Photography by Angela7Dreams.

To cope with the environment you need a brain that can use many mental models to look at reality. You need to be able to throw away your pre-programmed belief and adopt a different mindset in the blink of an eye.

The first part of becoming a flexible Project Manager therefor starts within the comfort of your own head. In this post I will outline the three steps that should guide your journey. In the next period each step will be explained in more detail.

These steps are similar to Emotional Intelligence, however in this context it mostly relates to the actions you perform with the project.

Self-Aware

The first step is to become aware of why you do what you do. Do you perform tasks because you are expected to do so, or do they really solve a problem or mitigate a risk? Are you aware of why you have organized the project in a certain way? Do you know the benefits and drawbacks of every procedure you installed in your team?

Emphatic

After becoming self-aware you can start guessing why others are doing what they are doing. First you guess, later you ask. This is the same process to become self-aware, only this time you adopt different assumptions, take on a believe system that is not your own.

If you are used to run a country and you have a communist background, you probably are trying to regulate, centralize and formalize as much as possible. You want to control every individual behavior in order to control the whole system. When you are raised with a more laissez-faire world view, you can adopt a reign that is totally governed by the free market. Nothing is centrally controlled, everything will take care of itself. If you run one country, to become more emphatic, you will use the other mindset for a while.

This is the step where it is time you read up on your psychology and sociology knowledge. This is were you defend the agile method point of view when you are a die-hard PMP.

Holistic

Free at last. Free at last.

In this final stage you are able to use all kind of mental models. You are aware of what triggers what. You can mix and match from different world views. You use an Agile planing within a Prince 2 organization. And you know why you use it! You get to know how to look at dynamic-complexity without getting into a spasm. You come up with all new kind of weird mental models (like a Fish Pond – eek).

This is the step where I get my little brass gong out again… You are one! Ahum!

Bas de Baar is an independent consultant based in the Netherlands. He uniquely combines over a decade of project and team leadership with nearly a decade online presence in the area of Project Leadership in a global and virtual world.

3 Steps Towards Becoming An Agile Project Manager

The mental model a person has of the world determines his behavior and therefor his effectiveness within the environment. The agility of his brain affects his resilience to change. Training the brain for flexibility, learning the brain to switch assumptions, move from holistic to isolated views is something achieved by meditation. Despite the joke in the first paragraph, meditation is not a out-of-this-world technique. You can also look at it as an intense form of concentration and reflection.

The benefits are multiple. It helps you to be relaxed. It enables you to focus more, observe the environment without drawing instant stereotyped conclusions. When you have a clear mind, your judgment is far more effective than when you are tired and you cannot stop the chatter inside your head. My suggestion is that you take a look at meditation techniques. Start with simple breathing exercises and crank it up a notch when you feel like it.

Paul Konasewich even goes a little further in stating that the three secrets to peak performance leadership are good eating habits, proper physical condition and meditation.

Before you get all defensive on how this links to complex situations and problem solving with a team, I urge you to download my report on the use of systems thinking to analyze project problems. It outlines a technique to assess complex situations with a team. It attempts to circumvent any bias towards perceived causes by creating a holistic and open minded process.

Ahum! Be all Zen.

Now instead of my Gantt chart I will be using a little brass gong to synchronize the teams flow.

Make jokes about it. It is a good way for technical oriented, difficult-to-show-emotions, work-is-war men that we are, to deal with this issue. Now find yourself a spot where nobody can see you, and float free like a bird.

Bas de Baar is an independent consultant based in the Netherlands. He uniquely combines over a decade of project and team leadership with nearly a decade online presence in the area of Project Leadership in a global and virtual world.

Increase Your Management Skills By Meditation