How Praxis use the aggregation of marginal gains approach to offer something very different
Does the world need another practice guide for PPM?
Methods, Bodies of Knowledge and Frameworks for projects, programmes and portfolios have been around for decades but still failure rates are higher than we would like.
After reviewing 10 complex information communication technology (ICT) projects in 1995, Martin Cobb asked the question “We know why projects fail; we know how to prevent their failure—so why do they still fail?”. This became known as Cobb’s Paradox.
I think there is a simple solution to the paradox that bears a lot of similarities to fad diets. In the pursuit of weight loss, people around the western world spend millions on fashionable diets that don’t work. The only diet that really works, as the comedian Billy Connolly observed, is the “Eat less, move more” diet.
We know that is the best way to lose weight so why do we find it so difficult to practice? The answer to that question is ‘Habit’. In any walk of life, we all develop strong habits that are difficult to shift. Whether it be individual habits like always having a custard crème with your morning coffee to corporate habits like kicking off projects without a well thought through business case, it is very difficult to replace bad habits with good ones.
Just like all the other guides, Praxis is a compilation of good practices. But good practices are ineffective until they are translated into good habits.
Tens of thousands of people are trained every year in good PPM practices. They go on a course, learn lots of good stuff and maybe even pass an exam to confirm they really understand the practices they have learnt about. They then have a quiet weekend and on Monday morning……
they go back to the same old bad habits they had before and their organisation does nothing to help them change to new, good habits.
This is where Praxis can make a difference. Not through some major habit-imposing change programme, but through the approach known as the “aggregation of marginal gains”. This begins a series of incremental improvements on the Monday morning after the course has finished.
There are many facets of Praxis that promote these marginal gains:
- Praxis is free and on-line. The core good practice and a lot of supporting information is at every project manager’s fingertips. No thumbing through multiple books or manuals (if you can find them) – just search. This makes the good practice accessible. No barriers, no delay.
- Praxis Local is a free download. Tailor it to focus on the bits of good practice that are particularly relevant to your projects. Not only accessible but relevant.
- The 360o assessment tool is something you can use on the Monday morning after the course. There are checklists for every aspect of P3Management. As was discovered by the World Health Organisation, there is nothing like well thought out checklists to start embedding good habits – even in life or death situations.
- Good habits need to be infectious and widespread. Everyone involved in projects and programmes can use the checklists to ensure that the wider community also adopts the right practices – sponsors, stakeholders and team members all have a role to play.
- As people use the checklists to develop good habits, a real-time dashboard will show improving project and programme maturity – demonstrating real improvement in organisational working.
- In such diverse teams, everyone sees good practices though their own lens. We are all different and interpret even well-established best practices in different ways. iMA Praxis shines a light on these differences and allows individuals understand each other’s perspectives.
The British Cycling team went from winning nothing in 76 years to multiple Tours de France, Olympic and World Championship gold medals, largely through the aggregation of marginal gains. The World Health Organisation reduced surgical deaths by 47% using some of these techniques.
There is a solution to Cobb’s Paradox and Praxis is part of that solution.
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