Wicked Problem, Or Convenient Excuse?

 

Ahhh, causation, that fickle, fickle mistress. “Not so, Michael!” I can hear GTIM Nation say. “Sure, it’s widely misunderstood, but its basics, particularly in the field of law, have been thoroughly researched and vetted, and can be reliably used in uncovering the root causes of systemic failures, or other wicked problems.”

“Fair enough” would be my reply. “But can someone then please tell me why, whenever that most wicked of PM problems, the successful advancement of Project Management capabilities within a given organization, overcomes the PMO, the reason for the failure seems to always be laid at the feet of ‘culture’?” The main derivatives of Flip Wilson’s famous tag line, adapted here as “the organization’s culture is to blame for my PMO becoming overpriced and under-utilized,” include:

• Higher-level executives failed to force the organization to do PM “right,”
• Lower-level managers and Team members were averse to change, and
• Legitimate attempts at “changing the culture” met unexpected and unreasonable opposition.

The alert reader will recognize that these three are essentially the same causal argument, simply distributed to different targets. In my thinking, the same causal argument being used against several targets makes it rather fickle, hence my opening line.

Part of the reason “culture” is such an easy scapegoat is that its precise definition is rarely articulated, and the reason that its precise definition seems elusive might be due to the generalized confusion of its denotative meaning. For example, here’s the definition most relevant to this discussion, from the Merriam Webster online dictionary:

1 b: the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization.[i]

Interestingly, this definition (note that it’s 1 B) does not appear in Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Edition Unabridged, published in 1949. The closest definition from the Second Edition Unabridged is:

5 a: A particular state or stage of advancement in civilization or the characteristic features of such a stage or state; as primitive, Greek, Germanic culture. b The complex of distinctive attainments, beliefs, traditions, etc. constituting the background of a racial, religious, or social group; as, a nation with many cultures.[ii]

A quick note on the sources: I’m confident that the Second International represents an authoritative source, if for no other reason that the thing weighs sixteen pounds. Also note that the closest definition that could apply to this discussion is all the way down to 5 a, whereas the online version is 1 b. The linguists in GTIM Nation will easily recognize that, when discussing a business model environment, the dramatic change in the generally-accepted denotative meaning of the word culture would almost certainly have been driven by the change in its connotative meaning. It’s this delta between the word’s denotative and connotative meanings that gives failing PMO directors ample room to misdirect blame for their failed PM-advancing initiatives. Those executives intent on enforcing accountability for failure can’t put their hands on “culture,” meaning that, if this excuse stands, there’s no accounting for the poorly-formulated technical agenda of the PMO.

But if the PMO director is intent on modifying (or out-and-out overhauling) “the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterize” the target organization toward a more PM-friendly footing, what’s their implementation strategy, specifically? ‘Cuz I can tell you right now that, in the order of the bullet points above,

• Capability maturity cannot be advanced by leveraging organizational authority,
• Very few Team members will follow a manager who has failed to articulate the optimal (or even workable) technical solution, and
• Any opposition to capability maturity isn’t a symptom of an incapable organization; rather, it is a sign that the implementation strategy is either weak, or actually unworkable.

I’m well aware that there are, in fact, some organizations that are highly resistant (if not impervious) to adapting even a basic PM capability. But I also know two other things about such organizations: (1) they are not based on anything resembling a meritocracy, since those companies that create and maintain a PM capability will generally out-perform their competition, and (2) non-merit-based organizations are a magnet for Jungle Fighters[iii] and Company Men[iv], and repel Craftsmen[v] and Gamesmen[vi]. In the former case, the organizational behavior and performance barriers that accompany non-meritocracies should be evident from the get-go, meaning that blaming the “culture” after the fact is disingenuous. In the case of the latter, it simply means that, in order to advance PM (or any other capability, for that matter) in the target organization, some way must be found to attract Craftsmen and Gamesmen, while repelling Jungle Fighters and Company Men, prior to engaging the implementation strategy. But in no case should “culture” be considered a valid version of a wicked PM problem.

It’s almost always just a convenient excuse for not developing an adequate implementation strategy.

[i] Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture?src=search-dict-box on June 27, 2021, 10:18 MDT.

[ii] Websters New International Dictionary, Second Edition, G&C Merriam Company, 1949.

[iii] From [iii] Maccoby, Michael. The Gamesman: The New Corporate Leaders. New York: Simon and Schuster,1976.

[iv] Ibid.

[v] Ibid.

[vi] Ibid.