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Bracing for Change
Categories:
Change Management
Categories: Change Management
| A colleague recently started leading a department responsible for maintenance projects for a manufacturing organization. The project manager wanted to implement changes such as rolling out new project software, increasing administrative transparency, and revising team and stakeholder communication methods. Naturally, he was concerned about how these changes would be received. My advice: Communicate with everyone affected as a result of the disruption. Host meetings to explain the factors behind the need for change, such as out-dated processes, unsatisfactory performance, expansion plans or executive directives. The reasons should be transparent, easy to understand and supported by relevant facts. Follow up with details on employee and organizational benefits to the changes. Above all, the vision for change should be realistic and believable. Plan for time to collect and acknowledge reactions to the proposed changes. Expect both positive and negative reactions, and be prepared to hear and answer questions. In this specific case, concerns included: fear of increased work hours or workload, uncertainty over the size and management of the disruption, nervousness toward new systems and job security. Create avenues where people can freely voice these concerns -- publicly via workshops and meetings, and anonymously via surveys. This helps the project manager understand the sources of any resistance and support. Recognize adjustments. In the case of my colleague, the majority of individuals in his department had been with the organization for over 15 years. That means they probably formed the present systems and culture, and therefore it was expected that this group would be more skeptical toward change. In this sort of situation, describe how and what type of training and support can or will be provided. Identify who will be responsible for managing the change and how the process will take shape (i.e., the immediate first steps). Manage emotional and psychological stress by being supportive of and empathetic to team members as they adapt. Plan for active team and stakeholder involvement -- for example, brainstorming meetings. It may be necessary to plan for some of the team to visit another organization or department that has recently undergone similar changes. Visibly involve executives and other departments, such as human resources, for rewards and incentives to encourage the adoption of change. Plan for and implement changes using project management techniques, such as risk assessments, stakeholder analysis and progress measurements. Prepare for frequent reporting of successes and setbacks so everyone knows how the change is progressing and what achievements or adjustments have been made. Enforce the change. Look for quick wins and be prepared for some to slip into the old way of doing things -- and perhaps sabotage or reverse the change. Check that everyone is adhering to the new plan. In the event of strong resistance, it may be necessary to respond decisively with disciplinary action. While it is important to be open and inclusive, there should also be a clear understanding that change is not optional. Wrap up like a project. Once the changes are complete, close, celebrate and reward the team. Don't forget to list lessons learned. What advice would you add? How have you helped a project team adopt change? For a closer look at change management -- including case studies -- read PM Network's "In Times of Change," June 2012. |
Essentials of Successful Project Schedule Planning: Part I
Categories:
Project Planning
Categories: Project Planning
| Technically speaking, the project schedule is a key project planning component. But practically speaking, simply creating a project schedule does not guarantee project success. Project success requires the project manager to plan out a reliable, comprehensive and realistic schedule. The following three-pronged approach helps in creating such a schedule: set up a schedule planning framework, master schedule basics and run the project avoiding the classic schedule planning pitfalls. In this post, I will shed some light on a simple schedule planning framework. Effective schedule planning boils down to five basic steps:
What are your must-do steps when creating a project schedule? What scheduling framework has been successful for you? |
Smart Organizations Sync Talent With Strategy
Categories:
PMI Pulse of the Profession
Categories: PMI Pulse of the Profession
| For all the talk of an economic recovery, many organizations continue to obsess over headcount. But a smaller (and smarter) group is focusing on getting the right people on the right projects -- positioning those people and the organization itself to grow. The payoff can be huge, according to PMI's Pulse of the Professionâ„¢ In-Depth Report: Talent Management. On average, 72 percent of projects meet their original goals and business intent at organizations with significant or good alignment between their talent management and organizational strategies. Now put that up against the 58 percent rate at organizations with moderate or weak alignment. Despite the potential ROI, only 10 percent of organizations report significant alignment. That stat takes on added significance when you consider what's shaping up as a true talent crisis. Pulse data revealed four in five organizations report difficulty in finding qualified project management candidates to fill open positions. Some organizations are resorting to some serious poaching -- check the battle for project talent between Silicon Valley tech titans Apple, Google, Yahoo! and Facebook. China Road and Bridge Corporation is adopting a more long-term approach, according to China Daily. Looking to build talent in a strategic market for its projects, the company is sponsoring a group of Congolese students to study engineering and project management in Xi'an, China. In this case, organizations that align talent management and strategy have an edge, reporting less difficulty in filling open positions. Organizations that align talent management to organizational strategy are also more effective at implementing formalized career paths, with 83 percent moving new hires to advanced project management positions. Among organizations with weak alignment, that number drops to 62 percent. The MD Anderson Cancer Center, for example, clearly outlines the path up. It requires 10 years of experience (including five years of project management) and a Project Management Professional (PMP)® credential for senior project managers who manage highly complex strategic projects that span three or more organizational boundaries. Establishing a career path not only makes employees feel like the organization has a vested interest in them, it also helps the organization spot -- and close -- any skills gaps that might prevent it from delivering on its business goals. Recruiting and retaining top talent will only get organizations so far. They need to measure results, too. Across the board, organizations with strong alignment are more likely to measure outcomes such as staff turnover, learning development, and employee engagement, retention and productivity. U.S. space agency NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), for example, tracks the effectiveness of its professional development courses by assessing enrollment numbers and feedback from senior leadership. Armed with that information, the PMI Global Executive Council member knows what's working -- and what's not. No doubt, creating a talent management program comes with a hefty price tag. But consider the danger of skimping: On a US$1 billion project, organizations with significant or good alignment of talent management programs to organizational strategy put US$50 million fewer dollars at risk than organizations with moderate or weak alignment. With those kinds of numbers on the line, the bigger question is: Can an organization afford not to make the investment? |
10 Commandments of Email Communications
| To yield expected results, a distributed project team must first speak the same language when it comes to communications. With that in mind, I developed a basic set of email communications rules called the Project Communication Decalogue. I require everyone on my team to adhere to it when emailing each other, and I introduce it the first time I meet with a new team or member. When everyone is on the same page, it makes for leaner, cleaner communications.
From experience, the adoption of these rules takes a few weeks. But once you get buy-in from all team members, email communications become a smoother process, freeing up time to focus on much more important project tasks. What are your basic email communication rules? How do you get your project team to speak the same language via email? |
How Fit Is Your Portfolio?
Categories:
Portfolio Management
Categories: Portfolio Management
| We all know a healthy project portfolio is aligned with an organization's overall strategy. But how do we get there? First, define "project portfolio." A bunch of independent projects does not make up a portfolio — it is simply a group of projects. A portfolio is composed of multiple projects aligned to help the organization execute its strategy. Second, define "portfolio management." Portfolio management enables organizations to identify, select and prioritize the investments that will maximize business value. The major components of portfolio management include supporting strategic objectives, ensuring value creation, prioritizing projects based on their relative importance, managing the flow of benefits and integrating stakeholders around business objectives. Here are a few questions to help determine how well your organization is managing its portfolio:
If some of your answers were "no," don't worry — you are not alone. But implementing good portfolio management can be a great challenge. Enterprise project management professionals usually joke that it is a "simple" three-step process:
Step three, in particular, is very difficult — yet it is the core of portfolio management. Portfolio management is the art of getting more than the sum of its projects' results. To do so, corporate strategies must be laid out clearly. This helps portfolio managers to measure value that would not be generated by any individual project. While software tools make it easier to simulate portfolios to help in decision-making, portfolio management ultimately depends more on governance and appropriate processes than on calculations. The portfolio also needs to be flexible enough to cope with changes in strategy and environment, which is why portfolio managers must perform regular check-ups — a portfolio that fits your organization needs to link to its strategy at all times. How healthy is your organization's portfolio? How do you monitor it? Share your thoughts below, and Voices on Project Management will publish the best response as a blog post. |