Lazy Project Management

 

Situation: You think "there's got to be a better way."

Peter Taylor is the head of a PMO at Siemens Industry Software Limited, a supplier of global product lifecyclemanagement solutions.  He does a lot of speaking and writing on the subject of ‘The Lazy Project Manager’ .   His elearning modules are available online as are his free podcasts on iTunes  .

So most people would think that being lazy is not something you would want to be known for.  Peter thinks differently.  We recently caught up with to find out why...

Q.  You talk about the Pareto 80/20 rule in the book, but finding that critical 20% is always a trick.  How did you identify the critical parts of PM that are most important?  Do they share common attributes?  Generally speaking, are they the easiest things to do or the hardest?

A:  Answers to each question in series -

• I tell people to just think back to the previous working day and they will most likely be able to identify two or three things that delivered the most impact or produced the most momentum on their project.
• We all have ‘to do’ lists and the moment we enter the office we will get distractions through conversations, meeting invitations and so on. But it is important to focus and deal with the most important things first. If you don’t then whilst you may cheerfully clear many other tasks from that ‘to do’ list you will still have the big one left to do and you just won’t feel good about that. Get the big one out of the way and the pressure will be off, progress will have been made, and more than likely you will ride a wave of positive feeling that will see you clear the ‘to do’ list with ease.
• You asked were these the easiest or the hardest. Well I guess they will be typically nearer the hard end of the spectrum but sometimes procrastination can turn a simple thing in to a hard thing. By just getting on and starting something you realize that it wasn’t so hard at all (sometimes at least).

Q.  You also discuss the way that the leadership potential of Prussian Army officers was judged according to their intelligence and their laziness.  You go into some detail about how laziness and high intelligence in combination makes for good leadership.  Does that mean you believe in born leaders?  Are 3/4 of project managers doomed to be poor or mediocre leaders?

A:  Answers to each question in series -

• Born leaders? Well yes I guess there are people who somehow naturally take the lead in things without too many concerns or worries and other people tend to follow them happily. That said they are in the small minority. No I think that the majority of project managers, myself included in my early days, combine a lot of activity with a reasonable level of intelligence. But that isn’t the most productive or sustainable way of managing projects in my opinion.
• 'Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.' Is the quote that I use - Robert Heinlein. It is about working smarter and not harder – it is about a decent work/life balance – and it is about giving yourself the chance of keeping control of your project by not being at capacity all of the time.
• So are all project managers doomed to be less than good project managers? Not at all. We can all learn to be better just as a golfer can learn a new swing to become a greater golfer then project managers can learn what I call The Art of Productive Laziness.

Q.  You use a tool called a power grid to assess a project sponsor.  How does that work?

A:  Well it is all about how to control your greatest asset and potentially your biggest threat. Critical to any projects success is having a good project sponsor, but, like the saying goes ‘you can pick your friends but you can’t pick your relatives’ and the same is true of project sponsors.

So what makes a good project sponsor and how do you deal with the one you have just inherited for your project?

The Project Sponsor is the key stakeholder representative for the project and provides the necessary support for the Project Manager with the primary responsibility of achievement of the project objectives and benefits. An inappropriate choice of Project Sponsor can seriously impact the possibility of success of the project and provide you, the project manager, with an unwanted additional overhead. Now you can’t practically ask a sponsor for their CVand put them through a formal interview process, nice as it would be sometimes to utter the phrase ‘I’m sorry but I just don’t think that this is the job for you right now’. But you should evaluate the sponsor you have and complete, in a subtle way of course, a ‘Strengths and Weaknesses ‘assessment so that you can adapt your project approach and communication methods to maximise their sponsorship support for the project that you now manage.

Tip: At your first meeting with the sponsor don’t ask ‘hard’ project questions but ask ‘softer’ and more open questions: ‘What are your hopes for this project? What are your fears about this project?’ – You will learn a whole lot more.

But let’s not be pessimistic, that isn’t going to happen to you, you won’t get an extreme case of project sponsor and they won’t fail the ‘interview’. So, what is your next move? Well perhaps you should consider the power base that your project sponsor has. Use the power grid to assess your project sponsor, assess their rating of interest in this project from high to low and their actual power in the organisation, also from high to low.

This will give you an indication of the way in which you should work with them. Actually this power grid is for all project stakeholders and if you end up with a project sponsor that is in the ‘low interest’ and ‘low power’ quadrant you really have a problem. It is unlikely that this sponsor is ever going to support your management endeavours.

Q.  What's the single most important take away from the book?

A:  Well people tell me they love the stories at the end of each chapter as they show real situations where I pretty much got it completely wrong but lived to tell the tale and learn a very good lesson.

But if I was to pick one thing that project managers should do it would be to work on your communication. At least 70% of a project managers time is spent in communicating so if you are going to be productively lazy anywhere do it here. That doesn’t mean communicate badly but communicate more effectively and that can often mean less effort overall.

Oh and ‘be lazy’…