11. Inner Space

The Book

I am close to finishing the first three chapters of “Agile Project Management in easy steps” and I’ll be sending a draft out to some friends who use it for a peer review. I’m enjoying writing it as it is all about empowering the team, which is very close to my heart.

The Way

While the members of the project team work together on a project there is a concept of an inner space created by the group. This defines how the team works together and even the mood of the group. It is the context for everything which happens.

The foolish project manager focuses and concentrates on what the members of the team are doing and saying, but the wise project manager pays attention to the silences. The silences and empty spaces reveal the group’s essential mood and this is the group field. I know this for this is the way of the project manager.

The Tao

Lao Tsu tells us:

Thirty spokes share the wheel’s hub;

It is the centre hole that makes it useful.

Shape clay into a vessel;

It is the space within that makes it useful.

Cut doors and windows for a room;

It is the holes that make it useful.

Therefore profits come from what is there;

Usefulness comes from what is not there.