Editorial
Front Page - Friday, May 28, 2010
Consultant touts benefits of project management
David Laprad
Denise Langford is a project management consultant and the president of the local chapter of the Project Management Institute. She graduated from the University of Missouri Rolla with a degree in engineering and holds a master’s degree in project management.
- David Laprad
Denise Langford was diagnosed with dyslexia after she’d graduated from college. But instead of seeing the condition, which makes it difficult for a person to read, write and spell in his native language, as an obstacle, she calls it a blessing.
“I’d always wondered why I did certain things in a pattern,” she says. “A college friend who saw a program on learning disabilities suggested I be tested, as she thought I had the characteristics of a dyslexic. I shrugged her off, but what she said stayed in the back of my head.”
Langford graduated from the University of Missouri Rolla with a degree in engineering and secured a position with a waste management group in Chicago. She jokes she started “talking trash right out of college,” but at the time, she became concerned enough about specific aspects of her behavior that she took her friend’s advice. When she tested positive for dyslexia, a light bulb turned on in her mind.
“I didn’t know it at the time, but my (aptitude) for engineering came from the dyslexic part of my brain,” Langford says. “Dyslexics have the ability to see things on a higher level; it’s the way our brains are hardwired. We have problems decoding certain things, but other things come to us immediately.”
For Langford, math had always come easy. As early as grade school, a teacher recognized her skill with numbers and guided her accordingly. Seeing the same thing, Langford’s high school counselor steered her toward mathematics and engineering. Once she understood why certain things were hard and other things came easy, she set out to reconcile the different components of her mind.
“I did a number of skill building exercises in order to relearn different things and control the dyslexic part of my brain,” she says. “Once I’d organized the chaotic part of my brain and made sure it worked in tandem with the engineering part of my brain, everything made sense.”
The group for which Langford started working out of college hired her to design landfills. Later, she began drafting landfill gas systems, which she says was a better fit for her because of her interest in environmental work. The man under whom Langford worked believed she should have experience in the field, so she spent five years involved in the construction of the systems she designed.
The group eventually rotated Langford back into the office, where she noticed a disconnect between what management wanted and what the people in the field were doing. This untenable situation led Langford to what would become one of the great passions of her life: project management.
“We were good at what we did, but we kept making the same mistakes in terms of how we managed projects, and I knew there had to be a better way,” Langford says. “Once I saw what we were lacking – going from the design phase to actually doing the construction and then bringing it all to a close – I took it upon myself to learn the principles of project management.”
Langford didn’t just study up on a newly discovered area of personal interest, she went all in and earned a master’s degree in project management. She also joined the Project Management Institute, a professional organization with more than a half million members and credential holders in over 180 countries.
Through the institute, Langford received her advanced Project Management Professional certification. As she integrated more and more of what she was learning into the process of the group for which she was working, Langford’s team began to deliver projects on time and within budget. This caught the attention of upper management, which implemented her models across the company.
About four years ago, Langford and her husband moved to Chattanooga after having fallen in love with the city while looking for property. The original purpose of their visit was to find and purchase land on which they’d eventually retire, but the vibrant nature of Chattanooga’s downtown area, the number of outdoor activities in which they could participate and the city’s close proximity to other attractions lured in the couple well ahead of the age at which people stop working.
However, Langford found project management to be a hard sell in Chattanooga. While she says large organizations like BlueCross BlueShield and Unum understand the use and benefits of project management, she also says a lot of smaller local organizations engage in project management without grasping its principles.
“Something as simple as publishing your newspaper on time is a project,” she says. “From start to finish, there are several distinct phases that must be monitored and controlled.”
As a private consultant and the president of the local chapter of the Project Management Institute, Langford lets local companies know there are people in Chattanooga who can help them learn and implement the principles of project management.
“Project management is 90 percent communication. Without it, your team can’t function,” she says. “Stuff will get lost and things won’t get delivered on time. Letting your team know what it needs to do and by when is the most important part of the process. Understanding why something wasn’t delivered by the time you thought it should have been is also a part of project management. Did you give your team enough information?”
A project management professional can evaluate the process a team has in place, identify weak spots and suggest adjustments.
Langford says project management feeds a personal need for her to be organized, and that it can do the same for any company or group, including a law firm.
“Most lawyers are a part of a team; they have paralegals doing research for them and secretaries doing other work. Within that process, communication is key.”
Should an attorney identify areas within his practice that could benefit from project management, Langford would encourage him to see an opportunity rather than an obstacle, given her personal experiences.
“Once I learned to manage my dyslexia, I found out it’s actually a gift,” she says.
To learn more about project management, visit www.chattanoogapmi.org. The organization’s next meeting will be held June 15 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 212 Market Restaurant. The topics of discussion will include scheduling and time management. The $25 fee includes lunch.
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