ProjectsAtWork

Burnout is everywhere in the work world, and it hurts morale, performance and ROI in both obvious and subtle ways. But burnout is a sensitive issue that can be tricky to discuss — and even harder to fix.

Many people are reluctant to admit that they are suffering from burnout, while others may not even realize it. They think the problem might be their own doing. Others know that burnout is affecting them, but they don’t see a way around it and feel trapped — until they quit, quietly or otherwise.

We recently polled the ProjectManagement.com community about burnout and its main causes, asking: If you’ve experienced burnout in the past year, what was the main cause?

More than 40 percent of almost 200 respondents said they were overwhelmed with too much work and too little time. About 20 percent are uninspired with no direction or sense of purpose. Another 20 percent feel unappreciated with little recognition or support. About 8 percent said they feel disconnected, lacking collaboration or a team bond. And a fortunate 12 percent said they had not experienced burnout in the past year.

It doesn’t help that far too many organizations and managers do not even acknowledge that burnout is an issue, so they don’t recognize (or simply ignore) its symptoms. As a result, they never actually reckon with the causes of burnout. But they certainly suffer the consequences, from turnover to turmoil that hinders execution and stifles innovation.

The latest episode of PMI’s Projectified podcast focuses on Overcoming Burnout and Change Fatigue, with guests Rose James, PMI-ACP, PMP, and Mary Tresa Gabriel, PMP, discussing how they are helping organizations and teams find healthier ways to deal with these issues. Project team leaders can benefit from their insights.

The first step in overcoming burnout is simply to talk about it. “This helps [team members] understand they are not alone in their journey. Everyone has gone through it,” Gabriel says. “Don’t treat is as a sign of weakness.”

And that kind of transparent communication can help to reduce burnout. “Because when our team members want to talk about burnout, it is more likely they are okay to show their vulnerable side, which comes only when they trust you and when they are open to share with you,” Gabriel says.

In addition to providing a safe, open environment to discuss burnout, project leaders have an ongoing responsibility to provide clear direction to team members. Without it, “they may feel lost, confused, and struggle to find the real meaning of what they are doing,” Gabriel says.

Likewise, project leaders need to protect their teams—and themselves—from excessive workload and unrealistic timelines, which was the leading cause of burnout, according to our PM.com poll.

“If they are constantly faced with unclear expectations and shifting priorities or lack of proper information about the changes, this itself can cause a lot of uncertainty within the team, which can cause burnout.”

Easier said than done, right? In the podcast, James highlights two interconnected “pieces” that project leaders should connect.

The mindset piece can be as straightforward as making sure to take frequent breaks from the work to help the mind relax and reduce stress. But just as important, James says, is “to reframe threats as challenges, because when you are in a burnout state, your mind tends to see challenges as threats, or little mishaps as huge threats. If you put too much pressure on the team to achieve the goal too fast or to implement the change too fast, or frequent changes, your team is going to crack.”

The behavior piece is even trickier, James says. It’s about teaching the team how to learn to say ‘no’ tactfully. How do you do that? James says that project leaders and team members must make the case —in reasonable, rational language—that adding more to their current list of initiatives is going to diminish the quality of output.

And if that doesn’t work? Well, when delivering value isn’t valued more than just delivering … when the talk of mental wellbeing is just, you know, talk … then burnout will continue. And everyone will lose.

So, make your case or make your move.

There isn’t much good that can be said about COVID-19, but it appears that many organizations, project leaders and teams rose to the challenges it posed to their work.

All of us are doing things differently than we did 16 or 17 months ago before offices closed and travel ceased. Our organizations are planning, managing and delivering projects differently, too. And in measurable, demonstrative ways, that’s actually turned out to be a good thing—or at least the start of something good.

Forced to pivot suddenly in March 2020, many organizations and teams became more focused on outcomes than processes. It was the only way to keep critical initiatives up and running, to meet strategic goals, to stay in the game. In doing so, a new kind of organization is emerging—something Project Management Institute’s new report, Pulse of the Profession 2021: Beyond Agility, calls a “gymnastic enterprise.”

These gymnastic organizations are empowering their people to become "changemakers" who, regardless of their role, are inspired and equipped to turn ideas into reality. This happens when people continuously get better at what they do, by building a holistic portfolio of skills. And it happens when they're supported by a strong organizational culture, strong leaders, and a strong talent management function.

Here are some key findings from the report, released last month:

>> Despite the pandemic, organizations and their people found new ways of working and delivering value, with digital transformation leading the charge. And although many planned projects were put on hold, of those that did forge ahead, more met original goals and business intent, more were completed within budget and on time, and wasted investment due to poor project performance declined compared to last year's survey.

>> Gymnastic enterprises were more likely to have high levels of organizational agility (48 percent versus 27 percent) and to use standardized risk management practices. They were able to adapt faster to the pandemic, being far more likely to have undergone business change in 2020. And they were much more likely to have seen increased productivity (71 percent versus 53 percent) and better project outcomes in 2020—in turn, resulting in less wasted investment, according to the report.

Gymnastic enterprises are empowering their people to work smarter in three key ways:

   1. Mastering different ways of working—whether that’s agile, predictive, or hybrid approaches, or a range of tech-enhanced tools

   2. Elevating people skills—what the report calls power skills—to ensure effective leadership and communication

   3. Building business acumen to create well-rounded employees who have deep expertise and can see the bigger picture.

The report explores these new ways of working:

>> Gymnastic enterprises are more likely than traditional enterprises to use agile and hybrid approaches, and less likely to use waterfall. Yet it isn’t as simple as moving away from waterfall, but rather taking a more balanced and customized approach for the project at hand.

>> Gymnastic enterprises are outpacing traditional enterprises in the use of cloud solutions, the Internet of Things, AI and 5G mobile internet to manage projects. But more importantly, they're using technology to augment human skills and help their people continuously improve, prioritizing the enterprise-wide adoption of complex problem-solving techniques; AI-driven tools; on-demand, microlearning apps; and career assessment tools.

Ultimately, it comes down to a people first approach. With their focus on augmenting human skills, and on creative collaboration, gymnastic enterprises put the highest priority on collaborative leadership. They also prize adaptability, an innovative mindset and empathy.

But building an environment where changemakers thrive doesn’t just magically happen. The role of organizational culture cannot be understated. Gymnastic enterprises are far more likely than traditional enterprises to prioritize delivering customer value, aligning with organizational values, and embracing digital solutions, according to the report.

Where gymnastic enterprises aren't doing better than their traditional counterparts, however, is diversity at the top. For example, just 44 percent have at least one female leader in the C-Suite. But they're working to plug the gap: 63 percent are putting a high priority on fostering a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion, versus 51 percent of traditional enterprises.

So there’s still very important work to be done. There always is. But many organizations, with changemakers at the forefront, are moving in the right direction.

You can download the full report here.

Flip a coin. Every other Fortune 500 companies from the year 2000 is now extinct. That's right — 52 percent of the Fortune 500 at the turn of the century is out of business today!

"It used to be enough to get customers to just buy things that you were selling. Now, you need customers who buy in to your company as a whole,” says Ryan Berman, author of Return On Courage. “Values-based, socially responsible, and purpose-driven companies are the ones that are winning today’s business game.”

In his book, Berman presents a business model for what he calls "courageous change." He wants organizations, teams and individuals to take thoughtful, calculated risks, whether it’s about developing a new product, implementing an innovative strategy, or simply voicing an opinion that upsets the status quo.

Berman’s five-step process, called P.R.I.C.E., is based on his experiences advising prominent brands such as Major League Baseball, PUMA and Subway, as well as interviews with leaders from Apple, Google, Dominos, Zappos and other successful companies. Berman discusses the reasoning behind each step and provides detailed worksheets to help readers implement the process. The process includes:

> Prioritize Through Values – Leaders must modernize, prioritize and then utilize their core values as critical decision-making filters for their organizations. Then they must strive to embody those select values into everything they do as a leader, team and company.

> Rally Believers – Leaders who cheerlead to their staff are not effective. Instead try Believership. The purpose of a Believership is to create Believers out of a company’s employees, prospects and customers. They may deliver bad news from time to time, but they always put the business first and prioritize what the company needs, even when it’s difficult.

> Identify Fears – This audit of fear is a more up-to-date, effective way to perform a SWOT analysis.  Successful businesses proactively smoke out and address their biggest fears instead of suppressing them. By identifying fears — industry fears, product fears, service fears, and perception fears — companies begin the process of conquering their most complicated problems. They are able to drum up courageous solutions that shrink down these difficult, progress-halting hurdles.

> Commit To A Purpose – A powerful purpose is more than just words. Having an authentic cause drives conviction and keeps people motivated to come to work, even on tough days. True purpose becomes ingrained in the company culture; without it, turnover problems arise. Injecting a “rally-cry-in-your-why” also permeates outside the walls of the organization to transform one-time buyers into raving fans.

> Execute Your Action – Without taking action, companies are merely stuck in paralysis. When it’s time to innovate, courageous companies know how to “cover and move.” They “cover” their current products while they work to “move” toward their next revenue stream or innovation. And they get their most meaningful messages into the hands of advocates by utilizing the 4 P’s – Passion, Precision, Promoters, and a Point of View.

Berman makes a compelling case that courage does not need to be impulsive or excessively risky. He demonstrates, instead, that courage is a necessity in today’s constantly changing, highly competitive business environment. Leaders, project managers and teams must welcome change and make courage part of their daily activities.