What is organic project management?
Firstly lets look at a couple of definitions of organic;
1) relating to, or derived from, living matter;
2) denoting or characterised by a harmonious relationship between the elements of a whole.
These descriptions can be applied to organisations; they are comprised of living and breathing matter (people) who by relating together seek to grow the organisation.
So how does this apply in project management?
How can you ensure that your people work together, learning and growing both themselves and the organisation, and that the projects they deliver also share these characteristics?
- People work harmoniously together on the project;
- The knowledge of how to deliver the project grows;
- Project delivery success improves; project failure is reduced.
What elements do you need to enable organic growth and innovation in project management?
Top of my list is learning and knowledge; the ability to collect, transfer, store and use knowledge continously so that your knowledge bank becomes richer.
Use knowledge as an asset to
- enable you to make better project decisions to assist growth;
- promote project innovation and new ways of doing things;
- manage risks and opportunities more effectively;
- make your organisation more fulfilling and rewarding to work in which will attract new talent with new ideas and new energy to keep your organisation relevant.
Drilling down further into the nuts and bolts of planning, running and managing projects. How can you make this process more organic?
Blueprinting
In basic terms a blueprint is a reproduction of a document or design allowing rapid and accurate replication. It replicates the knowledge, information, guidelines, to carry out something to exact specification.
In Hydra we have created innovative blueprinting technology which promotes organic project management.
A Hydra Blueprint contains everything needed for an organisation to successfully deliver its project or service. But isn’t that just knowledge management I hear you cry?! No it’s far more! From methodology and planning to documentation and reporting, it’s all stored within one place – the Blueprint. A Blueprint is the engine room that drives your organisations project or service delivery.
Within Hydra's blueprinting technology you have capability to capture project methods, tasks, information and store it in a central location so that anyone planning, running and managing the project can reference it time and time again. The blueprint grows organically over time as more and more information is added to it.
Every addition to the blueprint is like a new breathe, continually evolving and expanding the blueprint as you learn more about your projects, leading to continuous improvement and optimisation.
Example of a Hydra blueprint
Resourcing
We are all familiar with the importance of people in project management. They are the vital ingredient that can make or break a project.
How can you ensure that, as well as your projects growing organically, your people do too?
As living matter, people need to be given the ability to grow. What people learn and how this is transferred from person to person, adding new ideas and suggestions and innovation is vital for any organisation to grow.
We all know the old saying of "the only constant is change". People change, they leave, new ones arrives and the leavers footprint needs preserving for the future.
Conclusion
So to summarise, organic project management means that you continuously improve the way your projects are planned, delivered, managed and run by
- Having the right conditions to promote growth;
- Using knowledge as an asset;
- Converting that knowledge into a blueprint;
- Focus on growing your people;
- Looking at change as a positive.
If you have any feedback we welcome your comments and if would like to learn more about anything mentioned in this article please get in touch.
