Project management is all about decision-making, whether it is in the decision about how to define or limit the project scope, to define its foundation, how to schedule it, how to budget its activities, how to change it, and also if we have .. to stop or continue it. So it is logical that the research investigating the process of human thinking, and how human cognition works in relation to decision-making, has a relevance to project management and to how the latter should be organised.
A cognitive bias is a subconscious error in thinking that leads to misinterpreting information from the world around and affects the rationality and accuracy of decisions and judgments. Biases are unconscious and automatic processes designed to make decision-making quicker and more efficient.
I read with interest the book by Daniel Kahneman on the subject of cognitive biases. I have since spent some time reading additional material covering this subject and tried to contextualise cognitive biases into the practices of project management. I guess it was ultimately to check … how biassed I was!
On this blog I wrote a short article about my understanding and my findings. But, why this title?? Well…. you have to read the article to understand. Happy reading!
Marco Bottacini, Senior Portfolio Manager at GALVmed
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinion of GALVmed.
In his presentation, Dan made an interesting reference to the importance of intuition in the process of decision-making. I wanted to reflect about the decision-making process in project management and see how intuition would fit in. I wrote a short article (link). I hope this can be of interest!
Marco Bottacini, Senior Portfolio Manager at GALVmed
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinion of GALVmed.
Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives – choice, not chance, determines your destiny.
Aristoteles
Photo by Shiva Smyth at pexels.com
Recent conversations with colleagues made me think about the notion of ‘Organisational Excellence‘. I found the subject quite interesting and a little bit controversial.
What makes an organisation ‘excellent’?
Are there actionable levers for excellence?
Is excellence a durable attribute that stands against the changes in markets and society?
How can principles of excellence be passed on to the staff?
Can ‘excellence’ be taught and nurtured?
Would there be a relationship between project management and the company’s excellence?
And, importantly, how are the new generations seeing the matter? – these are just some of the questions that came up in conversation.
I did a little research and I also reflected on personal learnings – here is my take. I hope this is of interest!
Marco Bottacini, Senior Portfolio Manager at GALVmed
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinion of GALVmed.
I was really intrigued when I saw on the web the advertisement for a course to become a “Disciplined Agilist”. Another marketing gimmick? Or would Agile require … a “corrective” measure?
Photo by Marco Bottacini
I felt I had to cover the subject of “discipline” on the blog as this subject has interesting implications for the profession, whether in the Agile world or not….
In a new article, just posted, I looked at the various aspects of the tricky subject and reviewed discipline in the contexts of the individual and the organisation, which at times get into conflict.
What does the term ‘discipline’ mean to you? Would the job of project manager require a different discipline compared to other professions? I hope you will find the article interesting and thought-provoking.
Marco Bottacini, Senior Portfolio Manager at GALVmed
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinion of GALVmed.
In the series “Life as a Project Manager” we have project managers coming from different sectors to talk about their job and how they live the profession as Project Manager. The intention is to provide a real and personal account of the experience in this challenging profession, with examples and references that can help others in their job.
For the first post of the series I have been talking to Rahul Srivastava, a veterinary professional with years of experience in project management in the sector of animal health, nutritional and biological products’ marketing and strategy planning, and with a particular interest for the development of a sustainable agro-veterinary sector in India.
Rahul holds a master’s degree in Veterinary Medicine from the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, and an MBA in Agribusiness from G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar (India). He has also received 9 online certifications from University of Maryland, MIT and University of Pennsylvania (USA) on entrepreneurship development, new venture finance and social impact strategy.
He has a diversified work experience, in locations such as East Africa, West Africa, Nepal and India, in private animal health organizations, government organizations (ICAR-IVRI, Ministry of Agriculture, India), international organizations (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics for veterinary business incubator establishment in Ghana) and international development organizations (GALVmed).
In his most recent job post he was Deputy Director at Hester Biosciences Limited (India), handling business development in domestic and international animal health markets. He established ‘Veterinary Social Business’, an innovative division at Hester Biosciences Limited for catering the veterinary product-services needs of smallholder farmers in South Asia and Africa. He was also managing 4 public-private-partnership projects for last-mile animal health product and service delivery for smallholder livestock farmers in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand (India). He authored 24 publications in international & national journals and professional organizations.
I have been talking with Rahul about his many professional interests and achievements, but we focused on the subjects of social entrepreneurship, Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) and the role of younger generations in the new business models that are being developed and for which Rahul has been strongly advocating…..
PMDG: You are an advocate for “social entrepreneurship” in the livestock sector. Would this be a new paradigm that can be extended to other sectors?
Rahul: Current and emerging challenges in society can only be tackled with proper understanding of the “grassroot” problem and with design of innovative approaches, especially in the near future of such a troubled century.
As an example of an innovative approach, take the “bottom-of-the-pyramid” strategy that in the last two decades has been widely used by companies in the fast-moving consumer goods sector. This has led to variable results in low-medium income countries (LMICs). There are various factors behind the success and failure of such initiatives, but I have been excited and fascinated by this approach while working in the smallholder livestock sector in South Asia and Africa.
Let me tell you more about my experience in the livestock sector. During the last 10 years, I experienced the huge contrast between the assessments by big established companies and by the newer players in the field, the more entrepreneurial organisations. The former ones seemed to look at the results/numbers as preference to other revenue streams while the latter relied on agility and on aggressive approaches of getting market share. Lack of proper monitoring and evaluation led to biased approaches or misdirected interpretations. In the end, I found the vision of the “creation of economic and social development from below” by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus very convincing, especially in LMIC, and with a potential for “social businesses”.
Photo by Rahul
Motivated by the success of Social Business in microfinance in Bangladesh, I am still trying to bring innovative solutions in the livestock sector, positively contributing to the livelihoods of millions of poor and landless families, building household economies in resource-constrained geographies, and providing essential nutrition to vulnerable communities. I believe the livestock sector has a potential to significantly contribute to achieving minimum eight Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 1,2,3, 5, 8, 12, 13 and 15).
Rapidly changing technologies, especially in information technology and digital financial services, are removing the operational hurdles of the past. I firmly believe that local problems of society can be efficiently solved by the members of the society themselves. So the “social business” will continue and expand, in all sectors. Social entrepreneurship has that catalytic element to bring desired change.
Right now, I am working on these issues with like-minded professionals and organizations and willing to link to more collaborators to mutually learn about the complexities and to design new solutions. But this is for a future interview!
PMDG: You recently reported about the efforts in the veterinary sector to share various Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). For those new to project management, which are the challenges with PPPs?
Rahul: The PPP approach, as a long term arrangement between two or more public and private sectors, is not new. Governments have used such a mixture of public and private endeavours throughout history. The UK was one of the pioneers of PPPs in the early 1990s and used it in various sectors. In India, the first signed and implemented PPPs were in the first half of the 2000s.
In my opinion, this public-private arrangement is likely to continue to exist in all sectors and those new to the PM profession should familiarise themselves with the format and requirements for their sectors. Many may have read that there might be criticism on various aspects of PPPs, but for the livestock sector there is a dedicated handbook from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
In general terms, I believe that attention must be placed in the preparation of the business case. There is a common goal for the PPP, so in terms of understanding and application of skills, much depends on which side the PM professional represents, the private or the public side. For both sides, there are general requirements, such as clarity in the collective plans, resource commitment, activities, timebound deliverables, expected return and benefits, evaluation and stakeholder impact assessment. There are “hard” skills required with the construction of the case and with the assembling of the document.
There are also “soft” skills required as well, such as negotiation, ability to work in highly polarised contexts and the need to understand the boundaries of policies and way of working as both the public and private counterparts will have their frames of reference.
PMDG: We are at a crossing of generations, with Millennials entering now the world of project management. You have worked on a number of initiatives for the promotion of youth inclusion in the livestock sector and youth entrepreneurship. Is the new generation better placed for the project management of the future?
Rahul: As a Project Manager, I often felt the struggle in situations where difficult data-driven decisions had to be balanced with a holistic view and with the aspiration for the “Big Change”, all of them in complex environments with sometimes very limited or unreliable data. Therefore, I feel project managers have to be equipped with behavioural economics tools to understand complex datasets and be able to identify and clearly present the trends emerging from the data.
It is important to provide means for the wider audience to understand the context, always in consideration of a natural resistance to change, in addition to cultural and geographical challenges. Challenges are unique in LMICs – allow me to give emphasis to this aspect…- and there is a very specific need for a proper and real grassroot understanding in delivering projects. Therefore, in my opinion any project or programme manager working in LMICs needs to understand the unique complexity of the environment and relationships, maintain a holistic view, but understand interlinkages of variable data and interest streams. It is challenging…
Would the new generation be better placed? Just before the pandemic, I started discussion on possible ways of social entrepreneurship in the livestock sector on poverty, hunger, health, gender, decent and economic growth, responsible production, climate change, and overall life on land with a young audience and emerging entrepreneurs at the Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai. I felt very encouraged by the response and feedback. I have seen in this example (compounded also with previous experience in the workplace and in the field) that the new generation is bringing innovative ways in data collection and analysis, technology-driven interventions and out-of-the-box thinking.
Photo by Rahul
I personally experienced that sometimes the new generation is placing excessive reliance on the technologies which made them miss the understanding of critical “social fabric” and its importance (and complexity!). They often believe that their “smarter” approach to the data and the processes always brings results, benefits and success. They can be very impacted by the failure. We know that failure is inevitable in project management. Therefore, I believe that a blend of new and old generation representation in a project team is key for success in project management, with an optimal ratio dependent on specific project requirements.
Would old and new generations work well together? It is the responsibility of senior team members to give project managers of the new generation ample opportunities to explore innovation. A suggestive and collaborative approach is best suited for the Millenials, rather than prescriptive directions. I feel that the audacity and the energy of youth are a necessary antidote against the frequent overly cautious attitude of the more “veterans”! –
Thanks to Rahul. I hope that this post was of interest. I leave you here with a final message from Rahul:
“While dealing with complex problems of the 21st century, please don’t generalize the solutions. In the growing connected world, differences are overlooked. Be different!”
Rahul Srivastava
If you would like to contact Rahul directly, you can reach him at:
In the new series “Life as a Project Manager” I have project managers coming from different sectors and walks of life to talk about their job and how they live the profession, as Project Managers.
The intention is to provide a real, personal accounts of a very challenging profession, with examples, experiences and references that can help others.
If you are a PM professional with something interesting or relevant that you are willing to share as part of this new series, why don’t you get in touch via the Contact page on the blog? Thanks!
Marco Bottacini, Senior Portfolio Manager at GALVmed
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinion of GALVmed.
The concept of “psychological safety” has become an important subject in the assessment of organisational & team performance. This is a concept that was well illustrated in the book “Cognitive Readiness in Project Teams” that I mentioned in one of my previous posts on the blog.
Some recent articles that I read made me reflect on those social drivers of human behaviour that are at the core of the psychological safety model. A summary of my thoughts and learning is now available on the blog (link).
Psychological safety is intended as “a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking.” In a psychologically safe climate, members are not afraid to express themselves. They feel accepted and respected, resulting in more creative thinking, innovation and growth. In the project teams this is expected to lead to more collaborative relationships and an overall improvement in team productivity. It can also help support resilience and well-being.
Psychological safety has become recently a hot topic in the business press in relation to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic to the dynamics in project teams with the restrictions of movement and the forced changes to the work arrangements. There has already been a focus on other potential disruptive forces to the project management profession, like the advent of artificial intelligence, the generational change or the hyper-complexity of our society. The pandemic has certainly heightened the attention on the subject of the “safety” and “readiness” of teams.
I hope that the article can be a good introduction to the subject. I will be happy to receive comments and constructive feedback.
Marco Bottacini, Senior Portfolio Manager at GALVmed
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinion of GALVmed.
In the “Three Burning Questions”
series we talk to experts, practitioners and professionals from sectors and
disciplines that have a relevancy to the project management profession. We ask them three “burning” questions related
to their area of expertise and competence.
In the ninth interview of the series we have been talking about neuroscience, as a new way of thinking about projects and their management, with Carole Osterweil, founder of Visible Dynamics, UK.
Carole is a consultant, speaker and educator. She is the founder of Visible Dynamics, a consultancy set up to bring expertise from the emerging discipline of neuroscience to the world of complex change and transformation. She is an executive coach at Ashridge Executive Education, part of Hult International Business School. In 2016 she became one of a select group of Project Academy coaches working with Cranfield University and PA Consulting to increase the UK Government’s transformation and project leadership capability.
PMDG: “Carole, first of all, thanks for talking to us today. I read with interest your book, “Project Delivery, Uncertainty and Neuroscience”. In your book you propose to bring neuroscience into the discussion with the project delivery in uncertain and complex environments………
PMDG: Could you briefly explain how neuroscience fits in with project delivery?
Carole: Project delivery involves people, and in every project, we experience the diversity of people’s reactions and behaviours. Neuroscience gives us a new way for understanding how people behave and helps us in making sense of those behaviours. Let me contextualise this.
We are used to the idea of the brain’s “fight / flight / freeze” response in the face of physical threat. We are far less familiar with the idea that our brain responds in exactly the same way to social threat. These are five basics we should know about the brain:
The brain is hardwired for survival.
The human brain responds to social threat in the same way as it does to physical threat – it tries to avoid it.
In judging whether a situation is threatening, the brain trusts past experience above all else.
In response to social threat the brain generates avoidance emotions (e.g. fear, anxiety, anger and shame). These avoidance emotions prime us to avoid the threat – through avoidance behaviours. We might get defensive, go onto the attack or withdraw.
In contrast, when the brain assesses the situation as ‘safe’ it will generate approach emotions including trust, excitement, joy and love. These emotions are a pre-requisite for successful project delivery. They enable approach behaviours such as collaboration, creative problem solving and rational decision making.
You don’t need me to tell you, it is impossible to deliver a successful project without high levels of collaboration and creativity. Understanding how the human brain works gets us beyond describing the people stuff as ‘soft’ and ‘fluffy’. It provides the missing ‘building blocks’ and gives even the most process-driven project managers insights into why people behave as they do. It has profound implications for everyone involved in projects.
PMDG: The fact that complexity and uncertainty raise the individual stress level sounds logical. Stress management often is aimed at an individual level….
PMDG: What is the manifestation of stress at a project team level and how can this be managed?
Carole: We have to be mindful and manage the level of stress which project teams are exposed to. A certain level of stress will improve performance, but too much stress will be very damaging and very ‘toxic’.
In my book I mention the notion of “psychological safety” – something that all project leaders should seek to establish in their teams. It is a term that comes from research by Professor Amy Edmondson. It exists when people are confident that they will not be embarrassed, punished or rejected for speaking up. They believe it is safe to speak the truth as they see it – even if their view is an outlier.
When we are stressed, under pressure to deliver or uncertain of the way forward, there is lots going on under the surface of our interactions. These invisible dynamics create an environment which can be psychologically unsafe or threatening. Team members don’t speak out because they don’t know how others will react and things like ‘groupthink’ prevail.
We need to consciously work against this and foster an environment that enables all team members to feel at ease rather than threatened. Doing so will ultimately allow all team members to better contextualise and understand uncertainty and change. It will bring tangible benefits to the project dynamics and delivery.
One example is Google’s Project Aristotle. Aristotle explored what makes the most effective Google teams so effective. It identified five key factors. Of these, psychological safety stood well above four others that are more familiar – dependability, structure & clarity, meaning of work, impact of work.
PMDG: What do you think will be the next ‘new thing’ in the expansion of neuroscience in project management?
Carole: Learning to admit that working on a project is often like ‘walking in fog’! You might laugh, but I’m making a serious point. Changing our language will introduce a new paradigm.
It is important we become more comfortable with talking about uncertainty – because uncertainty is a key driver of social threat. When it is unsafe to talk about uncertainty, it evokes an avoidance response. We see the avoidance response when team members get defensive, go onto the attack or withdraw. We see it in our stakeholders. They are human too!
Being honest, acknowledging reality and learning to say “this part of the project is ‘foggy’, but we are doing all we can to make it less so…” will create space. It will increase your confidence and stakeholder confidence.
And it will help foster the psychological safety that needs to be on every project leader’s agenda”. _
I thank Carole for her interesting insight and let me report one of my favourite quotes from Carole:
“Being a leader can be hugely challenging. At times we feel as if we are walking in fog and we dare not tell anyone. Instead we keep it secret and remain isolated as we wonder silently if other leaders ever feel like this.”
In the “Three Burning Questions”
series we talk to experts, practitioners and professionals from sectors and
disciplines that have a relevancy to the project management profession. We ask them three “burning” questions related
to their area of expertise and competence.
In the eighth interview of the series we have been talking about complexity, its management and the relevance to project management with Greg Lawton, co-founder of Nodes & Links, London UK.
Greg is an astrophysicist who spent his early career in BAE Systems (UK). He managed large defense programmes (£100M+), advised the Board of Directors on International Strategy, and owned key relationships with the UK Government and MoD. He co-founded and runs ‘Nodes & Links’, the world leader in applying complexity research to complex project delivery. Amongst various business achievements, the Nodes & Links’s modelling of COVID-19 impact on project delivery has recently featured in a key All-Party Parliamentary Group report, shared with No. 10, and led ‘Nodes & Links’ to be mentioned by the Financial Times Live (FT Live) and Business Insider, alongside Google, Facebook and SAP.
PMDG: “Greg, thanks for talking to us today. You quoted ‘complexity’ as being a critical, new area to consider in project management. I would like to start with some basics, related to your experience, research and field of interest.
In one of your articles you have defined ‘complexity’ as “the propensity for emergent phenomena to arise due to the interconnected nature of a system” ….
PMDG: Can you elaborate on the definition of ‘complexity’ and its manifestation?
Greg: There is no fixed, dictionary definition of complexity. All definitions (including the one above) center around the concept of ‘emergence’ of new effects as a result of the interconnectivity of the elements and agents in a system as a ‘network’. This interconnectivity will ultimately drive the behaviour of the system.
We can use the example of the current tragic COVID-19 crisis. Let’s consider an individual affected by the virus and consider the individual in isolation from society. The survival of the individual will depend on many factors, but the society would not be directly affected by the situation. But, if we consider the individual in connection with the wider society (family, health system, profession etc), we can see that the infection and the likelihood of individual’s survival would have a material effect on the society. The emergence of features because of interactions is one of the key characteristics of a complex system and it can be observed in many interconnected systems. The modern world contains many of these systems, from the global economy to power and communication grids, and from ecosystems to complex infrastructure projects
PMDG: How can ‘complexity’ be tamed?
Greg: First, complete control of a complex network can never be achieved. The key objective in managing output is managing ‘emergence’ to be in our favour. This requires a change in the mindset and to move away from the traditional thought that the ‘control’ of the system (or a project) can be as a deterministic and direct action.
To influence emergence we must first set the scene so that the “good/positive” outcomes are encouraged. Secondly, scenario testing is required, to reduce variance with the outcome, but, above all, to avoid the more catastrophic outcomes. In the financial sector, for example, scenario testing is a routine practice.
As an example, again related to COVID-19, let’s take the control measures to avoid the infection spread. All countries have tried to avoid the catastrophic spread of the disease (and the overwhelm of the health systems). Interventions were put in place gradually. Various approached were used, adapted to the different environments, culture and local circumstances. The avoidance of any physical interaction between people would be a simple solution to stop the spreading, but this would be impossible. The challenge is in changing human behaviour, discouraging the social interaction, which drive the ‘complex’ system towards the intended result (reduction of the spread). When required, more extreme measures had to be put in place to control “bad” behaviours (see, for examples, penalties applied to those not respecting the movement restrictions).
PMDG: What is the change needed in the project management paradigm to enable the management of ‘complexity’?
Greg: Above all, we must appreciate that single predictions of system-wide performance, such as fixed costs or end-dates for complex projects, are misrepresentations of reality. Models that assume linear effects, such as the ‘Critical Path’ method (and derivative methods like PERT), when applied to complex networks/projects, provide incomplete representations of reality. In large, interconnected and highly dynamic networks (where emergent properties significantly influence performance), the models that assume linear effects do not produce accurate results.
This fact has significant implications for fields such as estimating and risk management. It should direct our efforts (and those of the Project Managers) regarding which solutions offer the greatest opportunity for improvement. There is a fundamental shift from concentrating on probability to focusing on impact.
In summary, Project Managers should see their projects as ‘networks’. There should be a greater appreciation of the principle of ‘emergence’ which dictates the performance of the network and limits their ability to understand and control it. A graphical representation of the network that captures components and interactions (as ‘nodes and links’) will help in understanding the nature of the network: the more interconnected, varied and dynamic a network is, the greater the effect of complexity (and the greater the opportunity for improvement!). To control the evolution and/or behaviour of a network, actions and interventions should be directed at individual nodes and links.
And finally, it is important to remember that complete control of a complex network can never be achieved because its behaviour cannot be absolutely predicted.”
We thank Greg and we leave here with one of his favourite words: ‘serendipity‘.
In the “Three Burning Questions”
series we talk to experts, practitioners and professionals from sectors and
disciplines that have a relevancy to the project management profession. We ask them three “burning” questions related
to their area of expertise and competence.
In the seventh interview of the series we have been talking about ‘Millenials’ and critical project management skills for complex projects with Rick Manlove, Director of Commercial Development, GALVmed.
Rick has over forty years of experience in the life sciences sector, of which twenty years in Animal Health. He has led global and national business units in blue-chip companies with portfolios including both pharmaceutical products and vaccines. He has lived in the UK, USA and France and his international roles encompassed both developed and developing markets around the world. At the date of this interview, Rick’s role in GALVmed was to lead the Commercial Development team and its activities, which included project management with partners and strategy development.
We have started asking …
“Rick, thanks for talking to us today. All project management accreditation standards advocate for a highly structured project documentation and for rigorous regime for project management activities. You have led many projects to success. Many of these projects were taking place in highly complex environments, in changeable and challenging international settings, in conditions that are not easy to control…
PMDG: In your view, what skills or competencies do you see critical for a project manager in order to be able to manage and control projects that develop in difficult conditions and circumstances?
Rick: I got my training in project management, and had my initial experience with management of projects, back in the Nineties. The training I went through gave me a solid ground on the fundamental principles in project design, project control, teamwork and stakeholder engagements – the “mechanics” of project management, I would say. Those projects were quite structured and formalised, on an international basis and extensively cross-functional, but very much internal to the organisation. A key skill I saw, as critical for me, for the success in my projects, was the ability to see the project broadly, having a view open to other disciplines, receptive to inputs from other fields and expertise.
With our current projects in GALVmed the challenge is with the extensive network of partnerships external to the organisation. Often these agents and stakeholders have views, interests and agendas which may not be fully aligned with GALVmed and which are sometimes conflicting. These contributors and agents are often challenging to engage with, to influence and to align towards the project objectives.
Our projects fit very well the definition of being “complex”, while in the past probably they were just “complicated”. There is certainly an increasing degree of political, financial, environmental & societal uncertainty and unpredictability – as you pointed out in your introduction to the question – that enlarges and deepens the complexity. Projects managers need more than project “mechanics” – they need systems thinking capability as well as excellent people & influencing skills.
PMDG: I read that “..by 2020, ‘millennials’ (i.e. those born after 1983) will make up half the global labour force, and by 2030, they’ll account for 75%. Aversion by ‘Millennials’ to hidden agendas, rigid corporate structures and information silos, coupled with a willingness to explore new opportunities, will fundamentally change the nature of work …”.
PMDG: Do you see the new generation well prepared to be managing projects in these challenging & changeable conditions
Rick: Complex projects require new approaches. I think that system thinking theories are becoming more accessible for tackling multi-agents, interdisciplinary situations, offering a new way to view the project dynamics. A more holistic view (a less “mechanical” one…) might help understand and manage social patterns and behaviours of teams and other project stakeholders. The new generation have flexible and agile minds and are probably better equipped with technology, and social media skills, which will help them in project management. But I strongly believe in the need for “Millennial” project managers to be receptive to the thinking tools I mentioned above, while certainly continuing to be agile and creative in their thinking and, as said earlier, work on their influencing skills.
Of course, project managers will have to continue to manage information well, responding in the interest of good decision-making and governance to key project participants and stakeholders’ requests for information. Reviews and performance reports will always be requested, and the new generation needs to be prepared for those demands as well, with rigour in the metrics provided and timekeeping with report deadlines…
PMDG: What would it be an influential book that should be on a project manager reading list?
Rick: One of my favourite recent reads is Nassim Taleb’s “Skin in the Game“. It is not about project management specifically, but its core message – beware of advice and inputs from anyone who has no downside risk in the situation – is a great reality check for project managers. Do all the actors and stakeholders in your project have ‘skin in the game’?
We thank Rick and we leave here with one of his favourite quotes:
“Sometimes, when faced with a difficult problem and no apparent solution, we resort to hoping things will turn out OK, but remember – hope is not a strategy!”
I hope that this post will be of interest for our followers and we look forward to seeing you again soon.
Marco Bottacini, Senior Portfolio Manager at GALVmed
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinion of GALVmed.
Project Management Discussion Group 