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This week I’m loving
I confess, I’m always thinking about science. It has been a passion of mine since a young age and I just can’t let it go. As a generalist I believe we should lean into our passions. So this week I’m sharing a brilliant little article by Dominic Packer and Jay Van Bavel about collaborative science and the success of team projects in science that rings true for project managers inside and outside of science.
For a long while in academic science the focus has been on individual achievement. Protecting your ideas and research fervently so you don’t get scooped, worrying about whether you will be the lead author on papers to establish your career reputation, and feeling like all the greatness of your research needs to be your own ideas.
This pattern permeates many businesses as well where we set individual performance goals that might be at odds with department or organizational goals but dictate our compensation and as a result are prioritized above all other aims.
Shattering from the notion of individual genius, the rise of collaborative science is also linked to greater breakthroughs. Research papers and patents by teams were more highly cited than were those produced by solitary individuals—even after adjusting for the number of authors. This means that great teams—rather than individual genius—has become the key to innovation.
In their Anatomy of Work study for 2023, Asana uncovered that collaboration in business is strongly correlated with revenue growth. Proof that this rise of the benefits of collaboration is not exclusive to science.
Image credit: Asana Global Anatomy of Work Report FY24
Jay and Dominic go on to outline 5 principles for leading large scientific teams. I would argue however that these are equally a strategy for leading any project team.
Superordinate Goals - “…pursuing a project that is significantly important and challenging that it requires massive cooperation…”
Shared Rewards - “In science this means everyone involved is a co-author on a final paper.”
Clear Communication - “One of the challenges of large team science is that the normal mode of communication (e.g., email discussions or small group meetings) does not scale.”
Inclusive Norms - “The most effective teams have inclusive norms and a sense of psychological safety.”
Identity Leadership - “One way that leaders need to operate is by acting “as one of us”. This means that the leadership team should be working at least as hard as everyone else on the project and deliver outcomes that benefit everyone on the team (e.g., publications, shared datasets). It also means the leaders should find ways to share credit and highlight their co-authors.”
Lean into your natural collaboration skills as a generalist PM. I promise that it will help you build teams that achieve great things.
Tool of the week
This week we are getting excited about a recent release from the team at Figma.
For those of you not working in software or web development, Figma is the leading collaborative design tool that elegantly brings together design, development, product and project management in an intuitive experience. Bonus, you can build beautiful graphic design assets including slide decks, print graphics, and merch designs as well.
One of the lesser known aspects of Figma subscriptions is the ability to access a whiteboarding tool called FigJam and this week, we are discussing the recent facelift of this product that might just vault it into contention for a top whiteboarding tool.
Not surprisingly, this major release involved the addition of AI.
I love these additions for project and product managers.
Auto-layout attractive templates for a wide array of common whiteboarding exercises.
Image credit: Figma website
Have AI sort your “stickies” into themes after a brainstorming exercise. No more clicking and dragging!
And last, but certainly not least…
Get a summary of the sticky content on a whiteboard with a single click (e.g. write the minutes of your retrospective automatically).
FigJam is available for Free for up to 3 whiteboards at a time. Otherwise you can add it to your Figma subscription for a nominal per user cost depending on your package.
An interesting read
Your interesting read for this week as generalists is Rob Lambert’s article titled “Nothing worth knowing can be taught”.
Oscar Wilde is attributed to have said:
Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
Rob goes on to explain that while the basics of many crafts can be taught, to truly master a craft requires work and experiential learning.
He goes on to dichotomize two types of learning:
Information Acquisition
Task Acquisition
In my household, I am lucky to live the contrast of academic learning and experiential learning and their individual benefits every day. I earned my degree in Biochemistry which was probably a thorough lesson in “Information Acquisition” - something I continue to use the skills from virtually every day in my constant quest for new information - a habit of consumption I can’t easily break but which fortunately benefits you dear readers.
My husband, on the other hand, is a highly skilled tradesman possessing the highest qualification of Master Electrician (in two provinces) available in his discipline (also requiring a training period twice the length of my degree). This craft requires incredible academic knowledge (including an understanding of phasers - a concept most people think only people like my friend in astrophysics study) alongside highly precise task-based learning that critically prevents homes from lighting on fire and himself and his team from dying from electric shock. Arguably, these seem like far more valuable skills than my abilities to read the Internet.
Indeed, Rob goes on to explain that in fact, task acquisition is a more powerful way to learn especially when the opportunity to learn from someone who is excellent at the activity is present.
But why should you care?
What I enjoyed most about the article is that this is truly the life of a generalist. We don’t stop at information acquisition. We get practical with our ability to acquire knowledge in a task acquisition manner in virtually every organization we touch. Further, project management is by nature a combined education of information acquisition followed by years of experience in task acquisition. No wonder the career has appeal to generalists.
So I hope you enjoy this read, and bringing about conscious thought into your approach to learning for yourself, and any learning experiences you might get the opportunity to influence in your life or workplace.
The future is for skills-based roles.
A tip
What do avalanche safety and project management have in common?
Well friends, a great tip on a best practice for project managers: the power of observation.
Read the article from Jasper Polak here. Save the life of your next project!
A lesson
What is the one thing I fix on almost every scrum team I coach?
They have forgotten about Sprint Goals - arguably the most important part of Scrum.
This week’s lesson is a great read from the masterful Stefan Wolpers on the typical Sprint Goal antipatterns.
Thanks for reading this week! In January I am launching a second publication focused on value delivery and organizational chemistry. If you love my writing and you are interested in organizational design, value delivery, and strategic execution I hope you’ll subscribe!