The Money Files

I’ve been looking at continuous improvement in project management this month, covering why it matters and ideas for building a culture where continuous improvement is the norm. Now I’m going to turn to look at what you have available to help, in terms of tools and techniques.

Luckily for us in project management, we have a range of tools available already that you are using across the rest of your project delivery work, and we can put those to use.

Tools for collecting feedback

First off, you have to make sure that you can collect the improvement ideas. We talked a bit about that in my last article (suggestion boxes) and there’s a lot more you can do – with techniques you will already be familiar with.

Surveys and questionnaires

We use Microsoft Forms for sending out lessons learned surveys and you could set up a form (on any platform) to gather feedback at various points in the project or simply have one on your team intranet page for people to suggest improvements when they think of them.

The trouble with ‘fill it in when you want’ forms is that you have to keep constantly reminding people it is there, so when they do have an idea they go to the form instinctively.

Retros

You’re probably (hopefully) already using retrospectives and lessons learned. Add in questions, if you don’t already have them, for the group to reflect on how project management processes could be changed to deliver better results.

Team meetings

Add an agenda point to your regular team meetings where you talk about what’s been improved, what improvements are being worked on and ask for suggestions. It doesn’t have to be every week, but once a quarter or something like that would work well as a reminder for the team.

Techniques for learning

Once you’ve got some ideas, you’ll want to dig into them and see if they stand up to scrutiny – and whether they are worth the effort to change. Luckily, again as project professionals, we have a range of techniques already in our toolboxes that help us do exactly that.

Root cause analysis

Use root cause analysis techniques (like the ‘5 Whys’) to identify the underlying causes of issues. Then you can focus in on what is genuinely going to address the problem.

Lessons learned databases

You’ve got a repository of lessons learned from each project, right? Take a look through that at the types of projects that have struggled in this area and what has already been done to resolve the problem. That should help prevent you from wasting time on solutions that have already been shown not to work.

Peer reviews and feedback

You’ve got experienced people on the team. They’ve come from different corporate backgrounds and industries, so make use of their knowledge and find out what has worked in their previous roles.

Project management tools

Don’t forget that we also have access to project management tools. Collaboration tools can help people communicate and work together to sort out issues. Planning and scheduling can be done for your improvements, using the tools you already have. Use your knowledge management systems to capture, store and share the ideas, improvements and lessons, so that everyone can benefit from any information created.

With all the resources available to us, it should be easy to make improvements to ways of working. So let’s say you’ve made the improvements, and you want to track how things are going and whether your improvements are having the impact you expected. That’s what I’ll be talking about next time.

It’s very easy to talk about continuous improvement, but if you’re anything like me, it’s a lot harder to build the actions into the workflows and processes you use to ensure that the improvement actually happens.

OK, perhaps that is an exaggeration. There are some simple activities that, once you realise, are easy to change and within your sphere of influence. Those are the improvements we can make simply and with minimal effort, and that everyone appreciates.

But the world of work is increasingly more complex, more VUCA, more intertwined, and changing one thing has an impact on other things. We’re not talking about updating a document template to add a new section, but rewriting workflows within project management tools, or changing how benefits are owned, tracked and reported on across the company. Those types of continuous improvements warrant projects of their own. Projects that often we don’t have the time put aside to deliver on.

Continuous improvement in project teams

What do we actually mean by continuous improvement? In my experience, when people talk about it in a project management environment, they mean the ongoing effort to enhance processes, increase efficiency, and drive better results. Whatever that takes. Like I said, it could be small tweaks or organisation-wide transformation of how projects are run in the business. And frankly, that makes it kind of hard for the average project team to effect any major change.

Still, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. So, if you want to create an environment where people have the opportunity to raise their voices when they see things that can be improved, here are some suggestions.

Set the right example

If we want to foster the right culture, people have to believe they are already in a culture where their suggestions will be listened to. So we want to demonstrate:

Leadership commitment: That’s leading by example, speaking up and suggesting improvements, pointing out where things could be better and encouraging others to do the same whenever we hear them mention a good idea.

Communication: Unsurprisingly, communication needs to be taken seriously and you need to create the time for it. If everything is rushed, they won’t feel that they can share feedback and lessons learned (outside of structured conversations or retros). Create feedback loops or ask about improvement ideas in regular check ins.

Recognise the wins: Celebrate improvements and suggestions, even if they don’t turn out to be implementable – you’re recognising the fact that an idea was brought to the group. Hopefully this will encourage others to do the same and to feel that their ideas are valued.

Make it easy to suggest improvements

People need to feel empowered to suggest improvements and to act on them. Granted, most organisations don’t have dedicated ‘innovation’ time or slack in the calendar where people can work on their own projects. But you can remove the barriers to making suggestions.

Let people work their own way: Encourage ownership on the project and let people run their area of the project the way they feel best. If they find ways to improve or change the process, let them.

Suggestion schemes: In the olden days we used to have a box at work for suggestions. These days there are forms online where we can submit ideas. If you think people would be more open to suggesting ideas anonymously, make sure these systems are in place.

Incentivise innovation: In my very first corporate job we had a scheme where we sent in suggestions and got cards back. If you matched the cards to make a picture, you got a prize. Or something like that. It was a long time ago, but there was an incentive scheme for pointing things out. What could you do that’s similar?

Build in creativity training

Building problem-solving and creativity skills is a… skill. And we can train people on skills. Find some time for training on problem solving techniques, process improvement methods, creative thinking and so on. The Six Sigma training I did in my early career was so influential in how I approach problems today. But let’s just say I’m not naturally someone who would whip out a control chart.

Something else that’s easy to do and within your control is cross-skilling team members. Cross-functional learning and an appreciation of what other people do in their job helps people see the project from different perspectives and find improvement opportunities that way.

This is an interesting topic for me and I think there’s more we can cover, so next time I’ll look at tools and techniques for continuous improvement. Watch this space!

I’ve been looking at my professional development goals for the year and while I’m not quite ready to put them out there for everyone to see, one of things I am reflecting on is continuous improvement in project management and what that means for me and my teams.

If you’ve been around project management for any length of time you will have come across continuous improvement as a concept.

For me, it means an ongoing process where teams evaluate their performance, identify areas for improvement, and implement changes that lead to better project outcomes. Sounds simple, right? The challenge I have is that even if we have the headspace to come up with the improvement ideas, we rarely have the time or the authority to make the changes.

So, what can we do? First, focus on what we can change. It’s about creating a mindset of constant reflection, learning, and evolving. And second, encourage the team to focus in on the ‘why’ of continuous improvement so the ideas we are coming up with are small enough to implement in the time and boundaries we have.

So why does it matter?

Beyond the obvious (we’re all trying to do more with less, because somehow the appetite to deliver change is just as big if not bigger than it always was, but with less staff), here are some formal reasons we are reflecting on:

Efficiency gains: How can we deliver projects more efficiently, reduce waste, and optimise resources? While working within the processes we have.

Mitigate risk: What have we learned from past projects that helps us identify and act on risks on future projects?

Collaborate: Generally, the conversations about improvements help teams build relationships and work together effectively. Any time spent together helps us understand more about how colleagues work and what ways of working are the most effective.

And what are we looking for?

Project professionals should be looking for ways to:

Deliver change incrementally: What are the small, iterative changes we can put in place that won’t overwhelm the team and that feel we are taking steps towards more effective ways of working? If it’s a big (potential) improvement, how can you break it down and make it into smaller steps so it can be phased in over time.

OK, if you have the time and capacity to do the change all in one go, and are confident that it’s the right thing, by all means go for it. But if you feel like doing things at a slower pace would be beneficial – and I think that’s the right approach – then go at that pace.

Empower people to take ownership: How do we encourage individuals to take responsibility for identifying and implementing changes? And the big challenge here for me is making sure that I have the time available to do the implementing!

Use data to make decisions: Let’s not dive in and make changes without having a real understanding of what that would affect. For example, in one project a good few years ago, a process was changed but it impacted teams downstream. Without an understanding of what that team did, I think we inadvertently made their lives harder until we did a proper process mapping exercise to understand how work flowed through the organisation.

You could also use data points from your project management software, feedback or databases and statistics, dashboards or reporting. Just don’t guess at what would be an improvement.

That’s the what and the why. Next time, I’ll look at how you can start building a culture of continuous improvement in project teams because it’s important to have some practical strategies as well. See you then!

Have you ever made a bad decision? I’m sure I have but I don’t think I’ll be owning up to them here! The point I’m making is that people who make decisions aren’t always making the best decisions. And part of that reason is bias. No one is immune to it; the best we can do is call it out and be aware that it is happening.

I was asked to talk about bias in decision making at a university recently so I thought I’d summarise some of my key thoughts on the topic here to share with you.

Biases are cognitive shortcuts, often subconscious, that impact decision-making. And research has shown that there are lots of them. I read a few papers in Project Management Journal that pointed to many biases being identified. The key ones that I wanted to call out are these.

Confirmation Bias

This is where you seeking information that supports pre-existing beliefs. For example, only looking at data that supports your conclusions, or data from successful projects and ignoring data sets from unsuccessful projects. In daily life, this might be looking out for a particular type of car and then seeing it everywhere.

Anchoring Bias

This is where your future thoughts and opinions are anchored around a particular number. For example, if you’re talking about pricing a product and someone says it should retail for £50, you might get suggestions of setting the price at £40 or £60 but it’s unlikely that anyone is going to suggest £300 as the group has been anchored around the first number they heard.

Sunk Cost Fallacy

Bent Flyvbjerg calls this escalation of commitment, which is where you justify increased cost in a project even though it isn’t performing to plan. In other words, people talk themselves into continuing a failing project because of the investment that will be ‘wasted’ if they stop now.

Optimism Bias

Haven’t we all been guilty of this? It’s where you underestimate risks and overestimate project success. We all think our estimates are realistic even when past experience shows that we need to add buffer time.

Groupthink

When a group agrees with something, dissenting voices aren’t heard with the same volume. There is pressure to conform to collective opinions, even if you don’t truly agree. Diverse groups tend to make better decisions because they bring diverse experience and opinions.

Status Quo Bias

This is where people prefer familiar approaches over innovative solutions. I think there is also an opposite to this that I have – I’d rather use new tech and explore options and learn a different tool than use the old boring tool I’ve used before. Although this is not a good thing and means I have to spend a lot more time preparing for presentations because I’m trying out new gadgets or software that I haven’t used previously!

Bias contributing to project outcomes

You don’t have to look far to see examples of the sunk cost fallacy or optimism bias in public sector projects.

But there are examples of where bias has contributed to positive outcomes – or rather, structured decision making processes let people regularly challenge assumptions to avoid getting stuck with inappropriate solutions. I asked ChatGPT for examples of bias leading to project success and it could only come up with Toyota’s lean production system actively combating bias through data drive decision making. Maybe you have other examples from your experience – if so, leave them in the chat below please!

Overcoming bias

So what can we do about it?

• Encourage diverse perspectives: keep a focus on structured debate and let the dissenting voices be heard!
• Use data: seek out evidence that will provide impartial inputs
• Externally validate data and solutions: can you use external data reference sets or focus groups to confirm (or reject) your position?
• Consider failure: what does failure look like and what might lead you there? Pre-mortems are worth a go to discuss all that before you get started.
• Reassess the business case: keep the business case under review so you avoid throwing good money after bad.

Bias is inherent in how humans navigate decision making, but it’s manageable if you are open to talking about it and thinking about ways to reduce it. What’s one bias you’ll watch out for in your own decision-making?

I’ve been thinking recently about the role of intuition in project management. We often rely on the data, processes and logical structure of project management, but if you’re anything like me, you’ve probably spent more than one afternoon feeling that something just isn’t quite right and wondering how you can define the problem when you just can’t put your finger on it.

It’s a sense that something’s off. Maybe a project is veering off track, or a team member isn’t quite clicking with the rest of the group, but there’s nothing tangible to fully explain why. Maybe a stakeholder seems hesitant to commit, or you sense the team’s morale is low, even if the status reporting is telling you everything is on track. These things might not be much today, but they might cause bigger problems in the future.

That’s where intuition often comes into play. It’s often said that project management is part art and part science, and the intuition part is definitely not science! But the art is where we navigate the complex, human part of the job.

Managing uncertainty

So much of what we do as project managers is working in an uncertain environment. It’s juggling all the facts and then applying what feels right, while sticking to the boundaries and governance structure – just writing that out makes me feel it’s a balancing act. And one we don’t always get right!

A lot of what we do as project managers is solving problems, or helping teams solve problems, and the kinds of problems my teams are faced with today feel stickier and more intertwined than the projects of 10 years ago. No matter how careful the planning, there are unforeseen challenges. And that’s where intuition steps in. It helps connect the dots between facts, previous experience and what we know will work, which is handy if you don’t have lots of time to solutionise.

Experience shapes intuition

How much do gut feelings play when you are faced with an uncertain situation? And how much are those gut feelings influenced by the years of experience and knowledge of corporate strategy and conversations with your sponsor? Probably more than we acknowledge.

We must internalise all the things to do with project context, plus all our lessons learned experience on the way, and so while it feels like we’re making a decision based on gut feeling or intuition, isn’t it really a decision shaped by professional practice and experience? (Or is that the same thing?)

Experience feeds our intuition and guides us when the situation is high-pressure or the decision is woolly. The more experience you have, the better your instincts tend to be – and not just in project management but across all facets of life generally. It’s a deep understanding of your environment and how people and processes play together. You’ve seen it happen before, either on your own project or someone else’s, or you’ve read about it or heard a conference presentation. All these things contribute to your ability to act instinctively. They inform your decision-making, creating a kind of ‘mental database’ that helps you respond more quickly and effectively when things don’t go as planned. Which is quite often, on projects!

Let process lead

We can’t manage everything on feelings, the project management process is there for a reason. However, we can’t help but manage a little bit on instinct and experience as well. The more experience you have, the easier it is to trust your gut. But as we say at work, trust but verify. Once you’ve got a sense of where you feel you should be going, check in with that reluctant stakeholder, or ask the team about how they are feeling. Get tangible data where you can to back up what you instinctively know, and go from there.