The Information Deficit Model and Project Management

 

Are you tired of various media outlets, politicians, and special interest groups inundating you with attempts to “raise (your) awareness?” I know I am. Since this is my last post for the month of September, my readers will be perhaps interested in knowing that this is the “official month” for the following:

• National Italian Cheese Month
• National Self-Care Awareness Month
• Better Breakfast Month
• Classical Music Month
• Fall Hat Month
• Intergeneration Month
• International Square Dancing Month
• International Update Your Resume Month
• National Blueberry Popsicle Month
• National Chicken Month
• National Courtesy Month
• National Honey Month
• National Mortgage Professional Month
• National Mushroom Month
• National Papaya Month
• National Piano Month
• National Potato Month
• National Preparedness Month
• National Rice Month
• National Sewing Month
• Save Your Photos Month
• Self Improvement Month
• Whole Grains Month[i]

…among others. Now, many of you will no doubt wonder why you need to have your awareness raised about, say, blueberry popsicles, much less spend time in the month of September contemplating, or even celebrating them. But I would like you to imagine a scenario where you are in a project team meeting, and, in the middle of evaluating the cost and schedule performance indices, some consultant suddenly interrupts.

“You’re not taking into account blueberry popsicles.”

You respond “That’s right – I’m not.”

“But there have been several articles on the effects of blueberry popsicles on this kind of work in the trade journals. Haven’t you read them?”

“No, but I have never seen a published study establishing, with verifiable data, that blueberry popsicles – or any popsicles, for that matter – have anything at all to do with the kind of information I need to maximize the chances of bringing this project in on-time, on-budget.”

“Well, that’s only because your awareness of the blueberry popsicle effects hasn’t been raised. I can perform an analysis and write your project’s Blueberry Popsicle Plan…”

“I don’t want such a plan. I can manage without it.”

“No, you can’t, and the fact that you are suggesting as such is evidence of your lack of knowledge of Project Management.”

Sounds absurd, doesn’t it? But it is of a piece with the Information Deficit Model, the notion that, for any given field of study, there are experts who have an abundance of knowledge and expertise, and others who are not as enlightened, but should be. In those cases where we’re talking about passing along experimentally-derived findings that support new theories or overturn existing ones, I’m okay with this model. It’s in those instances where management science swerves into pseudo-experts pushing a poorly-supported (or completely unsupported) hypothesis that this “raising awareness” stuff gets truly irksome. In many of these instances, the Information Deficit Model effect is indistinguishable from arrogant pseudo-intellectuals foisting their shallow musings on the rest of us, and demanding recognition and respect for doing so. For Project Management professionals, I believe that a usable litmus test to differentiate between the two should be if the PM advance being asserted is backed up by something more substantial than expert opinion, or even consensus. If the organization’s key decision-makers need to be made aware of a usable technique, theory, or even hack, then let those on the in-the-know side of the divide show a record of repeatable outcomes, usable experimental or real-life data, or results published in a peer-reviewed journal. To see if such a litmus test is usable, go back and re-read the indented paragraph, but substitute the words “risk management” for “blueberry popsicles,” and consider for yourself if it works.

If it does, the people who consider themselves to be the owners of an abundance of Project Management techniques and want to impart their wisdom to the rest of us should either produce their objective, repeatable findings, or else, to borrow a phrase, check their “in-the-know” privilege.

[i] Retrieved from https://nationaldaycalendar.com/september-monthly-observations/ on September 23, 2017, at 13:13 MDT.