How often have you been part of a process in an organization to select a new piece of software or other tool to support project managers, program management, or portfolio management? How often have you worked with a project manager who had a wonderful ability to create spreadsheets, project schedules, capture and track issues, risks, and action items, only to fail at managing the project? How frequently have you worked on a project that tracked metrics and continued to add metrics due to poor project performance looking for what was not working on the project? How often was the project you were working on reporting a healthy project only to find that the project missed the mark? A fire can be started with a multitude of tools and most can learn how to use those tools when practiced. It is a matter of having the appropriate materials and then teaching our muscles how to use each of them. The same is true for project management. The materials are the various project resources (time, money, people, etc.) and the tools include software and a myriad of templates for capturing and disseminating information. Project managers manage projects with what is available to them and while there are tools that may work better than others and materials that may be of higher quality than others, the materials and mechanisms used do not guarantee success or failure. If that is true, that the mechanisms and materials do not matter, what does? What is it that drives project success?
Having mastered many different project tools and resources
over the past 30 years, I have found that trust must be present to drive
project success and, taking that phrase a step further, trust is a cornerstone
of what drives a successful life. I know that sounds both “of course” and “you
have got to be kidding”. How does the addition of trust create a successful
project or a successful life? What is it about trust that is so powerful? Why does
trust matter?
Have you ever asked a friend, colleague, or someone you love,
do you trust me? How easy is it to shift directions, take risks, or do
something you had not previously considered when you trust the person asking
you? How difficult is it when you do not have the foundation of trust? Making decisions
and moving forward can happen quickly when there is trust, especially when
there is self-trust. Project relationships are no different than personal relationships.
When there is a lack of trust it slows project momentum. To be clear, trust is
not the only ingredient needed for success. Project mechanics associated with capturing,
tracking, and reporting information, especially issues, risks, and actions, support
keeping a project on track. What I have found is that the lack of trust on a
project creates communication issues, non-value-added documentation, additional
meetings and, painfully enough, an increased possibility of project failure. If
the foundation of trust is absent, the mechanics, the tools, what you use to
convey information, will not matter. Your skills of doing the activities that
project managers do will not carry a project to success without trust.
How do you develop trust in your relationships with clients,
team members, friends, and family? Let’s ask a different question. How much
time and energy are you currently spending only learning how to master the
tools, the mechanisms, the activities of project management? How much time and
energy are you putting into learning how to do project management, studying the
PMBOK, reading about or taking courses in the various project management
competencies? To contrast that, how much time and energy are you spending
getting to know yourself and learning how to trust yourself? How many courses
have you taken to experience self-trust, to experience emotional intelligence, or
to experience leadership? How frequently have you searched for books on trust
vs books on a tool or template to support you in managing projects?
The way to create trust is to generate trust from within.
Self-trust is required to create trust in your personal and professional
relationships. There isn’t another path. Learning how to trust yourself first and
that place requires deep commitment and action. Challenging your stories and your
limiting beliefs. Challenging yourself over, and over, and over again. Letting
go of binary thinking, letting go of being right, letting go of thinking you
have the answers. Creating trust in your relationships will require that you
take a path that is uncomfortable and realizing that continuing to do what you’ve
done in the past will not change your future. The answer isn’t in a new tool or
mechanism, the answer is your relationship with you. If you are curious about
what has worked for me, reach out. What are you practicing today?
