Speaking For All Mankind

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.

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.