Lead With Purpose, Not Process

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.

  Leadership  

I’m going to start with a statement that may be difficult to hear. It might, in fact, shake you to your very core. It is nonetheless true. It is incredibly important. I need you to hear it, to remember it, and to take it into the center of your practice. It will not just make you a better project manager; it will make you an amazing project manager.

That statement of truth is this:

Not everyone likes process as much as you do. In fact, most people might go so far as to say they hate process.

Read that. Say it out loud. Listen to how it sounds. Sit with it for a while. Let it take hold and find a place in you. Let it grow and flourish. Remind yourself of it regularly. As you do, you will start to reflect on what it means. You will challenge yourself as to how it affects your work. You might find yourself changing your approach, and your interactions with those around you. That is all to the good.

Project managers, in my experience, adore process. They value structure. They dream in workflow diagrams and process charts and breakdown structures. They value the order and consistency and control—above all, the control—that process offers.

That’s all well and good. Process is useful. Frameworks are worthwhile. Models serve purpose. Having a structure to think and plan and organize is incredibly useful. Your mind can, and probably should, be …

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