Mental Models for Project Management
April 28th, 2003 by HalDonna Fitzgerald writes a regular column for Builder.com, The Nimble Project Manager.
She has been writing a series about Peter Senge's book The Fifth Discipline. Her series is very good. Two of the articles are about mental models: How to understand the bias of mental models and Understanding your mental models can help sharpen PM skills. She explains what Senge means by mental models, describes the significance for managing projects, and goes on to introduce techniques and actions.
Fitzgerald contends that the nimble project manager is one who operates with the view that projects are complex adaptive systems. Another way of saying the same thing is project ends and means emerge from the unique interactions of the team members with each other as they respond to an unfolding future. Fitzgerald doesn't refer to projects as linguistic by nature. However, her description of a mental model for project management applies to the linguistic action perspective.
The Mental Model of Nimble Project Management
- It's appropriate to invest the time up front to understand the goal of the project without needing to plan every step along the way.
- Nothing makes up for, or replaces, good people — staffing is everything.
- It's imperative to create a project structure that facilitates good communication — opportunities need to be communicated as well as risks.
- Nimbleness requires knowing when a situation needs to be controlled and when it needs time to evolve.
- All projects are unique in some way. Investing the time up front to understand the uniqueness helps establish the initial area of order.
Compare Fitzgerald's proposed model with Flores' seven claims listed in yesterday's posting Linguistic Action Perspective of Projects.
Fitzgerald proposes two approaches for dealing with the bias of our mental models:
- Nimbleness requires considering the impossible, the improbable, and the unlikely as a matter of course.
- (C)reate a culture of creativity on our projects.
She goes on to recommend four specific actions. They fall short. The two above approaches are manifested in conversations. Recurrence is critical. A project manager can design agendas and protocols that explicitly consider the impossible, the improbable, etc. When the team is put in the practice the behavior will follow.
One of the best sections in her article is on Chris Argyris' approach for investigating the seemingly intractable personal conflicts. Argyris calls this left-hand column exercise. Do check it out. It works. I have used the exercise for over ten years.
Warning: these articles will take some time and attention to appreciate what Fitzgerald is saying. I predict it will be worth it.
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