The Shadow in Project Management

Projects fail due to a widespread inability to handle the increasing complexity they’re faced with. This complexity arises to a great extent from the human factor and a frail understanding of the more complex behavioral aspects in projects, such as the Shadow (“the thing a person has no wish to be”, Jung, CW16). A project manager who can work with the individual and the collective Shadow is therefore better equipped to stir a project to the next level of performance. Being able to recognize and handle the Shadow releases energy, enhances motivation, promotes trust, and tackles group defense mechanisms such as “fancy footwork” and “skilled incompetence” (Argyris, 1990, ), “immunity to change” (Kegan & Lahey, 2009), scapegoating, and conflicts at large. This paper focuses on the dark and undebatable side of the culture of project management. For in the same way that individuals have a Shadow, also groups and cultures have theirs. Examples discussed are the confidence we hold in man as rational actor and how it limits human agency and potential; the myth of control, the hubris of management and the dark side of leadership. Following a multi-method qualitative approach, the researcher presents findings from a survey of tools (transformative practices) as well as interviews to practitioners across four main realms (therapy, coaching, the arts and spiritual practice) in order to understand how the Shadow can be handled and projects better stirred to success.