The Road Best Taken

Mark Mullaly - January 26, 2006

Mark Mullaly is president of Interthink Consulting Incorporated, an organizational development and change firm specializing in the creation of effective organizational project management solutions. Since 1990, it has worked with companies throughout North America to develop, enhance and implement effective project management tools, processes, structures and capabilities. Mark was most recently co-lead investigator of the Value of Project Management research project sponsored by PMI. You can read more of his writing at markmullaly.com.

An eight-year benchmarking effort identifies four enterprise-wide practices that have the greatest influence on project management maturity and results. By making improvements in these specific areas, organizations can use them as levers for significant change.

This article completes a series that explores how increased maturity can influence better project results. The series is based upon results from the Organizational Project Management Baseline Study, a worldwide benchmarking effort to understand current capabilities, trends and best practices in the realm of organizational project management.

The best way to move a boulder isn’t to push, pull or carry it. It is far better to let the boulder itself do much of the work. Hence the principle of levers – if you have a big enough stick, you can move the largest and heaviest of boulders. The same holds true for organizations – if you have a big enough stick, you can support the most significant of changes. The key to movement, however, is not simple possession of the stick — it is knowing where to put the fulcrum in order to have the greatest leverage with the smallest effort.

Without that fulcrum — and without the right fulcrum — we are powerless to change anything. We may have the desire and the will to change, but without knowing the actions that we can take …

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The Road Best Taken

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