Second Order Project Management

If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got, and if what you've always got isn't good enough, you need to do something else. Second Order Project Management will help alleviate the frustration that every member of the profession has experienced when trying to gain approval for investment in process improvement from sponsors. Illustrated by extracts from a series of interviews with an international group of very senior managers responsible for managing highly complex projects, Michael Cavanagh explains there is nothing magical, or even complicated, about Second Order Project Management.

Michael Cavanagh is a consultant specialising in organisational learning, development and project management. In his 40-year career, Michael Cavanagh has worked as a Programmer, Systems Analyst, Project Manager, Department Head and Consultant in a number of business sectors. In recent years, he has concentrated on the transfer of knowledge and wisdom in an organisational context. This work on experiential learning has led to the focus of his research and consulting activity being the use of systems thinking techniques to perform 'forensic' analysis of major project failure and the ways in which lessons can be derived and corrective process improvement implemented, applying these ideas in very large long-term projects. Michael has worked alongside many organisations in Defence, Transportation and Petrochemical sectors across Europe, the USA, Canada and the Middle East. He is a regular speaker at international conferences and in major Business Schools. Michael is also an ordained Anglican priest in the Church of Ireland, responsible for the churches of the Kenmare and Dromod Union, Co. Kerry.