Table Of ContentCognitive Readiness
in Project Teams
Reducing Project Complexity and Increasing
Success in Project Management
Cognitive Readiness
in Project Teams
Reducing Project Complexity and Increasing
Success in Project Management
Edited by
Carl Belack
Daniele Di Filippo
Ivano Di Filippo
A PRODUCTIVITY PRESS BOOK
First edition published in 2019
by Routledge/Productivity Press
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© 2019 by Carl Belack, Daniele Di Filippo, and Ivano Di Filippo
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Belack, Carl, editor. | Di Filippo, Daniele, editor. | Di Filippo, Ivano, editor.
Title: Cognitive readiness in project teams : reducing project complexity and increasing success
in project management / Carl Belack, Daniele Di Filippo, and Ivano Di Filippo.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2019. | .
Identifiers: LCCN 2018044806 (print) | LCCN 2018045461 (ebook) | ISBN 9780429490057
(e-Book) | ISBN 9781138592315 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Project management. | Teams in the workplace--Psychological aspects.
Classification: LCC HD69.P75 (ebook) | LCC HD69.P75 B436 2019 (print) | DDC 658.4/022--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018044806
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Contents
Foreword ...................................................................................................vii
Preface ........................................................................................................xi
Acknowledgments .................................................................................xvii
About the Editors and Contributors ...................................................xxiii
1 Complexity and Complex Projects ...............................................1
CARL BELACK, DANIELE DI FILIPPO, AND IVANO DI FILIPPO
2 The Cognitive Readiness Framework ........................................19
CARL BELACK, DANIELE DI FILIPPO, AND IVANO DI FILIPPO
3 Introduction to Neuroscience and Project Leadership ..............37
CARL BELACK AND DAN RADECKI, PhD
4 Minimizing the Effects of Bias in Project and Program
Decision-Making ........................................................................61
CARL BELACK
5 Mindfulness: The Foundation for Intelligence and Optimal
Performance ...............................................................................87
GEORGE PITAGORSKY
6 From Mindfulness to Action: Applying Augmented
Cognition to Project Management ...........................................117
DANIELE DI FILIPPO, IVANO DI FILIPPO, AND REBECCA WINSTON
7 Emotional and Social Intelligence Competencies and the
Intentional Change Process .....................................................147
RICHARD ELEFTHERIOS BOYATZIS, DANIEL GOLEMAN,
FABRIZIO GERLI, SARA BONESSO, AND LAURA CORTELLAZZO
v
vi ◾ Contents
8 Emotional and Social Intelligence Competencies for
Project Management ................................................................171
RICHARD ELEFTHERIOS BOYATZIS, DANIEL GOLEMAN,
FABRIZIO GERLI, AND SARA BONESSO
9 Training, Cognitive Readiness Competence Development,
and Implementation .................................................................197
DAVE GUNNER
Afterword .......................................................................................213
Index ..............................................................................................217
Foreword
The discipline of portfolio, program, and project management (PPPM)
has matured significantly during the past sixty years, as witnessed by the
application of PPPM strategies, processes, methods, information systems,
and tools within essentially all areas of human endeavor in every corner
of the world, plus the formation and worldwide growth of PPPM-related
professional associations and standard practices.
However, in spite of the concurrent advances in robotics and artificial
intelligence, the planning and execution of complex portfolios, programs,
and projects still depends on people with many skills to come together in
teams to conceive, plan, schedule, and execute the many tasks that must be
accomplished to approve, expend the time, money, and resources, control
and execute the work, and thereby achieve the goals of each project,
program, and portfolio. Of course, the powerful information systems,
methods, and tools that are in use today by executives and project managers
enable the people who are the members of the project teams to do the right
thing in the right way at exactly the right time with a high probability of
success—unless unforeseen changes have occurred! Project teams must have
and apply sufficient cognitive readiness to be able to recognize changes as
they occur and quickly modify their plans and schedules to overcome or
minimize the impact of those changes.
Today, the PPPM best practices and approved standards recognize the
importance of the so-called soft skills (which are actually very hard to
develop) of leadership, teambuilding, and people management. While
we often spend large amounts of time and money to plan and schedule
a project prior to its approval, insufficient time and money are typically
allocated and used to identify the critical team members of a new complex
project and build them into a high-performance team by developing their
individual and team cognitive readiness.
vii
viii ◾ Foreword
The purpose of this book is to increase awareness, understanding, and
practical application of cognitive readiness in executives, program and
project managers, project stakeholders, and most importantly in project
teams. The editors have carefully selected authors who are established
authorities in the fields of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience,
and who have demonstrated good understanding of the difficulties
surrounding effective complex program and project management.
“The various project management standards refer to a number of
processes for managing people in projects, including allocating them as
resources, ways of leading them, communicating, resolving conflicts, and
building teamwork among them. However, little attention has been paid
to the human behavior aspects of people in project management. The
field of cognitive psychology coupled with cognitive neuroscience now
enables us to apply this knowledge of human thinking and behavior in
practical ways to continually improve the ‘soft’ or people skills of project
and program managers, their team members, and their project and program
stakeholders.”*
The awareness and understanding of the key aspects of cognitive
readiness in complex project teams, together with the project benefits that
team cognitive readiness can generate—that this book presents—will be of
great value to every executive, stakeholder, program and project manager,
and project team member who wishes to achieve the success of every
project to which they are assigned.
Russell D. Archibald
I’m honoured to have been asked to offer a foreword to this intriguing,
profound, and potentially significant work.
It is a particular pleasure as a European Commissioner to congratulate
an excellent network of international experts and researchers. Their work
brings together the apparently arid professional challenges of project
management and the apparently obscure mind sciences. In the century
when we may hope to crack the issues of artificial intelligence, we owe it to
humanity to press on with a sound understanding of our own brains!
* Archibald, R., Di Filippo, I., Di Filippo, D. and Archibald, S. November 2013. Unlocking a project
team’s high-performance potential. PM World Journal, II (Issue XI).
Foreword ◾ ix
My hope is that the tools and lessons of this work, amply demonstrated
in one field of professional need, will be an exemplar for the extension of
similar endeavours in other professional fields.
For two reasons:
◾ If Europe can hold its lead in the application of cognitive learning to
professional excellence, we may maintain an edge in our navigation of
the ongoing digital revolution.
◾ If we maximise our “cognitive professional excellence,” our society will
be very well placed to enjoy the augmented strengths that artificial
intelligence can bring, without having to fear that it spells the end of
human mastery of our world.
I am sure that you the reader will be fascinated by the humanistic and
positive vision that emerges from these pages.
Mariya Gabriel
