22 Feb Project Economy – A fundamental paradigm shift in times of “Gabrielle”

Traditionally operations created tremendous value through advances in efficiency and productivity, but for most of the current century, productivity in our economies has almost been flat.

Despite the explosion of the internet, shorter product life cycles, and huge growth in the areas of AI and robotics, we have not seen the same level of advancement.

Meanwhile, projects are increasingly driving both short-term performance and long-term value. This is due to changing of organisations and more frequent organisational transformations such as faster development of new products, faster adoption of new technologies, etc.

Forward-looking businesses have recognised this shift and soon, they will no longer have job descriptions, but project roles.

We often think of projects of standing in the way of our regular job, whereas it is suggested that we change our thinking to create more long-term value by focusing on the projects and adjust everything to accomodate it.

However, when projects are not managed clearly, not scoped, launch dates not met, and strategic initiatives not being delivered, it will put the organisations future a risk.

Projects give work meaning. Behavioural and social science show that projects can be especially motivating and inspiring for team members. The moments we feel most proud of almost always happen on the projects we work on. This is not only true for the successful ones, but often even those that “fail”.

If organisations are to undergo the transformation necessary to ensure they turn crises into opportunities, they must upskill and reskill changemakers with the right tools and technologies so they can drive transformation efforts from within the organisation.

If we need one skill in our everyday lives, it is being able to accept and embrace change.

Projects “COVID” and “CYCLONE GABRIELLE” saw a real application of this concept. We appoint project managers, new ministers, new disaster management units, and so forth. This is how you focus on the desired outcome and project manage your resources to the affected areas.

Kia Kaha Aotearoa, we are all in this together.