Page 81 - Straight Talk On Project Management IV

Without fail, all her IT Project problems stemmed from issues with processes, accountability and
procedures. Her team just got a bit blasé about governance. They were applying years of experience
and tried and tested processes and procedures to their IT projects regardless of the purpose of those
projects. Sometimes it worked and other times it didn’t. It’s like when, after years of driving a
manual car, you get behind the wheel of an automatic and the indicators and steering wheel are in
the same place, but your left foot keeps looking for the clutch pedal.

You have to adapt and knowing the purpose of the project when outlining governance is key to this.

Know why!

Sometimes, just knowing the purpose isn’t enough. You have to be mindful of the meaning behind
the purpose too.
Another PM pal, Martin and his team have enjoyed some greater gains in 2019 by focussing on the
‘meaning’ of their project. He told me, “Knowing the purpose of the project is all well and good, right
now, we’re streamlining the sales order process, for instance. OK. We’re all on board with that, but
the passion and the gains come from understanding why. Why are we streamlining the sales order
process? Who benefits and how? What will they say when they pat us on the back for making it so.”

So, purpose and meaning breathe life into even the most mundane project tasks.
As Martin says, “Streamlining a sales order process doesn’t sound like something to get excited
about. This isn’t what I dreamt of when I was at school! But having a clear grasp of the meaning of
our work has delivered tangibly, measurably better results!”

Lego

There is a study that backs this up, which I was reminded of listening to a recent podcast by
psychologist Richard Nicholls (search him out – he’s very good!).

Published in ‘The Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization’, 3 MIT professors experimented with
a series of tasks that were made increasingly meaningLESS or meaningFUL, depending upon context.

If you’ve spent any time over Christmas helping the kids build Lego, this will chime with you.

The MIT study carried out an experiment in which participants were asked to build Lego Bionicles
kits for money. 2 groups, same kit each time that would take about 10 minutes to build.

When finished, the kits were handed in and a financial reward was given, in the first instance $2.
Then, if they wanted to build another, they'd make 11 cents less and, after they'd made 20, a flat
rate of 2 cents for everyone made would be paid.

In the first group, each kit handed it in would be put on a desk, in full view and they were given a
new, identical kit to build. They called this the ‘Meaningful Group’.

Then there was the ‘Sisyphus Group’, named after the king in Greek mythology sentenced by Zeus to
roll a huge boulder up a hill but when he got near the top it would roll back down and Sisyphus
would be forced to start over, repeating it for all eternity.

The second group’s task was as meaningless as the punishment given to Sisyphus!! They only had 2
identical Lego kits and as they built each new one, the kit they'd just finished was taken apart and
put back in the box. So, when they wanted to do it again, they'd be given the same kit they’d just
built.