Ms. Savelsbergh,
PM's learn to become better PM's the same way any practitioner learns to become better - formulating a way to achieve a goal, implementing the plan, missing the goal, discerning why then learning. Also, as Peter Drucker pointed out a great learning experience involves noticing the unintended victories and discerning why those were not anticipated.
One big key is the attitude of the PM. Successful ones take personal responsibility for achieving the goal while letting others help. Less successful ones presume that the others must achieve the goal while he/she supervises from a (career) safe distance away.
PM's progress roughly according to the levels described by Prof. Donald Schon, MIT, in Educating the Reflective Practitioner: 1. Know how. 2. Reflection -- on how 'know how' was applied. 3. Knowing-in-action (devising while doing). 4. Reflection-in-action. This is the development plan for PM's to achieve their personal best.
Don't believe the latest rumor that it takes approximately 10,000 hours to master a significant role (such as chess master or project manager). More likely it takes somewhere between 1000 and 5000 learning episodes wherein each has a measurable goal, an experience is had and an objective assessment of any miss is written in a journal.
Importantly, this starts with a clear understanding of what PM signifies. One good statement is: Project --- a means of applying knowledge and enthusiasm to ideas and materials in a way that creates useful outputs.
Having said all that, a very important aspect concerns where the project is located in the coordinates of
a) extent (the total number of cognates requiring attention)
b) variety (the number of unique cognates, both temporal and semiotic), and
c) ambiguity (the uncertainty of goal, resources and progress to date due both to the 'fog of war' and to the degree of cognitive overload experienced by the PM).
There are three major locations or kinds of projects: 1) construction 2) expedition and 3) exploration.
In construction projects variety and ambiguity are both relatively low; Outcome is described, Path is fixed, Resources are provided and Management focus is on attendance.
In expedition projects extent, variety and ambiguity are medium; Outcome is specified, Path is adapted, Resources are prepared as necessary and Management focus is on Risk
In exploration projects extent, variety and ambiguity are high; Outcome is idealized, Path is discovered, Resources are generated as needed and Management focus is on learning (and staying alive long enough to do so).
Note that the PMI training is mostly oriented to the construction kind of project and does not prepare exemplary PM's for Expedition or Exploration.
Hope this helps.
Jack Ring
On Nov 10, 2011, at 8:21 PM, Jack Ring wrote:
> Ms. Savelsbergh,
> Does this mean that universities do not know they are supposed to be a program of projects?
> Jack Ring
>
>
> From: "Savelsbergh, Chantal" <
Chantal.savelsbergh@OU.NL>
> To:
MG-ED-DV@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
> Sent: Monday, November 7, 2011 2:40 AM
> Subject: The development path of Project managers and leaders
>
> Dear Colleagues,
>
> We are engaged in research on the development of project managers and project leaders. In our previous research we focussed on project teams, and discovered the prominent role of the project leader in developing his teams. This made us switch our focus to the development of project managers and leaders. We especially are curious what they need to experience, what do they learn from these experiences, how can HRD and HR support their development etc. So not which competences and character traits are needed but how do PM's learn to become better PM's, how does their development path look like. Which experiences did help, which did not..
> Hope one of you can help us to gain the latest literature and findings on developing Project managers and leaders. And any feedback is appreciated.
>
> Kindest regards,
> Chantal Savelsbergh and Peter Storm
>
> Dr. Ir. Chantal Savelsbergh
> Assistant Professor Management Science
> Prof. Dr. Peter Storm
> Open University of the Netherlands
> tel. 06-46236060
> Chantal.savelsbergh<mailto:
Chantal.savelsbergh@ou.nl>@ou.nl<mailto:
Chantal.savelsbergh@ou.nl> or chantal<mailto:
chantal@kennisenco.nl>@kennisenco.nl<mailto:
chantal@kennisenco.nl>
> peter@<mailto:
peter@kennisenco.nl>kennisenco.nl
>