#pm_ngt-011 and pm_ngt-012 – Common sense is a counter-intuitive topic!

I suggest that common sense is not “what everyone knows” but “what everyone readily agrees with when exposed to it”. Much of what we are happy to call ‘common sense’ is actually hard to discover and has to be actively passed from person-to-person to spread.

A common sense approach to ‘projects’ rejects the current (exam based) definitions of project. Currently repeated definitions are typically some variation on “temporary organisation (or activity) to create a result (product/ deliverable)” where-as everyone knows a project is really “a reaction to manage the threats and opportunities (risks) from change in the world around us”.

Parochial (supplier-side), self-interested definitions say projects have well defined starts with clear objectives and crisp finishes that don’t make a “slow drift into use” (P2-2009 pg 206). Whereas we all recognise that many projects do start without a clear vision of their  end point, even those with clear-starts have mid-point debates about direction and often the most pragmatic and to be hopped for transition really is a slow drift towards steady state use and benefits. If it requires rote study of book phrases to pass an exam it isn’t ‘common-sense’ and probably isn’t relevant2reality in the ‘real-world’

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Our training and mentoring in #pm_ngt is a reaction to training aimed at achieving exam passes for individuals that leaves little or no shareholder value to show for the expense. The nonsense that no-one is hired without PMP or PRINCE2 credentials yet use ranges from apathetic ignoring of the trained processes to outright avoidance of their usage must be reversed to a state where knowledge purchased is worth its cost and build shareholder value. #pm_ngt is rooted in reversing the contradictions of qualifications without shareholder value/ #pm_ngt is a flexible approach to using structured steps with matched tools and techniques that build on existing investments in PM training and governance frameworks with insights that are relevant2reality™ across the end2end™ timeline and top2bottom™ span of change that runs from board-room2boiler-room and back again.