Project Management

Easy in theory, difficult in practice

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My musings on project management, project portfolio management and change management. I'm a firm believer that a pragmatic approach to organizational change that addresses process & technology, but primarily, people will maximize chances for success. This blog contains articles which I've previously written and published as well as new content.

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Leading Through Crisis Means Leading Through Context

"It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for." - retirement lessons from the Doctor

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Just because they are non-critical, doesn't mean they are not risky!

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Leading Through Crisis Means Leading Through Context

I just finished reading Conquering Crisis: Ten Lessons to Learn Before You Need Them, the latest leadership book by (retired) Admiral William H. McRaven. Many of the chapter titles resonated with my own experience in issue management—especially Trust the Second Law of Thermodynamics and There Is Always Time for a Morale Check.

But one chapter title stopped me in my tracks: Micromanagement Is Not an Ugly Word.

That statement challenged me. I’ve experienced firsthand—both as a micromanager and as someone being micromanaged—the negative outcomes it can create: diminished trust, lowered morale, and the loss of skilled team members.

However, reading the chapter helped reframe my perspective. Admiral McRaven isn’t advocating for disempowerment or rigid command-and-control leadership. Instead, he emphasizes the importance of clarity—leaders must spend as much time as necessary, and often more than they think is needed, to clearly communicate expectations, boundaries, and constraints.

He also reminds us that setting expectations isn’t a one-and-done activity. As conditions evolve, so too must our guidance. While “it depends” might be the most overused phrase among project managers, perhaps “context counts” should be a close second.

Admiral McRaven’s closing line captures it perfectly: “As the conditions change, you may need to adjust your guidance to fit the situation on the ground.”

True leadership isn’t about controlling every move—it’s about knowing when to lean in, when to step back, and always keeping context at the core.

Posted on: June 23, 2025 09:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

What won't change...

Based on the extensive media coverage, YouTube videos, TED Talks, and books published, many might agree that 2023 has been hailed as the year of artificial intelligence, at least in terms of mindshare if not market dominance.

Throughout the past year, online project management communities have frequently discussed the potential impact of A.I. tools on the role of project managers. While concerns persist about potential negative effects, such as new project risks and potential job displacement, there's also optimism. A.I. tools, when used appropriately, are seen as potential assistants in delivering projects more efficiently and effectively, akin to other professions.

However, let's maintain perspective. Like previous project management tools—such as schedulers and knowledge management platforms—some aspects of our work won't be affected by A.I. until projects can be entirely completed by machines without human involvement.

Certain challenges will persist:

  1. Commitments will still be made prematurely: A.I. might provide better reasoning for unattainable completion dates or funding amounts, but it's unlikely to deter senior stakeholders from imposing unrealistic constraints.
  2. What you don't know will still hurt more than what you do know: In the near term, we won't have sufficiently advanced A.I. capabilities to identify all the possible risks which could impact our projects. And as complexity continues to increase, the likelihood remains that unknown-unknowns will affect our projects to a greater extent than the known-unknowns.
  3. Stakeholders will continue to surprise us: Provided sufficient context, A.I. tools might be able to improve our forecast of how stakeholders will respond to a given decision or project approach. However, if we've learned anything from The Matrix, even if humans are part of an A.I. system, they'll still find ways to behave unexpectedly.
  4. More concurrent work than can be effectively delivered: A.I. tools might give us a better understanding of the capacity within our teams and our throughput potential, but with the exception of those who use product-centric delivery models or who embrace the flow guidance of Dr. Goldratt or Don Reinertsen, most will still welcome more work into their system than should be permitted, so multitasking, work overload and the inability to accurately forecast people's availability will persist.
  5. The single biggest problem in communication: A.I. tools will eventually help us to bridge communication gaps with real-time context sensitive translation and guidance to make better choices about messaging tone, medium and other factors. Nevertheless, some gaps, as demonstrated in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation's' episode 'Darmok,' may remain insurmountable.

So as the dawn of 2024 approaches, lets greet it with the confidence that while some things are likely change in project delivery, most won't.

"The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order." - Alfred North Whitehead

Posted on: December 23, 2023 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
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