Unlearning PM: Don't Task, Don't Tell | ||||||||||||
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Home > Departments > Opinion
Can projects managers better serve their teams and achieve more valuable results by not getting involved in task-level planning? Yes, because the real-time judgment of those who are executing the tasks will probably be more constructive and insightful than a detailed plan created before work even began. It’s not abandoning the plan, but using it more as hypothesis than directive.
“Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.” — Joseph Addison
In part one of this series, I presented findings outlined in a PMI-published paper, The Underlying Theory of Project Management Is Obsolete, by Lauri Koskela and Gregory Howell. The authors identified key theories underlying PMI’s PMBoK that inhibit project performance: The Transformational View — that project work can be fairly represented as sequential networks of input-output processes; Management By Planning — that the manager can create complete plans, which can, given explicit change control, be followed as intended; and Thermostatic Control — that standards and metrics effect control. The paper claimed that these three beliefs in action create “self-inflicted problems” and will require unlearning to move beyond.
In part two, I considered some of the inherent limitations of The Transformational View: while useful for analysis, it trivializes situated work and is difficult to see beyond the perspective it induces.
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