I try to focus. I really do.

I just want to cover Project Management. I should have become an expert on "Gantt Chart Coloring Schemes". Writing "100 Places You Can Stick Your Procedure" or "Six Golden Rules To Avoid Work" (I actually did write that one).

Instead I am searching for a "proper whole for PM. I am looking for a true Project Management Body Of Knowledge, one that is based on psychology, sociology, organizational behavior, complex adaptive systems …" Ladidadida.

Good thinking, Bubba.

Photography by MikeOcampo.
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Wouldn't it be great if software projects are done cheaper?

Products and services could be cheaper.

Through some amazing coincidence companies want the same thing. And the current economic climate has made them more eager to do so.

For software projects, it's easy and obvious on how to become cheaper more cost efficient:

• Reduce labor cost (do I hear "offshoring"?)
• Reduce overhead (do I hear "agile approaches"?)
• Reduce commute time and office spaces (let me hear "virtual teams"!)

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"I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center." -Kurt Vonnegut

Projects are about humans. I know; it says so on my blog. Projects are people working together.

Problems in projects are people problems. I know; research says so. And my blog.

Currently projects operate in complex, mobile, global, on-demand, around the clock, instant and diverse environment. I know you know.

THE question is how we can mold Project Managers in such a way that they can operate within this context? It sounds to me that we should focus on people, people working together, complexity and globalization. And of course another zillion aspects.
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In his book "Blink" Malcolm Gladwell popularized the term "thin-slicing".

"… our ability to gauge what is really important from a very narrow period of experience. In other words, spontaneous decisions are often as good as—or even better than—carefully planned and considered ones." (Wikipedia)

This "thin slice of reality" is a pattern of all things happening in your surroundings. You take the slice and compare it with patterns stored in your mind. When you find a matching pattern, you have made up your mind about a particular situation. This is an unconscious process.

I don't want to suggest that Project Managers should stop thinking. But I do think that if we want to train the mind of Project Managers and bring it more in line with Three Sphere Project Management, improving spontaneous decisions is a good target.

If you want to improve the accuracy of your thin-slicing abilities you need to

1. Increase the amount and quality of patterns in your mental database, and
2. Increase your ability to search and switch through this mental database.

In other words, 1) you need to know different views of the project world (e.g. metaphors) and 2) you need to have a flexible mind to search through your set of patterns.

Yes, dear loyal reader, two recurring themes on this site.

Oh, the point of this post?

In my previous entry I ended with the question: "How to hack the brain of a Project Manager?'

The short answer: train in different mental models and train mental flexibility.

The long answer: The Four Dharmas Of Project Management… (now this is what I call a cliffhanger to a next post :))

This is not for you, but for those other PMs. Of course.

ARE YOU ALL OUT OF YOUR MIND?

YOU ALL AGREE THAT "PEOPLE PROBLEMS" ARE OUR BIGGEST ISSUES AND THEN YOU START FUMBLING WITH THE ITEMS YOU FIND IN YOUR BIG SHINY PROJECT MANAGEMENT BOX.

ARE YOU NUTS?

I know that if you only have the left side of a brain, the only job you can perform is Project Management. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t even try to use the rest of your brain.

Left side: Logical, Sequential, Rational, Analytical, Objective, Looks at parts (source)

Makes you proud to have a hyper developed left part, not?

In an earlier post this year, Richard Bernheim reflected on the issues that a PM has to deal with:

"Ernst & Young and numerous others state that there are three categories of Project Management issues:

• People-related issues which on average represent 80%
• Process-related issues which on average represent 10%
• Technology-related issues which on average represent 10%"

Mix that with increasing complexity, uncertainty, mobility, flexibility and diversity of our projects and surroundings, and your left brain will come up short … BIG TIME!

80% of our issues are in an area where our left brain sucks!

We need to invoke all three parts of the brain: left side, right side and heart!

Right side: Random, Intuitive, Holistic, Synthesizing, Subjective, Looks at wholes
Heart: Passion, Emotion, Inspiration, Feeling

For this you are going to need major brain surgery!

Hack The Man. (or woman, although their internal wiring is better suited for 3 Sphere Project Management).

This is not about expanding the PM discipline, this is about enhancing PM people.

Seek to understand.

How to hack the brain of a Project Manager? It took me a while to figure it out, but the answer is coming soon.