Right-Brain Project Management

Right-Brain Project Management

by B. Michael Aucoin
Released May 2007
Publisher(s): Berrett-Koehler Publishers
ISBN: 9781523096008

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Book description

Right-Brain Project Management: A Complementary Approach looks at contemporary project management from a fresh perspective, exploring “right-brain" approaches that are intuitive and capitalize on natural human thinking and activity. Coupled with the logical and formal, or “left-brain," methodology associated with conventional project management, facilitation of right-brain functions offers a good range of techniques for project success. Presenting extensive research and the experiences of project managers who use right-brain approaches successfully, this book sheds a unique and hopeful light on conquering the challenges of contemporary projects. In this valuable resource, you will:
•Explore the current landscape of project management, which highlights contemporary projects that are complex and aggressive
•Examine topics that address how people grow and develop patterns of thinking and attitudes that have a profound effect on the management of projects
•Consider what truly motivates people to get out of bed and right to their projects
•Evaluate the profound changes that take place on projects and how to navigate those changes
•Discover the seven principles of right-brain project management, founded on the powerful and rich processing capabilities of the right brain

Learn how the successful project manager can become a whole-brain project manager by enlisting resources from both the right and the left sides, and how to further enhance project management by incorporating innovation and flexibility.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. About the Author
  5. Contents
  6. Foreword by Doug DeCarlo
  7. Preface
  8. 1 What’s Wrong with Project Management?
    1. But, First ... What’s Right with Project Management
    2. Unmet Expectations
    3. Mediocre Performance
    4. Rules ... and More Rules
    5. Where Are the “Jump Out of Bed” Projects?
    6. Make Sense ... and Make Success
    7. Limitations of Standard Approaches
    8. What Is Missing?
  9. 2 Child’s Play … and Maturity
    1. Toddling through Projects
    2. An Instinct for Projects
    3. Building Blocks of Project Management
    4. Increasing Sophistication
    5. What’s Your Worldview?
    6. Synthesis: Greater than the Sum of Parts
    7. Immanuel Kant, Project Manager
    8. Causation and Uncertainty
    9. Tensions in Project Management Models
    10. Development into Maturity
    11. The “Other” Intelligences
    12. Emotional Intelligence
    13. Moral Intelligence
    14. Maturity in the Organization
    15. Maturity Makes for Better Projects
  10. 3 Two Brains Are Better than One
    1. Structure and Operation of the Brain
    2. Early Research on Brain Specialization
    3. Getting Emotional over Decisions
    4. The Moral Brain
    5. Right Brain/Left Brain Partnership
    6. Consciousness
    7. Learning and Applying: The Two Brains at Work
    8. Do You Use Your Right Brain?
    9. Intuition
    10. Connection to Personality
    11. Application to Projects
  11. 4 Motivation: The Need to Act
    1. Is That All There Is?
    2. Cogs in the Machine
    3. Human Relations
    4. Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy
    5. Hidden Motivation
    6. Theory X, Theory Y
    7. Theory Z
    8. Herzberg’s Motivation Theory
    9. Working in Groups
    10. Motivation Comes from Emotion
    11. It’s Contagious
    12. The Dark Side
    13. Implications for Projects
  12. 5 Projects Create Change, and Change Needs Leadership
    1. Projects Are Agents of Change
    2. Understanding Change
    3. Motivation: Internal or External
    4. Emotion: The Link from External to Internal Motivation
    5. Leadership
    6. What’s the Problem?
    7. Vision and Alignment
    8. Change for the Better?
    9. Leadership and Emotions
      1. Navigating Change by Bryan Webber
    10. Wanted: Skilled Leader with Emotional Intelligence
    11. Making Change Systematic
    12. Distributed Leadership
    13. Transformational Leadership
    14. Individual and Organizational Change
  13. 6 Tools of the Trade: Working with the Right Brain
    1. Second That Emotion
    2. Creativity and Pattern Discovery
    3. Metaphor
    4. Tell the Story
    5. Non-Verbal Communication
      1. Visualizing the Project by Matt Glei
    6. Intuition
    7. Striking the Balance
  14. 7 Doing What Works: Contemporary Projects in an Accelerated World
    1. Ancient Project Management
    2. Rational Projects
    3. Origins of Modern Project Management
    4. The Project Management Profession
    5. The PMBOK® Guide
    6. Other Project Models
    7. Risk and the Organization
    8. New Realities
    9. Applying the Appropriate Approach
    10. How We Work
    11. Taking It to the Extreme
  15. 8 Making the Complex Simple
    1. Where Are We in Project Management?
    2. Understanding Complexity
    3. Categories of Complexity
    4. Adapting Management to Complexity
    5. Complexity and Uncertainty in Organizations
    6. Describing the Uncertain
    7. Management Approaches
    8. Risk versus Uncertainty
    9. Uncertainty Management
    10. Making Sense of Complexity
    11. A Fresh Perspective
  16. 9 That’s Incredible: Case Studies of Phenomenal Projects
    1. The Skunk Works®
    2. Apollo 13
    3. Linux
    4. Hurricane Katrina Shelter at the Houston Astrodome
    5. Red, White, and Blue Out
    6. Lessons Learned
  17. 10 Principles of Right-Brain Project Management
    1. What Do Project Teams Need?
    2. Principles of Right-Brain Project Management
  18. 11 Discovering Fire: Finding the Compelling Purpose
    1. What Is the Most Important Resource?
    2. What Is Compelling?
    3. Values: Change or Inertia
    4. The Search for Meaning
    5. My Projects Are Just ... Boring
    6. Statements of Core Purpose
    7. Genuine Purpose
    8. Right-Brain Toolkit: Purpose
    9. The “Cool” Factor
    10. Distributed Purpose
    11. Making the Human Connection
      1. The Project’s Emotional Environment by Jill Irwin
  19. 12 Solving the Mystery: Making Sense of the Project
    1. Destination and Journey
    2. Truth Be Told
    3. Learning to Perceive
    4. Finding a New Perspective
    5. Stuff Happens
    6. Making Sense of Complexity: Emergent Order
    7. Analogy: The Party
    8. The Challenge of Making Sense
    9. Learning Projects
    10. Organizational Complexity
    11. Sense-Making Model
    12. How to Fight a War
    13. Acceptable Sloppiness
    14. Right-Brain Toolkit: Hitting the Box
  20. 13 A Trip to the Laboratory: Experimenting and Adapting
    1. A Trip to the Laboratory
    2. When to Experiment
    3. An Experimental Attitude
    4. Learn to Learn
    5. Plan to Experiment
    6. Efficient Experimentation
    7. Thanks, Mr. Pareto
    8. Solving the Right Problem
    9. Selling the Stakeholders
    10. Right-Brain Toolkit: Design of Experiments
    11. The Experimental Organization
    12. Just Do It
  21. 14 Painting without Numbers: Creating the New Reality
    1. Projects Are Creations
    2. Creativity and Innovation
    3. Who Is Creative?
    4. Patterns of Thought
    5. Creativity in an Organization
    6. Birthright or Skill?
    7. Breaking the Rules
    8. Which Rules Do We Break?
    9. Right-Brain Toolkit: New Rules
    10. Professional Play
  22. 15 Doing Business with a Handshake: Exercising and Fulfilling Trust
    1. A Tale of Two Worlds
    2. The Payoff of Trust
    3. Components of Trust
    4. Developing Trust
    5. Self-Trust
    6. Power and Hierarchy
    7. Alignment of Goals
    8. Respect
    9. Conflict
    10. Trust: Relationship Repair
    11. Trust on Projects
    12. Compelling Purpose
    13. Breaking the Rules
    14. Distributed Leadership
      1. Entrepreneurial Projects by Carl Pritchard
    15. Communication
    16. Right-Brain Toolkit: Elements of Trust
    17. Distrust Is Risky
    18. Voluntary Trust
  23. 16 All That Jazz: Hitting the Sweet Spot
    1. Degrees of Freedom
    2. The Project Is The Song
    3. Improvising the Project
    4. Complexity = R&D
    5. The Framework and the Sweet Spot
      1. The Improvisational Attitude by Doug DeCarlo
    6. Hit the Zone
    7. Right-Brain Toolkit: Professional Play
  24. 17 Telling the Story: Leaving a Legacy
    1. The Project Legacy
    2. Objective and Subjective Success
    3. Looking at the Long Run
    4. Traveling through Time and Space
    5. Bridge of Perception
    6. Preparing the Vision
    7. Vision as Future Story
    8. The Hidden Project
    9. The Curtain Rises
    10. Right-Brain Toolkit: Something Special
  25. 18 The Hero in Us All: The Moral of the Story
    1. Becoming Better at Projects
    2. Developing Maturity
    3. The Moral of the Story
    4. Character Is the Story
    5. The Project Builds Character
    6. Becoming Better at Projects
    7. It’s Child’s Play
      1. The Project Challenge by Colin Funk
    8. Common Thread: Repairing the Disconnect
    9. Embracing the Paradox
    10. The Project Is the Story
  26. Index

Product information

  • Title: Right-Brain Project Management
  • Author(s): B. Michael Aucoin
  • Release date: May 2007
  • Publisher(s): Berrett-Koehler Publishers
  • ISBN: 9781523096008