PMO Setup T3 - Tips, Tools, and Techniques

Most project management professionals are familiar with the term, the project management triangle. In the traditional project management triangle, the three points of the triangle (scope, time, and cost) refer to the triple constraints. Originally, it was intended to help with intentionally choosing project biases and analyzing the goals of a project. It is often used, and many would suggest misused, to depict project management success as measured by the project team's ability to manage the project, so that the expected results are produced while managing time and cost. Speaking at the Gartner Group PPM and IT Governance Summit, Mark Langley, the President and CEO of the Project Management Institute, offered the following pearls of wisdom, "If we continue to speak of project management only in terms of scope, time, and cost, then project management as we know it will fail us. We need to speak of project management in a new language, the language of business, with the project management triangle having at its three points (1) technical project management in terms of what we know of per our certifications, (2) business acumen, and (3) leadership." With this comment and perspective, Mr. Langley was given a loud and lasting applause by an audience of several hundred CIOs of today's leading companies, an audience not easily pleased nor impressed.

Addressing one of those new points of the project management triangle, today we have ten tips for PMO manager and project manager leadership. These tips come to us from David Hakala, a senior executive and expert in general management, manufacturing operations, and product and process development per his blog The Zen Scrivener, The Barking Unicorn.

1. Integrity. This is the integration of outward actions and inner values. A person of integrity is the same on the outside and on the inside. Such an individual can be trusted because he or she never veers from inner values, even when it might be expeditious to do so. A leader must have the trust of followers and therefore must display integrity.
2. Honesty. Honest dealings, predictable reactions, well-controlled emotions, and an absence of tantrums and harsh outbursts are all signs of integrity. A leader who is centered in integrity will be more approachable by followers.
3. Dedication. This means spending whatever time or energy is necessary to accomplish the task at hand. A leader inspires dedication by example, doing whatever it takes to complete the next step toward the vision. By setting an excellent example, leaders can show followers that there are no nine-to-five jobs on the team, only opportunities to achieve something great.
4. Magnanimity. This means giving credit where it is due. A magnanimous leader ensures that credit for successes is spread as widely as possible throughout the company. Conversely, a good leader takes personal responsibility for failures. This sort of reverse magnanimity helps other people feel good about themselves and draws the team closer together. To spread the fame and take the blame is a hallmark of effective leadership.
5. Humility. Leaders with humility recognize that they are no better or worse than other members of the team. A humble leader is not self-effacing but rather tries to elevate everyone. Leaders with humility also understand that their status does not make them a god. Mahatma Gandhi is a role model for Indian leaders, and he pursued a "follower-centric" leadership role.
6. Openness. This means being able to listen to new ideas, even if they do not conform to the usual way of thinking. Good leaders are able to suspend judgment while listening to others' ideas, as well as accept new ways of doing things that someone else thought of. Openness builds mutual respect and trust between leaders and followers, and it also keeps the team well supplied with new ideas that can further its vision.
7. Creativity is the ability to think differently, to get outside of the box that constrains solutions. Creativity gives leaders the ability to see things that others have not seen and thus lead followers in new directions. The most important question that a leader can ask is, "What if … ?" Possibly the worst thing a leader can say is, "I know this is a dumb question ... "
8. Fairness. This means dealing with others consistently and justly. A leader must check all the facts and hear everyone out before passing judgment. He or she must avoid leaping to conclusions based on incomplete evidence. When people feel they that are being treated fairly, they reward a leader with loyalty and dedication.
9. Assertiveness. This is not the same as aggressiveness. Rather, it is the ability to clearly state what one expects so that there will be no misunderstandings. A leader must be assertive to get the desired results. Along with assertiveness comes the responsibility to clearly understand what followers expect from their leader.
10. Humor. A sense of humor is vital to relieve tension and boredom, as well as to defuse hostility. Effective leaders know how to use humor to energize followers. Humor is a form of power that provides some control over the work environment. And simply put, humor fosters good camaraderie.

To be a good leader, you do not have to be tall, attractive, or smarter than everyone else. To the contrary. Anyone can develop and cultivate good leadership skills.

Have you ever watched an episode of the TV show Seinfeld? If you have, then you know all about the character George Costanza, played by the comedic genius, Jason Alexander. In the show, George is the consummate loser, a lazy but not unintelligent man. In fact, if George would just spend as much time mastering how to do work well as he does mastering how to avoid work altogether, he would no doubt be a valued asset to any organization. But alas, and as it is, George could never be a good project manager, only fool others into believing it. Here are what would no doubt be George Costanza’s Top 10 Tips for appearing to be a Good Project Manager.   

1. Always walk down the hall with project documents in your hands. Project managers with documents in their hands look like hardworking employees heading for important meetings to talk about complex, hard to manage projects. Project managers with nothing in their hands look like they're heading for the cafeteria or maybe slipping out to play a round of golf. Above all, make sure you carry loads of stuff home with you at night, thus generating the false impression that you work longer hours than you do.
   
2. Use project management scheduling applications to look busy. Any time you use a complex scheduling tool, it looks like better project management to the untrained observer. When you produce all kinds of fancy color coded tracking ganttcharts, you look like a real pro. Never mind that the data is just a bunch of guesses or copy and pasted information from previous project documents.
3. Maintain a very messy desk. Executives can get away with a clean desk, but for the rest of us a clean desk looks like you don’t have enough to do. Set out stacks of project documents and project management schedules around and on top of your desk; go for volume, the higher the stack the better.
   
4. Bury important project documents. When you know your PMO manager or project sponsor is coming to your cubicle to talk to you about your project, bury the latest status report deeply down in your tallest stack of papers and then rummage for it when he or she arrives. This makes you look like you have a lot of project details and the project plan under control.
5. Never answer your phone, let it go to voice mail. People don’t call you to do your work, they call you to give you work, so screen all your calls through voice mail. If somebody leaves a voice mail message for you that requires you to do extra work, be sure to respond to them during the lunch hour or when you know they are in a meeting. Send yourself enough voicemails to reach your inbox limit so that people can’t even leave you a message. A full mailbox is a sure sign that you are a hardworking project manager busily keeping your project team on their toes.
6. You don’t have to be the first to arrive at work, but when the boss is around you must always leave the office late. You don’t have to actually work, of course. You can play games on your PC or make telephone calls to friends. Always walk past the boss' office on your way out and make sure he or she notices you.
   
7. When you have important emails about your project to send your boss or project sponsors, always send them at ungodly hours such as 6am in the morning or 11pm the night before. In fact, send an important email out at midnight with a follow up email at 6am. This gives the impression that you manage your project 24x7.  
   
8. Learn how to sigh. When you are in project team meetings or even meetings with your boss, a loud sigh gives the impression that whatever discussions you are having in the meeting is of little importance to you and all of the more important work that you need to get back to. 
9. Use a dictionary to learn words that nobody else knows and use the latest industry jargon to impress people. Rather than saying software-as-a-service say cloud. Instead of saying project portfolio, say initiatives stratiform. Instead of saying post project audit, say benefits management intervention. The more that people have no idea what you are talking about, the more that they will be impressed with you.
   
10. Always display a facial expression of impatience and annoyance. Your PMO manager and project sponsors will assume that you are impatient and annoyed because you have so much to do. Hence, they will not give you extra work or ask for extra reports and information. You can practice this with your wife. (Author’s note: I am not being sexist, but these tips are really only for men. There just isn’t a female equivalent to George Costanza.)

Naturally, these tips are not recommended for anyone seeking to be a good project manager. But in the spirit of learning what to do by taking a moment to reflect upon what not to do, these tips provide a few pointers. Do the exact opposite of these tips and you just might find tremendous success as a project manager. In fact, that very idea “Opposite George” was one of the TV episodes of the Seinfeld show in which by doing the opposite of his every instinct, George landed a hot girl at the coffee shop and a job at the New York Yankees.

Recognizing bad techniques and doing the opposite. Give it a try. And as always, if you have a favorite tip or technique for "What Not To Do", I hope you will take a moment and share them with us.

In the cartoon above, the project sponsor is just a little bit unhappy with the project manager and project team. Why? Well, what the project team is delivering is not exactly what the sponsor wants on account of a misunderstanding of requirements. Naturally, a project manager is likely to have such things as requirements clearly documented and agreed upon with the sponsor and even signing to that effect somewheer on the docuemnent. But nonetheless, no project is without endless opportunities for difficulties and mishaps of all kinds. Just because a sponsor signs a document, that doesn't always mean or guaranty a meeting of the minds.

One communication technique that many folks advocate is the "Confirmation Conversation" technique. In this technique, the person listening to another repeats back what the other person just said and as close to word for word as possible. Confirmation greatly helps to ensure that both parties, the person talking and the person listening, are on the same page. For example, the listener might say, "If I understand you accurately and completely, you said...." and then restate the information that the person speaking just communicated.

This technique helps to clear up two kinds of communication problems. First, the speaker might not be saying what he or she really means. It is not all that uncommon that what one says and what one really means can be two different things. And of course the other kind of communication problem is when the listener doesn't hear what the speaker really said.

I am reminded of both of these kinds of problems by my dear neighbor who grounded his daughter from messaging to her friends on account of her text messaging from her phone at dinner. A few hours later, he was unhappy to find her text messaging from her PC which she thought was perfectly okay and not subject to the no-more-messaging punishment. Both father and daughter were not quite on the same page.

The Confirmation Conversation technique. Give it a try. And as always, if you have a favorite tip or technique for effective communications, I hope you will take a moment and share them with us.

In the cartoon above, the chief executive officer asks the PMO manager about what plans if any the PMO has for helping the company to improve outcomes for all of the informal projects that they have. This was a legitimate question. The answer given by the PMO manager was far less than legitimate. For most companies, to deny that there are a tremendous number of informal projects that take place within every nook and cranny of divisions, business units, and departments would be much like the ostrich with its head in the sand. And, some might argue, to suggest that a way for the PMO to deal with these informal projects is to call them something else, say task work, would be just a bit myopic and worthy of a reprimand.

Sure, functional management has a responsibility to ensure that whatever skills are needed by their direct report employees in the workplace are acquired, developed, and improved upon. But consider the following:

• For most companies, it is a functional manager responsibility to ensure that their direct reports abide by the security policy. Nonetheless, Corporate Security does actually care and in many cases has a performance measurement to ensure success.
• For most companies, it is a functional manager responsibility to ensure that their direct report managers abide by the human resource (HR) policies such as performance planning, counseling and evaluation. Nonetheless, HR does actually care about how it is going and in many cases has a performance measurement to ensure success.
• For most companies, it is a functional manager responsibility to ensure that their direct reports abide by the company's code of ethics and business conduct guidelines. Nonetheless, Legal does actually care and in many cases has a performance measurement to ensure success.
• For most companies, it is a functional manager responsibility to ensure that their direct reports abide by corporate credit card policies. Nonetheless, Finance does actually care and in many cases has a performance measurement to ensure success.
• And on and on.

So why are many, not all, PMOs so "myopic" and seemingly oblivious to Organizational Project Management. And by Organizational Project Management, this is not to mean OPM3 at all which is really just a construct of maturity intended for and limited to the formal plan-driven projects, programs, and portfolios of an organization, rather it (Organizational Project Management) is intended to mean project management that exists throughout the organization - formal and informal, plan-driven and non plan-driven.

If you have taken the time to read this post, I hope you will take just a little more time to offer up an answer and rationale why PMOs should or should not play a role in improving outcomes in organizational project management. After a few days, I will give an answer to this question and rationale which I am sure will surprise many of you..!

In the cartoon above, the chief executive officer informs the PMO manager of his decision to promote the PMO manager to the Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development. In the context of this company, this is a tremendous promotion and a reflection of the PMO manager's value to the company. Of the many reasons why the PMO manager was an outstanding candidate for this open executive position, the PPM meeting held earlier in the day was yet another one of those reasons. And, the PPM meeting served to convince the chief executive officer that the PMO manager should be immediately promoted and also given a big pay raise, the corner office with a view of the perennially snow-capped mountains, a company car, membership to the golf and country club that the company belonged to, and most importantly, a personal assistant.

So what exactly happened at the PPM meeting..? Well, the leadership team was having their regular meeting to discuss and select new projects. All was going well. And toward the end of the meeting, two final projects were being considered for selection. Much of the evaluation criteria for the projects were exactly the same as shown below.

Both of these projects are outstanding projects to consider and they both ranked high on the PPM Tool Scorecard. Unfortunately, the company can only choose one of the two. Nine of the ten members of the PPM steering committee placed their votes for Project A, but one of the ten, the PMO manager, voted for Project B. After explaining his rationale, all other nine members changed their votes to Project B as well. Assuming all of the above PPM data is accurate, what possibly could the PMO manager have said to get all nine other members of the PPM steering committee to change their vote from Project A to Project B..?

If you have taken the time to read this post, I hope you will take just a little more time to offer up an answer and rationale why Project B might possibly be the better project of the two..!

(THE ANSWER TO THIS QUIZ IS ON PAGE 1 OF THIS BLOG - Posted by Mark Price Perry on Monday, December 19, 2011)