How to Root Effectuation Skills in Your Project Team: Improve Project Performance by Balancing Uncertainty

Abstract

Effectuation principles are a way to master situations of uncertainty. Researcher detected them by analyzing how entrepreneurs behave when pursuing business ideas. Some people intuitively perceive effectuation the way they are already working. Others consider them counterintuitive. Effectuation aficionados and practitioners either face the same predicament: People often intuitively understand how it might work. But they remain uncertain how to adapt them to working habits. They are caught by conventional mindsets. They forget about the principles while facing stress disorder, or just feel uncomfortable to change behavior from causation to effectuation. The authors' approach is two-fold: first, they summarize obstacles that hinder actually motivated people to migrate to an effectuative working style. Second, they focus on the domain of project work to match proven patterns of nudging against the core principles of effectuation. Thus, the authors create an instrument for project managers to ingrain effectuation principles into project work. For practical use, the results are provided as nine proto-pattern. Project leads could refer to this list to make effectuation thinking an integral part of daily project chores.