My Earlier Analyses
In an earlier analysis of this concept, I concluded that one of
the key objectives for the project manager during project initiation
is to achieve this alignment. State 1 in the diagram (Driving
Order from Chaos) is a challenge familiar to project managers
at the beginning of every complex project. The objective is to have
everyone "pointing in the same direction".
This task cannot just be left to the project manager. The project
manager may have sufficient influence to bring the project team
into line, such as in Alignment State 2, but this still leaves
a lot of arrows pointing every-which-way. Additional strategies
must be employed to achieve the ideal alignment in State 3
(though maybe a few obstinate cases will always remain!). But left
in a largely non-aligned state, the project manager can be overwhelmed
by the demands and issues of corporate PM. The result is a feeling
of isolation and disempowerment, to the detriment of the project.
My next diagram, Steps to Alignment, illustrates how specific strategies,
or drivers, can push the sphere of influence of project management
further into the organization. Thus, project awareness and engagement
move beyond the project team and eventually result in a collaborative
organization. In other words, all the arrows are aligned.
 Here,
projects are choreographed rather than left to the random and sometimes
frantic efforts of a project manager faced with disinterest or non-cooperation.
But this can only happen if project responsibilities expand from
the project team to embrace the entire organization. And this evolution
only occurs as increasingly effective drivers of alignment are adopted,
ending in true project collaboration. Without this, the project
is denied its greatest support.
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Secondary
Evolution
