FEATURED PAPER
By Bob Prieto
Jupiter, Florida, USA
This paper follows on from my Letter to the Editor[1] in response to David Pells prescient piece on Black Elephants[2]. As you read through this paper the following key points should be kept front and center:
- A Black Elephant is a cross between a Black Swan and the proverbial elephant in the room
- Black Elephants are high-impact events that lie beyond the realm of regular expectations but is ignored despite evidence of its existence
- Black Elephants broadly impact society, creating challenges, threats, risks and opportunities for our profession, our people and our projects
- Black Elephants also inhabit the projects we undertake and execute
- Because of the size of Black Elephants, they tend to preferentially inhabit the largest, most complex and often most visible projects we undertake
- Black Elephants around us are described
- Black Elephants in projects are described
- Black Elephants are not going away
- They are a characteristic of complex, adaptive systems
This paper also continues the “black and white” series of Executive Insights that may be found on the National Academy of Construction website[3], focusing on a new animal in the zoo, Black Elephants. Black Elephants were made popular in Thomas Friedman’s 2014 New York Times editorial, “Stampeding Black Elephants”. Friedman was quoting environmentalist/investor Adam Sweidan but on closer inspection the term goes back to 2009 and is credited to Vinay Gupta, a consultant on disaster relief and risk management, who recognizes its origination in a small group meeting and cites the originator as Lloyd Davis, a social artist and master community builder.
The short history on its origins are important since many have taken credit for its creation and as this paper will show, Black Elephants are all around us including in the world of engineering and construction.
So what is a Black Elephant?
A Black Elephant is a cross between a Black Swan and the proverbial elephant in the room. You can’t miss the black elephant; everyone sees it; but nobody wants to deal with it.
Said another way, a Black Elephant is a high-impact event that lies beyond the realm of regular expectations but is ignored despite evidence of its existence.
When it finally decides to trample us we falsely declare it to be a Black Swan, as if that relieves us of responsibility.
Black Elephants impact engineering and construction in two significant ways. The first are those Black Elephants which more broadly impact society, creating challenges, threats, risks and opportunities for our profession, our people and our projects. The second, are those Black Elephants which seem to inhabit the projects we undertake and execute. And, because of the size of Black Elephants, they tend to preferentially inhabit the largest, most complex and often most visible projects we undertake.
Let’s look at each of these in turn.
Black Elephants Around Us
The world in which we live is home to many Black Elephants. Some we see or hear about on a regular basis, others more intermittently. But we are aware of them none the less. Like everything in life there are good and bad aspects to these elephants but only if we deal with them and the threats they present.
For engineering and construction organizations these Black Elephants represent not just threats but also opportunities.
More…
To read entire paper, click here
How to cite this paper: Prieto, R. (2008). Black Elephants, PM World Journal, Vol. IX, Issue VIII, August. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/pmwj96-Aug2020-Prieto-Black-Elephants-featured-paper.pdf
About the Author
Bob Prieto
Chairman & CEO
Strategic Program Management LLC
Jupiter, Florida, USA
Bob Prieto is a senior executive effective in shaping and executing business strategy and a recognized leader within the infrastructure, engineering and construction industries. Currently Bob heads his own management consulting practice, Strategic Program Management LLC. He previously served as a senior vice president of Fluor, one of the largest engineering and construction companies in the world. He focuses on the development and delivery of large, complex projects worldwide and consults with owners across all market sectors in the development of programmatic delivery strategies. He is author of nine books including “Strategic Program Management”, “The Giga Factor: Program Management in the Engineering and Construction Industry”, “Application of Life Cycle Analysis in the Capital Assets Industry”, “Capital Efficiency: Pull All the Levers” and, most recently, “Theory of Management of Large Complex Projects” published by the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA) as well as over 700 other papers and presentations.
Bob is an Independent Member of the Shareholder Committee of Mott MacDonald. He is a member of the ASCE Industry Leaders Council, National Academy of Construction, a Fellow of the Construction Management Association of America and member of several university departmental and campus advisory boards. Bob served until 2006 as a U.S. presidential appointee to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Business Advisory Council (ABAC), working with U.S. and Asia-Pacific business leaders to shape the framework for trade and economic growth. He had previously served as both as Chairman of the Engineering and Construction Governors of the World Economic Forum and co-chair of the infrastructure task force formed after September 11th by the New York City Chamber of Commerce. Previously, he served as Chairman at Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) and a non-executive director of Cardno (ASX)
Bob can be contacted at rpstrategic@comcast.net.
To view other works by Bob Prieto, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/bob-prieto/
[1] Prieto, R. (2020). On the Subject of Black Elephants, Letter to the Editor, PM World Journal, Vol. IX, Issue VII, July. https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/pmwj95-Jun2020-Prieto-Letter-to-Editor-on-black-elephants.pdf
[2] Pells Editorial: Black Elephants and… maybe Project Management, PM World Journal, Vol IX, Issue VI, June 2020. https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/pmwj94-Jun2020-Pells-black-elephants-and-maybe-project-management-editorial3.pdf
[3] https://www.naocon.org/insights/
