Project management and innovation can coexist. In fact, they each can benefit from the other. When countries around the world began to sink into recession in late 2008, there was one consistent rallying cry: Cut costs.
But companies are learning that slashing their spending can only take them so far. To make it in tough times, they need a strong dose of innovation to set them apart from the pack. Sometimes that means reframing a project’s goals. Sometimes that means devising whole new processes. Whatever form it takes, companies must learn to embrace innovation—or face the consequences.
“If you cut yourself off to innovation, you cut yourself off to opportunities,” says Andrew Marshall, partner and chief innovation officer for Kepner-Tregoe, a consulting and training company in Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
But does innovation—a loosely defined concept that involves shaking up the status quo—blend well with project management—a profession built on best practices, standards, processes and methodologies?
Yes, contends Mr. Marshall. “Innovation is the lifeblood of any organization. Is there opportunity for innovation in project management? Absolutely. Does innovation need project management? Absolutely,” says Mr. Marshall, who is a past chair of the PMI Consulting Specific Interest Group (now the PMI Consulting Community of Practice.)
The techniques of how to manage, assess risk and plan for “what-if” scenarios are all cornerstones of project management. Adding innovation to the development and application of such techniques will help organizations realize more comprehensive results, says Phil Metcalf, CEO of Pelamis Wave Power. Pelamis is an Edinburgh, Scotland-based company that creates renewable energy using wave power and was dubbed one the world’s most innovative organizations this year by Fast Company.
The relationship between project management and innovation is not one-sided, of course. Innovation could learn a thing or two from the project profession. “Any process needs to be managed, and quite often [innovation] benefits from being managed as a specific project with timelines, milestones, schedules and clear scope definition. In imposing the discipline required for managing a project, success is usually more assured,” says Mr. Metcalf.
But for the partnership between innovation and project management to deliver results, executives must make it a part of the organizational culture. “Establishing forums where processes and issues can be debated and discussed, sometimes away from the day-to-day [operations], can help encourage project managers to think out of the box,” Mr. Metcalf says.
And to encourage true innovation, Mr. Marshall says project managers should define the challenge for the team and then step out of the way. He also suggests using the element of surprise. “When you introduce the process of innovation, you are asking people to step out of the norm. I put people who don’t expect to be working together, together,” he says. “People are forced to draw upon those new relationships, and new ways of working and thinking together.”
