About

The birth:
The study of cognitive readiness for project and program management was first used as a term of study in 2011 with the project “Cognitive Readiness in Project Team”, launched by Russell Archibald, Daniele Di Filippo and Ivano Di Filippo.

The initial book publication on the subject was published in 2019, “Cognitive Readiness in Project Teams, Reducing Project Complexity and Increasing Success in Project Management” ed. Carl Belack, Daniele Di Filippo, and Ivano Di Filippo.

The project, Cognitive Readiness in Disruptive Times, was initiated in 2020 through the International Research Program Capabilities for delivering projects in the context of societal development, CaProSoc, led by Dr. Mladen Radujkovic and Reinhard Wagner through the Alma Mater Europaea, AME. Mr. Wagner invited Ivano Di Filippo to join the International research program. Thus, the project was launched as the Cognitive Readiness in Disruptive Times project (CRinDT).

To prepare CRinDT project, experts from around the globe, multiple disciplines, such as distinguished project management professionals, scientists, and researchers who have contributed to help define and provide substantive information and research, as to how cognitive readiness functions or fits into the domain of project and program management, were organized and began discussing what needed to be accomplished

Situation:
Cognitive competence or capabilities contribute to the holistic competence philosophy of project management. In particular, the International Project Management Association® and the Project Management Institute® have already begun research into the basic tenets of this book, which are included in “The Eye of Competence” (IPMA) and “The Talent Triangle” (PMI).

As stated by IPMA, “The eye of competence represents the integration of all the elements of project management as seen through the eyes of the project manager when evaluating a specific situation.” After processing the information received, the competent and responsible project manager takes appropriate action. The project manager’s awareness of his inner intelligences such as emotional, social, or cognitive; the outer representation of his cognitive styles; and the inner or intelligences status of the project or program management team members and the stakeholders, as well as the outer as represented by the environment.

This awareness may help the project or program to take steps to be effective in the development of a resilient and high-performing team. For its part, the Project Management Institute®, in the “Pulse of the Profession” has developed a talent triangle that cites three critical types of project management skills—technical skills, strategic and business skills, and leadership skills. In the Institute’s opinion, competence or capabilities in leadership skills accounts for 81 percent of a project manager’s probable success with technical being 9 percent, strategic and business being 9 percent, and other skills 1 percent.

Moreover, the same research found that the lack of focus on talent development contributes to the poor performance of programs and projects. Competencies or capabilities that were previously successful, while still necessary, may not be sufficient for today’s project managers and teams in the face of increasing project complexity and uncertainty.

Vision:
Bill Gates had a vision, a dream "A computer on every desk and in every home." and as him we have as a vision that every project manager and executive who handle complex and standard project should have have competences in Cognitive Readiness.

As final Vision the research group sees, disseminate, applying and also integrating, where possible in the officicial most important PM guidelins (IPMA and PMI) and applying cognitive readiness in the context of project management, completing it with what can be defined as a tangible response to the ever-increasing need to integrate the CogPM with the TechPM, in order to have an always greater chance of success of projects, especially complex ones. in this context as subvision the CRinDT project envisions various round tables and publications, including juried publications to disseminate the knowledge gained and to promote the acceptance of the area of cognitive readiness and the integration of mindfulness as activator of the three intelligences. As such, cognitive readiness should be recognized as a primary set of leadership competencies both for self-management and for successfully developing, leading and managing high-performing teams in a complex project environment, being supportive of the research of IPMA and PMI. CR envisions various round tables and publications, including juried publications to disseminate the knowledge gained and to promote the acceptance of the area of cognitive readiness and the integration of mindfulness to enhance and promote the intelligences.

Mission:
To realize the Cognitive Readiness Vision, this international multidisciplinary research programme aspires to perform the following activities through a network of institutions, researchers, scientists and practitioners:

• Determine if there are areas to be pursued in greater depth or with new methods of review for the field;
• Sharing, discussing, recognising - experiences, cases, and international best practices
• Creating, developing, innovating - concepts, knowledge, and practical applications
• Determine if other types of organizations should be reviewed against the findings to determine if there are some types of projects and programs to which the findings are more applicable than others;
• Determine types of organizations to be reviewed against the initial findings currently documented to determine if there are some types of projects and programs to which the findings are more applicable than others or projects and programs that are initially more receptive to the application of the findings;
• Determine other areas of research with participating organizations that would be beneficial to those organizations in preparing teams to be more successful through cognitive readiness;
• Identify and prioritize for study the impact of various disruptions to the delivery of project and program objectives, deliverables, and benefits; and
• Determine a research protocol for those impacts identified, which should be studied, capture the results, and convey to those practicing in one of several modes using a variety of media;
• Publication of the next book with practical and applicable situational analysis to assist project and program managers, as well as those executives sponsoring projects and programs, and human resource managers staffing projects and programs to be successful in disruptive times.
• Publishing of a series of articles on the research and applications to be written by the participating authorities, as a report of the actions taken and the outcomes. These articles should be published in both juried and non-juried publications to enable the information to reach the broadest audience in the communities identified.