What is the Way?

Firstly let's say what the Way isn't. It isn't a methodology, it isn't a religion (although some people have tried to make it one), it isn't a how to do things and it isn't a set of project management guidelines. It is much more than any of that.

This week I was discussing the role of methodology with Johnny Beirne for a future Podcast on his website. Poor project managers believe that if they follow a methodology, faithfully, then they are running their project the right way, but that is not the way. Yes there is a role for methodology or standards but it's not how to run a project.

The Way

The Way is a philosophy. The Way is a single unifying principle. The Way is about how things happen. The way cannot be learned, it is just there. Nothing made the way, the Way simply is. The wise project manager does not search for the Way, he runs his project in harmony with the Way by following natural law and the single principle.

The Tao  
Lao Tzu tells us:

The Tao is like a well,  
It is used, but never used up.  
It is like an eternal void,  
But filled with infinite possibilities.  

It blunts the sharpness, unravels the knots,  
Dims the glare, mixes the dust*.  
Hidden deep but ever present.  
I do not know from whence it came.  

* Note: The word dust or dirt is used to indicate things that might be soiled, corrupted or even sensual.  But as the Tao is universal it includes all things even things that might be considered as bad.