Project Management 2.0

Situation: You need people who think broadly to make existing systems work, rather than simply deploying new ones.

A few days ago, I came across an HBR posting "Why your IT Project needs a Cognitive Scientist." . In a nutshell, the author says that in addition to technology-focused and business-focused folks, we need to have people who can look at problems in new ways and understand how the available information can be used to create something new and truly useful. He wraps up by saying that we need people who know:

• when to draw on data
• how to frame questions
• how to build hypotheses
• how to conduct experiements
• and how to determine results

These questions are useful to ask whether the business is depending on you for a breakthrough project or you're simply making the most of a more routine effort. Take a look at each member of your team. How do they measure up on each of the five points above? How could you help them improve?

Situation: You need a simple PM app that integrates with Google Calendar

I thought this one was a little different.  Most software is moving into the cloud, but the outer edge of that software spectrum contains the free email accounts that most of us have on Google.

Situation: You want to keep up with the latest industry trends.

ESI released it's annual Top 10 Trends for Project Management a few minutes ago. You can see them listed out below.  Do you agree with their assessment?

“This year’s trends bring a murky problem into specific light,” said J. LeRoy Ward, Executive Vice President, ESI International. “Leadership skills are lacking within the project community, and until project managers learn how to properly lead teams and their projects, project execution will continue to be a problem.”

ESI’s top 10 trends for project management include:

1.      Organizations will continue to call for strong project leaders but will focus on investments in hard skills

2.      Agile implementation will be viewed in some organizations as a failure, but for the wrong reasons

3.      Project management is not just for project managers anymore

4.      Large projects pose unique challenges that are increasingly tough to overcome

5.      PMOs will focus on proving their worth and driving innovation

6.      The U.S. government will upgrade its PM certification in the face of rising criticism

7.      Improving vendor management practices will top the list of skills for project managers

8.      Continued poor project performance in many organizations will result in more PMOs being terminated

9.      Portfolio management will take on a greater role as funding continues to tighten and the number of projects grows

10.  Organizations will adopt Agile to accelerate time to market but what they ultimately achieve may be a different story

“Many of this year’s trends focus on the need to improve project skills, process and the overall management of our initiatives,” said Ward. “It is clear that it is no longer possible to hire project managers and expect results. We need our PMs to be experts, and take control of our projects to get maximum results.”

ESI’s top 10 trends in project management is put together annually by ESI senior executives and subject matter experts.

You can also check it out in video form (see below)

Situation: It's a New Year and you're looking to get things done.

A big selling point of simple, inexpensive SaaS tools is that they give you the functionality you need & nothing else.  Tool vendors combine that with an interface that's easier to use and we assume that most of the ease of use is coming from the fact that there isn't much to do inside of the app. There is no complexity to simplify.

In our actual work lives, there is plenty of complexity built right in - which why we need tools in the first place. There is so much complexity, that even with tools we have trouble focusing our efforts. 

So the trend I've noticed recently is that tools are helping you focus on tasks or chunks of information one at a time. They effectively bring your attention to what matters now and obscure the rest. That last bit is where I see a difference in these new tools versus older ones - they completely clear away non-essential information. Yet that task or bit of information you are working on is kept in context in subtle ways - ensuring you still grasp the big picture.

For example, Workflowy is a neat little tool you could use to organize anything from a To-Do list to your life. There are lots of tools that help you create hierarchies, some of them very cool (I've always loved MindManager). The issue with these is that they do not force focus and clear away detail effectively enough.  You can still get lost in a dense hierarchy of information. Workflowy limits what you see to one focus area.  With Workflowy, higher levels of the structure are rolled up into breadcrumbs at the top, giving you context without detail. So you really only see what you should be working on now.

Example #2

Prezi has been all the rage lately as a new, flexible way of presenting dense information.  The idea is that people can absorb detail, but only in appropriate chunks. With Prezi, you essentially replace your PowerPoint Deck with a huge virtual sheet of paper that puts everything in to context like an infographic does. Then you zoom in on very specific parts of the presentation in a way that helps you tell a story. Again, dealing with complex information by breaking it into chunks - providing just enough context to have it all make sense.

What are you doing these days to help you focus?  Are the any particular software tools that help? Please share -

Situation: You organization needs to take risk management a lot more seriously.

We recently spoke with Loren Padelford, Executive Vice President & General Manager at Active Risk. The folks at Active Risk talk a lot about establishing an "Active Risk Culture" at your organization - really making risk management a way of life, rather than a set of sterile processes. As a concept that sounds interesting, but how does it really work? Loren offers some clarification in his responses below.

How much difference can having a "Risk-Aware Culture" have on a business? Can you compare it to simply having Risk Management processes in place or even just using general policies to manage risk?

The difference between risk awareness and simple risk management is immense. In a risk-aware culture, risk is part of everyone’s daily activity. Most firms would argue that they have a risk management “process” or “policy” in place, but a risk-aware culture means that risk is analyzed to a granular level - where it has the most impact. This means that every single person within an organization, from the CEO to the finance department to the newest project manager, not only understands their risks, but implements and uses risk management on a daily basis. If everyone understands that their role has a component of risk management involved and that risk management needs to be practiced every day, than the organization’s ability to understand its risk at a more in-depth, mature level, increases.

We’re seeing and research is showing that organizations with higher levels of risk maturity have improved in profitability, enterprise value, and opportunity generation.”

Q.  Could you describe how a Risk Aware Culture is established?  What are the top 3 (must do) components of the process?

Establishing a risk-aware culture can be a relatively simple process if the organization, on an individual level and as a whole, is committed. Having executive level support is number one. Having the CEO involved in the process and actively understanding his or her own role as a risk manager is a must. Without senior level support and daily involvement, risk is seen as optional and a risk-aware culture will not be achieved.

Secondly, an effective risk management process must be goal-focused. In order to draw employees into the process, each individual in an organization needs to establish tangible goals that they want to achieve through risk management. Risk needs to be a valuable process to the people who do it every day and setting goals will show them how effective risk management is in helping them achieve their goals more quickly.

Finally, organizations must be careful not to over-complicate its risk management. In order for risk to take hold in a culture and become engrained in everyday activity, it must consist of simple tools and remain focused on the risk that really matters to each individual’s goals and objectives.

Q.  How "Risk Mature" does your organization have to be to establish this sort of culture?  Are there pre-requisites to keep in mind?

Because risk is an ongoing process, there is absolutely no threshold for risk maturity. Organizations that want to become more risk mature simply need to focus on the three attributes mentioned above – executive support, setting goals and keeping the process simple. If an organization achieves these things, they will find themselves in a position where the company starts to pull in risk awareness naturally, instead of finding it pushed onto them.

Q.  When is it inappropriate to establish this sort of culture? In which industries is it more difficult?

Because every industry encounters risk on a daily basis, it is never inappropriate to establish a risk culture.

Additionally, every industry has a certain requirement to take risks in order to create opportunity. Of course, all industries have their particular challenges and some are more complicated than others, but there is never a time and place when risk is an inappropriate process to engage as a core component of a company’s strategy.

Q.  Given your company's deep experience in fostering effective Risk Aware cultures, could you tell us what this takes from a staffing and a tool perspective?

From a staffing perspective, the organization must have executive-level support. I cannot stress this point enough: the Chief Executive Officer must also serve as the Chief Risk Officer. They will be the educator of risk throughout the organization and translators of the goals and objectives of the business. They are not only imperative to the success of the process, but they are the cultural enablers bringing risk to an organization-wide level.

Without the right tools, it’s nearly impossible to execute risk management well. Organizations should look for tools, like Active Risk’s ARM solution, that provide a centralized hub for all risk information, so that the defined Chief Risk Officer is able to own the risk management process. This tool should integrate seamlessly into existing systems and processes, and have the ability to be personalized to each user’s needs.

The most successful organizations are the ones who have taken the approach of giving individuals high power and highly capable, yet simple to use tools to support risk management as a daily activity in business. These are the organizations that reap the rewards of a risk-aware culture.

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About Loren Padelford

Loren is responsible for all customer-facing activities at Active Risk including sales, marketing, services, partners and customer success.

Loren has a broad track record of success in technology, advertising and business services. Prior to joining Active Risk, Loren was Vice President of Strategic Alliances and Global Sales Director for Dyadem International, a leading enterprise HSE software provider. Loren was a key member of the leadership team and instrumental in the growth of the business, which led to the acquisition of Dyadem by IHS (NYSE:IHS) in April of 2011. Prior to Dyadem, Loren was National Sales Manager at Recall Corp, Sr. Director of Sales & Account Management at advertising firm Uthink and started his career selling photocopiers with Ricoh Corp.

Loren holds an MBA in Marketing from the University of Liverpool Management School, a Bachelors of Psychology from the University of Guelph and is a Certified Sales Professional.