Project Signposts

A few of my business contacts have recently experimented with OpenAI’s ChatGPT tool to see if it can produce meaningful content in their area of expertise that sounds like their writing and may provide an effective head start to their written documents.  I decided to do the same thing and so I engaged ChatGPT to help me with my latest Project Signposts blog post.  I simply entered a basic outline of my points I wanted to make in the blog post and then let the AI tool take it from there.  With just a few follow-up questions in the chat box followed by a few tweaks to the output, we were able to co-produce the blog post below.  My learnings were:

• The ChatGPT writing was concise, the meaning clear, and the English grammar was on point. I’d give it an above average rating.
• To me the writing style felt a little stiff and regimented.  It did not match my writing style, but ChatGPT effectively communicated my topic.
• I see how this can be a good tool to kick-start your writing but am also concerned that non-cited sources could be easily introduced without the real “author” even knowing, therefore making plagiarism a real risk. For instance, the idea, “today’s complex and dynamic business environment” was not in my outline.
• My advice:  Use ChatGPT with caution.

Why Effective Change Often Fails in Projects and Can We Make Step Change Improvements?

Effective change management is essential in project management, but traditional approaches often fall short in today's complex and dynamic business environment. In this post, we'll explore why this is the case and provide strategies for making step change improvements in effectiveness.

Approaches of the past fall short: Traditional change management approaches may not be effective in today's business environment due to a siloed approach, lack of change support, and parallel efforts between project managers and HR. 

Ineffective change management can lead to a number of negative outcomes, such as failure to address culture readiness, lack of engagement from frontline employees, and absence of accountability. These consequences can be detrimental to the success of any project and must be addressed with effective change management strategies.  To achieve success, we need to move away from these old ways of thinking and embrace a more holistic and integrated approach.

What will give us that step change improvement?

Visible support from senior leadership is crucial to driving successful change management. Leaders must understand resistance to change, engage those closest to the work, and establish change management resources to achieve success.

Engaging frontline employees and gaining their buy-in and support is essential to the success of any change initiative. Understanding cross-functional aspects and establishing organizational readiness for change is also crucial to achieving buy-in and engagement from employees.

It is critical to make sure employees and the organization are fully ready for the changes the project will bring.  Change readiness requires updating policies, procedures, and processes, establishing clear accountabilities, and communicating changes frequently. Changes must be aligned to drive the desired behaviors and ensure the success of any project.

A unified approach is vital.  Integrating project management and change management activities is essential to achieving success in any project. This can be achieved by making change management an integral part of the project plan and ensuring that both disciplines are fully aligned, in constant communication and working together towards a common goal.

Effective change management is crucial to achieving success in project management. By moving away from traditional approaches, embracing visible support from senior leadership, engaging frontline employees, and ensuring change readiness and integration, we can make step change improvements in effectiveness and achieve success in any project.

-ChatGPT with editing from Mike Putnam

I thought I’d change up my usual approach for this month’s blog entry.  Usually, I focus on my learnings as a project manager.  This time, I’d like to convey the real-world impact of a project implementation which appeared to me as lacking in both change and project management. 

Earlier this week, I had a routine follow-up appointment with my doctor to understand the latest status of my health issue.  Upon arrival, the receptionist greeted me with an apology saying it was Day One, hour one of their digital transformation to an updated electronic medical record system.  She asked me for my patience and offered several more apologies up-front.  I had no urgent appointments that morning, and as a PM, I decided to observe this system change in action, but from the perspective of the other patients who might have been unfamiliar with the staff and doctors.

As with many of the other patients that day, my appointment consisted of registration, update with a nurse, some short tests, and a consultation with my doctor to discuss findings and next steps.  I knew it would be a rocky road when I was asked to fill out a handwritten check-in form prior to the registration step.  Not I good start, I thought!

Proceeding through the process, I noticed several strategically placed system integrators from a consulting firm to field user questions and make sure the implantation proceeded smoothly.  They each had at least one person asking them questions every time I checked.  At every step of my appointment, I also observed users who seemed unprepared and vexed by the new user interface and how to integrate their processes with the new system.   There appeared to be a few super users to answer some of the technician’s questions, but in many ways, they too seemed at a loss to help with basic functions. 

OK, I thought, I’ve seen rough Day Ones before.  But experiencing this rollout from the perspective of a patient and hearing the real concerns of other patients, some with urgent health issues, really gave me pause.  I could tell the other patients were becoming uneasy with the long wait times between steps of their visit and with the lack of confidence being exhibited by the staff.  This was punctuated by a doctor coming into the waiting room and having an animated discussion with one of the system integrators concerning some critical functionality that was not performing as expected.  It made me question the level of change management which had been built into this project.  The doctors must have also feared the potential loss of trust by their patients due to the system issues.  Everyone’s frustration showed. 

As my one-hour appointment stretched into hour 3, I finally met with my doctor.  At that point, I was getting irritated as well.  I kept my composure but couldn’t resist commenting that there seemed to be a lack of familiarity with the new digital medical record system.  My doctor indicated that the staff had been given a grand total of one-day of hands-on training prior to rollout.   I was astonished at the lack of change preparation by the project team and ultimately by the project manager.  At a certain point, that PM needed to realize they’d crossed the line between system solution and patient health.  As I left the building, I felt sorry for the staff, doctors and especially the other patients. 

This was a major change for everyone involved, and I certainly hope the PM does a Lessons Learned session on that project and follows through to apply their learnings.  Maybe we should all pause and put change management at the forefront of our transformation approach as if a patient’s health is at stake.  That focus certainly would get my attention.  How about yours?

To me, effective project management always hinged on exceeding my Sponsor’s expectations.  Engrained in me from my earliest days of programming system modifications were the words of my mentor urging me to give that little extra effort and go above and beyond the requirements, and to really wow the stakeholders.  In addition, the company made it clear that my salaried position meant that the usual 8:30 – 5:00 work hours were meant only for the hourly staff.  Longer hours would be required of me periodically to meet project deadlines.   This became habit very quickly and it made me feel good.    

This “above and beyond” behavior, I was told, would be noticed, sometimes recognized, and even rewarded at some point in the future.   In addition, I inherited my parents’ strong work ethic along with an internal drive that made me proud to arrive early, put in extra effort and be one of the last to leave the office in the evening.   Long before the recognition and rewards arrived, as they eventually did, I noticed that the most tangible benefit was a tremendous sense of accomplishment, self-respect, and the admiration of my coworkers.   Working hard gave us all pride in our work and pushed everyone on the team to perform at a higher level of quality.  More responsibility and more important projects soon followed, and I eagerly accepted them.  My teams and I were successful with this mindset, but that was twenty-plus years ago.  Back then, those exhibiting quiet quitting tendencies were either eased into non-critical functions or teed-up to be included in the next wave of cutbacks.

Today, I tried to imagine what I would do in a project management environment where quiet quitting was prevalent, but I really couldn’t.  Instead, I tried to imagine the most likely outcomes of this type of behavior. With everyone just doing the minimum acceptable work, how would it impact what those work elements which became most important to my career satisfaction and success?

• Reduced Work Hours – Good Job, that’ll show ‘em!
• Sense of Accomplishment – Only to the degree that you can do it in your set time and effort.
• Self-Respect – Not seeing any here, at all.
• Admiration of Co-Workers – They don’t care either, so this is unimportant.
• Pride in Our Work – Not applicable.
• Higher Quality – There is no incentive to make continuous improvements.
• Recognition – You won’t get any from management.
• Rewards – You get nothing more than the standard salary and you’ll like it!
• Being Good at Your Job – You may be the best person at being mediocre!

This sounds eerily close to all the dismal planned, socialist workers’ paradise states that have inevitably failed in the past.  Mediocrity has arrived!  No thanks!  As for me, I’ll continue to work harder to exceed my project stakeholders’ expectations, thank you very much!

There are likely thousands of different factors which motivated people to leave their jobs during the so-called “Great Resignation” over the past eighteen months.  Whether it be COVID-19 itself or related stress, boredom with their current roles, or just a desire to move to new or better opportunities, people left their jobs in record numbers in 2021.   I was one of them.

My stated motivating factors were to take an early retirement with the intent of extending my volunteer project roles as well as to make progress on some family projects that my brother and I have been pursuing.   While my logic was positive and solid on the surface, upon deeper reflection, I’ve found there were other factors in play which drove my ultimate decision to change course.  My need for reflection was precipitated by the profound sense of loss I experienced several months after leaving the program management role I’d been in for many years. 

Upon examination, I understood that many of the key drivers which led me to leave had to do with COVID-19 restriction negatives rather than the perceived positives listed above.  My core job satisfaction motivators have always been tied to all the great people I worked directly with daily.  The personal interactions and relationship building were not aspects I consciously focused on but were central to the fabric of my career enjoyment. 

Nearly all direct interaction was removed in March 2020, replaced by an endless string of group video calls.  Over several months, COVID restrictions eventually wore down my enthusiasm to a point where, job isolation extracted all the joy from my work.   Known throughout my career for my persistence in seeing through long, grinding projects, this persistence was apparently no match for the mind-numbing power of the pandemic.  Where before, I was constantly buoyed by the knowledge that I was always a part of a team, I now found no joy in essentially working in isolation.  Tasks quickly became strictly wrote.  By late 2020, with no end in sight to office and travel restrictions, I knew it was time for a change culminating in my departure in March 2021.

In retrospect, I’m grateful I had the opportunity to change course and do some different things that weren’t available to me a few years ago, but also aware that the career cost to me was high.  I’m sure not everyone was as fortunate.  I’m very interested to hear of your motivations for joining the “Great Resignation.”  What was your key driver for making a change and once you did, did you discover that other factors were at play as well?

In the real estate world, you often hear the adage, “location, location, location.”  It refers to the fact that the location of a property may have an outsized impact on the sales price or ease of selling a certain piece of property than logic might dictate. There is a similar force in play when managing projects. For project managers, the saying should be, “communication, communication, communication!” That is, the quality and frequency of a project manager’s communication with their key stakeholders often plays a larger role in a project’s and project manager’s success than it would appear on the surface.

As project managers, we are inclined to find immediate solutions to problems while project timeline pressures may cause us to shortchange some of our project fundamentals. Naturally, our analytical side will lead us to want to manage issues as they come up and address concerns as quickly as possible. Often though, issues that cannot be resolved on the spot or our proposed solution may not actually address the underlying causes of the issue. Those cases can quickly lead to increased risk, eventually surprising one or more stakeholders and often result in an undesired outcome. This is true across the entire project management spectrum. Being able to find triggers of increased risk and manage them effectively continues to be a challenge across a wide spectrum of projects. Here are four common examples of typical contributors of increased project risk that often surprise stakeholders.

1. Using a Stage Gate Review to announce a significant project change,
2. Project course corrections that impact scope but are unknown to key stakeholders,
3. Minor project issues are “swept under the rug” to keep project momentum,
4. We Let deliverables slip to the next phase or sprint.

It is easy to see how each of these contributors can increase project risk. When these happen, we can always benefit by revisiting effective project management fundamentals. It’s easy to see how well-timed and effectively delivered stakeholder communication will at least minimize if not entirely mitigate the associated risk. As project managers, if we can get in the habit of practicing and reinforcing the powerful behavior of communication with our stakeholders, our projects will take a turn for the better. With that in mind, how can we end the unwanted surprises? What might be a more effective way for a project manager to be proactive on the above four examples by using the behavior of communication, communication, communication?

1. Prior to conducting any Stage Gate Review, talk with the key stakeholders potentially affected by expected project changes and engage them in recommending a path forward. Reinforce or regain their support so that it is a non-issue in the Stage Gate Review.
2. Anything that impacts project scope is an opportunity to proactively communicate with your key stakeholders or project steering team if you use one. Make sure there is a formal process to request changes to scope and that the process will be followed every time. This is a fantastic way to manage scope creep.
3. Don’t just keep a project issue log, actively manage it.  By communicating with the impacted stakeholders on a regular cadence, you can ensure that everyone knows the open issues, when we plan to have them resolved and who is accountable for resolution.
4. If key deliverables are at risk to slip to the next phase or sprint, prompt communication is the only way for the project manager and project team to retain credibility. Let stakeholders know as early as possible if deliverables are at risk and gain their support on a plan to get back on track. It’s also wise to communicate this to all stakeholders so everyone is aligned on the path forward.  

Remember - Communication, communication, communication. Rather than viewing it as repetitive, look at it as a reinforcer that will pay outsized dividends on your current project as well as future projects you may work on with many of the same stakeholders. It serves to keep everyone informed, reduces surprises and risk, and it builds credibility for you and your project team. The worst that may come of it is that a stakeholder complains that you are communicating too much. Is that a concern to you, or should it be viewed as more of a compliment? It is definitely a compliment!