By David A. SchmaltzThis book on the art of project management identifies incoherence as the root cause of the difficulties many experience. The author explains the inability of a group of people to make common meaning from their common experience with the use of the familiar story of the six blind men trying to describe an elephant to each other. He presents a set of simple, proven techniques that all can use to increase their projects’ coherence and overcome common project difficulties. Schmaltz exposes such oft-cited difficulties as poor planning, weak leadership, and fickle sponsors and customers as poor excuses for project failure. He provides a set of simple, project coherence-building techniques that anyone can use to achieve success. He explains how “wickedness” develops when a team over-relies on their leader for guidance rather than tapping their true source of power and authority- the individual.

Published by Berrett-Koehler. ISBN: 1-57675-253-4. 18.95 US dollars.