Enabling Program Manager Mobility

I've previously written on a couple of points in the 25 Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal IT. I wrote about Designing a Program Management Career Path and what I think the foundation of that should look like. I also wrote about Preventing Scope Creep and Data Center Consolidation. Today I'm going to think out loud about something that I am currently living, Program Manager Mobility, point #12.

I have paid for some hard knocks in my time, and while some of those knocks were probably harder than I would have liked, I would not trade them for anything. Getting things wrong has provided me with opportunities to learn from my mistakes. Even when projects go well, I still take the time to learn about how the things that didn't go well can be improved and how I can better leverage the aspects that went well.

If I'm going to take this time to better understand these aspects, I believe that I have a responsibility to share the knowledge gained from these experiences. But my point here is that the way this particular point is written, I believe it is too narrow. It seems to indicate that the only way those good ideas get around is by allowing people to spread that knowledge by working on details with other teams. For sure, that is one really good method. But I would ask that you keep your eye on the goal. The goal is the dispersion of knowledge about what works and what doesn't. Detail assignments are one way to achieve that, but the fact that you are reading this is evidence that there are many other opportunities to achieve that same objective.

Don't misunderstand, I am a big proponent of mobility. I am currently working on a detail (and loving it btw) and I'm planning to go on another, 5-month detail at the conclusion of this one. So, yes, detail opportunities are valuable for both the detailee as well as the organization hosting the detail. Both stand to learn from their previous experiences.

This also ignores conferences which I have found to be quite valuable over the last few years. I've written about a number of topics from the CMITs I've attended as well as some others. Though it wasn't the focus of the content, that is where I learned about Prezi, which I still love.

Finally, I would strongly suggest that everyone should have a mentor. Regardless of your position, you should at least have a mentor and possibly a mentee as well. First, just go ahead and accept that you don't know everything, and that there is at least one thing out there in which you could benefit from bouncing ideas off of someone else. That person can help you to make connections that you weren't aware of before. Picking up a mentee as well provides you with a tremendous opportunity to see problems in new ans interesting ways and look at solutions without the bias that we sometimes bring.

Anyway, I agree that details present a really good opportunity to spread the knowledge around, I just think that there are other really good ways of accomplishing that as well and we should encourage all of them.