Strategic Project Management

What does project management and insanity have in common? Nothing, unless your project teams suffer from what Albert Einstein defined as insanity: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

The increasing pace of change in the workplace causes me to wonder, do we take enough time to learn from experience as processes and personnel are constantly changing. In my opinion, to successfully learn from experience, we need to take a regular and consistent approach that can be incorporated into any work management methodology.

Here are a few suggestions to help any project team learn from experience:

1. Establish a venue for sharing lessons learned: It doesn't matter whether you call it a post-mortem, a project review, or a project retrospective, most organizations don't do them—but they should. It's a real shame that many project teams move from one project to another without even taking a breath, let alone taking the opportunity to capture lessons learned from the last project. 
2. Share what has been learned: Although most organizations don't bother with a project retrospective, those that do don't always create an environment that encourages learning—and even fewer share what was learned. If lessons learned are captured and then tucked away in a file somewhere, the lessons are of no value. Not only your own team, but other teams within the organization can benefit from lessons captured upon the completion of a project.
3. Don't make learning the next corporate initiative: It's natural for organizations to try to formalize the learning process into the next corporate project. Although the natural learning process should be encouraged, "corporate" is all too often the same as "bureaucratic," which employees are more likely to avoid.
4. Don't make learning a one-time activity: Project learning should be ongoing and interactive. Don't let it become an isolated activity that happens rarely.

No two organizations are exactly the same. For that matter, no two projects are exactly the same either. There are some companies that rely on project management software to facilitate project learning. It think that's great, but even organizations that don't use a specific project management tool can create an environment where project learning can take place. What does your company do to capture best practices and learn from experience?

As complicated as we try to make it sometimes, getting work done should really be pretty simple. If you break down what organizations really need to successfully execute project based work, the list is relatively short:

1. A solution that will help business leaders sift through project requests and evaluate each request based on business value, alignment with strategic objectives, and any potential risks compared to the project rewards.
2. A solution that will help manage "the process" of project planning, implementation, and execution to ensure that projects stay on track and are completed on time, on budget, and with the desired functionality.
3. A solution that makes it easy for project team members to participate in the project management  process.  Making team members jump through hoops or forcing them to become project management experts to complete tasks will only accomplish one thing—discourage them from participation.
4. A solution that gives business leaders access to real-time data validates that decisions made in the board room are being executed by project teams, and guarantees that they are looking at timely and accurate information for making future decisions.

Looking at the above list points out three obvious requirements any project management solution must include to make a work management methodology more effective and efficient:

1. It must meet the needs of project teams: I look at this from a garbage in, garbage out perspective.  If project teams don't have an easy-to-use way to input timely and accurate project data into the system—they won't.  It doesn't matter how sophisticated a project and portfolio management solution's reports or dashboards may be, if it's difficult for team members to use, it will only provide inaccurate and out-of-date information of little or no value to the organization.
2. It must meet the needs of project managers: Helping project managers "manage" the process doesn't mean forcing them to manually input status information to push up to the executive suite.  It means automating the collection of project information so that ever time a team member updates status that information is automatically rolled up into the appropriate report or dashboard.  That way, managers can spend more time helping team members be effective and successful, and less time collecting data and building reports.
3. It must meet the needs of executive decision-makers: Formalizing the project selection process makes it possible for business leaders to make data-driven decisions about which projects to pursue and which to abandon.  This enables them to make strategic decisions rather than knee-jerk reactions.  In today's economy, business leaders need a handle on what's happening within their organizations right now, not yesterday, last week, or even last month.  Accurate and timely information is often the difference between a business that is successful and thriving and one that is losing market-share and failing.

How do your project management tools address the needs of executives, project managers, and project teams?

I cut my teeth in a business of nuts and bolts (the definition of a commoditized product). My father sold industrial fasteners and I worked my way up from driving the delivery truck to outside sales. Working for him early in my career taught me that there were differences in the materials used to make bolts and how they reacted in different situations and under different stresses. I learned which type of fastener to recommend for any given situation and whether or not you would use a heat-treated bolt rather than something different.

When you look for project management software solutions, are you taking a nuts and bolts approach? Or commoditizing products and limiting your search by looking at a software features list and comparing feature by feature to make decisions about which particular work management software to buy. I think this might be a mistake. Let me explain why.

Without making a value judgment about which would be better to purchase (because depending on your use case either could be a good choice), let's look at a Ferrari and a Hyundai:

1. Four wheels—check
2. Engine—check
3. Steering wheel—check
4. Transmission—check
5. Brakes—check

You probably get my point. Although the above feature list can be met by both automobiles, there are still many differences between the Ferrari and the Hyundai. If the only criteria you use for choosing a car is the above criteria, the differences between the two cars wouldn't make a difference (commoditizing the buying decision).

In addition to the feature list above, considerations like performance, style, and what you intended to do with the car might also be considerations. When those criteria are added, there could be some situations where the Hyundai might not even be a consideration, right?

Looking at work management solutions, I believe that there are many of the same type of considerations. Most PPM software solutions offer similar (if not identical) features, making it difficult to make an accurate side-by-side comparison without commoditizing the process. In my opinion, the differences are typically identified when organizations consider what their objectives for implementing a solution include, who is going to be using the solution, whether or not the solution will accommodate current methodologies, etc. There may be times when a simple task management solution will fill the bill, and other times when a more complete and robust solution is required. In other words, neither the Ferrari or the Hyundai will work for everyone all of the time.

The commoditization of any product, including PPM software doesn't make sense unless the product being commoditized is really a commodity, like bolts and nuts. (Say that three times real fast.) Chosing the right software tools requires a number of considerations over and above the feature set. If the project management tools you use don't help make the process easier or more efficient, or provide some kind of value to the process, maybe it isn't the right solution.

How do you measure the success or failure of your software tools?

 

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been thinking a lot about the traits that successful coaches have in common. It's probably because college football season started a couple of weeks ago, but aside from that, I have always been a fan of sports metaphors generally when talking about leadership principles. As a young athlete many moons ago, I had some great (and not so great coaches). This morning, as I was doing a little bit of reading, I came across an article Jamie Walters had written for Inc.com a couple of years ago—I think it's still relevant.

"Whether on the gridiron, in the boardroom, as part of a project team, or as a personal or professional counselor, all coaches use similar tenets and tools to help others excel," writes Walters. "Coaches might implement these tools in different ways, but the common denominators present in most coaching relationships can have lasting effects on employees' performance, as well as your own."

I couldn't agree more. There were many lessons I learned from my coach while swimming laps in the pool that continue to serve me well today (despite the fact that there's no way I could ever fit into my old Speedo). Here are six strategies that Walters suggests to improve your effectiveness as a leader:

1. Have a game plan: "A clear vision and action plan ensure that all 'players' are focused on the same end-result," says Walters. I agree. In fact, I think that any project without an objective, or an un-articulated objective, has very little chance of success.
2. Associate the game-plan with individual goals: Walters suggests, "A personal coach is only as effective as the client is motivated. A coach can recommend approaches and tools until she is blue in the face, but if the client isn't genuinely focused on attaining the expressed goals ... little change will be made." Articulating the objective is just the first step. The real key to project success is getting everyone on the team motivated to achieve the goals.
3. Do Drills: "Isolate the key skills required to succeed, and develop exercises that hone those specific skills through practice," says Walters. Sometimes we assume that everyone on the project team knows what they are doing. This isn't always the case. A good coach knows the strengths and weaknesses of the team and creates drills or exercises to strengthen the teams weaknesses.
4. Put people in roles that suit their aptitude: "Fill talent voids in your organization, as opposed to filling an open job title," says Walters. "Don't be afraid to give someone new responsibilities or roles if his demonstrated traits suit what's needed." It's really easy to get caught in the trap of filling a job role instead of filling talent voids. Every day organizations turn away excellent talent because they rigidly adhere to arcane notions that titles or education are the ultimate measure of someones ability to effectively contribute. Avoiding that trap might make it a little more challenging to find the right person to fill your talent void, but it's well worth the extra work.
5. Use appropriate communication modes and content: Walters says, "The best coaches in any arena know how to mold their communication style and content to befit the person they are coaching—leading to greater understanding, better rapport, and longer retention." I think we've all been in situations where it's not what you say, but how you say it.
6. Celebrate: "Achieving goals and surpassing milestones deserve credit," argues Walters. "Celebrating these accomplishments underscores the value each person brings to the table and confirms expected behaviors—all while serving as motivators for future learning." In the grind of day-to-day work, sometimes achievements go unrecognized because of the pressure of the next objective. Taking time to celebrate a win doesn't have to take a lot of time, and helps the workforce feel like they've accomplished something. Otherwise, the job becomes a never-ending death march (which nobody appreciates).

None of these strategies is reliant on any particular project management software, but could successfully contribute to how your organization approaches project-based work and how you lead project teams. Have you had success with any of these approaches?