Class

No, not the elegance and tastefulness of a graceful lady.
The room you go into to learn something.

I signed up through the Project Management Institute to take a class from a guy who wrote a book on project management. From the course description, I thought I'd be learning some leadership skills. Essentially the guy talked about his books for two days. As a matter of fact, I could have bought both books for $60 at Amazon with free shipping and saved myself the travel delays getting home. There was a hurricane, you know. Hey, the food was really good, and I suppose talking through some real-life examples was helpful. What I learned:

1. A project manager and a resource manager should be separate people. I'm not. Which means I struggle to do what is best for the project (work overtime and get it done people!) versus what is best for the people on the team. This is why I struggle with the 'soft skills.' As a project manager, it's not my job to help people learn or grow in their careers, but as a people manager, it is how I need to spend my time. Oy!

2. Manage to your top three priorities every day. This is definitely easier said than done, because many times I have new priorities pop up that simply add to the list. From a project management perspective though, it is a good concept. Everyone should be focusing on their three main activities if you expect to accomplish the project goals.

3. Make sure you know how long your class it. I planned for a one day class and had to change my hotel and airfare to fix my mistake. The Hyatt was a nice place though. My "business" rate was cheaper than the conference rate and included breakfast in the restaurant, free wireless internet, a bottle of water daily and free pressing of shirts. I didn't take advantage of that since I didn't bring shirts that needed ironing. That might go back to that "class" thing. :P