Different industries have much to learn from each other about practice, culture, and technology

How does the cross-pollination of tools, practices, and culture happen? And can it be done intentionally?

Project-based industries are under constant pressure to evolve and innovate – borrowing and adapting ways of working from other organisations, industries, and sectors to stay competitive.

Tools, practices, and ideas often migrate – sometimes deliberately, sometimes organically – across industries, fuelling project management transformation. Gantt charts, for example, moved from construction to aerospace and defence in the 1950s. Agile migrated from software into marketing, infrastructure, and everywhere else. Big data emerged in tech and finance before being embraced by mining. And digital twins evolved from NASA’s aerospace programs into manufacturing, urban planning, and construction.

This cross-pollination happens organically, as people move between organisations and sectors and bring with them the seeds of what worked somewhere else. Or when something takes off, becoming virally popular and the new zeitgeist.

But too often, well-intentioned PMOs and transformation leaders try to force this adoption prematurely – carelessly jamming in new ways of working without sufficiently considering the context.

This is the challenge Ferne Eliz King unpacked in her opening of the latest Artful Argument. Through the metaphor of tourists vs travellers, Ferne’s message was clear: cross-pollination isn’t about what worked over there – it’s about whether it can thrive here. Tourists stay on the bus – scrolling their phones, glancing out the window; while travellers get off, walk the streets, learn the language, and immerse.

PMOs that push “best practice” without considering context – without immersing themselves in the organisation’s culture, language and lore – invite resistance and failure. Success depends on translation, not transplantation.

According to Ferne, when it comes to deliberate cross-pollination:

Tech gets a visa.

Practice gets through passport control with a few rounds of tweaks.

But culture gets stopped at the border.

Continuing the metaphor, successful mergers & acquisitions – like all transformations – require a travel guide who gets the local culture and a logistics manager who understands the tech, practice, or methodology being adopted. It’s the combination of these roles that smooths the journey for everyone else.

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Thank you, Ferne, and our Artful Sponsors: UniPhi, NEC Contracts®, Australian Cost Engineering Society (ACES), Elysium EPL, and IPMA-Australia

To join us for a future Argument, apply here.