Hard Times Call for Agility

For an old-time print-publishing dinosaur like myself, publishing on a blog is the very essence of agility. The ability to “converse” with readers in real time seems as magical to me as the telephone must have seemed to a generation of folks accustomed to the pace of letter-writing. It also has an element of collaboration that enriches the usually solitary existence of this writer and editor: a “newsroom” feel, in which thoughts, opinions and resources can be shared at lightning speed.

(And then there is the thrilling ability to fix typos after you’ve gone to press--!)

Karen White wrote a couple weeks ago about the definition of agility, incorporating the ideas of teamwork and agency and iterative change; to this, I’d add that agility is a thing of our present internetworked age, a process deeply interwoven with the ability to collaborate, correct, and plan online or at e-speed.

The deep connection between the way we work now, and the tools that facilitate work, is the reason why IT has shown itself to be somewhat recession-proof over the past decade. And even now, in the face of what many forecasters are now calling “depression” rather than recession, I’ll go out on the limb and bet that those in IT who focus on the ways technology can facilitate agile collaboration and innovation will continue to thrive.

Likewise, project management has a tendency to flourish in rocky ground. Rework and missed deadlines, overrun budgets … all seem less drastic in a boom-times environment. When the mantra becomes “better, faster, cheaper,” project management—and project managers—have important contributions to make.

What’s really piquing my interest these days are the ways in which we can combine project management, agile methods, and collaborative technology to really pour alternative fuel on the fire (to coin a new phrase). At the CBP’s Strategy & Projects Summit last June, the CIO of the Kennedy Center, Alan Shapiro, delivered a presentation on the innovative ways his organization is using technologies we often associate with leisure time—Twitter, social networking, blogging, text messaging, wikis, Flickr, YouTube—to create community and manage projects at warp speed.

Such technologies are disruptive, said Shapiro, because they force project managers to think differently about process. “They can no longer see projects with a beginning, middle and end, but as a process of constant ongoing development.”

Given the shifting economic scene, I don’t think we will have the luxury to rest on our old laurels. Challenging times demand new tools. Here are just a few of the mentions I’ve found online of the ways companies are using new tech:

http: //www.cogniview.com/convert-pdf-to-excel/post/how-to-run-your-project-on-the-web/ http://www.cio.com/article/print/163250 http://www.ddmcd.com/managing-technology/ok-what-is-a-project-blog-anyway.html

I’m curious to hear from others who are using these technologies in a business/project setting.