Project management lessons from The Odyssey

Projects are journeys - they have roadmaps, milestones, directions, delays and uncertainty. I recently watched The Odyssey and found myself reflecting on the project management lessons we could learn from Odysseus’ epic journey. It also left me wondering how differently things might have turned out if he had approached his journey more like a project manager.

Odysseus sets off from Troy with a clear objective: to return home to Ithaca. What follows is a journey of expanding scope, unexpected issues and significant delays as he and his crew encounter monsters, sirens and angry gods. Odysseus is resourceful, resilient and brave, but watching the film, I couldn’t help feeling that he repeatedly makes life harder for himself and his crew. Three project management lessons in particular stood out to me.

Manage conflict effectively

Odysseus’ encounter with the cyclops is a useful lesson in conflict management. The situation soon becomes challenging for Odysseus and his crew as they become trapped in the cave by the cyclops in an escalating confrontation. Even after escaping the cave, Odysseus taunts the Cyclops, provoking a further attack which leads to further losses of his men.

The lesson for project managers is that not every conflict needs to be won. Disagreements with stakeholders, suppliers and delivery teams are inevitable on complex projects, but how those disagreements are handled can determine whether they remain manageable or become damaging. Sometimes the right answer is the one that everyone can agree on.

The Cyclops episode therefore illustrates a simple principle: don’t escalate conflict unnecessarily. Once a conflict has arisen, the objective should be to resolve it in a way that protects the project, rather than allowing pride, frustration or the desire to be right to make the situation worse.

Manage risk before it materialises

Odysseus’ approach to risk management has mixed success. His preparation for his encounter with the Sirens is an excellent example of proactive risk mitigation. He understands the threat, anticipates how it might affect his crew and puts controls in place before the risk materialises. He gives his crew wax for their ears and has himself tied to the mast so that he can hear the Sirens without being able to act on their song.

His approach to the forbidden cattle is rather less successful. Despite being explicitly warned not to allow his crew to eat the livestock, he fails to prevent a situation in which the cattle remain visible and accessible to an increasingly hungry crew. Eventually, they are eaten, with catastrophic consequences for the crew.

The difference is an important one. Identifying a risk isn't the same as managing it. Telling the crew not to eat the cattle is an instruction, but it is not necessarily an effective control. Effective risk management means taking action to reduce the probability or impact of a risk and considering whether the mitigation is actually sufficient - simply writing “do not eat cattle” in the risk log clearly wasn't sufficient.

Take your team with you

Perhaps the most striking lesson from The Odyssey is the importance of taking your team with you on the journey.

Odysseus is the leader of the expedition, but leadership does not mean that everyone automatically understands, agrees with or supports his decisions. He has authority, but this is not the same as engagement. His decisions affect a group of people who have their own motivations, behaviours, and opinions, and the difference between his perspective and theirs becomes increasingly important as the journey gets harder.

The crew become exhausted, frightened and increasingly uncertain about whether they will ever get home. Odysseus continues to make decisions based on what he believes is necessary to get home. From his perspective, those decisions may be rational, but the crew experience the consequences of those decisions directly.

This is a familiar challenge in project management. A business case can be clear, the objective can be compelling and the plan can make perfect sense on paper. But if the people responsible for delivering it do not understand the objective, trust the leadership or feel involved in the journey, delivery becomes harder.

Projects are delivered by people, not plans. Taking your team with you is therefore not just about communication; it is about building the understanding, trust and engagement needed to keep people moving in the same direction when things inevitably become difficult.

The journey home

The story of Odysseus is ultimately a reminder that project management is not about eliminating uncertainty or avoiding every problem. Odysseus certainly cannot control everything that happens on his journey and neither can a project manager. The aim is to establish enough direction and control to navigate uncertainty when it arrives.

Odysseus does eventually get home, but his journey might have been considerably shorter had he applied a few project management principles along the way. Although, in fairness to Odysseus, most project managers have notebooks, RAID logs and Gantt charts. He just had a boat.