Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Setting the Stage for Order
Categories:
Project Planning
Categories: Project Planning
| In a project, you and your team may face what seems to be an endless mountain of tasks and deadlines. You need to provide clarification and direction. And to do so, you'll need to prioritize work as you build a project schedule. The good news is, to do so, there are really only two things you need to know about a task:
If you know what is due, you can determine estimates on the work and think about what indicators are involved in getting the work done. These indicators may include:
Next up is the "when is it due" question. The way you structure the project, such as a large versus a small effort, can help to determine timing. And to help you figure out timing, consider:
Prepare a chart or checklist with the significant indicators that make it possible for you to get the project done. Budget, the team (resources), complexity of the work to be done and due date should be columns in your chart. Rank each according to its priority, using a scale of 1 to 10, for example. Demonstrate what the ranking means and what constitutes that level of rank. Once you have your chart prepared, share it with anyone who may need to rely on it. If a stakeholder or team member comes to you questioning work and has workload problems, disclose your chart. This will lessen a helter-skelter approach to the project work. Finally, have support for your decisions. Your manager or director must support your system for prioritization if it is going to work. How do you prioritize work? |
Multi-Project Schedule Planning, Part II
Categories:
Project Planning
Categories: Project Planning
| In my previous post, I set the stage for what it means to manage a project in a multi-project management (MPM) context. In this post, I will share some best practices in the form of do's and don'ts that I hope will provide you with some basic guidance on how to steer and manage a project in an MPM environment. Here are a few do's: Be present. First and foremost, your project needs to be represented by you as a project manager during the MPM community's key shared events. There will be status meetings, where all project managers will report their progress, achievements or issues. There will be decision meetings, where overall decisions will lead to a shift in gears and put projects on new tracks, or where projects' priorities will be reassessed. You'll have to be there to understand the implications of these changes to the MPM environment and contribute to MPM developments. Show commitment. The last thing your counterparts want to see from you, in a complex project environment, is the team committing for a milestone or deliverable and then not seeing it through. Show commitment and responsibility for your part of the project and demand the same from your counterparts. Shed light. When odds are against your project and your commitments are threatened, make this visible in the MPM environment and shed light on the underlying impacts with strong communication management. Failing to communicate MPM-relevant results could generate ripples in related projects. For example, if you don't communicate on time a slight delay in the MPM project, this withheld information could cause huge delays in related projects. Request orchestration. Request that the MPM project's overall coordination/orchestration is done by an independent person, a person other than the project managers of the underlying sub-projects. This is a prerequisite for attaining common project goals and avoiding project conflicts, due to the various project interests that are put in place. Inform your team. Since your project team members will mainly be focusing on the project's inner scope, keep your project team informed about developments in the related MPM projects. I recommending avoiding these don'ts: Silo planning. In an MPM setup, where scope, timeline or resources can overlap, silo planning can jeopardize your project and the correlated projects. Plan jointly and agree on high-level planning with your MPM counterparts. Adversity to change. To respond to changes external to your project, which can be critical for the overall projects' success, your project and stakeholders will have to be resilient to change, not adverse to it. Inform your stakeholders and enhance your change management process to allow changes that support and facilitate overall goals. Disregard risks. When you have hard dependencies on or with other projects, do not underestimate or neglect managing risks. A tiny risk in your project can have significant impact on the related projects. Identify risks, quantify their occurrence probability and impacts, plan responses and share your risk management plan in the MPM community. Demand the same from your MPM counterparts. Information overload. Although on one hand it's critical that your team is informed about what happens in the related projects, information overload from the MPM community can disturb your team's focus. Filter the information from the various MPM project teams, and share the significant information within yours when the time is right for your project. Sluggish steering. While multiple forces from the MPM setup might influence your project course, do not permit your project role and influence to fade out. You are still the project manager; you are still the one holding the reins of your project. Do these do's and don'ts apply in your multi-project management setup? |
Dealing with Difficult People
| Your ability to contribute to a project team depends a lot on your ability to relate to people -- your team members, stakeholders, managers. While positive and supportive relationships can propel you to success, dysfunctional relationships can destroy you. If you mismanage a dysfunctional relationship with a difficult person, the fallout will affect your productivity and, quite possibly, the fate of your project. The first step is to identify whether you're in a toxic professional relationship. Here are some signs to look for in the other person; he/she:
To successfully manage difficult people, you need to set boundaries that encourage mutual respect and keep the focus on productivity. Boundaries remind people of what's acceptable to you and what's reasonable to expect from you, and prevent difficult people from taking up too much of your time and energy. Failure to set these boundaries simply allows a toxic relationship to develop. Establishing boundaries isn't easy, however. Difficult people don't like boundaries. They want to shift responsibilities according to their mood and create work environments that mirror their personal environments. Here are some ways you can set boundaries:
Effective relationship management is not for the faint-hearted. But when you know how to handle difficult relationships appropriately, you'll be in a much stronger position to achieve your objectives and succeed. How do you manage difficult people? What advice would you give for establishing boundaries? |
10 Tips for Sustainable Change Management
Categories:
Change Management
Categories: Change Management
| In my experience, project managers must accept change management disciplines as part of their project management plans in order to reduce the risk of an initiative failing. And in recent posts, I've discussed how:
In this post, I'll discuss how project managers have an opportunity to make a long-lasting impact on an organization by indicating where change disciplines integrate with project management. That's because the keys to successful change management lie in the project management process groups. By leveraging the project management processes and activities across the project life cycle, we can build in and ultimately sustain change. Here are 10 ways to address change in your project management plan:
As a management consultant, I used this checklist of tips to help me move from strategic planning to tactical implementation to sustainable operations. For example, I once had a client organization that deployed a new service management provider to improve its delivery and cost of IT operations. As the client introduced the new provider, the service delivery measures were not improving and were starting to miss the ROI expectations of the business case. I was hired to review the business processes that underpinned IT service delivery, and develop an improvement plan to restore the service delivery organization and meet the business case expectations. I started by conducting a prime value chain analysis and conducted stakeholder reviews to gather requirements. Based on my evaluation of best practices and the activities that hurt service delivery, I developed an initial management improvement plan. This plan was based on process reengineering, redeploying resources and reorganizing governance. During the implementation planning, I used every one of the steps above to ensure I was leading through the change, engaging stakeholders and staff while ensuring the organization would be able to sustain the new ways of working after my assignment ended. Which of the above steps do you find most valuable in ensuring sustained change? For more on change management, purchase PMI's Managing Change in Organizations: A Practice Guide. |
In Good Company: Project, Program and Portfolio Management
 At the end of this month, Cloud Gate, a Taiwanese dance company, will celebrate its 40th anniversary with the performance of a new routine, "Rice." Its founder, Lin Hwai-Min, has received international recognition and awards, including the United States' Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement in Choreography in 2013, Germany's International Movimentos Dance Prize for Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009 and Time magazine's Asia's Heroes award in 2005. "Rice" looks to be a culmination of the company's past four decades of work. But it could not have happened without Mr. Lin's talents -- and his arts management team. Their involvement allows the choreographer to concentrate on his creative work. It wasn't always like that; in the early years, Mr. Lin was responsible for teaching and choreography, as well as staging, marketing and fundraising. This left him exhausted and unable to work creatively. Mr. Lin realized Cloud Gate had to develop a management team. Nowadays, the company has divided its operation into three parts. Firstly, the performance of the routines. Secondly, the training and cultivation of artists, whether dancers or choreographers. And finally, the promotion of dance and taking part in wider cultural activities. The three divisions overlap, forming a coherent program of work that defines Cloud Gate as an organization. This is very much like portfolio management, dividing organizational objectives into different projects or programs. All of Cloud Gate's managers know they're there to allow Mr. Lin and the rest of the company to work creatively. They know their work helps fund performances for artists and also keeps Could Gate -- and them -- in work. This makes them both sponsors and key stakeholders. And since theater work is beset by a multitude of details, the managers have become skilled in tackling issues appropriately, discerning what is important for the business or for art. However, because ultimately they are part of a creative process, they know they have to be flexible in how they work with artists. An impressive archive of routines also contributes to the survival of the dance company. Cloud Gate has accumulated over 160 dance routines. Combinations of these can be used to stage a performance anywhere in the world. Routines based on well-known Chinese literature or folk tales, such as "The Dream of the Red Chamber" and "The Tale of the White Serpent," appeal to Chinese audiences. Those in a more abstract style, such as "Cursive," delight European audiences. The inclusion of different routines into a performance helps Cloud Gate develop new audiences or maintain the loyalty of existing ones worldwide. Mr. Lin also guides dancers' careers, cultivates young choreographers, and contributes to Taiwan's arts and culture. For example, Cloud Gate is the first dance company in Taiwan to provide its dancers with a salary and routine training. The company also regularly holds open classes and performances in all parts of Taiwan, using scholarships and awards to encourage young people to take up modern dance and choreography. Mr. Lin has spent most of his life searching for this: a sustainable way to run an international contemporary dance company. And project, program and portfolio management have helped get him there, delivering inspiring results. If you work in a creative industry, what's the role of your management team? |