Thrownness as tapestry: using art therapy to discover life experiences that influence a manager’s behaviour to deal successfully with project work

The current project management theory and Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) is not providing the desired results in the real world of project work. The theory is largely focused on abstract, oversimplified and one-size-fits-all mechanical tools dictated by the PMBOK that neglect the reality that humans employing social (soft skills) to deliver project work. This research employs an arts therapy technique as a research method to expose the soft skills a project manager uses to be successful in the authentic world of projects and attempts to discover where, when, and how these skills have been acquired. Art therapy techniques were used to extract information from a project management practitioner about his lived life experiences and these were represented in the form of a tapestry. Narrative sessions were conducted with the participant, and information in the form of words, sketches and pictures revealed insights into the life experiences that were deemed to be of significance by the participant. The information extracted was then aligned and presented in the form of a pictorial tapestry and evaluated against the list of soft skills deemed by the participant to be vital for survival in the authentic world of projects. It was found that the source of the manager’s behaviour is grounded predominantly in early life experiences starting from early childhood to the high school years. Later years had some influence but in a scale far less significant than the early formative years. It was not some single or multiple events of cathartic nature that form the source of the person’s behaviour but people that had a close relationship in the formative years through their behaviour and their approach to ‘doing things’. The result of the study shows that the application of art therapy techniques can assist with the process of externalising hidden and forgotten memories of life experiences, and, when presented as a pictorial representation on a tapestry, allow for discerning a thrownness in the story displayed. The result obtained from the study can assist further studies of a similar nature and provide the direction in the search for life influences, instead of just focusing on single events