I want to promote the “F” word for a change. Not, I must hasten to add, the usual “F” word that most users associate with the IT department. No, I am talking about Fieldcraft, a term that will be instantly familiar to anyone with a military background, or with an interest in the world of espionage.
Picture credit: Podknox
Fieldcraft is all about the art of survival in a hostile environment and is a core element in the successful training of every soldier, building on the mechanistic, classroom-taught, disciplines of map-reading and weapons training. Fieldcraft is about moving beyond theory and towards doing it for real, under pressure.
Fieldcraft is about learning how to achieve objectives by using and combining separately learned skills, generally through a series of carefully planned exercise scenarios. Very valuable lessons, indeed, as they make the participants think for themselves, rather than simply performing routine drills.
Fieldcraft helps the military student to put their training into an operational context, a dynamic real world where people, circumstances and conditions create tensions and challenges that cannot be found in cosy classrooms and laboratories.
Tensions and challenges?
Sounds a bit like IT project management to me. So why don’t we include some fieldcraft in our project management training?
I am not suggesting that we run round the boardroom, dressed in combats, camouflaged up to the eyeballs and shouting “bang-bang, you’re dead” at the Finance Director. Tempting, though it may be.
But I am suggesting that we take immediate, positive action to improve the training of our project and programme managers.
Sure, they may have been on the PRINCE2 accreditation course, or sat through the Microsoft Project tutorial. But most new project managers are grossly under-trained in how to apply their tools and techniques in an operational context; and this lack of training often reflects unfavourably on the outcome of our projects and programmes.
In the corporate world, the real weapons of mass destruction frequently take the apparently innocent form of Change Requests and Project Initiation Documents.
So I strongly believe that it’s high time for a bit of IT fieldcraft training, given by experienced veterans, not academics.
And, of course, this training needs to happen in controlled conditions, before we ever even think about letting candidates loose on an unsuspecting organisation, with live ammunition. Without proper IT fieldcraft training, the project management process is likely to remain scary for all concerned.
Some people may well agree with this more rigorous approach to training our change agents but then plead local exemption, on grounds of cost and time. These same people may choose instead to focus their management attention on something that is far cheaper and, conveniently, much less deliverable: Leadership.
And don’t forget, there is no “f” in leadership 
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