Practices for Project Leadership - First Practice

By Alexander Laufer

Embrace the "Living Order" Concept

About 2.500 years ago, Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, argued that the only constant in our world is change. Today, the economic, social, and political challenges of globalization and the rapid technological innovations make this statement as true as ever. Indeed, Peter Vaill, an American professor of management, explains that the complex, turbulent, and changing environment faced by contemporary organizations renders the leadership or these organizations like navigating in "permanent white water."

In using the "permanent white water"metaphor, Vaill calls our attention to the fact that the external environment of contemporary projects is full of surprises, tends to produce novel problems, and is "messy"and ill-structured. However, it was the French Nobel Prize winner Henri Bergson who a century ago proposed a concept of order that today might help us to better see project reality. In his 1907 book "Creative Evolution", Bergson claimed that there is no such thing as disorder, but rather two sorts or order: geometric order and living order. While in "geometric order" Bergson related to the traditional concept of order, in "living order" he referred to phenomena such as the creativity of an individual, a work of art, or the mess in my office.

The project leaders throughout this book demonstrated that they did not rush to impose "geometric order" prematurely. They knew that their projects would inevitably be affected by one or more of the following:

• Changes resulting from the dynamic environment
• Surprises resulting from the unique and often innovative tasks
• Difficulties of coping with challenging requirements and radical constraints, as well as with sudden changes in these requirements and constraints
• Numerous unexpected events and problems subsequent to the above difficulties
• Difficulties of coping with these problems due to the unique, temporary, and evolving project organization, which is composed of heterogeneous units

These project leaders were clear able to tolerate the "living order" in their projects, and you, the reader, must as well. Reflecting on the stories in this book should help you embrace Bergson's classification of two sorts of order. It should facilitate your ability to perceive reality as it is, to accept that you can't avoid "living order" in your projects and that you better expect and tolerate it. As a result, you will quickly understand and easily apply the practices to your own project.

This text is part of the book "Mastering the Leadership Role in Project Management - Practices that Deliver Remarkable Results". Author: Alexander Laufer. Editor: FT Press.

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