Developing Both Halves of Your Project Management Brain

We can use our brain’s dual-hemisphere construct and the theory of left brain-right brain to explore the necessary evolution of a project manager’s profession; getting paid to manage projects.

• Our brain has two halves. Although the left brain-right brain theory of decades ago has been widely debunked, it persists widely among people because I think, it feels intuitive and is a simple, effective model of an extraordinarily complex thing. This theory is called brain lateralization.

• The left half is logical, and the right half is creative. The theory, or myth if you’d like, states that our left brain houses our logic and planning, sense of time, and language functions, and that our right brain houses our creative, artistic, intuitive, and imagination functions.  Planning in advance of events, i.e., predicting them and their responses uses logic, and adapting to them as they emerge taps creativity and innovation.

• Fully developed project management brains use both predictive and agile methods. Project managers (“PMs”) using large, established, highly-detailed plans, schedules, and programmed  responses are exercising their predictive half, and when the PM is using pictures, curiosity, and real-time adaptation through innovation and empirical knowledge, they’re agile right brain is engaged.  Projects can be planned predictively, agilely, or both, so being able to think in and deliver both means the professional project manager can deliver projects, regardless of how they’re planned and delivered. 

• The PMP credential is predictive heavy, and the ACP and PSM are agile.  PMP stands for Project Management Professional, ACP for Agile Certified Practitioner, and PSM for Professional Scrum Master.  Scrum is one of the most popular, and therefore most common, flavors of agile.

That’s why Vets2PM teaches a Project Management Institute PMP exam preparation course and a course that prepares practitioners for both PMI’s PMP and Scrum.Org’s PSM simultaneously.  Head on over to https://vets2pm.com today and train your full PM brain.