Leaders, listen up!

‘My way or the highway’ isn’t the formula for influencing effective change, warns Jo Russell, who says self-appointed gurus may find their recommendations fall on deaf ears

Albert Einstein is widely quoted as saying that insanity, by definition, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. There is no proof that these were actually the great physicist’s words, and they certainly weren’t said about project management, but they have resonance nonetheless. In order for any profession to evolve, there needs to be fresh input – without this, the same tasks will be done in the same way, incurring the same old problems.

“Without thought leadership, the profession would get stuck in a rut and not develop,” says Adrian Dooley, lead author of the Praxis framework (a free project management resource). “People at the coalface are under pressure day-to-day to get the job done. Every now and again, they need others to take them out of their sphere and encourage them to look at things in a different way.”

Fresh input is especially important for project management because of its cross-functional nature. “Project management is more diverse than most professions,” continues Dooley. “We can pick up things from one domain and transfer them to others. When I first started out, desktop computers were in their infancy and project management was well established in construction and engineering. As IT developed, it drew on construction expertise. Now it is IT being transferred back into construction.”

This cross-fertilisation of ideas and approaches is a good thing that can benefit all, says Brian Wernham, consultant and author. “In the last few decades we have seen diverse industries, such as pharmacology, media and fashion, taking on project management where it didn’t really exist before,” he explains. “For example, pharma companies have fantastic expertise in risk and portfolio management in order to increase the chances of finding the big breakthrough drugs for the next decades. Similarly, the construction industry is taking on a lot of the agile ideas from the ‘IT brigade’, especially where IT is interfacing with buildings in civil projects.”

Positive potential
Thought leadership that can help tasks be performed in a better way is undoubtedly a positive force in the field of project management. But this does not apply to all thoughts, or all self-appointed thought leaders. The trouble, Dooley believes, is that the internet and social media have enabled delivery of a “tsunami of information”. Much of this information can be inconsequential, misleading, or even wrong. 

“There are a lot of people who want to position themselves as thought leaders and sell knowledge. Information gets packaged as the next big thing, and sometimes it’s the same stuff repackaged as thought leadership. The last 30 years are littered with ideas that were promoted as the panacea, but proved not to be. Thought leadership is in danger of getting hijacked by the ‘quick-fix’ brigade,” he says.

This current obsession with ‘quick-fix solutions’ is skewing the landscape, Dooley believes. Thought leadership should be aiming to change behaviours and attitudes, rather than focusing on quick fixes. He uses the analogy of dieting to draw out this point: “In the US, people spend $45bn a year on diets. But the best diet is the ‘Billy Connolly diet’ – eat less and move more. That doesn’t cost $45bn.”

So if we think about dieting in terms of thought leadership, we might point to someone like Robert Atkins, founder of the widely followed Atkins diet, as a thought leader. But if someone says, “eat less and move more”, is that really thought leadership? 

“Yes it is,” argues Dooley. “My role in thought leadership is to get you to accept this simple solution and to change your behaviour to adopt this solution. It is not thought leadership in terms of coming up with a bright idea, but in terms of making people change the way they think.”
Thought leadership in project management terms means conceptualising and voicing ideas that develop the profession. The route for that is not always through shiny new ideas, and indeed may be as simple as doing the boring stuff well. That is not to say that there is no room for blue-sky thinking. But, Dooley concludes, it has to be accepted as theoretical and not the ultimate solution: “We need both blue-sky thinking and experience. We do not need plastic thought leadership that tends to overwhelm the good stuff.”

Vital distinction 
The role that experience plays is picked up on by Wernham, who draws a distinction between true thought leaders and self-styled ‘gurus’: “A good thought leader listens to other people, has a wide radar horizon, is constantly looking for good ideas, synthesising them and helping other people to realise their potential. Gurus tend to have one theoretical approach, and to be prescriptive and close-minded. Gurus say ‘my way is the only way’. Every generation of project management has these quite arrogant, self-styled experts.”

In contrast, “thought leaders provide added value out of a rich tool bag of techniques, plus experience of when to use each technique”, he continues. “Look at an experienced carpenter who has a big tool bag and won’t use the same tool for each job. His or her experience is more important than the exact tools.

“Thought leadership is about enabling the people in your team to pick out the right tools at the right time. Every project is in some way unique. You have to look at that bag of tools and think about how you will approach that project in a nuanced way.”

This is not to say that every project leader is a thought leader, says Richard Newton, founder of consultancy Enixus. “A project leader may be applying knowledge to a team that it didn’t have before. But not all projects are pushing the boundaries of project management knowledge. I believe a thought leader in project management is someone who has an understanding of the practicalities of project management, and successfully applies ideas that haven’t been used before on projects, or is applying ideas in a different way, and is therefore expanding the body of knowledge,” he says.

Culture challenge
Whether a guru, an extrovert showman, or a project manager capable of leading people’s thoughts, today’s thought leaders operate in a variety of environments, but face common challenges and trends. At the top of the list is the cultural change in attitudes towards people and teams.

“Project management originated as a technical discipline in terms of developing a plan, estimating the length of tasks and managing the creation of deliverables. 

Now we see project leadership in terms of developing an environment in which a project team can deliver,” says Newton. 
This trend centres around a more general cultural shift, he continues: “We are more focused on people and their development. Historically, development was a line manager’s role rather than a project manager’s. But we now expect people to learn and develop in all aspects of work. Experience shows that focusing on developing a team, in addition to the traditional skills of planning and driving delivery, will lead to more efficient and sustainable results. Often the people on one project will be the ones you work with again on the next.”

The trend can be seen in the rise of agile project management. It promotes self-managing teams. It places responsibility on leaders to create an environment in which team members can manage themselves, rather than to direct every task. While agile is far from new, it is expanding well beyond its origins in software development into more widespread project management use. 

“It’s interesting to see people adopting themes and ideas from agile and applying them to non-agile projects,” comments Newton. “For example, retrospectives and daily stand-ups have become common things for people to do whether they are following agile or not. It’s a change in the way many projects are run, although it’s not the answer to all project problems.”

But it is not just a focus on people. Innovation is also setting the agenda and causing this interest in agile, argues Brian Wernham: “Innovation comes in fits and starts. You have periods of equilibrium, punctuated by rapid change when something disruptive (technology, business models) comes along.”

Right now, he continues: “We are looking at a period of unprecedented technological change. We are working with technology we didn’t have 10 or 20 years ago. Classic waterfall project management may be suitable for a period of equilibrium. But if there is a disruptive technology coming along, or game-changing innovation planned, then an agile approach is more suitable. Hence the prevalence of agile in IT and other areas of innovation that are seeing unforeseen disruption every few years.” 

Within this continuing trend towards agile, Wernham highlights scalability. While the Scrum methodology is aimed at team-sized groups, the past six months have seen the Disciplined Agile Delivery method (DAD) and Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) being touted. Both are aimed at portfolio programme level. The DSDM Consortium, the community that supports agile project management and is also guardian of the framework known as the Dynamic Systems Development Method, has just issued a new guide for agile programmes. This considers how dispersed teams can work to a common programme or portfolio objective.

Vital component
Ultimately, regardless of the specific environment or tools used, true thought leadership has the potential to develop project management, helping to move the agenda forwards and deliver better, more efficient projects. Yet, paradoxically, the people fulfilling this role wouldn’t necessarily consider themselves to be doing so. With this in mind, the self-appointed ‘gurus’ would do well to remember that the label ‘thought leader’ will always be the gift of the listener. 

Spread your influence: Five ways to make an impact 

1. Be visible. Activities such as writing blogs, making posts on social media, and speaking at conferences will promote the knowledge you have.

2. Give time. Make yourself available to coach and mentor other people. This will allow you to both gain new perspectives and offer the benefit of your own experience.

3. Watch your language. Speak the language of the people you lead to foster understanding. For example, talk to a CFO in terms of balance sheets and budgets, or to a marketing team about its customers. 

4. Be seen to deliver. Adopt a new set of thinking, apply it, and let the results be seen. People need to see delivery; they will not have absolute confidence in your abilities based on trust alone.

5. Be patient. Accept that the process will take time. One project does not a thought leader make. The title comes from respect earned through experience built up over time, not overnight. 

Thought leadership in action
How can organisations govern in an agile way? How can board members be encouraged to adopt the lessons from agile thinking into their decision-making and large-scale innovation projects? APM is producing a slim guide on agile governance, due out in 2015, aimed at board members. 

Leading the project is Brian Wernham, author of Agile Project Management for Government, who comments: “The governance of innovation projects needs a shake-up to bring itself into the 21st century. This guide will provide leadership on this issue.” 

Find out more about this project