Learn to Do Without

There is, however, a profession that addresses all three: the military, “the profession of arms.” The military, more so than any other organization, practices or rehearses its craft (3). People are forever training to accomplish hypothetical missions. Real experience (making mistakes) is obtained in a thousand ways without actual combat experience. Command post exercises, field maneuvers, battle drills, live fire, logistical exercises, training exercises without troops, terrain walks, staff rides, sand tables, map exercises, and war gaming are but a few of the ways experience is obtained. What do we in project management do that is comparable? How are change, quality, and leadership integrated and internalized? How will we intuitively respond to the “fog” of battle during the project?

In human endeavor, project management and war have much in common: moving resources to achieve a business objective is nearly identical to moving units to attain a military objective. Like war, the project environment is a harsh world—mistakes are rapidly punished, messengers are shot, and blame is placed everywhere else. And there may be casualties, because the fallout from a mismanaged project can be as traumatic—or fatal—as a battlefield wound.