Calendar of Events

Topic: PM in the Middle, Communications Puzzles

A discussion about being the Project Manager in the middle of a project, within an organization with silos of communication and control. Operations, Projects, and Contractors are all on a construction project.

How do we ensure messaging gets to the right people, while dealing with command and control of project details?

As a project manager who represents operations, the construction project managers of a large organization don't always see my role. Construction contractors add a whole new level of complexity.

A short story of being the PM in the middle, followed by sharing thoughts on how to avoid being in the middle of the communication ball game.

Facilitator: Inger Eakin

Inger Eakin has been with Alberta Health Services since Nov 2007. Previous to that she worked at UBC as an Administrative Manager in a Graduate Program, a Research Program and a Continuing Education Program. She has always liked the projects aspects of all her jobs, and has been working on Project Management Education for many years.

As A Project Manager in an operational setting, Inger's role is varied and includes - being the PM Liaison on various initiatives; replacing all the printers / computers / telehealth stations; special events like Conferences / Heart Month Programming / Memorial Services; Maintaining lists for Equipment / Site repairs; Supervising the Meeting rooms for the site. She also represents the Executive Director at the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute on construction projects such as a build-out for a new gift shop and more recently, and focus of this talk, a build-out of a new space for a Cardiac Surgery Group.

This most recent experience made Inger realize Stakeholder Communication is a very valuable aspect of any project, but one that felt like ‘the PM in the middle’.