Project management is about creating change. All projects invole some sort of change, a change that will be beneficial to the organisation running the project. That’s why we have to be comfortable with change.

Embracing change is one of the ways that project management is different from other sorts of management. In a business as usual situation, management is supposed to keep things the same. Unleashing change there can be dangerous and chaotic.

Project management, though, is about controlling that change, as much as we can. We work to channel the change in useful ways, to make sure it doesn’t descend into chaos. But the thing about change is it will always lead to some unexpected consequences.

That means we need to be relaxed about facing those consequences. Sometimes, they will be issues that need to be solved, and solved quickly, to keep the project on track. But other times they will be opportunities instead, and we need to be flexible enough to recognise them, and divert the project to take advantage of them.

We are always dealing with change. And that’s one of the best things about project management – because it means we’re making a difference.