Culture, Communication, and Leadership for Projects in Dynamic Environments

Rapid change is an accelerating problem for projects in most industries. This article presents findings from a grounded theory study identifying project management approaches for mitigating rapid change in the course of a project. These results relate to culture, communication, and leadership and are complimentary to results previously presented on planning and control for dynamic environments. The study employed 37 in-depth interviews and three focus groups held with practitioners across ten industries (defense, community development, construction, technology, pharmaceutical, film production, scientific startups, venture capital, space, and research). Themes emerged relating to: a vision led, egalitarian, goal-orientated culture supporting experimentation; timely and efficient communication; and flexible leadership with rapid decision making. The findings address a gap in the project management literature and may be useful to practitioners.