PM for the Changemakers
For changemakers to succeed, project managers and key stakeholders must recognize the need to go beyond the nuts and bolts of project management to address the need for strategic thinking, adaptability, and resilience to manage in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment. That is the message of PMI 4.0. “a growth strategy to address the PM needs of changemakers.”[1]
Changemakers
Changemakers proactively drive change and transformational efforts. The clever ones have for decades used project management concepts and methods to manage the projects and programs that make change happen. Change leaders – entrepreneurs, product and process innovators, and social change agents – have employed project managers.
Those who have not recognized the need for effective project management have floundered.
Going Beyond the Basics
Two PM experts said in a recent article that we have “entered a time when requirements-based schedules and estimates are no longer sufficient because the nature of projects has shifted to innovative projects.”[2]
We entered that time many years ago. We have been performing innovative and disruptive projects all along. Projects are and have always been the vehicles for innovation and organizational change.
The need for adaptability and agility has been recognized for years by the PM establishment after decades of practical experience in the field. The need for strategic management to align project work with organizational goals and values has also long been recognized.
Project managers who adhered too strictly to the standard approaches have often failed. Changemakers who have yet to make project portfolio and program management a priority have wasted time and money.
PM as an Art
However, project and portfolio management is not a cure-all. We still see large numbers of projects led by professional project managers fail, often because professional PMs have not been cognitively ready and trained to apply the effective decision-making, adaptability, courage, and resilience needed to creatively manage volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) situations.
PM is more of an art than a science.
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VUCA is the Rule, Not the Exception
Formal PM training has focused on the performance of projects in which requirements are well-defined and conditions are under the control of the project team or PMO. As a project manager, PM consultant, and technology executive I have never experienced such projects.
Granted, my experience has been in the technology and organizational change realm, not in engineering and construction projects where more firm requirements are likely. But even in those fields, changing requirements and external conditions beyond the control of the project manager have been common.
There is nothing new about requirements being discovered as product and process design and implementation take place. To address this reality, the Agile Manifesto was produced in 2001 based on twenty-plus years of prior experience. Jim Highsmith, writing for the Agile Alliance, stated
“In order to succeed in the new economy, to move aggressively into the era of e-business, e-commerce, and the web, companies have to rid themselves of their Dilbert manifestations of make-work and arcane policies. This freedom from the inanities of corporate life attracts proponents of Agile Methodologies and scares the begeebers (you can’t use the word ‘s–t’ in a professional paper) out of traditionalists. Quite frankly, the Agile approaches scare corporate bureaucrats— at least those that are happy pushing process for process’ sake versus trying to do the best for the “customer” and deliver something timely and tangible and “as promised”—because they run out of places to hide.”
The Future is Now!
No longer can we strictly adhere to ridged methodologies and attempts at setting schedules and budgets in concrete before we have a sense of the true nature of each project.
But let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater. To be successful organizations must adopt the skillsets and methodologies that directly address VUCA while honoring the wisdom of traditional project management. We need realistic planning, control, and execution.
In addition to traditional PM skills, Drs Kerzner and Zeitoun identified the following skills required to manage projects “in the future” in their article “The Transforming Dynamics of Project Management’s Future“[3] –
“Brainstorming, creative problem-solving, Design Thinking, Idea Management, rapid prototype development, innovation leadership, strategic planning, managing diversity, co-creation team management, supply chain management, advanced risk management, and change management”
These are the same skills, under one label or another, that have been used to succeed in the past and present. The future is now and has been since the earliest days of project management.
The Foundation: Cognitive Readiness
The foundation for the effective application of these skills is cognitive readiness –
“The readiness of individuals and teams to apply their skills and to explore their faults and deficiencies and make the effort to overcome them. Cognitive readiness implies the courage and candor to objectively assess performance and improve it as needed. It implies resilience and the capacity to accept uncertainty and paradox. It is enabled by and enables a healthy perspective and the application of knowledge and experience.”[4]
Cognitive readiness, being ready for anything, is the single most important quality needed to address VUCA and the projects we perform in complex environments where change is the only thing we can rely on.
Four factors contribute to being ready for anything:
- Technical and interpersonal skills along with business acumen to enable decision-making during the initiating, planning, controlling, monitoring, and closing of projects
- A realistic view (systems and process thinking) of the way things are — Interacting systems and processes, the reality of not always getting what you want, and the inevitability of change — to have a solid foundation for planning and managing expectations and conflict
- Emotional and Social intelligence, based on mindful self-awareness to enable responsiveness, candid performance assessment, and effective relationships
- The courage and insight to confront and overcome barriers like bias, anger, fear, frustration, confusion, and clinging to untenable beliefs and impossible expectations.
Action
To succeed in ongoing innovation and change management relies on cultivating these factors.
To cultivate them, implement the training and ongoing learning management to integrate them into the fabric of the organization. Skills training falls short without the inclusion of the critical factors of systems and process thinking, mindfulness-based social and emotional intelligence, and the importance of the courage to speak truth to power.
If your organization is stuck in the past, unwilling, or unable to recognize the need to manage VUCA creatively, take it upon yourself to develop the skills and concepts you need to succeed.
For more on this topic see these other articles by George Pitagorsky:
Ready for Anything – Mindfully Aware https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/ready-for-anything-mindfully-aware/
VUCA, BANI, and Digital Transformation https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/vuca-bani-and-digital-transformation-managing-radical-change/
‘Delay Thinking’ is a Project Success Factor https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/delay-thinking-is-a-project-success-factor/
Decision Making – A Critical Success Factor https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/decision-making-a-critical-success-factor/
The Most Important Thing – Systems Thinking https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/the-most-important-thing-systems-thinking/