Interpersonal Power, Managing Politics, & Project Team Alignment

Summary form only given. In the last two decades impressive gains have been made in our knowledge of project management. Much of this advancement in understanding has focused on creating better tools to plan, organize, execute, and control projects. Three areas which have received less attention are how project managers gain support for their projects; how project managers manage change and resistance when managing their projects; and how project leaders create and manage "alignment" with their senior managers and key project sponsors. The major objectives of this presentation are to: 1) review what we know about how project leader gain and sustain support for their projects; 2) examine how project leaders can effectively deal with various stakeholders and other critical organizational members; and 3) discuss how project leaders and their teams maintain "positive alignment" with senior managers/sponsors. Suggestions for future research will be discussed as well as ideas for training project leaders in the issues discussed in this presentation