Change, Agility and the Elusive 'Typical Project'

TLAs (or Three Letter Acronyms) are pervasive in many businesses. For example, I work for a PMO that uses many PMI standards, and many of have our PMP. That may be fairly clear here, this is projectmanagement.com after all, but what would someone else think? Every day I hear all sorts of TLAs to describe tools, processes, departments, and even people. What’s worse is that within an organization, various divisions may have different definitions for the same acronyms.

And it’s not just in business. Consider what happens if you hear someone say ‘osha’ – are they talking about the Occupational Safety and Health Administration? Or a character on Game of Thrones? Maybe they meant OSHAA, Ohio High School Athletic Association. It could be an organization- or department-specific term at a workplace.

It can cause a lot of confusion.

That being said, TLAs have a lot of uses as well. Within a group with a shared understanding, they can be helpful shorthand for speedy communication, particularly in a time where so much happens in fly-by hallway conversations and by text.

The key is clarity. We’re PMs, and the bulk of our work is in communication. Acronyms can be great when talking with your team, but stakeholders may give you blank stares. Or worse, they can nod along in understanding, until you realize you were thinking of two different meanings for XYZ.

Domain-specific language is great – if it stays within the domain.

What has been your experience around acronym confusion? How have you resolved confusion?

I have a list of things I’ve learned over my years as a PM in a few industries. These little nuggets have been more meaningful than most of the formal training or reading I’ve experienced.

• Being a PM is basically parenting. You have to make sure your team gets their work done and turned in on time, but you also have to support mental health. Occasionally, you also have to remind the team to eat something.
• Every day is a new adventure, but some adventures can suck a lot.
• Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Even a project that seems familiar will include something surprising and new – sometimes the surprise is good, sometimes not so good.
• Projects = change. If nothing changes, why are you doing this project?
• A huge chunk of the job is as an interpreter – turning technical-speak into business-speak to keep everyone on the same page.
• People will look to you as an expert in time management… so get good at it.
• Teams run on snacks – donuts help them work faster.
• If your team is working, you’re working. Don’t ditch them on those late nights during crunch time.
• Keep a stash of tissues and bandaids around. Most people don’t think of it, but they expect you to have them.
• Post-its are your friends.
• Stage management is project management. Every production is a project with a deadline at 8pm opening night – the curtain is going up and the audience is watching, so hopefully you have a set, prepared cast, lights, audio, props, and costumes ready to go!
• Schedule meetings at consistent times and give your team blocks of time to work. They’ll appreciate it, and you’ll reap the benefits.

I’m looking forward to what I’ll learn tomorrow.

Try something new today. Whenever you type an email, try capitalizing the last word in a sentence instead of the first. 

Tough, right?

I know this example is silly (not to mention a bad idea) but it illustrates the most basic aspect of change. Change, even small, relatively insignificant change, is hard. You’re battling years, sometimes decades, of old habits and memories.

Now think about how change happens on teams and in organizations. It’s not small, it’s not insignificant, and often it’s not alone. Word in the street, and in most industries, is that “change is the new normal.” It’s just something we all have to get used to and deal with.

OK, so you try to get used to it and deal. Great.

But wait. You’re not only responsible for yourself. You’re a project manager, which means now you have to deal with your change process (which as we already know is hard enough), but now you also have to help a project team deal with it. Maybe multiple teams.

And every single person on every single team deals with every single change differently. Including you.

As PMs, we can’t resolve it all. But we can help our teams adjust.

• When change hits, show your support. Talk about the upsides, and be candid about your concerns. When you have concerns, follow the right channels to make your feedback known. Encourage your project teams to do the same.
• Listen to your teams. This isn’t just the role of a PM, it’s the role of any leader or peer in a time of change. Whether or not we manage functional teams, PMs are leaders, and part of that role is to be there for our people when times are tough.
• Keep as much stability as possible. If there is a lot of change in your organization, physical location, org structure, corporate policies, etc… maybe that’s not the right time to test out massive PMO process changes as well.

Change is hard. Some people hate change, some love it, but that still doesn’t make it easy. To help your teams stay motivated and on track, be supportive of them as they adjust, be patient, and mostly just be there.

I don’t code. I manage software projects, am intimately familiar with the SDLC, and can get a herd of creative developers to hit their delivery dates, but I cannot write a line of actual code. (Not true: My coding skills would have been perfect for web pages circa 1996, but that’s not exactly useful today, even if I remembered most of it.)

I don’t write requirements. I can (and I have), however in my current environment I’m lucky enough to have talented Business Analyst resources available. They coordinate high level requirements with business stakeholders, and then get into the details with architects and developers by speaking their language (remember? I don’t code).

I don’t fund projects. I manage the budget of course, but I don’t get to allocate funds to whatever idea may strike my fancy. The business stakeholders get to do all of that, which makes sense as they also have the education and experience to make those decisions in the best interests of the company, and are accountable for an expected return on their investments.

So what value do I bring to the work?

Sure, project managers facilitate communication. We knock down barriers, share updates, track milestones, all kinds of things. But what do we contribute to the end result itself?

Support for the team. That’s what I bring to a project. I support the team.

• I shield my team from distractions. Conflicting priorities and resource constraints are part of many companies and teams. As a PM, I keep my team focused by staying involved in the strategic organization and negotiating on their behalf. When there’s change, it’s my role to help my teams through the change process in a clear way that minimizes transition delays.
• I keep my team focused. All team members have great ideas, and it’s a part of my job to gently (or not-so-gently) remind them of the goals of the project and the work that’s expected. Gold-plating is a nice perk, but only after the core functionality is complete.
• I communicate out. While the team is working, I’m communicating to sponsors, partners, leaders, and other stakeholders. The key here is that I’m communicating so that my team doesn’t have to. They can focus on project work without getting distracted by drop-in questions from stakeholders.

There’s more – lots more – but like these examples, the support I can give is only indirectly involved in the end product.  The biggest, and often most appreciated, contribution is just being there. When it’s crunch time and my team is still furiously fixing bugs at 10pm, I can be there with them. I stay late, I make coffee runs, provide snacks, and act as a sounding board when someone needs to talk through a problem or let off some steam. I’m there, with the devs and QA and everyone else, to show support and lend a hand where ever possible. I bring donuts and listen to frustrated rants to help team members regain focus.

As PMs, we can’t underestimate the benefits we can bring to a team by supporting them and their work. Though I’m pretty sure the most important part is the donuts.

In the US, Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Growing up, it was my first finish-to-finish project. I wasn’t the project manager of course; that was my mother, calmly making sure every dish started preparation and cooking on time to get to the table just as everyone was ready to sit down. I was more of her junior project manager, a 7 year old with my own little task list that I’d written myself (although my older brother helped me with the spelling).

I already thought there was magic in the air – I was off of school for four whole days, which is pretty much a miracle for a child – but the machine-like efficiency of our kitchen was equally awe-inspiring.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but all of the basic tenets of project management went into that day. My mother’s menu was planned in advance, and looked sort of like this, only with more details (and a lot more dishes):

I think this illustrates why I became a project manager.

My mother planned for my grandmother’s inevitable early arrival, and assumed that my brother would take a long time peeling potatoes. She new her resources very well, and managed her own expectations as well as everyone else’s. (In the early years, there was a task for keeping me – the youngest – occupied and out of the way. My brother and father took shifts.)

Somehow, every year the table was perfectly set and everything was exactly 5 minutes from being ready to eat by the time the last person made it through the door…. Just long enough for coats to be taken, drinks delivered, and hellos to be said before gathering at the table to eat.  It was a crazy dance, a well-oiled machine, but it worked.

To this day, that’s how I see projects. There may be chaos and insanity, but also a kind of elegance… and (hopefully) a well-timed success.

We know it doesn’t always work out that way… so as project managers, we plan contingency time and budgets. And as I learned in my later years, my mom did exactly the same thing. There was always a stash of meatballs in the freezer, ready to thaw and quick to heat up, just in case of turkey-related disasters. This contingency preparation happened every single year, and I had no clue until I was out of college. Good preparation isn’t always seen, but it’s nice to know it’s there.

Now it’s my turn – I host Thanksgiving each year. I use the same plan my mom taught me as a child. And so far, I’ve never served cold gravy.