The Project Shrink

Card number 15 in my series of 16 Project World Collectable Cards is titled: Organizational Journey.

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I am creating a poster about projects: Your Big Adventure. :) I started to make cards about different things you do in projects. There are a total of 16 that together make an incredible poster. To have something to talk about.

 

If you cut out all the images you can put them all together!

 

 

 

 

 

Card number 14 in my series of 16 Project World Collectable Cards is titled: Legacy.

Legacy

When a project with a deviant culture is finished, project team members become just employees again. Employees of the main culture they challenged for a short period. If the project provided benefits and value for their direct colleagues the deviance will be regarded as useful. If the project leaves the acceptance of transparency and the tools to create it behind, you have left a legacy that people will remember.

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Card number 13 in my series of 16 Project World Collectable Cards is titled: Transitions.

What do you draw when you are visualizing a project on a whiteboard?

I draw an arrow from left to right that represents a timeline. Not always. But many times.

The way you visualize, determines your focus. I’ve been playing with the simple but powerful concept of a Project Story Circle.

The project is represented by a circular arrow and is divided in half with a horizontal line.

The idea behind it is the following:

• An organization has the need for something. A challenge has to be conquered. A group of people starts a journey and brings back their result to the organization.
• The upper half of the circle represents time spent outside the project. Preparing for the voyage. And getting the results back to the place where it is needed.
• The bottom half makes up for project time.
• This will focus attention on the transitions organization-project and project-organization.
• This will focus attention on the idea that you undertake the project long before the actual project starts and that it only ends when you have gone full circle; when the actual benefits are realized.

You can use this shape when discussing projects.

• Where do people join the journey? (indicate on the circle)
• In which parts are they active? (indicate on the circle)
• Where do they expect problems? (indicate on the circle)

Talking about transitions is important. Transitions reveal patterns. And antipatterns. It’s the moment when contrast is at its peak. When everything remains the same, we don’t notice our rhythms and boundaries that much. When all of a sudden everything is changing, we start to notice what felt natural before.

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Card number 12 in my series of 16 Project World Collectable Cards is titled "Essential Conversation: Who Cares?". It covers an essential conversation you have in projects: who cares? You might known this question under the name Stakeholder Management. 

A Lesson From Oz

People are driven by their expectations. If stakeholders have something to gain by the project, and those expectations are in line with reality and vice verse, you have created a very productive environment.

Not every person is happy with Dorothy’s trip. The Wicked Witch of The West tries to stop her from reaching Emerald City. In the beginning of the story Dorothy kills the Wicked Witch Of The East by accident, and her sister from The West wants revenge. Flying monkeys are sent to stop the little girl.

Brave Dorothy keeps The Witch out of her way, with a little help from the Witch of The North. Blocking the bad influence. Keeping her own path.

The Stakeholder Adventure Map!

Invite some relevant people to brainstorm the stakeholder map. Get a whiteboard. This can be an old fashioned one, you know the kind you put on a wall. Or this can be an online version for remote organizations.

Draw an image of the goal. A treasure. A princess in a tower. A shovel.

Draw a line that flows towards the goal. Not a straight line. Create the suggestion that the Big Adventure is one that includes obstacles and challenges. The openness and flow stimulate creativity. It suggests you have room to think.

The next step is concerned with the question “Who are the stakeholders?”

For this, you basically draw people or smileys along your project road map. What is the first time they pop up? That's the place where you draw them on the flow. If you draw them closer  towards your path, they have more influence, are more important. Often you start with the obvious stakeholders, and the longer you talk about it, the more crowded the whiteboard gets.

The attitude of the stakeholders towards the project determines their behavior. Happy people are more likely to cooperate than an angry mob. With the use of smileys or + and - sign, try to assess the indicate of the stakeholder towards the project.

Not all stakeholders are created equal. Not everyone has to be involved. And you don't want to have everyone messing around with your scope. So. Draw walls between your path and the stakeholders that don't have or need an involvement. And when you draw, yell: "Block Them!" For those that need involvement draw a nice and inviting corridor (or arrow) between the flow and the stakeholder. I am still looking for a good phrase to say when you draw the arrow.

Tada! Now you have a nice Stakeholder Adventure Map.

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Bas de Baar is a writer who draws about people in transition. He loves to make visual maps and travel guides for the collaborators of our brave new world.

Card number 11 in my series of 16 Project World Collectable Cards is titled "Essential Conversations: Forecast & Choices". It covers two of the essential conversations you have in projects: the talk about expectations of the future and the one about decisions. 

Signpost Maps. Talking About Decisions During Your Big Adventure.

One of the essential conversations within projects is The Talk About Decisions. This is where you sit down with your sponsor and say: “Listen, son. We need to make decisions. Choices. Have to make them. Hear me?!” Or something more appropriate.

Before you grasp for your “10 Dimensional Decision Grid From Techno Heaven“, take a short moment and look around you. Those friendly people, with those fresh, creative and social faces, do you honestly believe they share your Excel enthusiasm?

Answer “yes”? Then knock yourself out!
Answer “no”? Use the Signpost Map.

Every project road has forks in them. Points where you can go left or right. Points where you have to go left or right.

Some things you have to decide early on, some things can be decided almost at the end of the journey. It is important to focus the attention of team members and stakeholders on these decisive moments. Not just on the content of the actual decision. But more on the fact that these forks in the road are coming and cannot be ignored.

Hurricane Maps. Talking About Uncertainty On Your Big Adventure.

When the path of hurricanes is forecasted, maps are used that show us the areas that might be hit. The further away in the future, the larger the potential area is. The weather forecasts get more uncertain if we go from one day, three day to weekly forecasts.

I love those hurricane maps. Not the hurricanes. The maps.

For me the opportunity of a "Hurricane Map" is to facilitate a discussion with people that are not necessarily into the Project Management profession and language as, well, PMs are. This adds to the notion of being on a Big Adventure, traveling through unknown territory, with a rag tag crew.

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Bas de Baar is a writer who draws about people in transition. He loves to make visual maps and travel guides for the collaborators of our brave new world.