Erik posted these tidbits (quotes) in another thread:

• Those who expect that their plans are going to be perfect are more traumatized when they come to find out they're not.
  
• You can't anticipate exactly what the surprise is going to be, but you can certainly anticipate that there will be surprises.  Whatever planning I do ... I'm going to get it wrong on some level, to some degree.

I like them because they focus on human nature, which it seems to me plays a HUGE part in PM that seems to me get completely overlooked in many writings on the subject.  A couple of examples of what I am referring to:

1. The construction manager who always exagerrates to the subs when their work needs to be done.  He does this because he believes if he gives them a real deadline they will wait until the last minute or not get done in time.  The subs in turn can look at the current state of construction and see that there is no way their work needs to be done (or even can be done) by the date the construction manager has given so they don't take his schedule remotely seriously.

2. Ask someone how long task ABC will take them and they purposely exagerrate because they'd rather estimate longer than short.  But then they know they've got a "buffer" so they wait til the last minute anyhow.  And on and on.

So back to my question.  Which PM methodolgies focus on PM with a view towards human nature and attempt to offer perspective and solutions to help address these types of issues so that all parties work together rather than engaging in these types of destructive cycles, which at least in my industry seems to be the norm?

Thank You

Great question, David.  I don't know that I've ever come across any methodology (outside of sales) that really focuses on managing the human side of business.  Too frequently we're expected to spend more time measuring performance so we can't really look at managing the "people" side of getting the work done.

I think the biggest contributor to the kinds of issues you raise regarding scheduling and estimation is twofold: Having decades of history to overcome, and a lack of trust.  Construction is probably more prone to this because, as a contractor friend once confided, "Contractors are never on time and it will always take longer and cost more than we tell you."

Having spent a few summers as a construction laborer back in college, that seems pretty accurate, and I'd imagine everyone involved tends to pad their schedules and estimates accordingly.  When you're looking at a large project, the sum total of the subcontractors padding adds up pretty quickly and must make it impossible to accurately manage to a completion date.  And even with all the padding, nothing ever seems to get done on time!

The trust factor is huge here, requiring commitment by both the GC and the subs to be as accurate and honest as possible when estimating their work and then trusting that everyone else will do the same and work to that schedule.  When I was given my first promotion to a management position, I had no idea what I was doing and my team figured that out pretty quickly.  One of the best books I read when I was learning the ropes was The Complete Idiot's Guide to Leadership.

No self-respecting professional would have an "Idiot's Guide" or "Dummies" book on their bookshelf so I kept it at home, but it focused on becoming an effective manager by building the trust of your team rather than relying on numbers, meetings and arbitrary mandates to run the show.  While it might be a little rudimentary for someone who has been in a management position for a while, the attention it pays to the people skills required to be an effective manager might help put a fresh spin on more metrics-focused management theory.