The consultant walks into a matrix organization...
From the Drunken PM Blog
by Dave Prior
Drunken Boxing for Project Managers
“The main feature of the drunkard boxing is to hide combative hits in drunkard-like, unsteady movements and actions so as to confuse the opponent. The secret of this style of boxing is maintaining a clear mind while giving a drunken appearance.”
Yeah... just like that… but with network diagrams and burndown charts… and a wee bit less vodka.
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Date
I’ve spent the last week trying to both catch up from being away in Sydney and also in reaching out to all the great people I got to meet over there. There will be more video in a few days and I’m hoping to post the next installment of the Art of War for Project Managers before the end of the weekend.
All I have today are ISTABOTs (Is There AnyBody Out There) Questions…
The Consultant Walks into a Matrix Organization…
I’ve been talking to a number of PMs in the past few weeks who are all dealing with the same problem…
Consultant walks into a matrix org reporting to Sr. Mgmt. Sr. Mgr. calls in his direct reports and says. “Meet the new PM on Vaguely Defined Project Y, which I will demonstrate steadfast halfhearted commitment to for the foreseeable future. While the PM is here working, I’ll trust that each of you will do you “best” to provide what you are asked for. In order to ensure the success of this project, I will not be removing any of your current responsibilities or providing you with any additional support. Naturally, there will be no penalty for non-compliance and your bonus structure will not be impacted by anything other than your successful work on everything but this project.”
This is the most you can get from Sr. Mgr and of course, the direct reports treat you like you are serving up warm helpings of skunked beer.
How do you fix this if the the level of support put forth by the Sr. Mgr. is the best you are going to get?
Posted on: March 22, 2008 06:03 PM |
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Comments (5)
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During start-up or activiation of the project, I would at least try to have them attend a kick-off meeting for Sr mgt / mgrs on how to act as a steering committee or project sponsor. This session specifically for sr mgt and steering committee member is focussed on do's and don't of successfull projects for them. In some instances this helps them and you as project mgr.
Geoffrey Kelly
Senior Project Manager| Aviva Investors
London, United Kingdom
Matrix management is dead ( as could be said by the people who still adhere to it)
Overall, matrix management is thought to be an outdated method to organize a company. This belief of the 70''''s and 80''''s that a matrix organization would be the best way to manage project complexity. Has been proven to be not true over the years by the failures at companies such as IBM, HP, and AT&T in complex environments. A matrix organization in itself is complex, breaks down over time, and hinders the ability of managers to effectively lead.
It is often used as a shield by Sr mngt to hide behind it and for them to do as liitle as possible except to pass the buck when anything goes wrong.
Joe Mooney
Senior Technology Project Manager| Independent Consultant
Oviedo, Fl, United States
The most difficult thing for a consulting firm to do is walk away from this sort of "opportunity." After 20 years of consulting, I have many a horror story of the bad press and tarnished client relationships from accepting a project that is doomed to failure. And no matter how clear and pointed the Assumptions, Client Responsibilities, and Critical Success Factors portions of the proposal and/or Statement of Work are, without the firm commitment of senior leadership on the client side and the consulting company side the PM can be left holding the bag.
Make a nice poster of the Client Responsibilities and the PM Responsibilities and hang it in a visible place as a nice reminder of the commitments needed for success. And make sure that you know the location of the nearest pub with a friendly bartender so that you have someone who will at least pretend to listen to your problems.......
Kevin Friedel
Project Manager| BNP Paribas
Cortlandt Manor, Ny, United States
I experienced a similar scenario in May of 2005. A large investment banking client called me back a month after I completed a 1 year project to tackle a business process issue that affected the front, middle and back office. Unfortunately, the IT group that volunteered to "own" the project did not have the power or influence to push the project forward. I was asked to create an "automated solution" to solve the problem after the root cause analysis was done, but they did not assign development resources so the automated solution was never built. In addition, most of the business stakeholders/SME's that would benefit from the project were reluctant to cooperate because it was not in their political interest to do so; they viewed the project as a "lose, lose". To make matters worse, the primary SME in operations refused to help me and basically whined the whole time and said that the problem was impossible to fix.
I cashed in all the goodwill chips I had gained from my previous project and dug in. I sought help from everyone and anyone that would listen. I did not complain or escalate to the steering committee for fear of further alienating the SME''s. Eventually I proved that the project was feasible and presented hard facts (over two years of historical data) regarding the cause and proposed 3 alternatives to fix the problem. I remediated about 80% of the problem which lied with the trading vendor and middle office application and got the back office to change their related business processes. I also provided a roadmap for a complete fix. The project took a full year due to the lack of cooperation and dedicated resources but in the end the affected trading units were able to reclaim about $5 million of unrecognized revenue.
Prior to this experience I had never encountered such resistance and apathy to a project that could provide such tangible benefits to the primary stakeholders. This was due to the matrix style management of resources and the absence of an influential project champion and business sponsor.
Wayne Mack
Retired| Retired
South Riding, Va, United States
Although it is nice to have a senior manager as a project champion, one always has to rely on basic communications skills. Have a kick-off meeting with the team and try to sell them on the project and listen to their concerns. Take time to meet with each of the team members indvidually and just get to know them as people. Set up a regular status tracking meeting weekly or even daily. If it is a matrix organization, go meet each of your team members' line bosses. Sell the bosses on the project as well.
In the end, the success of the project depends upon the efforts of the project team. As a project manager, you need to convince the team that the project is worth doing. If the team believes that, they will find a way to succeed even without strong management support.
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