Eye on the Workforce

This month's theme is Change Management and a related perennial problem is getting buy-in from the affected organization.  Generally, if you don't have buy-in, you get push-back. Often what is needed is a way to keep the affected parties feeling that they are involved in determining or executing the change. If affected parties are not part of the solution, they will become part of your problem.

There is a new technique to get employees more involved: "crowd-sourcing" internally .  One company used this tactic on an organizational scale and found that it was a practical way to get results. First, they used crowd-sourcing software to request cost-cutting ideas from across the organization. Workers could use screen names or use their real names as screen names. Most chose to use their real names.  More than a third of the employees participated with ideas that generated $30M in savings and no one was laid off.  How many of the still-employed workers do you think had buy-in on that activity? These results show practical value from involving the workforce via internal crowd sourcing.

You don't have to work on an organizational scale to take advantage of the wisdom of crowds. It can work in your project. Your focus must change from engaging experts to engaging everybody.

The company in the example above took advantage of special crowd sourcing software, but if you are working on a very small scale, you can be successful using any available software that allows you to collect ideas anonymously and "process" the ideas with the same participants to come up with fully-baked, prioritized solutions. The crowd -- those who are affected by the change in your project -- makes as many decisions as possible.

Here are examples of how this technique can be used on a project scale:

• Gather and prioritize business requirements or upgrade features from users, accounting/finance, salespeople , marketing and anyone else who is even indirectly affected
• Identify likely project risks and determine their severity by engaging the entire project workforce, stakeholders, those experienced with organizational history and others who are willing to participate
• Once you identify a list of likely project risks and their severity, keep the analysis going by having the crowd identify effective mitigations

You can think of other uses appropriate to your projects, but make sure you keep pushing the boundary of those who you ask to participate. The more the merrier.

Readers of this blog have learned previously that there is difficulty bringing in high performers  from other organizations into an organization and having them repeat their successes. Now there is a new analysis with more explanation of why this happens, giving a better picture of what you need to do to get the performance you expect.

Harvard's Boris Groysberg looked at one of the most expensive talent hunts in the history of baseball. It ended with not a glowing success, but an epic failure just this year. One example  of "star quality" not being portable: A veteran pitcher was acquired but his performance was "lackluster." Groysberg had seen the phenomenon before in investment banking. The baseball case study, though, showed that an entirely new team of superstars can be put together and eventually "flameout."

What is going on here? According to Groysberg's analysis, there are several key factors:  organizational culture, networking opportunities and general team dynamic.

To manage to these key success factors so that you do not bring in  a high performer and fail to get the expected performance in your project:

• Ensure the high performer gets a complete and accurate description of your corporate culture. Let the performer speak to multiple peers to get additional information. Make sure these representatives are forthcoming and do not try to cover the warts. The high performer should easily distinguish between his or her previous corporate culture and the new culture in your project.
• Coordinate networking opportunities  to obtain the above explanations, but also to simply be friends, colleagues, sounding boards and mentors.
• Improve the team dynamic by formally integrating the new team member. Play up the positives of all team members and let them get to know one another without distractions of work. A new team member means a new team, so handle it as such.

These success factors can be managed in your onboarding program and the process will take time, but it will be worth it, if you can get the high performer to the level desired.

Here's a problem, though: how many projects allow the time necessary to properly integrate a high performer? Or any new worker for that matter? What is your experience?

Halloween candy appears right at the checkout line. What do retailers know that you don't? They know that shoppers' willpower has been drained from previous shopping in the store and that these poor shoppers are at their weakest at being able to resist.

You need to know about willpower because there has been a significant amount of research that explains plenty about human behavior that is useful in managing the project workforce.

Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney explain in their book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength* that willpower is like a muscle that can be strengthened, but also can be depleted in the course of a day. You may not be able to easily mentor a workforce to build self-discipline, but you can help them avoid making errors due to psychological exhaustion.

• Remind them to eat properly. Willpower is lessened when glucose is low.  Donuts can even work in a pinch during a sluggish afternoon.
• Be alert for the signs of depleted willpower. There are not obvious red flags, but when you see an individual feeling everything "more intensely," it may be a sign that individual's brain has lost its ability to regulate emotions - an effect of depleted willpower. Irritation and cravings are all stronger.
• Don't allow individuals or groups to make major decisions in late afternoon, a common trouble point. On the other hand, it would be the best time to ask them to take on extra work.
  (Sorry, couldn't resist.)
• Help workers avoid burnout. When they cannot concentrate anymore on the task, it is wise just to move on to something else that does not require such self-discipline for a while. No one can instantly replenish willpower.
• Avoid making workers max out their willpower on a continuous long-term basis, such as weeks of long hours on relatively tedious project tasks. Otherwise, they will not be willing or able to provide bursts of productivity when needed in special cases, even though they are big supporters of the effort.
• Reduce temptations in the workplace that use up willpower. All distractions such as non-work internet access, constantly buzzing smartphones and leftover birthday cake all add up to depleted workforce willpower.

*Interview with one of the authors On NPR  http://www.npr.org/books/titles/140516995/willpower-rediscovering-the-greatest-human-strength.

The traditional method of hiring workers can be long, arduous and expensive.  As fun as that sounds, it would be nice if there was some kind of shortcut that could also bring in excellent candidates consistently.

This presentation (registration required for viewing, but you can download the slides) summarizes some workforce trends and techniques often  discussed in Eye On the Workforce, but also makes some interesting points related to hiring.

• In sourcing talent, according to this presentation, you have to make better use your employee's networks.
  the presentation didn't go into detail on this point, but employees can provide names of individuals who are looking - or not looking actively - for a new assignment. These names would take significant time and expense to generate without use of your employee network. Sure, more recruiters are using sites like LinkedIn to identify good candidates, but these candidates must still must go through reference checks. If you use your employee's networks, reference checking can be much less of a chore and may even be eliminated from the process.
• Also be sure not to poison the waters in which you are fishing. The same internet that allows your employees to build networks allows your candidates to research dirt on your company. Web sites like http://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm provide those who have a problem with your organization to vent, thus turning potential candidates away before you can even make your case. You must develop a plan to respond to these types of postings if they occur. This may involve an internal public relations specialist or HR specialist, so don't hesitate to get assistance.

Even in this era of high unemployment, it has proven difficult to find the right candidate for the right job at the right time. use every technique you can to ensure your project has the high performers it needs to succeed.

We’re about to end our month on Procurement and it looks like there is just enough time to take a different angle than just telling a vendor what you want. Try adapting to what they provide.

So say you have a consultant group who has the expertise to control much of its own work. Don’t just treat the members as interchangeable temps. Use their expertise in getting their own job done with less monitoring for you.

• Work with the group to plan its integration into the rest of your project.
• Be ready to adjust your work schedule depending on the consulting group needs, especially if they have their own project management process and techniques. You pay for their expertise, so avoid micromanaging and leave space for their successful modus operendi.
• Be ready to defend this position against those who want process consistency across the board, perhaps even your PMO.
• Be ready to take sme time and discuss your accomodations with stakeholders and others who will interact with the consultants.
• Adjust your project controls to accommodate a semi-autonomous consulting group. Let them take on responsibility of policing themselves, but get reports to track progress. All issues must be tracked together, however, no favorites here.

Many are vocal about loving to hate consultants, but of you procure such a team, squeeze out all the value you can.