Project Manager’s Dilemma

 

The prisoner's dilemma is a fundamental conundrum in game theory that demonstrates why two people might not cooperate even if it is in both their best interests to do so. In its 'classical' form, the prisoner's dilemma is presented as follows:

Two suspects are arrested by the police. The police have insufficient evidence for a conviction, and, having separated the prisoners, visit each of them to offer the same deal. If one testifies for the prosecution against the other (defects) and the other remains silent (cooperates), the defector goes free and the silent accomplice receives the full 10-year sentence. If both remain silent, both prisoners are sentenced to only six months in jail for a minor charge. If each betrays the other, each receives a five-year sentence. Each prisoner must choose to betray the other or to remain silent. Each one is assured that the other would not know about the betrayal before the end of the investigation. How should the prisoners act? (Source: Wikipedia).

This classic problem happens in project management as well. Imagine a project team gathered around to brainstorm on the requirements of a high profile project. Since this project has huge impact on many people and is highly visible, everyone wants to have a bigger stake on it. Each team member then has an option of either takes the lead and drives the discussion, or focuses on contributing individual requirements and ideas. There are three possible outcomes based on this.

If you were one of the team members, what would you do? According to the prisoner's dilemma assumption, most people will opt for taking the lead which results in sub-optimal outcomes (either 1 or 2 above). In fact, this is often the case in real life situations. However, if everyone can cooperate well in a collaborative manner, the outcome will be most optimal that benefits everyone. Unfortunately, this requires a tremendous level of trust within the team before it can happen. In other words, each member must trust that the others will act unselfishly focusing on getting the job done before he or she will do the same. In order to achieve this, the project manager needs to pay high attention on issues like team dynamics and conflict of interest among the team members. This is a difficult, but not impossible, task that really tests out the skills of the most veteran project manager.