Managing Project Competence: The Lemon and the Loop (Best Practices in Portfolio, Program, and Project Management)

For companies to be successful, the management of an organization needs to understand how competence evolves and how it can be utilized and linked to the organization’s goals. When executive managers understand this, there is a higher probability that the people working in the organization will be more satisfied with their working situation. Satisfaction increases because competence will likely be central in the organization, with focus on motivating people to develop new competence, healthy internal mobility, and organizational learning. Positively managing competence in most cases leads to a win–win situation for the company and the individual.

This book describes how we as individuals, as well as organizations, can be efficient in the development and utilization of competence. It takes two perspectives of competence and connects them in a project-intensive and knowledge-intensive context. The first perspective is the "Lemon," which focuses on individual competence and the role of organizational culture. The Lemon framework takes the concept of competence based on knowledge and experience and explains how a person can apply knowledge and experience to different contexts. It changes the concept of competence from being static to being agile and dynamic.

The second perspective of competence is the "Loop," which models how organizations can manage not only to the benefit of organizational strategies and goals but also to an individual’s future career. The Lemon and the Loop are the basic tools to make competence and performance management agile and effective.

This book presents practical ways to acquire new knowledge and skills. One method is REPI (Reflection, Elaboration, Practicing/Participation, and Investigation), which can be used for training, coaching, competence development, agile performance management, and much more. Readers of the book are given new insight into the concept of competence and how both people and organizations can be more competitive, innovative, and open to learning. In addition, the readers get practical tools and advice on how to act in different situations to manage both organizational and individual learning.

Managing Project Competence: The Lemon and the Loop breaks old views of looking at competence and brings competence into the knowledge-intensive age.

Rolf Medina in an independent management consultant and coach who has worked with many large enterprises, such as IKEA, Ericsson, and Sony, with organizational development, strategic directions, managing different kind of change projects, and―last but not least―with establishing new ways of managing competence in which there is a win–win situation between the co-workers and the company. Besides consultancy and coaching assignments, Rolf has been manager at different organizational levels in both small firms and larger international corporations, always in a knowledge-intensive environment.

In addition to his professional career, Rolf has conducted research in organizational development and innovation, in which competence and projects have been cornerstones leading to several academic publications in well-ranked journals. His previous research is one of the bases for the present book. In parallel with his professional career, Rolf is guest lecturer and supervisor at Umeå University in Sweden, SKEMA Business School in France, and University College of London in the UK.

Rolf holds a PhD in Programme and Project Management from SKEMA, France; a MSc in Project Management from Karlstad University in Sweden; and a BSc in Computer Engineering and Mechatronics from University College of Halmstad in Sweden.