For project managers stretched thin and looking to be more people-focused, grab an extra hand with artificial intelligence.
Projects have always been about people—but the process, the methods, the standards, and the governance have often got in the way.
I know there will be a possible backlash from the advocates of methodology and bodies of knowledge, and I agree, those things are useful. But honestly, there was a period when it seemed that they had become more important than the focus on people.
Add to this mix that project managers have consistently been asked to more with less and to work with distributed teams in a virtual environment. As such, the people's time has often been sacrificed to the project itself.
AI offers an opportunity for reorienting project management
Artificial intelligence (AI) offers a radical opportunity to switch back to a people-oriented focus while also alleviating project managers of much of the "drudgery" of project management.
Yes, I realize that some love this aspect of leading projects, but most don’t, if we are all honest.
In my article, "Artificial Intelligence—Aid or Threat to Project Managers?" I considered the risk and the opportunity of the rise of AI in the world of the project profession and concluded that it was a good thing. The next quantum leap in project success would be the ability to build and lead incredible project teams, anywhere and everywhere that they are individually located, into a single, purpose-driven powerhouse for success.
What are the key considerations in this new world that project managers should understand to profit from this transformation?
The importance of team performance when it comes to project success
Project team performance is a critical investment for any organization that wishes to thrive in the "new normal" project-based economy and truly optimize the AI-driven project world.
For decades, project management executives and practitioners have been asking the multi-million, and sometimes multi-billion-dollar question: Why did the project fail? (Or, at the least, why was it not as successful as hoped?)
We know that throughout a project lifecycle there are a plethora of issues that can arise that can threaten the project success. These issues creep up on project managers despite the risk management performed and forecasts put in place. Project leaders are constantly investigating where things went wrong, analyzing why they did, and strategizing how they can be avoided in the future.
Of course, when these exercises are done, the answers are not always found and if they ever are, it is all but too late.
This breeds the need for a fresh approach to project performance, an approach which seeks to understand first and foremost, those that execute and receive the project plan, the people.
This approach should be a holistic one where all likelihoods are evaluated, and bias is removed, and it should be proactive and less reactive, less periodical, and more real time.
This is the true opportunity that AI offers our profession, the chance to get back to what we should be doing, leading great project teams, and drawing the best out of people.
AI gives project managers more time to focus on their team
Which brings us back to the opportunity that artificial intelligence offers us in our profession right now: to take away the burdensome or the onerous tasks, to remove the stuff we don't really like doing, and that AI could do better than us anyway. Never tiring, greater predictive capabilities, processing huge amounts of data, etc.
It will allow us to free up our time: Gartner says that by 2030, 80% of project management tasks will be eliminated due to AI[1]. We will be able to spend our time interacting, leading, and working with the people on our project team, wherever they are in the world. This is the quantum leap, this is the opportunity that will allow the truth that projects are about people to become a reality.
AI in project management will permit project managers, project leaders, and change agents to spend time working with people to really get the best out of them.
This thought fits well with Daniel Pink’s view on motivation, and something I personally explore in my book "The Social Project Manager"[2].
In "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us"[3] Pink explains that everything we think we might know about what motivates us is probably wrong.
He puts forward a core concept of motivation called the 4 Ts, in which people want autonomy over:
Tasks
Time
Team
Technique
According to Pink, “The absence by design or other of this autonomy has bad consequences for performance and motivation. And conversely of course if you want maximum motivation then you have to give people the 4 Ts.”
Looking at the 4 Ts, we might perhaps conclude that there is little that even a social project manager can do in two of these—tasks and time—and perhaps that is correct; but an open channel of communication within the team in even these areas might offer up alternative thoughts that might be beneficial to the team and the work objectives.
This is the sandpit for AI surely: the areas of tasks, time, analytics, and predictive insights.
Under the team and technique headings, this is where the AI-supported future project manager will thrive, I believe, freed from much of the tasks and time effort by artificial intelligence.
High-performing teams deliver high-performing projects and, by default of this, great success—high-performing teams need a high-performing and engaged, motivating and people-centric project manager, who has time to focus on the people.
AI and project managers in perfect symbiosis
Bringing people and data together in harmony and alignment is critical to project success.
People, through a combination of capability, competence, and time, struggle to do this well, with the reality of the volume of data potentially available to them. And even if they can achieve this, then it is all derailed by the very human nature of optimism bias.
AI can deal with high-volume data in a non-subjective way.
Project managers, who are people, are good at working with, leading, inspiring, and caring about other people, their project team, their subject matter experts, their stakeholders, and their customers.
To me this all seems to be perfect in its symbiotic relationship as AI frees the project manager to work with the people.
Long live the future where projects really are about people, and bring on the AI-empowered project world!
To read more from Peter Taylor, check out his previous piece: Artificial Intelligence—Threat or Aid to Project Managers?
Also check out our additional resources on project management: