Eye on the Workforce

Welcome to a new year! This year, more than ever, project team members desire work that keeps them engaged and motivated. If they don't get it, they are tending to move on to another project or employer.  The replacement costs in time and performance will be high. It will not help your disposition either.

 In my recent article,  Principles for Adapting to New Pressures on Organizational Culture, I provided some ideas for you (whether you are a project manager or a Scrum Master) to design work to achieve this engagement. In this post, there are more ideas based on research conducted by MIT. Keep in mind the key point:  You can execute needed changes quickly for your team, even if your organization is not the best in engaging and motivating its employees.

 You, no matter your skill level, can facilitate effective improvements in social relationships at work. You just need help from the experts. Work Design Principle #3, created by the MIT group, can help you enhance social relationships in your project team by understanding what techniques are most effective. Two techniques are appropriate for project managers and are used here to get you started.

 Improve Familiarity Among Team Members

Social relationships are improved when people know more about each other and self-organize as a team. You can design easy quick activities that occur before meetings or in their own meetings to allow team members to share something about themselves even if they are shy. Here are some ideas to get you started planning.

• Have team members guess each other's hobbies from a list. Another session can be people talking about their favorite charity. These are neutral topics that can shed a little bit of light on each member, so they're not thought of as a two-dimensional role at the workplace.
• Set aside a part of meetings to provide time to allow team members to specify how they like to work with each other. Let people explain whether they prefer, for example, to have phone calls over emails, or whether they prefer to create documents over actually making presentations to stakeholders. This helps your team self-organize to make use of the preferences and strengths of its members.
• Your team will also benefit from participating in fun non-work activities. Something with a common objective is best, such as working for a charity, perhaps from your workplace or supported by your organization. Find online charitable work that can be done as a team in a limited number of days. Once complete, the sense of achievement will last.
• Even if you cannot arrange an objective-based activity, something fun that everybody does together is also beneficial. If co-located, the team can eat together periodically, go on a fun trip to the same location, attend the same event or festival. If your members are spread around the globe, this is not an insurmountable obstacle.
• Schedule special meetings to get team member comments and complete follow-up actions on recent organizational meetings, training events, webinars and so on. Work together to adapt and improve.
• If you have already completed similar activities to the above, consider whether any team members from marginalized or underrepresented groups are involved as much as others. Remedy any gaps. Everyone should get equal attention to maintain engagement, so remain aware of how your team members are participating and being involved.

Solve a Problem Together

A bond among team members is also achieved by solving a problem together.

• Choose a problem to solve that has to do with an obstacle to getting work done. A fix would bring about an achievement that would bond the team together. This could be solving a source of delay, creating a template that helps the team members complete tasks easier or some other improvement.
• Let the team choose their priority among the many sources of performance problems. For example,
  • the need for team development in new technique or skill,
  • the need for guidance from SME,
  • fixing a process bottleneck,
  • a discussion for a deeper analysis of an emerging risk,
  • training on a change in a standard,
  • clarification of a business question that has been outstanding for a while,
  • The need for Q&A with an organizational expert on a topic of interest to team. 

Your attention to social relationships will pay dividends at work and also prevent team members from leaving to other projects or employers. Not only will you avoid the hassle of keeping work progressing while replacing someone, you will maintain a high-performing team. And that will help your career.

You may have seen somewhere reports that workers across industries are quitting their jobs,  to seek better options that align with improved quality of life. One key stimulus for this is that they feel their current job is just not meaningful enough. Pandemics seem to add a new perspective the old job.

How would your project be affected if one or more team members simply resigned? At the very least, there would a disruptive period where the replacement process would have to play out. In a more difficult situation, you would face significant delays. You should want to avoid this situation, but what do you know about making work meaningful? What are you, a psychologist?

Well, maybe you do have a few tricks up your sleeve to make the situation better. And don't think it is all that difficult. You do not have to have an advanced degree in psychology to make work more meaningful. Sometimes all you need to do is show you care. Consider the following to adjust to the "new" new normal.

Remain aware of the key reasons people are giving for leaving (according to a Microsoft survey, at least, which also concludes that there are millions more ready to quit - yikes!).

• Stagnating career
• Sameness of their lives
• Lack of fair treatment
• Unnecessary income
• unsafe workplace
• Not engaged in workplace - disconnected from others

Some of these you will have little power to change, but others, such as not being engaged or stagnating career, you can help with.

Be aware also that Generations are being affected differently and it is clear that leaders are disconnected from their employees. According this report, younger workers are experiencing more negative affects than older workers. If you are not sure where to start, check with younger workers first.

Here's a quick example to show how simple a solution can be. Do you know anyone who is not satisfied with their current situation? This person may have already expressed their discontent or dissatisfaction with their job or the work environment.

• Respond to this person by determining more detail about the situation. Do they desire more flexible work hours so that they can pursue charitable work or a meaningful hobby? You may have the power to approve adjustments that make all the difference.

Not all your interventions will be easy, of course. My article on the recent site topic of Inclusion leads to an important response consideration during the Great Resignation, as this situation has been called.  If you request feedback related to job satisfaction, be ready to handle this feedback appropriately.

• Be ready to respond to someone whose comments make you uncomfortable. Someone may contradict you, or just not agree with your assessment of the situation, perhaps involving workplace fairness. Someone may have an unusual suggestion. It is important to remain open to these ideas, not to shut them down or minimize them. Remain calm.
• Keep disagreement from becoming conflict by respecting opposing views. Seek to understand more about these ideas. Set up a follow-up if needed, but show that you are interested in resolving any problem connected with the workplace.
• Act quickly on this feedback, however is appropriate for your project. If an action item is needed to improve the morale or to add meaning to worker's efforts, get started on that action item. The firs one you do will reflect on your commitment to more. First impression

Think about how the work environment affects your project team. Does it treat people as nameless resources who are required to get work done on time even if sacrifices must be made? Or does the work environment treat everyone with respect as individuals? To fix a bad work environment is complex. Your actions to improve the situation in your project does not have to be.

Start by asking project team members what would make work more meaningful to them. It may be more work that builds new skills so they can improve their career. Or maybe you need to actively assist someone to be more involved in the decisions of the team. Or someone may need time away from work to do something personally unique and exciting. Or it may be that you need to arrange a fun, non-work activity for your team where they can interact and rebuild rapport.

If the problem turns out to be similar to situations like these, you very likely have the power and influence necessary to be mount a successful intervention and to help give more meaning to worker's lives.  

Consider also this comment recently on a related article that I wrote.

BEVERELEY JAMES commented on How to Stay Empathetic During Complex Projects.

"A PM or Leader should strive for a culture that allows authentic and constructive concerns to surface so that empathetic responses can be given to address them. This type of environment does not always exist. An article on how to encourage/create that type of environment would be very helpful as well."

 This post partly fulfills your request Bevereley. I know I wrote a series on this topic and I will find that (those) ad post on this blog next time.

This is the fourth post in a series related to Robotic Process Automation* (RPA) and Organizational Change Management. The purpose of the series is to provide support for project managers during this age of digitalization. You can filter posts in this blog to find all related to "RPA".

Do you feel it? We are in the age of digitalization. Manual processes are being automated at an ever faster rate. So you, as a project manager, should be ready to manage automation projects. To be ready, you need to know something about how the technologies work and something about how the organization adapts to the changes brought about by the automation.

One of the technologies used to automate work is robotic process automation, a relatively simple technology that allows automation of repetitive, rule-based, easily defined manual steps in a matter of days. A developer programs a software robot to follow the steps a human would make to move files, fill out online forms, write standard reports from existing data in multiple applications, and more.

Organizational leaders tend to see repetitive, simple tasks as low value and so do workers who do those tasks. Everyone would rather be doing direct customer service or other tasks that are high-value for the organization, saving money, increasing revenue or building customer delight. Yet a project manager coming in with the ability to make fast changes in multiple areas still may not be successful - without a broad knowledge of organizational change management.

One of the success criteria for effective organizational change management is that workers and their leaders are provided the new skills that are necessary once the automation is established. This usually entails

• What steps are being replaced and will not have to be completed
• How to manage the workload that remains
• How to identify and handle exceptional cases that the automation cannot complete
• How to find and interpret periodic reports that the automation creates  to summarize
• How to identify and report when the automation is not functioning or not functioning properly
• How to maintain the automation and request updates/improvements.

When workers do not have the necessary skills, when they conclude that they are not going to be trained or prepared properly, they resist the organizational change. Leaders are the same way. If they do not see that they will be able to manage properly once the automations are in place, they will resist. Resistance to organizational change is one way otherwise impressive improvement efforts fail. Even though there is a strong business case, even though the organization would advance in the marketplace, organizational change will fail if there is resistance on the part of workers, stakeholders or even leaders of the workers.

Here are examples of how resistance can kill an organizational change management effort:

• Workers make it difficult to transition to having the automation take over
• Stakeholders, not confident that the change can be executed properly, resist actual implementation of the automation
• Workers complain to leaders that the automation does not appear ready or the organization does not appear ready to make the change delaying implementation of the automation

Example:  Automated Archivist

Take for example the situation where you are a project manager for an RPA project that is automating a manual process for archiving files for the enterprise that will be used for financial recordkeeping. The process entails moving files from certain shared spaces to a secure archive, allowing for data collection and analysis. The team that does this currently does not like the low value work and would rather spend time on data collection which is highly valuable in their "big data" initiative. The business case also listed reduced risk from human error in the archiving process.

But you do not manage the skills gap properly and then your project bogs down.

• You find out that workers tell their supervisor that they are not sure this can work. The automation appears to "take over" and not let them do their data collection as usual.
• Managers raise issues and require additional meetings to address how they will know that the files are archived properly, which they are responsible for.
• Finance stakeholders want a separate meeting to address their fears that financial records could be mismanaged and no one would know about it. You find out that this fear has been communicated to high levels.

That could get ugly. To avoid this resistance, you have to plan in the beginning to address the skills gap. You must put in place the communications and meetings necessary for workers, leaders and stakeholders. You must make time in the schedule for the training or other activities for the organization to adapt to the change.

So for your stakeholder management plan, add in the groups involved, including the workers, their immediate supervisors, other leaders and stakeholders. Specify what communications are expected. You should have early communications to describe the general scope of the effort, but go further. Include deliverables, such as a "user guide" for the workers and supervisors and stakeholders who will be looking at reports generated by the automation.

And for your schedule, block out time for "organizational change activities" that should be completed before you put the automation into production. That way it will be easier to organize everyone involved to be ready on time.

That wasn't so hard. Once you know more about Organization Change Management, the more you can use your existing tools in a way that will make your automation project successful. Remember, there is more on OCM and RPA in this blog. Filter on RPA. And happy automating!

* Robotic Process Automation:  Configuring a software robot, using one of the relatively new tools available, to complete a certain part of a work process formerly completed by humans. RPA is not Artificial Intelligence, but simply a way of automating the execution of well-defined business rules. Projects are short and bring quick benefits to the organization.

What  is the difference between management and leadership? Alert reader Luis Branco suggested this question in a comment to an article I wrote and it is a good question to ponder. In my experience there is less a binary definition than a continuum. On one extreme there is being a beacon for people to follow as they struggle through a dark,  uncertain period to get to a brighter future. On the other extreme is driving efficient task management.

In this post and my previous article  on "leading questions", I focus more on the leadership side for common situations in the PM world where skills should be built up. It may be a while before you are able to be an executive communicator, but you do have opportunities now to rise above common project management task wrangling and do leadership-side preparation and communications. If you are a newer project manager, this type of leadership skill can help you move into more complex projects and be recognized as a more advanced project manager. Many of us have done the same. If you have more experience, but need more focus to improve, there are tactics below to help.

Know Your Targets:  Project Team

For your leadership-side communications to your project team members,  you need to help them prepare for the future (medium-term to long-term), to understand the environment in which they work, and to see the larger context of their efforts. This context is beyond managing to a task list, no matter how sophisticated it is. Note also how this communication is parallel to an executive providing the context of the marketplace and "direction" for the organization.

Ask yourself these "leading questions". Add more questions for your situation. Not all questions are relevant to all situations, but you should have at the ready a broad list to make sure you  to stay ahead of emerging problems with your communications and actions.

1. Work Environment . . . Is there a work environment situation that may effect your team's ability to complete work? Is there a business context documented in the business case that affects how to surmount obstacles? Are stakeholders involved in conflicting work? Has the sponsor apprised of a conflicting business initiative? Is there a big change required by the team, such as a new methodology like agile, a brand new team or a new type of complex project? How do tactics for succeeding at the next phase follow new guidance or priorities from the organization or enterprise?
2. Risks/Issues /Challenges . . . What are the new risks or issues to be addressed? Has the project team been involved in looking for risks? What did the project team identify? Who is affected? How must they be involved? How best to communicate to the effected?
3. Preparation for Resolution . . . What are the next decisions to be made so that the project team can progress? What information is needed? What type of session is needed to bring participants to agreement? How is the project team best involved in preparation for resolution? How do any resolution decisions need to be communicated? Who gets the communication? When are the next meetings where communications must be made? Who needs to attend? What are their interests? How can these interests be addressed in preparation for the meeting? What information needs to be collected to resolve the issue(s)? What questions need to be asked at the meeting? How does resolution need to fit in with the business case?
4. For any of the above categories, what needs to be said to motivate the project team to be successful? How do you say it? When do you say it (at what meeting)? What can you say to help them identify specific risks in this area?

Now apply the questioning technique to a particular example:

Situation: Your project is approaching the design phase. You ask leading questions of yourself (#1 and #2)  and determine that there is a risk from some key stakeholders not receiving recent leadership communication of organizational priority on customer-centric design. Alternately, if they did receive the recent communication, they may not agree with the ramifications. As a consequence, these stakeholders may not make themselves available for the amount of time needed in work sessions to understand the design and give feedback to improve its effectiveness with customers.

Think ahead: 

• Prepare messages to communicate need for stakeholder availability based on organizational leadership initiatives.
• Determine which communication vehicles should be used.
• Determine which meetings should be used to communicate this message and obtain feedback.
• Involve your project team to come up with ideas to meet this challenge. For example, the project team should come up with ideas to communicate through a variety of methods the need for availability in design work sessions. The team can also identify stakeholders who are pushing back on new design priorities or who have not received leadership communications about customer-centric design.

Notice how these tactics, built by asking leading questions, keep you ahead of the risks and engaging your project workforce to manage the situation in a more sophisticated manner. If you were only focused on project task management, you would run the risk of not starting to address the problem until much later and in a much less-effective reactive manner. Don't be that project manager.

The project manager's life often includes facing awkward situations. Have you been impressed by leaders who maintain a confident demeanor through difficult business communications? Like those communicators, you can be a better project manager by being prepared for awkward communications with your project team, stakeholders or sponsor.

In this post, you'll learn about a couple of awkward situations and how to handle them. First, you'll see how to handle the situation where you need to hide your disagreement with a message that you are conveying. The second situation is where the message you are relaying is late and you need to make the best of that situation.

Hiding Your Disagreement

How It Gets Awkward:  Consider, for example, that you are given the task is to convey to your project team, stakeholders  a message that has come down from the leadership chain (perhaps through your sponsor) and you don't agree with it. The message may have to do with resource changes in your project or a business priority change or something similar. For example, you may have to communicate that certain resources will be shifted to another higher priority project forcing unclear adjustments to be made by all involved.

How to Remain Confident:  Despite what you want to say, it is rarely appropriate for you to express your opinion in these matters. Deliver the message in a steady, professional, factual way. But also, express empathy when you hear reactions from your audience. You can acknowledge their frustration, disappointment and other emotions while still remaining confident.

Note:  This empathy skill has become highly desirable as well as critical to success for project managers and I'm doing my best in my articles and posts to make sure that you recognize when and how to use it.

When Your Message is Late

How It Gets Awkward: There are several reasons why you might be conveying a message that would be considered late. It could be information that took longer to obtain than you forecast to your team. It could be a decision that took a long time to come from leadership that significantly impacts your stakeholders and project team.

Consider the case where your task is to communicate out that a certain project decision has been made and that you previously told sponsor and stakeholders that the decision would be made two weeks prior. It was not made by the date you forecast for whatever reason, and you know that the delay will cause your sponsor and stakeholders difficulty and frustration. (Yikes!)

How to Remain Confident When It's Not Your Fault: On first glance, it appears you can simply say or imply that others were at fault. But that builds distrust in other groups, leadership or the business process. There is no good reason for you to make a judgement here. Stay confident by saying you just got the message and are relaying it immediately. If you hear complaints about the delay, show empathy. And if someone asks why there was such a delay, you probably are not sure, so say so. Focus on the message. And empathy.

How to Remain Confident When It Is Your Fault: It's definitely more difficult to remain confident in this case. You can make the best out of this situation if you apologize and own up to the responsibility. While this is a short-term problem for your reputation, when you own up to the error you will be more trusted in the future. For example, if the perceived delay was only because of your optimistic forecast of how long it would take to get the decision, then "you'll know better next time because you know that is important to your partners". If you hear complaints, show empathy. Next, move the conversation to the actual message.

In the case where the business decision was late, whether or not the delay was your fault, the message is going to force adjustment by your audience which will likely result in a second wave of complaints or frustration. Your tendency may be to respond firmly to complaints with your judgements and action planning in order to maintain control, but this can lead you down a troublesome path. Instead, realize this communication session is likely not designed to solve all problems and to determine all ramifications of the decision. You can defer until later the actual working sessions for everyone to figure out what to do.

So the key points here are to stay confident by preparing in advance for awkward communications:

• Avoid volunteering your judgements as to whether you agree with leadership messages or decisions
• Show empathy when your target audience responds and keep showing it
• Focus on the message and its implications, but defer planning specific project adjustments until cooler heads prevail

You can use these points as guides during other examples of awkward communications as well.