ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter we introduced the idea of projects as organic, ‘living’ entities. The resilience of a project ‘organism’ is aided by its being aware of its surroundings and potential disturbances in the forms of risk, uncertainty and complexity. It resists, absorbs and adapts to these disturbances without collapsing. In this chapter we continue on the roads to resilience by introducing and evaluating archetypes of project resilience which are often applied in an uneasy combination. One is based on rules and procedures, stripping the organism of situated thinking and relying wholly on predetermined responses to risk. The other allows human situated cognition – ‘mindfulness’ – to flourish, to counter the impact of uncertainty. We use a case study in which these two fundamentally different styles of management ‘clashed’ with each other – The Fall of France in 1940. In it, we try to analyse how risk and uncertainty were managed by the opposing parties, and what led to one of the most puzzling defeats in modern military history.
