404 sorry, bad substitute in place

 

Have you ever observed a situation when an “obstructor” is occupying the space that was originally created for a noble cause?

This can be observed with “trash food”, like beverages saturated with sugar, and even candies.  That kind of food is there so you can bypass “real food”;  trash food is cheaper,  is much more easily available (vending machines,  cafeterias, convenience stores),  and because it contains enormous quantities of sugar and fat, it kicks your energy right away, allowing you to bypass a more healthy digestive resting time…. A bad substitute to real nutritive food.

That also can be seen in Project Management; because of PM with the required certifications, skills and experience are not easily available and are expensive, then an unprepared substitute is hired instead. It may seem that the problem is solve, that the position has been filled. Anyway, in case of deviations or bad results, then all the blame is to the unskilled PM. 

But this is just fooling ourselves,  like in the case of trash-food,   hiring an unprepared PM does not solve anything, but worsen the things… a lot.   Diabetes and Bridges that does not support the force of wind and fall, killing people; are the results of the “cheap and easy strategy”

This bad substitutes or obstructers can be found anywhere, for example, in a football team: A position may be filled with a friend of the owner of the team, a friend that may not have the required skills.  The position is not available anymore, it has been occupied by this friend, some one that does not perform, or in extreme cases,   do not want to perform.

Sound familiar?, this may happens with any human organization. In an organization, positions are defined to accomplish a goal, but if the position is assigned to an unprepared person or a unskilled friend, then the goal intended is not accomplished and even worse, because there is someone already in that position, this impede anyone that may be trying to perform to do so.   Because holding a position brings you certain benefits. It is natural that once you are in the position you may not want to lose it, and may try to prevent anyone else to pursue it.  This happens when an organization “gets kidnapped”, I mean, the organization does not perform or poorly performs   because the ones that holds the power position, use the organization for personal benefits.  Remember the sad case of FIFA.  

That is a reason why it matter to define and comply with an adequate governance framework. An organizational governance framework and Project, Program, and Portfolio governance framework. We want projects and organizations to perform as originally intended.  

To wrap up,  we want Professional PMs executing the projects that  requires them… project that are big, complex, projects that affect the lives of people. 

That also, we want from organizations.