In my series "Proud Postings" I ask bloggers in the Project Management arena one question: "What are the 3 postings you are most proud of?" This time three great postings from Alec Satin. He writes wonderful pieces on his blog "Making Project Management Better".

Hey Project Manager! Beware of Fool's Gold!

"Project managers often find themselves in situations where doing what's asked will lead to failure. The reminders in this post have been helpful to me in finding ways to move such projects in a different direction."
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In his book "Blink" Malcolm Gladwell popularized the term "thin-slicing".

"… our ability to gauge what is really important from a very narrow period of experience. In other words, spontaneous decisions are often as good as—or even better than—carefully planned and considered ones." (Wikipedia)

This "thin slice of reality" is a pattern of all things happening in your surroundings. You take the slice and compare it with patterns stored in your mind. When you find a matching pattern, you have made up your mind about a particular situation. This is an unconscious process.

I don't want to suggest that Project Managers should stop thinking. But I do think that if we want to train the mind of Project Managers and bring it more in line with Three Sphere Project Management, improving spontaneous decisions is a good target.

If you want to improve the accuracy of your thin-slicing abilities you need to

1. Increase the amount and quality of patterns in your mental database, and
2. Increase your ability to search and switch through this mental database.

In other words, 1) you need to know different views of the project world (e.g. metaphors) and 2) you need to have a flexible mind to search through your set of patterns.

Yes, dear loyal reader, two recurring themes on this site.

Oh, the point of this post?

In my previous entry I ended with the question: "How to hack the brain of a Project Manager?'

The short answer: train in different mental models and train mental flexibility.

The long answer: The Four Dharmas Of Project Management… (now this is what I call a cliffhanger to a next post :))

This is not for you, but for those other PMs. Of course.

ARE YOU ALL OUT OF YOUR MIND?

YOU ALL AGREE THAT "PEOPLE PROBLEMS" ARE OUR BIGGEST ISSUES AND THEN YOU START FUMBLING WITH THE ITEMS YOU FIND IN YOUR BIG SHINY PROJECT MANAGEMENT BOX.

ARE YOU NUTS?

I know that if you only have the left side of a brain, the only job you can perform is Project Management. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t even try to use the rest of your brain.

Left side: Logical, Sequential, Rational, Analytical, Objective, Looks at parts (source)

Makes you proud to have a hyper developed left part, not?

In an earlier post this year, Richard Bernheim reflected on the issues that a PM has to deal with:

"Ernst & Young and numerous others state that there are three categories of Project Management issues:

• People-related issues which on average represent 80%
• Process-related issues which on average represent 10%
• Technology-related issues which on average represent 10%"

Mix that with increasing complexity, uncertainty, mobility, flexibility and diversity of our projects and surroundings, and your left brain will come up short … BIG TIME!

80% of our issues are in an area where our left brain sucks!

We need to invoke all three parts of the brain: left side, right side and heart!

Right side: Random, Intuitive, Holistic, Synthesizing, Subjective, Looks at wholes
Heart: Passion, Emotion, Inspiration, Feeling

For this you are going to need major brain surgery!

Hack The Man. (or woman, although their internal wiring is better suited for 3 Sphere Project Management).

This is not about expanding the PM discipline, this is about enhancing PM people.

Seek to understand.

How to hack the brain of a Project Manager? It took me a while to figure it out, but the answer is coming soon.

The last couple of weeks I had the pleasure of traveling through South India. It is an experience for all your senses: bright colors, continuous noise and smell (level of enjoyment varies), 35 degrees Celsius with high humidity, fabulous food and the loveliest people you can imagine. Of course this subcontinent also has its share of problems: pollution and other environmental issues, urbanization with extremely high population density and lack of financial means in general.

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Perhaps some of you have noticed … I have taken an extensive break from blogging. I had to recharge the creative juices. And there is no better way to do this than traveling through the south of India!

I have visited some amazing places in the provinces of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Goa. If you need an inspiring environment to clear your head, this is the place to go! I have enough notes in my Moleskin notebooks to last me another blogging year

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