Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
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Collaboration over Command and Control
Mike Griffiths is an experienced project manager, author and consultant who works for PMI as a subject matter expert. Before joining PMI, Mike consulted and managed innovation and technology projects throughout Europe, North and South America for 30+ years. He was co-lead for the PMBOK Guide—Seventh Edition, lead for the Agile Practice Guide, and contributor to the PMI-ACP and PMP exam content outlines. Outside of PMI, Mike maintains the websites www.LeadingAnswers.com about leading teams and www.PMillustrated.com, which teaches project management for visual learners.
Command-and-control management is not appropriate for workers who need to communicate, collaborate and solve problems. These knowledge workers need work environments where experimentation is rewarded, people are encouraged to pursue their interests and shared leadership is the preferred model.
Command-and-control organizations are in fact toxic to knowledge workers. They stifle creativity and problem solving by eliminating effective ways for people to communicate improvements back up the chain of command. They demotivate workers with the frustrations of bureaucracy and compliance to standards that divert effort from the true goals. These conditions are harmful to creative teams, and people will either leave or have the passion and creativity squashed out of them until they become unproductive drones who rarely create exceptional value.
For organizations to compete globally and be successful over the long term, they need to better protect their worker assets. Operating with toxic command-and-control work environments creates a noxious environment that no one else wants to be in.
It does not have to be this way; increasingly, organizations are realizing that far more can be achieved from their existing workers by effectively tapping into their wisdom and unleashing creativity and a commitment to results that was always there. To do this, however, …
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