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Up::0
Thanks Andrew. I admit that some of your shorthand heuristic explanations are beyond me, but I will look up the terms on the Internet.
I too found HOW BIG THINGS GET DONE a great book and read. I incorporated its lessons into a paper I wrote for CGAI in Canada. And thanks for the tip on the book about uncertainty, it is now on my list.
Up::0Team – If (a big if) we take up ICCPM’s request to consider complexity mapping, and based on a small amount of my Internet reading (there is a significant amount of interesting material there), it resulted in some initial thoughts by me, as one who has never used the technique. And while not that surprising perhaps, I found them of potentially practical value. (See the attachment) They might even jog thoughts by others, especially those who have been trained in the use of the technique.
PS – Stephen, thanks for the references steer, some gems within those references.
For consideration – Ian
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.Up::0Hi Davin – I am prepared to listen and learn more about ways to make complexity mapping useful, without practitioners having to dedicate a team to it for months-to-years on end (given the dynamics at play in complex projects) – or methods to us machine tools to ease the human capital burden significantly. The other area I am wondering is whether we might generate a long list of the things we have collectively seen go wrong in complex projects, as a sort of “forest of complexity-driven risks and dependencies”, from which project staff members could pick and choose as they execute projects? (And I saw a “Stephen Grey” in one of the articles I pulled off the Internet on complexity mapping – you Stephen?) Also of importance will be what our product would be – another paper, or maybe a webinar instead, or just feeding notes into some other group focused on complexity mapping – our thoughts and our review of that group’s work?
As for Naomi’s suggestion, a would like to be flexible, but would prefer that we not go too much later in my evenings – the tyranny of distance. But if the group wants to go midday, I am happy to bow out and read on-line of the Working Group’s posted thoughts. I am sure there are other much smarter people out there who might want to gather at another time that fits Australians better – although the end of the working day might also work for me, depending. As I will have little to offer on complexity mapping for practitioners, I should have no vote in that regard. Ian
Up::0Thanks Davin for your amazing dedication to so many meeting transcripts (and this one too that I will review), and for your insightful but subtle group leadership. And thank you to all who have participated to date for enriching my learning. Until next time, be curious! Ian
Up::0Hi all – Firstly, thanks to those last meeting participants who suggested references, and to those which Davin offered. I found some interesting and ideas new to me. Over the last 30 months, the WG has offered much additional learning aside from our 5 question-driven projects (accompanied by four papers) – such supplementary learning being a tremendous opportunity that might justify continuing as a WG.
Perhaps I am just wearing out, but I only saw four new project opportunities in our last meeting:
– sustainability (and how to manage it), which really dominated the discussion in the last meeting
– related to the last one or perhaps included in it, transparency/PR with societal and affected neighbourhood stakeholder groups
– principle-based execution of complex projects, rather-than-or-polarity-sensitive perspectives-driven and considerations-based approaches that we have employed up to now
– based on the last article that Davin offered, the importance of incorporating ‘fun’ into project execution and how it might be done
I suspect I missed some great new ideas from our last discussion and welcome all to chime in – with ones I missed, and with new ones that we have not tackled up to now. With luck, I hope to see you all n a week or so – we just did a time change in Canada, and many of you know how good I am at time changes – NOT!. Ian
Up::0Thanks Davin.
I would like to meet this superhuman person! I think that it is a useful primer for project team leaders to consider employing as a way to guide their teams when their people are running too hard and fast in any direction when faced with an emerging complex (and always seemingly urgent) problem.
I took another of the many ‘good leadership’ lists (enclosed file) , and one might see all of these attributes within the attachment. The one that might be missing is patience unless it is under calm & thoughtful. And as always, any of these could be a weakness depending on the context.
Perhaps the ‘well rounded’ project execution team leader will someday be supported by an AI-generated avatar akin to DATA in Star Trek (now I am dating myself for sure …) – Ian
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.Up::0Hi Simon – I think Davin may have confused you by including in his post the draft of the ICCPM Thought Leadership topic for the coming year. That is not the Working Group’s paper as the paragraph mentioned is in ICCPM’s product. If you have any suggestions for the other paper (our Working Group paper), they are most welcome as possible amendments on cross-discipline considerations – in a post to the website, or at our meeting next week. Ian
Up::0Thanks Davin. Not sure my Word Version 2002 will capture all the features, but I will work with what translates as best I can. See you soon – Ian
Up::0Hi Team – I regret this late post, as a result of technical issues. I have now data-mined the second of our meeting transcripts, integrated it into the first data-mined report and produced the first draft of a paper on the subject of cross-discipline engagement considerations (attached). Please note the following;
– I have not formatted it as per the recent direction from ICCPM, the many hours expended to get to this stage was more than I would have desired
– I am not sure that we are on the path of the question we set for ourselves, and suggest that we replace it with the following: “To better enable risk management of complex projects, what other disciplines or communities are essential to enabling the project enterprise’s leadership to achieve project success, and what considerations may be appropriate in addressing common cross-discipline challenges?”
Hope to see you at the imminent meeting this week – Ian
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.Up::0Thanks Davin, I have modified the statement as per your comment in the next version of the document, which I will promulgate after the next meeting. As for typo’s, I am always thankful for all the help I can get! Ian
Up::0Hi Team – First of all, I wish you all great success in 2024, starting with continuing or improving health.
Thanks for the article Davin, and your comment Richard which I totally support. Still, the article was interesting.
And thank you one more time for the transcript of our last meeting in December Davin. As has been my practice, I have attempted to data mine for the significant comments made at out last meeting in 2023 – and then I tried to make some observations. The result is enclosed in the attached file.
I would offer only two points in this general post:
– The General Considerations’ section is large and offers a number of pseudo conclusions & considerations for the Working Group, including questioning whether we have the selected topic right
– There was much discussion about the challenges of conversing with contract managers. As I mentioned during the meeting, ICCPM and IACCM (the latter now re-branded as WorldCC) collaborated on generating a Thought Leadership Report entitled “Contracting for Success in Complex Projects”. To avoid repeating what is already published by ICCPM, I have included just the report’s recommendations in the attached file, but all are encouraged to read the entire report on the ICCPM website. We may wish only to highlight aspects in our own work, and draw attention to the existing report.
For consideration, and I hope to see you all at the next meeting of our Working Group – past members and anyone new with an interest (that meaning getting access to the ZOOM call by contacting ICCPM through the website, I presume). Ian
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.Up::0Hi Team – Firstly and as I already said to Sebastian, these things happen. Although confused at the time and unfortunate, we are a working group and can easily regroup.
I am okay with 7 Dec (next week, 6 Dec in Ottawa). If we do adopt the proposed new topic and once we wordsmith it (it is quite a mouthful right now). a few thoughts:
– It strikes me that we may want to first confirm the various other disciplines that we must collaborate with
– We then should tackle one or two at a time, with each of us bringing our ‘horror stories’ of when we felt left down because our collaborators would not deviate from their normal approach to facilitate solutions for complexity
– Finally, we should try to reach out to those we might know in those disciplines to query them on our thoughts (and theirs) on the subject – noting that we are not as schooled in their disciplines as they are, but recognising that they may still resist our thoughts about deviations – the latter point meaning that we might refer to the first subject we tackled but never generated a group paper about with respect to the question: “How can governance bodies (including project leaders and stakeholders) and project management practitioners who appear unaware of and/or reluctant to adopt emerging methods tailored for complex project management be influenced to accept the need to identify and then subsequently embrace complexity-appropriate initiatives and tools by creating a supportive organisational ecosystem?” (I did generate my own personal paper though, info)
Of course, we never constrain input when it is offered, so such a step-by-step approach is merely a framework for generation a new set of considerations. (And by the way, it seems that out latest paper is already published!)
For consideration Team – Ian
Up::0Team – Absent a formal transcript from the last meeting and following on from Andrew’s input, I offer the following draft proposal for consideration: ‘To better enable risk management of complex projects, what other disciplines are essential to enabling the project enterprise’s leadership to achieve project success, and what unique adjustments should such disciplines consider to support project managers in navigating complexity?’
Ian
Up::0Hi Team – We agreed at the last meeting (‘Menage a Trois’ unfortunately) to raise ideas that the Working Group might focus on next. I offer a number of thoughts for consideration:
– Review New Complex Project Leadership Competency Statement
– Different definitions of complexity to ICCPM’s definition:
– The project management PM-related enablers (e.g. contracting, governance, collaboration, cost estimation, legal, HR, PA)
– Thoughts on Expanding Heuristics for Complex Projects (building on Bent 11 in ‘How Big Things Get Done’)
– Governance
– Behaviours, Biases and Worldviews
– Single Forum for all complex project management related disciplines
Hopefully we will see more than 2-3 of us at the next meeting (9 November, I think) . But even if regular Working Group members cannot attend, please send in ideas for the next scheduled virtual gathering please? And thanks for reading – Ian
Up::0Thanks Rob for the pay system report. I believe this was known about when Canada we launched a new pay system for the Public Servants in Canada, a project called Phoenix. It was an even bigger failure, and I seem to recall that IBM used their work on the Queensland pay system in developing the disastrous Phoenix pay system. I actually published a paper (one of about 10 with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute) on the formal report proffered by a hired gun about the Phoenix fiasco (see link at Complex Project Delivery Capability Matters – Canadian Global Affairs Institute (cgai.ca)). Phoenix is yet to be sorted out 7 years after ‘go live’, with pay failures still occurring and as our Treasury Board ploughs on to replace it. Allow me to somewhat plagiarise your earlier comment, “Once again Canada covering itself in glory” (too) – Ian
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