Mindset of an Effective Project Leader – looking for a pattern

I would go with 80/20 as well, if not higher on the achieving side. That means translating avoidance into achieving the plan around the problem.

Whether it is business, riding a bicycle, driving a car, etc. "where the eyes go, the body follows". Focus on the path around the obstacle, not the obstacle itself or you will plow right into it.

That's true. However my question was quite general. Nevertheless I'm wondering what specific project situations or circumstances could demand using "Avoidance" as crucial thinking style. What are the examples from your practice?

One strategy of risk is to avoid them. As part of our corporate submission approval process, PMs must completre a survey (65 questions) that determine the overall project risk. The higher the risk the more oversight. As such, some game the system to ensure their score is lower to avoid additional oversight. As such, in a sort of reverse avoidance approach, I've seen too many projects actually avoid doing any sort of proper and exhaustive risk review. Why? Because risk is often seen by senior management as having negative connotations. My sis was the corporate risk manager at a college. She was bought in specfically after an external audit warned them of their approach to risk management. Did it change anything? Absolutely not. She had board members with PHDs tell her that everything thing she had to say was "negative". She left as a result, but soon afterwards, they actually lost their accreditation for one of their nursing programs. Very serious stuff, but senior management wanted to "avoid" speaking about risk. That is one of reasons I scored my answer as 50/50.

It is an interesting question as from a PM mindset perspective, the best defense is still a strong offense. The times where I think of true avoidance are when some decision or aspect of a project can result in a step-function change.

If the cost is above X, then we have an entirely different level of oversight. Manage cost below X. If the technology requires Y, then there are a different set of regulations which apply so don't use Y. If we are not complete by Z, then Europe goes on vacation for 3 weeks and will will incur an automatic slide. Those are situations where I could say, "Staying on plan will by default avoid the obstacle." but in reality the risk is that once you cross a specific threshold, you are not one day late. You are 3 weeks late.

Avoiding is a strategy used as part of the project managers toolkit. Achieving is the ultimate goal of a project - even in a situation where deciding "Do Nothing" or "Terminate", this can be seen as an achievement as part of Risk management and therefore be a successful business decision. With this in mind, I would agree with many others that the split would be A=80 B=20