At the beginning of my project management career I had hard time getting project team members do what I wanted. I would do my best to develop a strong plan – which was getting better with each project management book I read. I would then assign people to activities and tell them to roll up their sleeves. Results were poor.
“Well”, I thought, “it is hard to work with people. I must impose my will. I must be tough.”
I couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Each project is a game. Different people, with often diverging agendas, play a part. How can a project manager align the stakeholders around a common purpose so that they support and make the project successful? The mathematical method of Game Theory suggests a valuable insight. Continue reading
It is a shame to admit but during the first years of my project manager career I used to think that I was something like “the boss of the project team”. I expected to have formal authority over team members and be the main person they would report to. You get this impression from the classic books on project management, don’t you? The truth is that during the last ten years I have never witnessed such a project. Continue reading
