Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
What's the Story? Stakeholders Want to Know
Categories:
Stakeholder Management
Categories: Stakeholder Management
| There is nothing like a good story to connect with project stakeholders and team members. Storytelling has been used to communicate sophisticated ideas for millennia, ranging from the parables in the Bible to the morals found in fairy tales. Done right, storytelling is a captivating way to explain why your project (or a decision within the project) was initiated, what it will become and the benefits that will follow. Creating a good story requires skill, and while you may never become the next J.K. Rowling, applying some effective development techniques can help you hone your own storytelling style. The "story spine," a tool created by U.S. playwright Kenn Adams, helps project professionals craft well-structured stories. The outline is a series of sentence fragments that prompt the narrative elements of your story. You can even use it in a group setting -- perhaps during an exercise in which you ask team members to craft a story to explain the technical decisions made by team. The template is as follows, with a project management example in italics on securing buy-in to solve an emerging risk issue: The Platform introduces the issue or topic.
The Catalyst explains why this is important today.
The Consequences explains the journey and the "problem."
The Climax is the turning point that leads to the proposed solution.
The Resolution is the final -- and positive -- solution to problem.
So next time you need to sell an idea to management or to your project team, why not try a good story? Have you ever tried telling a story to gain buy-in from stakeholders? What technique did you find helpful? |
The Customer Mindset Is Always Right
| In most cases, project managers are assigned to projects after the development of strategic initiatives and project charters. Seemingly, we have little to do with strategic planning and more to do with operational implementation. Although I agree that the latter is an important element of our profession, it is also a reactive one. Our value proposition is not fully used in the strategic planning needs of the organization. I increasingly expect project management to go beyond being a reactive role and become proactive. And one method of doing so is becoming customer-service-oriented. Now, I am not referring to the traditional definition of "customer," but rather defining the organization itself as the project manager's single true customer. Thus, becoming customer-service-oriented enables project managers to evolve into business leaders by:
The diagram below illustrates the concept of increasing the customer approach to project management. The project manager gains experiences and increased value by being customer-service-oriented. The repetitive experiences add up to knowledge that project managers need to, over time, drive customers to better outcomes and experiences. The focus on customer service ensures project managers are aligned with the interests of a project and an organization's purpose. According to the research of Dr. Jay Kandampully and Dr. David Solnet, a "service vision" improves an organization's overall performance. They illustrate two case studies, Dell and Southwest Airlines, of companies that used service orientation to create a competitive differentiator in their industries. Project managers can do the same for the profession. Once they harness a customer-serviced-oriented mindset, they can put it into practice to proactively interpret organizations strategy, align leadership and rationalize organizations' critical projects. The first steps toward redefining the profession as proactive instead of reactive are to offer services with this approach in mind, such as:
In my own experiences in leading the business transformations of multiple organizations, I have noted they tend to begin with an initial reactive approach of a cost reduction effort. They then mature to designing a service culture to offer global end-to-end processes, with service-level agreements that ultimately enable it to achieve its strategic growth plans. What other approaches do project managers need to redefine their role from being reactive to proactive? |
Getting Real with Lessons Learned
Categories:
Lessons Learned
Categories: Lessons Learned
| By now, if you have been following my blog posts, you know the importance of lessons learned. In past posts, I have provided many tips on how to conduct them, who should be involved and the types of project management tools to use for evaluation in the sessions. But how do you get true value of lessons learned? To glean results that can really fuel change, focus your lessons learned on the following questions and actions: What did not go so well? Do not finger point. Ensure the discussion is targeted toward the actions, not a person. Try to gather specifics. For example, if a delay caused a slip in the project timeline, discuss the lesson that caused the specific problem, and alternatives that might have avoided the delay. Perhaps there was a miscommunication that caused the delay. In that case, extract the lesson that led to that miscommunication. These are the lessons that you want to document and mark for corrective action. Actions or lessons that are not documented well cannot be translated into controllable elements. What went well? Determine your successes, and then strategize what needs to be done so these actions can be repeated. Adopt processes around these successes that may not already exist in your system for managing projects. If it is a process that has been working well for a long time, integrate it with your new and existing policies and procedures but in a way that it remains intact and unchanged. You should also consider rewards and recognition events for successes. There are many ways to accomplish this, even when budgets are tight. For example, using social media by posting praises and kudos to employees online can go a long way. What are we going to do to improve projects going forward? This is really the main objective of lessons learned. You can get together to understand what went wrong and what was right on your projects, but more importantly, you will want to leave the session with a direction on how to have future successes on a continuous basis. For this to happen, take the time to rank the learnings in some ordinal manner. For example, consider what needs to be addressed immediately and how to make the action possible; determine what can be changed and how to minimize the impacts; and explore how to ensure processes are apparent and possibly even mandatory. No matter what ranking system is used, conclude the meeting with an accountable action plan. What do you see as next steps after getting together, gaining reality and gathering the lessons? Share your thoughts below, and Voices on Project Management will publish the best response as a blog post. |
Three Timeless Project Management Rules
Categories:
Reflections on the PM Life
Categories: Reflections on the PM Life
| We all seem to have our own set of "durable" project management rules. We rely on them again and again to help guide us to a successful project outcome, regardless of the type of project, technology or environment. Years ago, I read Kelly's 14 Rules & Practices, which to me made sense for any project. Authored by Kelly Johnson, the founder of Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works® for Advanced Development Projects, the rules helped teams on pioneering aircraft projects produce innovative deliverables under budget and on schedule. I plucked three from this list and adapted them to apply to my project management career: 1. The number of people connected to the project must be aggressively restricted. For me, it has been quite common to have people seek a connection to a project, especially if it has had a high degree of executive visibility. Project managers who invest in aggressive stakeholder management -- that is, blocking non-essential roles -- have clearer communication in their projects and better-defined roles, which also helps new team members know their role relative to others on the team. 2. There must be a minimum number of reports required, but important work must be recorded thoroughly. I have been on some projects where the effort put into status reporting almost exceeded the effort put into project activities. Too much in the way of project reporting is just as dangerous as too little. Based on the type of project, the most successful project managers focus on a small number of essential metrics (schedule, budget, milestone, deliverable variances, etc.) that are easily understood by both the project team and the stakeholders. 3. There must be a monthly cost review covering not only what has been spent and committed, but also projected costs to the conclusion of the program. It is typical for project managers to host meetings to review prior project spend as future spend forecast. The crucial term in this rule is "what has been committed" to the project, both in terms of funding and resources. Many times, project managers fail to include funding and project resource commitments during a cost review. Even though I read them long ago, Johnson's rules still resonate today. This October marks the 70th anniversary of the 14 Rules & Practices. Talk about durability! What are your "durable" project management rules? Skunk Works and the 14 Rules & Practices references courtesy of Lockheed Martin. |
The Basics: The 4 Phases of Negotiation
Categories:
Communications Management
Categories: Communications Management
| Obvious but true: Project professionals must know how to negotiate. Whether they're dealing with customers, suppliers, contractors, colleagues or other departments, negotiating skills are crucial in pushing ideas through, securing finances or resources, and agreeing to contract terms. William Ury, co-founder of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard University, stresses that successful negotiations must generate efficiency, reach wise settlements and maintain good, or enhance, relationships between the negotiating parties. There are four phases to the negotiation process. The first is preparation, when you acquire all the documentation, facts, data and information necessary to bring others into agreement. For example, when negotiating contract details with external contractors, a project manager must gather the number of project phases, breakdown of deliverables, milestones, time scales, resource requirements and expectations. During preparation, it helps to look for win-win agreements that focus on shared interests. This opens the door to finding solutions and options that favor all parties. In case an agreement is not reached, you should also prepare a fall-back position before entering into bargaining. For example, when preparing for negotiation for a vital resource from another department, a good fall-back plan would include details on the following:
The second stage is to exchange information and disclose necessary details with the other party. This aids efficiency and reduces frustration by ensuring relevant information is available to all and appropriate considerations are made prior to meeting. On a project, this information may include cultural or environmental considerations, company standards, rules and policies. Bargaining is the third phase. It is at this stage that most of the interaction between parties takes place, and individuals display a range of different negotiation styles and tactics to make their case. It is during bargaining that the risk of unsuccessful or troublesome negotiations is highest, with increased potential for tempers and frustrations to flare. To bargain successfully, focus on common interests and objectives at the start to clear any assumptions. You should also acknowledge your own triggers — the things others can say or do that make you react in a hostile or arrogant manner. If faced with a trigger, pause, ask questions so others can explain their point; listen, and then respond objectively and professionally. It helps to bargain with the mindset that everyone is a problem solver, not an adversary. This paves the way for more questions, encouraging everyone to listen and collectively look for ways to agree. The final phase of negotiation is closure. Like in a project life cycle, this phase formally seals and binds the parties into the outcomes of the agreement. What negotiation advice or practices do you recommend on a project? |