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The Whole Brain Project Manager™

This program is currently only available in New Zealand Taking a Whole Brain® approach to project management Better thinking leads to better projects – what an extreme and radical idea! This talk promotes the application of Whole Brain® thinking in the project management domain and aims to help PM’s improve the thinking they apply in their projects. Project management tools and techniques have a structured, logical sequence in their application—typical left-brain function and origin. These tools and techniques have been progressively developed since the First World War, often in the context of avoiding further costly mistakes already made in one project or another.  The constant stream of new Project Management tools, techniques and methodologies are perpetuating the left brain dominance.  The proponents of new tools and methodologies often claim that further innovation is necessitated by the increase in complexity and dynamism in the modern business environment.  Better analysis, better structure and better process will ensure better projects.  Mastering new tools and methodologies can make for a more agile PM.  However much value can also be gained by improving the use of tried and tested tools.  The brain, a useful tool that is sometimes absent when projects are being conceived, is critically needed when projects are being planned and executed.  It is without doubt the oldest and most advanced and effective Project Management tool known to mankind.  The tool’s information density is unrivalled by any modern data storage media.  The processor speed is staggering.  It is fault-tolerant and perfectly adaptive (in some cases).  The female edition (version 2.0) even features hyper threading and concurrent processing.  A minor increase in our ability to use it delivers increased performance and successful outcomes.  Yet, sadly few project managers spend time in better understanding their own and their team’s thinking preferences – the ways in which they prefer to use their brains.  It is not that they do not use their brains – but there are better ways. Our early ancestors relied heavily on their limbic brain to survive. When they experienced a threat, they responded with the emotion of fear, which stimulated them to take action.  Since the Industrial Age, however, we have abandoned much of the decision support provided to us by our limbic brain.  Instead, the decisions that we rely on for our survival are determined by data, analytical methods, and organisational hierarchies.  In a world increasingly driven by knowledge and information, this makes sense - up to a point. When we assess our prospects for financial survival, we learn less by consulting our emotions than by consulting the daily stock price reports. All the same, we tacitly recognize that in many instances, especially those of great complexity and urgency, good decision making involves dimensions beyond the purely rational.  Thus, we hear prominent decision-makers, such as former General Electric CEO Jack Welch, attribute much of their success to their ability to make decisions based on their “gut instincts” or their “nose for a deal.” What such expressions indicate is that the decision-maker’s rational analysis of a situation is supported, clarified, and augmented by the emotions that associate themselves with that analysis. Whole Brain Thinking is based on Nobel-Prize winning research and has been the subject of over 50 PhD studies.  It is in use by 80% of Fortune 100 companies.  U.S. President Woodrow Wilson said, "I not only use all the brains I have but all that I can borrow."  In short, that is what Whole Brain Project Management is about.  It is not only about bringing more right brain thinking into the fray, it is also about integrated whole brain thinking and harnessing the thinking preferences of the whole team.  This talk explores ways to identify our thinking preferences and the project management consequence of these personal thinking preferences.  Utilising the concepts to be discussed will enable PMs to identify ways in which they can improve both personal and team effectiveness.  The talk aims to motivate the project professional to utilise whole brain thinking as a core skill underpinning all project disciplines.  Tap into all the brains you need - they might just not all be housed in your head.  Sometimes being smart means recognising when you're not. The price NZD $695.00 plus GST (where the participant has an existing HBDI Individual Profile). NZD $950.00 plus GST (HBDI Individual Profile, HBDI Fundamentals e-learning and feedback supplied prior to the workshop). The Location Herrmann International NZ Offices, Karaka House, 9 Huron St, Takapuna.

 

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