Ten Project Management Lessons from David Epstein’s “Range”

David Epstein's book "Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World" is not directly about project management.

It is about how we can build the skills we need no matter our field.

David addresses the great debate:

What does it take to be good at what you do?

Does it require you to become a specialist or does it require you to be a generalist?

There are some profound lessons here for project managers. Below are ten lessons from David's book.

Lesson One: The Kinds of People

Let's talk about the different kinds of people.

A horizontal bar represents a person that has breadth. This would be a classic generalist who knows a lot of things. They know a little bit about a lot of things.

A vertical line is your classic specialists. They go deep. They know one or two things well, but that is all they know.

A person with range is a T.

They know a little bit about a lot of things (horizontal bar) but they go deep on those one or two things and they know that area well (vertical bar). This is the kind of person who can truly make a difference. That is the kind of person project managers need to become.

The vertical bar is two things: it is knowing project management and it's also knowing your industry. But your horizontal bar, it needs to be far more expansive. This means learning other things outside of project management.

We should know something about sales.

We should know some things about marketing.

We should know things about finance.

And Business.

Because all of those things are components of project management.

There is so much richness of learning out there in the world, we should be out there learning it and applying it to our work.

Lesson Two: The one big idea: learning to solve problems (p.77)

If you develop any skill as a project manager, it should be to solve problems. People with range are the best problem solvers. When you develop range, you begin to engage in analogical thinking.

Think of the late 19th century burgeoning desire for human flight. What was that based on? Birds.

While modern planes do not flap their wings, the inspiration, and scientific inquiry started with examples from nature.

Lesson Three: Improvisation (p.76)

Think about how you, as a project manager, can be like a Jazz musician. Your breadth of knowledge will enable you to apply that knowledge to situations yet unseen.

The ability to improvise is the ability to be nimble.

When we evaluate risks, when we come up against obstacles, we need the skill to be able to pivot around/thru/over that obstacle and get our projects to the finish line.

Lesson Four: Understand Kind versus Wicked Environments (p.21)

In simplistic terms, environments are either kind or wicked.

Kind environments are highly predictable. Sports, for example.

Wicked environments are unpredictable. This is most projects.

We need to develop skills that help us manage unpredictability.

Lesson Five: Inside View and outside view (p.102)

We get insular and our view is dimmed. We get tunnel vision. Step outside and look back inside to get a fresh view of things.

Lesson Six: Visioning bird and a focused frog (p.200)

While a bird's eye view of our project is essential, hunkering down to focus in is also key. Honing in on a particular phase or a particular aspect of our project could be needed to drive it forward.

Lesson Seven: Dragonfly Eyes (p. 225)

Dragonflies are very interesting creatures. Their eyes can almost see 360 degrees all around. That means they can see what is coming up behind them and can see forwards. We need dragonfly eyes.

Lesson Eight: Decision making versus sense-making. (p.248)

The ability to gather inputs, listen, and make sense of an ever changing situation.

Lesson Nine: Dropping Your Tools. (Chap 11)

Methodologists get focused on one methodology. And they try to fit a square project into a round methodology hole. A project manager needs to view project management as a whole toolkit. You're pulling out the tools you need for that particular project. We need to be able to learn when to drop those tools. There are times, especially when it's crunch time, or there's an emergency, and you've got to drop the tools and adapt.

Lesson Ten: Circular Management (p. 264)

Break our hierarchies. As project managers, we need to put ourselves in the middle. Build layers of concentric circles around us. When we're disseminating information that effort is radiating out instead of just pushing it up or pushing it down.

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Range is an important book. It's one I think all project managers should read, whether you're a new project manager or a seasoned project manager. I give this book a rare five out of five stars.

...the most effective learning looks inefficient; it looks like falling behind.

The challenge we all face is how to maintain the benefits of breadth, diverse experience, interdiscipplinary thinking, and delayed concentration in a world that increasingly incentivizes, even demands, hyperspecialization.

...experts had a more difficult time adapting to new rules than did nonexperts.

Everyone needs habits of mind that allow them to dance across disciplines.

{Students} must be taught to think before being taught what to think about.

It is difficult to accept that the best learning road is slow, and that doing poorly now is essential for better performance later.

Learning deeply means learning slowly.

We learn who we are in practice, not in theory.

There are no tools that cannot be dropped, reimagined, or repurposed in order to navigate an unfamiliar challenge. Even the most sacred tools.

Sometimes, the home field can be so constrained that a curious outsider is truly the only one who can see the solution.

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