Dumb Innovation

 

In my last blog I made the observation that those seeking to advance project management capability in the macro organization tend to fall in to one of two groups, whom I called the Processors and the Effectives. Processors, as one might guess, love the process of performing project management practices, and tend to define PM success as having a project team demonstrate compliance with procedures. Conversely, Effectives will define PM success as actually bringing their projects in on-time, on-budget, or even early and under-budget. I wrapped last week’s blog speculating that the Processors, by definition, had very little opportunity to bring innovative approaches to the table. That may have been a rash assertion.

If others on the project team aren’t “doing” project management, there are two broad categories from which the Processors can pull their tactics: if the Processor is of high rank, they can attempt to leverage their organizational power to compel compliance. However, if our Processor is of equal or lower status, they are reduced to whining and eat-your-peas-style hectoring to change the behavior of their associates. 

The first category, that of attempting to leverage organizational power to compel an advancement in project management capability, never works in the long-term. Some short-term “success” may be realized, sure, as the project team becomes painfully aware that the prospects for their continued employment may hinge on how effectively they can perform the added requirements placed upon them as they pursue the project’s objectives. However, as soon as they can opt out, they inevitably do, leaving the macro organization no better off than before. This is especially true if the added procedural burden doesn’t have any clear link to the project’s overall success in cost, schedule, or scope performance. Indeed, the leaned-on project team will often come away with an embittered perspective on project management in general, and will tend to avoid (or even openly eschew) it in the future, all thanks to the way the Procedurals like to try and advance PM in their teams.

The second category – hectoring and whining – can (and often does) assume the audio acceptance level of a dentist’s drill on a molar needing a filling replaced. But there is a variety of hectoring that invites innovation, and is, in fact, somewhat compelling. This is the appeal to sophistication.

The appeal to sophistication works on Processors like catnip. Not only can they nakedly assert that others ought to be doing that project management thing they way the Processors want, but it goes without saying that to do otherwise is, well, kind of dumb! How convenient! Leveraging off of the fear of the project team’s members looking intellectually backwards, the Processors can advance all sorts of charlatanisms, to wit:
•    Gaussian curves have nothing to do with project performance. But the risk managers have many, many bamboozled to believe that, without a “proper” risk management analysis and plan, their projects are doomed.
•    Past letting the project team know how much they’ve spent, the General Ledger has nothing to do with project performance. However, the accountants have led so many to believe that any insight on business information that involves costs simply must come from them that virtually all textbooks on quantitative analysis in business begin and end with the return on investment calculation, which is virtually worthless in PM.
•    Communications are great – except when they’re not. Keeping “stakeholders” abreast of project performance is nominally a good thing … except when the definition of “stakeholder” includes those who actively oppose your project attaining its objectives, which the definition held forth by the communications experts often does. In those cases, keeping these “stakeholders” apprised is sheer idiocy.

I could go on (and often do), but I’m sure my readers see my point: Processors don’t actually advance project management as a science; rather, they use pseudo-science tripped out in PM phrases as leverage to try and convince others to do as they say, and respect them for saying it.

And I think that’s dumb.