Modern Project managing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Modern Project managing - Essay Example As such, this student has reviewed an article within the Wall Street Journal which is specifically directed towards project management and the means by which project managers ultimately succeed or fail. The article itself, entitled, â€Å"Dangers of Clinging to Solutions of the Past† approaches the topic of expertise and it applications within project management from a different perspective than almost all other research articles or readings in the press have. Rather than assuming that a great degree of experience is necessarily represents a net asset to the organization, the approach of the author of the article, as well as the information that was reviewed is that the prior knowledge of a manager is not a pre-requisite to success and worse still may represent a very broad range of negative carryovers from incorrect ways that problems had been tackled in the past. As a function of understanding these nuances, the following brief paper will seek to highlight the ways in which traditional understandings of the importance of experience significantly deviate from the perspective that the author of this particular piece of journalism has concluded. Although it is of course incorrect to take a piece of journalism such as the Wall Street Journal and draw a wide range of inference from it with regards to the way in which project management should necessarily proceed, this alongside the other forms of inference that the student can glean from reading management textbooks and a range of peer reviewed articles help to paint the picture of how aspects of so-called â€Å"common sense† deviates significantly from what practicality and actuality demand. Whereas our current model of understanding change and leadership center around finding an individual with the sage knowledge to guide a firm, organization, or group of employees towards the new paradigm, the fact of the matter is, as discussed by the article’s author, that oftentimes the change leader wit h little to no prior experience within such a context can oftentimes evoke a more positive transition than one who has a storied past illustrated during a broad career. As the author notes, this is the result of the fact that few if any change managers that have a broad level of experience have been proven to integrate positive change in an organization. Conversely, those managers that have little if any real world experience have to do what the author refers to as â€Å"learn on their feet†. In this way, rather than forcing an approach that has somewhat worked in the past into a situation, department, or business in which it is more than certain to fail. Conversely, the ability of the young and/or otherwise inexperienced leader to invoke a level of positive change is aided by his lack of baggage from previous employers. Although experience in and of itself is not a detriment to the leader’s progress, the reliance and understanding upon this experience as a means of ef fecting the new change is. As the author of the article states, the fact of the matter is that the inexperienced leader has a definite advantage upon the competition due to the fact that he/she is not polluted by pre-conceived notions of what would ultimately provide a net benefit to the firm or