Here's a guest post from an aspiring young project manager, Stephen Robin, pictured below, who describes himself this way:
I am an inquisitive youth with an open mind, spontaneous brain, and an inexhaustible number of interests career and non-career related. My willingness to learn and a love of researching has formed me into an extremely curious individual that asks a lot of questions and has sparked the flame in me to discover new knowledge, experiences, places, and the like. As a lifelong learner, my interests will likely broaden in the future. Due to that, I have a huge appreciation for total person development(Holistic) and I have no intentions of slowing down. Currently, I am in my fourth year of college in which I am pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in Project Management. From my perspective, this degree is simply a running start in my career which aligns with my goal of reaching the highest level in the professional domain. With this in mind, the plan of action is to have a heavy devotion to, education, experience, and exposure where I can become an agent of change through Project Management.”
Project Management in the Animal Kingdom: Key Lessons – and Questions
We think of projects as a uniquely human thing - conceptualized (only) out of the human mind. Before it was discussed, before it came to paper, before it became a reality, any project was simply a thought. An idea. A concept. Project management, which brings those ideas to reality, is widely recognized as a practice unique to human beings, to us Homo Sapiens. Before the formation of recognized bodies or any project management intuition, before the rise of the project manager, its practice even early in human history, (whether or not it was called project management) provided lasting results we can see today The Great Pyramids, the Great Wall of China, and many others revealed that project management has been practiced since ancient times. Project management is intrinsically part of our being due to the need to create, deliver, and drive change according to our circumstances, needs, and wants.
Now, for this next part, I want you to keep an open mind. What if I told you that project management isn’t uniquely our domain and we aren’t the only practitioners in existence? Something that has been around since the beginning of mankind, is the reality of Mother Nature. Nature is home to its unique form of project managers. What I can only describe as “natural project managers” that do not follow a preset methodology, tool, or technique -non-sapient beings that were not trained, coached or enrolled in a program to acquire knowledge and gain experience. The non-sapient beings of the animal kingdom have their own form of project management; the art and science of “Instinct Project Management” or “Instinctual Project Management”. The practice of project management does not require a highly developed brain, extremely complex thought, or certifications of any kind.
Moreover, concepts that many project managers deem essential in any project are absent in the animal kingdom. For example:
A project charter
Work Breakdown Structure
Project Scope Statement
Product Scope Statement
..any sort of project documentation
Therefore you may ask, out of the many examples you may come up with in your head of projects done by the millions of species out there, which are the most mind-blowing? The projects – or at least project outcomes – below, belong to nature’s Project Management Hall of Fame:
Puffer Fish Circle- To create the patterns, the males swim along the seafloor and flap their fins. Such movements lead to the creation of beautiful circular patterns. Although the fish are only about five inches long, the formations they make measure about 7-feet in diameter. Once the patterns are made, females come to inspect them. If they are fond of the creations, they reproduce with the male that created the pattern. It is yet to be discovered what exactly the females look for in patterns or what traits they find desirable in the formation.
Below is a clip from BBC Earth that shows the project execution and outcome.
Gossamer Trees- In 2010 in Pakistan, unprecedented monsoons brought down massive rainfall. The rainfall was slow to recede and it created vast pools of stagnant water across the countryside. This led to a mass migration of spiders and insects to climb on trees forrefuge and cover them inthe cocoon of their webs. Although the cocoons led to the death of many trees, blocking sunlight from reaching the leaves, they also seemed to help trap more mosquitoes in the region, thereby reducing the risk of malaria.
Entertaining and thoughtfully written article, Stephen! It is amazing how many lessons in project management we can derive from the world around us!
The question for some of the examples you provide is whether this is innate (hard-wired) behavior rather than voluntary activity. The latter would lend itself better to consideration in the PM context.
Kiron
Andy JordanPresident| Roffensian Consulting S.A.Cherry Grove, AB, Canada
Great post! As Kiron implies, the drive for these activities is not usually conscious effort, separating it from at least some (!) projects, but you can't argue with the collaboration and teamwork.
This is a wonderful and interesting article, and a unique look at project management in nature. You did a nice job of tying the observations about the animal kingdom to project management practices. Very nice! I look forward to more insights in a follow-up series!
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Stephen, this is an outstanding article and I enjoyed every bit of it. I couldn't agree more with your statement "think like a naturalist but function as a project manager".
I tend to agree with Kiron and Andy with regards to volunteer activity vs conscious effort but, one can't argue the other facts.
I do highly recommend you submit this to PMI as an article to be published (not a blog), or other organizations the PM World.
Keep up the great effort. You are such an ambitious individual!
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Stephen,
thought provoking and offering unusual perspectives.
I agree that we humans can learn a lot from nature, in any field, and we do so e.g. in bionics. I also embrace your 5 points / imperatives.
Recalling the definition of projects old and new, I look for defined start and end dates, expected benefits (or value), and uniqueness (which is a vague term anyhow - nothing is unique and everything is). I also look at the success rates of human projects and think that nature seems to succeed more often.
Project management is a mental model, especially created in the western world. Other cultures look at the world as a more continuous flow and rely less on artificial objectives. As such, it is human, and the model of PM relies on rational thinking, a linear time concept, an idea of future, and cause and effect. Nature does not have these features. We need them to not go crazy.
Having said that, I do not think we see projects in nature, yes, we see regularities, repeating behaviors and cyclic time concepts. But not projects with a start and end and unique outcomes, objectives and ways of working to plan and achieve them.
The way of working of nature is evolution, which can be seen as statistics in large numbers.
Nevertheless, your article if great, fresh and inspiring. More of that, Stephen.
Thomas
Uri GalimidiLeadership Coach and Career Mentor| The Will To Change Inc.Sarasota, Fl, United States
Amazing examples of projects governed by nature.
Great post.
Marcus UdokangProject Manager| Aivaz ConsultingCalgary, Alberta, Canada
Very insightful points, Stephen. And, a creative and realistic perspective.
nancy armyEnvironmental Planner| Bureau of Land ManagementSparks, Nv, United States
I enjoyed your article Stephen; it gave me another way to think about project management and maybe to ask the question "what is a project in reality versus how it's defined in textbooks or the PMBOK?" I work in the environmental community as an environmental planner and the natural world is usually uppermost in my mind.
As I read your examples from the natural world, one example came to mind for me. I would consider a wolf pack hunting a migrating band or herd of buffalo a project as there is a definitive timeline (prey entering and leaving the pack's territory) and a unique outcome (which prey animal gets taken down or not drives the overall health of the wolf pack).
Mishirika ScottPMO Portfolio Manager, IT Strategic Initiatives| University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)Greater Los Angeles Area, Ca, United States
Hi Stephen - firstly, congrats on being in year 4 of your undergraduate studies!! Of note, I earned my MA in Project Management and found the material theory-heavy, not a lot of practical talk about what PM looks like in action in the real world, feel free to reach out if you'd like to dive deeper here.
While I agree that the practice of "getting things done" does not require a highly developed brain, extremely complex thought, or certifications of any kind... as a project practitioner and now IT PMO leader, my experience leading teams dictates that the practice of project management "does" require a highly developed brain, extremely complex thought, or certifications of any kind, particularly as it relates to co-elevation in team efforts, which is the murky people part of getting an entire team aligned, pointed to one vision, speaking a common language, and helping each other get work done. Agility is the currency of today's modern PM, which (again, think: team effort) requires a sort of elevated mindset (not sure 'extreme complex thought' is the right play on words here).
As I picked up from your references of nature, systems/ rules create outcomes... and when done correctly project management has great potential to set the stage for "natural" progression of systems/ rules that create outcomes (that benefits future projects and people assigned to them).
Sharing a book that I'm reading today recommended by a colleague in my USC (University of Southern CA) network that also takes a non-traditional stand similar to the one presented in this article: "How to do Nothing" by Jenny Odell. (I suggest you put this read in your back pocket as you may find it useful at some junction of your PM career, as I have).
I'm a huge fan of your bold cross-referencing of PM to nature, and with that I'll 1 Thomas W. - your article if great, fresh and inspiring. More of that, Stephen.
Cheers to posting your first article, Stephen!
-Mishirika #purposework
Stephen RobinProject Analyst Trainee| Ministry of Works and TransportArima, Ari, Trinidad and Tobago
Thanks for all the inputs and insights everybody! It is greatly appreciated and it gives me more encouragement to write more.
@Kiron, I say it can be both innate behaviour and voluntary. In the case of the Gossamer trees, it was an action not common among the species and forced an action that was not part of the innate behaviour. Circumstances and situations would cause nature to adjust to suit, similar to humans.
On average more projects(in nature) would be an innate behaviour as animals are predisposed to focus primarily on survival and would not have the many needs and want that humans have. I can also add both groups may be predisposed to practice project management as I am sure early humans did their own form of project management as well as survival was paramount.
Stephen RobinProject Analyst Trainee| Ministry of Works and TransportArima, Ari, Trinidad and Tobago
@Rami thanks for the such great feedback. Glad to see that you loved it. I haven't considered posting as an article as the requirement is purely original content and what I have posted is derived from information and references online.
If there are other organizations where I can post this do feel free to share with me as I am open to it.
Stephen RobinProject Analyst Trainee| Ministry of Works and TransportArima, Ari, Trinidad and Tobago
@ Thomas, thanks for the deep and highly articulated insights. Very profound I must say. Referring to what you said about
the need for a defined start, end, and expected benefits. Along with it being a mental model may be exactly why project management in nature has a much higher success rate than projects done by humans. If we apply the VUCA model as indicated by is a mental model(Project management).
The human mind is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. While highly intelligent, it makes us prone to cognitive conflict, overthinking, undue stress, instability, etc.
We seek perfection even though it is unattainable in what we have done even though we may not admit it, and some things are never enough. This then trickles down to the activities and projects we work on.
These factors are notably absent in the animal kingdom. For example, a mother bird building a nest for her young does not overthink the process and gets into the schism of going back on and forth about how big the nest should be, what material to use, etc. It does not become overcomplicated and misconstrued as the focus is getting it done first and foremost. No need for extra and excessive details.
There is beauty in being simple-minded at times. I will agree certain features are absent in the animal kingdom and the way of working is evolution. However, that does not mean there is no semblance of it as it would not be in a fully defined state as project management practitioners would be used to.
Overall very good insights as it gave a lot of food for thought.
A lot of connections among the species and its works and efforts to adapt with project management, there is no doubt.
Your subtle and sensible vision on the nature teachings are already certainly leading you to the full domain of the project management main skills - as practiced since the prior times of our specie: observation (catching the details), information retention (recording), development (of a feasible concept), action (hands on), control (prototypes) and evolution (re-qualifying/re-quantifying the predecessor model) - as the own nature does and you outstandingly brought to us, closing the cycle.
I believe that you already heard about the subject, but with your profile and reading what you wrote I understand that you can have a lot of inspiration on themes linked to the biomimetics and biomimicry.
I'm certain that your professional and personal journey will be sensational and successful.
All the best.
PS: just to bring a regional "nature case" from Brazil to support your future articles, try to research - as one of these examples, the (here) called "João-de-barro" bird (red ovenbird - Rufous Hornero). This kind of bird produces a round nest made of mud and sticks that is similar to clay ovens. Certainly inspired humans to do objects the same way many years ago.
Thanks a lot to you Stephen for providing a different prism of the definition of project management.
Given that we sometimes forget that project management is a natural living creature ability that we as human beings just need to improve.
Dave DavisSenior Project Manager| Cincinnati Children's HospitalSpringboro, Oh., United States
This is the type of knowledge share that we need. I love when practitioners share their experiences, and regardless of years in the profession, and always acquire something to help me as a practioner
Community Champion
Posted by Richard Maltzman on: March 04, 2023 11:41 AM | Permalink