Why do projects take so long?

A key piece of my company's business (Solera Associates LLC - see http://www.pmlead.com) capability is its ability to help others accelerate their projects. How do we do it?
While we like Agile and Agile-like methods, such as Commitment-Based Project Management -- CBPM -- (see our LinkedIn Group at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1944064&trk=hb_side_g for various discussions on this approach developed at Intel Corporation) instead of the more traditional, process-intensive approaches, we also find that leadership plays a major role.
Processes can help you lead a project. Processes well executed will allow a team to succeed. By applying leadership we can be even more effective at getting the team to excel. As leaders we need to set the vision (leader's intent), communicate it, and enable our teams to execute within that intent. Processes take time. Leadership can shorten this time.
Traditionally project managers have controlled the details of the project, from the planning to the actual execution. CBPM encourages the owners and customers of the deliverables to execute more independently from the project manager and hold each other accountable. This process, coupled with leadership that not only encourages but expects and empowers this behavior, allows teams using CBPM to excel in their performance.
To answer the question in the title: projects take too long for a number of reasons but one of them is lack of the appropriate leadership needed to enable the team to succeed and reduce the time. Other reasons why projects take to long include lack of scope, requirements, plan, and execution clarity, among others. Leadership addresses all of these. CBPM addresses plan and execution clarity. For more details see our LinkedIn group mentioned above and my PM blog at http://www.pmlead.org.

Networking Help

While leaders tend to be very much people-focused, some, like me, are so focused on the mission (task) at hand that I ignore interacting with people in situations not directly related to the effort. For example, the art of networking is something that I used to not pay much attention too. Since it did not address the task at hand, I didn't do it. Well, that's a problem! You need a strong network to succeed as a leader, whether at work, searching for a new job (it is said that up to 85% of the jobs are found through networking), or any number of other leadership situations.

But you have to build a network before you need it, so that when you need it, it is there. How do you do it? You do it by reaching out, connecting, offering help, acting as a "maven" and go-between, not expecting much in return.

But it's hard. When I left my last corporate job I realized I needed help in this area. While some of my family can work a room as well as the best politicians anywhere, I'm a bit more shy (yes, whether you believe it or not. Saying hi to a stranger and starting a conversation is one of those things that can stop me. Yet I'll stand in front of a group of total strangers and deliver a day-long workshop at the drop of a hat. But going up to someone and saying "hi, I'm Jose Solera and I came to better understand what this group (whatever event I'm at) is doing. How about you?" can be very hard.) I have improved but got much more to go.

Well, at that point, I had the luck of running into Liz Lynch's Smart Networking book. Liz was like me. She struggled connecting with people. She described her challenges and has been so successful that she has made a business out of it. So, if networking is something you would like some helpful hints on, you can do no better than checking out her book.