True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.
Winston Churchill – English Prime Minister
Project management is risk management. If projects were simple, straightforward, and had no risk of cost, schedule, scope, and quality variances, then a project manager wouldn’t be necessary. I like the model of orchestra conductor as project manager and risk manager.
Henry Mintzberg, the famous writer and academic, captured the essence of project risk:
“The great myth is the manager as orchestra conductor. It’s this idea of standing on a pedestal and you wave your baton and accounting comes in, and you wave it somewhere else and marketing chimes in with accounting, and they all sound very glorious. But management is more like orchestra conducting during rehearsals, when everything is going wrong.”[i]
The orchestra conductor is a project team leader and risk coach rather than an authoritarian manager. The conductor leads a group of professionals who are proficient with their instruments and know their individual capabilities. The modern conductor interprets the musical score and shapes the orchestra’s sound so it pleases the audience. The conductor then leads by interpretation, example, and strength of personality rather than by barking orders.
What about the ass-hole or control freak project manager of a death march project? This VUCAN is a Theory X authoritarian ‘my way or the highway boss’. They’re very good in getting project getting done on budget and on schedule unfortunately with strewn bodies.
Work Lesson Earned: A project manager has a tough job. If a PM can’t bring in projects on time and within budget, then this person is replaced. It is a game of project musical chairs. Few do it well. The PM is reacting to changing stakeholder requirements, demanding schedules, cost pressures, and signing off on project objectives the PM knows can’t be achieved. So if you develop strong project management and risk management skills, these are something you can use throughout your life.
[i] ‘Six Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Managing People’, Medium, May 25, 2019.