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Voices on Project Management
by Cameron McGaughy,
Lynda Bourne, Kevin Korterud, Peter Tarhanidis, Conrado Morlan, Jen Skrabak, Mario Trentim, Christian Bisson, Yasmina Khelifi, Sree Rao, Soma Bhattacharya, Emily Luijbregts, David Wakeman, Ramiro Rodrigues, Wanda Curlee, Lenka Pincot, cyndee miller, Jorge Martin Valdes Garciatorres, Marat Oyvetsky
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
Peter Tarhanidis
Conrado Morlan
Jen Skrabak
Mario Trentim
Christian Bisson
Yasmina Khelifi
Sree Rao
Soma Bhattacharya
Emily Luijbregts
David Wakeman
Ramiro Rodrigues
Wanda Curlee
Lenka Pincot
cyndee miller
Jorge Martin Valdes Garciatorres
Marat Oyvetsky
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
Recent Posts
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5 Things Your Operational Plan Should Do
5 New Project Guardrails for Adaptive Leaders
The Leader's Voice: Respect It, Protect It, and Use It Properly!
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Date
| I often say that establishing a project management office (PMO) is not for the faint of heart. It is a very difficult endeavor -- not just because it involves advanced knowledge, but also because it challenges status quo in the organization.
In my previous post, we discussed The Must-Haves of Establishing a PMO. Now we are going one step further by laying out an implementation plan. Implementing a PMO involves five basic -- but essential -- sets of decisions:
1. Current State Assessment
- How many projects do we have today, and how are they being managed?
- Are their results satisfactory?
- Do we really need a PMO?
- What type of PMO?
2. Future State Vision
- What functions will be performed by the PMO?
- What results do we expect from the implementation?
3. Gap Analysis
- What do we have right now in terms of project governance, methodology, infrastructure, human resources and software?
- What do we need to implement a PMO that delivers the expected results?
- How are we going to handle change management, stakeholder expectations and cultural aspects?
4. Implementation Strategy
- What is the scope of the implementation?
- What are the barriers, enablers and risks of this implementation, and how are we going to deal with them?
- Are we going to hire a consultancy?
- Do we start a small pilot and grow it through quick wins? Or do we set up for global, company-wide implementation?
- What are the implementation's critical success factors?
5. Implementation Plan
- What is our roadmap for implementation?
- What are the implementation's phases and key milestones?
- How many resources do we need?
- How much will the implementation cost?
- How do we guarantee the PMO's sustainability? How are we going to measure its performance and improve it?
Not following these steps can result in serious problems. For example, if we don't conduct a gap analysis, we will probably end up with an unfeasible plan, disconnected from reality.
I once participated in a PMO implementation that was doomed to fail under the original plan. The future state vision was nearly impossible to reach, considering the current state of the organization. While conducting the gap analysis, it became clear that we should lower our expectations to implement that PMO. In that particular case, it was necessary to implement a rudimentary PMO to kick-start a cultural change to embrace project management. That was the chosen implementation strategy, which led to a feasible implementation plan supported by key stakeholders.
In my next post, we'll dive deeper into these five steps with best practices and examples on how to carry them out.
What other questions do you think are helpful to ask of your organization when building a PMO implementation plan?
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Posted
by
Mario Trentim
on: February 06, 2014 10:13 AM
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Permalink |
Comments (5)
In my last post, I discussed the benefits of learning to listen. Here, I will share easy, actionable steps to help develop your listening skills. While going through the steps below, please remember, listening more and talking less are two sides of the same communication coin.
- Start your discussion by praising the other person who has just finished talking, even if you disagree with him or her. Normally we do not disagree with all the points of the other person, but we tend to ignore the points of agreement. Starting with praise will help you listen to the other person completely, and you will be compelled to try to find points where you agree rather than disagree.
- Remember that more talkative people spill more information, and that can be used against them. As talkative people listen less, their questions also often go unanswered. When you are aware that you may be providing unnecessary information to others, you'll make an effort to speak about only what is necessary.
- Better listeners get more information from others, which they can use to fine-tune their point of view and present it more effectively. When you're eager to improve your thoughts, you listen more carefully, because that helps you strategize. Listening will make you a better negotiator.
- Write down points of agreement and disagreement. When you write down the points, you have little option but to listen.
- If you do not get the opportunity to talk, the sky will not fall. Moreover, it is of little use talking in a forum that does not give all participants an opportunity to present their point of view. Most of the time, when someone says, "Listen to me," the opposite happens.
- Don't try to win the speaking contest. Instead, focus on winning the hearts of the people by understanding them. Many times, more talkative people appear to win the battle, but they lose the war. More talkative people do not converse, but instead force their viewpoint on others. This creates a negative perception of such a person that sustains beyond the conversation and impacts the overall relationship.
- Establish simple, fair rules. In a group, ground rules help create an environment of listening. For example, solicit opinions one at a time, give everyone two minutes to put up their points in round-robin fashion, or ask that everyone reiterate the previous speaker's point of view before making his or her own.
- Take an example from the deaf. I will leave you with a thought from A Comma in a Sentence by Indian businessman and author R. Gopalakrishnan, in which he gains a valuable perspective from hearing-impaired teacher Bruno Kahne. The book paraphrases Mr. Kahne: "Deaf people look at the speaker in the eye and make sure they are fully present in the interaction. They absorb more and retain more. In many management situations...there are simultaneous and multiple conversations. That will never happen with deaf people. They follow a strict protocol of one person speaking at a time. Consensus and agreement are reached faster than out of a heated and overlapping conversation. In the long term, slower is faster. Deaf people are direct and they communicate with their thoughts and feelings.... They are economical about the way they communicate. For the same reason, they listen well, too."
What is your top tip for becoming a good listener?
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Posted
by
Vivek Prakash
on: February 02, 2014 09:22 PM
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Permalink |
Comments (1)
| "You cannot manage what you cannot measure" is a common mantra of today's business world. But to really make a difference on projects, you also have to make sure you're measuring -- and communicating -- the right things.
A policy introduced to measure the performance of our local hospitals a couple years back offers a salient lesson. Our state government decided to incentivize hospitals by rewarding good performance and penalizing poor performance using a standard set of KPIs.
The plan created many vested interests:
- The government's desire to look good by reducing patient waiting time
- The hospitals' desire to achieve the maximum budget income for the year
- The administrators' desire, both in the hospital and the government, to avoid rocking the boat
But an audit found KPI-induced behaviors, in many cases, were worse for patients than if nothing had changed in policy.
For example, one key measure was the time patients wait in the casualty/emergency area before being admitted to the hospital. So to avoid a fine for failing to admit the patient within the prescribed maximum time, some administrators were transferring patients from emergency care to the operating theater's waiting area.
The action meant a reduction in the level of care, with the patient being moved to an area with little monitoring capability. Throughput in the operating theater was also diminished due to overcrowding and skilled staff having to spend time on patient care rather than surgery.
The government had its data and the hospital system responded to the stimulus of the KPI, but everyone forgot the key objective: enhanced patient care.
There are a number of important lessons in this story to consider when setting up project dashboards and the like:
- The KPIs you choose communicate to stakeholders what you think is most important. What is easy to measure is not necessarily important.
- What you choose to measure will change behaviors. Focus on things that matter, such as value and benefits, not easy-to-measure statistics, such as time and cost.
- Make sure the data is validated.
- A KPI system cannot solve the problem, but it can be a powerful facilitator of solutions if it's set to measure the right statistics and ask the right questions.
Simply identifying a problem and creating a KPI is not enough! Work with the project team to make sure an effective solution is crafted and then measure the effectiveness of the solution. This is far more challenging than simply processing monthly reports on easily accessible information such as schedule performance, but it can really contribute to the overall performance of your organization.
Finally, remember that if you pick the wrong KPI, you will get behavior changes, often times for the worse. It's better to have an informed conversation with key stakeholders over value and what really matters.
What messages are you sending with the metrics you choose to measure success? |
Posted
by
Lynda Bourne
on: January 29, 2014 11:24 AM
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Permalink |
Comments (0)
| As project managers, it's easy to get caught up in the technical aspects of our jobs. For example, if you are in IT, there is always a new bit of code, application or hardware that -- if you invest the time in learning about it -- will make your work easier.
But I'd like to share the number-one way you can actually improve your project management skills -- and it won't take days of learning a new technology or software. It's by using communication skills you already have in a more focused, conscious manner.
- Build communication into your everyday plan. Project managers tend to get pulled in multiple directions. So instead of being the driving force behind the information flow, you end up reacting to the latest problem or sponsor demand. While you are never going to be free of these things, you can manage them more effectively by creating a communications plan. This can be as simple as having a daily status meeting to cover where everyone is, or as elaborate as a multilayered communications plan that accounts for interactions with sponsors, team members and stakeholders. Either way, start by planning for how you want to manage your daily communication, and your project management will get easier.
- Be specific. We find ourselves dealing with very complex and difficult projects. With this complexity comes the challenge of making clear your directions, instructions, timelines and goals. The best way to overcome that is by being extremely specific. As a project manager, you may not have the industry-specific technical skills needed to understand every aspect of your project, but you should know what goals are driving the project, which means you have the ability to set and understand very specific objectives for your team. This is going to help you not only manage the workflow more efficiently, but your communication with your sponsors, stakeholders and teams will be more efficient because you are going to have more specificity with which to address their questions and concerns.
- Show empathy and support. You know what pressure from sponsors, stakeholders and team members feels like. So take a step back and think about how those parties feel as well. After all, you are often at the center of the flow of all information into and out of the project. So to really move your communication and project management skills forward this year, be consciously aware of how the flow of information -- or lack of it -- can make your team and stakeholders feel. Let them know you understand how they feel about being a little behind on the information curve. Express your support for the project and the work that is being done. Often this little step of positive communication can win you big points with stakeholders.
With these three tips, you can do a better job of managing the aspects of communication that you can handle -- making the aspects you can't always control a little easier to navigate.
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Posted
by
David Wakeman
on: January 24, 2014 01:13 PM
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Permalink |
Comments (0)
| Project management is about making decisions and actions, and actions don't require words. Speaking is inversely proportional to the exchange of information: Silence allows the other to speak more, and thus those who listen receive more information. The more information you have, the better decisions and more effective actions you can make.
By focusing on listening, you can know the issues beforehand and can sense the problem before it hits the project. And when you know issues and problems, you solve them before they damage the project. Here are a few scenarios that illustrate the power of listening.
If you don't listen
U.S. author and businessman Dr. Stephen Covey said, "Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply." This temptation to reply is so intense that it leads to frequent interruptions, ignored viewpoints and fewer opportunities for others to share their knowledge. Information flow is blocked, which impacts decision-making. Interruptions also make people feel like they are not respected and valued, leading to dissatisfaction, loss of interest and attrition. What's worse, when it's the customer who is not listened to, it could lead to loss of business.
If you listen
A positive attitude toward listening creates a productive environment. When people's opinions are heard and acted upon, they feel respected and valued, which motivates them and garners higher levels of commitment for you. And a sense of commitment yields powerful results: Team members won't need to be "controlled," support functions become eager to help, and customers contribute instead of interfere.
So why do people not listen?
The reason for a lack of listening skills in project management varies. For example, a person may have grown up in an environment that does not promote listening. He or she may lack patience and critical thinking -- when he or she hears a new viewpoint, instead of evaluating his or her beliefs, the person immediately defends preconceived ideas. In addition, delivery and timeline are so important that he or she does not bother with other people's comments. Multitasking also impacts listening, and someone might often pretend to listen while his or her attention is on responding to emails. How can someone develop a listening attitude? Adopt and religiously follow some of these points:
- Realize that the sky will not fall if you lose the opportunity to express your viewpoint.
- Focus on content and not on speaker's style of delivery.
- Paraphrase the speaker's viewpoint before presenting yours.
- Stop multitasking -- prioritize and focus on one item at a time.
- Feelings, respect and experience are more important than results. Better feeling, respect and experience will bring better results.
- Organize your meetings to reduce interruptions. Do not rush your meetings. If you're crunched for time, allow fewer people to speak, but listen to everyone fully, respond and take notes.
- Seek feedback, publicly or anonymously.
- Appreciate! The more you appreciate others, the more others will appreciate you.
Old habits die hard, and things do not change overnight. But if you recognize that a change is needed, start with some of the bullet points above, and work your way up to all of them. It takes some time to get results, but eventually you will observe a significant difference.
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Posted
by
Vivek Prakash
on: January 10, 2014 10:30 AM
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Permalink |
Comments (0)
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"There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.
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