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#FuturePMO
Bricolage and
Improvisation within
Contemporary Project
Management
Dr. Steve Leybourne Ph.D
Boston University
17th October 2019

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#FuturePMO
Who am I ???
Dr. Steve Leybourne Ph.D
BOSTON UNIVERSITY
Full-time Faculty
E-mail: sleyb@bu.edu
www.people.bu.edu/sleyb
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I lecture in, research, and write
about PM, Innovation and
Change, and have researched
improvisation and bricolage
extensively for the last 20 years.
Before I became an academic I
was a practicing Project Manager
in the UK Financial Services
sector.

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Bricolage and Improvisation…
(which is my ‘specialist subject’)
But first…
Today I want to talk about…
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The ‘expansion’ of the project domain…
PMI estimates a need
for an additional 2.2
million project
managers ‘per year’
between now and
2027…
2017 Talent Gap report
PMI also suggests that
over 30% of global
GDP is generated
within projects…
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by 2025, senior leaders and managers
will spend at least 60% of their time
selecting, prioritizing, and driving the
execution of projects…
Prediction by ‘Thinkers50’ expert Antonio
Nieto-Rodriquez
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So - Let me pose a Question…
If PM is about ‘execution’ or delivery, and we use PM to
deliver strategic change, should we be talking about Strategy
Execution instead of PM delivery ?
We are ‘delivering’ Strategic Change, but PM is the delivery
mode. (Ray Levitt – Stanford U.)
And if this is true, then the PMO is responsible for
delivering the strategy of the organization… 6

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That makes you all
very important
within your
organizations !!!
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The ‘Traditional’ View of PM…
Plan… Then Execute the contents of that
Plan with the minimum of Deviation !!!
This is also how many people in senior
positions within organizations think PM
works !!!
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BUT…
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Is this what really
happens ???

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What about Bricolage and Improvisation
Improvisation is everywhere… The best you can do is to ‘control’ it…
If you try to stop PM’s from improvising, you will just drive
improvisation ‘underground’ – where it can’t be controlled…
Bricolage is about ‘Resources’ – specifically the resources available to
improvise with…
Bricolage is just one component of Improvisation…
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So…
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1) The components of Organizational Improvisation ?
2) How much improvised work goes on in the projects that
you are managing or controlling ?
3) What Bricolage is and how it fits into the Organizational
Improvisation – and indeed the ‘Project’ - scenario ?
How many of you have a reasonable
understanding of:
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Let’s try to
answer some
of these
questions…
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Practically…
Getting stuff done in a way that
does not necessarily align with
the original plan…
Doing what is necessary to
‘move forward’ when the plan
has been ‘superseded’…
Academically…
There is ‘theory’ that supports a
shift towards improvisational
work in areas where the original
plan does not anticipate
emerging requirements or
issues…
So… What is Improvisation ?
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Let’s talk ‘academically’…
INITIAL THREE CONSTRUCTS
•Creativity
– new ideas about how to achieve
things
•Intuition
– about what is possible within the
structure and resources and capability
of the organisation
•Bricolage
– making the best of whatever
resources you have to hand
• These constructs come
from work by Moorman &
Miner (1998a & 1998b)
• They define Improvisation
as: “the degree to which
composition and execution
converge in time.”
M&M(1998b: 698)
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Miner et al. added more constructs
of Org Improv...
Moorman & Miner
(1998a & 1998b)
talked in terms of:
• Creativity
• Intuition
• Bricolage
Miner et al. (2001)
added:
• Adaptation of existing
routines, etc
• Compression (of time) by
simplifying and shortening steps
• Innovation as in deviation
from existing practices and
knowledge
• leading to Learning
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Which looks like…
Creativity Intuition Bricolage
Adaptation Compression Innovation
LEARNING
INPUTS
PROCESS
OUTPUT
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Problems with Improvisation...
• Managing Risk (the rigour of risk assessment -v- Improvisational practices)
• Audit and Compliance (how do you measure and audit ‘improvised’
activity?)
• Setting a Framework (how do you decide where the boundaries are?)
• Capture and sharing of ‘Emerging Best Practice’’ (in an arena of
constant temporal pressure)
These issues need to be resolved by
organizations…
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And probably
By PMO’s
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Back to Bricolage…
• We are talking about ‘Resources’
here…
• Human Resources
• Financial Resources
• Physical Resources
When we need to move fast to
resolve emerging issues, there is no
time to organize additional
resources…
And this has issues for
Programs and Portfolios
of Projects too…
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Limited…
‘Finite’…

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This doesn’t seem
like ‘normal’ PM !!!
So maybe now is the time
to talk about the evolution
of Project Management –
and how that impinges on
Organizations…
And on Project Managers…
And on PMO’s…
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PM 1.0
Focus on ‘PROCESS’
Following the Plan
Tools & Techniques
Gantt Chart
WBS
‘following an agreed
plan with the
minimum of
deviation’
PM 2.0
Focus on ‘BEHAVIOUR’
Team based – Socially
Constructed
Motivation
Commitment
Building Trust
‘Getting people to
DELIVER the project’
‘emerging’
PM 3.0
Focus on ‘AMBIGUITY’
Shift away from
‘structure’
Emerging Requirements
Uncertainty
Complexity
‘Deciding what Project
to DELIVER as we
move forward’
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PM 3.0 – ‘Dancing’ on the edge of Complexity
We now see projects as increasingly…
• Dynamic
• Ambiguous
• Non-Linear
• Complex
• Emergent
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I see this as
particularly
important…

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So…
• Projects are becoming more ambiguous, especially in terms of what is
to be delivered…
• Change in organizations is accelerating, and what we are moving
towards is becoming more uncertain…
• Scenario Management
• Projects, and Programs of Projects, are becoming more complex…
So…
• As we move towards PM 3.0, experienced PM’s are becoming adept
‘Bricoleurs’…
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And…
If a major part of the
role of the PMO is to
allocate resources…
Then…
Managers of PMO’s are
right in the middle of
this…
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How is the Organization
‘Changing’ to deal with
this new reality…
So…
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Traditional ‘Silo-
based’
Organization
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Overlapping
roles in the
Organization
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Multi-skilled
PMs are well
suited to this
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So…
• Are Project Managers best equipped to deal with this ???
• They are:
• Multi-skilled
• Not ‘Silo-based’
• Change-oriented
• Able to see the ‘big picture’
• Have experience ‘across the organization
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Or Maybe…
So… Are we talking about…
the Project
Manager as…
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And if we are…
What does that make the manager of the
PMO ???
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