Strategic Project Management

Visibility can be a double-edged sword. In other words, it has the potential to cut both ways depending upon how it's used. Although it is a very effective tool to help a savvy project leader motivate and maximize the value of the team, it can also be used as a stick to micro-manage and beat down the team (an ineffective at best, demoralizing tactic at worst). Having experienced both uses of visibility myself, I'm not only opposed to using the power of visibility in such a small-minded way, I'm amazed that so many organizations insist on doing so.

With that in mind, let me share with you some of the ways a project leader could use visibility to benefit the team:

1. Visibility can give everyone on the team a clear understanding of what they should be doing: I know this sounds simple, but sometimes it's easier said than done. When people have to spend time figuring out what they should be doing, it wastes time. When Visibility is available to everyone on the team, project leaders and individual team members, they have a complete understanding of what needs to be done, who needs to do it and whether or not things are on track.
2. Visibility makes it possible for project leaders to see how the team is doing and where they can provide help, facilitate collaboration or remove roadblocks: It doesn't make sense to force project leaders to spend time struggling to figure out what everyone is doing, when it could be readily available. Visibility into what team members are doing makes it possible to facilitate a productive work environment (this is one place project leaders need to avoid the temptation to micro-manage).
3. Visibility makes it possible to keep everyone focused on those things that contribute to the project and provide value: Many project teams are often pulled in different directions as scope changes or cross-departmental demands arise. If this doesn't happen in your organization, consider yourself fortunate. However, if it does, visibility into what's happening within project teams makes it possible to keep teams on track and focused.

I don't include it in the list (because it has the potential of being used as a really big stick), but accountability is what many businesses are looking for visibility to provide. I'm all in favor of accountability generally, and have found it to be very valuable in motivating team members. I'm a real believer that when team members feel ownership, or accountability, for something they tend to step up their performance. That being said, "cracking the whip of accountability" is another matter entirely (and possibly the focus of another post sometime in the future).

Do you have visibility into your projects? How do you use that visibility to motivate and lead the team?

 

Last night on the way home from work, I stopped by the eye doc to get my eyes checked and update my prescription. After a few minutes of "Is this better?" and other miscellaneous tests to check my eye health, I wound up with a new prescription and some new lenses for my glasses. Driving into work this morning, I couldn't help but notice that I could see things a little more clearly and the glare of oncoming headlights had diminished a bit. I've worn glasses since I was fourteen years old—and have come to appreciate that "visibility" is a good thing.

It doesn't really matter what kind of projects you are involved in, visibility is critical for making informed decisions. What's more, achieving real project visibility isn't something that just happens because we wish it to be so. Sometimes (not unlike an eye exam) it takes a little experimentation—"Is this better?"

That being said, I think achieving real project visibility will require us to think outside the box. What's more, the linchpin to achieving real insight into what's happening in projects isn't the software tool used, the work management methodology employed or even the project manager—it's all about individual team members. Once we are able to make it easy and valuable to team members to participate in the project management process, project and business leaders will enjoy an uninterrupted stream of accurate and timely project data. That's right, I actually suggested that participating in the process needs to show some kind of value to individual team members.

Let's face it, we've been begging, cajoling, ordering and expecting team members to contribute accurate project data since the first team project. Unfortunately, team members have demonstrated that they perceive it as a waste of time or even an unnecessary burden added to their workday—making the methods we've used for the last 40 or 50 years ineffective. Many project groups actually have individuals whose only responsibility is to personally communicate with every member of the project team and collect status data. I don't think that could be considered real "visibility" in any project leader's book.

Engage the team, give them a good reason to contribute (and a big stick is NOT a good reason). Experiment for yourself and see if your project teams will respond to a little more autonomy. See for yourself if allowing team members to consider and commit gives you better results and more accurate information than command-and-control. You might be surprised.

Let us know what happens. You might enjoy your new pair of glasses.
 

Reading Deanne Earle's Change Through Action Blog this morning, today's post titled "Empowerment—Yeah Right!" inspired me. Deanne suggests, "In my opinion when employers talk about empowerment what they're really saying is they seek to encourage their staff to think for themselves, to come up with ideas, participate, and generally show initiative within a set of controls and after specific direction."

You had better read that last sentence again. Particularly the end. "...within a set of controls and after specific direction."

This sounds like having your cake and eating it too. This isn't real empowerment, this is pseudo-empowerment—the illusion of empowerment. Deanne cites a book written by William Tate, "The Search for Leadership." "Henry Mintzberg (1999) offers the view that real empowerment is the most natural state of affairs: people know what they have to do and simply get on with it. If an organization exhibits real empowerment, it doesn't need to talk about it."

I agree with Deanne, I believe most organizations like to "talk the talk," but can't seem to "walk the walk."

Like most of us, I've worked for people who believe that the only way to get things done right, is to do it yourself. This kind of attitude is NOT empowering to employees. Fortunately, I've also worked for people who believe that hiring people smarter than themselves and allowing them make decisions and solve problems is the best way to get things done.

As Deanne asserts, "In an organization where control is king, telling people they're empowered is contradictory and nonsensical. People aren't stupid so insulting their intelligence in this way is dis-empowering. They know that this type of culture doesn't permit let alone support empowerment."

Deanne is spot on in my opinion. If your workforce (or project teams) don't believe they are empowered, they won't operate that way. "It doesn't matter what the talk is," says Deanne, "if the perception is one of disbelief they will not feel empowered."

Creating an environment where the team not only feels empowered, but is able to act that way, is something that sets apart the true project leader. In my experience, trusting the team to do their job and empowering them with the ability to do so, just makes sense. Most people "step up" if given the opportunity. If you have team members who don't, or won't, in reality maybe you need to start looking for replacements.

Leadership is not about micromanaging, it's about facilitation, teaching, and ... dare I say it ... empowering.

Have you ever worked with or lead empowered teams? Why don't you tell us about the experience.
 

Albert Einstein said, "Learning is not a product of schooling but a lifelong attempt to acquire it."

Over the years I have had colleagues on both ends of the spectrum. Some are voracious learners, sucking up everything they can to learn something new. And, I've had others who would excuse themselves by saying they were too old, too tired or just unmotivated to learn anything new.

In a field as dynamic as project management, I don't believe we have the luxury of being able to sit on our laurels and stop learning. Every day I learn something new. Sometimes it's from a book I'm reading, sometimes I hear something on the radio or a podcast and sometimes I learn something from a colleague at the office (often from someone a lot younger than myself).

Unfortunately, there are many of us who don't take the opportunity to continue learning. For example, did you know that according to an article written by Alan Fram for the Washington Post in August of 2007, one out of four Americans didn't read a single book the previous year? I know the statistic is a little old, but I can't imagine that it's improved. In a report titled Reading at Risk, produced by the National Endowment for the Arts, only 57 percent of American adults had read a book in 2002.

Of course reading isn't the only way to measure whether or not you are committed to lifelong learning, but it's an important measure. And, I'd like to believe that my colleagues in project leadership are probably on the other side of the bell curve.

For example, of those who do open up an occasional book, the median readership for men is five books a year and increases to nine for women. Those with college degrees tend to read more than those without and if you're 50+, odds are you read more than your younger colleagues. I also found it interesting that Democrats and other liberals tend to read more than Republicans. Hmmm.

The project leaders I know, who tend to be the most able in their chosen profession, tend to be among those above the median. What's more, and this is a totally anecdotal observation by me, they read everything from novels and business books to history and psychology. I think it's more about putting new stuff in the old noggin and using it, than it is about the particular things you read.

With that in mind, crack open a book and learn something new. Feel free to share your reading list here. I'd love to add some new books to mine.