And I will just as quickly and spontaneously – and a little emotionally – now write down my heartfelt ideas. And I will contradict my friend Eberhard – with whom I have many things in common; we judge many things similarly – and his “Ode on Project Management” to some extent. I will probably cause a wave of protest among almost all “Project Managers” with this article.
Diversity: an ode to project work must be an ode to life.
It is good to see that our PM Camps always have a considerably higher percentage of female participants than normal workshops on this or similar topics. PM Camp brings all the people together because it is based on respect and eye-level. Humanity is comprised about 50% of people and 50% of women. Consequently, it is also normal that about as many women as men attend.
Everything else should really be antiquated by now. The same is true for the unfortunate discussion whether women are better at some tasks than men and which tasks this is true for – and vice versa. This is all stupid, so let us stop it!
No, what really makes PM Camps so beautiful is that the hosts of a PM Camp take pains to create a fear-free and a humane atmosphere where you can and may actually thrive! This is because we want trust and openness to become central values of the Camp. And because the persons who give and take as they participate want to be considerate about meeting each other with respect and at eye-level, thus consciously trying not to make each other look SMALLER, but instead BIGGER!
Terms: like COMPLEX and COMPLICATED, terms like BLUE and RED can only be toleated as metaphors.
Thinking and having discussions in BLUE and RED might be helpful if these terms are accepted to be metaphors. But only then. The intellectual definitions and the scientific fuss they are making annoy me just as much as the seemingly so rational debates in the Social Media.
The same is true for the dispute about the exciting but totally useless question what is the difference between COMPLEX and COMPLICATED. Again, HUMANS want to find a solution to a problem that cannot be solved.
Terms: PROJECT is nonsense. And MANEGEMENT is stupid.
Also, I despair when I read the word PROJECT and the same is true for the word MANAGEMENT.
PROJECTS are nothing but somebody giving you the task to try and realize a pre-defined goal. Incidentally, more often than not, the pre-defined task does not really describe the goal sufficiently (because mostly that is not even possible).
The MANAGEMENT is given the task of achieving the goals. Or, at least, it should pretend to achieve the goal and give very good reasons why the goals were not achieved.
Third parties formulate the goals. If a goal is achieved, it is measured with the metrics of money. These metrics pre-define the ratio capital. It is based on a perverse society and economy and a very doubtful understanding of HUMANS and LIFE.
After all, our projects are always about growth, costs, efficiency, profit …! Life, human beings and values such as contentment, peace, the common good, … are not part of the concept!
PROJECTS: they should serve the PEOPLE, instead of the PEOPLE serving the PROJECT.
That is also true for POLITICS, the ECONOMY, EDUCATION and SCIENCE. Unfortunately, however, the reality is exactly the opposite. In some way or other, everything is related to money. It does no longer serve the people, instead only seeing humans as consumers. The main goal of the powerful enterprises is strengthening their own power – humans are only consumers whose money you want.
The project is the method and the management is the operative tool. This is how humans are made to “function”. “The people are reduced to becoming a means to an end”. We forget that this very sentence is a valid definition of “acting against human dignity”- which is also something that no longer seems to be of interest to anybody in our system.
Neither will “finding a way with the projects” probably help. There are some projects I am very much in favour of. For instance, we should try to make schools in Germany (and the entire world) more humane. Or perhaps we should include the “common-good economy” as a determining principle of our economical thinking and behaviour more often. Or maybe we should conserve our planet – both in a big way and in a small way. Or maybe we should try and create PEACE – also both in a big way and in a small way.
I tried to accomplish this last feat – and found out in no time that this is exactly one of the things that cannot be done with a project approach. Consequently, I believe that projects are only good for exploitation, rather than for the “bonum commune“.
Source: I learned all this on the PM Camps I was lucky enough to have been part of.
And I am very grateful for it! One of the reasons is that my activities for PM Camp really paid on various levels. Because TO LIVE is TO LEARN and TO LEARN is TO LIVE. And as always, the rule “GIVE first, TAKE later” is not too bad.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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