Our site – and our enterprise, EarthPM – is (as we say in our tagline) “at the intersection of green and project management”.

Most of our postings are smack-dab inside that junction, some lean a little towards the environmental side in their focus and some on the project management side.

This one takes a little twist, based on the very name of our company:  EarthPM.

One thing we all have in common is that we manage projects (mainly) on this little rock (Earth).  So what happens if we had to describe our work – our profession – to someone from a different rock?  Not so easy, eh?

Peter Taylor, author of  The Lazy Project Manager, posed this challenge on one of the many LinkedIn discussion groups.  The question was an intriguing one, and it got so many responses, he posted a story on it which we’ll quote from and reference here.

So… what was the challenge?  Here it is:

Describe Project Management to an Alien from Outer Space

We all know the terms of definition for project management but, to get outsiders to understand what we do, how would you simply describe project management to someone who has no idea what it is.

Because of the way that Peter framed the challenge, he got quite a bit of creative thinking in the responses.  So that’s one lesson learned, right there.  One could ask a stakeholder to define what their contribution to the project is, or one could ask them in a more unique way.  Think about that when you need to pose an important question.  Frame it thoughtfully.

So…what did Peter get back when he posed this challenge?  How did people describe project management to aliens?

Here’s my favorite:

‘If they got here, shouldn’t we be asking them the question? No offence to the team from NASA, but we must learn from the market leaders.’

There’s another lesson learned: sometimes the information has to flow in the other direction!

For comedic reasons, here was my answer to Peter’s question:

Project Management is getting a clear understanding of the successful outcomes of a project, collaboratively planning the “who”, “what” , “where”, “when” and “how” of getting to those outcomes, and keeping the “why” in the face of the team (because nothing gets done without people*) executing toward those outcomes.

And, importantly, it’s doing all of those things knowing that – by definition – it’s never been done before, and constantly facing exposure to risk (known unknowns) and uncertainty (unknown unknowns).

*since this is being explained to an Alien from Outer Space, please feel free to substitute words like Zygons, Florx, Nduli, or Pandorian.

Yep, it’s a little too long and weird, but I must say I think it has some redeeming qualities…

The whole article can be read here.  And check out Peter’s book (actually his really nice site) here.

Live long and prosper!  Promise!