Radical Project Management

Rule 4: In the Absence of Information, Executives Still Make Decisions

Since the 1970s, experts in executive decision making such as Henry Mintzberg (1973) have proven that executives prefer “informal”modes of communication such as face-to-face discussions and meetings to “formal” modes of communication such as reports, metrics, and statistics.

With the increasing pressures of competition, deregulation, takeovers, mergers, and economic rationalism, most executives that we work with are under substantially more pressures than those studied in the 1970s by Mintzberg. As a result, their reliance on informal and fast communication has increased.

For you as a project manager, this is an important understanding. Your executives will make decisions ...