Human endeavors - projects - are what make the world go around. Every great human endeavor ever accomplished, or ever to be accomplished, is a project.

Human factors are the reason why we create projects, and the reason why many projects fail.

The intersection of these two great phenomena are the reason for the Institute's existence.

We believe in using the science of human factors to make human endeavors successful.

The Institute will strive to be the center of the intersection of human endeavors and human factors.

Works in progress and planned for the future include:

• Certifications
• International conference for Neuro & Behavioral Project Management™
• The Journal of Neuro & Behavioral Project Management™
• Training for practitioners and certification preparation
• Mapping of human factors to recognized project management process methodologies such as PMBOK, Agile, Prince2, and others
• Further research in the behavioral and neurosciences specific to the project domain

The time constraint in project management that sets apart the discipline from standard operations is one of the most significant elements applicable to the human factor and how humans react to time pressure. Judgment and decision making under a time constraint changes significantly.

Research has shown that judgment and decision making under time pressure can often be compromised. The time constraint can also increase reliance on unconscious biases. The time constraint, then, along with its effects, will touch every aspect of a project, including organizational behavior, leadership, process effectiveness, judgment in risk and uncertainty, planning and forecasting, and quality of decisions in execution of project deliverables.

Since the human factor impacts about 70 percent of project performance, and the time constraint in projects affects human behavior, the need for a new focus and paradigm shift in project management cannot be overstated.

Behavioral Project Management and Leadership is the fusing of project management with the behavioral sciences, drawing from proven concepts and evidence-based research from key fields in psychology such as Behavioral Economics, Behavioral Finance, Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology, Business Psychology, Neuropsychology, and other decision-making behavioral sciences, to name a few.

Essentially what the institute is doing is overlaying the behavioral sciences on top of, and between, project management processes and phases, with an emphasis on how the behavioral sciences specifically influence project performance in different domains.

The project management world historically focused on technical application of methods and tools, but hasn’t fully recognized the 70% impact the human factor has on project success. It is our expectation that formal mapping of behavioral sciences to specific project processes and phases will improve project performance. This will also open doors for those working on the human performance side of project management and recognize them as leaders who can make a substantial impact on projects.

It is the human factor that makes or breaks a project. Technical methods and tools are essential, but they should only be half the tools in a project team’s toolbox.