Speaking For All Mankind

Nancy Dixon (author of one of the best books on communities of practice – CompanyCommand) has a great blog post about how NASA used conversation to capture knowledge gained from currently canceled Constellation program.  She describes how she helped NASA develop a knowledge capture strategy by working with NASA employees and other thought leaders in knowledge management.  Some excellent stuff here and I hope she formalizes the process into a book.

I’m still pondering its uses in project management – from Net-Map ToolBox.

I’ve seen several attempts to merge project management with knowledge management.  It’s a worthy pursuit because the synergy will greatly benefit the organization.  The big question is how to do this successfully.  Chuck Tryon and Suliman Hawamdeh at PM Hut have an interesting spin – include Requirements Management into the mix.

From ProjectSteps:

“Can we or should we do it?
Will it make our situation simpler or more complex?
Will it help us to solve a problem or cause a problem?”
Should we do nothing?”

Herding Cats has written another great post that is critical of Project Management 2.0.  What I find especially persuasive is the need for objectively assessing accomplishments that PM 2.0 seems to be missing.  In fact, almost the same set of arguments can be applied to informal learning.

Finishing up Lynn Kahn’s Performance Networks: Transforming Governance for the 21st Century.  It’s a quick read that explains the benefits of using performance networks or cross-agency networks to work on common issues such a juvenile rehabilitation or environmental issues.  Her “Ten Views of Government Performance Networks” sounds more like effective project management.  Basically, have a good vision, communicate the vision effectively, and have performance measures.  Nothing wrong with that but it does point out how government needs modern project management.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.  Just a quick pointer to a great article from Herding Cats that considers the new definition of project management 2.0 and finds that it still doesn’t explain why PM 2.0 is better than PM 1.0.  It seems another case of “the Web 2.0″ changes everything mania that has afflicted other fields like training, teaching, and public administration.  Yes,  online social networking has aided in project management but so has the telephone, the fax machine, and the copier.  The point is improving communication and not the tools that facilitate communication.  Thus, the real advance of PM 2.0 would be more effective means of communication than what is offered by PM 1.0.

Project management has been the latest management field to be hit by the 2.0 meme.  Essentially, PM 2.0 is about using social networking tools for managing projects which in itself is not bad.  Ninety percent of project management is communication and anything that helps project communication is welcomed.

No, the issue is the rush to abandon PM 1.0 in favor of PM 2.0.  Now the gurus and consultants who are leading this rush don’t really define what they mean (that sounds familiar) but they are united in their condemnation of the old project management.  This is an updating of the accidental project manager who buys a copy of Microsoft Project and thinks that is all there is to managing projects.  Now, instead of MS Project, the wiki is the magical project management tool.

Alleman at Herding Cats has been writing some great articles about the hype around PM 2.0.  Well worth the read and injection of reality in the debate.

1)  Wiki Government: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger, and Citizens More Powerful by Beth Simone Noveck.  Details how she helped create a Web 2.0 solution to where the public can help in patent reviews, Ms. Noveck gives some great tips on how to create a successful social networking site for government agencies.

2) If We Can Put a Man on the Moon: Getting Big Things Done in Government by William D. Eggers and John O’Leary.  Excellent book on how the federal government can better manage large-scale projects.  An especially-telling metaphor is the “Stargate” in which Eggers and O’Leary describe how bills designed to be passed in Congress often fail when they go through the Stargate into administration side of government and the civil servants have to figure out how to implement the new law without any guidance from those who created the law.

3) The Next Government of the United States: Why Our Institutions Fail Us and How to Fix Them by Donald F. Kettl.  Kettl, a noted scholar in public administration, describes why there needs to be a new approach to governing.  He calls for training public managers in “rocket science” which is his term for the skills that lead to the Coast Guard’s successful rescue efforts during Katrina.

I’m working up a proposal for the 2010 PMI Research Conference along with a colleague of mine.  The literature on the project manager as a leader is small and focused on the usual leadership models.  I’m proposing a different model that recognizes the management duties of the project manager and incorporating emotional intelligence research and neuroscience research.  The paper is going to be more of an outline for future research but I believe the framework is better suited to the unique qualities of project management.