Don't Give in to Caustic Cultures

 

Does this sound like your workplace?

• Crushing deadlines
• Never-ending overtime
• Agonizing interruptions and broken processes
• Famine of recognition and purpose

According to a proprietary survey conducted by AtTask, those are four characteristics of today's workplaces. Yikes. That is no place to get a project delivered.

Unfortunately, in cases like this, project managers can think, "Well, I can't do anything about these kinds of problems. They are the responsibility of people above my pay grade''. Still it is you who suffer the consequences.

Is there anything you can do? Push yourself to think of options. Not all may be possible, but you may identify a shrewd way to mitigate these circumstances. Perhaps a way that may also help you be seen as a better manager, a better leader, someone valuable to have in the organization, someone who is one of the top performers.

Here are some ideas. Try them or use them to inspire your own ideas. The fact is that it is not possible to continue to overuse your workforce and still get needed productivity. Instead, you will lose productivity to one or more of the following:

• Turnover
• Lack of motivation
• Sickness/absenteeism
• Exhaustion/burnout

Consider the top listed item from the survey : Crushing deadlines for the workforce.

When planning, think about the factors that cause this to happen and nip them in the bud. If sponsors or internal customers routinely demand impossibly short durations, provide initial estimates that are longer at first, then allow cutting down to a more manageable level. Everything is a negotiation. Your justification in this case is that you are basing your initial durations/timelines on recent history (lessons learned) of the organization. You are considering current resource constraints and stakeholder participation (or something similar).

In case you are now past the planning stage in your project and are experiencing crushing deadlines that everyone has just simply come to expect without thinking about it, what can you do? It's part of the culture.

Take refuge in your project management processes and practices. Log and raise an issue that an upcoming deadline may be missed. Have a substantial list of reasons based on input you get from the workforce, partner groups and stakeholders involved. It's got to be honest, accurate list, but you should be able to get plenty of input that can be trusted. Communicate this through normal report-outs and escalation channels.

Show your optimism and can-do attitude by providing a resolution plan, "go to green" plan, whatever you call it to add a couple of more weeks, or whatever is needed to complete the work. You will have asked your workforce how much longer they need to create this plan.

Now be careful, don't blame it on one person or group. This is a prescription for conflict that will spoil your plans. No one wants to be blamed in this kind of environment and they will attack you professionally and personally if they are backed into a corner. Instead, describe a general problem across the organization, "existing in multiple areas" you might say. It could be a resource constraint, holidays, delays in getting access to leaders due to an offsite strategic planning period, new regulatory compliance initiative taking time from multiple groups, whatever. Seize upon the opportunity to communicate the problem and get more time. It's better than missing the deadline with little advance attention and communication. No leaders like surprises.

What if you really really to want to blame one or more people? Goodness knows this is a real problem sometimes. As a more constructive alternative than blaming, gird yourself and go to these individuals and get their take on the situation. They too may be having the same problem. Or they may have a rationale that helps you understand and communicate the obstacles you face to meeting your crushing deadline.

As a project manager you may face stiff odds to meeting certain deadlines. Do not give in to despair. Be creative in seeking solutions that work in your organization. That will put you in the small percentage of persistant professionals who get things done when others only find obstacles and excuses.

What other ideas might work in certain situations for crushing deadlines? How have you been successful? What have you learned?

In future posts, I'll look into dealing creatively with the other characteristics.