A Change Manager’s guide to spring resets
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Teams
Categories: Teams
| We’ve had the delivery pressure of Q1 and now April is here! Where I am in the northern hemisphere that means we are starting to see warmer weather and everything feels lighter and nicer, and that includes work. Somehow, it’s not so hard to get through the back to back meetings when the sun is shining outside the office window. April is a bit a breather after the struggle to get through Q1, but it also comes with the pressure of knowing that a big chunk of the year has already gone. So here’s what to do – don’t panic! Many teams push on instead of pausing to recalibrate, that doesn’t have to be you. You can pause here, regroup after the first three months of the year and think about what intentional change you want to manage for your team. Let’s start with the signs to look out for.  Warning signsLook out for change fatigue showing up as disengagement or cynicism – people who roll their eyes when you talk about the plans for the year. Another thing to put on your worry list is multiple initiatives competing for the same attention. There’s only so much change an organisation can deal with at any one time, and if you failed to land some biggies in Q1, that has just squeezed the change window into the remaining nine months. Talk to the PMO or project leaders and get a sense of how they are feeling, are they OK to pause if they need to, or are we into the “Everything is priority one” syndrome? How to resetAs a change manager, you have the power to help teams reset. It doesn’t mean stopping all the work or rebranding problems as “opportunities”. It’s about clarifying priorities for the rest of the year, the pace and the purpose. It’s about explaining what teams can manage to take onboard and resetting expectations with stakeholders. Practical reset opportunitiesI know I’ve used the word ‘opportunity’ there, but I don’t mean it negatively, I promise! Here are 5 things you could do if you know your teams are struggling and we’ve still got a lot of the year left to go. Pause low-value change activity. Can it wait? Does it have to be done at all? There might be some things you can take off people’s plates that everyone will benefit from. Reconfirm what success looks like now. Success might look different now to what it did when you first set these targets. Maybe you need a bit more benchmarking, or maybe other projects have shifted the art of the possible so you can set more challenging targets. Simplify governance temporarily. I am not going to make any friends for saying that, but it will make a difference! Ditch what you can. Talk to stakeholders. Remind them why you do what you do. Talk to them about expectations and how they sit within the wider programme of change across the organisation. Just because they have expectations doesn’t mean you can meet them, and it’s better to get that out in the open now rather than closer to the delivery date. Give teams psychological permission to say “this isn’t working”. We had a long talk in my team about psychological safety at the start of the year, and it’s something we’re actively working on. Assess how your teams are feeling and what you can do to make it safer and easier for them to express concerns in a way that is listened to (and feels listened to). As a change manager, you have the option to lead in a calm, considered way, it’s a leadership choice. We don’t need panic, and project managers are the same. We should be the stabilising influence on the team, even when everything is changing around us. We don’t just drive the change, we help people through it, and that’s a real skill. |
5 Ways to Spark Creativity During the Darkest Months
| Here in the northern hemisphere the evenings seem to be starting earlier and earlier, and the mornings are much darker. I don't know about you, but I do certainly start to feel less inclined to bounce into work when the sky is grey and it feels like I'm not spending any time in daylight. On reflection, I think I'm most creative during the lighter months because I can go for a walk in nature. I can have the windows open, I feel like there's an abundance of fresh air and space for thinking. Somehow, being wrapped in my warmest clothes and sitting in my shed/office wearing fingerless gloves doesn't quite give me the same conducive environment for creativity. If you are feeling the same, here are 5 suggestions that I am going to try to help me feel more creative and to inspire some creativity in my team.
What about hosting a 30-minute brainstorming sessions on process improvements? You could take part of your regular team meeting to pick a process and talk about the kinds of things that work and don't work and what you would like to do differently.
Turn “someday” ideas into real experiments. I have a very long To Do List of ideas that I keep in my personal project management software and it's about time I clear them out so that I either take action on one or two or delete some things. You could do the same at work with your development backlog. The other thing I'm going to try to do along the same lines is to revisit my pile of books that I have not read and pick something that I'm going to start reading. This year I've read a lot less management and leadership books and a lot more fiction and while I love fiction, I do still need to stretch my horizons by challenging myself with new ideas.
Try an online course or skills swap. Perhaps your organisation has online courses that you can take or access to a subscription service where you can work through online training materials. I know that learning online is not quite as good as meeting up and having the whole in-person experience but it is a fast and simple way to take yourself out of the day-to-day and into a new world of skills and put your brain to use. If online training isn't your thing, consider signing up to attend a webinar or go to a conference.
Move meetings outdoors (warn people so they can wrap up warm!), or just change your virtual background for fun.
Use retrospectives for deep learning, not just quick check-ins. How could you re purpose these sessions so that you get to the bottom of a real problem? Use tools like the 5 Whys to dig deep into one particular problem instead of skimming over everything quickly and highlighting lots of issues. Maybe offer to run a retrospective for another project manager or another team so that you can see if their challenges are the same as yours. It might be harder to kickstart creativity during the winter months, but your creative skills are still there. You just have to create the opportunity for them to shine. |
6 Ways to Keep Momentum When Everyone’s in Holiday Mode
| In the Northern hemisphere, we’re going into hibernation mode. The weather might be getting colder but the deadlines are hotting up as we approach year end. It’s always the same: leadership teams trying to get projects done before the end of the year, often for no real reason other than it’s an arbitrary date and it lets everyone start fresh in January. However, if your financial year finishes in December, there could be good reason for trying to get everything done.
At this time of year there are also other distractions: people taking time off for holidays and the festivities. Here are 6 practical strategies that you can start using on your project to finish the year strong.
Map out who’s away and adjust your project timelines early. One of the problems I have found on projects is that I am not always told who will be on holiday because the individuals working on the project do not directly report to me. Check in with their line managers or ask each individual directly about their plans to be away over the holiday season.
Literally. Stop adding features or deliverables! When you get change requests, put them on the back burner until the new year. That will protect the capacity in the team in order to complete the work that you already have in your work stack.
Get critical tasks done before festive chaos hits. Even if you are not expecting chaos, you could still be caught off guard by key stakeholders being out of the office or decisions taking longer because decision makers are not around. Try to get decisions documented and agreed as early as possible so that your team is not held up.
Prep notes, shared docs, and checklists. If you have anything to hand over this season, make sure you're doing the prep work for it now. That also means making sure your project filing and archiving is up to date. Saved down any attachments from emails tidy up your SharePoint channels and make sure everyone is using the document storage the way that it should be used.
Bring in treats or plan some virtual thank-yous for the team. This year my project team is celebrating in November because December is too busy and it's hard to get people to have the opportunity to meet up. If that feels like it will be the same for your team, consider moving any festive celebrations earlier in the year or pushing them to January. January often has the benefit of being cheaper as well!
Schedule a January reset meeting before everyone disappears. Whether that is a lessons learned from a project before you will forget what happened, project scoping or a quarter one planning session, book the time now before all those recurring meetings start dropping into calendars. While you are at it, set up your steering meetings, any other governance meetings, regular project team meetings and anything else that needs to be in the diary on a recurring basis so that your team project sessions have protected time as you go into the new year. What else do you do at this time of year that helps you keep everything on track to end the year in a good place? |
5 Tools for resilience-building in teams
| Over the last few weeks/articles we’ve looked at different aspects of resilience and how you can boost it in practical ways. Today, I wanted to look at some tools you could use – some you might already have access to, others you might have to request or lobby for. They are all things that will help your project team feel better equipped to handle the ups and downs of delivery.
Collaboration and communication toolsHopefully you’ve already got access to collaboration tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet or Zoom to keep lines of communication open. These days I don’t know how we would work without those. Project management tools that focus on scheduling and task management are also your friend because they help everyone see the same version of the truth. They help keep tasks organised, track progress, and help you spot trends so you can deal with emerging things before they become big problems. Stress management and well-being toolsMany organisations offer access to emotional support or mental health resources. Tap into what is offered by your company but also check out the plethora of wellness apps and resources that are available on your phone. I’ve found one I like but it’s a personal choice. Maybe one team meeting, open up about the apps you use or have tried and see whether other people can recommend apps they use themselves. How about doing a yoga video, breathing exercises or a guided meditation at the end of a busy week? Whether you do this as a team or just highlight to the team that you take time out for self-care, either is good. Decision-making frameworksDecision-making frameworks take the stress out of decision-making because the process to get to the decision is clear. Make sure people know how to use a range of decision-support tools and practice using SWOT analysis or root cause analysis at non-stressful times so people can turn to those tools when they do have complicated issues to resolve. Sort out a RACI matrix to clarify roles and responsibilities, as that can help avoid confusion and stress during decision-making. Use Terms of Reference and Delegation of Authority levels to work out who can approve what up to what level. Resilience training programmesIf you’re in a position to fund workshops and training on emotional resilience, mindfulness, and coping strategies, add these to the rota of available in-house learning. Or check out what your company already offers in the way of e-learning modules on these topics. There are also courses available on platforms like LinkedIn learning if you have access to those. Recognition platformsUse your in-house or app-based recognition tools to shout out when people have done well. Celebrate success, and make it the done thing to comment on resilience, overcoming challenges – even if things go badly and the end result was a failure. If you don’t have tools or apps you can use, you could either talk to your technical teams about building one in-house (at its most simple, it’s just a form that pushes out the results to a place where everyone can see them, or even into someone’s inbox to collate the submissions to share once a month). Sometimes, calling out what there is available helps people connect resilience with the things they are already doing and it makes it less of a daunting or incomprehensible topic. Resilience in project management is not just about bouncing back from setbacks, it’s about creating teams that can thrive in the face of challenges, adapt to changes, and remain focused on achieving project goals despite adversity. And there’s plenty of change in our dynamic business environments, where uncertainties and changes are just a daily occurrence. What do you use – do you have any favourite self-care apps? Let us know in the comments below! |
5 Practical ways to build resilience
| OK, we’re back to our mini-series on resilience in project teams! Today, I want to give you more practical tips for building resilience. We’ve looked at some of the things to consider for team culture and behaviours, but now we’re looking at more specific things that you can do as a project manager to help your team bounce back and deal with challenges.
Talk about challenges as opportunities for learning and growth. If someone can’t do something or didn’t do it as well as they wanted to, it’s an opportunity for skill building and practice. The more you practice, the better you get! Put regular post-implementation or post-project reviews in the calendar. Use retrospectives. Don’t blame. And if you haven’t read Carole Dweck’s book or watched her TED talk to the growth mindset, I highly encourage you to do so.
I know, team building can feel a bit meh at times. But team-building activities and exercises can strengthen relationships and build trust among team members, so it’s worth putting a few minutes aside during team meetings for social chat, or activities, or case studies, or anything that won’t feel blergh to your team. We are doing a series of pecha kucha presentations to get to know each other better, so even simple things like that can help.
Be the leader that logs off at a normal time and doesn’t expect everyone to work late into the evening or respond to messages before they should really have logged on. Manage resource capacity across the project so people aren’t overburdened, as burnout can reduce resilience. You can’t bounce back if you have no energy to do the things you should be doing. Make sure there is flexibility for people to take holiday time away from work even in busy periods on the project. If you’re in a position to offer it, think about flexible work arrangements. Don’t book meetings when people might be out doing the school run. Encourage regular breaks, and support your colleagues’ well-being to help maintain morale.
Put aside the idea of hero project manager. You don’t need to solve all the problems for the team. Empower them to contribute ideas and solutions. You can facilitate sessions to encourage creative problem-solving, but you don’t have to have all the answers. This might require some training or support on your part for the team. They can’t solve problems without the right tools or resources, so make sure they are equipped with what they need to handle challenges effectively (before they face the challenge). That might include facilitation training, or conflict resolution training or even stress management tools – you probably already have access to some of these through your organisation.
Recognise and reward achievements, especially when times are tough. Shout out someone who solved a problem on your chat channel. Tell someone’s manager that they did a good job at solutioning. Celebrate milestones and achievements together, particularly those that demonstrate the team’s ability to overcome obstacles. You don’t have to say, “we’re celebrating resilience today!” as that not only sounds weird but might not resonate with the team. Call it out as whatever you want! What else do you do to help team members and the team overall get more resilient? Have you tried any of these ideas and what happened? Let us know in the comments! |
