It seems to me that project participants, certainly leaders, need to take responsibility for keeping coherence of intentions throughout the life of the project. I’ve written about coherence before. I’ll give it attention during the series.

What about the context that is broader than the project itself — how each of the individuals or work groups relates to the company to which it belongs? It would seem that this is the background or setting for Project kaizen.

While process kaizen may need to battle internal incoherence, say between manufatcuring and the accounting department, in projects this battle is “multi-front.” Unlike process kaizen, this context may be wildly different for each of the performers in the project setting. Without understanding the concerns of each performer in the context of its own organization will we be able to fully explore Project kaizen?

Just by way of example, if an individual company measures and rewards its managers based upon cash flow metrics, those managers might be incentivized to put work in place before the project is “ready.” Any effort to control workflow for the benefit of the project might run up against the realities of the non-project context in which we are operating.

If project kaizen is to be effective, do we need to explore these underlying concerns? If so, how do we incorporate this into the pracitce of Project kaizen?