Productive Paradoxes in Projects
When organisation and projects are seriously regarded as social systems, the most striking realisation is that they are created by - and full of - paradoxes. Understanding and working with these paradoxes will help project managers deal with the increasing complexity when methodologies and good practices reach their limits of applicability and KPIs are not helpful anymore in steering projects. It will not be an easy task as the Western culture has been trying for centuries to avoid paradoxes. But the efforts will pay off. The new skills will bring unconventional and useful perspective on project communications and decisions. It will help realise and work with the unavoidable divergence between project success and client satisfaction. And it will bring new understanding of the function and dynamics of trust in projects. These are the slides from my talk at the PMI Congress 2017 in Affligem, Belgium. It is an invitation to look at projects through social systems glasses, a complementary set to that of Essential Balances - http://www.essentialbalances.com/ . You can watch the same slides with animations on YouTube: https://youtu.be/6QwIAqKl8mA .
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Productive Paradoxes in Projects
- 5. What are the traditional management tools? Methodologies Best practices Frameworks Techniques Templates Correlations Over‐simplification History (ignored) Context (ignored) Bad habits More on that at http://www.strategicstructures.com/?p=863
- 10. paradox social systems project as social systems success <‐> satisfaction trust decisions The plan
- 11. Paradox This statement is false self‐reference
- 13. Self‐reference "Self-reference is the infinite in finite guise." Louis H. Kauffman
- 14. z = z2+c Zn+1 = zn 2+c Mandelbrot
- 18. Autopoiesis
- 20. Reichel, A. (2011) ‘Snakes all the way down: Varela’s calculus for self-reference and the praxis of paradise’, Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 28(4): 646-662 The form of Communication
- 21. Notation =
- 22. Social Systems
- 27. paradox social systems project as social systems success <‐> satisfaction trust decisions Decisions
- 29. The paradoxes of decisions "Only those questions which are in principle undecidable, we can decide“ Heinz von Foerster 1/3
- 31. The paradoxes of decisions what a decision is is a decision 3/3 Find more in “The Undecidability of Decision” by Niels Åkerstrøm Andersen
- 32. Decisions about work structure people work structure people work structure people programme project task what how who
- 33. Some practical imp/app‐lications Managing constraints Habits for decision‐contraint patterns Discovery of hidden dependancies
- 34. Managing constraints Deconstructing constraint “molecules” Suspending constraints to enable innovation Range of realistic expectations Configuration of constraints Natural limitation Decision-based limitation
- 42. The paradoxes of Trust TRUST KNOWLEDGE IGNORANCE Trust is sustained by both knowledge and ignorance.
- 43. The value of Trust Was always high but is now is growing due to: Technology sophistication ‐> working with more sub‐contractors Virtual teams Issues with the external trust “providers” Complexity
- 46. Virtual teams Different time, space, culture, history... trust is most needed where it is most difficult to achieve Swift trust Factors* Clear responsibilities Complementary objectives Handling of conflicts * According to the findings of Jarvenpaa and Leidner (see http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083‐6101.1998.tb00080.x/full/)
- 48. Trust and Distrust Trust Distrust Possibilities for action High Low Additional support Not needed Necessary (e.g. contracts) Social order Simpler Complicated Transition to its opposite Quick Slow
- 52. The project is successful Start End 1+ years after That project was a failure That project was successful The project is a failure Observation 3: How the evaluation evolves A B
- 54. Utility of prescriptive methods, best practices, and KPIs complexity helpful harmful Measuring influences the measured Statistical challenges The myth of objectivity
- 55. Objective Objective subjectivity (example: customer satisfaction metrics) Also take context and history into account Actual
- 57. Two case studies from Australia Source: “Project Management Yinyang: Coupling project success and client satisfaction”, 2017 Greg Usher, Stephen Jon Whitty Case Study 1 (CS1) Industry PM Scope Budget Time Constructi on Same as SC2 + 3 items ‐ 0.15 % ‐ 1.11 % Case Study 2 (CS2) Industry PM Scope Budget Time Constructi on Same as SC1 within + 40 % + 70 %
- 59. Productive Paradoxes in Projects Working with paradoxes is an important skill for PMs especially in situations with high complexity and uncertainty It will develop new habits and approaches to deal with communications, decisions, trust, and risks Misunderstanding between project team and customers is unavoidable so PMs need two compasses SUMMARY @kvistgaard/in/velitchkov