucial for a project manager to know how to

keep all aspects of their project balanced, and I would say it is important for any type of leader.

The biggest theme I noticed in all lessons is balance and flexibility, as a leader in any field you

should be able to balance all aspects of your project and of your life and be flexible when

unexpected events happen.

As I was taking the quiz, “How Good Are Your Project Management Skills”, I took the

time to carefully read through each question and evaluate myself as a leader and how I would

apply what was asked to real world situations. The first question immediately stood out to me, it

said “I communicate what needs to be done by what deadline, and expect the people to whom I

assign the work to be responsible for breaking down the work packages into smaller and more

manageable pieces.” I answered this question with “sometimes” which made me realize how I

am a perfectionist which sometimes makes me a control freak. I will give specific directions and

I have to have things done a certain way so I can feel confident that it will successfully be
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OGL 321
Final Essay
completed. This can be good in certain situations, but then I realize that I have to trust in the

abilities of my team. Plus, as a leader, how can I help my team grow if I do not give them the

opportunities to apply their knowledge and put their skills to use? Another question that stood

out to me was number 5 which said, “Project teams are only temporary, so I don’t worry too

much about personalities. I select team members based on the technical skills I need.” This stood

out to me because I value building relationships with whoever I work with. At the end of the day

we are all human and as a leader I would want my team to feel confident and comfortable with

who they are working with. The score I received on this quiz was 74, which labeled my project

management skills as “OK” and I can agree that I still have a lot to work on with my project

management skills. Based on the score interpretation, I will succeed in simple projects but

struggle with the more complex projects because of the fact that I will have less control, it

recommended that I take more time planning for unexpected events.

When I first did the Harvard business simulation I had no idea what I was doing.

Although there were instructions on how to play the game there were no instructions on how to

be successful. I liked that I could repeat simulations as many times as I wanted because for the

first couple simulations I was playing about 10 times each. I never got a score higher than 600

which was a bummer for me, but it also showed me how difficult it is to be a project manager

especially when you do not have the support from higher up and you are given an unrealistic

budget and deadline. I definitely struggled with keeping everything balanced. My strategy the

entire time was to focus on the satisfaction of my team, but sometimes doing so was costly. I

never stayed within my budget, I always exceeded the budget. When I tried to focus on staying

within the budget then I experienced more issues within my team which then led to falling

behind schedule and not meeting management’s requirements. So, I made the realization that
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OGL 321
Final Essay
having a small team of about 4-5 people with a high skill set was expensive, but it stayed within

the budget and quicklet met management’s expectations. I would make my decisions based on

the feedback from my team; if they felt stressed because of the deadline then I would offer

overtime, if they fell heavily behind schedule then I would add one more person onto the team to

balance out the work, if they felt confused on what was expected then I would offer a daily

stand-up, if they did not feel confident in their ability to meet expectations then I would spend

more one-on-one time with them. Using my strategy meant I exceeded the budget but it also

meant that my team stayed satisfied and we were able to produce what management/the

consumers wanted.

Taking the quiz, reading the blogs and the chapters every week, and even taking the quiz

showed me that more goes into project management than I actually realized. I gained a new

appreciation for project management and I have learned different ways that this could be applied

to my life personally and as a leader. Since I like having structure and organization in my life, I

can use these skills for myself to ensure that I successfully accomplish the personal goals that I

have set for myself. I am a sergeant in the Army, and there are so many ways I can apply these

skills to my everyday job and missions. If I am in charge of giving a class or leading a convoy, I

need to have some type of game plan in place that outlines what needs to be done, who will be

responsible for what, and how we will accomplish what needs to be done. I also learned that

even if a team is temporary, it is important to treat the team as if you will work with them for a

lifetime: get to know your team members and instill trust into them. When working with teams

of different generations it is important to be flexible and agile. As a leader I have to be more than

willing to adapt to my environment and to the people with whom I work with, otherwise I won’t

be successful. For example, if I try to lead with a close-minded mentality, stubborn, and stuck in
 Eliicia Villasenor
OGL 321
Final Essay
my ways then I will cause conflict within my team and we will not be successful in any task.

This was an important lesson because I know that time stops for nobody, unexpected events

happen, and things are always changing.

My favorite part of the class was being able to read so many different blogs. I learned that

creativity also plays a big role in being a successful project manager. Creativity opens up so

many doors that improves ideas and also helps project managers quickly make decisions if they

have to. When unexpected events happen a leader should be able to think of their feet and

compromise if they have to, this is when creativity comes into place and assists in that area. I

also liked reading chapter 3, “Problem Solving Strategies for Managing Uncertainty” in

Managing Project Uncertainty by David Cleden. Cleden describes four modes in which people

often face uncertainty. These four modes are: suppress, adapt, detour, reorient and the most

common of these four modes is suppression. This was something new I had learned and had me

reflecting on which mode I use to face uncertainty. I must be brutally honest, after reflecting

upon myself and my leadership skills I realized that I am not much of a risk taker, I do not like

confrontation, and uncertainty makes me uncomfortable. With this being said, I would say the

mode I aspire to use would be adaptation. I want to be able to face uncertainty and quickly adapt

to the situation and to the environment, grow from the situation, and discover ways to improve

from there. However, I rarely resort to the adaptation mode, but instead resort to the detour

mode. I tend to ignore or walk away from uncertainty. The detour mode is said to be the least

effective and too costly, so this is definitely something I have to work on and change.

One of the blogs I read and found interesting was, “Top 10 Main Causes of Project

Failure” by Rosanne Lim. I enjoyed this blog because it directly highlighted ten causes of project

failure. I like lists and anything to help my life feel more structured, so learning about these ten
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Final Essay
causes of failures opened my eyes to what I can improve on and what I can do to avoid failing.

Lim describes the ten causes for project failure as: poor preparation, inadequate documentation

and tracking, bad leadership, failure to define parameters and enforce them, inexperienced

project managers, inaccurate cost estimates, little communication at every level of management,

cultural or ethical misalignment, competing priorities, and disregarding project warning signs. I

particularly liked how straight-forward this blog was. The main cause that stood out to me the

most was little communication at every level of management, the reason why this stood out to

me was because I experience this almost everyday in the military. The lack of communication

drives me crazy because I do not understand why it is so difficult for everyone to stay on the

same page. It is like being in a real life game of “telephone” where one set of instructions gets

put out, then that information has to be passed around, but at some point information begins to

get distorted and now miscommunication is in place, people are confused, and the task does not

get accomplished at the deadline it was expected to be accomplished. However, going through

this experience and reading this blog has made me value skills like communication. Now when I

am given a task I can ask questions, take responsibility and get it done when and how it is

supposed to.

If I were to give someone who is about to start the Harvard Project Management

Simulation for the first time advice on how to be successful in the simulation, I would only be

able to tell them what not to do. I attempted the simulation multiple times and tried many

different strategies, yet I did not feel like I was successful at meeting all requirements. With that

being said, here are three pieces of advice I would give to someone who is just starting the

simulations:
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OGL 321
Final Essay
1. Good luck. Do not be afraid to take risks. My strategy was to keep my team satisfied and

this helped with staying on schedule. I made all decisions based on the feedback and

satisfaction of my team. Start off with a small team of about four people with a medium

skill set, start off with a level two printer and increase the level each week until you meet

or exceed management expectations. If your team is falling behind schedule or feeling

stressed about the deadline, encourage overtime but if it doesn’t improve add on one team

member and increase the skill set to high.

2. One word: balance. There are three levers of project management you will have to

manage and keep balanced. These three levers are: scope, resources, and schedule. I

would describe these three scopes as maintaining team satisfaction, staying within the

given budget, and creating the product on schedule. I would say that the most challenging

part would be staying within budget and staying on schedule. As long as your focus on

team satisfaction, then the schedule will fall into place. To stay within budget I would

recommend extensive outsourcing, only offer/encourage overtime when it is needed, and

only increase skill set when you are falling extremely behind schedule.

3. The top-down relationships might seem unfair as it may seem like you will have little

support from management. Some of the expectations might seem a little unrealistic, but it

is better to mess up on a simulation than in real life. Practice the simulation with different

strategies as many times as you can, even if it feels like you have no idea what you are

doing. Build a close relationship with your team and try to avoid/eliminate conflict right

away.
 Eliicia Villasenor
OGL 321
Final Essay
References:

Cleden, D. (n.d.). Chapters 3-4. In Managing Project Uncertainty (pp. 37–69).

Lim, R. (2019, June 4). Top 10 Main Causes of Project Failure. Retrieved April 10, 2020, from

https://project-management.com/top-10-main-causes-of-project-failure/

Boogaard, K. (2020, April 10). Why Creative Project Managers Matter in Marketing. Retrieved

April 10, 2020, from https://www.wrike.com/blog/marketing-agencies-and-creative-project-

managers/