Being of Service, Avoiding Project Failure

Early in my career I was filled with ambition, striving to be at the top of my game, climbing the ladder of success, and driving to be the best project manager possible. What I wanted was to have the respect of others and financial independence along with a measure of achievement that proved my worth. While striving for prosperity, abundance, and success is a noble in many ways, how we go about achieving it is equally important. Additionally, the successes can be fleeting without a measure of humility and gratitude. Why this topic and what does it have to do with being a successful project manager? It is easy to fall into the trap of being attached to the accomplishments, the reputation, and what we have achieved. We can sometimes forget that each of those attachments can cause undue stress and anxiety which can warp our relationships and create the exact opposite of what we believe we want. James Allen wrote “We do not attract what we want, we attract what we are”. Anastasia Netri took it a step further adding “Take responsibility for everything that is showing up in your life, because it is reflecting back to you who you believe yourself to be, and what you believe is possible.” Being a project manager is about being of service to others. We are charged with delivering a product or service to a client. We are charged with ensuring the project team has everything needed for success. We are charged with looking into the future for possible points of failure and developing contingencies if those points of failure occur. In each of these examples, we are being of service to some other group. When we make project management all about us, we have created the greatest opportunity for a failed project.

Projects have an abundance of diverse groups which require a significant amount of give and take, balance, and harmony to create an outcome which satisfies those involved. Discovering what matters most to your client and maintaining balance in the different parameters that can be leveraged to ensure on-going client satisfaction is an art form. Clients generally want high quality, low cost, and fast turn-around time on projects. The challenge is to ensure they understand the trade-offs that are necessary to deliver the highest quality possible, at the lowest cost possible, in the fastest turn-around possible. Establishing clear boundaries and project governance at the outset and making sure the client understands the decisions they are making, because they do get to choose how the project proceeds, is imperative. Clarity in facts, concise in explanation, and ensuring that the project team has done the necessary due diligence to guide the client in the direction that benefits everyone matters most. Without the appropriate questions being asked, details being uncovered, and providing the quality, cost, time breakdown, the client is making decisions which could make it challenging to deliver without loosing some degree of integrity in the solution.

The same is true for every other group involved in a project, being it vendors, leadership, team members, or users. Each group has some criteria that they rank in importance that the project manager must be aware of to strike a balance that maintains an appropriate degree of buy-in from all involved. Being of service means that the project manager must understand what each group wants and needs to keep their satisfaction and engagement. When a project manager cares more about how they look, how successful they are being, focused purely on what they want, that the project can begin to suffer. This is when a win-lose relationship between groups can begin to develop, where one group becomes more important than another group. When that happens, the project itself begins to suffer due to a lack of coherence between groups.

When a project manager focus’ on what they want rather than what they are, projects can suffer simply because the project manager sets the tone for the project. Taking full responsibility for the project, being of service to those that are involved, maintains coherence between groups which allows for the balance and harmony necessary for project success. What are you practicing today?

Read more...

The Mechanism Does Not Matter

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?

Read more...

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise

Have you ever had one of those weeks when every day offered a new obstacle, an uncovered gap in your project, something that you did not see coming? One of those weeks when the amount of work left on the project seems to grow without warning? One of those weeks when, despite everyone’s efforts, the level of effort remaining grows along with the number of defects? One of those weeks when you think to yourself what else could possibly go “wrong”? One of those weeks when you get caught off guard, thinking things were going to be turning the corner, to find that the corner moved further way? The surprises that happen on projects occur again and again and no matter how many projects you have managed, no matter how many risks you have captured, what is a given is that it is impossible to predict the future and impossible to identify and guard against the “what if” scenarios that are possible. What that leaves us with is the reality that surprises will occur, and the surprise does not derail a project. It is how the surprise, the unexpected, the impossible become possible is handled that matters most.

What is an appropriate response to a gap in requirements, design, construction, testing or the myriad list of other components of project delivery? My early experience on projects was the project manager and leadership in general looking to blame, shame, finger point, and ridicule the project team members. This emotional response along with the anger or frustration that drives it is not healthy and may not work to resolve the issue and rarely works to avoid additional issues. This response frequently divides a team, causes team members to work cautiously and to fend for themselves. Isolation and self-preservation can occur which does not create additional team communication. Since team communication is frequently the cause of gaps, this response works to generate less communication which generates more gaps.

There is a better way to respond, one anchored in emotional intelligence and leadership. There are some basic leadership qualities that will make a difference when your project world is rocked by gaps, surprises, and team misses. In my experience, the qualities that has made the biggest difference are a calm mind, confidence, and perseverance. While the other qualities I have listed are significant, they will not matter if there is anger, frustration, or judgement entangled in them. Moving forward toward what is possible, continuing to ask questions out of curiosity rather than judgement, and being kind and empathetic towards the team will make resolving the issue possible. It will also build communication, which is where most gaps, issues, and breakdowns occur.

The remaining qualities are responsibility, seeing obstacles as opportunities, and communication. Leaders are responsible for every aspect of a project, whether it is going smoothly or not. Taking full responsibility for the current circumstances allows the team to focus on the resolution. In his book, Mastering Leadership, Michael Strasner suggests that obstacles are “a challenging invitation, an opportunity to rise up and achieve in the face of doubt and uncertainty” and that obstacles are “an inherent part of any significant achievement”. Embracing the obstacle rather than shying away from it and taking full responsibility for the circumstances and the solution is what a leader does. Communication is the last quality. It is not the speaking that is important in this instance, it is the listening. Hearing the team, allowing the team to come to resolution, and driving the team toward the solution by listening to each team member is critical. Hearing what is not being said as much as what is being said is equally important. This is what Michael Strasner terms “listening to the listening”.

Once you are rooted in these qualities, the action steps below will support you in moving toward a solution.

1. Who must be involved: Gather everyone involved, to the best of your ability, into a meeting.
2. What is the gap: Get everyone to align on the definition of the issue, gap or obstacle (what specifically is going wrong, what was missed).
3. How did we get here: Allow everyone the opportunity to speak their truth regarding the facts that led to up to this moment and the circumstances that exist (until everyone is heard you may continue hearing the same thing over and over until it is acknowledged).
4. Plan: Define clearly and specifically what the next set of steps is, who owns each step, and when the step will be completed
5. Timing: An assessment should be done to determine how long the solution will take and how much effort it will require
1. Quantify potential impacts to the project schedule and cost.
6. Resources: There may be multiple teams that can works at the same time, ensure everyone is clear on outcomes of each step
7. Communicate:
1. Identify the communication that will be occurring and the associated timing of that communication.
2. Agree on when the group will come together and ensure we are on the right path to resolve the gap.
3. If the client is not aware of the issue, determine the appropriate communication and the associated timeline of that communication.
4. Determine if there is an improvement needed to increase team communication to avoid additional gaps.

The last step, communicate, has four parts to it, do not skimp on the communication. Surprises usually occur when a team is not communicating fully. Increased meetings may not be the answer, although they may. Practicing your own communication with the team in multiple forms may allow your team to understand their own communication breakdowns. What are you practicing today?

Read more...

Stakeholder Management – Boundaries Matter

I read an article the other day that Stakeholder Management is not a good phrase to use since no one likes to be managed, especially the stakeholders on projects. Stakeholder Management is the very last topic in the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK) and is described as the process associated with identifying stakeholders, planning stakeholder engagement, managing stakeholder engagement, and monitoring stakeholder engagement. In non-PMBOK terms, what it is about is being present to, aware of, and engaged with everyone involved in any way with the project because if they are involved, they can impact or be impacted by the project.

In reviewing the PMBOK, it sounds very scientific, crisp, and, while complicated, achievable. Stakeholder management is a way to describe how a project manager takes into consideration every group that can impact or be impacted by a project. That includes clients, users, team members, the government, and a myriad of other possibilities. The biggest issue project managers face in Stakeholder Management is people are not predictable. While you may work diligently to pull together the ideal list and the ideal plan, the landscape will be ever changing because stakeholders are people. The truth of the matter is that using the word stakeholder as an identifier depersonalizes the relationships the project manager must foster, build, consider, and be present to.

Gathering the list of groups can be a challenge and, as the project progresses, project managers often discover missed groups or previously unidentified factions as organizations shift and change over time. Project managers are also met with turnover which can alter the agreements made previously. Understanding that, at the heart of managing all these relationships, boundaries play a critical role in all relationships and that these project relationships are no different will benefit most project managers. Additionally, boundaries set early and often can simplify managing communication, scope, schedule, and many other aspects of the project.

What do boundaries look like in project management? Agreements, written agreements in the form of decisions. Decisions made jointly, documented, and returned to again and again to ensure everyone remembers the agreements made and when there is a change to the agreement, that an impact assessment is performed to determine if the change will require more time and effort and if so, how much more. Why does that matter? How often have you moved a boundary and had to do more work because the boundary moved? It could be a minor adjustment and an easy agreement to make and before you are fully aware, your status report is a 100-page document created weekly by 4 people which was never budgeted for in the first place.

There are many instances when the little things eat away at a budget. The larger changes are easier to recognize, analyze and take care of through change management. It is the incessant requests for a small adjustment here or there that extends work beyond what was considered in the beginning of the project. Setting a clear precedent that each ask made by anyone engaged in the project may be a change to an established boundary that was used in budgeting time, effort, and cost for the project allows decisions to be made, captured and the project to be managed. Boundary setting is one of the primary jobs of a project manager. Working with various groups to establish agreed upon boundaries, documenting the boundaries, and discussing the boundaries again and again allows everyone the opportunity to work together toward a mutual goal. It is in the moments when a boundary surprise hits that communication becomes strained.

Learning how to establish boundaries, the ebb and flow associated with adjusting boundaries, allowing shifts to occur and making it clear what those shifts cause in the management of the project, and keeping a clear record of the changes that occur throughout the project is a large part of project management. This practice of boundaries is critical to work and personal relationships. Clarity, agreement, and fluidity all matter. Boundaries matter. What are you practicing today?

Read more...

Meditation: Creating Your Competitive Advantage

I have been on an interesting journey for the past month. I decided to read a book that had little to do with project management. The book is Breath by James Nestor. I was curious because I have sleep apnea and my wife has asthma. I read it to improve my sleep which I believe is an important part of my wellbeing. I did not read it to improve my project management capability, I read it to improve my life in general. Little did I know that the journey I started for sleep apnea would have an impact on many areas of my life including my relationships, my general health, my energy level, and my career.

The books importance is teaching us about breathing as an integral part of our lives and the impact optimal breathing can have on us physiologically and mentally. What it did for me was to bring attention to the fact that I spent little time thinking about the basic act of breathing and what it can teach me.  Most importantly it mentioned an organization which teaches breathing techniques. I decided to take a shot and see what it had to offer. I connected with the organization and have taken two of the workshops it offers out of curiosity. That journey started on February 5^th. I began seeing benefits from the breathing and meditation practices i learned from The Art of Living organization and have done some additional research since that first workshop. As a result, I have added breathing and meditation to my morning routine. My mornings consist of focused breathing and meditation for about an hour.

Project Management can be a stress filled job. The tug and pull of project delivery, working diligently to find the balance between client desires, team capability, budget, time, and the other constraints of most projects can be draining. The continuous barrage of to do lists, action items, issues, and risks while maintaining clear communication and creating an environment that gets things done challenges most project managers. Between meetings and creating deliverables there are too few hours to complete the work. Working from home makes it even easier to work well over fifty hours a week which puts a strain on your personal relationships. All of this causes stress and stress has been associated with physical concerns such as muscle tension, headaches, and sleep disturbance. Stress is also linked to psychological issues such as anxiety, depression, anger, and reduced cognitive abilities. These symptoms show up in our behavior such as exercising less, angry outbursts, over or under eating and other less than healthy behaviors. If you have any of these symptoms, meditation may be something to check out.

Why meditation? Studies have shown that meditation reduces anxiety, increases mental clarity, lengthens your attention span, improves sleep, and enhances self-awareness. These are just a few of the benefits of meditation. Why would this make it a competitive advantage? Consider the difference in your life if you were able to be in a stressful environment without reacting to that stress. Consider the advantage you would have if you did not react to a project not going as planned but navigated it by thoughtful consideration of the possibilities. Consider the difference in your life in general? Being in the present moment, grounded in the facts, and in a state of mind that is calm and aware allows anyone the opportunity to make decisions with clarity rather than panic, foresight rather than knee jerk.

What I am not saying. I am not saying that meditation is the answer to the project ills that project managers face. I am not saying that meditation will fix the problems associated with projects that are failing. I am not even saying that meditation will make you an exemplary project manager. I am suggesting that meditation may support your journey as you strive to be the best project manager you are capable of being. I am saying that meditation will do for you what the studies have shown it does for most. I am suggesting that it may make a difference in your life and your career as a project manager. I am also suggesting that practicing it consistently and regularly is a way to take time for your own well-being. A way to spend time with yourself and continue to expand your awareness of you. What are you practicing today?

Read more...