1 / 15

The Human Heart of Project Management.

The Human Heart of Project Management. Dr. Terry Cooke-Davies Managing Director, Human Systems Limited Adjunct Professor, University of Technology, Sydney Honorary Research Fellow, University College, London. Today’s Agenda.

sasson
Download Presentation

The Human Heart of Project Management.

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The Human Heart of Project Management. Dr. Terry Cooke-Davies Managing Director, Human Systems Limited Adjunct Professor, University of Technology, Sydney Honorary Research Fellow, University College, London.

  2. Today’s Agenda • Project management’s roots in “control theory”, and some unanswered paradoxes. • Some assumptions “smuggled in” to project management along with “control theory”. • Insights from complexity sciences. Are they just the latest “fad”, or a radical rethink of “management”? • What might these insights mean for the management of projects?

  3. Pharma R&D 10+ PC/ICT 20 Proto-Projects 6000+ Dramatic increase in work done as projects. North Sea Oil 30 Professional Associations 40 Military 60+ Gantt etc. 100+ Engineering 150+ Project Management’s Roots in Control

  4. Maturity of Different Industries

  5. Some Paradoxes Major efforts are made to “learn lessons” from projects and transfer them across the organization. BUT PM focus remains on “control”. Project management expenditure and activity is rising BUT little evidence that project results are improving proportionately & “trainwrecks” still happen regularly. Pressure to improve resource productivity is rising in many industries BUT productivity is not responding as a result of project management.

  6. Two Competing Explanations “We DO project management pretty well, but senior management doesn’t understand us, and so the environment is inappropriate” “Project Management is based on control theory/ operational research, and this is inadequate to investigate all aspects of life that bear on projects.”

  7. Classic project management thinking assumes “first-order” control – goals remain constant (or at least under change control). Goals Controller/ Manager System/ Process Target Goals System/ Process Gaps in benefits imply “second-order” control – goals are subject to change – system is more flexible, and more difficult to control. Operations Actual Deeply-held Assumption 1: Systemic Control

  8. Deeply Held Assumption 2:Individual is Distinct from Group.

  9. Separation: steer to avoid crowding local flockmates Alignment: steer towards the average heading of local flockmates Cohesion: steer to move toward the average position of local flockmates A Radically Different View Source: Craig Reynolds http://www.red3d.com/cwr/boids/

  10. “Complexity Theory” Has At Least Three Strands. • Chaos theory and derivatives. • e.g. Glueck, 1988; Stewart, 1989. • Strange attractors, fractals. • Dissipative structure theory • e.g. Prigogene • Bifurcations, spontaneous self-organization. • Complex adaptive systems • e.g. Reynolds • Agent-based systems, spontaneous adaptation, self-organization “at the edge of chaos”. • “Complex organizational response” (Stacey and team) is one particular aspect.

  11. Self-organization • Power, inclusion & exclusion • Fantasy & unconscious processes • Organization as communicating in the living present. “Organization” As “Communicative Relationships”. • Conversation • Responsive communicative action • Turn-taking • Local language practices Source: Stacey (2001) Complex Responsive Processes.

  12. As “flocking” is an emergent property of essential bird behaviour. . . . . . . . So “organization”, “knowledge” and so on are emergent properties of the essential human behaviour of communicating – of “complex responsive processes”. Implications For PM Theory.

  13. Specific benchmark performance (days) Team authority & empowerment. Frequency Org structure Media Project risk Content Relational norms Corroboration? 2 “Straws in the Wind”. Source: Unpublished PMKN Study. Source: R. Müller. “Determinants for external communications of IT project managers”, IJPM, July 2003

  14. Some Implications For The Management of Projects. • 2. Redefine team process • Use “Open Space” principles • “Self-organize” around clear goals. • From “Process”  “Outcome” • 1. Redefine governance • Above the waterline • Free to take risks • Encourage “owners” tofind their own solutions • Below the waterline • Take no risks • “Off limits” • Given • 3. Redefine capabilities of leaders • Competence as conceptual level. • Strategic competence • Integrative competence.

  15. Is It Real? There’s a breakthrough out there waiting to happen!!

More Related