Project Management on the Brain
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By Wanda L. Curlee
Could neuroscience be the next big thing for the project management profession?
Today, there are many theories about leadership, management, and psychology, yet, no one is quite certain how the brain works in concert with these theories—or even if it does.
In the pursuit of more information, neuroscience—including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) —is being used to study what the brain activity of business-minded individual’s looks like during thought and during motion. (This technology can map new neural pathways as they are created—pathways that can be created until death.)
Already this scientific field is creating new fields of study across the business landscape. Neuroeconomics, for example, is “the application of neuroscientific methods to analyze and understand economically relevant behavior such as evaluating decisions, categorizing risks and rewards, and interactions among economic agents,” according to Dr. Zainal Ariffin Ahmad, a professor in the Business Research for Applied Innovations in Neurosciences (BRAIN) Lab at the Universiti Sains Malaysia’s Graduate School of Business.
There’s also neuroaccounting, neuroethics, neuroleadership and neurogoernance.
With portfolio management still in its infancy, neuroleadership and neurogovernance could potentially assist portfolio managers. By extracting knowledge from the sciences of neuroleadership and neurogovernance, PMI could differentiate itself and its body of knowledge from the various other project management associations and standards.
By using cutting-edge knowledge about how the human brain works to help create standards, PMI could move project management closer to a profession such as medicine. When the standards of the profession are based on empirical scientific knowledge, rather than good practices done on most projects most of the time, project management could become even more science than art.
What do you think? Can and should neuroscience be part of the future of project management?
Posted
by
Wanda Curlee
on: December 16, 2016 08:05 PM |
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Comments (22)
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Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Very Interesting .... Yes neuroscience can definitely be part of the project management if not already in some way.
Wanda Curlee
Dr. Wanda Curlee| PMI
Ferguson, NC, United States
Rami - Thanks for your comment. I suspect that those project managers that are really understanding of the project team they intuitively use neuroscience,
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Wanda - You are absolutley right and thats exactly why I mentioned "If not already used in some way" and this is one way. Very interesting subject .... Id like to see more on this research if available.
Not really sure, but it will be really interesting to see neuroscience be part of the project management.
Thanks Wanda, I like the post. Thanks for sharing.
Wanda Curlee
Dr. Wanda Curlee| PMI
Ferguson, NC, United States
Rami - For further research, you may want to go to www.centerforbrainhealth.org.
Wanda Curlee
Dr. Wanda Curlee| PMI
Ferguson, NC, United States
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Very 9nteresting website. Thanks Wanda.
A fusion of two very diverse sciences, yet many parallels exist. Good thinking ..
Thilo Wack
Head of Existing Product and Test Lab| optimed
Tholey-Hasborn, Germany
Project Management has always been very much about people: the teams, the stakeholders, the leadership style of the PM her/hisself. Understanding the science behind our brains and how this affects our behavior, our ability to learn and develop new skills, actually really why we are what we are and how we can change, will have a profound impact on the individual and society in general. Especially in a world of increasing knowledge work, where successful projects depend on high-performance, innovative teams and where organizations need to change at an ever increasing speed, the knowledge gained in neuroscience can be a game-changer. Agree with Rami that this already has begun; there always have been naturals with an intuitive understanding of these things and today big, innovative companies already apply neuroscientific principles on empirical grounds.
Wanda Curlee
Dr. Wanda Curlee| PMI
Ferguson, NC, United States
Chanu - Thank you. It is exciting.
Wanda Curlee
Dr. Wanda Curlee| PMI
Ferguson, NC, United States
Thilo - Thank you for your observations. If neuroscience is understood in context of the business environment, I do believe it will give the project manager an advantage.
Karthik T
Senior Engineering Manager| Nike
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
The concept of bringing in neuroscience to the scope of the day2day activities is a natural transition considering the growth of technology and it's intricate involvement with human genome. Utilising the PMI thought process and gaining from its hidden treasures is a forward thinking and definite positive thought. The principles of project management is not just limited to timeline dependent projects but an ongoing improvement for the society.
Neural genesis and telekinesis are not too far off considering the leaps and bounds of technology and to be able to walk hand in hand with it shall be great for either.
Wanda Curlee
Dr. Wanda Curlee| PMI
Ferguson, NC, United States
Karthik - You are welcome.
Wanda Curlee
Dr. Wanda Curlee| PMI
Ferguson, NC, United States
Hello Pritam - I look forward to the day when PMI's foundational standards incorporate the knowledge we know have of the brain and how it relates to leadership and how we work.
Thanks for your opinion. I think neuroscience give us a very useful knowledge.
Wanda Curlee
Dr. Wanda Curlee| PMI
Ferguson, NC, United States
Irina - Thanks for your comment.
Sima Mahmud
Senior Program Manager| Q2 Software Inc.
Scottsdale, Az, United States
Very Informative. Thank you.
Wanda Curlee
Dr. Wanda Curlee| PMI
Ferguson, NC, United States
Joseph Oberlander
Consultant, CMC Project Management| Syner-G BioPharma Consulting
Chelmsford, Ma, United States
Interesting points to raise, but as a neuroscientist myself, I have to remind everyone that the discipline is a portmanteau of psychology, biology, mathematics, etc., and may not be the panacea that it is often made out to be. For example, the NFL's famous Wonderlic test for intelligence or the Myers-Briggs Personality tests have been applied in business with extremely problematic over-interpretations of the significance of the test results. That said, the advent of imaging technologies and the use of psychometrics in people has revealed some interesting findings, but I want to caution their use as the foundation of new sub-disciplines.
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