Krishna as a Project Management Model
Krishna as a project management model reveals that modern project management concepts like ‘raising the bar’ are ancient. This article explores how Krishna, from babyhood, epitomized raising the bar with every project executed, inspiring today’s project managers.
Many of us perceive 1950 to be the year of birth of modern project management and phrases like ‘Raising the Bar’ is often viewed as a product which evolved out of the corporate world. But these concepts are perhaps as old as human civilization. The journey of human civilizations from the Paleolithic to the Silicon age is infact an example of various projects on survival strategies that the human race executed. With each age the bar was raised by degrees. The primitive man who invented the wheel for the purpose of transportation was the precursor of Robert Hutchings Goddard, the man credited with the invention of the world’s first liquid fuelled rocket ushering in an era of space flight. On a lighter note we can safely conclude that the genome of ‘raising the bar’ is embedded in our DNA by default. So all we need to do is to fix the bug of the misconception that yottabytes of external effort are required to raise the bar.
Let us travel back to the ages of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. If we look at these two epical ages, the Treta and the Dwapara respectively, from an organizational point of view the former would appear to be of a more innocent phase and the latter is a shade darker and slightly more corrupt. If organisations have rules and principles at its basis, then Ram as the CEO of Treta always followed rules and upheld principles. Interestingly in the age of the Mahabharata, Krishna the CEO of Dwapara always upheld the principles but constantly bent the rules. But this is not the area of focus in this article. In this we will try to explore the most versatile epic character Krishna as a model exemplar of raising the bar with every project he executed.
Infact he has been handling projects since his babyhood till he bade goodbye to the world. For some time let us not consider him a god but an ubermensch(a superior man), a man of substance and different shades: where each shade can be a source of inspiration for all those prefer to imbibe that particular trait. For example, there are multiple shades for different people such as politicians, diplomats, strategists, casanovas, leaders, managers, corporates, rebels, empaths and devotees to draw their inspiration from this interesting character. However, the target audience in this essay is the project managers.
The Technical Phase (Individual Contribution)
Challenges pertaining to his survival emerged prior to his birth. His maternal uncle had received a life threat through a divine prophecy, where he was informed that his nephew would be his killer. After being saved and taken away to Gokul by his foster father Vasudev, he single handedly executed –both literally and figuratively ‘project Putana.’ Putana as we know was a demoness who disguised herself as a foster mother and schemed to kill the baby Krishna with poisoned milk while she breast fed him. This was followed by projects Trinavarta, Vatsasura and Bakasura. The process of execution has much resemblance to the programming or technical work performed by programmers or engineers. The managerial responsibility is absent in all these projects.
Team Lead
The next phase of projects where he acts like a team lead, handling a small team of people but mainly performed technical work. These include projects Kalia, Aghasura and Vyomasura. Aghasura was a sibling of Putana and Bakasura and a general in king Kansa’s army. To avenge the death of his siblings he assumed the form of a huge serpent disguising his mouth against a mountain thus beguiling Krishna’s playmates who entered its mouth mistaking it for a cave. Krishna entered the mouth of the demon and increased the size of his body that suffocated the serpent and killed it and this is how he liberated his fellow cowherd and closed the project successfully.
Kansa’s demons harassed Krishna throughout his childhood and in his fifteenth year he faced his uncle Kansa in the wrestling arena and vanquished him. During this phase he fought against an entire army and handled an army too. Though his army killed Kansa’s men he killed Kansa single handed. His role at this stage bears resemblance to that of a Module leader in a software project.
The Transition from Technical To Managerial
From here on his role transitioned from the technical premises to that of management. In Hastinapur the technical work was being executed by the Pandavas and he assumed the role of a Project lead. During Draupadi’s swayambhar, he gestured her not to accept Karna. When Bheema was fighting Jarasandha he provided technical consultancy for killing Jarasandha by picking up a blade of grass and splitting it into two. Jarasandha could only be killed if his body was split in two halves and Bheema was not able to execute his task successfully on his own.
The time was ripe for the great battle at Kurukshetra. Here we find Krishna in the role of a Project Manager. Infact prior to war he had made it very clear that he will not take an active part in the warfare almost like one who does not involve himself actively in coding when one moves into the role of a Project manager. Let us take a closer look at all the competencies of a project manager he has showcased during the war:
The Competencies of a Project Manager
As a motivator he invigorated Arjuna to fight so that the latter could pull up his droopy spirit to take up arms against his kith and kin. Arjuna had given up on the battle before it actually began. Krishna played the instrumental role in charging his team member into action.
We find him as a strategist and solution provider during crucial hours. The biggest challenge was to put an end to Bhishma, who was blessed with a voluntary death wish. With this boon Bhishma could have continued to fight and the battle would have continued endlessly. Krishna sent the Pandavas to Bhishma to seek his blessings. When he blessed them with ‘ May victory be with you,’ the Pandavas refused to accept this blessing. When Bhishma enquired about their rejection of his blessing, the Pandavas replied that with Bhishma leading the Kauravas it would never be possible for them to achieve victory and therefore they did not want Bhishma’s blessings to be futile. Bhishma instantly understood that it was Krishna who master minded the entire plan. He told the Pandavas to get Shikhandi, the eunuch, fight alongside Arjuna. Bhishma being a warrior will never pick up arms against a person who was not a complete male. Thus Krishna also displayed the ability to influence without coercion.
When Abhimanyu was killed in an unfair way inside the chakravyuh Arjuna vowed to kill Jayadrath, the engineer of the chakravyuh, before sunset by the following day. On failing to do so Arjuna declared that he would kill himself. The Kauravas found this to be a big opportunity to get rid of Arjuna by hiding Jayadrath the day long till sundown. Jayadrath was kept hidden and the sun was about to sink beyond the horizon. Just at this moment Krishna covered the sun with his Chakra and created the illusion of sun set. Sensing that the sun has set Jayadrath came out of his hiding place and at this very moment Krishna removed the chakra revealing the sun. Jayadrath’s life story came to an end at the hands of Arjuna. We find Krishna in the role of a facilitator here. Besides Jayadrath Krishna has facilitated the assassination of Bhishma, Duryodhana, Karna and the other ‘maharathis’ of the Kaurava faction. He did all of this without picking up a single weapon during the war.
As an effective communicator Krishna had informed Arjun that Jayadrath was gifted with a boon from his father that when assassinated if his head lands on the ground then the head of the killer too would explode to fragments .He told Arjun to shoot the arrow in such a way that the severed head of Jayadrath should fall on his father’s lap. Jayadrath’s father sage Vridhakshtra was in a state of meditation when the severed head of his son landed on his lap. With a start he threw the head on the ground and opened his eyes to see the object that has fallen on his lap. His own boon turned out to be a bane for the sage as his head shattered to bits. Acquiring knowledge and disseminating that knowledge to the right people at the right time is a key skill of an efficient project manager. An able project manager is also efficient in risk management. Krishna has successfully showcased the anticipation and mitigation of risk in the above mentioned incident.
Krishna displayed the skill of placing the right person in the right place, besides the art of delegation, managing and developing a team. He ensured that the right kind of people was mobilized to fight for the Pandavas. He provided valuable tips to the Pandavas to assemble those warriors as their allies who were antagonized by the Kauravas at different points and situations in time. Karna possessed a brahmastra, a gift from Indra which he had reserved for destroying Arjun. Ghatotkacha, Bheema’s giant son was assigned the task of wrecking havoc on the Kaurava army. Irked by the havoc, Duryodhana implored Karna to use the weapon on Ghatotkacha. Though Ghatotkacha was killed, Arjun was saved. We all know that without Arjuna, the Pandavas could never have achieved victory in this great battle.
Krishna chose Yudhhisthira to convey the message of Aswathama’s death with a slight twist to Dronacharya. Aswathama was guru Drona’s beloved son and the news of his death was sure to perturb the teacher beyond imagination. When an elephant, the namesake of Dronacharya’s son was killed in the battle. Krishna took the opportunity of psychologically weakening the teacher by conveying the news to him in a diplomatic manner. This news coming from the one who never lied impacted Drona to such an extent that he dropped his weapons and was killed by Dristadumnya at that opportune moment. This is the finest example of delegating the right task to the right person and taking the right advantage of the situation to turn things in one’s favour.
Conflict Management is one of the most important responsibilities of a project manager. We find Krishna resolving both internal and external conflict. Prior to the commencement of the war when Arjuna’s mind was torn between his thoughts whether to fight or refrain from the war Krishna sensitizes him towards the responsibilities and duties he needs to perform as a Khastriya and help to resolve Arjuna’s mental conflict. After Dristadumnya kills Dronacharya, Arjun got enraged at the act of killing his teacher and wanted to kill Dristadumnya. Such a conflict among internal stakeholders could have taken a bitter turn had not Krishna pacified Arjun and resolved the internal conflict among the team members.
Thus we find in him the power of motivating and energizing the team, coaching, managing conflicts, developing communications strategies, overcoming complex issues, risk management, planning and scheduling, execution strategies, allocation of the appropriate resource for a particular task, decision making, out-of the box thinking to solve the problem –Lord Krishna who is at the helm of the affairs is truly a SPA (Single point accountable) person. He is dependable, confident and cherubic and inspires confidence in the Pandavas even when the chips are down for them. He knew Arjuna was technically sound but emotionally weak hence he ensured that he was always guiding and coaching Arjuna to achieve the objectives of the battle. In a similar parlance the skillful project manager should determine the strengths and weaknesses of his team members and guide and coach them to archive the success of the project. Most inspiring during the whole episode of Mahabharata are the astute planning, flawless execution and a fantastic delegation of responsibilities..
It is important to note that Gita deals with the focus on self – which is the most important aspect of a project Manager’s presence. It is important for a PM to have a strong inner self to manage the complex situations of the global project. Skilled resources are always a challenge on a complex global project. This is why it is important to learn how to choose wisely and utilize optimally. Krishna mocks the moment when Duryodhana chose Krishna’s large army for help while Arjuna selected Krishna’s presence and wisdom. Therefore, unlike Duryodhana, a good manager should never fail to see the bigger picture and act wisely to evaluate the alternatives.
Krishna advocated that everyone should build a visionary perspective in his or her work. One should see the importance of one’s work beyond their desks and organizations because the importance extends to society in general. He talked about the righteous decision-making process. It says that in the midst of a tempest, one need to take decisions, and those should be righteous. Since Project Management practitioners come from diverse backgrounds and cultures, Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct applies globally.
The entire life span of this great personality points to not only paradigm shifting but raising the bar from the level of individual performance to team performance; from the technical to the managerial and leadership; from self empowerment to team empowerment. From the discussion above it is evident that a Project Manager should be proud of his cultural heritage and utilize this intelligence in his global projects. He should be aware of his inherent strengths that his culture has bestowed on him and be proud of this fact during his project management profession and continue to raise the bar.
What's Your Reaction?