I recently finished reading Alex Stone’s intriguing
new book Fooling Houdini: Magicians, Mentalists, Math Geeks, and the Hidden Powers of the Mind
in which he traces his steps along his path
of becoming a magician while providing interesting insights into the world of magicians
and mentalists. I had no idea as to the numerous magic societies and
annual magic tournaments held all over the world!
You may be asking yourself how a book about magic
could possibly be related to project management. Although I am sure most experienced
project managers would agree that at times it seems like magic to make a
project come together, there is no magic to project management. In fact after
reading this book it is clear that we should never introduce any magical tools
or techniques into our project management processes. On the other hand both
magicians and project managers need to step back from their tools and
techniques and remember it is critical to make their audience care. Let’s start
by looking at the technique of misdirection.
The Art of MisdirectionYou may not be surprised to learn that magic is not really magic at all, but a series of very clever and well planned techniques. Magicians who perform feats such as making objects disappear and then reappear are practicing the art of misdirection. Misdirection is performed by capturing the audience’s focus on a particular object or other distraction while the true ‘magic’ is happening somewhere else. Many psychological studies have shown that when we focus on a particular task our brains can become blind to the other stimulus, especially visual.
