Thoughts on Project Management

Wanted to announce my newest book - Implementing Positive Organizational Change: A Strategic Project Management Approach - was published by J Ross Publishing in February 2017. 

In today’s increasingly competitive global marketplace, organizations that do not regularly undertake change initiatives will find it difficult—if not impossible—to continue to be successful in the long term.

Most organizations only launch change initiatives when forced to address some pain, such as decreased revenues or profits, where the sole focus is on the benefits to the organization. Often, the people side of change management is overlooked, causing 60-70% of these efforts to fail.

Implementing Positive Organizational Change explains how to develop a continuous improvement culture of change that will be perceived by employees as a positive opportunity to create something new, exciting and valuable, instead of something negative to confront and resist. This comprehensive guide describes how to communicate with and engage stakeholders and employees to gain buy-in and support, and outlines a strategic project management approach that helps ensure successful implementation and desired results.

Learn more here: http://www.jrosspub.com/implementing-positive-organizational-change.html. 

Often clients tell me that one of the major disappointments from their organizational initiatives is that behavior doesn’t change. As one client told me, “The employees just go back to the old way of working; even if the new way is so much better!”

Every change requires a change in the behavior of people. We have to change any number of things – how we get work done, how we interact with clients, how we work together, how we process payments, etc.  This requires a change in behavior. If we launch a change initiative without considering what behavior has to change, it cannot be successful. When launching a change initiative, early on, determine if changing behavior will require providing training, enabling for a transition period, or ensuring involvement in making decisions about a new process. Certainly changing behavior requires sharing a vision of the future and the value of the initiative to the organization and also to the individuals within the organization.

Let’s look at an example: Abigail is leading a change initiative that will require Accounts Payable to change how they process invoices. The individuals doing the job now have been working with the current process for the last five years. While the current process has worked well, due to increased invoices needing to be processed it is essential that the process be refined to improve workflow and speed up processing. Over time the amount of days to process invoices has gone from 30 days to 45 days. New agreements with vendors require that the processing time for invoices is at 30 days’ or less or interest will be due.

Abigail knows that simply changing the process to be more efficient is not enough to ensure success in reducing the amount of time to pay invoices. She also has to figure out how to change the behavior of the individuals using the process currently so that the new process will be accepted and utilized. Abigail took this approach:

She invited all individuals within the Accounts Payable department to a meeting to share with them the following information:

• The reasoning behind the change initiative
• The benefits to making the change for both the organization as well as each of the individuals within Accounts Payable

And she asked the following question: Will they help her to accomplish the project and share their ideas, thoughts, suggestions as well as concerns for changing the process?

She then followed up with individual meetings to answer questions, address concerns and ensure they were on board with the initiative.

She also shared that:

• Training would be provided on the new process.
• Testing of the new process would be done with those who would be using the process after they were trained in the new process.
• There would be time to actually learn and use the new process early on before the old process was removed. This would enable for making any adjustments or “tweaks” before full rollout and implementation.

This time spent by Abigail reaching out to connect with each individual within Accounts Payable enabled her to build relationships with them and to begin to build trust. By getting them involved early on – and asking for their help – Abigail makes them part-owners of the project. By telling them what will happen before the new process is implemented, they begin to feel more confident that they will gain the skills and knowledge they need to continue to be effective in their role.

In summary, in order to change behavior and ensure a successful initiative, it is essential to get stakeholders involved very early on and keep them involved throughout the project. Their feedback, input, thoughts, ideas, suggestions and concerns will enable for a better project end result.

Before you officially kick off your next project, consider whether you can answer the following questions:

• Are you aware of why the project is being launched? If not, find out! Ask the project sponsor why this particular project is being launched? What is the goal of the project? To what strategic organizational goal is the project aligned? This information enables you to understand the priority level of the project as well as have information that enables for securing resources and “selling” the project to team members and stakeholders.
   

• Do you have the knowledge to run the project? What are your strengths and weaknesses regarding the project? When you understand areas that you are not as knowledgeable as you might be or may have limited skills, you can use that knowledge to ensure you recruit team members who can help fill in the gaps. You don’t need to be an expert in every area of the project, others will have expertise you do not. Rely on their expertise to ensure a successful project.
   

• How do stakeholders feel about the project? Are they champions of the project? Are they against it? How do you know? If you don’t know, find out! Ask stakeholders their opinion about the project. Are they excited about it or worried? If worried, dive deeper to understand why so that you can address those concerns and get stakeholders on board with the project.

• Can the project be implemented as is? If it is a large, complex initiative, you might consider breaking down the project into smaller components to be more easily managed and to enable for quicker successes.
   
• How will the project “stick” when complete? What reinforcements will be put in place to ensure the project end result “sticks?” Will training be needed? What incentives are necessary? What processes will need to change? Consider what will need to happen to ensure the project sticks so that you can prepare early.

What else do you do to get ready for your projects? Share your best practices in the Comments section.

In order to develop better solutions, think of problems a bit differently.

I have learned that by stating a problem in terms of an opportunity, it looks at the issue from a more positive perspective and reduces pointing fingers as to who is at fault. It also helps to develop more creative and better solutions overall.

Consider the two problem statements:

The first example – How do we stop wasting so much time in team meetings – looks at the problem from a negative perspective. When we look at the problem from a negative perspective, it reduces our ability to see it from a broader perspective and we focus purely on the negative.

The second example – How can we make our meetings more productive – is a more positive approach. We are not focusing on a negative but rather focusing on how to do even better than we are. This enables for looking at the problem from an opportunity-driven approach.

When we think about problems as opportunities rather than in a negative manner, we tend to be more engaged in solving the issue and our solutions are more innovative and creative.

Best Practices to Keep the Audience Engaged
The last thing we want to see when we are making a presentation is individuals in the audience “tuned out” or falling asleep in their seats! It is essential to keep the audience engaged in the presentation so that they are listening and active in the presentation and you are able to accomplish your goals.

Here are a number of suggestions on how to keep the audience engaged and listening to you during the presentation:

• Use storytelling. For example, I might share a story during a presentation and then ask an audience member to share a story of their own.

• Ask for a show of hands. For example, I might ask how many of the audience members have managed through a particularly different change initiative in their organization.

• Maintain eye contact with the audience throughout the presentation.

• Regularly “check in” to see if anyone in the audience has a question. (I prefer to enable audience members to ask their questions as they think of them rather than feeling as if they have to hold them until the end of the presentation.)

• Use appropriate humor during the presentation.

• Utilize visuals that engage the audience.

• Engage the audience through asking a question and capturing responses on a flip chart.

What are some of your techniques to keep an audience engaged during your presentations?