Since 2006, I have been giving project management courses as part of a master degree in "Management by Project" for three associated French engineering schools, in Lyon, Rouen and Aix-in-Provence. This master program is being extended to two new schools next fall, Nancy and Toulouse and in 2010 to Paris and Nantes. I might end up passing more time there than in Canada to coach and teach project management.

The French, as a whole, are a very creative people when it comes to many project-related endeavours, particularly in the field of international construction projects. They are engineering geniuses and fantastic bridge builders, both in France, for example the Millau Bridge (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/03/europe_the_millau_bridge/html/1.stm) and the Normandy Bridge (http://en.structurae.de/structures/data/index.cfm?id=s0000048), as well as outside their country, for example the Rio-Antirrio Bridge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio-Antirio_bridge) . So why this sudden fascination with project management, a domain that they apparently seem to control?

The recent rising of project management as a preferred mode of action is in line with the economic and social pressures of our current times, the Project Age: an era characterized by an ever changing business environment, high uncertainty and globalized human activities. It is also viewed by many as a major solution to deal with and adapt to the present world economic unrest.

But the type of project management we are talking about here, and which is required to deal with the current times, is a new type of management that has nothing to do with the project management paradigm of large construction projects. A major construction project is basically one that is highly hierarchically structured and uses dedicated full-time resources, something that works just like a well oiled traditional Taylorian organization. No wonder the French are good at realizing those large projects, since strong hierarchy and the cult of the "chef" (commanders-in-chief in an organization, be it the CEO or a service director) is an integral part of the French culture, an attribute that is almost impossible to change, even in very severe conditions that might call for a different way of organizing things.

The new project management is mostly a multi-project management paradigm, with ever changing targets, met through very few resources working part-time on a multiple projects, in an environment of unclear strategic priorities. In such conditions, a simple employee can basically end up deciding the strategic fate of a project by agreeing or not to work on it. So this type of project management goes really against the grain of the French culture; it will take very serious economic mayhem for it to be accepted as a way of doing business.

When I go to France to give these courses, I realize how hard it will be for those young graduates to get this new project management paradigm to work in their organizations, if anyone wants to take the chance of giving a job to those counter-culture prophets. I believe this is an extreme case of what is happening in our own Taylorian-inspired (not to say Orwellian) institutions, here in North America or, basically, everywhere else in the world. Project management today is not what it was when the first men landed on the moon or when the first PMBoK was written. It is more complex and calls for more collaborative, agile approaches to get highly-diversified project stakeholders to end up really sharing the same interests and working as a team. A friend of mine, an international expert in business governance, was telling me recently that managing a business endeavour, with the help of highly diversified, multiple-interests teams of uniquely knowledgeable, non-interchangeable people, is not anymore a matter of planning, commanding and controlling .... but rather a matter of being able to ask for help using the word "please" and to never, ever forget to say "thank you" with genuine humility. He says that power based on hierarchy and authority just does not work anymore in the business place.

So, I believe, based on what I am seeing in many organizations, that getting the new project management to work is not only a major cultural challenge for the French. It is a cultural challenge for a majority of organizations all over the world. And it represents a major paradigm shift for many project managers and their professional associations.

Comments (6)

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written by ddonovan, April 08, 2009

I would have thought that the French would have been heavily into Prince2.
I am now explaining PM principles to teachers at a private school so that the advance placement students graduate high school with some notion that there is a process for projects. It will be up to them to learn more during their time at university.
Debra Donovan, PMP

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written by fsmith1, April 08, 2009

Saying "please" and "thank you", in a meaningful way!?? What a comment on how far we have come (or regressed??) in the nature of human relations.

I, at 62, learned as a boy to always "respect" others with please and thank you...even saying to my wife when she does even the smallest of things for me or I for her. My children learned it and my grand children learned it. It really is as simple as "how would you like to be treated"?? What an interesting concept to "discover"...again. Respect for people ALWAYS pays off in the end.

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written by claudeemond, April 09, 2009

For Debra

The French as a whole are very far from Prince 2, except the rare organizations initiated to project management. Also Prince 2 is a British thing....so, considering history between these two countries.... :))

For fsmith1

I agree 100% with what you say. Unfortunately, a lot of people forget about Herzberg and how easy it is to motivate people by being respectful and by recognizing what they do. Like you, I am flabergasted at how «not very far» we have come. managementwise.

I do a lot of organizational diagnoses on contracts involving putting together better project management processes, and each time, I find that people crave for recognition and are not given it. So sad ! Those simple things that you and I find so natural to do, these things just seem to be revolutionary when I talk about that. Still a long way to go before many understand that good processes cannot exist with unhappy people. Thanks a lot for your comment.

Claude

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written by RDominique, April 09, 2009

Claude
I agree with you, their overall organisation; public or private sector, are very structural and formalise. So is their social life.
For their construction, I guess they learn from the Panama Canal
See you around
A former student of yours
Robert D

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written by joanne, April 10, 2009

always nice ro read you Claude;
hâte de t'endendre à Montréal

joanne

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written by jboullot, December 02, 2009

Claude,
The French educational system still considers, from the start, science as premium, with Descartes' teachings (and other French Lumières philosophers) well positioned. The fact is that you actually teach in French engineering schools, which amounts to the best France has to offer for an education. So your students have been bathing for years in analytics and cartesianism, and have been the best in these domains, as our selection is made. This might add a bias to what you see when you teach.
But indeed, you can just consider that we have been taught to be on the left-hand side of the comparative table that you can find here : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_agile.

Hence, predictability is what the French are confortable with. And indeed, when it comes to building bridges or planes, calculations are as important as the business analysis. The strength of the winds won't evolve much during the project duration, and even the target weight of wiring in next-generation planes can be estimated and anticipated.

Now when it comes to making money in other sectors, business is evolving faster, web2.0 and worldwide exchanges have added more input and at faster pace that a heavy project organisation can cope with.
Hence a touch of agility is being added here and there, agility can only be included... provided it is analyzed, modelized, and digested... the French way, you know.

However, the French are not so late as they seem. They are known to be arrogant : that's true, but when it comes to dealing with highly diversified, multiple-interests teams of uniquely knowledgeable, non-interchangeable people, it becomes a strength. Because each French person considers he is unique, we have been accustomed to spend long spans of time to say hello and thank you during our 2-hour lunch-breaks and other "pause-café" :-)

Jérôme Boullot, French project manager & business analyst.

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