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Voices on Project Management
by Cameron McGaughy,
Lynda Bourne, Kevin Korterud, Conrado Morlan, Peter Tarhanidis, Mario Trentim, Jen Skrabak, David Wakeman, Wanda Curlee, Christian Bisson, Ramiro Rodrigues, Soma Bhattacharya, Emily Luijbregts, Sree Rao, Yasmina Khelifi, Marat Oyvetsky, Lenka Pincot, Jorge Martin Valdes Garciatorres, cyndee miller
Voices on Project Management offers insights, tips, advice and personal stories from project managers in different regions and industries. The goal is to get you thinking, and spark a discussion. So, if you read something that you agree with--or even disagree with--leave a comment.
View Posts By:
Cameron McGaughy
Lynda Bourne
Kevin Korterud
Conrado Morlan
Peter Tarhanidis
Mario Trentim
Jen Skrabak
David Wakeman
Wanda Curlee
Christian Bisson
Ramiro Rodrigues
Soma Bhattacharya
Emily Luijbregts
Sree Rao
Yasmina Khelifi
Marat Oyvetsky
Lenka Pincot
Jorge Martin Valdes Garciatorres
cyndee miller
Past Contributors:
Rex Holmlin
Vivek Prakash
Dan Goldfischer
Linda Agyapong
Jim De Piante
Siti Hajar Abdul Hamid
Bernadine Douglas
Michael Hatfield
Deanna Landers
Kelley Hunsberger
Taralyn Frasqueri-Molina
Alfonso Bucero Torres
Marian Haus
Shobhna Raghupathy
Peter Taylor
Joanna Newman
Saira Karim
Jess Tayel
Lung-Hung Chou
Rebecca Braglio
Roberto Toledo
Geoff Mattie
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The Leader's Voice: Respect It, Protect It, and Use It Properly!
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Date
Viewing Posts by Bernadine Douglas
In a lessons learned or project review session, your attendees will usually provide feedback freely. Hopefully, they know the purpose of these sessions and their roles in it.
But what about when your sponsor or upper management is present? What are their roles?
Rather than shelter upper management from lessons learned, consider their value in these sessions. Don't have upper management viewed as attendees who just want to hear the rehash of problems that the team doesn't want to relive anyway. Nor should you have upper management included to be a part of the blame game.
Ask your sponsor and upper management to be open minded and supportive advocates in receiving feedback toward improvement.
Here are three ways to get upper management to engage:
Talk: You, the project manager, must engage upper management in the discussion. Review the timeline and other milestones that took place on the project. Upper management could talk about how the goals of the project and the team's successes intertwined with the strategic goals of the company. The team would appreciate this perspective on the significance of their activities.
Listen: While some discussion points may not be pleasant for upper management to hear, their presence assures a level of impartiality to the team. Knowing someone from "up top" is listening reinforces the team's drive to be a part of a high-performing group. Getting to more favorable end results in future projects would become even more desirable for the team.
Share: Have your sponsor share comments about the purpose of the project and its greater use to the organization, the end users and the community. Have them elaborate on processes. Ensure early on that they recognize processes mentioned in the discussion that could be rewritten or are no longer necessary. This sharing will foster bonding with the team.
How do you involve your sponsors and upper management in lessons learned sessions?
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Posted
by
Bernadine Douglas
on: August 16, 2012 03:45 PM
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Permalink |
Comments (2)
In a traditional lessons learned session that is conducted face-to-face, project managers know each person who is present and his or her role on the project.
But technology today affords us the luxury of being able to do many things online -- such as holding a lessons learned session. We can engage with people across the country or someone who may be sitting right next door. Regardless of where someone is located, we must maintain a cordial and professional manner when we interact online.
When you have dispersed project teams -- and even sometimes otherwise -- getting people to stay focused and not be disrespectful to others in a lessons learned session is a challenge.
To overcome this, set the rules for participating in the session. Make sure participants understand them and agree to them. These rules should include:
- Respect. Allow someone to make his post without experiencing sarcasm, blame or degradation. Emphasize open, honest and polite communications. Project team members will develop an appreciation for each other, the project manager and their organization.
- Treat people as if they are right next to you. Use a tone of courtesy that can be recognized in any language. Respect the person's time and keep posts brief. Do not veer off on other conversations -- stick to the discussion.
- Put a face to a name. Many applications allow photo uploads. When someone responds, everyone can see who is participating in the discussion.
Setting the right tone in these sessions can lead to so many other opportunities. For example, when good feelings are engendered, it helps to build your team and other business relationships. You can learn more about each person, such as associations they may belong to or networking contacts that you can use for future collaborations and project guidance.
When you maintain control of the meeting and employ general courtesy, it keeps the discussion flowing and ensures everyone gets the information needed about lessons to be learned.
How do you maintain control in lessons learned sessions?
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Posted
by
Bernadine Douglas
on: June 20, 2012 02:13 PM
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Comments (2)
When capturing lessons learned, feedback can come from anywhere. Don't dismiss comments because of how you receive them.
Consider that you may want to receive feedback from the quality assurance manager who's always on the run. Talking on a mobile phone while he or she is driving from site to site may be illegal, though.
Or consider the database administrator who transitioned off your project in phase one, who no longer has security access to the project, and is now busy on her next project.
So how do you get their feedback?
It isn't easy to reach out and receive the lessons your stakeholders may want or need to share toward improving the next project.
These two unconventional communication methods can be used to help in lessons learned:
- Try a text or Twitter message. Texts and social media aren't only for the younger generation. But to use them, you must to be concise. You may ask your stakeholders to drop a quick message and provide more detail later when they may have more time.
- Host a blog site. Start by setting up categories to receive feedback on particular areas of the project, for instance. Using the categories will allow a better way to coordinate the comments, and give the stakeholders a fast way to respond.
In lieu of attending an in-person project review, receiving lessons learned material by other traditional methods could work as well. Contact a stakeholder by e-mail. Dial the person on the telephone. No matter what, reach out for feedback.
How do you identify stakeholders on your projects and get feedback for lessons learned?
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Posted
by
Bernadine Douglas
on: May 22, 2012 10:43 AM
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Comments (2)
If you are not having project reviews and meetings to address lessons learned, it may be that your project sponsors do not count these as valuable activities.
You know better, but how do you make a convincing argument to have project reviews?
You must take the discussion with your project sponsor to a different level. It's not "we just need to know what happened." It's "we want to take action and get better results the next time around."
The lessons learned meeting could make you aware of changes that may be needed to turn business from being bleak to being more successful. Give your sponsors succinct reasons to pursue assessing projects to make improvements.
Consider these tips to influence your supporters:
Gather statistics and determine what you need to measure.
If your company is concerned about quality, chart examples of projects where quality was lacking. If ROI for projects has not been good, share those examples.
Share success stories.
Bring up achievements that occurred because of the attention on improvement. Discuss the situations that will make a difference to the bottom line.
Make a plan.
As a project manager, you already know that planning is important. Prepare a well thought-out plan for gathering and presenting the lessons learned. Then use the newly acquired knowledge.
How have you built a business case for lessons learned and project reviews?
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Posted
by
Bernadine Douglas
on: April 24, 2012 11:10 AM
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Permalink |
Comments (8)
Conducting lessons learned and project reviews has been a practice that many organizations have used over the years to help their next projects be successful.
It's a continuous cycle of retrieving and assessing your project information.
As the project manager, you should call a meeting and discuss any issues or tasks that went wrong and what could have been done to improve the project. The improvements should be incorporated into the processes of the next project, which typically have a better outcome. Then that project will have its own challenges that will also need to be addressed. And so it goes.
If you aren't doing some type of project review or lessons learned, you will most likely repeat actions that have caused the project failures, budget overruns, scope creep, inadequate stakeholder involvement, technology mishaps and other problems that plague your projects.
Yet some project managers find excuses not to host these valuable meetings. One such excuse is a geographically dispersed team. There's no need for a dinosaur mentality to achieve a project review. Use today's advanced technology to your advantage when conducting a lessons learned meeting:
- Conduct a lessons learned session in the same way as you would hold a virtual team meeting. Emphasize the goal of targeting improvements. Use a virtual whiteboard to list pre-determined questions or to show a timeline of how the project progressed. Allow the team members to post their version of the events that could be improved upon in the next project.
- Consider posting a social media page to capture comments. This venue would allow you to reach stakeholders in their habitat, possibly presenting more candid comments.
- Send out a survey. Then collect and analyze the results. Gathering the data this way could lead to more impartial responses and a scientific alignment of the priorities that should be addressed.
Traditional methods for conducting lessons learned will always prove beneficial as well. Bring in an outside group or consultant to assess projects and provide recommendations. As the lead and manager of an important project delivery, designate time to look back so that history does not repeat itself.
Do you use technology or traditional methods in your lessons learned?
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Posted
by
Bernadine Douglas
on: March 26, 2012 12:30 PM
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Permalink |
Comments (7)
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I hope if dogs ever take over the world, and they choose a king, they don't just go by size, because I bet there are some Chihuahuas with some good ideas.
- Jack Handey
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