The purpose of this book is to present new and important brain-based
competencies for project managers and executives of complex projects.
The authors, who include professionals from the fields of complex project
management and neuroscience, discuss cognitive readiness as a natural
part of an innovative approach to project management. The focus on
cognitive readiness, a newly recognized and fundamental set of leadership
competencies, has neuroscience as a foundation with mindfulness, cognitive
intelligence, emotional intelligence, and social intelligence as its pillars and
is intended to help produce the next generation of project managers and
project team members.
Cognitive readiness allows the project manager and the team to be aware
of the set of advanced cognitive competencies (Augmented cognition as we
will see in Chapter 6) of each other and provide for a fuller integration of
those competencies earlier in the project.
This book highlights various aspects of human interaction from the
perspective of cognitive readiness throughout an expanded project life
cycle.* This expanded life cycle offers a wider perspective of the project
manager’s role in managing a complex project, both technically and
cognitively, as detailed by Dr. Harold Kerzner.* In its Navigating Complexity: