You have been a successful techie for several years. You have been working as a team leader at your current job for past eighteen months and you have just successfully completed a huge in-house software development project. Your project manager just got transferred to PMO with a promotion and you are the natural choice of your company to fill that vacant slot.  The company sends you for in-house project management training so that you understand the company’s processes and follow the guidelines of the PMO.  You are excited but bit nervous about your new role. You have acquired the theoretical knowledge about project management methodology and the company’s processes from the training you just completed but you do not know how to effectively implement them in your project.  At this stage anybody would be nervous as wise men said, “you do not know what you do not know”.

Relax! Here are the strategies to function effectively as a project manager and if you follow my simple albeit effective guidelines, you will be very successful in your new role as a project manager.

Step 1:  Understand top ten reasons of a project failure and proactively plan to avoid them.

Step 2:  A project manager spends over 80% of the time communicating. Have a solid communication plan not just a strategy.

Step 3:  Change is inevitable in a project. The problem is not the change itself but how you manage a change. Learn how to manage changes.

Let’s start with step one: Top ten reasons of a project failure.

1. Poor planning: Planning is the most important step of project management process. Half of the battle is won when you plan well. Coordinate with the project participants and the stakeholders to develop a detailed plan for the assigned project. Involve your project team members in planning and have the team buy-in. Prepare project scope, statements of work, work breakdown structures, task estimates, and specific tasks and milestones. Plan resources and schedule for your project implementation. Proactively plan effectively all anticipated bottlenecks, which include but not limited to management escalation, project prioritization, finding the right trade-offs between the business needs versus technical as well as triple constraints namely; scope, cost and schedule.

 2. Unclear goals and objectives: Many IT projects are elaborated progressively and in these scenarios you as a project manager need to rely on rolling wave planning. Initially the goal of your project may be only partially clear due to a poor requirement gathering in the definition stage of the project and you may not have clear picture of the scope and the schedule.  Defining clear requirements for a project can take time and lots of communication. You need to have expertise in rolling wave planning and that is where you should proactively focus.  You have strengths as well as weakness in this area. Being a technical team leader you can clearly view where the project is heading and you can very well anticipate the technical requirements and the future enhancements but at the same time you do not know how to plan for something that may be the future requirements. The best thing to do in such scenario is to rely on expert judgment.  Find project managers within your organization who have experience in rolling wave planning and seek their guidance. Your strategy should be to combine your technical expertise with experts’ judgments so that you can plan for your project that going to be progressively elaborated.

3. Poor Stakeholder Management: Identify stakeholders and bring them early. Project stakeholders’ interests may be positively or negatively impacted by the project and that is why stakeholders’ influence on the project is the most important thing to consider. Stakeholders who are found later will make changes and could cause delays. Any change that is made later is harder to integrate and is much more costly.

4. Scope creep and Feature creep due to objectives changing during the project: Scope creep refers to uncontrolled and unexpected changes in user expectations and requirements as a project progress, while feature creep refers to uncontrolled addition of features to a system with a wrong assumption that one small feature will add nothing to cost or schedule. Understand project trade-offs and make decisions regarding objectives on the basis of rational insight. Try to prevent project scope and feature creeps by implementing effective scope control methodology.

5. Unrealistic time or resource estimates: Many times project managers makes costly mistakes while estimating time or resources. Always work in a collaborative environment with the team and have the team buy-in and also consult with the project stakeholders as much as possible while preparing the detail project scope statement so that you do not make costly mistakes while preparing the WBS. Also employ effective techniques to estimate the amount of time each activity is expected to take. Be careful not to (common mistake new project managers make) use linear approximation when estimating the schedule For example, if you double the number of developers, you can cut the project time in half. In reality, doubling the number of developers produces a non-linear result.

6. Improper delegation of task and responsibilities: Many times project managers fail to delegate task and responsibilities to the team such a way that it should fit a team member’s job description. Organize the team such way that everybody should work under his/her own specialization so that the team as a cohesive whole performs the work diligently and within time and budget and thus raise efficiency above standard.

7. Lack of executive support and user involvement: Carefully listen to the executive management and the project sponsor and try to find out whether they have reservations about the project. If so, what is their vision for the project and what are their business objectives of the project. Try to work as an interface between the business and technology sides of the company so that you help our company align business with its projects.

8. Failure to communicate and act as a team: Projects sometimes fail due to improper communication.  A great deal of a project manger’s time is spent on communicating. We will discuss more about communication strategy in step-2.

9. Lack of proper risk management: Another potential cause for project failure is the IT managers’ inability to categorize all the risks qualitatively and quantitatively and implement corrective measures. Identify past, present and potential risks that the current project faced, facing or will face in the near future. Carefully and methodically categorize all the risks qualitatively and quantitatively and implement corrective measures. Assign one or two persons from your team as risk owners. These persons identify the risks, discuss the risks with the team and the project manager, find solutions and implement them.

10. Inappropriate skills: In this rapidly changing, technology-driven business environment and the constant changes of technology make it hard to predict skills the IT department will need. Almost all large IT projects require a diverse range of skills. Many teams lack the breadth, and depth they require.  Plan proactively for your resource requirements and make sure that everybody works under his/her own specialization. Have a solid plan for the skills your project requires. Work with your HR manager to evaluate all alternatives, which may include but not limited to hiring contractors, outsourcing, providing training to existing team members etc.

In step 2, we will discuss about communication and how to have a solid communication plan not just a strategy.

Technorati Tags: best-practices, change-management, communication, project-management

by Timsamoff

Even if you believe that everything from dating to contact with God can be managed on the computer, that ain’t quite true. Despite the push for technology in every operation–and despite our first endorsement of (still-sequence) video-conferencing (VC) in a 1983 book, you will want or need to meet face-to-face at times. The message itself will determine. Caution: Don’t believe the opinion-mantra, “It’s gotta be face-to-face.” It ‘don’t gotta be nuthin’ but proper. ‘Proper’ requires thought. Meeting settings must be proper for given messages. Meetings such as skill training are best done in small groups. Military ISD (our source) presents an algorithm for settings-selection.

Every meeting-support technique has strengths and weaknesses; and one of those choices will work better for your meeting than will any others. Selected options by purpose, not dart-throwing. For key tools (pro & con) that can be used to support your message, check a reprint of our ’70s article for basics; slight augmentation needed now. See the original article on our website: click ‘Recognition/Industry’; below Note: ‘AOM & Early Mag Articles’; see article from “Advertising & Sales Promotion” magazine (web p8 of 22pp).

Specifics there are valid unless noted here:

Re: Charts, drawing, chalk-/chem-boards: Verbatim, plus: Computer-aided visuals, now.

Re: Photographs: Verbatim, plus: Also computer-aided visuals, now.

Re: Books, booklets, outlines, tape recordings or disks: Verbatim, plus: Again, computer-aided visuals, now.

Re: Demonstrations and sociodramas (constructed plays, not believed):  Verbatim, plus: Less convincing if computerized.

Re: Role playing: Verbatim, plus: Valid only if live, not computerized.

[Quoted further]: All of the above tools [in the entire original article] have intrinsic value of either a permanent or intermittent nature. By contrast, visual aid equipments are enabling technologies but have no independent value whatsoever! Today’s purveyors have neglected to mention your non-technology options. [End reprint.]

Three significant points:

1. The computer is extremely valuable, of course. However, the eye does not prefer, or distinguish between, the sources of usable graphics. Therefore, slides and printed materials are still valid.
2. All graphics, no matter how simple or complex, must appeal to participants’ understanding of your message’s basic concept (right brain)…to interpret, as a further explanation of the spoken/written words. On-screen words (left-brain) are not legitimate visual ‘aids’ unless the words themselves are at issue. That’s rare. Color is not essential if the graphic itself is clear. (For multiple US military findings: ‘Recognition/Industry’ button, below Note; see “FirstTake” magazine (p13 of 48pp).
3. In meetings/seminars/training, etc, eye cloys more quickly than ear. For long presentations of non-technical material, ear is the preferable recipient. Complex/technical stuff needs visual help.

Decide which of the article’s techniques best suits the purposes and requirements of your message; select the proper support materials and technologies; determine the proper setting for the message, purposes, and audience size. Proper settings might include hotel space.

Audience size is a factor. Don’t guess according to general crowd-control principles: Best size for the meeting purpose, time allotted, and optimum use of likely setting? Military ISD algorithms work well.

You can’t coach a roomful of people in any but a cursory way. Adequate? If not, how enhanced? Smaller break-out sessions suffice? Can/will managers supervise, back at offices? Enough authorities to run multiple break-outs? If not, don’t fake it! Choose: one central session or multiple regional repeats?

Every meeting-caller usually wants to reach everyone in his/her target audience simultaneously. Great, if simultaneity is a valid factor. Bad, if it causes unnecessarily-large convocations. Large meetings feed on their own size and thereby cause additional expenses.

Decades ago, American Express found about two-thirds! of the average corporate travel budget consumed by annual central sales meetings. Computers can change that somewhat: Significant savings are possible via Video Conferencing. Computer programs suffer drop-outs–just like schools or sleepers in central meetings. Also decades ago, “Sales & Marketing Management” magazine’s  ‘Survey of Selling Costs’ (annualized) found multiple regional sales meetings always to cost less than one central meeting.

Unless simultaneity is essential, hold regional meetings whenever possible. That’s more demanding of meeting-caller time, short-term, but it’s also less pressured: Local offices can usually handle most or all logistical needs.

Although computer software now allows collaboration among editors and other specialists, software enables only editorial ‘collectivizing.’ Expertise and authority are NOT created by collaboration–that’s round-table discussion from distant chairs. It does save time and travel.

Many meetings can be held in-house. Choose smaller regional facilities if you hope to avoid in-house interruptions. To manage any such meeting, embargo all phone calls, in or out. You might permit exceptions for the Chairman of the Board and CEO, but only if you value your job.

If you agree on anything with a hotel rep, get everything agreed in writing. All chains and most large facilities have an “in writing only” policy in case of disputes…common when any third party over-stays its allotted time and delays your set-up or scheduled session.

Selected reprints from “AOM” were Copyright either 1970-71, Crain Communications; or 1971-1973, “Sales Management” (later: “Sales & Marketing Management”) magazines.

For more information and a proved form for comparing criteria and selecting hotel facilities, see our website: www.meetingsCavalier.com. Click on ‘Business Writing’; then ‘Titles’ button. At book “Sales Meetings That Work,” click on ‘Chapter 18,’ complete segment. Dow Jones-Irwin’s “SMTW” cover shows under ‘Recognition/Industry’ button.

by Rutty

The sales-oriented, over-use of ‘maxi-media’ (anything in excess of need) was first challenged by me in two columns (1970-71; 71-73) and my first book (1973). A worthwhile message will be listened to and needn’t be prettied-up. Just make it intelligible when heard. “You can put lipstick on a pig, but. . .” Complex messages can be helped only by visuals that help clarify concepts, not illustrate irrelevancies. Pretty-for-the-sake-of-pretty detracts from message.

Old learning? Well, the human brain hasn’t changed much in 10,000 years, according to scientists; so the researched educational principles and findings are still valid. New research on the brain in recent years has identified specific real estate where various brain functions occur. We newly know that the brain has a life-long plasticity and can reassign real estate according to new-learning demands or to compensate for injury.

New proofs of old practices, too: Sleeping on new-learning material can aid retention. New idea? Ask any HS or college student who crams late-night for morning tests. Now we know why it works.

Vicarious practice has long been known to work. Newly-discovered reasons: ‘mirror neurons.’ While watching others, our empathic neural system ‘operates’ inoperatively in muscles, responding to observed action. New understandings of ‘old’ learning. Scientists still haven’t discovered how the functions do in fact function: How and why does consciousness occur?

Meanwhile, you’ll need old and proved learning and research. So return to learning needs:  In specific instances, technology can help in specific meeting/training situations. Don’t rush. ‘Be the first on your block’ to introduce new technology into the meeting room–is for kids. Other-directed meeting-callers have depended on technology and advertising claims to make their decisions and cases–and lost. Technology can’t make decisions. ‘Computer-aided-everything’ is a profitable sales idea–but first pay attention to the ‘aided’ element of the phrase. Aids-choice requires authoritative knowledge of message. Military ISD offers algorithms.

Don’t start with hardware! Increased comfort-of-viewing underlies most A/V technological advances (other than the computer itself). As an element of the surround, comfort contributes only incrementally to learning: unmeasurable in most company circumstances and probably not worth the added time or effort.

To select the proper technology to help deliver your message, first determine what specifics must be delivered in your current or next meeting/training session. For help on this “message” topic, see our prior Blogs.

Next, determine what categories of tools and A/V would aid in making your message and objectives clear to meeting/training participants. Such categories include new tools, prototypes, samples, demonstration/taste/ feel, case histories…and technology, including simple slides. Non-commercial exhibits present unspoken visual comprehension.

Remember: a computer-and-screen is only a fancy chalkboard. New chalk-boards are blank. Ditto, new computers. You enter meaningful material onto blackboards; guess what.  Absolutely nothing can do absolutely everything. Nor can anyone! You need real help based on facts, cases, and qualified opinions. Those are few.

Some books offer chapters prepared by numerous recognized authorities. Yet, no matter how valid the individual chapters, they usually don’t add up to cohesive, workable systems. If books on meetings topics were/are discursive, readers must cut-and-paste into probably-inadequate meeting planning structures. Does the given book present a workable system?

Magazines love tips: they’re plentiful, easy, short, and perfect for filling unused space. Readers cut-and-paste. No system. In short, ersatz “help.” They can’t photograph or sell you your own message. There’s a paucity of worthwhile information in even business journals. Their editors usually defer to the meetings industry press’ editors and viewpoints, because “Don’t they know best?” Obviously not!

The original concept and title we created for “Achieving Objectives in Meetings” has become a standard concept in the meetings professions and essential trade(s). ‘Achieving objectives’ as a communications key is finally being rehabilitated (in different words) by industry-associations that have previously down-played that concept.

Meetings can be improved significantly without extravagant spending when the methods and technology used are chosen with concern for–and protection of–intelligent, do-able messages, aided by proper tools and practice. Aided–not necessarily ‘technology-aided.’

Message-control is free; it’s based on brain, not budget! Now, how much more attention can you pay to the message?

For citations of ignored fundamental research, see wwww.meetingsCavalier.com; then ‘Business Writing.’ At ‘Recognition,’ button, see our bibliography for ‘A&SP/Granddaddy’ button (at base of Note): It’s proof that useful research was long available.

For later presentations of useful specific research findings, largely military, see ‘Recognition/Industry’; then “FirstTake” magazine (p13 of 48); and also ‘AOM & Early Mag articles’ button.

For comprehensive information and procedures re: meetings needs and aids, you might see our “Sales Meetings That Work.”

For hotel-related methodology, see tomorrow’s blog.

from Lumaxart

As Mark Twin would have said, “Everybody talks about teamwork but nobody does much about it.” Teamwork is the Holy Grail of manufacturing and sales/marketing, as much as for sports. But, like the Holy Grail–and despite claims–few know exactly how to create it.

Teamwork exists, but it cannot be sought directly and cannot be commanded or demanded. It occurs as a synergy when each person of the incipient team understands his/her assigned task perfectly; knows how to do–and does–the assigned task in cooperation with others on the incipient team. Teamwork is essentially task-skills oriented. Our willingness to work with others depends on both their task skills and our trust in those intended- teammates’ skills and commitment. Trust and teamwork cannot be coaxed or demanded or bludgeoned into being.

Known–but unrecognized–corroborations from real life:

• Decades ago, the Hawthorne Effect indicated that employees want to help you succeed. Stop exhorting people re: teamwork. Stop bullying. Stop wishing. Start teaching them how to perfect their assigned tasks and encourage their bonding. Then they’ll be ABLE to do the team’s assigned job!
• A football team coach (we consider a bully) depended on tongue-lashings to “energize” his players and keep them in line. One defiant player wore a sponsored headband, employing a loophole not appreciated by his coach or League’s advertising contract: a finger salute to the coach. But the player knew his task and did it well; and his teammates trusted him to do it. The team won their share but also lost many. That’s sports; not spectacular.
• A Chicago basketball team coach and Zen enthusiast ‘encouraged’ and ‘inspired’ his people, perfecting their task skills. They trusted him, their own skills, and their team-commitments. . .and won multiple national championships.
• When Kobe and Shaq had a long-running feud, the press knew; their early ballgames didn’t show it. Each man knew his task on the court. Each knew and valued the other’s skills and expected that he wouldn’t cheat the team in order to feed the feud. Attitudes changed; break-up followed loss of hoped-for fourth championship. Task skills weren’t the problem!

Don’t ‘demand’ teamwork. That’s the cliche theme of too many sales-related “motivational” films and programs. Film producers (and their staff or free-lance writers who lack corporate training skills) lean on teamwork cliche: “Just do it.” It’s safe–for writers. But worthless.

It’s okay to cheer. Cheers are no substitute for substance. See cheerleaders at every ballgame. How many points do they score?

The single best-selling motivational film of all time is “You Pack Your Own Chute,” by Dr Eden Ryl. No ‘go-team-go.’ Just a psychologist’s view of our need to take responsibility for our own actions. Serious stuff, intelligently presented. “Chute” is still selling, after 30 years. Ryl’s competitors point out that the film’s hair styles and clothes are old. Genius! Why not make a better film? PS: Greta Garbo’s and Charlie Chaplin’s hair styles and clothes are old, too. Moral: View any film before you book it!

Performance skills are scarce. Apparently, expertise requires about 10,000 Hours of “deliberate practice,” according to recent literature and findings. Search “10,000 Hour Rule” on either “Advertising Age” magazine or Google.

Strange ideas, ours? They work: They were developed with well over 12,000 hours of this blogger’s hands-on experience (office hours, plus reality-hours with conventions) and have been proved effective by clients, columns-readers, and other users.

Harold Geneen (once of ITT) wrote “The Myth of Synergy.” Synergy is not a myth–Geneen was criticizing the managerial fad, not the phenomenon. Like teamwork, synergy cannot be sought directly. No synergy in your incipient team? Is their mutual-commitment genuine or just a slap-on-the-back-and-a-beer when watched?  Given mutual concern for the welfare of competent incipient-team ‘mates’ who commit, synergy can take over. Teamwork is an accumulation and accretion of smaller successes in task/job competence–plus the will to do the job with others! Plus our trust in the whole.

Because of numerous failures with empty, but expensive, electronics-based training and distance-learning programs, the meetings industry has been back-tracking. About yr2000, “Training” magazine began pushing that backtracking with challenges. Available:

See www.meetingsCavalier.com; ‘Titles’ page’s ‘Final Thoughts’ segment cites many “Training” magazine attacks on the industry’s sacred cows, detailing the range of meetings-industry problems and biases.

Control of your own meetings, training, team-building, and related group-communications programs depend on your brain, not your budget or technology.

With those read-recommendations accomplished, you will have a fighting chance to construct program agendas, message/contents and tools that themselves have a fighting chance to communicate, train. . .and build teams.

At lower dollar cost. Forever!

When first you heard of the PERT Diagram, it was probably in relation to engineering, architecture, or other construction or manufacturing tools. Have you thought of PERT as tool for controlling business meetings? Why not? Each meeting is a never-before event. US Navy’s motivation for developing PERT: controlling the development of the never-before Polaris submarine.

Every meeting element is unique but interdependent. It must be gauged in advance so meeting-callers understand the meeting’s Gestalt. Only then can meeting-callers determine the relative value and requirement of the individual elements, as well as the whole. Don’t try to wing-it. If there’s no Gestalt, you can’t buy protection for any intended message. So severe and so frequent are business meetings failures that one training company placed a full-page ad in a related trade magazine to try to shift blame away from the technology, the supposed ‘answer’ to all ‘non-existent’ problems (“Training”; Mar-Apr,’09; page 15).

Meeting-Managers (and all -callers) must regain control of the message before control of meetings and wanted-results is possible. Again, Meeting Manager vs meeting planner. Management and control begins with your understanding of your message needs, not hotel and airline reservations. Logistics are important if unavoidable but contribute nothing to message-understanding and fulfillment.

PERT delivers visualized control of the entire meeting structure. Time-oriented, PERT demonstrates that logistics devour your coordination time. Yet logistics are less important in total than the message’s priority needs.

Recommendation: Use PERT together with the military’s original ISD (Instructional Systems Development) process. That pairing is dynamite!

ISD demands that you know exactly what your message requires and then helps you (step-by-step) to fulfill the dictates of that message. Using PERT, military personnel create workable programs anywhere in the world to answer immediate needs effectively. Commercial ISD disk programs require you to choose among relative strengths and weaknesses of proprietary versions of the military original before you buy. That requires basic knowledge of ISD before you shop. Gotcha!

ISD/PERT requires you to think of every meeting in terms of both its message and its logistics and how they’re best brought together. Why? You can’t make piano music until you’ve learned to finger the keys. These communications keys will harmonize your objectives and results:

Consider every meeting’s needs and agenda before all else:

1. Is your do-able purpose stated succinctly and clearly?
2. Intended response: what should participants logically do as a result?
3. How does the new action differ from old methods and information?
4. What new tools are needed to aid and accommodate new activities?
5. Will those tools be available at your meeting? If not, when?
6. Have you provided practice time with new tools for participants?
7. Have you planned with authorities/designer/developer to produce needed tools?
8. Have you refined your key address to answer every element of message and its true requirements? Unexamined technology is not itself an adequate answer. (A future blog.)
9. Have you determined the proper setting: in-house, local, national?
10. Are you providing logistical support for that setting, if needed? PERT!

With dictates above fulfilled, be confident that meetings will work. You’ll also set standards for The Other Guy, who conducts lousy meetings.

Attention to message is free of cost–just deliver needed time and thought. Too rushed? Remember the adage: “Why is there never time to do it right but always time to do it over?” There’s no second chance with a failed meeting because you might already have disproved your own expertise. Here, their perception counts for more than fact.

Complications involved in creating competent meetings are visible on our PERT Diagram graphic. There, our ten points above are condensed into a single feeder bar in the multi-line/bar PERT arrow.

To download a usable PERT chart, see www.meetings/Cavalier.com; choose ‘Business Writing”; click ‘Recognition.’ Below the Note, multiple buttons include ‘Book AOM and early mag articles.’ Our original PERT Diagram and its notes follow the “AOM” book cover. Find fuller explanations and expanded how-to re: PERT in related books “AOM” and “SMTW.”

For more information re: ISD, click ‘Titles’; see “Common Sense ISD” book, a complete how-to. The “ISD” book webfile offers actual (but partial) opening Phase I (of 5 Phases), a brief example of military ISD’s step-by-step method.

by Caruba

Even though technology is the life-blood of Silicon Valley, technology is not the answer to failures in business meetings. Are you squeamish when preparing for a  meeting? Are you already a victim of the technology fad? In my blog series, you will get rationales for this plus other eye-openers:

• Background: How to overcome today’s meetings shortcomings–today.
• PERT & communication keys–tomorrow’s take-away.
• No: everybody can’t create competent meetings–it ain’t automatic.
• Teamwork is task-dependent, not exhortation-prone.
• Useful audio/visuals demand more than pretty pictures.
• Hotels and airlines–maybe; depending on message.

Background

Creating competent meetings that achieve their objectives is complex. Meeting-callers must observe and honor applicable research and field-findings in education and group communication. Only when working with research or otherwise-proved methodology can meetings-callers conduct meetings that have a right to succeed! The recommended ideas and methods have been developed and perfected with groups of all sizes, from small-groups (psychology: 5-7) to school-room-30 size to hundreds to thousands. They work!

Tips and tricks do contribute to ‘better meetings.’ ‘Better’ is not necessarily ‘competent.’ Tips are cut-and-paste. Most work but won’t enrich your overall know-how and capabilities. It’s wiser (no matter at what level you need to address and work with people) to learn underlying concepts and caveats.

This blog accords with an old adage: “Give a man a fish; he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish; he’ll eat for a lifetime.”

My Goal: Improve your own and your company’s overall competence in Meetings Management … and management control of all materials prepared for in-house use, customers, and sponsored sessions for outside interests.

Critical differences: Meetings Management deals with the communications aspect of the meetings–the message, its practice, and protection. Meeting-planning has received most industry-press attention but concerns itself essentially with logistics and other advertised elements. These are two very different disciplines. Logistics are important if/when needed but are always of less import than the message. Perfectly-produced meetings can fail to communicate messages–the reason they were called. That’s a ‘failed meeting.’

Take care when considering industry blandishments. Except knowhow, nothing can solve every meeting problem, no matter how much you pay! Knowhow’s inexpensive but requires work. People take on extra work only when dissatisfied with current circumstances … our task today with you.

Amazingly, an excellent source of information is the clinical research and US military findings from WWII. Most exists in palatable form but is rarely seen in business magazines. Much applicable research reported by related professionals was reported in their professional journals and books (see our ‘Granddaddy’ article’s bibliography, in 1970; our web). Those books/journals are not general reading for meetings-callers–but should be.

There’s no independent or professional journal in the meetings field … partly because corporate management has usually believed that ‘anybody can do it’– and so have declined to pay for unbiased information. We all can do without the many problems bought with those savings. Publications that honor legitimate meetings requirements and established research deserve the intellectual and cash support of thinking-persons and fact-starved user-companies.

To learn more, visit www.meetingsCavalier.com, click the ‘Business Writing’ button and read the first ‘Final Thoughts’ segment on the ‘Titles’ page, at the asterisk below the “ISD” book, ‘Looking at Today’s Realities.’ Sufficient dissatisfier?  Scary enough? Like scary? A dozen more pages to ‘Final Thoughts.’

For key early research bibliography, see ‘Granddaddy article.’ For bullets re: early military research, see “FirstTake” magazine, on ‘Recognition’ button, p13. ”Granddaddy” was frozen in time in 1970. For a superior bibliography of later work in brain/learning/reasoning research (1970s to ’90s publication date), see a book at once the most difficult and insightful that I’ve ever seen in this field: “Descartes’ Error,” by Antonio R. Damasio (NYC: Grosset/Putnam; 1994.)

Tune in for more tomorrow where I discuss using PERT to design and run meetings!

The much-debated ‘Lessons Learned’ process is worthy of a mention in this series. It is one of the most important aspects of project management and organization leadership in my opinion. A leader’s commitment to the success of projects, their people, and the company, is demonstrated to a large extent by their ability to learn from past mistakes and make a better turn for the future. Needless to say, solutions to past mistakes and failures must be actively pursued and implemented.

Here are a few suggestions on how to ensure lessons learned don’t fade from memory only to resurface in the next project.

• Ensure ‘Lessons Learned’ conversations are taken seriously, the appropriate amount of time is committed to make these sessions happen, and they are part of every project plan regardless of the size of the project. Every item in the list reviewed should suggest a course of action, so it is not a mere mention of a problem but a proposal for a solution.
• Make improvements part of organization, team and individual goals. It is important to commit the time and resources to make these improvements happen, and check in on them on a periodic basis.
• Ensure improvements are documented and considered during the roadmap creation process, so sizeable improvements are not brushed off and can benefit by a structured project implementation.
• Ensure all levels of the organization are made accountable for solutions. Entertain ideas from all stakeholders to make this an effort everyone becomes vested in.

Making a strong commitment to learn from your mistakes sets the right tone for organizations and sets the company up for success one project at a time. I’d love to hear your thoughts on how to ensure lessons are indeed learned and not forgotten.

There are times when a company that was poised for success and destined for glory, fizzles and fades into the background. The money was there, the concept was saleable, and customers were clamoring for their offering. But something went wrong. So what was it? The answer – the management team!

The fact that a leader can make or break an organization is well understood. However, companies continue to build less than stellar management teams, thereby inadvertantly driving their organizations to the ground.

Why?  One of the biggest causes for this in my experience has been that companies are too quick to promote employees to positions they do not yet have the skills for. Don’t get me wrong. I am all for giving people opportunities to advance in their careers. However, without the right mentoring or coaching, this is a disaster waiting to happen.  These employees will go on to set the direction and processes for their teams, which in turn can have a very bad effect on the rest of the organization.

Below are a few examples I have seen in the past of how talented people end up in positions they are not ready for-

• A person does really well in their current position and their competence needs to be rewarded by elevating them to a higher position.
• A person has been around at the company for a long time and their loyalty needs to be rewarded by promoting them.
• A person threatens to quit and the organization cannot afford to lose him/her, so we’re going to bring him/her back by offering a promotion.
• The current manager left the company and the organization is needing someone to fill his/her shoes, so let’s slot in X, Y or Z.

Unfortunately, none of the above speaks to the employee’s ability to be able to tackle new responsibilities a key management position might bring. In fact, such managers often turn around and make bad hiring decisions, and the problem continues to ripple through the organization. Even worse, other talented people leave the organization or company because they do not want to work with such a management team.

It is important to set your employees up for success, and the best way to do that is to set up an environment where they can learn/acquire/demonstrate the skills they need before they are promoted to a key management position. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

My first post in this series described one of the most important leadership lesson I learned - to allow your team members to become better leaders themselves by simply getting out of their way.

One way to support that effort is, when there is a problem, to resist the urge to jump into the fray and come up with a solution on behalf of the team. Sometimes the best thing for a leader to do is nothing! Project leaders often feel the incredible urge to show that they are getting things done. The temptation is to be able to say that they tried rather than admit they did nothing at all! The situation is worse when they jump in to solve the problem without all the facts and figures at hand and without waiting for the project team to complete their analysis. This derails the team and creates additional churn.

As quoted in 100 Rules for NASA Project Managers, “Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing. It is also occasionally the best help you can give. Just listening is all that is needed on many occasions. You may be the boss but, if you constantly have to solve someone’s problems, you are working for him.”

I can think of two instances where I applied this to much success.

A couple of years ago, one of the projects in my organization had hit a roadblock. A supposedly big problem was holding up our next milestone, and much to the frustration of the team, there was no solution in sight. The problem was quickly escalated to me as a risk to the project and a meeting was scheduled to discuss the consequences. In attendance at the meeting were all the immediate stakeholders who were contemplating the unthinkable.. a schedule slip.

Since some of the stakeholders  were consumers of the product and not very close to the implementation, I requested the team to go up to the whiteboard and draw up the current architecture being considered, and then draw up the problem encountered. One of the key questions I asked was, “Let’s go back to the basics. Can you explain to me in simple terms the overall problem?”. The engineering team had to explain the problem in really simple terms and talk through the issues in plain terms. It forced the team to take a step back from the details and draw up a simple overview of the problem. What a difference that made! The solution became immediately obvious to the engineers and stakeholders. The solution was not at the point the team was stuck at, but upstream of that component.  No heroic efforts were necessary to solve the problem thereon, and no schedule impact was seen either. Just a simple fix and the problem was solved! It was a huge moment for the project team to have resolved the problem themselves.

Another intance where this approach was successful was when my project team was at odds because two people could not agree on a solution. Bringing them together into a room and having them talk to each other about all the details, the pros and cons, and potential outcomes, was all it took to reach a consensus. All I had to do was to setup the meeting and ask simple questions. The team took care of the rest by themselves.

It is important that your team tries to solve a problem themselves, and patience is key. Your role is simply that of a facilitator to the proceedings. Give them the forums and the facilities to make these huge leaps, and the situation can be a postive learning experience for all people involved.

Do you have any such examples to contribute from your experience? I’d love to hear how this has been successful for you.

Several years ago, I found myself on a team that was in the clutches of a controlling and overbearing project leader who quickly sapped the team of all its creativity and enthusiasm. I then began to systematically scribble notes to myself on all the things I would never do when I became a project leader myself. It tooks a few years of applying what I collected back then, to understand what it takes! (And I have to believe that poor project leader, who seemed doomed to failure, has learned from those mistakes also.)

There is lots of advice out there on how to become a good leader, but I’ve found a GREAT leader is one who paves the way, and then gets out of the way! It’s not an earth-shattering thought, but surprisingly, rare in practice.

Self-managing teams are nimble and highly successful as a unit. They only rely on their management structure to stand by them when they take risks, and to remove obstacles.

Paving the way:

- Set up some basic protocol, and work together with your team to setup basic project templates and guidelines. This structure will help you stay connected with project information so, if your team is sinking and asking for help, you have the information and resources available to support them (Did someone say risk management?).

- And, most importantly, stay flexible and open to new ideas on how to improve this setup so it doesn’t die a slow painful death.

Getting out of the way:

Now that you’ve paved the way for your teams to work, get out of their way and let them work! Give them the freedom to succeed and fail, and to learn from their mistakes, so your people can evolve and become good leaders themselves. Don’t make yourself a bottleneck for non-critical tasks.  Too much red tape is a productivity killer like nothing else. Step in when your team is gasping for air, and then step away when they have the oxygen they need, so you’re part of the solution and not part of the problem.

Know when to lead and know when to get out of the way! Yeah, that’s a lesson I learned the hard way. I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you have applied this in your own areas of expertise and how much success you’ve seen.

Core competencies are the skills that enable the business to deliver a fundamental customer benefit. It is what causes customers to choose one product over the other. To identify core competencies in a particular company, ask questions such as “why is the customer willing to pay more or less for products or service from one company over another?” The central idea behind core competency is that over time companies may develop key areas of expertise which are distinctive to that company and critical to company’s long-term growth.

These areas of expertise may be in any area but are most likely to develop in the critical, central areas of the company where the most value is added to its products. For example, for Software Company the key skills may be in the overall simplicity and innovation of the program for users or in the high quality of software code writing.
Core competencies are not considered as being fixed.

Core competencies may change or abandoned in response to changes in the business environment. Sometimes companies are forced to make such changes due to economic environment. One of the software companies I worked for strived for innovation and customer satisfaction. Due to downturn in company business, company dissolved entire software test automation group. You can imagine the impact on quality of products and in turn impact on customer satisfaction.

Many times management of company inadvertently change or choose core competency one over the other. As business reforms and adapts to new circumstances and opportunities, so its core competencies may have to adapt and change. However, companies have to be very careful in doing so. Take an example of Toyota which is considered one of the most efficiently run companies in the world.

Toyota’s global competitive advantage is based on a corporate philosophy known as the Toyota Production System which consists of concepts such as JIT and Kaizen. According to Jeffrey Liker, the author of “The Toyota Way”, the mission of Toyota is to build trust and confidence with customers by delivering outstanding quality products and services which add real value to their businesses.

However, in recent years there has been a number of recalls of multiple models of Toyota including Corolla and Camry which are considered amazingly reliable. How could this possibly happen to the car company that was the undisputed leader in quality? The answer is becoming quite obvious. Toyota seems to have abandoned one of its core competencies – quality. Toyota is suffering from trying to get too big, too fast. Toyota sensed weakness from its auto rivals in the American market, and also noted opportunity in emerging markets such as China and India. So, it started enormous expansion around the world. In doing so, Toyota abandoned one of its core values which is to never build a new product in a new factory with a new workforce.

This is exactly what Toyota ended up doing with its first full-size pickup truck in San Antonio, Texas. The pickup truck was recalled due to a number of problems. The recent recalls expanded with other models as well as in other countries. Toyota’s quality problem has gone global. With abandoning one of its core competencies – quality, Toyota may have won the rights to brag as the world’s biggest car company, however, that appears to have come at a heavy cost to its reputation for quality and in turn customer dissatisfaction.

How could this relate to project management? Project managers need to make sure that their projects and their goals are aligned with organizational values and core competencies. Understanding the importance of competencies and core values, and how they need to work in conjunction, is profoundly important for project manager’s success. Project manager should give thought and efforts towards developing both of these sets of attributes and remain focused on business goals.

A project manager friend of mine recently transitioned into software industry from hardware manufacturing. He was complaining about the problems he’s been having to come up with good schedule for mid-size software project.

Specifically, he was referring to the problem of padding in estimation for tasks. Being new to software industry, he was not sure whether the estimates provided by his team members were accurate or padded.

The padding refers to extra time added to a schedule that isn’t really needed but that is added just to feel confident in the estimate. The impact of padding could be significant on project schedule. The quality of the estimates directly affects whether or not the project can meet scope, cost and schedule commitments. The accumulation of padding all the tasks can result in overly cautious project schedules and uncertainties across the project schedule.

According to one estimate , the average company completes only 37% of IT projects on time, while only 42% finish on budget. Much of this is attributed to the difficulties in gathering accurate estimates of effort.

The reasons for padding the estimate could be many. The resource might have multiple projects that they work on. They have overlapping work from those projects. They have nonscheduled time or they are given conflicting priorities. Rita Mulchay explained it nicely in her PMP preparation book by summing up team member’s thoughts:

“I have no idea how long it will take. I do not even know what I’m being asked to do. So, what do I say? I will make my best guess and double it! ”

There are a number of approaches project manager could take to address the issue of padding:

• Use expert judgment. Let the experts review the estimates provided by estimators. The experts can identify cases where the estimation doesn’t seem right. These could be senior or principle software engineers within the company.

• Use estimating techniques such as stochastic estimation. Ask team member to provide a range of estimates. For example, asked member to come up with task estimate for best case scenario, worst case scenario and most likely scenario. Using the 90% confidence factor, one can come up with reasonable estimate.

• As project manager, you should provide sufficient time to estimator. If estimator is asked to estimate a task on the spot, estimator may feel pressured and provide a number just to get us off their back. Estimators should be provided enough time and encouraged them to think carefully and thoroughly to come up with estimate.

• To minimize the schedule risks of your project, it’s

• better to apply the padding at the project level instead of at the individual task level. This is commonly referred to as buffer. Make sure to communicate about project level buffers to all the team members to keep everyone on the same page.

• Instead of asking for estimation of task duration asked in terms of task effort. This helps avoid introducing padding into the estimation process. Also, understand that people are human beings and no one works hundred percent of their time. When estimator provides an estimation of the effort, the numbers should reflect continuous, nonstop work.

Over the weekend, I facilitated fabulous workshop on Advanced Microsoft Project sponsored by PMI Silicon Valley chapter. According to instructor, every time software developer is interrupted it takes 14 minutes on average to get back to development work.

Additionally, I have experienced that software quality assurance engineers generally estimate efforts over cautiously whereas software developers tend to provide over-optimistic estimates. Understanding and factoring such elements can help improve accuracy of estimates.

Lastly, for medium to large projects project estimation software such as Cost Xert or KnowledgePlan can be utilized effectively. There are also other methods such as System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) which consist of a set of best practices that lets engineers break projects down into recognizable and repeatable steps, processes, tasks and outcomes, each of which can be accurately estimated.

I had one more opportunity to volunteer at PMI Silicon Valley chapter this week. During breakout session, one of the project managers described problems he was having with his team members. He was describing how team members are having conflicts during meetings and their impact on the project. After further discussions with this project manager, I realized that proper team agreements were not defined by this team that could have avoided many of these conflicts.

Today, I’m going to talk about the importance of team agreement. To describe the problem, allow me set up the scene where project meeting is taking place.

During planning phase of project, project manager was having an important meeting with stakeholders. The discussion was surrounding the requirements provided by stakeholders. Some of these requirements were in conflicts with each other. Some of the requirements had to be eliminated in order to keep the project in the confines of defined scope.

Various stakeholders felt very strongly to keep their requirements. There were intense arguments made by multiple stakeholders. After about 20 minutes into the meeting, three key stakeholders abruptly got up and walked out of the meeting. Same thing went on for next several meetings. Needless to say, the requirement analysis phase of the project was finally completed but left behind a team that did not function well together, along with a trail of frustration, bad feelings, and jurisdictional divides.

This is a real-life scenario that occurred on one of the corporate wide IT projects that I participated in as stakeholder some years ago. What went wrong in the situation? What could have helped to avoid the situation? If there were proper team agreements defined and utilized, many of these problems could have been avoided.

The team agreement is an effective way to address such issues. When you create a set of team agreements on how you want to function when difficult issues arise, you are much better equipped to handle the challenges that occur. The team agreements help you work together in a way that truly honors each other and a return to a sense of defined purpose when you experience the inevitable challenges of working in team settings. Each member needs to learn to communicate with professionalism, confidence and compassion even in difficult situations.

The critical part of a successful team environment is making sure everyone has the same vision, before moving into action. The classic “forming, storming, morning, performing ” stages that teams go through are best managed with set of agreements. The agreements serve the norming function as members of the team agree on how they will work with each other. The agreement reflects the resolution of their “storming”.

The team agreements can be utilized on projects using SCRUM as well. You should continue to maintain team agreements and update them as the outcome of retrospectives. The refined team agreements can be used in subsequent sprints. This is an important step in the evolution of ‘just a group of people’ to a SCRUM team.

One of the most important tasks in early meetings is to sign off on a team agreement that clearly defines your expectations for each other, your operating parameters, and the ways in which you will define success at the end of the project. There are numerous ways to create a team agreements.. The main idea is to keep it simple and real. It should be defined by the team, not just by project manager. Ask team 3-5 things they believe a team should do to support themselves moving toward the goal. They might come up with items such as “active participation” and “communication”.

Encourage them to identify specific soft skills and interpersonal behaviors. Make sure to get signoff from the team on agreements document. Some teams agree to this by demonstrating a show of hands, others may physically retain the paper that includes the list of agreements and brainstorming notes. This step enforces public accountability with each other and project manager. Some teams have them even printed up and post them near their offices or conference room.

I have included a sample set of team agreements to use or to help you compose your own.

• Have Open communication and active participation

• Utilize Lessons learned from experience

• Treat all team members with respect and value other team member’s opinion and time

• Be a Leader

• Respect others’ views/thoughts and appreciate contribution

• Resolve all conflicts positively

• Hold yourself accountable

• Define the operating parameters within which to conduct meetings

• All formal meetings have an agenda and have one conversation at a time during the meeting

There are number of benefits of creating team agreements.

The team agreements help team members work together in a way that truly honors each other and return to a sense of aligned purpose when team experiences the inevitable challenges of working on any project. It makes everyone in team aware of the expectations of the group.

It creates a foundation for building trusting relationships, which strengthens the team’s infrastructure. It provides forum for open communication. It also allows team members to be accountable and allows project manager to offload this responsibility.

What’s more? Having the team agreements can help your team eliminate  assumptions about what’s expected of everyone which can increase trust and performance. A highly functioning team is a infrastructure for a successful project, and as a leader, you can help the team set the foundation for success! The ultimate role model for the agreement is the team leader. Talk about it, refer to it and most importantly, use it!

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Whether it’s a networking event or a job search, making the right connection is critical to your future success.   With unemployment hovering at 10%, how do you stand out among the crowd?

Before making connections, create your roadmap to job creation.  Focus on knowledge formation, be self-aware, seek guidance from others, and be creative.  It’s time to throw away traditional views and practices – - your resume´ alone no longer opens doors for you – - it’s all about presenting yourself in new and innovative ways.

Accomplishments and credentials no longer guarantee success; with more and more recognition around the power of multiple intelligences, you must be prepared to present yourself in a global way.  There are three primary intelligences to consider:  Emotional, Social and Cultural.  Emotional IQ is about your self-awareness, how you relate with others, your ability to self-manage yourself in all situations or environments.  Social IQ is having the ability to understand and manage social groups; you act wisely in groups and have knowledge of social situations.  Cultural IQ is having the ability to understand differences and cope with different behaviors. 

As you define your personal brand, remember the power of three.  Know your skills, your attitude and your behaviors.  Use this information to prepare for behavioral interviewing – this is when the interviewer will ask you probing questions under the premise that what you have done in the past will, to some extent, be a fair indicator of your future behavior.  Questions are designed to assess what you have actually done in situations that have some relevance to the role for which you are applying for.  Once asked about a certain situation, you will further interrogated with questions like, “What were you feeling at that time?” “What did you do next?”  “What did you learn from the experience?”  Prepare for multiple interviews, in group sessions, in different settings.

Before you journey down the interview path, contemplate your employment options.  Do you want a full-time role?  Are you better suited for a contract position?  Should you switch industries?  Volunteer? 

A self-assessment is a terrific way to be self-reflective before beginning the journey.  A good self-assessment includes:

A Value Inventory:  What creates job satisfaction for you?  Autonomy?  Prestige? Security? Flexible work schedule?  Leisure time?  High Salary?

An Interest Inventory:  What are your likes/dislikes regarding various activities?

A Personality Inventory:  What are your traits, motivational drivers, needs and attitudes?

A Skills Assessment:  What are you good at? 

Write it down, set it aside, and revisit a few days later.  Does it still make sense? Did you identify something new about yourself? Can you take the information from your Self-Assessment and create your own personal story?  Do you need an Assessment tool to get started?  Drop me a line, I’m happy to share—Get noticed, be hired.

Lisa DiTullio, Principal, Lisa DiTullio & Associates, LLC  www.lisaditullio.com

It didn’t take long during my brief exchange with the DIVA to form a first impression; not long at all.  In fact, according to Malcolm Gladwell, whenever we meet someone for the first time, we are able to size someone up in just two seconds – it’s the power of our adaptive unconscious.  In recognition of Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Blink:  The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, let’s celebrate the power of the glance.

When encountering someone for the first time, first impressions count.  This is particularly true when networking with others—you want to leave a positive, memorable impact when meeting others.  Through observation and measurement you can improve your presence and connection – ideally to leverage the encounter for lasting value. 

Think about your first contact with someone.  Do you exhibit the following qualities to make you stand out and be remembered in a positive manner?

1. Confident:  Do you inspire others?  Do you speak in a sure way? Are you poised and level-headed?
2. Credible:  Do you have expertise and can you be trusted?  Have often can you persuade others?
3. Capable:  Do you have what it takes to get the job done?  Are you efficient, effective an expert in your field?
4. Calm:  Do you remain unruffled during turbulent times? 
5. Clean:  Do you have a neat appearance?  Can you speak in plain language; get right to the point, present fresh ideas?
6. Charisma:  Can you use your personal being, rather than speech or logic alone, to interact with others in a real and meaningful way?
7. Connections:  Do you establish lasting relationships?

Everything you do during the first 2 seconds of an interaction speaks volumes, especially your actions:

• Do you maintain direct eye contact during dialogue?
• What do you with your hands when you communicate?
• Do you face the other person in an “open” pose?
• Can you stand still?  Do you jiggle your feet, your knee, or your leg?
• Are you aware of your facial expressions?
• How’s the pitch of your voice?  Do you speak clearly?

Bring a buddy to the next networking event.  Ask your pal to observe you from a distance—solicit honest feedback when the event is over – How did you do?  What did you do?  Focus on a few improvement opportunities and try again, but make it quick.

Lisa DiTullio, Principal, Lisa DiTullio & Associates, LLC

I attended a business to business networking event the other night.  It was what you might expect, a bunch of professionals mingling about, looking to make the “right” connection.  I met a number of fascinating individuals, all with varied backgrounds.  The most memorable person I met was Ann.  Her name tag said “DIVA” in big, bold letters.  Full of energy, she engaged in an efficient fact-finding exercise with three of us at the same time; she handed us her business card (which is how I learned her name was Ann) and then, Poof!  She was off to meet someone else.  Ann left a lasting impression, but not in a positive way.

In today’s economy, there are a number of displaced project management professionals, all vying for similar opportunities.  How do you stand out when networking?

Did you know 70-80% of jobs are secured as a result of effective networking?  Benchmarks suggest that other methodologies don’t have as nearly as successful results.  Statistics shows recruiters place 15%, ad/job postings a meager 10% and direct company contact fills a paltry 5% of open positions.  In today’s economy, you cannot afford to network poorly.

Networking is all about promoting your brand identity.  Your brand is all about knowing who you are and what you offer.   You need a brand identify before you can effectively market yourself to others.  To create your brand identity, you need should ask yourself a few key questions:

• What’s my reputation?
• For what have I been recognized or rewarded for?
• What do managers and colleagues say about me?
• Am I the “go to” person? 

Practice your elevator pitch before your next networking event.  Can you develop a 30-second commercial?  Make sure it answers the following three questions:

• Who am I?
• What are my differentiators?
• What is my value proposition?

Networking events present great opportunities to promote your brand.  Remember to be authentic, have a positive attitude, convey confidence and join in the conversation.  Do not misrepresent yourself, criticize your colleagues or over-explain a job loss.  If you engage in social media, never post content that can come back to haunt you.

Networking opportunities are everywhere!  Aside from family and friends, think of your neighbors, your church, your doctor, lawyer, CPR or broker.  Don’t forget professional associations, volunteer activities, civic associations, schools or alumni groups.  In other words, tell everyone you know…

Oh, and don’t promote yourself as a DIVA.  Ann has that covered.

Lisa DiTullio, Principal, Lisa DiTullio & Associates, LLC.  www.lisaditullio.com

Journey - Courtesy Flickr

The Journey

This week I shared with you some quotes that have helped to inspire me through some tumultuous times.  I find they make me feel energized and able to inspire others and pave the forward when ‘things go wrong’.  And, things almost always go wrong in projects – don’t they?  So, in addition to our standard toolset of project management, I encourage you to seek inspiration, be inspired, and inspire others to do their very best and excel at whatever projects you are leading.

I am listing the quotes that have inspired me and were shared in the blogs during the week:

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems. Mahatma Gandhi.

“I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig, you get dirty; and besides, the pig likes it”. George Barnard Shaw.

“I am always doing things I can’t do, that’s how I get to do them.” Pablo Picasso

Hell, there are no rules here – we’re trying to accomplish something. Thomas Edison.

Hope they gave you all some food for thought… and helped your journey this week.  Enjoy!

I would love to hear some of the ways you inspire yourself and your teams to reach higher…. Please share your thoughts.

Sometimes, you have to break the rules to get things done!

As we go through our lives we are subjected to numerous rules – as kids, as students, as workers and as adults living our everyday lives.  As program managers and leaders, part of our responsibilities is to lay down some rules by which to guide projects, by which teams work together and by which products are built, tested and released.  However, let’s not forget that the reason we have rules is to get us to a destination.   There is a favorite quote of mine which I invoke to remind myself of this principle:

Hell, there are no rules here – we’re trying to accomplish something.  Thomas Edison.

The program manager needs to know when to go by the books and follow the TL9000 (or your favorite development) process and when to let loose and have the team go off and run as fast they can.  I once worked with a program manager (let’s call him Joe) who could not tell the difference.  He was a ‘by the rules book’ type of leader – and that actually got in the way of us getting our jobs done.   We ended up getting to our destination despite Joe.  Here is the story.

Joe was responsible for leading a project on which I was one of the engineering managers.  We started out with a reasonable plan, and had regular program meetings, with status, minutes and action items that Joe would track.  Along the way, two things happened.  Our management wanted us to adopt a new development process.  And, at about the same time, we also had the inevitable ‘technical bump’ in the road that required our attention.  The new process rule required a detailed unit testing plan be documented, and signed off at completion prior to handing off to the QA team.  Joe was focused on tracking this new process requirement and getting the test plan documented.  The engineering team was very concerned about the bump.  Without addressing the bump, there would be no substantial development or unit testing to speak of.  However, Joe had it in our project schedule that the unit test plans would be done by a specific date and tracked that religiously at each meeting.  Joe also had very little domain knowledge and despite the team’s efforts to educate him on the criticality of addressing the problem asap, he continued to focus on the dates and the schedule.  Joe was following his rules book – the established project plan.  The engineering team decided to take matters into its own hands, and we held shadow program meetings without Joe to address the bump and quickly fix the key technical issues that were hampering our progress.  Joe’s rules were getting in the way of work being done.  When the crisis was over, I gave Joe some feedback that he needed to be able to adjust his plans when bumps came along, and bend the rules to meet our most critical goals.  To do that, he needed to learn more about the domain and understand the business of what he was program managing.  However, I hear he still manages the same way. Sigh!

Focusing on the rules and mechanics of program management helps keep things going.  But a good program manager needs to have at least a basic understanding of the domain and be prepared to apply rules or break the rules in order to get things done.  At the end of the day, the customer will not pay if we don’t have a good product, but followed all the rules!

Dora Maar - Picasso. Courtesy art.com

Are you working with a ‘can do’ or ‘cant do’ project team?

We have all been in both kinds of teams.  The difference in potential energy is enormous.  And, what a difference that makes to team dynamics and project results!  ‘Can do’ teams seem invincible, welcome challenges and proudly talk about the battles fought and won.  This in turn builds their confidence and enables them to meet even more challenges.  On the other hand the ‘cant do’ teams stumble on the most basic issues, squabble constantly and check out as soon as they are able to.  

So, is there anything you can do as a program manager to transform a ‘cant do’ team to a ‘can do’ team?  Well, you at least need to try – because the success of your project depends on it.  And, perhaps even more important, you will have more fun in a ‘can do’ team.  I can tell you that having fun means even more to me now that it did 10 years ago.  Time goes by fast – the things you do need to be meaningful.

I have been told that I have a knack for attracting cool projects and strong ‘can do’ teams.  So, I must be lucky.  Huh? Well, I wish it were that simple.   It was mainly just plain hard work and enabling people to do their best.  Things happen because people make them happen.  And, I have turned some otherwise bland projects around into cool projects and in the process converted ‘cant do’ teams to sizzling ‘can do’ teams.  The quote that inspires me most in this process is this:

“I am always doing things I can’t do, that’s how I get to do them.” Pablo Picasso

Let me give you an example from my past where I had the responsibility of running a project with a cross functional team and many of the members were mired in a ‘cant do’ mode.  When I probed as to why they were in a rut, the feedback was that they were not terribly interested in the project because it just was not ‘cool’.  It was not engaging them intellectually. There was an underlying sentiment that ‘other engineers’ always got to work on the cool stuff while this team was being punished with the old stuff.  The project plodded along and I pushed, pulled and threatened to get things done.  It was really painful.  Then, I tried a different tactic.  It hinged on the ‘coolness’ factor.  I know engineers will engage more readily on a cool project than on a ho-hum, run of the mill project.  The challenge was that the project was indeed somewhat run of the mill.  So, I had to find elements of coolness and spice it up.  So, I called the core project team to a meeting and we had a discussion about how we can make this project a bit more interesting.  The team had lots of ideas about adding new features.  We had to be careful – we had a concrete deadline to meet – and I did not want this to get out of control.  But, at the same time, we desperately needed some creative engagement so that the team felt challenged and energized.  So after the brainstorming, we selected a few add-ons.  These would be the ‘coolness’ factors.  The project team rallied around these add-ons.  While they were not a strict requirement – they added spice to an otherwise bland dish and energized the team.  This was the difference between eating boiled chicken or chicken a la king: some spice, some sauce – makes a bit of difference to the main meal and makes it a bit more enjoyable.

The project delivered on time with the required content and quality.  But, it also resulted in the filing of a couple of patents and cool innovations.  The team mindset had changed. They now viewed themselves as innovators and not just doers.  The ‘can’t do’ chorus had transformed to a ‘can do’ song.  

As a leader, you need to go beyond the letter of the requirements and tap into the creative spirit of the teams: challenge them to do something beyond reach.  Expect more, get more!

Pig Wrestling - Courtesy Flickr

 Do you really want to wrestle a pig?  

It is interesting how sometimes the signs in the universe all seem to converge and lead you down a certain path.  Today was such a day.  As you know, I have committed this week to sharing with you my inspirational quotes that have helped guide my career and provide some words of wisdom.  So, here is the quote I wanted to share with you today:“I learned long ago,  never to wrestle with a pig, you get dirty; and besides, the pig likes it”. George Barnard Shaw.

There are many times during my career that I have had to invoke this quote and use it to restrain myself from making a bad situation worse.  Let’s face it – a lot of what we do as leaders is deal with conflicts and challenging people.  You have to know when to fight, how to fight, when to negotiate and when to simply walk away.  We need a spectrum of skills and behaviors to deal with people on a project team.

Today brought some closure to a drama that started last week.  It so happened that I had the opportunity to invoke this very quote, to help one of my friends.  The situation was this.  This friend, who happens to be a respected program manager (let’s call him Bob) had gotten into a ‘war’ of sorts with one of the leads on the project team (let’s call her Sue).  Bob had been expecting Sue to provide a status update at the program meeting.  Sue had been blowing off Bob at every opportunity – and sure enough, she was unprepared that day.  Not only that, she started questionning the validity of the program meeting and openly implied that Bob was incompetent to run the meetings, saying something like “This meeting is a waste of time.  We never get anything done.”  Bot retaliated and said “Well the reason we don’t get things moving is people like you are not prepared.  We end up going over the same group.”  Needless to say, the meeting went downhill from there, with Bob and Sue sparring openly in front of everyone and Sue slamming the door and leaving the meeting.  When Bob met me, he was feeling low and I had to draw the story out of him.   Basically, he felt he lost control over the meeting by stooping down to fight with Sue in an open forum.  He felt he had lost his power as a leader – and in some sense he had.  He was embarrassed.  He knew this is exactly what Sue wanted and she won the duel by drawing him down to her level.  Bob and I spoke about the entire drama.  Of course, I had to bring out the quote – and he laughed and said it was quite apt in the circumstance.  Today, Bob spoke to Sue privately about the incident and had an open discussion about what is going on and how they can work together.  There is no magical resolution as yet – but at least they are talking.  That is a first step in making things work.  From my personal experience, I have become friends with many of the ‘pigs I have wrestled with’.  I think you get more accomplished that way.

So, the moral of this story is don’t wrestle with pigs – there is simply no way you will come out clean from that experience!  If you do encounter a ‘pig’, then make it your friend.  They are intelligent, and can be trained .