Although Merv consults and presents on people-first leadership to a variety of audiences, his first love is to the industry in which he spent the entirety of his 40+-year career.

Project managers cope with a variety of challenges every day. Some of these challenges are related to the technical aspects of running a project; some are related to human factors. Many project issues are the direct result of the failure to recognize, prevent, or address the human-related issues in project delivery. Often project managers attempt to resolve them as they would any other project issue, without understanding the underlying human factors that contributed to the problem.

Many project issues can be avoided if project management staff are equipped to recognize and appropriately handle the human factors at the root of the problem. Some of these are obvious within a short time, while others take a longer time to identify. In either case, the project manager must be equipped to effectively and efficiently address the issue, or it will cost the organization in missed milestones and lost profits!