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Beyond Stakeholder Management
| My mentor in this field -- Julio Matus Nakamura, a project manager -- once told me, "In any organization, there aren't just processes, projects, strategies or tools. What really matters is people." That lesson, learned long ago, taught me that no matter a person's position, he or she is a human being first. It's very important to build trust among human beings in order to believe in each other. When I realized that, I vowed to establish that type of relationship with my stakeholders -- to build that trust and try to create a more personal relationship with them. In my opinion, in some cases it's more important to have a good relationship with the sponsor or customer than the results of the project. I'm not suggesting you forget about your project's results or even the contract. Just that you should put the same emphasis in building a deeper relationship with your key stakeholders as you put in delivering good results and caring about contract issues. Here are some simple tips that I have used for a while. I hope it may help you when building a relationship with your stakeholders: 1. Use basic manners: Always say hello, goodbye, thanks, please, well done, good job and I'm sorry. These are powerful little words that can make a big difference. 2. Show respect: Often when we are in a conversation with someone, we are not 100 percent in the conversation. You must be present. No excuses. When talking with someone, pay all of your attention to what the person is saying. Avoid thinking about your response when the other party talks; just listen carefully to what's being said. 3. Learn to read body language: We communicate more with our body than with our words. Learn to "listen" to the body of your counterpart and learn to speak with your body. For example, don't cross your arms during a conversation, as this can seem standoffish. Make eye contact during conversation and always face the person to whom you're talking. 4. Share something personal: Find affinities with your stakeholder wherever possible. This could be the university where you studied, the town where you grew up, vacations you've taken, books you've read, or your favorite team and sport. Make sure to find the appropriate moment to share these commonalities. 5. Break the ice: Read the environment around your stakeholder and discover his or her interests. At the first opportunity, bring those interests into the conversation. What about you? What tools or techniques do you use to build trust with your stakeholders? |
Applying Portfolio Management as a Business Map
Categories:
Portfolio Management
Categories: Portfolio Management
| It's the end of the year and many companies are reviewing how they performed over the last 12 months. Portfolio management can help senior managers check how their products or services are performing -- and maximize benefits and opportunities to plan for next year. PMI's Standard for Portfolio Management -- Second Edition defines a portfolio as "a collection of projects or programs and other work that are grouped together to facilitate effective management of that work to meet strategic business objectives." And "portfolio management is the coordinated management of portfolio components to achieve specific organizational objectives." When we use a portfolio approach, senior managers coordinate how projects and programs are managed and gain deeper understanding of what they mean to the organization. Where I have worked, a portfolio is organized as a collection of business operations that share the same purpose. Portfolio management serves as our business map, where different business packages are laid out according to risk, profit and time. In companies, portfolio managers address products or services according to risk and profit factors. Products or services are divided into four types: · High-risk high-profit · Low-risk high-profit · High-risk low-profit · Low-risk low-profit Taking their payback period into consideration, benefits can be maximized by reasonably allocating resources and financial investment for each of the four types of products/business. For example, products that are "high-risk high-profit" require time to generate high revenue. As for businesses or products that are already generating long-term and stable profits -- those in the "low-risk low-profit" category or basic business -- careful resource allocation should lead to eventual increased revenue. "High-risk low-profit" products should also be given appropriate resources, as long as they bring in certain benefits, such as expanding or maintaining market share, and keeping up with potential competitors. Take computer manufacturer Acer, for example. In the past, Acer has made large profits on PC products of the "low-risk high-profit" variety. By 2008, Acer was about to surpass its main (and only) competitor, Hewlett Packard, as the world's biggest PC manufacturer. But an unexpected competitor arose: Apple. Acer's long-term reliance on this "low-risk high-profit" strategy meant that innovative "high-risk high-profit" or "high-risk low-profit" technology products, such as those that Apple makes, were ignored. Apple topped Acer because Acer failed to plan a complete business map. It didn't manage the risks arising from a "low-risk high-profit" strategy. Acer was only focused on pursuing market share by making and selling cheap PC products. Even when your current business is generating high revenues, you should never ignore business plans and products that are still under development. You should always allocate reasonable resources to these business elements, and never solely depend on your successful products or services. When planning your company's products or services for the upcoming year, be sure to check if your strategic plan is well balanced. Make sure no element of your business is over-exploited and no element is ignored -- no matter how little profit it currently generates. |
Boost Productivity by Renaming Tasks
Categories:
Project Delivery
Categories: Project Delivery
| Do you assign yourself a task that's actually framed as an expected result? For example, creating or updating a report is a task, while producing a report is a result of that activity. Or, performing a troubleshooting session is a task; solving a problem is an expected result. Language impacts how we work and what we accomplish. This reality is illustrated in project management through the use of the work breakdown structures, for example, where we break down the tasks and label them appropriately to be able to execute them. The work seems easier to accomplish that way. To be productive, tasks need to be executable and controllable. Tasks framed as results are ambiguous because they do not specify an action that can be carried out -- instead, they imply that you will figure out the real action you can do and accomplish. I find that I get a lot more done when I put a task on my calendar that I know I can control. For instance, I can control hosting a meeting, but I can't control the meeting's outcome. Therefore, the task, "Chair a solution review meeting" has more power than "Get the team to approve a solution." When our mind considers a task to be particularly important or ambiguous, it tends to look for an easier outlet or for ways to delay working on that task. It's only when we reword the action in terms that we can understand that we jump to execute the task. The key, I find, is in wording the task as something over which you have actual control. Look at the work you planned for today or the next seven days. Reword your actions and tasks so that you can have complete control over them. Notice what happens to your productivity and report back. Have you seen a productivity boost from renaming tasks? |
Project Management Plan: The Basics
Categories:
Project Planning
Categories: Project Planning
| In a previous post, 7 Essential Project Planning Documents, I referred to the "Project Management Plan" as one of the key planning documents that fosters project success. Sometimes people confuse the project management plan with the schedule or the scope plan. But it's more than that. A project management plan is the planning document, capturing the entire project end-to-end, covering all project phases, from initiation through planning, execution and closure. A comprehensive plan covers at least the followings areas and components: (Note: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide -- Fourth Edition) covers these in Chapter 3. Instead of putting the elements one by one, I grouped them by purpose/meaning.)
When writing a project management plan, the approach depends again on the project's size and context. I personally use the following approaches:
What approach do you use when crafting a project management plan? What elements do you use? |
Every Project Manager Has a Story
Categories:
New Practitioners
Categories: New Practitioners
| While recently attending a NASA event, I spoke with a Mission Control Manager, who remembered me from a project management panel I was on earlier this year. I was pleasantly surprised. I almost didn't participate on the panel because I didn't think I had much to share. Those new to project management may feel they don't have the "expertise" to speak or write on a topic. This could not be further from the truth. Your experiences about your career path or even individual projects you've managed or worked on contain valuable information that even just one other person in the profession could learn from. A five-minute talk or a five-paragraph blog is really all you need to start connecting your story to others. It's this connection, done over and over again, that will increase your influence, your reach and professional network. "Storytelling" is more than reading fairy tales to a child. It comes in the form of speeches, presentations, panels and writings. At project management events (in person or virtual), you can reach dozens or hundreds of people with your unique experiences in the profession. Additionally, the experience of applying for a panel, or writing a paper or article, will help you realize how much you do know, and where there's knowledge gaps. So I say, challenge yourself: Volunteer to present and share a project management story in a familiar setting, such as at a PMI chapter meeting or speaking panels. If you're ready to present in front of an audience of people you don't know, search for opportunities to present at events such as a PMI® Global Congress. These types of events expose you to project managers from all walks of life, new comers and veterans alike. With such a large audience present, sharing your stories will inevitably reach other project managers who can learn from your experiences. Take some time to write a short entry on the project management topic you're most knowledgeable about -- then find an outlet to share that material. From a PMI community of practice to a PMI chapter discussion board to your own Facebook page, there are many virtual spaces on which to share your project management stories. Start small -- even if it's just 140 characters on Twitter. Then build your momentum, and soon you'll find your project management stories have reached places you never thought they could. Fellow blogger Jim De Piante recently covered this topic. Check out what he has to say. |