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Keynote Description

Intelligent disobedience is the ability to counter management directions or instructions and suggest improvements while defending the integrity of projects and keeping them close and consistent to their original goals.

This ability requires courage, good presentation skills and political awareness. These skills set the great project managers apart from those who are merely good.

The process of intelligent disobedience is similar to the way a seeing-eye dog is trained to help its visually impaired master. In moments of danger to their master, the dogs must sometimes disobey a master’s command and carry out the appropriate actions to protect and ensure the master’s safety. Similarly, project managers must possess the courage to defy management decisions, if the defiance can ensure the project’s success.

Project managers must possess the ability to say ‘no’ creatively. Creative presentation skills allow them to be able to convince management and stakeholders of the soundness of their counter-decisions.

Intelligent disobedience is an important topic that relates to ethical issues in project
management. Project managers must understand their surrounding environment and the
issues involved. They must be fully aware of the implications of their counter-decisions and the risks involved, as this will not only influence the success of the organisation but the success of project management as a profession.

All of this and more is addressed in this dynamic keynote presentation; it is a must for project managers that are looking for “something different” that will challenge their thinking about handling difficult project situations.

About Bob

 

Robert L. (Bob) McGannon, PMP, GWCPM is the co-founder and director of Intelligent Disobedience Leadership Pty Ltd in Australia. He also was the founder of Mindavation Inc. in the United States, and Mindavation Pty Ltd in Australia. Bob specialises in advanced leadership techniques, strategic program and portfolio management and has established Project Management Offices on three continents. Bob has worked with inexperienced to advanced business leaders from more than 15 countries, with a wide variety of industry backgrounds and has delivered keynote addresses to conferences and chapter meetings around the world. Bob has more than 30 years of I/T, project management and business analysis experience, 18 of those years with the IBM Corporation.

Bob is a certified Project Management Professional by PMI, was a certified Executive Project
Manager with IBM, a Certified Project Management Coach for the Boeing Corporation, and is currently an Honorary Adjunct Professor at Bond University in Australia. Bob holds university degrees in Operations Research and Mathematics and is the author of ‘Intelligent Disobedience: The Difference Between Good and Great Leaders’ published Routledge (Oxford, UK). He is a LinkedIn Learning instructor, with nearly 20 courses on the platform, covering project management,
advanced leadership and outsourcing management.