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Final Paper

Jamey Taft

College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, Arizona State University

OGL 321 Project Leadership

Dr. Randy Bulriss

November 30, 2020

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Final Paper

Organizational Leadership 321 provided insight on to how to become an excellent

leader in todays workplace. While being an online class, we were given the opportunity

to explore how to manage a project weekly by using the Harvard simulation scenarios.

Following the simulation scenarios, we were tasked with weekly debriefs to share our

experiences with fellow project managers. I really enjoyed the debriefs as they served as

an opportunity to collaborate with co-workers to create better solutions for issues that

have occurred similar to what I imagine daily stand ups to look like if we are talking the

terms of Harvard Simulation scenarios.

We were provided with excellent resources that were created by project

management experts who have dealt with the issues we have faced in the simulations. For

this assignment, I will identify areas of growth, share my personal approach to project

management, and build a connection between what I have learned in this course and

apply it to my current jobs. Afterwards I will express three pieces of advice for students

who are about to experience the Harvard simulation scenarios for the first time.

Part 1

Since first taking the quiz, “How Good Are Your Project Management Skills?” I

have noticed areas of growth regarding project management and leadership. Project

management has a wide variety of areas to manage, being able to find balance between

each area is a challenge but that is where you grow the most as an individual. For

starters, I now have a better understanding of the importance of a project scope,

scheduling, and budgeting. The ability to manage these changes as they come up is a skill

necessary for leading a project to success.

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This course defined areas of project management that need close monitoring and

prompted the necessity of being a leader who is not fixated on one approach to managing.

There is a high chance for contingencies to occur, and with that a project manager needs

to have the ability to act accordingly and appropriately to the needs of the team and

project. As someone who considers herself a person who has a servant leadership style

naturally, I have learned that this may need to change as times progress within a project.

With projects I will still be someone who cares deeply about the project, people, and

organization I am committed to, but I will strategically take each issue that arises and

handle it on a situational basis. Different issues require different amounts of focus, and

similarly to how we were able to adjust our levels of involvement in the simulation, I will

need to make changes to my approach at different points. Being flexible and having the

ability to connect with my team is an asset that will be utilized. I will strive to meet the

needs of my client, team and do what it takes to keep the project moving forward.

Given my previous experiences, and my most recent interactions with the Harvard

Simulation Scenarios, I would define my personal approach to project management as a

person who strives to challenge the issues that rise with empathy, honesty, and

consistency. I will honor my team and listen carefully to their time scheduling needs and

have an open-door communication policy. A team that takes care of each other, provides

the best quality work.

My role as the project manager is to manage the changes which occur and create

teams that will turn a project plan into a successful reality for the client. From this course,

I have learned and made a promise to only be a part of projects that have common values.

With managing projects, I will emphasize a balance between the project scope, schedule,
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and budget. As we learned with the simulations, sometimes tradeoffs are inevitable. With

that in mind, I will never sacrifice the quality of a project, but I will be honest with my

stakeholders about adjusting the budget and or schedule as needed.

With each new week there was new information woven into our journeys to

becoming better leaders. Scenario A taught us the importance of making good decisions.

For us to have a successful project, we need to be able to detect when decisions are

needed, and having solid plans leads the team on the right path to avoiding risks and

contingencies from occurring. Scenario B highlighted the need for behavioral excellence

and maintaining a situational leadership approach when facing adversity. Scenario C

taught me ways to discover knowledge gaps and discovering the root of the issue so it

cannot creep up once more.

Simulation D contained budget issues, morale issues and scheduling issues. In the

reading for that week, I learned the value of building connections and maintaining good

communication with the team and stakeholders. Communication gives us the opportunity

to define the scope of a project and to create focus. This section also mentions how to

mend issues regarding stakeholders may have such as the fear of change.

With the last section, I learned that like other professions project managers also

have a code of ethics. Having a code of ethics serves as a guideline to provide good

quality work while ensuring that as a project manager you can be held to a high standard

of trust. I have made a mental note to start embracing the code of ethics even before I am

officially a project manager, as those guidelines are really helpful and it is a beneficial

way to show others you are capable of upholding high standards for yourself character

wise.
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Having a recap on what we have learned through out this class gives me the

chance to create a connection between the skills I have learned and employed in my own

professional environment. While I am not a project manager yet, I have applied some of

the principles to working within a particular industry as a leader. This course has taught

me a lot of skills that work not only in project management but are versatile and helped

land me a job that I am excited to be apart of. I mentioned above different takeaways

from each lesson that will stay with me, in my current position there is a lot of

opportunity to move up and expand professionally so everything that I have learned from

this course will be applied at different points in my career.

After taking this course and experiencing each simulation I feel better prepared to

lead a team through a project. I have gained valuable insight as to how to manage

different changes that will likely occur and these skills while being taught in a project

management geared format are applicable for any job. Having the ability to diffuse

conflicts that occur is a skill that is needed in any situation such as being a manager in a

retail environment for example.

Part 2

Part two is dedicated for three areas of advice to give a person who is preparing to

start the Harvard Project Management Simulation for the first time. After experiencing

each simulation over the last 7 weeks, I am now considered the expert since I have

navigated each scenario and discussed them with my classmates. Words of wisdom that I

can provide include:

 Seek improvement, but do not let the score be your only motivator.

 Take notes on other classmates debriefs.

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 Stick to the schedule!

 Communication is key, but micromanagement is not your friend.

 2 rounds of the same simulation are only a guideline, aim to try as many

times as you possibly can.

 Do not become hire friendly. Seriously, strive for consistency when you

build a team.

My first piece of advice is to seek improvements but do not let the score be your

only motivator. I have learned early on that the more I tried different tactics

recommended by my fellow classmates, the more disappointed I became with the results

of the score. Having the ability to collaborate with classmates and identify different

strategies is such a beneficial tool. Harvard Simulation Scenarios provide a low risk, and

great opportunity to test out those different ideas and while there are some great ideas it is

important to remember your classmates are learning as well, and it is apart of the learning

to watch your score drop with trial and error.

Adding to the first piece I highly recommend taking notes from the debriefs and,

the weekly readings. In the past, I have made the mistake of doing the simulations prior

to the readings and while I felt very informed after the fact, I noticed that I performed a

lot better when I read before doing the simulations. As far as the debriefs go, taking notes

from what your peers have experienced gives you an opportunity to test out and apply

different perspectives A lot of times my first attempt in a scenario would end in a rain of

fire with me scoring 400 or less. Getting a low score hurt my confidence in my ability to

lead. For me personally going over the weekly reading in detail and reading some of my
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classmates reviews and thoughts before attempting the simulation was the best thing I did

to improve my scores and my confidence in the skills we are learning.

After completing many of the scenarios multiple times with some being more

difficult than others, I noticed some trends. The first trend was the budget is the same for

almost every scenario. For me that meant that every simulation had to have about the

same number of team members while only changing their skill level and the amount of

outsourcing slightly each time to stay in the budget. Therefore, I suggest staying

consistent with how team members to have in your simulation. Another trend that I

struggled with was staying under that budget and apparently $40K is easily spent in 12

weeks. The first attempt of most scenarios involves going at least 10k over to keep the

project on time. For an extreme example in scenario F I scored 600 (which was amazing

for me). The project was on time and my team was happy, however I went $50k over

budget. This applies to the real world as a leader because the budget is almost always the

first constraint and team morale is often put on the back burner. Then when the

employees are frustrated production slows and you get behind schedule. So, for an

amateur leader the simulation is great practice for simulating real world skills without

damaging anything or anyone.

Additionally, another important pattern that effects the outcome of every

simulation is the timeframe. Every scenario gives you a set time to complete the project.

In the first simulation the time starts at 18 weeks and works its way down to 12 weeks at

the end. I strongly recommend completing the project within that timeframe as that is

where you will find the most points. In real situations deadlines cannot be extended for

the client at times and if it is a problem a client will leave bad reviews and it will affect
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future employment. Management allows the budget to slide if necessary, to do what

needs to be done but make sure you keep track of where you are at on the schedule each

week. If your production is falling short even for one week you should take that to heart

and make the necessary adjustments to get back on track. On scenario A, having 18

weeks gives you more time to turn things around if your off to a rough start. To sum this

up, to avoid being late on a project you should have and practice your time-management

skills while using this simulation.

Organizational Leadership 321 opened my eyes to what it takes to being a project

manager with the help of continuous weekly simulations that switch dynamics. Each

scenario pointed out different issues that can occur throughout a time schedule. It is

especially critical to remember to have your project scope defined at the beginning of the

project by the stakeholders and client to ensure they will be receiving what it is they

want, how they want it, and when they want it. Having a definite outline of what the

project will entail will help decrease the likelihood of contingencies from occurring and

help the project move forward.

Project managers are responsible for providing their clients and stakeholders a

reliable, honest, trustworthy, and respectable experience while also managing and

ensuring the right people are on the job. The simulations and debriefs helped me, but I

think the project management experts and the insight from the professor has made the

biggest impact. Each week we were given a new set of guidelines and a new topic to

expand on. As someone who genuinely struggles with reading and staying on task, I

found the readings to be very interesting. The experts used analogies which helped me

better understand difficult concepts. I had the opportunity to expand on my previous class
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that involved project planning, to experiencing the complexities of managing a project. I

have been able to see the effects of lack in communication within a team and learned

tools to make a project successful. Thank you, Professor Bulriss! I am excited for my

next project management course!

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References

Buede, D. and Powell R. (2009). Good Decision-Making:

The Key to Project Success. Management Concepts Inc.

Cleden, D. (2016). Managing project uncertainty. ProQuest Ebook Central

https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu

Kliem, P. R. L. (2011). Ethics and project management. ProQuest Ebook

Central https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu

Project Management Institute. (2013). Code of Ethics & Professional Conduct.

https://www.pmi.org/about/ethics/code