The Single-Minded Project: Ensuring the Pace of Progress

The behaviour of people and their organisation are the primary drivers of a project’s pace of progress. Methodology, tools and techniques are vital but subordinate to human endeavour; if only because their selection, deployment and application entirely depend on the abilities of the project players and their organisation. Performance ultimately rests on human and organisational behaviour: expressed by the players’ experience, professional ability, resolve, dialogue and collaboration. Fresh approaches and methods help practitioners to address this reality productively. This book is written under nine headings: collaboration; able people; strength; connections; rigour; pace; persistence; adaptation; and maturity. The Single-Minded Project offers a new and convincing appreciation of project management that will harness players and their organisation. It recognises that at its heart, the management and leadership of a project regime relies on the choices, behaviours and decisions of its players and the organisation’s freedom of action. It addresses the urgency of the project (the need for swiftness), coupled with the kind and degree of diligence (the need for rigour in the choice and management of method): referring to its Pace of Progress. The success of a project very much depends on the pace at which it is conducted to then deliver value. Projects find themselves in territory where methodology, tools and techniques are of little help. The Single-Minded Project fills that gap and more.

Table of Contents:
Introduction; Part I Getting and Staying in Shape; Chapter 1 A Project’s Collaboration; Chapter 2 A Project’s Able People; Chapter 3 A Project’s Strength; Part II Conducting the Work; Chapter 4 A Project’s Connections; Chapter 5 The Project’s Rigour; Chapter 6 A Project’s Pace of Progress; Part III Assuring Success; Chapter 7 A Project’s Persistence; Chapter 8 The Project’s Adaptation; Chapter 9 The Project’s Maturity;

About the Author :
Martin Price is widely known as a speaker and writer and for his fresh ideas on human and organisational behaviour; so crucial to the success of project management. He was Director of Professional Development for PMI’s UK Chapter and for six years hosted PMI’s monthly UK Chapter meetings in London. Martin worked as an electrical engineer before spending 15 years as a personnel manager and change management consultant with PA Consulting Group. There he enabled and supported the transformation of large and small businesses. He is MD of EngagementWorks, a consultancy supporting organisations in their quest for developing high performing project organisations.

Review :
’If ever a book were written better equipped to stimulate you to think about your thinking when it comes to projects, programmes and the changes they bring; I have yet to find it. Martin puts forward not only a collection of ideas that reach out and grab your attention, but also a number of subtle suggestions which sow the seeds of change in your attitude. This is one of those rare books which you will love to own and cherish more.’ Paul Hodgkins, Executive Director, Paul Hodgkins Project Consultancy ’Martin Price’s insights into what drives a project - its pace of progress - makes a compelling case for the importance of resilience, persistence, adaptation and other behaviours whose influences over project outcomes often go unrecognized, or are ignored in focusing on more formal processes and methodology. The Single Minded Project shows how those behaviours can be harnessed to achieve the results that organizations seek from their projects.’ Ian Whittingham, ProjectManagement.com ’Martin's fresh perspective to project management, a discipline still viewed as systemic and process driven, is based on an organizational paradigm of people first. Through history, projects have been used to transform difficult situations. Martin discusses why the human aspects are so important in projects and the project player’s role in delivering change in adversity, introducing innovation, adapting and driving pace and performance. This is a must read.’ Mark Kozak-Holland, Lessons-from-History ’It is refreshing to find a book on project management devoted entirely to how people work together and the impact this has on the success (or otherwise) of the endeavour at hand. Organisation structures and politics, individual capabilities and personalities are examined in the context of project delivery to provide a thought provoking read. Recommended.’ Nicola Wadham, Programme Director, FTSE 50 Company ’In The Single Minded Project, Martin Price has identified