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Why Eventuality Thinking is Essential for Your Career
Michael R. Wood is a Business Process Improvement & IT Strategist Independent Consultant. He is creator of the business process-improvement methodology called HELIX and founder of The Natural Intelligence Group, a strategy, process improvement and technology consulting company. He is also a CPA, has served as an Adjunct Professor in Pepperdine's Management MBA program, an Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and on the boards of numerous professional organizations. Mr. Wood is a sought after presenter of HELIX workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Europe.
Managing projects requires teams to deal with uncertainty almost every day. No matter how meticulously a plan is crafted, unforeseen challenges, shifts in resources, or changes in external conditions can disrupt even the most robust projects.
This reality underscores the importance of integrating eventuality thinking (ET) into both project planning and risk analysis processes. But what exactly is ET? How does it differ from traditional risk management approaches, such as probability-impact matrices, and why is it more effective in complex projects?
Understanding this distinction helps project managers leverage its full potential to improve resilience and decision-making-making eventuality thinking a vital element of advanced career planning. It is a skill set that differentiates average PMs from exceptional ones.
What Is Eventuality Thinking?
ET involves anticipating multiple possible future scenarios, not just the most likely ones, and preparing for them proactively by identifying indicators, embedding those indicators into the project plan along with action plans to follow should a scenario begin to occur.
Imagine if nobody built disaster recovery plans or early tsunami warning systems. Sure, they are rare in probability, yet their impact is severe, and their likelihood is almost inevitable. ET is about embracing uncertainty with openness rather than fear, …
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"It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem. For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much -- the wheel, New York, wars and so on -- whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man -- for precisely the same reasons." - Douglas Adams |