PML’s Round-Up Post: Lessons Learned from Project Managers Around the World
Project Management Life is thrilled to share some incredible lessons learned from six, AMAZING project professionals from around the world!
We are incredibly grateful for the time and effort of our PML Contributors in sharing their knowledge, expertise, and wisdom with the PML Community. Our heartfelt THANK YOU to all of you.
Leading with Purpose: A Commander's Leadership Lessons
As a U.S. Army Recruiting Company Commander in New Hampshire, I’m tasked with leading a geographically dispersed team responsible for meeting monthly recruitment goals while improving operational performance, compliance, and community engagement.
During the early phases of my command, we experienced significant gaps in production, inconsistent prospecting activity across stations, and low morale. Our operational calendar lacked structure, and performance data wasn’t being used effectively to drive decisions or motivate teams.
Lessons Learned:
The biggest lesson I learned is that people need purpose, structure, and feedback they can trust. I implemented a quarterly training and performance improvement plan for underperforming recruiters, introduced backward planning using an operational calendar, and established weekly IPRs (In-Progress Reviews) with every team lead. I also centralized communication and data visibility through tools like Excel dashboards, whiteboard reporting, and shared folders—empowering leaders at all levels to take ownership. I focused on connecting mission success to team values and individual development. A good plan is only as strong as your ability to communicate and inspire those executing it.
This experience taught me how to lead both projects and people in high-pressure environments. I became a more empathetic communicator, a better listener, and more agile in strategy. I’ve learned how to break down large goals into measurable, achievable outcomes. Whether managing recruitment targets, retention programs, or stakeholder relations, I now lead with data-informed decisions, accountability loops, and a people-first mindset—critical skills that apply far beyond military recruiting.
About the Author
Dr. Rodrick R. Patterson is the Chapter President of the APMP Nor’Easter Chapter and a decorated U.S. Army Captain, published author, and executive leader with over 12 years of experience driving strategic initiatives across the defense industry, higher education, and corporate consulting sectors.
A subject-matter expert in project and program management, Dr. Patterson holds dual doctorates: a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership and Management (OL&M) from Cavalla International University and the Doctor of Strategic Leadership (DSL) from Liberty University, Master of Science in Logistics & Supply Chain Management, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and a Bachelor of Science in Agronomy, Alcorn State University.
He is the author of two acclaimed books:
(1) Effective Strategies to Enhance the Workplace Environment to Increase Retention and Performance: a practical guide for managers and HR professionals.
(2) Supply Chain Management and Logistics: Strategies for Efficiency and Sustainability – an industry-focused resource for operations professionals, educators, and consultants seeking to integrate sustainable logistics solutions and agile methodologies into global supply chains.
In the nonprofit and volunteer space, Dr. Patterson serves as the Director of Military Outreach for PMI New Hampshire Chapter, leading professional development workshops for transitioning service members. He has dedicated over 400 hours of volunteer service to community organizations, schools, and military families.
Dr. Patterson is a junior military officer and dedicated lifelong learner, holding a distinguished portfolio of certifications including PMP®, PgMP®, CSCP®, APMP Capture Practitioner, and PSM-II. His career exemplifies a unique ability to bridge military excellence, academic innovation, and civilian workforce transformation, positioning him as a dynamic leader in bid and proposal management.
Connect with Dr. Patterson on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/becamedrpatterson/
Navigating Stakeholder Politics in Research Process Improvement
Working in research project management often means operating in complex organizational environments where academic departments guard their territories fiercely. I recently encountered this challenge firsthand while leading a project to streamline a research department’s contract process—a notorious pain point for faculty who needed faster, clearer pathways to secure funding and partnerships.
The Challenge
Our research department’s contract process was creating significant friction for faculty. Delays, unclear requirements, and communication breakdowns were hampering research initiatives. Leadership tasked me with mapping the current process and recommending improvements. Simple enough, right?
The complication emerged when we discovered that a key campus department—one heavily involved in the contract workflow—was essentially off-limits for direct consultation. Leadership felt we couldn’t engage with them directly, likely due to institutional politics or previous tensions. We were expected to work around this constraint.
The Risk I Couldn’t Ignore
As we began developing process maps and improvement recommendations without input from this critical stakeholder, I grew increasingly concerned. We were making assumptions about their role, requirements, and constraints. What if we reached the end of our project only to discover our recommendations were completely misaligned with their operations? We’d have wasted months of effort and potentially damaged relationships further.
This wasn’t just a minor oversight—it was a project-threatening risk that needed attention.
Taking Action
I brought my concerns directly to leadership, framing the situation as a risk management issue rather than a political challenge. I presented it simply: “We’re operating with incomplete information about a key stakeholder. There’s a significant risk that our recommendations will be invalid without their input, which would waste our time and resources.”
By focusing on project outcomes rather than organizational politics, leadership agreed to help facilitate contact with the department. We reached out, explained our objectives, and successfully gathered the critical information we needed.
Lessons That Transform Practice
This experience reinforced two fundamental principles that now guide my approach to research project management:
Stakeholder engagement isn’t optional. Even when organizational dynamics make it challenging, finding ways to bridge gaps and gather input from all key stakeholders is essential. Process improvements developed in isolation rarely succeed in complex research environments where multiple departments must collaborate.
Transparency about risks builds trust. Rather than working around constraints quietly and hoping for the best, openly communicating risks to sponsors and clients creates opportunities for collaborative problem-solving. Leadership can’t help address challenges they don’t know exist.
Research organizations are inherently collaborative, yet departmental silos can create significant barriers to effective project management. The most successful research project managers learn to navigate these dynamics not by avoiding difficult conversations, but by reframing territorial challenges as shared risks that require collective solutions.
What stakeholder challenges have you faced in your research projects? How do you balance organizational politics with project success?
About the Author
Alison Saville, PMP is the founder of ProjectEase Consulting and brings over 17 years of experience managing federally funded research projects aimed at improving health outcomes. With dual Master’s degrees in Social Work and Public Health, Alison has built her career in academic and research institution settings, where she has developed a reputation for removing operational barriers so researchers can focus on what matters most—the science.
A collaborative leader and passionate advocate for research teams, Alison thrives on sharing knowledge and learning from fellow project management professionals. Her work blends deep academic expertise with practical, people-centered project management strategies that drive impact.
When she’s not streamlining research operations, you can find Alison out on the lake during the summer, enjoying time on the boat with family and friends.
Connect with Alison on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alison-saville-16a1313/
From Complexity to Clarity: Lessons Learned in Leading Digital Transformation in Banking
With over 35 years of experience driving operational excellence and strategic innovation, I’ve witnessed firsthand the seismic shifts reshaping the banking industry. From legacy infrastructure to agile ecosystems, banking has evolved into a digital-first arena where trust, speed, and precision are non-negotiable. My career has been anchored in navigating this transformation responsibly and effectively.
The Project: A Digital Overhaul for a National Bank
I recently led a multi-year digital transformation initiative at a national bank with the mandate to modernize core banking systems, integrate customer experience platforms, and pivot the organization toward cloud-native operations. It was high-stakes, cross-functional, and impacted every customer touchpoint.
What Happened? The Unseen Complexity
Despite meticulous planning, several unexpected hurdles emerged:
- Legacy integration resistance: Connecting new tech to aging systems was far more complex than projected.
- Stakeholder alignment gaps: Departments had conflicting priorities, delaying key decisions.
- Change fatigue: Employees struggled to keep pace with continuous waves of process and tool changes.
These issues didn’t just slow us down—they risked undermining the value the transformation was meant to deliver.
What I Learned: The Hard-Won Lessons
This project sharpened some vital truths for me as a project leader:
- Alignment isn’t automatic. Clear governance and early stakeholder engagement are the bedrock of digital success.
- Technology is only half the equation. Change management, employee engagement, and communication must be treated with equal priority.
- Agility is a mindset, not a methodology. Being flexible with frameworks while staying firm on objectives can drive progress, even in uncertainty.
- Listen harder when resistance speaks. Pushback often signals critical risks or overlooked needs.
I now approach large-scale programs with a more holistic lens:
- I embed change champions early to surface ground-level feedback.
- I proactively map stakeholder influence to tailor communication strategies.
- I lead with empathy—knowing transformation is not only technical but deeply human.
Above all, I’ve learned that digital transformation isn’t about replacing systems—it’s about unlocking people’s capacity to deliver value in new ways.
About the Author
Dr. Tony Prensa is a highly accomplished executive and Certified PMO Professional with extensive experience in project management, information systems, and technologies. With a Doctorate in Organizational Leadership and a major in Information Systems and Technologies, Dr. Prensa has a proven track record of delivering multiple technical and business projects on time and within budget. He is adept at reengineering business processes and IT infrastructure with business visions to drive profitability, efficiency, and growth within the organization. Dr. Prensa is an Authorized PMO Instructor, a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP), and has ITIL IV certification.
As a skilled communicator with strong influencing and problem-solving skills, Dr. Prensa has a demonstrated ability to lead team members and external business contacts including stakeholders such as consultants, partners, and vendors. He ensures that all processes comply with regulatory requirements and IT governance practices. Dr. Prensa has also taught project management for several universities in the country, including Virginia Technical University, Grand Canyon University, Colorado Technical University, University of Phoenix, and currently teaching for Walden University. With more than 25 years of teaching experience in various formats, face-to-face and virtual, Dr. Prensa has developed techniques to connect with learners and students in the most efficient way.
Dr. Prensa has been involved with the Project Management Institute for more than twenty-five years. He served as a vice president of PMI Puerto Rico Chapter from 1998-2000 and volunteered in many activities to promote project management. Dr. Prensa also participated in writing PMP exam questions workshop in Dallas, Texas in 2002 and has helped hundreds of project management professionals to get prepared for the PMP exam. Dr. Prensa’s extraordinary people skills and his commitment to putting people first make him an excellent leader, collaborator, and contributor to any organization.
Connect with Dr. Prensa on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drtonyprensa/
The Need for Clear Governance When Leading Complex Change
I work within a large UK facilities management organisation currently delivering a national transformation programme. The business operates in a multi-project, multi-customer environment, delivering construction and FM-related projects across a diverse portfolio.
The project involved leading an organisational transition to a governed project management process, introducing a consistent framework for project delivery across different customer accounts and regional delivery teams.
The transformation was implemented at speed, but some critical elements of change management were missed. This resulted in confusion and resistance within parts of the project delivery teams. Teams that were influenced in person adopted the new approach more effectively, whereas teams in geographically remote regions found it harder to engage with the change at the required pace.
Lessons Learned
The experience reinforced the need for two levels of governance:
• Intrinsic governance, where project professionals are supported and empowered to self-govern in alignment with organisational and customer needs.
• Extrinsic governance, where standardisation and oversight ensure consistency, compliance, and quality across the business.
Striking a balance between structure and flexibility is essential, particularly in a national operation where autonomy and adaptability must coexist with accountability and control.
The key take away is the stakeholder engagement and how the planning could of increased the success in faster time line.
This experience has strengthened my ability to lead in complex, adaptive environments. It has helped me appreciate the value of starting with a clear governance baseline and adapting it where appropriate. While construction projects often default to a waterfall approach, elements of agile thinking especially in stakeholder engagement and change adoption can enhance outcomes. Blending structured governance with agile responsiveness has made me a more effective, empathetic, and outcome focused project leader.
About the Author
Stuart Butler is a seasoned project leader and governance specialist with a unique journey from military service to strategic project transformation. After starting out as an apprentice electrician and unexpectedly joining the Army, Stuart served a 23-year career in the Royal Engineers, delivering construction and security operations around the globe. That same commitment to precision and resilience now underpins his leadership in the civilian world.
Today, Stuart is Head of Project Management at one of the UK’s largest facilities management companies. He leads with a focus on practical governance balancing robust organisational controls with empowering project managers to self-govern through repeatable habits. His specialist lens combines intrinsic project discipline with extrinsic oversight, helping organisations deliver better outcomes without burning out their people.
From managing major works for high-end retailers to building national project teams, Stuart brings a clear belief: working the process works—but it’s creativity, communication, and care that make projects succeed. He’s driven by seeing project professionals grow in confidence, adopt best practice, and feel proud of what they deliver.
Beyond the day job, Stuart is a budding podcaster, content creator, and advocate for cold water exposure and ju jitsu though he admits consistency is a work in progress. His mission? To make the lives of project people better so they can deliver better projects.
Connect with Stuart on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuartbutler-elpis/
Driving the People Side of Change in Healthcare
As a senior project manager leading the OneChart implementation (a comprehensive electronic health record (EHR) across outpatient programs) at two complex, multi-site hospitals, I expected the biggest challenges to be technical, data migration, integrations, or build timelines. But the real lessons came from people: managing change in a clinical environment deeply rooted in legacy workflows, culture, and habits.
One of the biggest surprises was how long-standing paper documentation practices were emotionally and operationally embedded in the culture. Despite strong logic behind the shift to electronic documentation, some teams resisted. Others felt overwhelmed by the layered impacts of training, new workflows, and unclear role boundaries. I underestimated the emotional labor of change, especially for high-performing clinicians who felt their efficiency threatened.
Lessons Learned
I learned that even when the “what” is clear, the “why” and the “how” matter just as much. We had to pause, reframe our approach, and lean into empathy. That meant slowing down localization work to truly listen to clinic concerns, building clinic-specific readiness plans, and creating new spaces for physicians to co-design solutions, not just adopt them.
One critical turning point was shifting how we engaged with physician champions. Rather than a top-down delivery of tools, we built an environment of co-leadership: empowering them to lead the story, shape the workflow, and support their peers. Our communications shifted from system updates to empathy-based change leadership. And we used storytelling, not just training, to bridge gaps between strategy and day-to-day clinic realities.
This experience has made me a more thoughtful and resilient project manager. I now spend more time upfront assessing change readiness, mapping pain points, and creating feedback loops long before implementation begins. I’ve learned to actively protect white space in timelines for unexpected rework .. because it always comes. Most of all, I’ve learned that digital transformation in healthcare isn’t just a technology project ~ it’s a people project!
About the Author
Christine Iellamo is a seasoned healthcare project leader who’s spent the last 20+ years guiding teams through some of the most complex transformations in the system. She got her start not in a boardroom, but on a construction site, leading a $2M retirement home build fresh out of school with no title, just tenacity. Since then, she’s led dozens of high-impact initiatives, including multi-site EHR implementations like OneChart, where clinical care, digital health, and operational change collide.
A former broadcast journalist, Christine brings sharp communication skills, a love of people, and a whole lot of heart to every room she’s in. She’s the calm in the chaos, the voice of reason in a noisy meeting, and the person who will always ask, “How can I help make this better ~ for everyone?” When she’s not managing go-lives or galvanizing teams, she’s on the sidelines cheering for her three kids, lake-side with a coffee, or chasing the next great story.
Connect with Christine on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-iellamo-606a06367/
Beyond the Gantt Chart: The Unscripted Lesson of Human Connection in Project Success
In the dynamic world of project management, we’re rightly trained to champion methodologies, master software and meticulously track KPIs. Yet, after over a decade leading complex initiatives, my most profound lesson learned wasn’t found in a textbook or a certification course. It was an unscripted truth about the irreplaceable power of human connection.
I remember a particular project, a critical system migration, where despite a flawless plan and robust technology, user adoption was plummeting. The technical solutions were sound, but the feedback was overwhelmingly negative. We were hitting all our delivery milestones, but missing the ultimate mark: real value for the end-user.
My turning point came when I set aside the project plan for a day and simply immersed myself with the frontline users, listening intently to their frustrations without judgment. It wasn’t about what the system did, but how it felt for them to use it. I uncovered deep-seated anxieties about changing workflows, subtle but critical pain points that our scope had entirely missed, and a pervasive feeling of being unheard.
That effort, which seemed like a diversion from the “real” project work, became the key. By acknowledging their concerns, validating their experiences, and co-creating small, immediate adjustments, we began to build trust. This shifted the dynamic from resistance to collaboration. The “fix” wasn’t a new line of code; it was a renewed human connection.
Lessons Learned
The lesson was stark: true project success isn’t solely in the technical delivery, but in the empathetic understanding and proactive engagement with every person touched by the project. When stakeholders feel genuinely heard and customers feel truly understood, resistance melts, alignment becomes organic, and adoption soars. These “soft skills”; empathy, active listening and authentic engagement; are, in fact, the strongest tools in our PM toolbox, leading to smoother delivery and projects that leave a lasting, positive human impact.
This is the invisible thread that truly ensures projects thrive beyond the go-live date.
About the Author
Dan Alwende, PMP®, CSPO®, is a highly accomplished Program and Project Manager with over a decade of experience leading complex initiatives across diverse sectors including banking, construction and technology. Passionate about driving operational excellence and customer-centric delivery, Dan specializes in transforming challenges into opportunities through strategic problem-solving, stakeholder engagement, and a human-first approach to leadership. He is committed to fostering continuous improvement and ensuring projects deliver tangible, lasting value.
Connect with Dan on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-alwende/
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