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The principles

Eighteen ideas, in the book’s own words.

Each principle is told through the characters’ words, with page references.

  1. The PM is a Solver
  2. Asking the right questions
  3. A creative craft
  4. Limits as allies
  5. Leadership as service
  6. Portrait of a good PM
  7. A healthy environment
  8. No project is a solo act
  9. Conflict and feedback
  10. The client as an ally
  11. Brief and project economics
  12. Risks and plan B
  13. Plan, then adapt
  14. No method is dogma
  15. Communicate and document
  16. Ethics and consequences
  17. Calm and resilience
  18. Growing through crises

Principle 01

The PM is a Solver

The role is defined not by its tools but by its function: solving problems. The whole frame of the book revolves around this: Lyeinpro comes from the Greek Lýein problēmata, “to solve problems”, and the best PMs become lýtes, Solvers.

  • “turning problems into opportunities. Or, as I explain it to my parents: sorting out messes” (Preface, p. 2)
  • “All my life I’ve had an innate gift: the ability to solve problems” (Eve, p. 91)
  • “I swear from now on I’ll never complain again about things that seem impossible. Anything can be done” (Marie, p. 83)
  • “There is a solution to everything. You just have to find it” (Mr. G, p. 273)

Principle 02

Asking the right questions

The PM doesn’t have the answers in advance: she knows how to question the situation. Doubt, when shared, is a tool for prevention.

  • “It’s not about having the answers, it’s about knowing how to ask the right questions. Gather the facts. Analyse. React. Draw up a plan. Carry it out” (Marie, p. 66)
  • “Having doubts and sharing them doesn’t mean looking weak or unsure” (Marie, p. 75)
  • “I love doubt and asking myself questions” (Gordon, p. 197)
  • “having all the answers in advance is impossible” (Mr. G, p. 273)

Principle 03

A creative craft

The book dismantles the image of the PM as a bureaucrat of deadlines. From the preface on, it talks about Creative Project Management.

  • “Mine is actually one of the most creative jobs in the world: try having to find a thousand ingenious solutions every day to problems that are always urgent, blocking, explosive” (Marie, to the man who calls her an “air traffic controller”, p. 75)
  • “even if it’s seen as a dry job, creativity is a core part of every Project Manager’s profile” (Mr. G, p. 274)

Principle 04

Limits as allies

The PM exists so that others can create. She doesn’t set limits to control people: she makes visible the limits that already exist and takes charge of them.

  • “physics set insurmountable limits: days would still have 24 hours and weeks 7 days” (Colin, p. 30)
  • “putting everyone in the best conditions to create calmly” (Colin, p. 30)
  • “I planned the activities and did my best to make everyone’s work as smooth as possible” (Eve, p. 92)
  • “most creatives have the same relationship with the PM as they do with the Grim Reaper. […] It forces us to give our best by imposing limits. Because the time we have is not infinite” (Milly, p. 109)

Principle 05

Leadership as service

The PM leads by staying one step ahead on problems and one step back on credit.

  • “taking on the team’s needs, so they can focus only on their own work and give their best. Absorbing everyone’s anxiety by looking solid” (Mr. G, p. 274)
  • “if all goes well the credit goes to the team, but if it all falls apart we are the ones who have to answer for it” (Mr. G, p. 275)
  • “I’ll take responsibility” (Jack, two hours before the pitch, p. 37)
  • The opposite is Evan Stone: “I say, you do”. And if it fails, it’s the team’s fault (p. 27).

Principle 06

Portrait of a good PM

In Dea’s story, Rolf forces Marie to guess who wrote five pieces of feedback. Put side by side, they sketch the PM the book has in mind, along with her possible flaws (pp. 71–77).

  • Excellent technically and in visual communication.
  • Knows how to handle people at each stage of a project; gives trust and autonomy.
  • Talks to clients well, even in difficult situations.
  • Solves problems with initiative and method; relies on people who have proved reliable.
  • A clear, analytical mind, diplomacy, rigour; shares doubts, recognises and values other people’s abilities.
  • The risks: decisions made without handling their consequences, conflicts left unresolved, a client treated hastily, lots of meetings and little documentation.

Principle 07

A healthy environment

Creativity, and so the project, needs a healthy environment. The book devotes a whole story to toxic culture as a project risk.

  • “Creativity is sharing, a message of hope and a communion of spirits. It needs space, balance and a healthy environment” (The Guiding Lights, p. 42)
  • The symptoms: eighty or ninety hours a week dressed up as “generous salaries”, a room built like a gilded cage, comments on bodies, age and background when choosing the team (pp. 27–30).
  • In Breakdown, the Crystal methodology puts “people and their interactions […] at the centre of everything” (p. 199).

Principle 08

No project is a solo act

The most recurrent failure in the book is fragmentation. Success comes from putting different skills together, each in the right place.

  • “Always work with colleagues and clients side by side: / That’s the recipe for projects done with pride” (Edgar, p. 22)
  • “personal success is not a goal to reach alone, but a path to share” (Rylee, p. 159)
  • After the crisis, New Elysium rebuilds itself with “mixed working groups”, and differences become “our lever for shaping the future” (p. 228).

Principle 09

Conflict and feedback

Conflicts are diagnosed and resolved; feedback is there to help people grow. The book also shows their toxic use: Rolf wields negative feedback as a weapon.

  • In the Tarot room, five typical conflicts have five remedies: a participatory method, a climate of trust, rules discussed together, non-violent language, constructive feedback (pp. 151–153). See the conflict cards.
  • To receive negative feedback, Marie follows eight steps (p. 52). See the guide.
  • “Self-criticism is always the best watchword” (Marie, p. 52)
  • “Being offensive is not the smartest way out of an awkward situation” (Lisa, p. 247)

Principle 10

The client as an ally

The best relationship with a client is an alliance built on trust, within clear boundaries.

  • “You could hardly call it friendship, they were still client and supplier, but it was certainly a solid, close alliance” (Elin and Jade, p. 164)
  • “Agree with clients and stakeholders on expectations and priorities” (Edgar, p. 21)
  • PM and Account take turns as “good cop and bad cop”, with one condition: “ethics and honesty” (p. 234).
  • Giving in on everything doesn’t buy satisfaction: Marie accepts every change and absorbs almost half the extra costs, and still gets a fail (p. 48).

Principle 11

Brief and project economics

A project is decided at the start: a clear concept, a complete brief, the numbers done. Edgar’s rhyme is a business case in verse.

  • “Before any project gets under way / write your concept down without delay” (Edgar, p. 21)
  • “step one: let’s reread the brief” (Jack, p. 31)
  • “You give us a figure” (Eve’s client, refusing to state the budget, p. 92)
  • “Every ignored requirement is a project gone” (the PM Butcher’s epitaph, p. 64)

Principle 12

Risks and plan B

Risks must be listed even when the list is frightening. But not everything can be foreseen: then speed of reaction is what counts.

  • “It had been hard to identify and assess every potential problem, but not doing it was the biggest risk of all” (Eve, p. 99)
  • “It’s always the most trivial things that slip through” (Elin, p. 165)
  • “Every difficulty we gloss over becomes a ghost that will haunt our sleep” (Chopin, in Gantt’s Prism, p. 138)
  • “‘Shit happens’. And at that point what makes the difference is the ability to step in quickly and decisively” (Mr. G, p. 273)

Principle 13

Plan, then adapt

The plan is essential, but it is a means. The book alternates praise for planning with criticism of its rigidity.

  • Elin plans her reconnaissance to the minute, but not what comes after: “Now she regretted it” (p. 177).
  • In an emergency, the method is “one problem at a time” (pp. 150, 178).
  • In Waterfall, “anything not already properly foreseen is a potential weak spot” (p. 193).
  • The Gantt chart as life: “a sequence of interconnected and interdependent events”. The prism lets you change your point of view (p. 159).

Principle 14

No method is dogma

This is the thesis of Breakdown. Each caste in New Elysium has turned a method into its identity, and the war between methods tears society apart.

  • “I’ve never been a fan of fights between approaches to prove one’s own is better than the others” (Gordon, p. 197)
  • “every methodology had pros and cons, but above all […] the biggest mistake had been to treat them as dogmas” (p. 228)
  • The Council of Methods is born, tasked with “documenting the management wisdom that every inhabitant gathers each day from their own mistakes” (p. 228).

Principle 15

Communicate and document

Communication is the PM’s working tool: form, channel, timing and traceability all matter.

  • For a delicate message, “asynchronous communication isn’t the right choice” (Gordon, p. 200).
  • “words shouldn’t just ‘sound good together’, […] you have to pay attention to what you’re actually saying” (Angelita, p. 146)
  • In a crisis: only predefined messages, checkpoints and traffic lights (pp. 217–219).
  • “What’s the point of making data available if it’s practically impossible to use?” (Elin, p. 166)
  • “What’s the secret of good communication? Don’t tell anyone” (Murphy, p. 116)

Principle 16

Ethics and consequences

The PM answers for what the project does in the world, not only for time and budget.

  • “Ethics and social responsibility were topics we always included, explicitly and eloquently […] but in hindsight one thing was clear: it was all rhetoric” (Eve, p. 105)
  • “aren’t we risking sending the wrong message to young people?” (Ryan, p. 33)
  • “I still think you’re devious and arrogant, but I have ethics” (Lisa, p. 253)
  • For IMPACT, management requires “constant learning, critical reflection and ethical practice” (p. 157).

Principle 17

Calm and resilience

Calm is not a character trait: it is a practice.

  • “Breathe in, Marie, breathe out” (Marie, pp. 48, 51, 67)
  • “Don’t give up. You might do it an hour before the miracle” (Jack, p. 37)
  • “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react” (p. 38)
  • “There is no night that does not end” (Japanese proverb, in Kiki’s story)

Principle 18

Growing through crises

Skills are not enough: a PM is formed by facing crises and getting to know her own reactions.

  • “the journey to becoming a Project Manager is made, yes, of acquiring skills, but also and above all of self-awareness” (Mr. G, p. 273)
  • The Momentum X: the catastrophe you get through, after which “nothing will ever frighten us again” (p. 273).
  • “every problem we overcome is a building block of growth” (Agatha, p. 158)

Quotations from the novel are translated from the Italian edition. Page numbers refer to the Italian edition.