Tagged with: complexity • featured • Fish Pond • metaphores
Two years ago I wrote a series of posts together with dr Ali Anani about The Fish Pond Metaphor.
This series is now available in an ebook format.
The Fish Pond Metaphor: Complexity of Management
A collection of essays that appeared on The Project Shrink blog in the first half of 2008.
(click on the image to download)
Image by TheBusyBrain.
“In essence, we believe the answer to adapt successfully in our new, ever morphing world is to have a flexible mind, a brain filled with many models of the world. We would almost claim that being open minded is the key to survival. To help you create some new and exciting ways to look at the world and business situations, we introduce the Fish Pond Metaphor. We opt to go for the fish pond as a metaphor for the new world.”
This is a draft version of the document. If you have corrections, comments or suggestions, please drop a comment.
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Always enjoy reading your material.
Thanks for your kind words, Stephen. Appreciated.
it is interesting to read this
While I look forward to reading this document, I do have an immediate question for you.
It’s all well and good to talk about the project manager, us, and how we manage our teams (I think this is what your document is about. Excuse me if I read the introduction too fast.)
But, what good is it if we are all still working in a traditional management hierarchy?
And, let’s not kid ourselves, if you “report” to a “boss”, have a “performance review” and are told not to “go over (your boss’s) head”, you are in a hierarchy.
Most of us still are.
How do we view this in the context of hierarchy?
I’ll certainly check back once I’ve read your ebook but that just sprung into my head, as I am on this rant now…
Hello Elisabeth,
I could not resist the temptation of answering your thought-provoking remarks. In fact, the eBook addresses some of your concerns. In no way we advocated for a hierarchical management systems; in contrast we believe in maximizing teamwork, self-organizing teams and avoidance of excessive control. These doctrines are negating the pyramidal organizational structure as this limits interactions among agents.
I have recently published a presentation entitled “Human behavior vs. clay behavior”. This is a short presentation, but it stands against the traditional management hierarchy. If interested, here is the link
http://www.slideshare.net/hudali15/human-behavior-vs-clay-behavior
I do appreciate your legitimate and rightful remarks
Hi Elisabeth,
I think Ali already answered about the ebook content. And I get your point. One of the underlying assumptions I use writing on this blog is to stay within the circle of influence of the individual PM. We think this metaphor provides some food for thought when looking at your situations. You have to roll with the environment you’re working in. But your perception of what you can and cannot do really determines your effectiveness. Some people will take away some useful ideas, some won’t.
Curious what you took away from the text…
Anyway, I believe everyone should read your rant:
http://www.thepassionateprojectmanager.com/2010/05/11/the-managerial-hierarchy-decaying-rotten-broken-and-in-need-of-a-good-gutting/
Cheers,
Bas
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