“Not the Project Itself Is Important” – an Interview with Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez

Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez is a passionate project enthusiast with 25 years of project management experience. He was our keynote speaker for the 2021 3PMO Event in June and I could not pass the opportunity to interview him. He is publishing a new book with the pristine Harvard Business Review in October, so be sure to get his latest book soon. But let us get to it!

Who Are You, Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez?

- “A global citizen with passion for project management. I have lived around the world and worked with many PMO’s. I am also a teacher, educator and writer. I love sharing and helping people getting better. I aim for simplification and elevation of project management.”

- “I have found out that focusing on what to do, what is the goal, helps companies to succeed. Focusing also makes happier employees. Our brains attend to stick to negativity (this is what ‘our brains are masochists’ means). We need to know and understand this – you can, however, train your brain to be focused and thinking positive. This is also linked to resilience: Train your brain to move forward. Focus on good. Just like in anything, like going to the gym, you need to train, practise and that is how you get better.”

Finding Your Purpose and Passion, and How to Keep It

- “Think about yourself, rearrange, learn, and use this as an opportunity to find side paths: write a book, do non-profit volunteering, etc. One thing you will never get back in life is time – invest your time better! Slowly you start seeing new paths and opportunities.”

Looking back now, Nieto-Rodriguez would not be doing today what he is if he had not been fired.

Making Your Ideas Work for Others

- “Many professions had a manifesto but not project professionals. Why not? Why PMs are not united? So, I thought to give it a try. It is all about how projects are in the centre of making a change happen. It is a way of cooperating and making PM professionals more visible and recognisable.”, Nieto-Rodrigues says.

1. Senior management: to make them understand the importance of projects and project management.
2. A tool for those who work in project management but are not project professionals: helping them select the right projects to work on.
3. To increase the leadership and strategic perspective of project professionals, which are often seen as technical people.
   

He wants project management to have more connection with stakeholders and common sense. To focus more on benefits. Benefits should be the main priority (in projects). He often tells his students to describe their project as if they were presenting them to executive management without using the word “project” at all – so they can move from “being a project” towards “benefits”. This helps to understand that benefits, not the project itself, are important.

A New Book Released This Autumn

The book is a refreshed version of The Project Revolution. It is addressed to senior leaders and project managers. It has more tools for working with projects, such as 10 tough questions to ask from every project leader. The book wants to reinvent project management. Failure rate in project industry is one of the highest of any industry and we cannot continue like that. So, a lot needs to change in project management which is a highly entwined profession and Nieto-Rodriguez’s hope is that people will learn from this book.

Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez