When I started working on projects in the 1980s, writes Stephen Carver, the culture was largely a construction and engineering mindset with vast teams of technical specialists applying complicated methodologies and complex critical paths.
Project management
A recent major report on project leadership produced by the Association of Project Management (APM) stated that project leadership: “…is more about the future – setting direction, dealing with people and working outside the project with stakeholders – whereas many aspects of project management are inward and backward looking … Project Leaders have, in many respects, much greater autonomy than people realise. They operate in a much more unstable and volatile environment and must make fast judgement calls in ambiguous situations”.
Stephen Carver
When I started in projects in the 1980s, the culture was largely a construction and engineering mindset with vast teams of technical specialists applying complicated methodologies and complex critical paths. In these industries, it all seemed to work quite well, the teams were made up largely of logical individuals and the projects were physical and often with a single client.
Move to the present day and the project landscape has totally changed. Whilst there are still traditional mega projects, e.g. London Tideway and Olympics, the profession has expanded into virtually all sectors of industry – from IT and banking through to marketing and even R&D.
Multitude of internal and external stakeholders
Whereas there used to be largely a single client, now there is a multitude of internal and external stakeholders all of whom demand involvement and even direct participation.
This expansion of projects across all sectors has meant a huge mindset change, and it has had to evolve. It has led to a revolution as to how many people see and interact with projects.
Overuse of governance and compliance has led to huge rises in 'learned helplessness' – I believe that the pendulum is now swinging back to cultures of risk engagement rather than risk avoidance.
The rise of companies such as SpaceX and Amazon are living examples of this ethos in practice. Fast failure, unleashed enthusiasm, can-do attitudes, automation and a minimum of traditional 'control' have turned these 'startup' organisations into mega players in what seems like the blink of an eye.
Reset entire industries
As for Amazon they have successfully disrupted and reset entire industries overnight and show no let-up in their ambitions. If you haven’t heard of Blue Origin, then have a look at their plans to commercialise space – it makes the Industrial Revolution look like a bit of a tea party.
These trends are only set to increase rapidly. The days of the traditional slow-moving dinosaur organisations are numbered. Make no mistake – they are still big and powerful – but their days are numbered.
With the extraordinary pace of change that we are experiencing globally across all sectors, we see traditional systems are simply not fit for purpose. That’s where new technology and AI can help. The growth of live project reporting and control systems in my opinion are about to go mainstream.
Enterprise portfolio and project management (PPM) systems can currently provide everybody on the project with the instant, accessible data that they need, but increasingly AI will also be able to help predict trends and give project people the information they need to get ahead of the project instead of just reacting to last week’s issues.
The fact that these systems also provide governance, audits and financial reports should also keep the beloved accountants and lawyers happy as well!
What I believe you should be doing now is:
- Train, develop and expand your change management teams – now!
- Unleash the change leadership energy in your organisations.
- Use AI-enhanced PPM tools to lighten the administrative burden.
I believe that the current COVID-19 crisis will accelerate these three key trends, but, of course, 'only time will tell'.
Stephen Carver is one of the world’s leading project management gurus and he’s a champion of Cora Systems. On Thursday, October 8, he will speak at the Engineers Ireland Project Management Society Annual Seminar: https://www.engineersireland.ie/Events/event/6963. To download his 'Post COVID-19 Project Management Trends' guidebook, see: http://bit.ly/futureprojectsei.
