New books to help you deal with ‘surge events’ and lead large projects successfully, and why every leader should be empowering their team

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In 2016, when a 100ft-wide hole appeared in a five-lane motorway in the Japanese city of Fukuoka, it was resolved through a rapid, concerted effort and the road reopened within a week. The Power of Surge focuses on such high-energy, time-limited events and projects that are also sudden, urgent, short-lived, extraordinary and impactful.

We typically advocate starting projects the right way so that they stand a better chance of succeeding. Such thinking assumes that we have time to consider, plan, reflect and prepare, but on some occasions we do not have that luxury. Surge events occur when we need to accomplish big things rapidly and robustly without the benefit of preplanning. Early examples on offer include tackling a killer virus, accommodating spikes in demand at supermarkets and addressing a surge of critically ill people at a hospital – challenges that suddenly seem more pertinent.

A lot can be learned from the emergency services and aid organisations, but Michael Waters’ thinking goes beyond rescue and relief operations to encourage a surge mindset. Indeed, if surge offers a turbocharged way of doing things, why does it not normally feature as an alternative project approach? According to Waters, we don’t surge more often because we simply don’t think about it. The aim of the book is to encourage surge-infused approaches and to offer thinking architecture and tools for applying it.

The book is timely, offering new ways of thinking. The excellent introductory chapter challenges us to embrace surge and become more ambitious in employing it. Subsequent chapters build on the thinking but are often too dreary, featuring lists and inventories. The final chapter addresses mega-surges, such as collapsing ecosystems and pandemics, requiring robust responses on a massive scale. Adding surge thinking to our project vocabulary is useful and apt, but a more succinct journey through the concepts might also help in selling the idea.

Review by Darren Dalcher, professor in strategic project management at Lancaster University Management School, and director of the National Centre for Project Management

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Unleashed is an easy read, filled with lots of good ideas. They are, however, not as innovative as the authors seem to imply. From a Harvard Business School professor, I’d hoped for new and thought-provoking insights. Instead, what we have is a good book, but not a very good one. It’s a fast-paced guide for new and rising leaders but there is little to expand the perspectives of a seasoned project leader.

The core theme is empowerment. Frei and Morriss see the role of the leader as one of getting the best from their team, and weave a framework of five levels in which to do this. The first two, Trust and Love, will be familiar to those with a knowledge of servant leadership. As a big advocate for this (see my column in Project, spring 2019) I wanted to love these chapters, but with no new insights, they were disappointing.

Ironically, it was the later chapters I enjoyed more, especially those on Belonging – their third level. This not only advocates for a more diverse team, but offers lots of practical advice. However, it will only be of use to project managers who have a direct influence on recruitment.

The last two levels are where the authors argue that the leader has the greatest impact through their absence by the creation of a guiding Strategy and building an empowering Culture. Few of us have an impact on our organisation’s strategy, but I enjoyed the case studies. Where we can have an impact is over the cultures of the projects we lead. What a shame then, that this section is the thinnest. I so wanted to like this book, but with so many far better books appearing every day, it’s one I can only recommend to a few readers.

Review by Mike Clayton, project management speaker and trainer, author of several project management books and founder of OnlinePMCourses

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Tony Llewellyn has substantial experience of working on major projects, and this is an accessible book, around 200 pages long, with case studies to bring the theory to life. It is targeted at those aiming to take on a leadership role on a major project, but is also useful for seasoned professionals as a reminder of why certain approaches work well.

Big Teams helps those familiar with smaller projects to understand that their experience does not upscale to major ones. The inevitable uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity that define major projects are well set out. This is something that those new to the arena can often find themselves wrong-footed by. Llewellyn helps us understand and embrace the environment and continue to be successful.

I particularly enjoyed the discussion around management thinker Frederic Laloux’s stages of organisational development, taking us from the red command-and-control through to the pluralist green stage. Llewellyn provides a succinct consideration of the range of approaches and how they have evolved. His list of what teams do not need speaks volumes.

In the major project environment, collaboration can be an overused phrase that sometimes exists on paper only, with a commensurate lack of trust between collaborators. The author discusses how challenging it is to create an environment of trust and provides a checklist on how to remove possible obstacles.

Perhaps the most significant chapter is on resilience. The case study ‘Preparing for the Storm’ provides an accessible story to learn from, set in a highly unpredictable environment. While aspects of major projects, such as set-up, are relatively obvious, resilience, reflection and transition can be missed and are key to success, and the author’s points are well made.

Big Teams includes valuable references for future reading and refers to the author’s website for tools and techniques. It is peppered with nuggets of wisdom and much of the material will be beneficial to anyone involved in a project environment.

Review by Julie Wood, director and leader, major complex projects, Arup

My Bedside Books

James Lea, consulting project and programme manager, and Fellow of APM.

Skin in the Game
Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Risk is central to the lives of project managers. No one commands this subject better than Taleb. His earlier books, Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan and Antifragile, lay the foundations for this one, which explores the ‘hidden asymmetries in daily life’. What can be one person’s gain is often a result of another’s loss: risk transfer. Reading it has helped me understand just how widespread this phenomenon is. The realm a project manager directly controls is small; we must pay attention to a range of external risks and behaviours across many interrelated parties. This book will change your thinking and help you recognise and manage the world better.

Effective Project Management
Robert K Wysocki

The agile v waterfall v hybrid debate rolls on. This book helps put it to bed. Wysocki sets out a project landscape model that describes how to select the best approach at the project design stage, taking clarity of goal and solution into account. I find this a powerful approach, as it describes what to do when neither goal nor solution is clear. It also identifies another case where the solution is clear, but the goal is not. By understanding the taxonomy of projects, they make more sense, and we can draw on our experience more effectively. The rest of the text looks at specific techniques and treads more common ground.

Freedom from Command & Control
John Seddon

I love this title! The subtitle, ‘a better way to make the work work’, makes clear Seddon’s emphasis. He shows how we can apply ideas from Demming, the Toyota Production System and lean to improve service organisations. He excoriates target-setting and has lots to say about effective measures and use of data. He notes that “the Japanese miracle had at its heart the training of the workforce to work on the work, not just do the work”. These lessons are applicable to all projects and project organisations. We must design work so that it flows seamlessly to customers – without whom we would not have our projects.

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