Solutions and Trade-Offs

 

The brilliant economist and author Thomas Sowell is associated with (if not the originator of) the expression “There are no solutions, only trade-offs,” which I believe to be true in many realms of human existence, including Project Management. However, I’m also aware of a tendency of some PM practitioners to push certain business data analysis techniques as solutions, or answers to specific management problems that have to be resolved on an on-going basis (and yes, risk managers, instructors, and consultants often fall within this category). This month’s ProjectManagement.com theme, of communications and collaboration, encompasses a boatload of such practitioners, and some of their ideas represent the biggest, most inviting of targets for highly critical PM bloggers such as myself.

Take the collaboration piece. Much has been written about how wonderful the idea of collaboration is, a prime example being this quote from the renowned Simon Mainwaring, “Effectively, change is almost impossible without industry-wide collaboration, cooperation and consensus.”[i] Yes, everything is rainbows and unicorns covered in glitter when we all collaborate, no? But I was also struck by this quote, “We should seek by all means in our power to avoid war, by analyzing possible causes, by trying to remove them, by discussion in a spirit of collaboration and good will.”[ii]

That was from Neville Chamberlain.

In my second book, I discuss the makeup of personnel in large project teams, and divide them into four categories:

1. Those who readily embrace the change you are attempting to implement,
2. Those who will eventually embrace the change you seek to implement, but only after they are convinced that it will benefit them directly,
3. Those who will resist until they are virtually forced to participate, and
4. Those who will be dead-set against you and your technical approach to the end.

There are two things that PMs need to know about that last category, the “D”s: they are quite intransigent, and they definitely exist in your medium-to-large project team. Oh, yeah, one more thing about them: to ignore them, or pretend they aren’t in your team, is a great way to ruin your project. And yet, there are those PM practitioners who will insist that obtaining everybody’s buy-in, Ds included, is not only helpful to your chances of bringing in your project on-time, on-budget, but is probably a prerequisite to that outcome.

I contend that’s nonsensical, and all but the most careful of collaborations is, in all probability, harmful to your project and/or your project team.

Know that the Ds will never step up and reveal themselves as the ultimate opponents of your project. They’re far too subtle for that. Instead, they’ll lie in wait for the opportunity to use the Silent Veto, Slow Roll, or other tactics intended to thwart your initiatives (if those tactics are unfamiliar to you, check out Things Your PMO Is Doing Wrong). Or, they could simply take advantage of any initiatives their PMs take in the direction of amping up their collaboration quotient, because some well-meaninged advisor told the PM that it was the right thing to do.

Simply put, any initiative to advance collaboration within your project team is a trade-off, not a solution. Yes, you may glean previously untapped insights into some of the problems facing your project team. You may also be inviting in the opinions of those who do not wish your project to succeed. How to discern among them? Well, the first step is to…

Look at that! Out of blogging space, again! I guess I’ll have to take this up next week.

[i] Mainwaring, Simon, in BrainyQuote.com, http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/collaboration.html, retrieved on 5 March 2016, 19:17 MST.

[ii] Chamberlain, Neville, in BrainyQuote.com, http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/collaboration.html, retrieved on 5 March 2016, 19:20 MST.