Innovating in the World of Project Management: The Impact of Quest Thinking

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.

  Estimating   Governance   Innovation   Strategy  

In a world where project management maturity is a generally accepted form of goodness I sometimes wonder--in the process of increased governance and prescribed and repeatable PM processes--if we have engineered away the potential for real innovation within the discipline.

Clear predictability of outcome is an important component of PM governance, at least in the majority of projects pursued today. But what about those mission-critical projects where the value to the enterprise is so great and the window of opportunity so small that traditional PM processes may hamper success? And while a strong framework might make average PMs better, could it be that those same frameworks make gifted PMs more average? Have we normalized performance to be more mediocre than outstanding? Is there room in the PM organization for innovative PMs? Is there room in our project portfolios for projects where the team, in addition to pursuing material value for the organization, is free to pursue out-of-the-box PM concepts and approaches?

From where I sit, I believe the answer to these questions is “no” in most organizations. I believe this to be the case for a couple of reasons.

1. The focus on completing projects on time and on budget often eclipses focusing on the value the project has the potential to deliver. For example, assume there are two identical projects in size …

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