Project Management Success is All About People

 

In a recent blog post titled, Ignore Your People at Your Own Peril, PapercutPM's Geoff Crane describes the cost of low morale, which the Gallup Organization estimates at 22 million actively disengaged employees costing the American economy as much as $350 billion dollars a year in lost productivity.  Citing an article written by Nicole Fink, The High Cost of Low Morale, he identifies a number of possible causes as to why people are unhappy at work:

1. Poor communication
2. Lack of empowerment
3. Distrust of management
4. Departmental layoffs or closures
5. Labor negotiations and contract disputes
6. Unclear expectations and corporate direction

I agree with what Geoff is suggesting when he writes that ignoring people is a dangerous road.  A couple of days ago I addressed the issue of increasing team participation in the project management process and why it's important that the people on project teams are recognized for their accomplishments, are empowered with flexibility and ownership, and have confidence in the information that is pushed up and down from team member to project manager to executive and vice verse.

Let's face it, one of the biggest challenges facing project management in general and project managers particularly is a lack of voluntary team member participation in the process.  Not only is the traditional top-down or command-and-control approach to work management a real morale killer, it doesn't work with today's workforce and contributes to:

1. Project information that executives don't trust
2. An overly structured management environment that people dislike
3. Frustrated project teams who's accomplishments often go unrecognized

Coming to the realization that project success depends more on people and less on process or technology is a paradigm shift that is needed regarding project based work.  As I've said before, I'm convinced that a more socially interactive approach to project and portfolio management will make it possible to engage the workforce, which among other things will allow project managers to capture the qualitative information needed to provide context to the data business leaders use to make well-informed decisions.

That being said, will addressing the issues associated with the work management process make a difference in the Gallup findings?  As organizations realize that project management success is all about people, and act accordingly, it will among project teams.

What are you doing to address morale and team member participation?