In the world of project management, the sad reality is that true project success is rare. Too often, projects run over budget, exceed their timelines or fail to deliver their intended benefits. This issue extends beyond the confines of individual businesses or industries, reflecting a wider inability to meet the complex, multifaceted challenges of the 21st century, such as biodiversity loss, climate change, and growing inequality. Yet, the brain’s key function is prediction, which should, in theory, make us better at planning and executing projects. Why, then, are we failing? Psychiatrist and author Iain McGilchrist offers a potential answer, suggesting that the left hemisphere of the brain has dominated the right in Western societies, leading to this imbalance in success. This article argues that this hypothesis needs urgent research.
The Dilemma of Project Failure:
Projects are the primary vehicle for change within organizations and, indeed, across societies. However, research has shown that a significant proportion of projects do not deliver as promised. Bent Flyvbjerg’s research, for example, reveals that not only do projects frequently fail, but they do so in predictable ways, suggesting that the issue is systemic. Over-optimism, inadequate risk assessment, and power dynamics often lead to overruns and underperformance, leading to significant financial and opportunity costs.
Societal Challenges and the Failure to Adapt:
Our inability to successfully deliver projects can be viewed as a microcosm of larger issues we face as a society. Despite the increasing urgency of environmental crises such as climate change and biodiversity loss, we are struggling to implement effective, sustainable solutions at a global level. In many respects, these crises represent the ultimate ‘project failure’ – our collective inability to plan and execute actions that will deliver a safe and sustainable future.
The Predictive Brain:
Given these persistent difficulties, it may seem counterintuitive that one of the brain’s main functions is prediction. Neuroscientists like Lisa Feldman Barrett and Anil Seth suggest that much of our brain activity is geared towards predicting our environment to ensure our survival and safety. This function extends to the way we plan and manage projects. When we develop a project plan, we are, in essence, predicting the future – envisioning the steps that need to be taken, foreseeing potential obstacles, and anticipating the desired outcome.
Left Brain vs. Right Brain:
Iain McGilchrist argues that the two hemispheres of our brains have distinct ‘world views.’ The left hemisphere, according to McGilchrist, is focused on control and manipulation, using language and abstraction to categorize and understand the world. It is detail-oriented, linear, and prefers certainty and predictability – characteristics that align closely with traditional project management methodologies. On the other hand, the right hemisphere is more attuned to the broad context. It perceives the interconnectedness of things, is comfortable with ambiguity, and is more capable of dealing with complexity and uncertainty.
McGilchrist suggests that Western societies have allowed the left hemisphere to dominate, resulting in an over-reliance on predictability, certainty, and control. This left-brain dominance could potentially explain why we often fall short in dealing with complex, multifaceted issues – both in managing projects and in addressing larger societal challenges.
Urgent Need for Research:
If we accept the hypothesis that left-brain dominance is contributing to project failures and societal issues, it opens up new avenues for research and potential solutions. Perhaps, by fostering a more balanced use of our brain’s capabilities, we can improve our ability to predict, plan, and execute successful projects while also developing more effective responses to the pressing environmental crises of our time.
Investigating the Hemispheric Balance:
The first step in addressing this issue is to understand the extent of left-brain dominance in project management and its impact on project success. Research should aim to uncover how the balance or imbalance between left and right-brain thinking affects decision-making, risk assessment, and outcome prediction in project environments.
Secondly, we need to delve into the strategies that could help in rebalancing our brain’s functioning. Could certain practices, training, or methodologies encourage a more right-brain approach to project management? How can we integrate the left hemisphere’s strength in detailed planning with the right hemisphere’s skill in understanding broader context and complexity?
Applying Insights from Neuroscience:
In seeking answers to these questions, we may draw upon existing insights from neuroscience and psychology. For instance, techniques used by Feldman Barrett and Seth in their research into the brain’s predictive capabilities could be adapted to understand how these mechanisms play out in project management contexts. Furthermore, the work of Dan Siegel on interpersonal neurobiology could provide insights into how to foster more effective team dynamics in project environments, which could facilitate a more balanced hemispheric approach.
Implications for Education and Training:
These research findings could have far-reaching implications for the way we educate and train project managers. Currently, project management education tends to emphasize left-brain thinking with its focus on systematic methodologies, quantitative techniques, and structured processes. Perhaps, it’s time to re-envision this education to incorporate more right-brain thinking, fostering an understanding of complexity, context, and interconnectedness, and developing skills to navigate ambiguity and uncertainty
A Call to Action:
This isn’t merely an academic exercise or a refinement of current best practices. This is a call to action to everyone involved in the project landscape – leaders, managers, team members, stakeholders, as well as researchers and trainers. The persistent failures in project management outcomes and the increasing gravity of the environmental, social, and economic issues facing our world demand our immediate and concerted attention.
By reframing our perspective on project management through the lens of neuroscience, integrating left and right hemispheric thinking, and by leveraging our innate predictive capabilities, we can evolve our approach to not only manage but thrive amidst complexity and uncertainty. This holistic strategy is a call for a new wave of project leadership that can navigate through, adapt, and deliver in our complex world.
Investigate your current practices, seek to understand where you may be relying heavily on a singular hemispheric approach, and open yourself to the possibility of integrating a more balanced approach. Call upon researchers to further investigate these connections. Invite educators and trainers to embed these insights into their curricula and development programs. There’s an opportunity here to redefine our understanding of effective project management and, in turn, significantly improve project success rates.
And most importantly, remember that this shift is not about discarding our existing practices and tools but rather augmenting them with additional dimensions of understanding. It’s about enhancing the predictability we crave with a profound comprehension of complexity, thereby bringing forth project outcomes that are not just successful in their own right but also contribute positively to the broader context in which they exist.
In the face of chronic project failures and escalating global crises, we can’t afford to keep repeating the same mistakes. It’s time to revolutionize project management by embracing the full spectrum of our cognitive abilities. Let’s rise to this challenge and usher in a new era of project success that contributes to a more sustainable and inclusive world.
A Broader Context:
This call to action is about more than just improving project management practices. It’s about reimagining how we approach problems and develop solutions in all areas of life. The issues we face as a global society – from climate change to social inequality – are complex and interconnected. They defy the linear, reductionist thinking that has dominated our approaches to problem-solving for too long.
If we are to make progress on these issues, we need to learn to embrace complexity and ambiguity to see the broader context and the interconnectedness of things. This requires a more balanced use of our brain’s capabilities, leveraging the strengths of both hemispheres.
In essence, what we are proposing is a shift in mindset – a move away from the left-brain-dominated worldview that seeks to control and predict, towards a more holistic, integrative perspective that acknowledges the complexity and uncertainty of our world. Such a shift could potentially revolutionize not only the field of project management but also our collective ability to address the pressing challenges of our time.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, the persistent issue of project failure and the escalating environmental crises highlight the urgent need for a more holistic, integrative approach to problem-solving. The hypothesis that left-brain dominance might be a contributing factor to these issues offers a promising avenue for research and potential solutions. By exploring this further, we could revolutionize project management practices, improve our ability to address complex societal issues and pave the way for a more sustainable future.
While this task may seem daunting, it is essential to remember that the ability to predict and plan – the very skills we need to address these challenges – is fundamental to our nature. By harnessing these capabilities in a more balanced, holistic way, we can elevate not only our project success rates but also our collective ability to shape a better world. It is an opportunity that we cannot afford to miss. The time to act is now
Terry Cooke-Davies
27 May 2023
Image credit: Shutterstock. This article was created with the assistance of an AI language model developed by OpenAI.
