Leading Complex Projects

Leadership in projects has been under-represented in many of the most influential project methodologies, where the focus has been on management and process. The importance to project success of key roles such as project board member, executive sponsor, project manager, client representative or team leader, increases exponentially with the scale and complexity of the project. Kaye Remington's Leading Complex Projects draws on original, empirical research into successful leadership of complex projects, including 70 in-depth interviews with people, across a broad range of industries, selected for their roles in guiding complex projects towards successful outcomes. The book, structured around the major themes from the interviews, explains and applies emerging best-practice in a coherent and focused way. A potent combination of wisdom from leaders in practice and the latest knowledge from many fields of research will engage experienced practitioners, as well as those who are teaching and researching projects, complexity and leadership.

Introduction: Leadership for Complex Projects; 1: What Good Leadership Does When Projects Are Complex; 1: Comprehend Complexity; 2: Communicate, Communicate, Communicate; 3: Cultivate Effective Teams from Project Teams to Executive Board; 4: Employ Portfolio-programme Thinking; 5: Challenge Through Innovation; 6: Think About Thinking; 7: Consider Culture; 8: Exercise Political Skill; 9: Pilot Projects Through Crises; 2: What Good Leadership Needs When Projects Are Complex; 10: Governance That Matches the Complexity; 11: Authority Over Key Roles; 12: Partners for Peace; 3: How Good Leadership Behaves When Projects Are Complex; 13: As Humble Iconoclasts; 14: With Charisma, Resilience, Determination and Courage

Professional Practice & Development

Kaye Remington has wide ranging experience in extending project management concepts into many fields in practice, education and research, integrating material from fields not traditionally associated with project management. Kaye Remington has 25 years' project management and senior management experience and until very recently was Course Director of the Master of Project Management program at the University of Technology Sydney. She is author of the highly acclaimed Tools for Complex Projects, also published by Gower.