216 • Creative, Ecient, and Eective Project Management
CREATIVE ABILITIES
Creative abilities are absolutely critical during the executing process. As
a planning process, this one provides several opportunities to exercise
creativity on individual and team levels.
To a large extent, most opportunities arise when a challenge, issue, or
problem impacts progress. A defect or change or potential showstopper
is a typical example. Oen, the most desired creative ability centers on
TABLE11.1 (Continued )
Executing Process and Challenges and Constraints
Challenge and Constraint Example
Overemphasis on
by-the-book philosophy
Following a change management plan despite the fact that
aneed exists to remove certain approvals to improve
performance
Poor communications Failing to inform key stakeholders that an important
change has been implemented
Poor coordination Not involving key stakeholders (identied in a responsibility
assignment matrix) while performing certain activities
Silos Allowing dierent functional organizations to work
independently on activities when they should be
performing jointly
Specialization Allowing dierent disciplines to work independently on
activities when they should be performing jointly
Start and stop ow Moving people from one activity to another before making
any progress on the former
Stretching resources too
thin
Performing two or more concurrent activities located on
the critical path of a schedule
Success Allowing the tendency to relax too long aer the successful
completion of a major milestone, leading to a slide in
activities for the next delivery
Take on only what is
known
Avoiding activities in the work breakdown structure that
have little information, but can have high payback if
executed successfully
Team composition
imbalance
Having too many individuals with the same specialized
background working on a work package when a balanced
multidisciplinary composition works better
Too many positive and
negative incentives
Giving out too many positive rewards, including rewards
for meaningless work, so that the incentive to do an
outstanding job is worthless
Too much and too little
training
Sending people o to training who do not need it, at the
expense of performing actual work for a project
Creativity and the Executing Process • 217
taking a dierent perspective and then determining a precise solution that
xes the cause, not the symptom. Logic and intuition both play a role as
well as a need to take a risk and learn from failure. Considerable analyti-
cal work is needed too, along with an ability to put the components back
together in a manner that enhances performance.
Some creative abilities required for this process are shown in Table11.2.
GROUNDWORK FOR CREATIVE ENVIRONMENT
Naturally, project managers must at least set the stage for creative abilities
to blossom forth—not an easy task when a project is going full speed ahead
toward achieving its vision, goals, and objectives. Creativity requires some
break in the momentum of a project and many times people have little
tolerance for taking the necessary time to apply creative abilities. Project
managers, therefore, can play a key role in encouraging stakeholders, espe-
cially team members, to take the necessary time to use their creative abili-
ties. ey can also encourage stakeholders to share their resources to help
others develop creative solutions. Key elements for enabling this to happen
are building trust, encouraging openness, and allowing risk taking.
Some actions that project managers can take to lay the groundwork for
a creative environment are shown in Table11.3.
GROUNDWORK FOR INDIVIDUAL CREATIVITY
From an individual perspective, project managers need to ensure that the
social and political environment allows the freedom to think creatively
and take risks by thinking dierently, using both logic and intuition. At
the same time, they must encourage such thinking in a way that does not
upset teaming because creative ideas oen require the acceptance and col-
laboration of others to implement. Project managers must communicate
their condence and trust by providing the time and resources to generate
creative solutions as well as provide an environment wherein other people
can seriously consider individual contributions.
Some actions that project managers can take to allow people to be cre-
ative are outlined in Table11.4.
218 • Creative, Ecient, and Eective Project Management
TABLE11.2
Executing Process and Creative Abilities
Creative Ability Example
Applying reverse
thinking
Evaluating the cause of a technical issue identied in the Issues
Management Log by taking the opposite view of what is
happening, thereby identifying the source of the problem
Applying synthesis Decomposing a problem into understandable components
(e.g.,technical, personnel, etc.) and then putting them together
to come up with a complete understanding of what is happening
Being iconoclastic,
even nihilistic
Ruthlessly attacking the assumptions about a request for
achange
Being analytical Decomposing a problem into fundamental parts to enhance
understanding of what has been, and is, occurring
Being observant Watching team members performing their activities to
determine whether a revised management plan is necessary for
using tools
Being precise Identifying the exact cause of a problem, such as a slide on
acritical path in a schedule
Being self-critical Questioning one’s own assumptions to the point of reversing
adecision about responding to an issue in the Issues
Management Log
Combining intuition
and logic
Acting on a technical or general problem where the information
is inadequate but requires action soon before it negatively
impacts a project
Determining the
essence of something
Taking time with the team to analyze the cause of a change
request
Embracing ambiguity Acting on a problem where the cause is dicult to determine
and the consequences of a x will be hard to anticipate
Having fun Holding a party for a team to relieve stress, build esprit de corps,
and celebrate successes to date
Listening to your
intuition
Operating on a gut feeling about a problem when facts and data
are hard to nd
Looking from the
outside, in
Extricating yourself and others from a problem, which increases
objectivity and independence when evaluating a change
request
Reasoning Evaluating a change request from a purely cost perspective
Shiing between
convergent and
divergent thinking
Evaluating the impact of a potential change from a contextual
perspective and also from a detailed one (e.g., macro and micro
levels)
Shiing from analysis
to synthesis mode of
thinking
Decomposing an issue into fundamental elements, and then
putting the components back together in a way to determine
their relationships and the cause for the issue
Shiing perspectives Evaluating a change from multifunctional, multidisciplinary
perspectives
Creativity and the Executing Process • 219
GROUNDWORK FOR TEAM CREATIVITY
Project managers must also set the environment to encourage creativity
on a team level. Again, the social and political environment plays a crucial
role in helping creativity to blossom forth. Key in this respect is ensuring
that the team tolerates new ideas; project managers should, for example,
counter the potential for groupthink. ey must, at the same time, ensure
the team capitalizes on its synergistic capabilities by encouraging greater
relationship building; providing facilitating as a directing role; keeping
everyone focused on the vision, goals, and objectives; and engendering a
learning, sharing, and collating environment, all coupled with ongoing
communication.
Some actions that project managers can take to allow teams to be
creative are outlined in Table11.5.
RELEVANT TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES
e tools and techniques for the executing process are more focused on
developing creative solutions to resolve problems or issues. If a project
runs smoothly, then applied rather than critical thinking has a prevalent
role. If a project is like many others, then unforeseen problems or issues
TABLE11.2 (Continued )
Executing Process and Creative Abilities
Creative Ability Example
Suspending judgment Waiting for all the schedule, cost, and quality facts and data
about an issue to be in before making a decision about a change
request
Tinkering Experimenting with a change to the schedule to see the impact
on the project end date
Uncovering patterns Reviewing schedule data to determine patterns with the
performance involving certain team members
Unlearning and
relearning
Quitting making revised single-point estimates and performing
the three-point estimate technique
Using linear thinking Replanning by drawing a revised network diagram
Using nonlinear
thinking
Drawing data ow diagrams to reect interaction among revised
contents within a cost management plan
220 • Creative, Ecient, and Eective Project Management
TABLE11.3
Executing Process and Groundwork for a Creative Environment
Action Example
Allow for risk taking Giving support to team members to take a dierent technical
approach that has a high chance of failure but, if it succeeds,
will improve cost and schedule performance
Allow time for issue
denition
Setting aside sucient time for analysis of a change request
Build and maintain
trust
Continuously communicate both positive and negative
information
Concentrate creative
energy
Allowing noncritical activities to slide by shiing people to
work on activities that are slipping on the critical path in the
schedule
Counter groupthink Assigning new people on the project who do not have a vested
interest in what was done in the past
Emphasize
coordination
Encouraging people from dierent disciplines to work together
to resolve an issue identied in the Issues Management Log
Encourage a certain
degree of anxiety
and tension
Keeping approaching milestones in the forefront of the minds of
key stakeholders
Encourage ownership Giving people an opportunity to present the outcome of their
eorts to the rest of the project team and other key
stakeholders
Encourage
transformational
leadership
Pushing people to apply their skills in a way that goes beyond the
norm
Establish a receptive
audience
Working to keep key stakeholders, especially senior leaders,
abreast of what is going on in the project
Grant people access
to data to do their
job
Removing obstacles that prohibit team members from getting
the data needed to do their job
Grant access to
necessary tools
Ensuring team members have the necessary soware to collect
and process data
Make training
available
Providing timely training before team members need it, not
during or aer
Provide opportunities
to create
Allowing people some time to experiment with a new tool or
technique to see what outcome might occur
Relax rules,
procedures, etc.
Reducing the number of required approvals to obtain tools
anddata
Reward risk taking Giving people recognition for taking a risk, even if they fail
Stress
communications
Constantly emphasizing the need for people to inform others
about the results of their work
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