Project management – a new mindset for success

Success in projects? Why are some project managers successful in spotting global opportunities and gaining the trust of important stakeholders, while others mismanage them and fail? The findings presented in this book, from interviews conducted with hundreds of project managers and project team members, suggest the answer could lie in the project managers’ attitudes and mindsets. A new mindset was found to be critical to gain success, and although the development of a new mindset does not happen overnight, reading this book might help project managers, project workers, and project-based companies a few steps along the way. The terms business mindset and global mindset refer to how project managers see their projects in a collaborative context, both a collaborative business context and a collaborative global context, and how this affects their attitude and actions. Projects are often initiated for business reasons, and for companies operating projects on a global scale the development of their project managers’ business and global mindsets becomes highly relevant. This book will guide readers through some of these challenges in order to be better prepared for new business in a global environment, and will also suggest some ideas for solutions to the challenges and provide a thorough understanding of important success factors in projects. Wenche Aarseth is a Professor at Nord University Business School and Professor II at NTNU Department of Industrial Economy and Technology Management, Norway, in Project Leadership. She was previously a Professor at NTNU Faculty of Engineering and NTNU Faculty of Social Sciences. Aarseth has over 20 years of work experience in close research collaboration with some of Norway’s largest private and public companies. She has worked as a project management researcher for SINTEF and has collaborated with professors at the University of California Berkeley and Cranfield School of Management in the UK.