A bit like Oakland, the role of Project Management gets a bad rap.

Often sneered upon by engineering, discounted by sales and marketing, and thanklessly tasked with seeing complicated projects to completion by senior management. Task masters, meeting organizers, Gantt charters, backlog groomers — call us what you will.

Keeping all the ducks in a row isn’t flashy, and simply getting from A to B doesn’t make the good story. But without Project Management, those ducks are just as likely to stop for a tasty blade of grass, wander off to a nearby puddle, or simply stare off into space.

More often than not these days, Project Management is a subset of another role, especially in small to medium sized organizations — so the stigma is less than in larger organizations that might need a dedicated project manager.

Also too often, we exalt the higher-profile thinkers and overlook the many doers that make their visions possible. The greatest companies, led by the most innovative thinkers, still needed countless collaborators to make their dreams real.