“The best project managers think like pilots: prepare before the crisis, leave ego on the ground, fix small problems before they become emergencies, and always stay ahead of the project.” – MJ Martin
The Cockpit Is a Classroom
Project management courses teach scope, schedule, cost, risk, governance, and communication. Flying teaches the same disciplines, but with an unforgiving instructor: reality.
Weather does not care about the schedule, fuel does not respond to optimism, and an aircraft does not become serviceable because the pilot wants to reach the destination. Transport Canada emphasizes that good decision making begins before takeoff. The lesson for every project manager is simple: good outcomes are usually created before the crisis begins.
Practice and Preparation Beat Panic
Pilots rehearse. They use checklists, study weather, calculate fuel, review emergency procedures, and ask, “What will I do if this goes wrong?” Transport Canada notes that planning ahead reduces last-minute decisions and improves focus and decision making. Its 2026 checklist guidance distinguishes normal, abnormal, and emergency procedures, reinforcing the importance of knowing what to do before workload becomes overwhelming. A risk register that nobody reads is like an emergency checklist buried in the baggage compartment. Preparation matters only when it can be converted quickly into action. Before your next major project, ask yourself: have we merely documented the risks, or have we rehearsed our response to them? (Transport Canada)
Ego Gets You Killed
Aviation teaches humility with unusual clarity. Pilots are trained to recognize fatigue, stress, limitations, deteriorating conditions, and errors in judgment. Transport Canada’s pilot decision-making material asks pilots to evaluate their own fitness before flight, while the Transportation Safety Board of Canada emphasizes recognizing limits, speaking up, asking questions, and reconsidering a course of action when something feels wrong. Expertise is valuable, but confidence becomes dangerous when it shuts out contrary evidence. The strongest project manager is secure enough to ask, “What am I missing?” When was the last time someone on your project changed your mind? If the answer is “never,” is that strong leadership, or evidence that nobody feels safe challenging you? (Transport Canada)
Fix Small Problems Early
Aircraft rarely go from normal to catastrophic without clues. Trouble often begins as something small: changing weather, an abnormal indication, an unexpected vibration, or a fuel discrepancy. The danger comes when manageable problems begin stacking together. Projects behave the same way. One missed milestone may be recoverable. A supplier delay may be manageable. A design change may be absorbable. Combine all three with weak communication, however, and the project can deteriorate quickly. Project Management Institute research identifies early recognition as critical to effective risk management and warns that teams are often poor at detecting and acting on warning signs. Small problems are cheapest when they are still small. (Project Management Institute)
Fly the Project
The best pilots remain ahead of the aircraft. The best project managers remain ahead of the project. Both anticipate, monitor, question, communicate, and adjust before circumstances remove their choices. Flying teaches that preparation creates capacity, humility preserves judgment, and early intervention protects options.
Perhaps the most useful question a project manager can borrow from aviation is not, “Are we still on plan?” but, “If conditions change five minutes from now, are we ready?”
About the Author:
Michael Martin is the Vice President of Technology with Metercor Inc., a Smart Meter, IoT, and Smart City systems integrator based in Canada. He has more than 40 years of experience in systems design for applications that use broadband networks, optical fibre, wireless, and digital communications technologies. He is a business and technology consultant. He was a senior executive consultant for 15 years with IBM, where he worked in the GBS Global Center of Competency for Energy and Utilities and the GTS Global Center of Excellence for Energy and Utilities. He is a founding partner and President of MICAN Communications and before that was President of Comlink Systems Limited and Ensat Broadcast Services, Inc., both divisions of Cygnal Technologies Corporation (CYN: TSX).
Martin served on the Board of Directors for TeraGo Inc (TGO: TSX) and on the Board of Directors for Avante Logixx Inc. (XX: TSX.V). He has served as a Member, SCC ISO-IEC JTC 1/SC-41 – Internet of Things and related technologies, ISO – International Organization for Standardization, and as a member of the NIST SP 500-325 Fog Computing Conceptual Model, National Institute of Standards and Technology. He served on the Board of Governors of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) [now Ontario Tech University] and on the Board of Advisers of five different Colleges in Ontario – Centennial College, Humber College, George Brown College, Durham College, Ryerson Polytechnic University [now Toronto Metropolitan University]. For 16 years he served on the Board of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), Toronto Section.
He holds three master’s degrees – in business (MBA), communication (MA), and education (MEd). As well, he has three undergraduate diplomas and seven major certifications in business, computer programming, internetworking, project management, media, photography, and communication technology. He has completed over 80 next generation MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) [aka Micro Learning] continuous education programs in a wide variety of topics, including: Economics, Python Programming, Internet of Things, Cloud, Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive systems, Blockchain, Agile, Power BI, Big Data, Design Thinking, Security, Indigenous Canada awareness, and more.
Martin is a volunteer, a photographer, a learner, a technologist, a philosophizer, a pilot, and a romantic optimist.