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The Lazy Project Manager
Peter Taylor is the author of best-selling books on Productive Laziness, The Lazy Winner and The Lazy Project Manager and is a professional speaker. He is also the head of a global PMO for a billion-dollar software business.
Is there such a thing as productive laziness? Yes, according to a PMO director and author of a new book on the subject. Here, the Pareto principle and the Prussian Army are part of his explanation.
“Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.” — Robert Heinlein
In making the case for the “lazy” project manager, I do not intend that we should do absolutely nothing. I am not saying we should all sit around drinking coffee, engaging in idle gossip as the hours go by and the non-delivered project milestones disappear over the horizon. No, that would be stupid and result in an extremely short career in project management.
But we should focus our project management efforts where it really matters, rather than rushing around like busy, busy bees involving ourselves in unimportant, non-critical activities that others can better address, or, indeed, that do not need addressing at all.
The Pareto principle (also known as the 80/20 rule) states that for many phenomena 80 percent of the results or consequences stem from 20 percent of the causes. The principle can and should be used by project managers. In other words, they should be “lazy” in a calculated way.
Productive laziness requires intelligence. In fact, smart, …
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