Get Out Of Line

  Communications Management   ProjectsAtWork  

In spite of the different ways we can achieve a goal and manage a project, we are often asked to imitate, rather than innovate. Call it linear, competitive or hierarchical thinking, but by any name it’s probably not the best approach for managing projects — or living our lives. Collaborative or team thinking seeks to connect rather than separate the many working parts of a project.

For the last few thousand years, we have learned to think through a linear thinking model. We have competed with each other, first for food or mates, then for the corner office and the coolest car. We compete over who has the greenest lawns and smartest children, and we have learned to decide who’s important, or who’s not, by who’s on top and who’s on the bottom of the corporate ladder. This has defined how we relate to each other, how we conduct business, and how we set our goals.

This form of thinking goes by a number of different names — “linear thinking” since it’s defined by a line that ranks and divides; “hierarchical thinking” as it’s defined by who’s on the top of the hierarchy and who’s at the bottom; “competitive thinking” since it demands that we compete with each other, or sometimes “patriarchal thinking” since the male patriarch got the respect and was considered the head honcho…

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