The Intersections of Project Life

I was almost hit by a car the other day – in a dramatic, not really close to being hit kind of way. It wasn’t my fault. I had the right-of-way. The pedestrian light said walk. But, as I was about to step onto the crosswalk, a car turned right from the cross street through the space I was about to occupy. I watched wide-eyed and gape-mouthed with my hands out in front of me, palms up in disbelief pivoting my head searching for witnesses. Then, naturally, I thought about the project management class I teach in the Creative Industries at TMU. This past term, I used the act of crossing the street as one of my go-to examples of a quintessential project. Almost everyone has crossed a street, and in doing so would have gone through all the phases of a classic project:

Initiate:

• Do I have to get a coffee?
• Do I have to go to that café?
• Do I cross here or at an official crosswalk?

Plan:

• How long will it take to cross?
• How much time do I have before that car makes it here at its estimated speed?
• What do the surrounding traffic signs say?
• Is my life worth an americano?

Execute (hopefully):

• Phew

Close:

• Hold a mental project recap for future reference.
• File the lessons learned for next time (In my case, my lesson-learned was to check left for drivers turning right who don’t look for pedestrians on a green).

Using the example of crossing the street to exemplify a project isn’t just helpful for demonstrating project management concepts to undergraduate classes, it also helps situate the discussions taking place within project studies, my area of research for my master’s at TMU. Over the last four decades, project management has become so ubiquitous within industry and business that Christophe Midler famously (famously?) coined the term projectification in his study of Renault car innovation practices in 1995. Since then, project studies as a field of research has evolved and grown, expanding the application of project management principles not just to different types and scales of project work and organization, but to society and culture. In 2012, Anders Fogh Jensen popularized the concept of The Project Society, the notion that people are more and more treating their own lives as projects.  As Jensen, Theusen, and Geraldi would later argue in their 2016 article, The Projectification of Everything: Projects as a Human Condition, “[p]rojects have become omnipresent not only in the economy but also in our society and our lives.” From the gig economy, to social media influencers, to people working from home and managing their work and life tasks as part of the same project - to crossing the street - projectification imbues our lives.

The first time I used crossing the street to illustrate a project management principle, I admit I was a little tongue-in-cheek. But as a relatable, simple project (and it is a project), it serves the purpose well. Not to mention, crossing the street is not simple; especially in this city. Toronto Police Services data since 2006 shows that an average of 170 collisions a year involve pedestrians – including a noticeable reduction during the pandemic. Last year, there were 29 fatalities. Traffic seems heavier than ever these days. Add e-bikes and e-scooters that go the same speed as cars weaving between bike lanes and car lanes, and the planning phase of crossing the street gets more and more complex.  (You might not even be able to console yourself with expectation of compensation if you are hurt. If the province’s bill 212 sticks and they start removing bike lanes, “claims arising from collisions between motor vehicles, cyclists or pedestrians…are not claims of negligence...”).

The choreography of pedestrian, bike, and car traffic is a science and an on-going experiment and needs the conscious participation of the users as much as good traffic design. Just look at the intersection at Bloor and St. George streets. Outfitted with a Dutch design meant to make pedestrian and bike movements safer after the tragic death of a cyclist in 2018, it’s since had to be uprooted and redesigned after multiple injuries to both walkers and cyclists. The best bet for minimizing pedestrian injuries lies at the intersection of good city planning and personal project management.

Speaking of intersections, I’d say crossing the street provides a neat intersection for the study of project management practice and project studies theory: project enough to illustrate project management principles; life enough to illustrate project studies. It’s also a good lesson in literally crossing the street. After all, if you don’t apply some project management principles when you do it, you could be playing with your life.

About the author: Louis Marrone is a ComCult student specializing in project studies, the creative industries, and creativity. His work focuses on the intersections of organizational communication, professional communications, and the dynamics of work, labor, and class within communication contexts.

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