3.3.1 Towards a strategy of interaction

Course subject(s) Module 3. Managing project complexity

Project managers in large technical projects are generally used to apply a control oriented approach. Look for example at the PMI project management knowledge areas; the dominant paradigm is control, right?

How could we learn to adopt a more interactive approach? The table below provides an overview of 14 design principles that might be useful. Please check the table and reflect upon the elements that could work in your daily practice.

                           

14 Design principles of Interaction (De Bruijn et. al., 1998)

Openness 1.       All relevant players are involved.

2.       Choices are agreed upon in process agreements.

3.       Transparency of processes and interaction.

Safety 4.       Core values of players are protected.

5.       Commitment to the process, not to the result.

6.       Players can postpone commitments.

7.       Exit rules.

Progress 8.       Incentives for co-operation, especially at the completion of processes.

9.       Top level players.

10.    The context is used to accelerate the process.

11.    Try to remove conflict from the centre of the interaction.

12.    Command and control as an accelerator for interaction.

Content 13.    Content facilitates process. Experts and stakeholders have different roles.

14.    The process develops from variety of content to selection.

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Project Management: mastering complexity by TU Delft OpenCourseWare is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://ocw.tudelft.nl/courses/project-management-mastering-complexity/.
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