George FreemanThought Leader | Author | Architect| Florida, United States
As project managers, are we not in the business of instantiating, that is, bringing something of an abstract nature that exists in thought or idea into some form of realized existence?
This thought came to my mind today; maybe it had something to do with what I had for lunch, but regardless, it got me thinking, and I thought it would be appropriate to pass it on to my fellow project professionals to “chew on” and see if there was any insight to be gained from this delusion.
Question: From an analogical perspective, what could we learn or do better in our profession if we treated our projects as living organisms?
Project management is constantly evolving, driven by key trends that will define the profession now and in the near future. As mentioned by Lenka Pincot in her LinkedIn post, the first trend is the rise of hybrid approaches in project delivery, which requires professionals to be fluent in both traditional and agile methodologies, allowing them to choose and apply the best approach for each situation. The second trend is the shift to remote work and distributed teams, accelerated by COVID-19, which demands strong leadership to maintain trust and cohesion while effectively using collaborative tools. The third trend is the rapid adoption of Generative AI (GenAI), which is reshaping how value is delivered, highlighting the growing importance of data literacy, Artificial intelligence (AI), and stakeholder management. Additionally, the upcoming Megatrends' impact focus on three long-term forces: building a resilient workforce, addressing climate change and sustainability, and fostering innovation through AI and a mindset that views failure as a learning opportunity. These trends underscore the need for project professionals to adapt and stay ahead in an increasingly complex landscape.
Above are just a few examples of the evolving nature of the profession. In short, project management is a living discipline that will continue to evolve as long as humans do.
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
George, this is a very good question. I do truly believe that we should treat projects like living organisms because they evolve and grow, often in unexpected ways. As project managers, this teaches us the importance of adaptability and flexibility, recognizing that change is inevitable. We might implement more agile processes that allow for continuous, incremental adjustments in response to new information, much like an organism adjusts to its changing environment.
If you look at this from another angle, in nature, everything is interconnected and so are projects because they exist within an ecosystem of stakeholders, team dynamics, resources, and external factors. Project managers should develop a deeper awareness of these interconnections, ensuring they don’t just focus on one part of the project but consider the health of the entire system.
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1 reply by George Freeman
Nov 15, 2024 11:42 AM
George Freeman
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HI Rami,
Very well stated!
I especially like your second paragraph as that aligns with “systems thinking.”
- All things, animate and inanimate, exist within a sea of interdependent lifecycles, purposed patterns that demand fulfillment and replication.
if nothing else, using the metaphor for a living organism implies that we would be planning for its demise proactively and not just letting it linger on needlessly if it is not worth it for itself or for all concerned.
However, where the metaphor ends is with regards to divesting from projects (even at an early stage) when they are no longer expected to deliver value. I wouldn't necessarily see that applied to living organisms...
Kiron
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1 reply by George Freeman
Nov 15, 2024 11:43 AM
George Freeman
...
Hi Kiron,
That analogical position is arguably as valid as any other. However, my preference is one of a parenting perspective wherein the early or late demise is not within the immediate scope of concern.
Parenting perspective:
When a deliverable was but a mere twinkle in the sponsor’s eye and with the desire to provide the optimal environment to realize its potential, the sponsor enlists a project manager to act as a proxy in their stead to animate the embodied objectives and goals—a project is born.
The project manager understands the temporary nature of their commission and prepares a plan to realize the deliverable through its infancy, childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood stages. Knowing their “hedge of protective nurturing” (i.e., the project) is completed when the deliverable has matured to the extent that it can stand or fall on its instilled merits.
It may be a more positive spin, but you are right; a demise needs to be accounted for.
George
Saving Changes...
George FreemanThought Leader | Author | Architect| Florida, United States
Nov 15, 2024 1:53 AM
Replying to Rami Kaibni
...
George, this is a very good question. I do truly believe that we should treat projects like living organisms because they evolve and grow, often in unexpected ways. As project managers, this teaches us the importance of adaptability and flexibility, recognizing that change is inevitable. We might implement more agile processes that allow for continuous, incremental adjustments in response to new information, much like an organism adjusts to its changing environment.
If you look at this from another angle, in nature, everything is interconnected and so are projects because they exist within an ecosystem of stakeholders, team dynamics, resources, and external factors. Project managers should develop a deeper awareness of these interconnections, ensuring they don’t just focus on one part of the project but consider the health of the entire system.
HI Rami,
Very well stated!
I especially like your second paragraph as that aligns with “systems thinking.”
- All things, animate and inanimate, exist within a sea of interdependent lifecycles, purposed patterns that demand fulfillment and replication.
George Saving Changes...
George FreemanThought Leader | Author | Architect| Florida, United States
Nov 15, 2024 7:15 AM
Replying to Kiron Bondale
...
George -
if nothing else, using the metaphor for a living organism implies that we would be planning for its demise proactively and not just letting it linger on needlessly if it is not worth it for itself or for all concerned.
However, where the metaphor ends is with regards to divesting from projects (even at an early stage) when they are no longer expected to deliver value. I wouldn't necessarily see that applied to living organisms...
Kiron
Hi Kiron,
That analogical position is arguably as valid as any other. However, my preference is one of a parenting perspective wherein the early or late demise is not within the immediate scope of concern.
Parenting perspective:
When a deliverable was but a mere twinkle in the sponsor’s eye and with the desire to provide the optimal environment to realize its potential, the sponsor enlists a project manager to act as a proxy in their stead to animate the embodied objectives and goals—a project is born.
The project manager understands the temporary nature of their commission and prepares a plan to realize the deliverable through its infancy, childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood stages. Knowing their “hedge of protective nurturing” (i.e., the project) is completed when the deliverable has matured to the extent that it can stand or fall on its instilled merits.
It may be a more positive spin, but you are right; a demise needs to be accounted for.
From an analytical standpoint, General Systems Theory describes how many behaviors and patterns are common to different types of systems including biology and sociology, and a project team is a system which operates through both business rules and human behaviors.
One important similarity to consider is seen in resiliency responses. An injured organism may try to recover multiple ways. Some are conscious like avoiding pain, but others are not. A pain reflex response causes muscles to contract before the signal ever reaches the brain, and we don't have to think about how a cut mends.
This is important to projects because a negative event may generate an automatic response before or without an intentional one, and that response may be undesirable. If the natural response to an issue is freezing in fright, we need to recognize that and consciously change the response to flight or fight instead.
There are many other examples such as self-organization (healing a cut or agile teams) vs. directed actions (central nervous system or assigning actions). With working dog breeds, if you don't give them a job they will find one even if that's digging holes or eating the sofa. Employees can be the same way so recognizing that is important to achieving the right outcomes.
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1 reply by George Freeman
Nov 16, 2024 7:46 PM
George Freeman
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Great insight, Keith.
When I think of resilience training that can impact physical and emotional reflex responses to injury (emotional or physical), what comes to mind is the practice of mindfulness. In addition, we now have non-conventional off-label therapies that have shown exceptional promise for those who have trauma and stressor disorders (e.g., PTSD) that indirectly target the Amygdala, which plays a crucial role in our fight or flight response.
This subject (i.e., resilience, automatic responses, and trauma/stressor disorders) is one I have insight into due to extended family concerns that made its modalities of treatment an area of study and engagement. So, tying in GST, resiliency, injury, and recovery into the “project as a living organism” analogy makes sense to me.
Although it makes metaphorical sense, translating that into a novel or modified modality that would shape a project’s default response to trauma, stress, and other challenges is, I assume, the opportunity to explore.
If that’s where you were going, what are the opportunities from your perspective?
George
Saving Changes...
George FreemanThought Leader | Author | Architect| Florida, United States
Nov 15, 2024 6:15 PM
Replying to Keith Novak
...
From an analytical standpoint, General Systems Theory describes how many behaviors and patterns are common to different types of systems including biology and sociology, and a project team is a system which operates through both business rules and human behaviors.
One important similarity to consider is seen in resiliency responses. An injured organism may try to recover multiple ways. Some are conscious like avoiding pain, but others are not. A pain reflex response causes muscles to contract before the signal ever reaches the brain, and we don't have to think about how a cut mends.
This is important to projects because a negative event may generate an automatic response before or without an intentional one, and that response may be undesirable. If the natural response to an issue is freezing in fright, we need to recognize that and consciously change the response to flight or fight instead.
There are many other examples such as self-organization (healing a cut or agile teams) vs. directed actions (central nervous system or assigning actions). With working dog breeds, if you don't give them a job they will find one even if that's digging holes or eating the sofa. Employees can be the same way so recognizing that is important to achieving the right outcomes.
Great insight, Keith.
When I think of resilience training that can impact physical and emotional reflex responses to injury (emotional or physical), what comes to mind is the practice of mindfulness. In addition, we now have non-conventional off-label therapies that have shown exceptional promise for those who have trauma and stressor disorders (e.g., PTSD) that indirectly target the Amygdala, which plays a crucial role in our fight or flight response.
This subject (i.e., resilience, automatic responses, and trauma/stressor disorders) is one I have insight into due to extended family concerns that made its modalities of treatment an area of study and engagement. So, tying in GST, resiliency, injury, and recovery into the “project as a living organism” analogy makes sense to me.
Although it makes metaphorical sense, translating that into a novel or modified modality that would shape a project’s default response to trauma, stress, and other challenges is, I assume, the opportunity to explore.
If that’s where you were going, what are the opportunities from your perspective?
George, Where I see the potential is identifying non-obvious patterns and response options from biological domains.
If you've used numerical analysis methods, you'll recognize that in many cases they help solve problems using brute force by trying to fit many curves to the data to see how well they fit regardless of the physics responsible for what would cause that specific curve. GST combined with modern computing capabilities including AI could help search for similar patterns and relate those back to physical reasons behind the patterns and how we might use nature as a guide.
Relating specifically to PM, consider the golden ratio. It has been used in architecture for millennia as people find it aesthetically pleasing. It is also found in plants and shells without flowers or snails deciding for themselves what they find visually attractive. Some project characteristics might be found to typically follow the same ratio. If the metrics diverge, then that may indicate a project health issue.
Response behaviors might be suggested in a similar way. When I had knee surgery, my brain paralyzed my thigh to prevent me from further injuring myself (a very unnerving sensation). An algorithm evaluating a project might find a pattern indicating some kind of business trauma, and a suggested response could be to isolate the problem area based on the response of living creatures.
Although I know how much you love AI ;-), I think it will open new possibilities for GST in predictive capabilities. GST and many related subjects grew rapidly in the 1940s and 50s where technology advancements in communication enabled sharing scientific studies in ways never before possible. That availability of information allowed recognizing repeating patterns across different domains. Today we have the internet where the amount of available data has grown exponentially. With AI comes the ability to process that data to search for patterns across domains and quantum computing will further accelerate the analysis. I think there will be great predictive opportunities in finding patterns people didn't know existed and/or think were relevant or important. Keith
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1 reply by George Freeman
Nov 18, 2024 11:00 PM
George Freeman
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Keith,
I agree with you that the non-obvious patterns and responses are the key, as finding patterns indicating when a project is under stress, the stressors, and the degree of stress, or knowing when a project has sustained injury, the mechanism of injury, and its severity seems analogically correlative to traditional project analytics—recognizing after the fact.
Having the ability to predict stress and potential injuries through non-standard measures, such as corporate political pressures, project chatter and tone, adaptability and avoidance quotients, consistency and reliability, and the like would greatly complement standard project metrics to give us a picture of overall health and outlook.
I see the Golden Ratio as a rule of thumb, but that doesn’t negate its value. Vesting in GST principles, however, provides the hope of predictive knowledge, as the pattern is there, we just need to discover and then expose it.
I wonder if the desire for such exploratory depth is present in our field.
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