“Project management?  That’s just a lot of useless overhead!”   I remember hearing variations of this a lot years ago.  I don’t hear this much anymore (due at least in some part to the good work at PMI), but I have been seeing something of a variation.

Working with some engineering teams at some big companies, I’ve had conversations with engineers go something like this: “Why do our projects go so much slower here?  When we were a startup things seemed to go much faster — and we didn’t even use project management!”

Upon digging a bit deeper, it turns out that there are a few things to consider.

Some of the slowness was a perception due to having more formal procedures (and the documentation surrounding those procedures).   Some of the slowness was due to pretty bad meeting management — long periods in meetings where nothing pertinent to most of the participants was going on.  Some of these meeting were “needed” because so many different groups of people were involved.

Some of the “slowness” is really due to the fact that the big company project is often creating a product that is more “polished.”  The engineers would admit that in the “old” days they would celebrate success with a product not quite ready for commercial release.

So, some of this “slowness” is about some of the things that come with being bigger.  We can talk about ways some innovative organizations overcome these issues some other time.

Looking at this big company “friction” or overhead still did not seem to account for this slowdown.  Could it be that project management really is an insidious overhead?   Well, all of us can probably remember a few cases of project management gone wrong — too many meetings, analysis paralysis, inadequate or too elaborate change controls, etc.  So, we deal with these items by doing a project management well.

On the other hand, there is something that seems to slow projects down by design — schedules.

How can that be?   Let’s start with those unrealistic schedule first.  You know, the ones that aren’t really set through a rational process of estimation, but rather a target meant to “push” people.  I don’t think we need to dwell on this too much — we end up spending a great deal of effort changing and blaming rather than doing the value adding tasks.

How about those realistic schedules?  They are based on rational estimates and good statistics based reasoning.  It’s not uncommon to have a policy of 90% — that is, give me an estimate with a 90% probability of being met.  This sounds pretty good, yes?

schedule scenario 1

Let’s use this as an example.  A = 12 days, B = 14, C = 1, where each estimate is at  90%.
So, the project = 39 days.  Can we say that we have a reliable schedule?  Maybe.
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schedule scenario 2

One way to look at this is that the 90% is like adding a “buffer” — for example, if each task was a 10 day task at  50%, we add buffer until we get to 90%.

Unfortunately, the way a lot of us build a schedule from this estimation, it is only as good as the last task.  Our schedule would show that task C starts at the end of day 26 and ends at the end of day 39.  If we coordinate based on the schedule, task C will not be able to take advantage of any earlier finishes — this is especially true if there are different teams used in the different tasks. So, in many projects, task might be late, but never early (we don’t even have to get into the psychological impact of “having more time”).

schedule scenario 3

What about that 50% version?  If we use the 10 days each for the tasks, we would get a 30 day project…  a 23% improvement in duration.  Of course, we can’t expect that we will make this schedule.  On the other hand, what is more important — reliability or speed?  If we schedule a 39 day project, what are the odds we’ll finish in 30 days?  In my experience, it’s so close to zero that it is zero…  If we schedule for 30, we may make it very few times, but it’s not zero. We at least have a shot!

Next time, we’ll look at this a bit more — including some additions AND obstacles with this idea.

Technorati Tags: agile, best-practices, Planning

On this theme of Conventional Wisdom…. Not too long ago I was hearing lots of things about Agile.  Most of it was coming from my software development colleagues, but also from project managers in other disciplines.  There seemed to be a significant amount of intellectual intensity (which I interpret as emotion, but would not get that admission from the participants — we’re a very rational bunch).

At that time, there seemed to be two major camps:  the “new lighters” and the “protectors.”  The new lighters had seen the truth and seemed to feel a mixture of disdain and pity for those of us not yet onboard.  The protectors seemed to feel it was almost a duty to point out the failures of Agile and to prevent the chaos (which is evil) from coming into our midst.

If this sounds too simplistic and melodramatic, I won’t disagree.  And yet… a lot of the tone of the “arguments” did strike me as more than mildly like a kind of religious war.  Some of the words in the debate struck me as boiling down to “heretic,” “blasphemer,” “zealot,” “luddites,” “inquisitors,” and (horrors!) “old-fashioned.”

Of course, much of the public displays are made by those with the strongest sense of mission — most of us were not directly involved in the war.  Yet, one of the unfortunate outcomes of that conflict was, in my mind,  the notion of the Agile versus the PMBOK.  I would like to point out that the title is: “A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge”  — it is not THE guide.   For the new lighters to say that PMIers are blind and misguided, the “proof” being that Agile ideas are not explicitly stated in the Guide was , to me,  just as unjustified as the for protectors to say that since Agile ideas aren’t in the “book” they should not be part of what we do.

What I see today is quite different.  There are still some doctrinal debates going on, but I see a more integrated approach.  I hear a lot more statements like, “We’ve been doing these things that are not in the Guide for years… we just never called it Agile before.”   To be sure, not all of these statements are backed up in fact.  It doesn’t mean that Agile ideas have usurped the “traditional” PM tools and ideas.  I believe that it does indicate that the new lighters and the protectors have both failed and succeeded.  The new lighters have succeeded in that the ideas of creating customer value early and often are being baked into more projects.  The new lighters really haven’t succeeded in completely overturning the old order, which is a win for the protectors.  Yet, the protectors have also failed because agile ideas have breached the walls, and for many of us our projects will never be the same as before.

Richard Wysocki’s book: “Effective Project Management: Traditional, Agile, Extreme” (ISBN: 978-0470423677) looks at projects as needing a spectrum of approaches.  One of our founding bloggers here, Kimberly Wiefling, gives us very real-world (and non-dogmatic) ideas in: “Scrappy Project Management: The 12 Predictable and Avoidable Pitfalls Every Project Faces” (ISBN: 978-1600050510) (although, I do find it fascinating that there are 12 pitfalls – a deeply mystical number!).

While some of the debate seems in retrospect to have been a lot of posturing, perhaps it was inevitable and even desirable to have a somewhat religious fervor — these are important ideas that can cut into some deeply held ideas that,  when re-examined, will yield valuable fruit.

We’ll look at some specific ideas that go beyond the Guide (or, at least are between the lines).

(note: apologies for the mixed metaphors – some intentional, some probably not)

Technorati Tags: best-practices, change, common-sense, communication, continuous-improvement, project-management, project-manager-role

I have been lucky enough to witness (and in some cases be a part of) several overturns of conventional wisdom.  I remember hearing how quality “costs money” and “we can’t afford higher quality.”  Now, it’s common to think about quality and value perception strategically.

I remember working with factory schedulers where they were driven by measures, such as utilization % and unit cost allocations, to build massive amounts of inventory (some of the consequences of which were quality problems!).  Now, it’s common to use Just-In-Time and Theory of Constraints concepts in production planning.

Our US auto industry is emblematic for this movement.  In the early and mid ‘80s I was working with several automotive companies.  At this point, the domestic industry still had a dominant market share (in the US), but companies such as Toyota, Nissan, and Honda had made significant gains in share.  Remarkably, those Japanese firms weren’t all that secretive in what they were doing.  Yet, I saw opportunities to apply these techniques (many of which did not have Japanese origins) repeatedly be ignored by US firms.   Now, many of the “heresies” of the past are integrated into the standard practice.

What could account for this strategic myopia?  Lots of factors — perhaps years of being big and successful.   On the other hand, these people were NOT stupid (of course, there are always exceptions — on all sides).  Many of the talented were among the most adamant against the new ideas.   I wish I could say that I was very talented AND saw the new “light.”  In fact, I was too naive and untrained.  For me, the “new” did not have to displace the “old.”

“In the beginner’s mind there are endless possibilities, in the expert’s there are few.”
– Shunryu Suzuki – Zen master

As a consultant and project manager I’ve come to realize that the value my clients and teams receive is often due less to knowing things (but please don’t tell them), and more to being able to “see” new things — and a need to ask questions.

Over the next week, let’s explore some of the ways we, as project leaders, are are encountering conventional wisdom that need overturning (or at least some improved interpretation!) and how we do it.

Cheers!

Technorati Tags: change, common-sense, real-world

Not an engaged team member

As project managers, it’s tempting to focus entirely on our project plan.  But successful execution of your project plan is entirely dependent on your project team.  And your project team is dependent on each team member!  For example, if your team is all working well together except one person, who is lacking motivation and missing deadlines, than the whole team will start having trouble, and your project success may be in jeopardy.

• Really get to know each member of your group: figure out their strengths and weaknesses, their needs, and any special skills they can bring to the group.
• Work out plans with each team member on how they can accomplish their individual goals while delivering on the project objectives. Find out what’s important to them – what gets them excited about their work.
• For each person, find out how independent and experienced they are. Make sure that they have the right level of competence for how you plan to manage the project. If you will be giving each team member lots of latitude in how they solve problems in their area, do they have the experience and emotional intelligence to handle that responsibility well?
• Don’t forget to praise and reward each individual for her contribution to the overall team and the success of the project.
• Help define each person’s role within the group, and agree on the tasks they’re responsible for.
• If any project team members seem to be lagging behind, coach them until they’re back on track.
• Is each project team member committed to the delivery dates?

It’s easy to forget that project managers are more managers of people than they are managers of technology. If you manage the people correctly, the people will manage the technology.

You need to manage your individual team members effectively in order to prevent burnout. In some environments, the customer will always be there with new demands, new “Priority Ones” that require you to drop everything and fix now.

It’s your job to manage these demands. Not to just acquiesce and keep pushing your team members, but to present trade-offs to the customer. Showing the value of the current path, demonstrating the impact the change will have, and helping them make a more informed decision. The result is a more engaged customer, who gains more satisfaction from feeling more in control of the output. At the same time, your team members are more engaged.

It used to be that project managers believed that you needed to crack the whip over your team members, that if you gave them any leeway they’d slack off and surf their favorite sports websites.  However, now we know better. Being focused and excited by your work comes naturally to most people.  Creativity is widely distributed on your project team.  People want to be proud of their work.  People will seek responsibility, if you let them.  If you think your team is mediocre, and needs your leadership to be successful, trust me, they will rise to the occasion and give you mediocre work.  If you want your folks to surprise you with amazing work, you need to engage them.

The best way to motivate team members is to respect them, give them autonomy, and help tie them to a strong purpose.  When you let your team members figure out how to solve a problem, and how to work together, it can have a powerful effect on individual performance and attitude.  Autonomy leads to higher productivity, less burnout, and more enjoyment of work.  Make an effort to see issues from your team member’s point of view.  You provide the problem, and listen to find the answer.  Let your team figure out the best solution.

Involve people in goal setting. Employees have greater commitment to goals they helped create. Individuals are more engaged when they’re pursuing goals they helped create. If you create a goal for someone, it will be less aggressive than the goal he chooses for himself, as people like to stretch themselves and do work they can be proud of. They will do everything they can to meet this goal.

Autonomy creates motivated, happy employees.  If you need folks to be creative and problem solving, why not get into the habit of engaging them on that level in the workplace?

Pushing back on team members

Your team members get a bit wiggy in giving you an accurate estimate for a lot of reasons.  Maybe they have no idea how long the task will take, or maybe they’re afraid they’ll get pulled away to fix the CEO’s email account for the third time that week.

You can help your team members feel confident in giving you accurate commitments by asking for a range of dates for delivery.

A range of estimates doesn’t mean you adopt the latest date, just to be on the safe side.  Parkinson’s Law says, “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”  If you give most of us more time than we need to do a task, we will often use that extra time to make the task “better,” by adding features, doing additional testing, etc.  While obviously good intentioned, this kind of “gold plating” will make the project take longer than it should, and may introduce new issues and risks.

The best way to get a range of estimates for a task: Instead of asking Joyce when her task will be completed, as her for a best-case scenario, worst-case scenario, and most likely scenario.  Discussing the rationale behind her numbers will bring up risks and issues. Also, now that Joyce feels like she doesn’t have to deliver it at the first opportunity, or to be safe and pick the last possible date, she will feel more confident committing to a reasonable date, which she has 90% confidence of achieving.

In order to get a good range of dates, allow each team member enough time to think through the problem before getting a commitment.  If you ask a team member to estimate a task on the spot, he will probably make up a number quickly just to make you go away.  Giving folks the time to come up with a careful estimate will pay off in greater accuracy in delivery.

You can also get around padded estimates by asking for task effort, instead of duration.  Let me explain.

If you ask your team members, “When can you get this task done?” their answer will vary, as they calculate other projects they might be working on, other issues that might come up.  Instead, consider asking, “Ok, pretend you can work uninterrupted, nonstop on this task, with all the caffeine you can drink. What’s the number of hours you need to get it done?”  Once you know the amount of effort required, it allows you to add in all the variables to come to a real duration.  Your team member shouldn’t have to do that calculation on his own. Be sure that the estimate you develop together takes into account the skill level of the folks doing the work. Just because it might take a normal person 3 days to complete this task, doesn’t mean that it will take Alice three days.  It might take her one afternoon, because she has specialized skill, or it might take her a week, because she needs to come up to speed on some underlying concepts before she can really get going.

No one works 100% of the time.  By acknowledging this in our estimation process, we can get to more accurate duration estimates.

By explicitly examining and working through all the buffers needed, you get the information you need to estimate as accurately as you can during planning. The more uncertainty, the greater the buffer.  You can have contingency amounts for a particularly risky work package, or for the project as a whole.

The size of the contingency, and whether it is at the work package or project level, is entirely dependent on the risk inherent in the project at the time the schedule is developed. So you see, padding isn’t always bad – just as long as YOU’RE the one doing the padding!

Help your team start each of their tasks as soon as possible in the schedule, as this will also reduce risk and uncertainty.

And above all, make sure that some externally mandated date doesn’t drive the thought process for your team members! You need to understand what it really takes to deliver on tasks, not drive your people to a death march. This can be tough, as some of your shareholders may assume that everyone pads their estimates, so they may want you to cut the commitments you’ve made. This is not a game you want to start playing! Be ready to carefully defend your schedule if challenged.

If estimates for some tasks are still fuzzy, it might be a sign that you need to break that task down into lower level tasks, in order to get to a clearer estimate.  If your work breakdown structure is flawed, your estimates will be inaccurate, so it might be a good time to make sure you don’t need to refine things a bit.

Technorati Tags: estimation, padding, scheduling

You need to come up with an accurate schedule for your project – well, as accurate as you can – but you suspect your team members are adding extra time to their estimates.

How can you overcome this and get to a realistic, reliable schedule?

If a little padding is added to this task, and a little is added to that task, pretty soon it adds up to a real significant change to the schedule!

A little padding's not that scary....

The problem with padded estimates is they are not treated as a contingency.  Fred thinks he can do his task in 3 days, so he tells me it will take him 5 days.  Instead of starting his task on Monday, he starts it on Wednesday, since he has extra time.  Then once Friday comes, he realizes that there are other conflicts, and he’s unable to deliver on time.

Estimates are only as good as the estimator is at predicting the future, and most of us aren’t working as psychics on the side.  The situation is even worse with junior employees, who have less experience in estimating.  If her estimates come up short, she will be penalized.  If her estimates are padded, she may be found out, her manager may think she’s dishonest, and management will cut all her estimates in the future. This can lead to an ugly arms race, where she pads her estimates more, and management cuts her estimates, completely breaking down the planning process.

If your schedule turns out to be wildly inaccurate, that will cause others to question your estimates in the future, and you’ll find your budget and schedule cut.

So how do you get to a real, trustable estimate?

First of all, build consensus on project estimates with the whole team.

Team members build padding into their estimates in order to feel confident in their ability to be successful.  Most folks don’t think this is bad; it’s just a form of contingency planning.

Your team member may be thinking, “How long will it take?  I have no idea!  I’ll take my best guess and double it!”

If you have worked with your project team for a while, you’ll get a feel for how each individual modifies his estimate, and can tweak it accordingly in order to get an accurate result. I know that everything Jerry gives me, I need to add 50%, because he’s an aggressive estimator, while I know that I should reduce 20% from anything Floyd tells me, because his estimates are overly conservative.

But if you have a brand new team, who you haven’t worked with before, you don’t have that knowledge. You don’t know how to modify each estimate in order to get to an accurate schedule.

You can avoid the problem of chronically padded estimates by having the team reach a consensus on their estimates in an open meeting, where team members would be less likely to pad their numbers. In that meeting, team members can go over assumptions and risks, and feel much more confident in the numbers they’re providing. This way, you can be sure that the project requirements are clearly understood by the folks doing the estimating. A well-informed team will always produce better estimates!

If possible, arrange for another person to facilitate this meeting, as you will be needed as a participant.  You may have a perspective that some of your team members do not about project priorities, constraints and assumptions, and you need to be part of the decision making process.

In this case, more experienced estimators on the team can help figure out where an estimate provided by others might be inadequate, and adjustments can be made at that time.

Instead of blindly increasing padding on schedules, use your risk management skills to determine where risk is greatest, and determine appropriate strategies.  When you create a good risk plan, you’re reducing uncertainty, whereas padding your numbers only increases uncertainty. If your project is new and unique, that will make the process of getting good estimates more difficult, and that issue is best resolved using the risk management tools you already know and love.

Also, if your project team members know that some overall contingency is built into the schedule, rather than on each individual task, they will feel less of a need to pad their dates.  Make sure to communicate to your team about project level buffers, so everyone understands and is on the same page.

Tomorrow I’ll add some more ideas of what to do about padded estimates from your team members. Is this a problem on your projects?  If so, how do you deal with them?  Let me know!

Technorati Tags: estimates, padding, scheduling

For years I’ve been using a rubber chicken in my consulting work to burn into people’s consciousness the concepts of personal accountability and a belief in an internal locus of control. Holding the chicken at shoulder height, I release it and ask why the chicken fell to the floor. Victims blame gravity. (Some people even blame the chicken!) Leaders say “Because you released it, Kimberly.” It’s a simple message, but an important one for leaders. No matter how tempting it may be, if we blame circumstances for our problems we give away our own power.

To reinforce this message I carry a bunch of tiny rubber chickens with me to give to people as a keepsake. I’ve met people years later who still have that chicken. It’s a quirky reminder of an essential leadership mindset – that, regardless of circumstance, we must focus on holding on to the chicken. Or something like that.

I have been carrying that rubber chicken everywhere for quite some time now, but recently the rubber chicken has taken on a life of it’s own. For the past 5 years I’ve been working in Japan for a week or two almost every month. My Japanese colleagues have shown an inscrutable love of the rubber chicken. My agent in Japan, ALC Education’s Global Management Consulting Group, insisted that the chicken be featured in an ad that they placed in the biggest business newspaper in the country, and the chicken has a permanent place on their website. Go figure.

Sometimes we have a very serious message to convey, but that doesn’t mean it has to be communicated in a totally serious way. There’s plenty of research to suggest that people remember the unusual. If you want people to remember the key points critical to the success of your project you might want to find the equivalent of a rubber chicken, and include it in your communication. Naturally some people think it’s frivolous or silly to resort to such tactics. But, for me, the effectiveness of communication is judged by the impact it has on project results, not whether it would win the approval of every other human on earth. I’m concerned with what works.  The chicken works.

Of course it hasn’t been easy traveling all over the world with that darn chicken. He was banned from entering Steve Martin’s banjo concert at the Mountain Winery in Los Gatos, and was mistakenly identified by a small child as a critical element in the “treasure hunt” on the back of the kid’s menu at Buck’s Restaurant in Woodside. (Yes, I was accosted by a small child for carrying that chicken!)

What could you do to make an important part of your message memorable? Take a risk! Being effective and successful is way more satisfying than winning the approval of the entire human race.

Technorati Tags: Accountability, Global leadership, global management, locus of control, rubber chicken

I’m delighted to post this story on behalf of Emily, who sent it to me as evidence that she was becoming more scrappy. In this story Emily shows us how we can help our teams think things through and clarify goals by asking good questions and facilitating discussions that people are “too busy” to have without our influence. It can take courage to schedule a meeting when people feel they have “real work” to do. But – done right – meetings ARE real work. Read and learn from Emily’s courageous leadership! – Kimberly Wiefling, Author, Scrappy Project Management

GUEST POST by  Emily Hennessee, Business Analyst & Project Coordinator, LightSpeed Technology

One of the bad habits I’ve developed that stems, I believe, from not having any formal technical training, and yet being responsible for managing software development projects, is that I sometimes tend to not ask enough questions to my team. In particular, I tend not to ask questions about exactly how they envision changes will look below the surface, or user interface, during the planning phase of our major projects.  I almost always have a very clear picture of the high level product, and I’m able to draw diagrams of what it needs to end up looking like to the user.  But when they hear the requirements and say, “Okay, all we need to do is A, B, and C.”, and all A, B, and C are all foreign languages to me (or maybe they are familiar but I can’t visualize the mechanics of it) I sometimes assume that they know what they’re talking about, and I’m the only one who doesn’t get it. So I don’t ask. They’re doing the work, so I figure that as long as they “get” it, we’re good.  Now I will say I’m not ALWAYS that bad, but even occasionally is too often.

Part of what causes this is time constraints, but I’ve learned that this is no excuse in a scrappy project world.  So yesterday I organized a call to discuss a project to implement an error checking and notification system on 3 of our major processes.  It was a particularly complex discussion around writing events to an SQL table and determining the base units of items we were going to measure for each process.  Needless to say I hit a few technical road blocks in my understanding during the discussions, but I’m proud to say that I put my foot down and demanded plain English answers. The call lasted a total of 3 hours, because the more I asked, the more ideas started to pop into my team members heads about alternatives and additional features.  The good news is that we all walked away with a very thorough understanding of how we wanted this system to work and look.  The bad news is, we’re not sure right now if we have the resources and time to make the ideal set of changes (to redo a much larger process as part of this effort).  BUT . . . at least we’re not diving in head first into a project with false expectations and unclear requirements, which is something we do far too often around here.

So, a small victory for me!

Emily Hennessee

Business Analyst & Project Coordinator

LightSpeed Technology Group

Technorati Tags: courage to hold the meetings required to do the job right, facilitating team discussion, giving your team time to think, Leading technology you don't understand

via Flickr by Tambako the Jaguar

In many organizations leadership is often only related to management positions that are associated with authority and direct reports. Most of the time when a project manager takes on the project manager’s role he/she does not have direct reports and therefore often lack the authority in an organization to reward with bonuses and promotions, or to punish with warnings, and performance improvement plans.

In general project managers manage projects and people. This role requires management and leadership skills where the emphasize lies on managing the project data and leading the project team members.

How can leadership and management be differentiated?

Leaders often establish direction for the future, communicate through vision, and forge aligned high-performance teams [1]. The Project manager’s “leadership function” is specifically used to communicate the project vision [2].

Managers mainly focus on planning and short-term horizons, devise processes and structures, and solve problems [1]. The project manager plans a project, measures project performance and resolves any roadblock issues.

Management and leadership style can vary. Some of the common leadership styles as described by Changingminds [3] and Goleman [4] are listed below.

• Participative leaders seek to involve other people in the decision process
• Situational leaders adjust their leadership style to the specific situation.
• Transactional leaders create clear structures that make clear what is required of their subordinates. Individuals are considered accountable for success or failure.
• Transformational leaders have a vision for the future that will excite and convert potential followers. These leaders are typically the change agents in an organization.
• Autocratic leaders (also referred to as authoritative by Lewin) make decisions without consulting with others or considering any other view.

Leaders can adapt to different styles but need to make sure to stay their true self.

Kippenberger [5] states “how we lead is a reflection of our own character, personally and experience.” Leaders need to understand who they are in order to be able to adapt to different leadership styles. Projects with their unpredictable nature require leaders that are able to adapt to different leadership styles. Therefore project managers need to learn how to choose and apply the most appropriate leadership style for a given situation on a project.

What leadership style should a project manager adapt?

It depends. During planning the project manager usually develops the project plan in collaboration with the project team. The project manager would typically take on a participative leadership role to develop the project plan. The project manager also helps team to define ground rules for team communication and interaction. The project manager would normally take on a situational leadership style to resolve some of the conflicts and issues that arise at the beginning of the project when many aspects of the project are unknown and details are about to be discovered.

During execution of a project the project manager and the team carry out the project plan. Monitoring and controlling the project brings up different situations that have to be addressed. The project manager can be best at understanding situations and responding to them accordingly when taking on a situational leadership style.

During the closing phase of a project the project manager may take on a transactional leadership style in order to make sure that remaining work is completed by the assigned resources so that the deliverables meet stakeholder expectations and get formally approved.

In conclusion a project manager does not necessarily need to become a chameleon but it helps if he/she can adapt to different leadership styles as a project situation requires.

[1] ENGLUND R.L., BUCERO A., Project Sponsorship, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, USA, 2006.

[2] FLANNES S. W., LEVIN G., Essential people skills for project managers, Management Concepts, Virginia, USA, 2001.

[3] CHANGINGMINDS.ORG, website

http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/styles/leadership_styles.htm, 2008.

[4] GOLEMAN, website

http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_goleman_leadership_styles.html , 2008.

[5] KIPPENBERGER T., Leadership Styles, Capstone Publishing, Oxford, United Kingdom, 2002.

Technorati Tags: best-practices, Career development, Leadership, project-manager-role

-3 ways to work effectively across time-zones

1-      Synchronous & Asynchronous collaboration

The project team should be engaged in synchronous and asynchronous collaboration through the project cycle. We are all familiar with synchronous collaboration, in the form of video conference meetings, TelePresence, Instant Messaging. This is the most often used type of collaboration and helps us connect and share updates on progress as well as working out potential risk elements.

Asynchronous collaboration, in the form of blogs, wikis and discussion forums is equally important when working with a global team.  Depending on the location of your team, you may not be able to get everyone online to collaborative at the same time, and retaining the results of your collaboration efforts may also be limited. To get the most from your global team it is therefore important that you help the team choose the right format for collaboration depending on the information they wish to share, discuss or collaborate on.

2-      Share the load – schedule meetings that fit everyone’s calendar

The World Clock Meeting Planner available at www.timeanddate.com is another one of my favorite tools, it helps me plan meetings that fit the team I am working with. The PM needs to stay aware of not only holidays and cultural festivities that might be in conflict with the project plan, but also understand how the team prefers to work on a daily basis.  The meeting planner tool helps the PM plan meetings that occur at times in the day that is amiable to all team members.  When I engage with a team, I determine what methods the team prefers to utilize when collaborating as well as their preferred times of the day they are available. Staying aware of the timing of communications, meetings and deadlines for deliverables so they work with team members across the world can help you build a better globally collaborative team. 

3-      Video, Video, Video

As mentioned in a previous post, the utilization of video throughout your project life-cycle is becoming increasingly more important. The ability to capture ad-hoc video of a meeting or conversation to help further the teams understanding of a specific point, risk element or deliverable, can make a big difference.  With a team working across time zones, sharing video can help the team get to know their coworkers and see the working environment in other locations. While people are typically not naturally comfortable with video, the PM and project sponsors can ease this by demonstrating the use of video throughout the project and encourage the team members to utilize it when appropriate. A couple of good examples of how a PM can use video would be:

1. Project updates posted on team blog from PM, project sponsor or team member
2. Recording or video conferences (TelePresence or Desktop video meetings)
3. Ad-hoc recordings of meetings or white-board ideation onto the collaborative workspace for the team

-3 techniques to stay connected to your team

Managing a global team and working as a team member in one should be a very rewarding experience for everyone involved. The “global team” is the penultimate design for any project team, leveraging the diverse perspective of everyone involved.  By global team I do not only mean a geographically dispersed team across the world, but more importantly a team that includes people from across the world with different perspectives and working styles.

The reality for most of us however is that the definition of global or virtual teams includes at least to some degree a geographically dispersed team, and it is therefore important that the PM sets the stage for a collaborative workspace allowing for both synchronous and asynchronous collaboration.

1-      Dynamic virtual meetings, make the experience as “real” as possible

Others authors on this site have covered their experiences with various collaborative tools and I find the development in this area fascinating, mainly because the experiences that global teams have while using the tools help further develop and define the optimal way to collaborate globally.

While I utilize a specific set of collaborative tools in my work every day, I believe the following applies to global teams working with any product suite. From the PM’s perspective it is critical that you establish a “rich” environment.  A “rich” environment draws on various technologies to help the project team communicate, collaborate and work effortlessly across the technologies employed.

Video – Video – Video – The most important element to allow the project team to get familiar with each other.  Multiple technologies now allow the project team to share real-time video while in meetings, but I believe that it is equally as critical that “offline” conversations or presentations between team members that do not occur while everyone is present are captured and shared.  In my work we have had much success capturing meetings, whiteboard brain-dumps or hall-way conversations on hand-held videos and sharing them with team members across the world. The team gets a sense of the communication that takes place outside of the regular scheduled team meetings.  The hand-held video can also be used to record short videos for the team from stakeholders, project sponsors, or project updates from team members who are not able to make meetings. Engaging the project sponsors and stakeholders in this type of information sharing can help build relationships and goes a long way to include the entire team.

2-      Establishing the collaboration landscape – ranking your preference

Helping the team understand the landscape of the collaborative tools available to them before engaging in the project can prove to accelerate your progress. Global corporations have many collaboration tools available and continue to add an increasing amount of options.  The challenge however is teaching the teams how to utilize the tools most effectively and how to chose the right tool for the right occasion. In addition, helping the teams understand how the flow of documents and information can be carried from one tool to the next can also be helpful.

The PM can help the team be more effective by asking each team member to identify and rank their preference for communication from others.

Mine for example is 1-Instant Messaging, 2-TelePresence, 3-Virtual Meeting/Desktop Sharing. 4-Phone and 5-TXT/SMS.

3-      Take time-out to get to know your team – workshops analyzing and discussing your work styles and preferences

As mentioned in a previous post, I believe that the success of a project depends not only on the effective management of the traditional project elements such as scope, schedule and budget, but increasingly how teams work together and how well they know how to work together.

Taking time-out to conduct working sessions that focus on the dynamics and cultural make-up of the team will prove to be worth the initial investment. In my work I have seen the effects of these types of workshops reach beyond the initial project and spill over into the long term relationships that team members build with their co-workers. Getting the project stakeholders and projects sponsors involved in this process can also be rewarding and insightful.

-3 easy steps to develop your global perspective

I believe in the old adage that you “have to be the change you want to see in the world”, it is therefore important that you start by looking critically at yourself and your working style.  To be a successful global PM you have to understand how you work successfully in a global workforce, how you perceive and work with others and how they can most effectively work with you.

1-      The first step in this process is to “Know yourself”, you have to examine your own cultural influences, your learned behaviors, working styles.

Self-assessment tools that help you understand how you work with others in pervasive throughout the internet and many of them are useful to get a general “stake in the ground” on who you are and how you work well with others. The global perspective however is one that most of these tools do not cover adequately, leaving a large part of the global workforce equation unanswered.

The GlobeSmart© tool (www.globesmart.com) from Aperian Global in San Francisco has become a critical tool in my toolbox.  The tool starts by allowing the user to complete a self-assessment like the tools mentioned above, but measures you on 6 cultural dimensions and then giving you the opportunity to explore your profile against these cultural dimensions.  If you are like me, born and raised in a different country than you currently work and live in, then you can proceed to compare your profile with the profile of that country. Following this the tool will give you advice on areas such as: Improving teamwork, managing employees, establishing relationships, and managing outsourced and joint projects.

2-      Understanding your success through your capital; Intellectual, Psychological and Social

Once you have a foundational understanding of your global perspective and how to effectively work in a global environment, the next step is to dig a little deeper into the fabric of your global aptitude.  My preferred tool in this space is the Global Mindset© Inventory from Thunderbird School of Global Management.  The school has established a Global Mindset Leadership Institute to help global corporations develop the talent in their global workforce.

Thunderbird has based their research on interviews with more than 200 global executives in cities all over the world, and a survey of more than 1,000 individuals in many countries, a team of eight Thunderbird professors have scientifically defined global mindset and its three major dimensions: Intellectual Capital, Psychological Capital and Social Capital. Below is a a graphic that describes the attributes of each dimension.

According to Thunderbird “Global mindset is a set of individual characteristics that help global leaders’ better influence individuals, groups, and organizations unlike themselves.“ for a PM it is therefore critical to develop a global mindset to effectively manage the project and programs that have a global nature.

Reference: http://www.thunderbird.edu/about_thunderbird/inside_tbird/truly_global/global_mindset.htm

3-      Engage your environment

While assessments are great and leave the user with a wealth of information and perspective, the value is lost if it is not put into context.  It is therefore critical that the PM engages their team in the same activities and compare results in a working-session.  I have found that the GlobeSmart tool is invaluable each time I start engage a new team of coworkers. Once each team member has completed their assessment, the team is able to see how each team member compare to the rest of the team and the averages of the team.  Engaging in a conversation on how the team can work most effectively using this as a backdrop can help your project become a success and help your coworkers develop their global aptitude as well. Below is an illustration of how my profile compares to a few country profile.  When team members add their profiles to the tool you are able to see how you and your team compare.

Reference: https://www.globesmart.com/portal.cfm

-A tool-kit for global project & program managers

Global corporations need talented project and program managers to execute on strategically aligned initiatives every year, to help them compete in a global marketplace. There is a growing need for PM’s who can work successfully in an increasingly globalized workforce.

High quality PM’s leverage their training and experience to drive the success of a project, and as corporations expand into new markets and acquire companies in global locations they will look to the PM’s to manage a continuously more global and complex workforce.

The success of these corporations now hinges on the aptitude of their PM’s to adapt their methods, techniques and working style to suit the globally diverse workforce they have as part of their project team.

Successful global corporations will need to depend on PM’s with high levels of global aptitude, those who understand how to successfully work with a global workforce across the cubicle wall and across global borders.

In the following blog-posts I will provide you with a tool-kit to:

-          Asses and develop your global perspective

-          Getting your global team ready to work together effectively

-          Provide you with tools and techniques to connect your global project team

-          Share ways to collaborate most effectively with your global project team

Look out for these posts in the coming days:

• The PM as a global connoisseur: 3 easy steps to develop your global perspective
• The globally connected project team: 3 techniques to stay connected to your team
• Global collaboration, 3 ways to work effectively across time-zones

Peter Ng

UCSC Extension PMO Course Student

Recently  I came across a statistics about the value of PMO’s given by Dr. Hobbs in his paper on the Multi-Project PMO. Interestingly in the finding, 42% of PMOs are not meeting the expectation within their organizations. Wow, this is a significant percentage!

Your organization might have already invested a great deal of time, effort and resources in establishing a PMO. Why would you want it to fail later?

How can you maintain your PMO in your organization to the long-term success?

Here is a best practice guide for you to ensure PMO success in just 3 areas:
1. Having a stated charter
2. Managing the stakeholders
3. High level of customer satisfaction

Having a stated charter

You need a stated charter to build the scope and objectives of a PMO. What actions can you take in a charter?
1. Report tracking to monitor project performance
2. Develop PM competencies or methodologies as required
3. Align with other projects in other business units
4. Ensure better alignment with your organizational strategy.
5. Provide organizational learning. Do a maturity assessment and lessons learned

Managing the stakeholders

Second, managing your stakeholders to understand if there is any shifting in their expectations.  What can you do?
1. Manage their expectations. Communicate clearly on what can be achived. Define the success metrics. Make a communication plan in the PMO.
2. Regular reporting to show milestones. Use the “Red, Yellow, Green Reporting”.
3. Change Management. Act with resilience. Focus on the project goal. Fight the good fight in the midst of adversity.

High level of customer satisfaction

Third, keep a high level of customer satisfaction. Customer is always right. Deliver what they want is the key to project success. Take some time to:
1. Identify your customers expectations. Understand their key “must-have” requirements from your customers is the key.
2. Carry out a quality planning process. Gather the requirements from your customers. Know their needs.
3. Cultivate strong relationship between customers, stakeholders and your PMO team. Ensure your customer needs and expectations are under constant focus and review.

Summary

Consider these three actions to increase the chances of your PMO exceeding the needs the of organization.

1. Having a stated charter
2. Managing the stakeholders
3. High level of customer satisfaction

Robert Maltas

UCSC Extension Spring 2010 PMO Course Student

Are you a senior project manager who just had a request to start a PMO land in their email inbox? If so, follow these suggestions to quick-start your winning PMO proposal.

Who do you have to sell the idea to

Find out who are the key decision-makers and any other people who influence them.  This is the audience to whom you have to sell.

Interview them

What main issues are they trying to solve?  Their goals and objectives?  Rank the issues and goals.  Find out where they currently are and where they want to go.  Ask questions that can lead to other questions and cannot be answered with a ‘yes’ or ‘no.’  Employ active listening techniques.

Separate the wheat from the chaff

Some people will already be sold on the concept; others will not.  Spend more of your time/effort on the naysayers.  Elicit their concerns. Put yourself in their shoes and try to envison a solution that takes their concerns into account.  Remember, a chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link.  Festering concerns can torpedo the pitch for a PMO or at least hobble its implementation.

Use the AIDA selling technique

A — get their ‘attention’

• Ask questions where the answer will probably be ‘yes’.
• Are you interested in improving efficiency? Reducing costs?
• Have you ever wondered about the value of PMOs?
• Are you noticing what your competition is doing about it?
• Show them how their competitors addressed those issues with PMOs.

I —  peak their ‘interest’

• Ask lots of questions and take good notes.
• Demonstrate your understanding of the client’s business.
• Educate them on the value proposition of the PMO.

D — create the ‘desire’ to buy-in

• Show how the PMO will address their issues.
• Support your assertions with logic — facts and figures.
• Boil the value perspective down to simple-to-understand daily processes.

A — confirm the ‘action’ to be taken

• Summarize the issues and how the PMO will address them.
• Monitor body language for any discomfort; if none, obtain buy-in.
• If discomfort is sensed, you probably failed to sell the idea.

In summary, failure in your proposal or early efforts is ok as long as it’s upfront and you learn from your failure.  Failure is not ok if it’s long, drawn out, and at the expense of the client’s business.  Remember, you only have one shot to sell the PMO concept so make the best of it!

By Serene Chiew, LEED AP

UCSC Extension Spring 2010 PMO Course Student

Implementing a PMO is like cooking a Thanksgiving turkey.

Like implementing a PMO, cooking a turkey requires a lot of planning and preparation work. You need to find the right recipe, choose the right process and tools that are appropriate to your skill level and the right-sized bird suitable for the number of guests. Are you going to deep-fry your turkey, or are you using a traditional roasting process? Which type would your guests enjoy more? What are the risks of deep-frying?

There is a lot of pressure and expectation as well. Your guests are all looking forward to the final product so that the Thanksgiving meal can begin. How do you achieve success and “customer satisfaction”?

Just as the size of your dinner party and the preferences of your guests may change from year to year, the size, character, and needs of organizations are different from company to company and from industry to industry. Depending on these needs, the kind of structures, roles, and functions of PMOs can vary widely [2]. Aligning the type of PMO, its functions, roles, and implementation processes to the needs of your organization will help you to implement your PMO successfully.

How do you begin to do that?

You will need to understand the environment that your organization is operating in and its unique characteristics, needs, and challenges. [3]

Understand your industry

• What are the risks, challenges  & work processes unique to  your industry

Understand your company

• What are the business goals of your organization?
• What kind of challenges is your organization facing?
• Is there a high-rate of project success?
• What are the PM experience and skill levels of your people

Understand your culture

• Does your corporate culture allow and celebrate change?
• Are people more “traditional” and subscribe to the idea: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”?

How to Plan

Now that you have a list of unique needs, characteristics, and challenges, you can begin your planning and “cooking” processes.

Choose the right type

• Which of the 3 types of PMO is more appropriate?
• Do you need a Project, Program, and/or Portfolio Management Office?
• What PMO functions and roles will meet the business goals of your organization?

Choose the right process:

• Which PMO implementation process is more appropriate for your organization?
• Do you require a phase by phase roll-out or a “big-bang” roll-out?

Obtain executive support

• Do you have complete and sustained executive-level support?
• Do you have senior executives who will champion your cause?

Rally the people

• Are people resistant to change?
• Is everyone onboard with the PMO implementation?
• Do they see its value and relevance?
• Do you need to evangelize the idea of the PMO?
• What kind of training and mentoring program does your organization require?

Out of the four “ingredients” above, obtaining executive-level support will be critical. [4] With executive support, you can rally the people in your organization and get their acceptance and commitment to the PMO implementation process.  If the selection of the type of PMO or its implementation process is found to be unsuitable, these decisions can be modified.

Just as a Thanksgiving meal cannot take place without a host, it will be difficult to implement a PMO in any organization without the support of your executives.

References:

1. Hobbs, Brian. “The Multi-Project PMO: A Global Analysis of the Current State of Practice.” Project Management Institute. http://www.pmi.org/PDF/PMO%20Whitepaper.pdf (accessed June 18, 2010).

2. Young, Michael L. “Key Steps to Implement a Project Management Office.” Project Smart. http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/key-steps-to-implement-a-project-management-office.html (accessed June 18, 2010).

3. Bucero, Alfonso. “How to Change Project Culture through Implementing a PMO: a Real Case Study.” Zulanas Consulting. http://www.zulanas.lt/images/adm_source/docs/2%20Bucero-full%20paper-ENG.pdf (accessed June 18, 2010).

4. Egeland, Brad. “The Successful Project Management Office.” Project Management Tips: Guidance for Real Life Situations. http://pmtips.net/successful-project-management-office/ (accessed June 18, 2010).

Rachel Phillips

UCSC Extension Project Leadership and Communications Student

Many of us are accidental project managers. So here are some survival tips.

Know Your Goal –

• Before starting a project, decide on a goal by taking input from your project team and the key constituencies, i.e. people who are affected by your project.
• Create a vision/mission statement that you can share and reinforce you’re your team.
• Throughout the project it will be important to keep coming back to the goal and ensure you are not taking on sub projects that are not in alignment with your end goal.

Know Your People

• Know thyself! The first step in knowing how to manage people is to understand how you work and what makes you effective as a project manager.
• Realize that not all team members are the same; take the time to get to know the strengths and challenges of your team members.  This will enable you to play to the strengths and minimize the challenges.

Know Your Challenges

• Do the up front work to analyze the project from different angles.  Understand the known risks (and how you might mitigate them) as well as prepare for the unknown risks.
• Recognize that you may be one of the challenges, it is your job to help the team work effectively.  This may mean you have to do soul searching and adopt a different work style to attain success.

Find a Solution

• There is no problem that can’t be overcome.  Reach out to others within your team, organization or network to brainstorm and determine next steps.  Don’t Give Up!
• Remember:  Nobody is born the perfect Project Manager, constant growth, motivation and self reflection are required to be effective.  Every Project Manager has felt exactly the way you feel now… elation, frustration, determination.

You will Persevere!  Enjoy the Journey.

Indu Sattiraju

UCSC Extension Project Leadership and Communication Student

If I were to ask you to shout out the single most important leadership skill that a Project Manager must possess, what would you say? Are you thinking about all the leaders you admire? What is the one skill that separates your favorite leaders from the ones that you detest?

While every leader has a unique leadership style, the single most outstanding skill that I am trying to get at is “People Skills”. Leadership involves interacting with people and hence this forms the foundation of an organization. This course has been a great learning experience so far and I am excited to share my perspective on this topic so let’s explore what are key project management leadership skills.

To recap, most important leadership skill is “People skill”.

Now, let’s talk about teams. Do all team members have the same personality or temperament? Do all team members speak the same language? Are they from the same cultural background? Do they have exact same career goals or interests? The answer is a glaring No! How can we as Project managers bring unity in diversity? The proper way to reduce variability of behavior is to have a clear vision and mission..This will help team members speak the “we” language versus “I”. Once these are identified, lay out a clear plan describing how it will be achieved.

To recap, have an inspiring vision and mission statement to unite the team’s goal

What comes next? Execution of project tasks. What causes teams to outperform or exceed expectations ? Organizational excellence is achieved when quality work is produced. This happens when right people do the right job. As project managers it is important for us to match a task with team member’s skills/interests.  As described in the textbook ‘Project Leadership’ by James Lewis – ask the 2 questions before choosing a leadership style:

• Can the person do the job?
• Will he/she take responsibility for it?

There is one more important ingredient to this recipe (how to make your teams outperform?)

That is inspiration and motivation.

An effective leader inspires the team by gaining their respect. And this is best done when the leader leads by example. There are several ways to motivate your team but, I will talk about my favorite – rewards & appreciationJ.. Encouraging the heart is paramount to a high performing team..  Words like Good job, excellent work are music to your team members’ ears! Remember to be genuine..

Are we forgetting something? What about communication skills? Remember not all your team members will be very vocal. As statistics state, 50% of the communication is unspoken or non verbal. Watch out for those cues to reach out to them:

• Eye movements
• Postures like closed arms
• Cultural differences

Be flexible, be ready to handle conflict, and prepare to reach resolution.

One of my leaders at work describes true leadership as something that should make you feel exhausted as you need to sweat it out to make your team and organization WIN!

Shirley Gruber

UCSC Extension Project Leadership and Communication Student

In Project Management, as in any management role, strong leadership and effective communication are key requirements for success.  This applies to all types of organizations, from small, non-profit volunteer efforts to large and influential corporations.  In fact, with the right leadership, a handful of people can bring about change and with the wrong leadership, even the biggest of companies can fail.  The best practices for leadership and communication include: vision, teamwork, inclusiveness, listening and open communication.

What are some key observations about project work to improve your project leadership?

Vision: In some circumstances, you and your team will have a compelling vision or passion that you are working toward.  This may exist in volunteer organizations, humanitarian ventures, or in an innovative startup.

However, if the shared vision is not apparent, the project manager has to articulate it.  One method of creating a shared vision is to call the team members together and ask them to envision how they would like to be viewed by their clients or customers or what they would do to create an ideal working environment.  Allow the team members to interact and respond to each other’s “dreams” and capture the ideas from the session.  Enable the team to create a vision that it is theirs as well as yours.  No one likes to feel that they are doing “busywork”, so use the shared vision to keep everyone aligned with the goals of the organization and ensure that all work being done is in support of the vision.
Teamwork: Although some people prefer to work in isolation, most tasks are defined as projects and require that staff members work as a team.  Whenever teamwork is involved, inclusiveness, listening and open communication are mandatory.  What are some ways to improve it?

• When speaking or writing, use “we” instead of “I” and, when appropriate, include everyone in meeting discussions and in decision-making processes.
• Instead of being the primary speaker in meetings, practice active listening and be sure you spend more time hearing what others are saying than in addressing the team.
• Be conscious of subtle forms of communication such as eye and head movements, body language and unexplained silences.  These can signal lack of agreement with the direction of the meeting but an unwillingness to engage in conflict.  Some body language can also show evidence of boredom, tiredness or lack of interest.
• Take cultural differences into account when interpreting body language since there are variations in how people express themselves.
• Follow up on unspoken communication to be sure that all of the team members are participating in the process.
• Accept and promote conflict as it can ultimately bring the team together, as long as the disagreement is constructive, polite and not personal.
• Most importantly, develop a spirit of openness and trust with the members of your team.  Within an environment of trust, people will be more willing to respond and contribute.
• Support your team with appropriate information, training, encouragement and acknowledgment.

Finally, celebrate success and help your team to enjoy the company of their colleagues and to have fun on the job!

//

Theresa Soltzberg

UCSC Extension Project Leadership and Communication Student

Are you getting the results you want as a project manager? Is your team as strong as you’d like it to be? You may want to ask yourself some important questions and listen closely to your answers. Improving your leadership practices and expanding your communication skills might be the difference between successful and mediocre project results.

There are some questions to ask yourself. Read on to see how to improve your communication skills as a project manager.

• Who is on your team? I mean who are they really? If you’re lucky, you’re surrounded by different types;  guardians, artisans, rationalists and idealists. Why? Because you need the right people at each stage of your project doing what they do best. While it might seem that the guardians have it all covered since their strength is organizing the details of the project, don’t forget that you need your rationals to offer new ways of approaching design challenges, your artisans to figure out creative ways to build things (and your project!), and your idealists to consider the interpersonal aspects of the project.
• What is your leadership style? Are you able to effectively reach everyone on your team and enable others to act? This involves the ability to delegate effectively. Are you being directive when you should provide support?…providing support when it’s not necessary? This might create the unwanted result of coming across as a micro-manager to someone who is able to work on their own. Think about what your team really needs.
• Is your team motivated? Do you know what they need? Are you rewarding them? How do they want to be rewarded? Do you include them in the planning stages of the project? Do they know why they are doing it and the reason for the project in the first place? If you can’t trust your team to do good work, you may have motivation challenges.
• How are you communicating? Have you thought about the messages you might be sending your team without even realizing it? Nonverbal communication actually has more impact than words. You can see how your team is actually feeling by noticing their body language. If your team is not making eye contact, rolling their eyes, or shifting in their seats after you announce the latest project change, they may be telling you something besides the “yeses” they just gave you. Keep in mind that you may also be sending your team signals that you don’t mean to send!
• Are you able to get what you need from your team? Are there people on your team that you dislike? That you tend to say no to? Think about your ability to influence your team and the influence they have on you. Often we will give more to and respond better to people because we simply like them or they don’t violate our idea of what’s within the norm of the group. You may be playing favorites and not even realize it. Thinking about your ability to navigate the norms of your organization will also allow you to influence leadership within your organization to support your project from inception to completion.
• How is your project structured? Is this creating any limitations? The way a project is structured might be dictated by the organization you’re working in, but becoming aware of the structure you’re working within might help you realize the limitations and benefits open to your project.

It may not be a lack of skill or information, but the way you are leading and interacting with your team that’s holding them-and your project-back. Ask yourself these questions periodically and you will be amazed by the results.