Bill Ford, Jr., says that by 2025 cars will be autonomous; they’ll be able to communicate with each other, use the road most efficiently, warn drivers of obstructions, and even valet park for you. In slow traffic, you could disengage your body as well as your brain and let the car take over. Autopilot is a great feature – on a car. It’s not so wonderful in your project team. It takes over when people are disengaged; they are in a never-ending traffic jam at work. No exciting corners, no high-speed chases, no scenic detours. The Centre of Excellence (COE) approach focuses on putting team members back behind the wheel.

We want challenge; we want responsibility; we want a bit of flexibility to make a decision and follow it through; we want to have a voice and use it we want an engaged team. What ends up happening in a lot of PMOs is that a checkmark mentality takes over.

Did you fill out this form? Did you follow this methodology to the letter? Did you do this as per procedure? Did you perform an exhaustive risk mitigation strategy? We’ve seen clients who spend hours putting together a list of every risk under the sun, up to and including being abducted by aliens, but they don’t spend any time on the top five risks that are most likely to occur or will have the biggest impact on their business. The teams focus shifts from doing what actions will contribute to a successful project to following a process. We want to do things right not just do the right things.

You know when you’re driving somewhere you always drive? Your brain shuts off; you drive there automatically and without thought. When you talk about risk management, it can become that familiar route. We don’t even think about it. We tend to come up with a list of generic risks or lower the level of documentation to the lowest common denominator. This approach encourages people not to think; it encourages the switch onto autopilot.

What happens if two project leaders get sick? What happens if we do a merger during the project? Sometimes, a company only has three or four people who have the knowledge base to do specific jobs, like transferring investments. If life happens and one is on leave, one gets the flu, it puts you in an incredible bind. But this is a risk that you could have, and likely should have, identified during that risk mitigation work. It’s not alien abduction you have to worry about; it’s a Sun Life acquisition or a merger with Manulife.

This is where the COE approach comes into play, though. You do not have to reinvent the wheel. If you’ve done it once, you can help someone else do it next time. For instance, if your company is outsourcing jobs to India or China, do you want every business unit developing their own approach? No. It would be more effective to have an outsourcing program that develops knowledge and best practices, and then continually builds and shares that with others so you are not in that bind.

The COE approach emphasizes communication, the sharing and transfer of knowledge, and, most importantly, thinking. You can’t succeed by rote; it will not work. You’ve got to have the people and the brains to make it happen.