Yesterday, we wrapped our PM Squad Live panel on accidental project management, which closes out this month’s focus inside PM Squad.
This month we explored something that doesn’t get talked about enough: most project managers didn’t plan to become project managers. The role found us. We stepped in because something needed structure, or because no one else was holding alignment, or because a project was already moving and someone had to steady it.
In our final session of the month, Dave Prior said something that captured the heart of it.
Here’s the clip.
@sameteampartners “Project management is a social engineering job.” Dave Prior said this on our PM Squad Live panel and I kind of love how uncomfortable it makes people. Because if you’ve been doing this work for a while, you know it’s true. Most of the job isn’t the plan. It’s the people. It’s noticing when someone’s holding back in a meeting. It’s sensing when urgency doesn’t match reaction. It’s figuring out how to move a decision forward without bulldozing the room. We’ve been talking all month about accidental project managers — the ones who stepped into responsibility before they felt ready. A lot of them are already doing this instinctively. Curious how this lands for you. #projectmanagement #leadership #pmlife #projectmanager #PMsquad @nottheworstpm
♬ original sound - sameteampartners
When Dave describes project management as a social engineering job, he’s naming the part of the work that rarely gets formal recognition. Beyond scope, budgets, and timelines, the job requires constant attention to how people are behaving inside a system.
You’re paying attention to tone shifts in meetings. You’re noticing when urgency doesn’t match reaction. You’re adjusting how you frame a risk depending on who needs to hear it. You’re helping teams move toward decisions without forcing them there. None of that lives neatly in a template, but it shapes outcomes in very real ways.
That kind of judgment develops over time. It develops through projects that get messy, through conversations that don’t go perfectly, and through the discipline of reflecting on what worked and what didn’t.
Over the course of this month, we unpacked accidental project management from multiple angles.
In Accidental project management: how PMs lead when the work finds them, I wrote about what it feels like to step into responsibility before you feel ready and how many PMs underestimate the cultural impact they have.
In Why we keep creating “accidental” project managers, we looked at the organizational patterns that produce this dynamic in the first place.
And for those earlier in their journey, the Accidental PM Quick Start Guide walks through foundational habits that create stability quickly.
Our PM Squad members got even more content and tools on top of that. This panel brought those threads together. It was a chance to hear how different people arrived in this work and how they’ve learned to carry it well.
What you get inside PM Squad
Each month inside PM Squad, we focus on one leadership theme and explore it from multiple angles.
Members receive a structured playbook and a companion free guide that distills the core ideas into something practical and usable. We host a PM Squad Conversation — a live, community-driven session where members bring real questions and situations into the room. We also host a PM Squad Live event. Some months that’s a keynote. Some months it’s a panel like this one. Every session is recorded and shared with members.
In between, there are members-only blog posts, tool drops, and video content designed to reinforce the theme and keep the conversation moving. It’s not a one-touch experience. It’s a steady rhythm. Most weeks, something thoughtful is landing in your inbox. Andthe best part? There's no pressure to keep up. Once you join, you gain access to all content, including live event recordings.
The goal isn’t to flood you with material. It’s to help you think about project management differently — to sharpen your judgment, expand your awareness, and build confidence in the human side of this work.
Next month, we shift into a new theme focused on AI. Not from a hype perspective, and not as a replacement for human leadership, but as a tool that changes how we work and how we think about responsibility, creativity, and decision-making.
If you want to be part of a community that takes this work seriously — and approaches it with curiosity and depth — join the PM Squad here
T L ; D R - We closed out this month inside PM Squad with a live panel on accidental project management — the reality that most of us stepped into this role because something needed structure.
The heart of the conversation: beyond scope and timelines, this job requires constant attention to how people behave inside systems. That judgment isn’t taught in a template. It’s built through messy projects, honest conversations, and reflection.
This panel pulled together everything we explored this month and reminded us that accidental PMs are often carrying more leadership than they realize.
