Project Management and Human Nature

“You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around — and why his parents will always wave back.” – journalist William D. Tammeus

As a father, I completely understand this quote and I’ve done this many times. It’s absolutely true. As an author and reader, I’m intrigued by it. And that I heard it on an episode of Criminal Minds this year surprises me. In fact, I posted it to my Facebook account and numerous people commented on it and ‘liked it’, but I bet they would all be surprised it came from that show.

Enough about the quote, let’s talk about human nature. What is human nature? Wikipedia states that ‘human nature’ is the concept that there are a set of characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting, that all ‘normal’ humans have in common. Ok…hopefully I’m categorized as normal…depends on the day of the week probably. Answers.com defines ‘human nature’ as the sum of all qualities and traits shared by all humans. And the online Merriam-Webster dictionary site defines ‘human nature’ as the nature of humans – especially the fundamental dispositions and traits of humans.

So, back to the topic of project management. How does human nature apply to project management? Here are my thoughts…. I’m thinking it centers around a few concepts or activities such as communication, organization, control, ambition. While we don’t all have those traits, I think most individuals who would be categorized as somewhat normal have something within their being that, under the right circumstances, strives to achieve those traits. Yes, that’s what I’ll cling to. Now let me quickly apply that to project management.

Communication

As humans, we all feel the need to communicate with each other from time to time. It’s my experience that your average project manager is – or should be – on the high end of that need. Communication is key, but it still must be good, timely and effective communication. If you’re on the quiet side, you’re probably in the wrong profession.

Organization

Ok, as for me, I’m not the most organized person at home…just ask my wife. But as a project manager, I’m usually pretty organized. I wake up late at night if I’ve failed to send out an email or feel the need to update my team or the customer on something and I have to get out of bed and do it then or I’ll never get back to sleep. I must have a routine schedule for each of my projects – a regular weekly formal status call with the team and customer, a specific day of the week when the revised project schedule and status report goes out, and a specific day of the week when I have a ‘scheduled’ call with my team – I say scheduled because there’s always a lot of unscheduled communication with them also.

Control

Control kind of goes hand-in-hand with organization. The project manager must remain in control – they must be the person that the organization, the team and the customer sees as always ‘in charge.’ Otherwise, chaos will take over. It takes a certain personality….a certain confidence. If you don’t have it, you’ll likely find out soon enough. At least your team and customer will.

Ambition

Finally, ambition. The project manager must have ambition…ambition to reach the final goal for the project. Ambition to take on more responsibility. Ambition to progress in their field. If you lack that ambition, then you’re less likely to stay on top of processes and the current technology to do your job well. And it will show in your work. Project success is hard enough to achieve given all of the potential obstacles and factors. It’s critical that the PM have the ambition and drive to succeed and lead their team and customer to similar successes.

Related posts:

1. Twitter and Facebook as Project Management Tools?
2. Using Project Portfolio Management Processes to Keep Your Projects on Track
3. Project Management: The Art of Keeping it Real
4. Project Communication Series: The Project Status Report
5. PM Best Practices for the New Project Manager