Measure, Measure, Measure

I have been measured for my entire life. I am guessing most of us have been. From the moment we were born, we have been assessed in some way, shape, or form. “She is such a good baby, she hardly ever cries.”, “Isn’t he a good boy, he is so polite.”,  or “She is so easy, she already sleeps through the night.”. Those statements could quickly be followed by the comparisons we have been also endured for a good portion of our lives. Yes, from childhood, through school, and through work an assessment has been done to show how we are doing in the world, compared to others, or compared to some standard to which we are exposed. Measurement is part of our lives. It is also part of project life.

As I was researching this article, I found several quick quotes about measurement and performance. Most suggest that what you measure drives the outcomes. That would go for individual and project performance. There is also a clear understanding that measuring for measuring’s sake will not drive improved performance. There must be a purpose to the metric being used, a relevance to the desired performance, and a specific way to identify success through the measurement. Too often, metrics are put in place that drive behaviors that can cause more harm than not. Too often, the metrics used are not balanced to ensure that there is a roundness to the outcomes. An example is measuring how quickly a task is completed without measuring the successful completion of the task. This can be found in defect remediation. Quickly closing defects to have the test cases fail again does not support the project although showing that the team is closing defects quickly is seen as a positive outcome. Closing the lower severity defects to improve the metric also looses sight of the critical defects. In other words, a balanced approach to all that we measure in a project is critical to avoid improving one area to the detriment of another.

What I would love to do is suggest that there are always specific metrics to follow and when those are showing project health your project and for that matter you will be successful. Those metrics do not exist because of the simple reason that all projects are not created equally. What that means is that projects, due to the very nature of what projects are, are never the same and cannot be governed by the same metrics. The technologies change, the circumstances may shift half-way through and you discover what you were measuring before provides little guidance, or the core values of the stakeholders, their primary concerns, their agendas, may be different.

A primary driver of the metrics that require monitoring is the stakeholder community. Let’s say there are 5 or 6 primary categories of metrics to track which align to some of the areas of the PMBOK. For example, the cost may be the most critical metric to track due to a tight budget. It could be that a specific architecture must be implemented, and other areas are flexible. That would mean that tracking changes to the underlying architecture would be monitored closely. Or perhaps quality is the specific driver of the project. Finding out what is most important and then setting those items in priority order will support the project in being able to determine what is most critical to measure and monitor.

Lastly, having the ability to measure is important, however, it is not the only thing that is crucial to a successful project. it is possible to lose sight of what the measures are suggesting when we focus too intently on multiple data points, increasing granularity, and continuous monitoring. We measure to see what is working and what is not working, not simply to measure. Making use of the metrics to formulate a plan of action and then measuring to see what progress is being made against the plan is a healthy use of metrics. Without driving behavior change, process change, or action plans through the implemented metrics, the metrics do not provide anything except reporting. It is not until we implement changes based on our understanding of what the metrics are telling us that we fully comprehend their value.

What about how we measure ourselves and our successes and, yes, our failures? Well, we get to ask the same questions. What am I learning based on what I am measuring? Am I measuring what I value or what someone else values? Is there meaning in the metrics and what actions am I willing to take because of understanding the metric? How can I use this information to put a plan in motion? What does this information tell me about what I am practicing daily? What is the feedback that I am receiving and how can I use it to improve me?  

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Disruption: When Circumstances Change Drastically

Merriam-Webster defines disruption as a break or interruption in the normal course or continuation of some activity, process, etc. It is the etcetera that suggests that disruption can impact all aspects of the circumstances of your life which means that projects are not immune to disruption. That is why risk management exists. Risk management is the practice of working to plan for disruptions in projects. I would suggest that, while we may not have a formal process that we follow, we practice risk management in our every-day lives. I am not only talking about the disruption of the pandemic, although that is quite a disruption, I am also talking about other disruptions, external forces which drastically and suddenly alter the circumstances of your project life.

Here is a scenario to consider. A recent disruption has drastically altered the working lives of every team member on our project. The shift occurred when a powerful external stakeholder determined that the project was not delivering in an acceptable manner and determined that, if an improvement was not realized in a short period of time, the project would be at risk. The change is an expectation of increased attention, commitment, and working hours for all team members. The “all hands-on deck” scenario of projects that are in question of being efficient, effective, and healthy. The “RED” project syndrome of complexity and “bleeding-edge” technology. Whether you have lived through this scenario or not, there are some tools to use to limit the stress that occurs when this scenario hits.

Acknowledgement. First, acknowledge that there is a disruption happening. Get clear on the fact that, whatever yesterday looked like, today is different. Taking stock of what exactly is occurring, the reasons for it, looking at it from the perspective of “what is true about this”, getting to the core of the disruption and what it means for the project is the first step. Acknowledge that everyone played a part in creating the disruption. Acknowledge that moving through the disruption is the path of least resistance. Acknowledge that everyone will participate in moving through to stability and if they choose not to it is a choice. Acknowledge that this disruption also opens doors to possibilities that were invisible before, that it sheds light on opportunities that may not have been available previously, and that the attention it provides may be the energy required to create a successful outcome for the project.   

Just the facts (Data). One of the things that can occur is conversations based on supposition, assumption, and conjecture. What I mean by “just the facts” is ensuring that there is specific, actionable, and accurate data from which to plan. When plans are based on information other than factual data, the plans can be flawed and inaccurate. If you don’t have the data when the scenario hits, it is critical that you enact a data collection capability to ensure that the data is accurate, actionable and specific enough to prioritize the work that must be done to “get things back on track”. Additionally, mechanisms for collection and sustained reporting are required to be able to show progress. Without progress to show the commitment from the team and leadership will lose energy.

Same direction (Vision). Having a clear vision of what must be accomplished and by when is also essential. There must be agreement of what success looks like from those leading the charge to create a clear path to a successful outcome. Ensuring that all stakeholders agree with that vision is also critical. Gaining an aligned commitment to success will ensure everyone is speaking the same language, aligned to the same goals, and can celebrate all successes along the way to ensure sustained engagement.

Communication. Making sure the same message gets to all of the audiences in a way that they can understand, carry around with them, and repeat in a way that shows that everyone is moving in the same direction, aligned to the same goals, and using the same data points is critical. When everyone is sharing the same messaging it creates inspiration, empowerment and ensures everyone shares and is aligned to the same goal. When that occurs, teams can hold each other accountable, leaders can speak with anyone and gain the same message, clarity and alignment occur and confidence and trust is created. Transparency in the communication through authentically sharing the current state, the vision and goals for the future state, and the path for getting there will create an environment that causes alignment and trust to grow.

Self-Care. Each member of the team must be clear on what self-care is for themselves. Without the ability to establish healthy and harmonious self-care rituals the energy required to work through the disruption will wane quickly and the team will lose the elasticity and flexibility necessary to weather a storm. Self-care does not have to be a large amount of time, self-care can be a short walk, meditation, a 2-minute breathing exercise or an hour-long nap. Self-care can look like almost any form of taking a moment to care for yourself. For me, self-care is each moment of each day, choosing what is most important in that moment. Self-care can be working at my desk for an extra 20 minutes so I can sleep well, it can be paying my bills so that I don’t get calls from collectors, it can be eating well, exercising, and resting when I need to rest. I believe taking time for self-care can create sustainable energy because I choose to do what will sustain my well-being holistically.

This list can be used for disruption in our personal lives as well. When disruption occurs such as the death of a loved one, the loss of a relationship, a change to your work life, the birth of a child, or even your retirement it is important to acknowledge that it is a disruption. Once you’ve embraced this as the disruptive opportunity it is move forward by gathering the facts about what is real, be clear on the direction to move toward by taking stock of your vision and goals, be able to communicate with yourself and those in your life about what is happening for you, and build a healthy practice of self-care through the disruption. These are all practices for the big moments and the small moments and the truth of it is that it is in practicing the small disruptions in life that we learn how to navigate the big ones that occur. What are you practicing today?

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Why Can’t You Hear Me?

One of the topics in the Project Management Body of Knowledge published by the Project Management Institute is Communication Management. Certified PMP Project Managers have taken a test which includes questions associated with Communication Management. Additionally, there are a multitude of books written on effective communication including Crucial Conversations, Getting to Yes, Just Listen, Radical Honesty, and How to Win Friends and Influence People to name just a few. So why is communication still one of the biggest issues on projects, large and small? What is it about communicating that is so challenging? Is it our listening, our messaging, or is it simply that we are not present to either what we are saying or how we are listening?

It is not a lack of courses, tools, advancements, or opportunities to practice communication. And it is not as if we do not know it is importance. Communication is how we get things done. What makes communication a pain point for projects? Why does it show up in “lessons learned” so frequently? When a “Go to Green” strategy begins to be put in place, why is it that communication comes up as one of the strategies? Why does communication come up as one of those areas where we could always use a tune up? What can we each do to improve our communication practice?

When we communicate, we get to practice presence. What does that look like? There are some mechanics that we can practice such as putting our phones down, screens facing downward and silenced. We can eliminate other distractions that may interfere with our ability to focus including closing the blinds, placing our PCs in a do not disturb during meetings, and closing down other applications that are active such as email. However, those are only the distractions that can interrupt us as we are present to the meeting we are attending or the conversation in which we are engaged. Practicing presence is a cornerstone to leadership. Being present to the circumstances in which we are participating, moment by moment, without thinking ahead or thinking about the past, being in the now, being fully present to the moment, to the conversation at hand without judgement is a skill and an art.

When it comes to listening, being present to the conversation requires listening to what is said and what is not said. To hear the nuance of the speaker and be aware of what they are sharing. Listening from their perspective, from what they are intending is crucial. It is not listening with a predetermined response, riddled with assumptions, and judging their abilities. It is hearing what they said and seeking to understand, asking questions for clarification, and being able to repeat the words they shared. It may require you to quiet your mind, it may require you to slow your own thoughts, and it may require you to be humble in your listening. Do you remember the commercials from long ago, “Speed Kills”? That is true in communication as well.

When it comes to speaking, being the one who shares the message, being present to who you are speaking with is the “pixy dust”. Meeting the audience, the individuals you are sharing the message with, “where they are”. What in the world does that mean? In business terms it means sharing an executive message with the executives, sharing a client message with the client, and sharing a team message with the team. The information that is shared may be “the same” although it is shared from a different perspective. It means that details may not be appropriate for executives, and the executive message may not inspire the team to deliver. It means that each of these groups are always checking in for the “what’s in it for me” part of the message. Being able to deliver the information in a way for each audience to “get it” is an art.

Practicing communication begins with every relationship. Finding out what works and what does not work when you are communicating is easy. Just ask those who know you for feedback. The way you do one thing is the way you do everything so the feedback they give you will be true in your personal communication and your professional communication. Since you are communicating every day, practicing is easy. What are you practicing today?

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Project Stressors

What is it about projects that seems to generate opportunities to introduce stress into the lives of everyone involved and how do some people find a way through without being impacted by the stress that is visible in so many others? And, if it is true that “The way we do one thing is the way we do everything” then how does that same stress show up in our lives? Are projects stressful because they simply never go according to plan or do we generate the stress because we want to “make it work” rather than embracing the fact that it won’t turn out according to “the plan”.

Last week, I talked about change and some things that can be done to deal with change in a project. It focused on planning for risk, being ready for changes to occur and focused on what can be done. This week, I want to talk about the physical, emotional, and mental way through the stressors of project management. A way to BE while you are doing the necessary activities. It isn’t about having all your risks written down or having the right processes written out or even about having the right technology for managing the risks. While those are important, they aren’t the answer, they are only a piece of the whole. Before any of those tools can be used effectively, the individual using the tools must BE an effective project manager and leader. The goal is the being, not the doing or the having.

When a project gets into trouble, as many projects do, being an effective project manager becomes the imperative. The stressors rise and tensions increase. Fingers begin to point and issues become so much larger than they were only a week ago. Leadership is asking “How did this happen” and the stories get distorted and unclear. People outside of the project begin to point out all the flaws of the project and the team members begin to be put on the spot to explain. Resources are added to fix the problem and control is given to those who haven’t been part of what has happened. Turmoil can ensue. When those things happen, the tensions continue to rise and stress becomes more of a norm than an exception.

Who do you get to be when this happens? What practices will support the team members and all those who have been involved move through the external disruption, turmoil, and added rigor? There are five primary practices that will make a difference during any project disruption. They are to approach the turmoil as an opportunity for learning and growth. Our failures teach us quickly, our successes show us only what we can do today. Continue to say what you do and do what you say from a place of ownership. Our word is important, being truthful and honest with ourselves and everyone around us will help us move through the turmoil. Be curious and listen from a place of wanting to understand others perceptions. We cannot always see what is right in front of us, outsiders see things we can be blind to and their eyes are invaluable. Create a clear line of site rather than assumptions and taking things personally. When we are making assumptions or making it about us our intuition is clouded and we cannot see as clearly as we would simply looking at the facts. Use attention, appreciation and acceptance to stay present to what is happening, grateful for the support and allow the circumstance to be as it is rather than as we would rather it be.

As plans are being created to “right the ship”, “dig the project out of a hole”, or “align the project” the teams will look to leadership for the ways of being that will support getting the project back on track. Having a great plan won’t matter if the team isn’t aligned and the team won’t be aligned if they don’t see that there is a way through. The way through is in how each team member is treated and how leadership is seen as they pull together to create a different possibility for the project. Leading through opportunity, integrity, curiosity, accuracy, and the three As of attention, appreciation and acceptance will make a difference for the team. So when a project goes red or goes off the rails or is tanking or whatever language you choose, there is a way through. Hold on, it will not be a smooth ride, but when was learning through failure ever a smooth ride?

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Welcome to the World of Change

When I started managing projects the projects, I led were relatively short in duration, small teams, and fairly simple. Projects of 6 months or less in duration, team size of 10 or less, and relatively small budgets. As my skills developed, the duration of the projects and the size of the teams I have managed or have been engaged in as a program office manager have grown. Most recently the projects I am involved in are over the expanse of multiple years with team sizes of 300 to 500 supported by the appropriate budget. When the projects were simpler, I would be able to plan them out, taking into account any assumptions, constraints, and risks. The accuracy of my planning was in direct correlation to my ability to predict the risks I would face. Projects with a short duration and small team have minimal risk. Additionally, as the projects grew in duration the probability of something going against the plan also grew. The smaller the projects, the more likely the project would be able to go according to plan. That doesn’t mean that things didn’t go awry from time to time, it just means that the probability was lower.

A good example is the risk of a resource leaving during a 3-month project and a risk that a resource would leave during a 3-year project. The risk exists for both projects. The probability is lower on a 3-month project than a 3-year project. However, the impact on a 3-month project has the potential to be much greater than a resource leaving on a 3-year project. Why discuss risks? Change causes risk in projects. I would say that, based on my experience, risks are about the circumstances of a project changing. In the world of projects, circumstances are defined as everything that can exert pressure on a project to move in a direction other than that which has been planned. Resources, clients, weather, disease, technology, laws, and vendors are all examples of potential areas of impact. In other words, when circumstances change, it can impact a project. The change that is possible is constant and occurs in all projects. The question becomes, how do you handle change. To get a sense of how you handle yourself when faced with change, let’s move away from projects into your personal life. Let’s look at change, circumstances, and risk and how you handle those situations. Like it or not, the saying “the way we do one thing is the way we do everything” is rooted in truth. The way we handle risk, change, and circumstances in our personal lives will give us a glimpse into the world of our flexibility, adaptability, ingenuity, perseverance, and integrity when it comes to project management.

Most of us start our day with a plan of sorts for the day, some plan more than others, but we do have some sense of what we want to do in our day. So when you hop in the car to go to the grocery to pick up a quick dinner and find that the road is closed and a 20 minute round trip is now going to be longer because you get to take a detour or visit a grocery store on the other side of town how do you respond? What about when you go online to start work and your machine isn’t working? In other words, when something disrupts your day, how do you respond? When you find that your plans are being changed for you because the circumstances have changed you have a choice on how to respond. When you embrace change as a potential opportunity, when you see the changes to circumstances as a way of changing your perspective, and when you embrace change as a constant, change is no longer something to be feared, mastered, or avoided. Change becomes the gateway to something different, something unseen or unexperienced, and possibilities that didn’t exist before.

Sounds easy enough. The magic is in shifting your perspective from change being a problem to solve to change being an opportunity to embrace. How to shift? One change at a time. What I mean is, it doesn’t matter how well I’ve handled a change that has happened in the past, what really matters is how I handle the change that I am currently facing. The change that is happening in this moment.

There are two things that I can do to prepare myself for potential change and to get better at handling change. The first is risk management or to look for all of the things that can potentially change and consider what some actions would be to handle that change. This is what risk management is about, looking for potential changes and thinking through the potential options or opportunities to mitigate that change. The other is to review a change that has occurred and review what worked and what didn’t work about how I reacted to the change. This is looking at how I am being about change itself. If I view it as a problem, then it will be a problem. If I view it as an opportunity to learn from, grow from, or to see things from a different perspective I will have a better opportunity to respond in a way that empowers others to work together and collaborate to find alternative options.

So, welcome to the world of change. An exciting place to be seen as a leader, as someone who responds with possibilities when change comes, to work to see the opportunities that exist when change occurs and to embrace the change as a vehicle to advance the project rather than as something that will damage the effort.

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