“Holy Pareto Principle Project Management Litmus Test, Batman!”

 

The 1960s television show Batman was rather campy, much of which was injected into the dialogue by the Robin character’s tendency to announce any surprise development with the announcement “Holy _______, Batman!”, with the blank being filled in by a series of extremely random nouns. A partial list (the full list is 356 expressions long[i]) includes:

·  Holy fate worse than death

·  Holy hardest metal in the world

·  Holy journey to the center of the earth

·  Holy Venuzuela

·  Holy stalactites

·  Holy trolls and goblins

·  Holy known/unknown flying objects

·  Holy unrefillable prescriptions

·  Holy Robert Louis Stevenson

·  Holy priceless collection of Etruscan snoods[ii]

And, although it doesn’t show up in any of the official lists, I could have sworn that I saw an episode where the batmobile was stopped by a bovine in the road, prompting a “Holy cow!”

And Now, To Move The Discussion A Tiny Bit Closer To Management Science…

Italian sociologist and economist Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) is probably best known for the common interpretation of the Pareto Principle, that 80% of the effects are attributable to 20% of the causes. In business, this is most often used in reference to things like 80% of a company’s revenue tends to come from 20% of its customers, but it has many other applications, such as 80% of the traffic wear in a typical home’s carpet occurs in 20% of its area. One of my adaptations of the Pareto Principle is that the 80^th percentile best managers, who have access to 20% of the information needed to obviate a given decision, will be out-performed by the 20% worst managers who have command over 80% of the information so needed. But the more time I spend in the arena of Project Management practice and scholarship, the more I’m beginning to believe in another application, one that differentiates between true professional PMs, and their pretender counterparts.

I began formulating this application upon observing self-described PM “experts” weighing in on types of projects where they had absolutely no previous experience. Any attempt to dissuade these “experts” on the grounds that they, well, really didn’t know what they were talking about would be met with the fiercest of chest-thumping resume´ comparison challenges, where, inevitably, the attainment of the PMP® certification would be put forth as the argument-stopper.

Pulling this thread a bit more, I began to realize that the “experts” were strongly asserting their “insights” on the basis of the canned strategies they had learned, either through experience or by studying the PMBOK Guide® while preparing for their exams. Since the literature on Project Management presents itself as having a wide range of applicability (if not out-and-out universality), it’s natural for those who ingest this not insignificant codex to assume that they have at least some level of mastery in Project Management, even if the specific application is new to them. I think this, however, is folly, leading to my next application of the Pareto Principle, so:

Most PM practitioners think that mastering Project Management is 80% familiarity with learned strategies, and 20% adapting to the novel conditions of the project. However, the opposite is true: PM mastery is 20% implementing canned strategies, and 80% adapting to the new project team/environment.

If this application is valid, one of its primary implications is that attaining the PMP® certification isn’t ipso facto evidence of mastery. What does it mean, then? I think that the PMP® is like Batman’s utility belt, with its numerous compartments. The specific tactics and strategies that real PMs use are “placed” within this structure, and used as the unique project circumstances demand. And, just as Batman and Robin would be in real trouble if they were to confront the (extremely colorful) criminals without the use of the utility belt, the wearing of the utility belt does not automatically make one The Batman.

So, that’s (one of) my PM validity tests. If your new PM approaches the project with a sense of humility, and seeks to discover what makes this project different from all the other ones she has encountered before offering strategies or solutions, you probably have a winner (it doesn’t necessarily have to be precisely the 80/20 ratio, but you get my sense of proportion on this matter). On the other hand, if the new manager already has all of the answers, and bitterly denounces all opposed to his agenda, start listening for the bizarre “villain” music to begin playing in the background.

Also, the camera angle will suddenly become somewhat askew.

[i] Retrieved from https://www.66batmania.com/trivia/robins-holy/ on August 25, 2017, 17:57 MDT.

[ii] Ibid.