Thoughts on Project Management

Some presentations we make are short ones, meant to convey an idea or update someone on a particular topic. These presentations may only be 10 – 15 minutes in length; however we still need to prepare for them so that we can accomplish the goals of the presentation.

Follow these three key steps to preparing for a brief presentation in order to increase the chances of getting what you need/accomplishing your goals of the presentation:

1: Determine the objective/goal of your presentation. Is it to inform/update? To get a decision made? To get approval to move forward on a project? You need to understand what you are trying to accomplish in order to develop the appropriate presentation to accomplish your goals.
 

2: Pick 3 – 5 points to convey your message.  The shorter your presentation, the less points you should expect to present. The 3 – 5 key points selected should support you achieving your objective. For example, if my objective is to get approval to move forward with a project to change a process within a particular work area, the key points to support that goal might be as follows:

• Reduce time for completion of task

• Increase customer satisfaction

• Reduce need for outside resources

• Reduce non-value added activities

At the beginning of the presentation:

• Introduce the topic

• State the objective of the presentation

• State the 3 – 5 key points that will be covered

3: Select supporting materials. For each key point, select supporting materials that support the point you are trying to make, and achieve the overall objective of the presentation. Supporting materials include examples, analogies, stories, data, survey results, research, graphs or charts and other such materials. These supporting materials are used to clarify, describe and emphasize your key points – providing, effectively “back up” information to help drive others to seeing your point of view on the topic. Limit the number of supporting materials for each key point so that the audience is not overwhelmed with too much data.

Once you have pulled together all of this information, prepare your presentation keeping in mind the following process:

• Introduce your topic at the beginning

• State your objective and your 3 – 5 key points

• Transition to your first key point and then transition between each key point. (A transition from one key point to another might be: “Now that you know the overall benefits of changing the process, let’s discuss the first benefit in more detail.”)

• Summarize your presentation by stating the 3 – 5 key points again and conclude the presentation by asking for a decision, support to move to next steps or whatever it is you wanted to achieve when you started the presentation. (A closing statement might be: “Now that you have heard about the benefits to changing the process, I’d like approval to move forward with pulling together a process improvement team to explore the idea further.”)

All project managers have a number of tasks to accomplish in any given day! There is just too much to do to accomplish the goals and objectives we need to get done to ensure our projects are a success. It seems easy to say to just limit what you have to do; but that is rarely possible to do – after all, projects must be completed!

Here are a number of common mistakes we all make that distract us from focusing and accomplishing our goals:

• Not keeping a “to do” list

• Not prioritizing work to be done

• Not managing distractions and interruptions

• Procrastinating on tasks

• Taking on more than we can accomplish in a given time period

• Not taking breaks from the work

• Not effectively scheduling tasks/projects to be completed (with sufficient time to be done)

• Trying to multitask

I have found that when we know we are making these mistakes, and stay aware of them, we can more easily move past them! Here is one best practice to try that has worked effectively for me – I keep a prioritized “to do” list of what needs to be accomplished. I prioritize in the following two ways:

1. Highest impact (client focused vs personal goal)

2. Effort required to complete the task

Prioritize in any way that works for you. Each day I create a “to do” list to be completed that day. I set aside time to work through that list; blocking time on my calendar to do so. During this time I send my phone to voice mail and keep my email off so I am not distracted.

Since I am a “morning person,” I complete my more complex “to do” items during the early morning hours.

How do you effectively manage your time?

You are working on a project to implement an online benefits management portal to enable employees to have a “one stop” location to view their health and dental benefits, get answers to benefits-related questions, and enable for changes to be made to health benefit coverage. Requirements were gathered over a two week time period at the start of the project and all stakeholders participated in requirements gathering sessions. The project is near completion – the portal has been developed by the IT/Application Development group. It has been tested, works well and will be rolled out early next week.

You are approached by a member of the senior leadership team who suggests that it would be of value to add in a component so that employees can also manage their 401Ks. In fact, he wants this to happen in time for this roll out.

What should you do? 

Here is what you might do:  Obviously trying to add in the 401K component now is not a good idea. However, the idea of adding in this functionality is a good idea! As the project manager, talk to the stakeholder who desires this change and acknowledge it is a wonderful idea that will certainly be of value to the employees. However, to add it in now means that the following would have to occur:

• The release date of the online benefits management portal will need to be delayed in order to develop and then test this addition to the portal. Releasing the new component before fully testing risks the success of the project.

• IT/Application Development team members, who have been deployed to other projects, would need to be brought back to work on this component or additional resources will need to be found. This will increase costs on the project.

Suggest that the following may be options:

• Hold the 401K component for a Phase 2 of the project.

• Add in a link to the current 401K application so that employees can access that information from this portal.

By acknowledging that the idea is a great one, but needs time to be prepared to enable for success and suggesting some options enables the project manager to have a better conversation with the stakeholder and to ensure that the right approach is taken for this addition to the product.

What else might you do? How would you handle this request?

Most team members are excited about working on a new project, even if a bit apprehensive. Generally they are excited about the possibilities and start off optimistic. It may certainly be “uninformed optimism” since they may not know enough about what the project entails just yet.

But what if they start off pessimistic about the project from the start? All doom and gloom. And – as if that is not enough – as the project manager no matter what you try you just can’t headway with some of the team. For some of the team members - nothing is right, nothing is sufficient, nothing will work – it’s the end of the world.

Take a deep breath! You can get past this.

First, we’ll assume that you have a sponsor who is onboard, recognizes the issues and is supportive of you – and will jump in if you need him to do so.

Begin by scheduling a meeting with the team members who have the issues to understand what is going on and develop a plan to move forward. We don’t all have to be best friends on the team but we must respect each other and learn how to work together effectively. Discussions in this meeting should focus on:

• What is driving the pessimism?
• What does the team need to move forward?

The goal is to understand the issues driving the pessimism and come to agreement on what the team needs that will satisfy them so they can move forward. Be really clear here regarding specifically what needs to be done. I have learned that for those team members who are just not going to move forward no matter what, you can spend way too much time trying to get them to come along to the detriment of the project.

If it is needed, have the sponsor involved in this discussion with the team. There have been two instances when I needed the sponsor’s involvement because of the situation. Sometimes someone higher up needs to help the team to move forward. In one situation, the team just didn’t want to do the project because they were happy with the way things were in the organization and the project was a big change. As much as I tried to move them forward, it required my project sponsor to explain that the organization was moving forward and they needed to come along.

When we can get the people together, we can begin to open up communications, share thoughts and address issues, in a professional manner. Consider an outside facilitator to help the team to listen to each other and really hear what someone else is saying. Until the team gets their concerns addressed, or feel heard, they cannot be productive. If they are not productive, the project cannot succeed.

In one of the situations where I needed to get a sponsor involved, the ultimate decision made was to remove the team member from the team and replace him with another. I saw it as a personal failure on my part. I have always worked diligently to develop strong working relationships with individuals on the team and was never able to do so with this particular team member. Regardless of what I did, or didn’t do, it was always a problem for this person. I’ll call it a personality issue; it happens. Although I worked, with the support of the project sponsor, to repair my relationship with this individual, it never happened. The sponsor ended up replacing the individual on the team. Frankly I think it was more than a personality issue, the individual just didn’t want the project to move forward. Had I kept trying to work it out with him and keep him on the team, the project would have suffered. All of my energy was going to him.

In many cases, with a bit of effort, the project manager can move the team past pessimism about the project. You just need to understand why the team is being so pessimistic. Often there is lots of history within the organization to consider. When you can get to the root of the issue, you can address it. Sometimes, it is just asking the question!

 Martha has been assigned a team of 10 people to help her plan a major customer appreciation event. They have been working together for over a month now and they just haven’t really come together as a team. She was sure she started off well. She contacted each individual on the team and let them know their responsibilities on the project.

Each of the members gets the tasks completed, but don’t seem concerned with the others on the team. If someone needs help, no one pitches in to assist. If a team member has a problem, no one helps him to solve that problem. Just yesterday one of the team members had an emergency and asked if someone on the team could have a call with the sales team so she could leave early. No one offered to help so Martha jumped in to assist. Martha had to do something. This was a bad experience for everyone frankly and some folks already were talking about getting off the project. Plus she felt the event won’t be as good as it could if they just came together as a team.

Here is what Martha should have done:  Martha never got the team together prior to starting the project to get to know each other and discuss how they will work together to accomplish the goals of the project. She could have done this by getting the time in one location or even using a virtual tool. In order to get the group to come together as a team now, Martha might step back and hold a team building session. During this time she should plan to accomplish the following:

• Enable for time for team members to build relationships by getting to know each other on a personal level

• Develop processes and procedures for how the team will: share work, meet the objectives of the project, solve problems and resolve conflicts and make decisions

When the team members get to know each other, they will begin to support each other and will be more concerned about their team mates. Bottom line, they will function as a team.