National Flagship Project World and World Congress for Business Analysis

Chuck’s Snippets 4.0; page 8 of 8

Chuck Millhollan,

National Flagship Project World and World Congress for Business Analysis

Anaheim, CA

Nov 13 – 16, 2007

Team,

The much awaited “Chuck’s Snippets 4.0” have arrived! Of course, the anticipation from the onerous three weeks since my last Snippet has probably left you distraught, so I apologize for the delay.

I have included highlights of the workshops I attended during the National Flagship Project World conference. The mantra for this year’s event was “Collaborate to Accelerate Organizational Performance and Return on Investment.”

If you are interested in discussing any of the specific topics and/or speakers in more detail, please feel free to contact me.

Version 1.0: Project World; Orlando, FL; November 2006

Version 2.0: Regional Project World; Boston, MA; June 2007

Version 3.0: Northeast Florida PMI Regional Seminar; November 2007

Normal disclaimer: While I believe all of the content of the attached summary is extremely valuable, I do not fully accept each premise or believe that all of the concepts would fully apply in every corporate environment. However, these basic principles of effective management, leadership, and project management are definitely worthwhile contributions to our professional development.

Remember…if you do not want me to send you these summaries, slap me down electronically and I’ll remove you from the distribution list.

Speaker: Neal Whitten, PMP, President, The Neal Whitten Group

Topic: No-Nonsense Advice for Successful Projects

Note from Chuck: This was a 2-day seminar, so this is a large section. There’s some wisdom in many of these bullets. I suggest that you read through the list slowly and reflect on the intent of Neal’s message. This may take some soul searching and honesty. J Neal focuses a great deal on everything being “your fault.” In short, if your project, career, etc…are not going as planned, what are you doing about it?
The most successful and efficient project managers focus development efforts on their soft skills. Why do we call them “hard skills?”…they’re the easiest to learn (PMBOK, MS Project, etc…). Since soft skills are difficult to train to, we tend to avoid developing those skills.
Are your processes to bureaucratic? If yes, what specific processes are unnecessary or a particular burden? Now…what have you done about it? Note: Remember, just because “you” consider a process, template, or document unnecessary, it doesn’t mean that someone else in the organization does not benefit from the effort. Find the value stream and accept the necessity if applicable. If there is no value stream, fix the process.
Effective project managers remember that in the end, it is all about the business results, not the process and/or methodology. Also remember, using a “results” focus to justify violating processes is being a part of the problem. Negotiate process compliance; develop a mitigating process/strategy, etc…
There are 2 key responsibilities for a PMO:
Portfolio: Manage the organization’s project portfolio by ensuring the right projects are being approved, projects are properly prioritized, and that projects are aligned with the overall strategy.
Process & Professional Development: Support the project management system (all inclusive reference), ensure project managers and teams are developing professionally, provide process standardization, provide project leadership, and ensure knowledge sharing among the project managers and teams.
Keep in mind that clients and/or business partners will want “everything” if asked. Your job is not to do whatever the sponsors and/or customers want, but to define the problem (root cause) the project is solving and managing to that.
Effective PMs never use these excuses: 1) It wasn’t my fault, or 2) There was nothing I could do about it. As a PM, you are the leader. Leaders do not blame others for their problems; they identify and fix the problems.

What happened and why?
What did you do about it?

Leadership is an organization’s most valuable resource…not people. Poor leaders can run a ship with great sailors aground. With that in mind, remember that as a PM, you are a leader. A great project team with no project leadership will likely fail.
Leaders do not sit on the fence when it comes to decision making. Solicit input, pick a best solution, and do something.
Leaders have integrity. Integrity is knowing the difference between right and wrong and doing the right thing, even if there may be negative consequences.
It is not about the ability of those around you to lead; it is about your ability to lead despite what is happening around you. In short, failure is your fault…take accountability.

Few of us will ever be called to the carpet for exceeding our authority.
Our leaders want us to take charge, accept accountability, and lead.

Being a perfectionist is generally a hindrance to being effective, causes projects to be more complex than necessary, and can lead to not providing anything while in search of everything.
Focus on meeting the minimum requirements (similar to the concept of gold plating). What is essential or critical to address the problem the project is attempting to solve? Providing more can delay the solution, takes time, takes effort, and costs money.
Team and/or stakeholder consensus will frequently lead to a sub-optimum solution as you try to accommodate everyone’s concerns and/or wishes. Solicit input, information and options; listen; then demonstrate the leadership, courage, and boldness required of a PM. Decide based on what you view to be the right decision and be accountable for that choice.
“We” do not make a decision. “I” make a decision. Who is the individual that is accountable for the outcome? That person is the “I.” Saying “we” decided is a copout and avoids accountability.
Asking for help is a sign of maturity, not weakness. Waiting too long to seek assistance when needed is a sign of professional immaturity.
If you’re not getting feedback on your performance, it is your fault. Ask for it!
Professional behaviors to adopt:

Make your boss and sponsor look good.
Be a role model to peers and your project team.
Know “how” to make commitments and keep them. Don’t promise something you cannot deliver.
Ask for advice.
Have a great attitude…it is contagious.

Accountability and results: It is about the outcome, not the effort. The effort is never more important than the results. When is the last time you failed and your senior leaders said, “Well, you missed deliverables, wasted a bunch of money, and alienated customers, but at least you tried hard!”?

Praising failure based on effort is offering undeserved praise. What message are you trying to send?
This is a societal pressure. Think about a youth soccer league. If there are 20 teams, how many teams usually get trophies? The answer = 20! In real life, there are winners and losers. We work in the real world.

Find an opportunity to not only praise your team (when deserved), but your leaders too. You would be surprised how infrequently our leaders receive feedback.
Focusing on your entire project plan can be overwhelming.

Each day, have a list of 3 top priorities or issues that you want to resolve.
If you cannot quickly list your top 3 priorities, you’re probably fighting fires and not proactively identifying and resolving the most significant issues.
If you have 10 issues and at the end of the day you have not addressed the top 3, then do not be happy with your performance that day! In short, ensure you’re working on the “right” stuff, not the easy stuff.

Admitting mistakes is a form of leadership and accepting responsibility. Admitting mistakes, given that making mistakes is not a habit, can actually increase the respect others have for you.
Seek criticism! Criticism is easy to avoid…just do nothing, say nothing, and “be” nothing.

You are the sum of all the criticism you’ve received throughout your life and either chose to adopt or grow from.
Everything we know as humans was learned through failure.
Failing is not bad, it is a learning opportunity. Failing twice from doing the exact same thing wrong is an indicator that you’re not learning.

Duties of an effective PM:

Treat your project as your business. You are individually accountable for the success and/or failure of your project.
Ensure roles and responsibilities are clearly defined…not just in a policy and/or template, but for your project.
Manage your top 3 priorities each day. This list should appear on your desk somewhere.
Ensure the proper level of client/customer/user involvement. Oh wait…they are not receptive and or proactive. It is your fault! What are you doing about it?
Escalate as soon as necessary. Delaying escalation does not build relationships; it exposes your project to unnecessary risk!
Enforce change control. Wait…the team and/or customers do not want to follow your process. It is your fault! What are you doing about it?

Do you have a strong relationship with your project sponsor? If not, it is your fault! Go to them with a 1 page document that outlines the relationship and your shared responsibilities. Get their input…

What do they expect from you?
How and when do they expect escalations?
What are their information needs?
How do they prefer to communicate (frequency and modality)?

There is zero value in performing postmortems if the lessons are not applied to subsequent projects. If you’re not using lessons learned, STOP conducting postmortems...it is a waste of time. Asking for input and not applying that information sends a negative signal and can negatively impact morale.
If you go through the trouble of conducting lessons learned sessions, the PMO should mandate and document use before subsequent, similar projects. Include the lessons learned review in the early phases of project chartering.
Every project manager has problems on their projects. What makes us effective is how we deal with conflict. Things will not get better or go away unless you make it happen.
Remember…and this is important…there are no written rules for what project managers do. Different organizations, different sponsors, and different teams have different expectations. Do you know (and have you documented) those expectations?
Conduct a “project culture” class at the beginning of your projects. This helps set expectations and defines roles and responsibilities. Recommended topics include:

Roles and responsibilities for each stakeholder
An overview of your organizational PMM and associated processes
Planning process for your project
Tracking and reporting expectations
Escalation processes
Project audits and reviews (stage gates)
Project communication (who, what, how, when, etc…)
Soft skill expectations (conflict resolution, meeting etiquette, etc…)
Lessons learned review from similar projects

Know this…no one is looking out for your project but you. If there’s conflict or disagreement, resolve or escalate quickly. Establish a reputation for having clear expectations and for holding resources accountable.
Being respected is more important than being liked. Make the right choices for the right reasons (for the business).
If you are directed to achieve the unachievable (We’ve never seen this before, right? J), plan for a project performance review at stages and/or milestones to gauge performance and your feasibility of meeting expectations. Manage expectations. Being assigned the unachievable is beyond your control. Surprising anyone that you did not meet expectations is your fault.
Escalation is not a bad word. It is important to remember that in conflict, both parties are usually right. They’re simply viewing the issue from their own perspective or domain of responsibility. You are calling upon a higher level of leadership to resolve an impasse.
Escalate until one of the following happens:

You reach an acceptable solution
There’s a decision by a leader that is over both parties
Your resource manager directs you to cease escalation (you can read an org chart, right?)
A decision is made by the project sponsor(s)

Speaker: Patrick Lencioni, Principle, The Table Group, Inc. and Author of a book on the presentation topic

Topic: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

People need to be reminded more than they need to be instructed. Life is complex. Remember that those in your project teams are usually not professional project managers. Spend time refreshing their memories on expectations, methodologies, processes, etc… Do not assume that they “know” just because they regularly work in a project environment. Do you want the success of your project dependent upon their resource manager or their previous project manager’s ability to communicate expectations that impact you?
Know the simple things…and stick to them! This is harder than it may seem. How frequently do you dedicate time to the following basics?
Build and maintain a cohesive team
Create clarity (expectations, roles and responsibilities, project goals and objectives, etc…)
Reinforce clarity through practice (are you sending mixed signals?)
Smart vs Healthy teams
Smart teams understand technology, organizational processes, strategy, marketing, finance, etc…
Healthy teams have minimal politics, minimal unhealthy conflict, high morale, high productivity, low turnover, etc...
Would you rather have a smart or healthy team? It is up to the project manager to create a healthy team.
The 5 dysfunctions:
Dysfunction 1: Absence of trust
This is referring to “vulnerable” trust, not just “predictive” trust. For example, knowing someone will meet a deadline because they always have is “predictive” trust. Having the culture that allows them to communicate personal and professional barriers to meeting a deadline is “vulnerable” trust.
One bad apple can spoil the bunch. In other words, one dysfunctional team member that cannot be trusted can cause an entire team to withhold trust. It is up to the project manager to take care of that problem.
The leader, or project manager, should go first and display vulnerable trust.
Tell the kind truth. If you observe unhealthy behavior, inefficiencies, etc…communicate.
Dysfunction 2: Fear of conflict
Note that the dysfunctions build upon one another.
Great teams can argue, respectfully. Trust is a precursor to healthy conflict.
When teams do not identify, air, and debate issues, the issues ferment.
Great leaders “mine” for conflict and bring the issues into the open.
Dysfunction 3: Lack of commitment
Those that don’t weigh in (or contribute), don’t buy-in.
Great leaders encourage team members to express their thoughts, concerns, etc…and debate the issues.
Trust and healthy conflict are precursors to sharing ideas, understanding others and gaining commitment.
Great leaders force clarity and closure to issues.
Dysfunction 4: Avoidance of accountability
How much courage does each team member to have to hold each other accountable for team/project deliverables?
Great leaders set the example by not only accepting accountability, but also by holding their team accountable.
Dysfunction 5: Inattention to results
The team was formed (adhoc teams, project teams, work teams, etc…) to provide results.
Great leaders focus on the collective outcomes.

Speaker: Craig Maheu, IT Manager, TD Ameritrade