The role of a project manager is far more strategic than it’s perceived to be. In fact, a lot goes on behind the scenes to orchestrate the best possible project experience, and often stakeholders—and sometimes teams—don’t realize it.

As project leads, we expect change on projects because we understand that business goals evolve and change. Processes fail. Stakeholders come and go, and new ideas arise. When asked to change, we use project goals as a basis for discussion on whether or not the change is acceptable. We wade through comments and feedback and analyze and discuss change to help guide our teams and clients to the best decisions given our focus on project goals.

In this episode of Sprints & Milestones, Brett and Greg talk about how project managers stay laser focused when projects are being pushed and pulled in many different directions, sometimes by many people. Here are a few of the themes discussed:

• Creating a project environment that is conducive to alignment with clients and a team
• Finding a moment to pivot on a project to make a positive change
• Setting expectations to get what you need out of projects and making agreements to do things successfully
• The value of setting work agreements and running retrospectives to keep those agreements true