Our spherical world has been declared flat once again, and you’ve likely found that your old way of doing business fits about as well as the suit you wore 30 pounds ago. Many operations scattered to the four corners of the globe, and the attitudes of the workforce have undergone a similar shift. People no longer expect to follow a predictable, hierarchical career path. They now expect to take part in numerous quick-forming, quick-dissolving teams that implement a series of short-term projects that, together, make up their long-term career.

In short, everything has changed. If you’re trying to force yesterday’s rigid business practices to match up to today’s dynamic, project-based world, you’re doomed to failure. After all, talent is the biggest differentiator between businesses these days, and how you manage it will determine your destiny.

Our established ways of getting work done, of accounting for this work, of monitoring compliance, and of analyzing work-in-progress for intelligence that will help us do future work faster, better, cheaper, and smarter are through. They are no longer enough. Today’s companies will have to learn how to function in a short-term, project-based business world. Unfortunately for many companies this skill set is not yet their strong suit.

 …