Page 73 - Straight Talk On Project Management IV

Creating an awareness of the existence of cognitive dissonance will, hopefully, lead you to ask the
right questions! Ask yourself searching questions about all your Project management judgements
and you should create a safety net, sometimes all you need is some thinking space.

Ultimately, cognitive dissonance is about the baggage that you carry – your beliefs can impair your
judgement when faced with new evidence. Therefore, it can be helpful to get someone with no
baggage to look at your project.

Often, an external pair of eyes can see things that you have become blind to, point out evidence that
you’ve missed and opportunities that are available. An independent project management partner,
who gets to really know your business and your culture, is worth its weight in gold. Choose one that
is uncompromisingly independent and objective, steadfastly client-side and agnostic of all
technology vendors.

At Stoneseed, our values are clear and straightforward; we stand for an egalitarian culture and a
general sense of fair play. Stoneseed is solely accountable to you, our client, for instance, with my
friend’s IT Project, we’d have had no hesitation in recommending this project should be killed in the
face of the merger, unlike the resource provider who happily offered project management services
and talent for a failing project. It’s common sense! We’d rather be honest and lose business than win
business and be associated with bad IT Projects.

So, this week, open your mind to the idea that you may not be as smart as you think you are. Take a
second glance at all your IT Project Management decisions and, maybe, have that independent pair
of eyes take a look at your portfolio.
In the meantime, I’ll head up to the roof to see if that spaceship arrived yet?!

Sources:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/When-Prophecy-Fails-Leon-Festinger/