Strategic Project Management

I don't think it really matters whether your a Republican or a Democrat, it's interesting to watch the implosion of the current Republican primary and not ask if this is a struggling project doomed to fail. Sometimes recognizing when good ideas have gone bad requires that we pull the plug before before too many resources are wasted and there's no way to save the project.

It's not uncommon for project stakeholders to disagree on the focus of any given project, sometimes making it difficult to zero in on objectives and outcomes. I wonder if that's what's going on with this year's primary season?

Most analysts would agree that it would literally take an act of God for either Santorum or Gingrich to win enough delegates to capture the nomination of their party for president. Nevertheless, they (Gingrich and Santorum) continue to badger and attack the front runner, potentially handicapping his ability to face their Democratic rival in the fall. Meanwhile, the President can quietly sit back, raise funds, rally his base and prepare to run against a fractured and disjointed Republican opponent (who will likely be Governor Romney).

If this were a project, I'd probably cut my losses, stop spending millions of dollars on the two losing campaigns and try to rally the troops toward the objective of a victory in the fall. Democrats, on the other hand, are having fun watching the party tear itself apart. I'm really looking forward to the general elections in the fall.

Ideally, the criteria for putting a DOA project out of its misery should be determined prior to the project beginning. What's more, project management best practice suggests that the "firing squad" should be identified before the project begins. Sometimes in the heat of battle, or the primary, it's difficult to dispassionately consider discontinuing a troubled project.

There's seldom a single reason projects fail. Regardless of the reasons, scrapping a doomed project is difficult for most project managers. That being said, I wonder how long it will take before the Republicans pull the plug on the current struggling project we call a primary?

How do you determine when to scrap a lagging project?

If you've been reading this blog for any time at all, you know that I'm a big fan of empowering employees so they can perform at their best. When I noticed Grant Derner's article, 5 Keys to Empowering Employees, I had to click on the link. Kindred spirits, both Grant and I believe that today's workforce wants to contribute to something bigger than themselves and longs to be managed by dynamic leaders who can share the passion and vision for what they're doing. When this happens within an organization, your have companies like Apple, Nike and Electronic Arts creating products that define markets and energize their customers.

I think the same thing can happen within any project teams. Here are Derner's 5 Keys:

1. Challenge and Inspire: "Today's modern generation of talent is one that desires to personally contribute at a high level and to be 'managed' by inspirational leaders who challenge their ability to innovate and generate results through their own empowered performance," writes Derner. I've found this to be true. I've discovered that people really want to contribute to something bigger than themselves, and if we can create an environment where they feel it can happen, they typically step up to the challenge. Doing that requires that we give people some freedom to make decisions for themselves and appropriately recognize their accomplishments.
2. Stay Informed: Dermer suggests that successful business leaders "...consistently take time to personally reflect on their management activities from a leadership perspective and work to enhance their overall leadership skills as they continue to grow professionally." I agree. As project leaders, I think it's critical that we invest in learning and executing those best practices that enable us to improve our skills and provide more value to the team.
3. Stay Personal: "Successful business leaders additionally acknowledge that leading teams requires an investment of time focusing on communication as they work to build an organization that is agile and empowered," writes Dermer. Over the years I've learned that business is all about personal relationships. I've known managers who have tried to keep everything impersonal and distant, but I disagree with that approach. Empowering employees requires people to make a personal connection to their work—it also means that the entire process is personal too.
4. Create an Empowered Culture: According to Dermer, "To raise the empowerment bar it is important to build an environment throughout your organization that genuinely encourages and rewards individuals to make self-directed decisions independently with the best interest of your customers and the corporation in mind." Many project leaders might consider this to be a little risky, but the most successful project environments I've witnessed have an empowered culture where team members not only have a voice, but enjoy some autonomy in how they do their job and who they do it with. An empowered culture facilitates empowered team members.
5. Encourage Above and Beyond: "Finally, almost every successful business leader will affirm that today's empowered workforce also requires more consistent recognition compared to teams in the past," says Dermer. "Today's modern performers thrive on recognition and this can be delivered both inside and outside of the confines of the office." There are as many different ways to recognize exceptional performance as there are individuals—from a simple thank you to a formalized recognition in front of the team or organization. What will work best for your organization is up to you and your team. I like to keep it specific and, if appropriate, make it public. Recognizing accomplishment encourages people to go above and beyond what my routinely be expected.

After reading the list, I have to admit that Dermer doesn't really bring up anything new, but that's the beauty of empowering people to perform at their best. It does require a little effort, but nothing that is out of the reach of every organization and every project team.

What are you doing to empower your team members?

The Knicks are back on the skids. With the return of superstar Carmelo Anthony, the Knicks have lost eight of their last ten games. How is that?

In the New York Times, Howard Beck reports, "Mike D'Antoni and the Knicks parted ways Wednesday—an event that seemed fated once the franchise acquired Carmelo Anthony, an immense talent whose individual playing style clashed with D'Antoni's spread-the-wealth offense."

I have to admit, after all the success the New York Knicks had experienced recently with Jeremy Lin and D'Antoni's offense, I'm puzzled that the organization would choose to focus on a single superstar rather than winning games—but then I'm not the general manager of the Knicks.

I don't think it's a stretch to suggest the project teams that rely on the efforts of one key player are less likely to succeed. Successful project teams seem to nurture and engage everyone on the team.

I work with a colleague, the manager of another team, who feels like part of his responsibility is to nurture the talent on his team. He consciously spends time helping them develop the talents they’ll need later in their career. He does this by giving them opportunities to stretch and take on new challenges. Although this might sometimes take a little more work, he (and I) think it’s worth it. Consequentially, he’s had some star performers on his team. Some are still there, others have moved on to new opportunities.

I’m convinced that there are some key elements to nurturing talent:

1. Empower people with ownership and flexibility regarding their contribution to the team. Let them contribute to establishing benchmarks and defining their role. Give them some decision-making power about how they’re going to do their work. After all, those closest to the work understand it the best.
2. Allow for mistakes. Creating an environment where people can learn and develop means you’ll need to create a safe environment for making mistakes and learning from those mistakes. Most skills can be developed with practice and coaching, but it might sometimes require some patience on your part. Fortunately, the rewards are usually worth it.
3. Invest your time. I don’t think there’s any shortcut to spending time with your people. If you don’t set aside time for one-on-one discussion with the members or your team or the people that work for you, you should. You might be surprised at the things you’ll learn—including talents that you weren’t aware of within your organization.
4. Take a risk now and then. It might not always pan out, but a willingness to give someone a chance to come off the bench during a critical project might help you discover a real gem. What’s more, you might find out that the people you thought would be star performers aren’t.

A colleague who knew I was writing about this today, just sent me an article written by Brian Koppelman titled Caremlo Anthony: Joy Wrecker. I think he sums up the situation for the Knicks and most project teams quite well. "The Knicks are a winning team without Carmelo, and a losing team with him. I can talk about shots per game, Mike D'Antoni's offense, Amar'e Stoudemire's conditioning, but what it comes down to, in the end, is that Carmelo Anthony, on the court, does not care about anything but Carmelo Anthony."

In my opinion, that's a toxic way to run a basketball team, a project team or an organization.

I don't think it matters if you are leading an organization or a project team. Great leaders stand out and share many of the same qualities. Earlier this morning, I came across Jeff Haden's article on Inc.com. Although his articles aren't directed at project leaders, I think the five common qualities he calls out are relevant. What do you think?

"Remarkable bosses aren't great on paper," aruges Haden. "Great bosses are remarkable based on their actions."

I think this applies to project leaders too. Here are the five qualities:

1. Develop every employee: "Sure, you can put your primary focus on reaching targets, achieving results, and accomplishing goals—but do that and you put your leadership cart before your achievement horse." I think this is particularly true of project teams. The linchpin to whether or not a project is successful isn't really the plan, the tools or the project manager. It's whether or not every contributor on a project team takes ownership of his or her role, steps up, and executes at a high level. When our focus becomes more team, and even individual, development focused, high performance falls out of that. Efforts that rigidly focus on productivity often fall short. "It's your job to provide the training, mentoring, and opportunities your employees need and deserve. When you do, you transform the relatively boring process of reviewing results and tracking performance into something a lot more meaningful for your employees: Progress, improvement, and personal achievement," says Haden. As a project leader you might not see it as your job to do this, but if you take some time to help create an environment where this can happen, you'll see positive results.
2. Deal with problems immediately: "Nothing kills team morale more quickly than problems that don't get addressed," he suggests. Whether they are personal problems or issues associated with a project, they're distracting and often lead to project failure. Over the years I've seen a number of leaders push forward as if problems will go away if ignored. They never do. Hayden suggests, "Deal with every issue head-on, no matter how small." I agree.
3. Rescue your worst employee: Almost every business has at least one employee who has fallen out of grace: Publicly failed to complete a task, lost his cool in a meeting, or just can't seem to keep up," writes Hayden. "Over time that employee comes to be seen by his peers—and by you—as a weak link." Mistakes and missteps are part of the project environment. I've noticed that sometimes summarily cutting these people loose is shortsighted. Working with marginal performers or those who are struggling can be very rewarding. It doesn't always work, but "...occasionally an employee will succeed—and you will have made a tremendous difference in a persons professional and personal life," he writes. Some of the achievements I'm proudest of are helping struggling employees back from the brink.
4. Serve others, not yourself: According to Hayden (and I whole-heartedly agree), "You can get away with being selfish or self-serving once or twice... but that's it." I'll admit that this is sometimes difficult to do, but when the team is successful, you are successful. Your success is really a reflection of the team's success. What's more, Hayden suggests, "When you consistently act as if you are less important than your employees—and when you never ask an employee to do something you don't do—everyone knows how important you really are."
5. Always remember where you came from: "See an autograph seeker blown off by a famous athlete and you might think, "If I was in a similar position I would never do that." Unfortunately, some business leaders do. I have often seen senior leaders dismiss junior members of the team because they are "junior." I've also seen lots of incredibly talented young people blown off by veterans because they are still "wet behind the ears." Big mistake. I am ever grateful to the senior members of the team who mentored and instructed me when I entered the workforce. They remembered where they came from—I try to do the same.

What do you think? Do these behaviors apply in the project environment?

Basketball is on a lot of people's minds these days. With the first games of the NCAA tournament over and part of history now, I couldn't help but make the comparison between a winning basketball team and a winning project team.

I recently stumbled upon a Reuters Management Tip of the Day that speaks to this connection, "Once the lofty subjects of purpose, goals and plans have been determined, team leaders need to pay attention to the actual mechanics of how the team will actually do its work."

Much like how a winning basketball team relies on its players to focus on their positions and how they relate to each other, a winning project team does the same thing to do its work. Here are four things that need to be clear for every team:

1. Roles and Responsibilities: "Every member needs to know their tasks and how their work will contribute to the overall goals." When team members are expected to consistently perform at their best, everyone needs to have a clear understanding of their role and how it relates to project success. If team members are unsure about what they are supposed to be doing, the likelihood of project success isn't very good.
2. Work Processes: "You don't need a notebook full of procedures, but agree on how to carry out the basics—such as decision-making or communicating." I have to admit that I'm a big fan of using the simplest solution possible to achieve the desired results. Doing that requires that everyone understands how decisions are made, fundamental practices that are acceptable and how the team is going to communicate and collaborate with each other. Once the basics are established, it's easy to determine if a particular initiative is going to require a complex project plan or a simple task list.
3. Rules of Engagement: "Establish a constructive team culture. Discuss the shared values, norms, and beliefs that will shape the daily give-and-take between team members." This is an important part of building a top-performing team. For the most part, people seem to understand how to work with each other and play nice, but don't assume that they do. I've worked with team members who didn't, and they were unaware or didn't care about how their actions or attitudes impacted the rest of the team.
4. Performance Metrics: "How will you measure progress? Define the measures for meeting goals, and the consequences for not meeting them." Imagine how challenging it would be for a basketball team to perform at their best if the rules to the game were constantly in flux (maybe even in the middle of a game). Yet, the rules and metrics we use to measure team performance are constantly changing in may organizations.

When everyone on the court understands their role and what's expected of them, it might not make it easy to bring home a win, but it makes it possible. Getting everyone on the project team on the same page not only increases the odds of project success, it empowers team members to step up and perform at a higher level, it fosters a positive environment where everyone is working for the same goals, and creates a working environment where people are better able to create and invent.

Does your team really know how they are going to work together?