Introduction
In the first part of this paper last month, we introduced Peter Morris and
his book; an outline of the book's structure; What We Liked in its Part
1: Constructing Project Management; and What We Liked in its
Part 2: Deconstructing Project Management.
Also in Part 2 of his book, Peter goes on to deal in some detail with a number
of topics. These include: Control; Scope Management, Configuration management,
Scheduling; Cost management; Organization, including the importance of the Sponsor;
Governance and Strategy; Procurement; Risk and Benefits management; People, leadership
and Teams. Along the way, he provides many useful bulleted lists of items for
the practicing reader to adopt or avoid as the case may be.
However, one thing in particular caught our eye:[1]
"... project managers – project leaders etc. – will often have to
adapt their style to fit a whole raft of factors – not just the nature of
the project but the form of contract, the characteristics of the people being
managed, and above all, the nature of the tasks being undertaken. This will mean
for example that the style of management and leadership required for the front-end
will almost certainly be substantially different from that required for downstream
execution.
Yet in practice the discipline is too often judged as relevant or not by the appropriateness
of the style of project management being displayed (and project management usually
behaves as execution management à la Kotter). This is the tail wagging the
dog. In fact the discipline requires that the style of management should adapt
to the needs of the project task being managed. Few project managers, in my
experience, even acknowledge this, let alone do it. And in truth, for many it
is a very difficult thing to do." (Emphasis is the author's.)
We think the last two sentences are open to question, but otherwise we heartily
agree with both sentiments. Interestingly, we wrote several papers relating to
this subject back in 2002, see for example: "Dominant Personality Traits Suited
to Running Projects Successfully" This fourth of six papers focuses on four dominant
personality styles in project leadership, and how these relate to project work
and the project life span.[2]
1. Ibid, pp200-201
2. See www.maxwideman.com/papers/personality/intro.htm
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PART 1
