Projects look wonderfully organised in PowerPoint.

Reality is usually rather different.

After more than 35 years working across Finance, Sales & Marketing and IT — and across different countries, cultures and organisations — I’ve experienced projects, programmes, service management, audit, coaching and organisational change from many perspectives.

This section brings together some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way.

From Project Manager to Programme Manager

Becoming a programme manager isn’t simply about managing bigger projects.

The role requires a different perspective.

I explore that transition in From Project Manager to Program Manager: Skills, Gaps, and Development Pathways.

Likewise, becoming a senior PM involves much more than accumulating years of experience, as explored in From Junior to Senior Project Manager: The Questions That Changed the Way I Work.

Projects Are About People

Methodologies matter.

People matter more.

That’s why I’ve increasingly explored psychology, communication and coaching alongside traditional project-management techniques.

Transactional Analysis Supports Project and Programme Management looks at Eric Berne’s Transactional Analysis and how Parent, Adult and Child ego states can help us understand communication and conflict in Waterfall and Agile environments.

Coaching Better Conversations

Good leaders don’t simply give people answers.

They help people find answers.

The GROW Model: A Comprehensive Guide for Effective Coaching Conversations explores one of the most practical coaching frameworks available to managers.

I went further with Integrating the Johari Window into the GROW Coaching Model, combining coaching with greater self-awareness.

And Ken Wilber’s Integral View on Coaching takes an even broader perspective.

Strategy Before Projects

Projects shouldn’t exist simply because somebody has a good idea.

They need to contribute to something.

Understanding the Relationship Between Vision, Mission, and Strategy explores that connection.

And Mastering Organizational Success: Strategy, Objectives, and Beyond looks further at how organisations translate strategic ambition into meaningful objectives and execution.

Leadership Is a Journey

My professional story has crossed industries, countries, functions and cultures.

A Farewell to Shell: Reflecting on 36 Years of Growth, Change, and Unforgettable Experiences marked the end of one enormous professional chapter.

It wasn’t, however, the end of the journey.

Today that journey continues in Vietnam, in another organisation and another culture, still learning and still discovering different ways of working.

Perhaps that is the most important leadership lesson of all:

Never assume you have finished learning.

Experience, Not a Perfect Methodology

These articles aren’t intended to sell one perfect approach.

They combine established methodologies with observations accumulated through decades of real projects, programmes, services, audits, successes, mistakes and organisational change.

Because after all these years, one thing remains remarkably consistent:

Projects are rarely difficult because the Gantt chart is wrong.

They’re difficult because organisations — and people — are complicated.

And that’s precisely what makes programme and project management so interesting.