2024. Time to Make Your List … No, Not That Kind of List

January 3, 2024 | by Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin

Amid the intense hype around AI technology at last year’s PMI Global Summit in Atlanta, one of the more surprising and gratifying moments came as I was grabbing a bite on the exhibit hall floor, where I took a seat in one of the presentation areas, mostly just to avoid juggling my belongings while eating standing up. (Note to PMI: Sitting. It’s something people like to do while they eat.)

I might have forgotten to chew, though, once I tuned into the presenter. (I was too amazed to take notes, so I can’t even tell you his name. Maybe someone can enlighten me in the comments, and I’ll give credit where it’s due.) From a somewhat dry project management topic, he veered off into something I have long been promoting, both within project management circles and in the wider world: the value of happiness.

Whether we call it stakeholder satisfaction, employee engagement, or customer delight, happiness plays a large role in the projects and organizations we manage. The presenter at PMI had tapped into a theme that has increasing relevance to a resource-limited world: that what we make or own, buy or sell, may be less important than how we feel about these things. Measuring more about wellbeing may be more valuable than all the beans we can count.

Thus, when I run across an alternative to the usual New Year’s resolution list that invites us to stop nagging ourselves to do better, and start responding to the joys in life, I’m all in. Instead of resolutions that read like a bundle of sticks to beat myself with, I’m leaning towards things like:

• Express gratitude to those I live and work with more often.
• Go outside and soak up the beauty, every day. Bring that back to my desk with me.
• Read more about new things and experience the delight of thinking new thoughts.

What’s on your list of joys? And how might heightened wellbeing impact the work you do and the colleagues you interact with?

[This is not the blog I promised you last week, about tools for forecasting the future. But it made me happier to write this one! As for the future, there’s always next week …]

About the Author

Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin

Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin is editor-in-chief for PM Solutions Research, and the author, co-author and editor of over twenty books on project management, including the 2007 PMI Literature Award winner, The AMA Handbook of Project Management, Second Edition.

View Posts by Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin

Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin