Voices on Project Management

By Cyndee Miller

Alexis Ohanian has racked up quite a list of accomplishments in his 37 years. He cofounded Reddit, sold it and then came back to help rescue it. He wrote a bestselling book. He cofounded a seed stage venture fund. But when it came time to have a chat with one of his fellow speakers at the latest gathering in PMI’s Virtual Experience Series, he seemed deeply concerned that people were going to be convinced he was a slacker. It wasn’t entirely unjustified. He was, after all, talking to Tanya Elizabeth Ken, the 17-year-old founder of LakshyaShala, an NGO dedicated to helping kids around the world gain equal access to education.

No shocker here, both of them had some interesting thoughts on how to revamp the educational ecosystem—a timely topic as kids around the world head back to school.

Introducing children to the virtual classroom forms habits that impact future work behaviors and outcomes. “Teaching someone how to learn online unlocks all kinds of doors,” Ohanian said.

With the vast power harnessed by digital learning comes an even greater responsibility to create platforms that are accessible. Despite all of the technological advances spurred by the global pandemic, systems of education remain unbalanced across the globe.

“Virtual learning can reach a wider audience, but we need to take into account the people who don’t have the access/resources,” said Ken. “If you want to solve a problem like equality in education, then we need to solve all the hindrances families are seeing.”

There’s still work to be done, she said. And while improving access to education sits high on her priority list, so too does improving the quality of education.

“The education system does not teach us entrepreneurship and project management skills,” Ken said.

Ohanian admitted he didn’t think much about project management until college and even then he used it mostly to plan his EverQuest guild or Quake 2 clan. But he also said those skills were the only way he was able to develop Reddit. “Project management is how you build a startup,” he said. (It’s also apparently how he helped plan his rather complex wedding. “It wasn’t always that romantic, but it was effective, gosh darn it.”)

Whatever the project you’re working on, this is a time that demands the ability to contend with astounding change. And empowering students to think of themselves as problem-solvers builds that agility from early on, said Ohanian. “Real life doesn’t have a syllabus,” he said. “The more a student can exercise the muscles of resilience, the better.”

Part of building resilience—on projects and in the classroom—is pushing past failure.

“You’re taught to avoid failure at all costs as a student, to get good grades, but life is full of failures and setbacks,” he said. “Get comfortable with failure—not because you’re not doing the work, but because struggling and disappointment and learning from it, that’s life.”

That theme of resiliency bubbled up quite a bit and it’s no doubt emerging as the new must-have skill as we all attempt to navigate the next normal. The goal shouldn’t be to just bounce back, but to bounce forward, said session speaker Greg Githens, PMP. Expect to be surprised—and seize the unknown, he said. Don’t let uncertainty stall progress: Do a lot and do it now, said session speaker Norma Lynch, PMP.

So get cracking. And get ready for the next Experience PMI event, “A New World View: Our Global Impact,” slated for 20 October: http://ow.ly/569n50Biskx

Before we reconvene on the Interweb, tell me: How are you becoming a more resilient leader?

by Emily Luijbregts

I often take on the role of escalation manager. I’m brought into projects when things are going wrong. It’s my goal to bring the project back on track and repair the working relationship with the teams and the end-customers to ensure we can have a lasting, productive partnership.

Rebuilding a poor relationship with your clients takes time, effort and sincerity. You need to be able to convince those involved that you’re the right person for the job—that you can be the change they need to see on the project. You also need to be clear with your own management about whether it’s worth the time and effort required.

What’s Happening?

The first thing I do when I come onto projects is talk to the key members of the team and the customer so I’m aware of the conflicts, issues and expectations. This step is the most important—you have to look at the current situation before you start investigating the history

Next, it’s time to look at the wider impact. What’s happening in the organization? Where did the issues arise from? This is where demanding honesty from all parties comes in because you need to understand the environment in which the project has been operating and look at the influences that have affected the project up to this point.

Here are a few common reasons why relationships get derailed, based on some of my experiences:

Poor expectation management

Was a Ferrari promised to your client and you’ve delivered a bicycle? Were the deliverables clear and understood by the customer? A lack of alignment is one of the easiest ways projects can be derailed—and cause a lot of frustration between end customers and the project team.

Resourcing issues

Sometimes it’s the wrong people are on the project. Either they’re not suited to the team or they don’t have the skills to perform the necessary tasks. As an escalation manager, you must have the authority to work with human resource managers to change or bring in different people to achieve project goals. If you don’t have this support or authority, then you need to have the sponsor’s support to train people. You also need to make sponsors aware of the additional time and money required and the impact on the project schedule and budget.

Core issues with the project itself

This comes down to how the project was started. Is the foundation of the project solid? Or are the aims of the project unclear/no longer relevant? Based on your findings, it may be that you need to have a difficult conversation with the sponsor/key stakeholders to stop a project that no longer fulfils the end goals or will be unable to achieve the objectives.

Now What?

Once I fully understand what’s going on, I lay out the next steps, the timeframe of when things will happen, what they can expect/not expect and what I’m expecting from them. As escalation manager, I’m completely honest—about the issues we’re facing, about my role. what I’m able to achieve (and not able to achieve). And, more importantly, I demand everyone else is honest—some of the biggest issues that I’ve seen on troubled projects come from little white lies.

From there, I follow these steps:

Plan realistically. Make sure whatever you’re doing moving forward, you have a realistic plan—and that it was created with everyone’s full support and buy-in of tasks. This can take some time but it ensures everyone is aware of what needs to be done and on what timeline as well as the critical path/dependencies that exist between tasks/work packages/teams.

In this step, I also look at the working conditions of the teams and what’s needed for the project to be a success. In previous projects, I’ve take actions like these to ensure planning remained on track and realistic:

• Cancel 90 percent of scheduled meetings
• Create customer war rooms to inspire everyone to work together
• Bring teams together in one location for a predetermined period of time to work on core activities
• Allow teams to self-determine how they deliver their work and what their definition of done is

Build a stronger working relationship. In the projects I’ve supported, I try to have a catch-up/alignment session every month to ensure  stakeholders are happy and understand where we currently are in the progress of the project. These check-ins allow me to read how the customer is doing or if there are further concerns that need to be addressed. As I build these stronger relationships, I make sure I reiterate what each member of the team can expect from me and also what’s realistic/feasible.

Deliver on what you promised. This is the outcome of your hard work! You’re delivering what was expected and communicating effectively so everyone signs off on the deliverables and the current status. It’s at this point in time that I hand over the project or it’s closed.  

Every project and every relationship is different, but I’ve found communication and honesty are the core components to rebuilding a partnership with your teams and end customers.

What are your top tips for rebuilding a frayed relationship with a customer? What would you do differently? Let’s share knowledge in the comments below!

by Dave Wakeman

As we’ve moved through the pandemic, I’ve learned more and more about leadership—what good leadership looks like and what bad leadership looks like. 

Since early July, the first question I pose to guests on my podcast, The Business of Fun, zeroes in on how they’ve have been leading their teams during the pandemic. Here are some of the lessons learned that can help you level up your leadership game no matter what industry you work in: 

Put People First

This actually came out of several conversations I had, but Mark Fowlie and Harold Hughes, a pair of tech CEOs, really put the best exclamation point on this directive. 

Mark is the CEO of Audience View and has a team distributed around the world. He said he helped his team adapt to the new normal by communicating consistently and clearly, and helping people get the space to operate, think and work in an environment where no one had a playbook. 

Harold is the CEO of Bandwagon FanClub and his approach is to have daily stand-ups. This provides some consistency with the in-office experience and offers teams a place—albeit virtual—to come and talk. It also gives folks some structure to their day, so they don’t feel alone in their work. On top of that, Harold and his team emphasized socialization with baking classes, happy hours and other fun meetings to ensure the team got a chance to know their co-workers both personally and professionally. 

Be Honest In Your Communications

Richard Howle is director of ticketing at The Ticket Factory in the United Kingdom and the biggest lesson learned he shared with me was: It’s totally fine to say that you don’t know something.

No one has the definitive playbook for how to deal with unexpected situations. So expecting we’re going to have all of the answers at a moment’s notice isn’t doing our team any favors—and sets us up to fail as leaders in the process. 

Change Is Difficult, But We Have To Deal With It 

Zoe Scaman from Bodacious shared her philosophy on communicating change, especially to an audience that may not be comfortable with change or might not want to change. Securing their buy-in goes beyond simply telling them why they need to change. You must show the exciting things possible when people create change and embrace the process. 

As project managers, change is a constant and it can be disruptive in the best of cases. In my own experience, I find the need to sell change to my team a bit frustrating. But when I chatted with Zoe, her point of talking about selling the benefits and the vision of a better future helped recalibrate my thinking about what change is really about and why it matters so much. 

Change is really about improvement and making the environment and world around you a bit better. In times like these, that’s actually a pretty refreshing perspective to maintain. 

How have you been leading your teams during the pandemic? Let me know in the comments. 

By Yasmina Khelifi, PMI-ACP, PMP

“People reported to me that they had difficulties working with you.”

These were the words a manager spoke to me early in my career—and I haven’t forgotten them. I was very shocked to hear the feedback, as no one approached me about any grievances they had with me. Naturally, I wanted to know who said it and in what context. But the manager refused to give me many details. Was the feedback constructive? Not really. Was it useful? Absolutely not.

Giving better feedback helps you and your teams improve their collaboration and deliver better project outcomes. But all feedback is not created equally. You need to set the conditions for success.

First, feedback shouldn’t feel like top-down decision-making. There has to buy-in. So it’s important to talk through expectations with team members: How often will you gather feedback? How will you communicate it?

The conditions in which the message is conveyed also matters, especially for negative feedback. If it’s a face-to-face meeting, book a room to create a confidential and comfortable environment to engage in a conversation. The feedback must also be recent. Regular feedback lets team members apply lessons learned on the fly.

And there must be follow-up: If action items are outlined but no action is taken, credibility in the feedback process is lost and motivation decreases. As a leader, your role is to ensure constructive feedback is turned into reality.

Let’s explore ways to improve the feedback process:

1. Have a game plan.

One useful framework I’ve used is SBI:

• Situation: When did it happen?
• Behavior: What behavior did you observe? Share data.
• Impact: What impact did this behavior have on you?

Then finish with a proposal, knowing this is only the beginning of the conversation. Having a plan of action that remains consistent across all feedback creates a structure the team can adapt to and feel comfortable with.

2. Don’t escalate the situation unless it’s necessary.

When I delivered the first Samsung LTE device, I worked with a radio engineer with a reputation of being a difficult collaborator. Some colleagues recommended I escalate any issue that arose. But I preferred to meet him face-to-face in a closed room to seek out better ways to communicate. At the end of the project, he mentioned he appreciated my approach.

3. Speak up and don’t procrastinate.

A few years ago on a strategic project, I couldn’t get a hold of the expert. He was busy presenting to the top management and stakeholders in other countries. I organized some meetings with him, but I didn’t dare take up too much of his time asking questions. I also didn’t open myself up to provide feedback because I didn’t think it would bring about any improvement. When he left the team, I faced some long delays on the projects because I’d refused to make suggestions or start a meaningful dialog about what could be done better. The moral of the story: Don’t refrain from voicing your concerns or feedback when appropriate!

4. Don’t forget to provide positive feedback.

With 20 years of work experience behind me, I’ve learned the power of positive feedback and how it offers a self-confidence boost to team members and leaders. I now send spontaneous appreciation notes to recognize my team’s efforts.

I've also learned to accept positive feedback. Before, I would say “thank you” and quickly jumped to what I could have done better. One day, a colleague told me to stop, breathe and internalize the positive feedback.

Constructive feedback, whether it’s positive or negative, opens the door to a conversation. It sets you off on a rewarding path to self-discovery and self-improvement.

How do you give feedback on your project teams? Tell me in the comments.

By Jorge Valdés Garciatorres, PMP 

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.”

—Milton Berle

Experts say that the world will never be as we once knew it. I personally think that it will take us several years to return to some sense of normalcy. We’ll have to accept it: Adaptation is inevitable.

As I prepared to write this blog, I was looking for a personal story to illustrate my resilience skills. The truth is that many came to mind. I believe that this ability, along with creativity, is something we all have as project managers.

Working from home for the past 15 or 16 weeks (I’m one of the lucky ones who can work remotely during the pandemic) is perhaps the closest example of resilience. In my case, it has required less effort, but the overwhelming response we have had to our Managing Remote Teams program has helped me realize that, although the technology exists, there is still a lag in the ability of many to adapt to this new way of working.

Another reflection that came to my mind was that perhaps as project managers, our shifting scope of work causes us to take life as it comes. That is to say, this professional activity that I chose and that I enjoy so much helps those of us who practice it to develop that capacity of hyper-adaptation. For example, life has led me to give courses in parking lots, and on one occasion a few years ago, I almost had to give a course while on the presidential plane for a group of Mexican government officials. I have learned to work at home, where I have a spacious and comfortable office totally adapted to my taste, and I’ve also transitioned to suddenly having to work at a 35 inch x 35 inch desk in a client's facilities. 

Other reflections come to my mind with regard to the technological changes that people in my generation have experienced. My kids just can’t believe that when I was young, I was my mother’s remote control, and that in my time, the “smart” were the people who used phones—and not the phones themselves. 

In the end, whether it is a generational skill or whether it is fostered by the career someone chooses, there is no doubt that adapting to changing situations is an important and vital skill in these times.

During the "Googleographic" research I did to write this article, I came across this page in which the American Psychological Association, in addition to defining resilience, proposes some activities to help foster it.

The literature available on the web around this topic has been increasing. I can also recommend two books, not to be missed, that can help you better understand how resilience can make the difference between success and failure.

One story that has marked me in particular, masterfully narrated in the book Desde la Adversidad,  that of Ernest Shackleton, a ship captain of about 110 years ago. He went down in history for having formed what is perhaps the most resilient team in history.

Another book that I highly recommend is Bonnie St John's Micro-Resilience: Minor Shifts for Major Boosts in Focus, Drive and Energy. I had the opportunity to listen to Bonnie while attending an event a few years ago. Her story is incredible, and an inspiration for everyone. The fruit of her experience is explained very assertively in her excellent book.

If you are a project manager or a consultant, chances are that you are already a resilient person. But remember that you must keep exercising your skills to keep them in shape.

How do you exercise your resilience?