People development is not a luxury – it is project risk management
By Lisa Harrison - Learning and Leadership Consultant
Lisa Harrison is a Sydney-based learning and development consultant and founder of The Learning Pyramid, where she helps project managers and technical experts make the shift from ‘doing’ to truly leading. She specialises in practical, evidence-based programs that turn project managers into confident people leaders who can engage stakeholders, motivate teams, and deliver results. Her flagship Certificate in Project Leadership focuses on the human side of projects – lifting team performance, reducing burnout, managing tricky stakeholders, and boosting project outcomes. If you would like to hear more about the skills for leading successful projects, you can connect with her at www.thelearningpyramid.com or at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisajharrison/
It is time to debunk the myth that ‘there is no time for people development on
projects’.
I get it. Projects move fast, deadlines loom, and your status reporting is a sea of red and orange. So when someone suggests spending time developing your team, the reflex response is often: ‘Are you kidding me? We barely have time to deliver what we promised.’ Sorry to break it to you, but skipping development usually creates more risk, not less.
Single-point-of-failure people (and unexpected lottery winners)
From a risk perspective, you need more than one person with any critical skill on your project. What happens when your star developer gets a better offer? Or your key analyst wins the lottery? (Hey, it could happen.)
Suddenly you are scrambling with no backup plan. That is not just inconvenient – it is a textbook single-point-of-failure risk that could have been mitigated with some deliberate cross-skilling.
I have watched projects wobble because too much knowledge lived in one person’s head. When that person left, got sick, or simply burned out, the beautiful Gantt chart quietly turned into a work of speculative fiction. Or the gorgeous Kanban board had a distinct lack of weight on the right hand side!
Development as a mid-project retention strategy
Quite likely, your high performers did not become high performers by accident. They love to learn and stretch; they get energy from mastering new things. If your project offers them nothing but repetitive tasks and last-minute fire-drills, they get restless. Then they get curious about what other organisations are offering.
Houston we have a problem. Guess who you definitely do not want walking out the door mid-project?
Investing in development sends a clear message: ‘You matter. You are valued.’ That is not fluffy HR talk; it is a serious retention strategy and a very cost-effective risk control.
See the whole human, not just the resource
On a recent holiday, I was reminded how powerful small gestures are. I did what I always do when I travel – learned a few basic phrases in the local language.
Languages are soooo not my superpower, so the pronunciation was… let us call it ‘creative’. But when I greeted people in their language, everything shifted. Whether it was the person carrying bags, the taxi driver, or the shop assistant, you could see a light appear in their faces. In a very small way, but they felt seen as whole people, not just as someone providing a transaction.
The same thing happens in projects – even more so when we feel seen by our managers and leaders. When leaders know people’s stories, strengths, and pressures outside work, the relationship shifts. Emotionally intelligent leaders who connect with people as humans – not just as lines on a resource plan – are the ones getting that extra discretionary effort every project desperately needs.
Practical ways to build development into delivery
The good news is that embedding development does not require a six-month leadership program. Although of course that will help, there are small steps you can implement straight away. You can build it into the work you already have to do. For example:
- Stretch assignments – Do not always give a task to the person who can do it fastest. Sometimes give it to someone who will take longer because it is their first time.
- Shadowing and pairing – Let a less experienced team member shadow a ‘star’ on a critical piece of work, then reverse the roles on something lower risk.
- Internal show-and-tell – Run short, informal teach-back sessions where team members demo what they have built, or share a trick they have learned.
- Rotating roles – Rotate chairs in stand-ups, showcases, risk workshops etc. so more people build confidence and visibility.
None of this slows the project down anything like as much as scrambling to replace a single-point-of-failure person halfway through.
People development is not something you squeeze in if there is time left over (spoiler alert: there is never time left over). It is the work – and it is very smart risk management, cleverly disguised as people leadership.
What sort of development are you offering to your team? Is it solely focussed on tech skills when we know that people skills – ‘power skills’ are so key to the project’s success? Who on your team might be getting bored or lacking in stretch assignments that float their boat?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on development in project teams – the good the bad and the ugly. Hit me up at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisajharrison or
