Practically Project Management

Let’s face it.  Most of us don’t like change.  Heck, sometimes the smallest changes can set me off.  Little things like a menu update at my favorite restaurant, software updates to my phone, or dare I say reorganizing products at my local supermarket have been known to send me on a rant.   Yet, the amount of change occurring across all aspects of our lives is increasing exponentially.  Futurist Ray Kurzweil aptly described the times we’re living in as “The Age of Acceleration.”

Constant change makes the daily demands of leadership feel overwhelming, and it’s a source of frustration and burn-out for many people.  Yet, once we recognize and accept the fact that change is part of everyday life, and not some special activity reserved for HR or project management professionals, we can begin to approach it as a capability that we all need to develop.

Having been deeply involved in significant change management efforts throughout my career, I’ve noticed some common practices that have proven to be incredibly valuable.  I think of these as the five daily practices for change management.  These are approaches that can be applied by anyone, at any level, to help manage the daily drumbeat of change.  It doesn’t matter is you’re the CEO or an entry level team member — you can proactively lead positive change every single day.

Here are five “habits” that every leader is empowered to use to manage everyday change:

1. Look outside the organization – People get blindsided by change when they lose touch with what’s happening in the broader world around them. It’s important to stay informed on market trends, new competitors, and sources of disruption. This can be as simple as staying up to date on trade publications, attending a conference, or reading the news. To gain new perspectives try getting out of your daily routine.  For example, if you work in accounting at a large corporation, consider taking a “field trip” to learn what accountants are doing in smaller organizations – or vice versa. Continually explore how new insights could affect your work and pursue ways to keep yourself and your team relevant.
2. Stay close to the people you serve – It’s really easy to mess things up when you’re disconnected from understanding the ever changing wants, needs, and expectations of the people you serve. It doesn’t matter is you’re in sales, marketing, operations, IT, engineering, accounting, HR, finance, or another area within the organization — somewhere there are people who are dependent on the work you do. Take time to meet with them, discuss ways to improve, and even identify ways they might get their needs met elsewhere to help inform you about your competition. This can be done formally via a meeting or informally over coffee or lunch.
3. Measure outcomes – Positive change is really about consistently producing better outcomes. While commercial aspects of the business may have clear outcome metrics like revenue and profit, results in the back-office may appear more difficult to track. They’re not. Items like adoption, usage, satisfaction, defects, cost, time to complete a process, effort to complete a process, total number of outputs, etc… are all ways to assess outcomes. As long as you’re correlating changes to improved outcomes you’ll know you’re headed in the right direction.
4. Cultivate continuous communication – Communication is the core element to successfully managing change. It requires leaders to establish a diverse and ongoing set of communication channels with their stakeholders. This should include ways to obtain open and honest feedback based on mutual trust. Examples might include meetings, one-on-one conversations, newsletters, training, videos, chats or forums, intranet sites, emails, or dare I say an old fashioned bulletin board. Set a steady rhythm and adjust as the needs of your audience evolve.
5. Set a vision and iterate – Managing through continuous change doesn’t mean you need to respond to every single whim or issue that emerges. Instead, it requires leaders to establish a clear vision of where they’re going while also allowing for changes along the way. Start by developing a roadmap or plan. You might pair that with project management and operational methods like agile and Kanban. This will enable you to keep things progressing in the right direction while also incorporating changes as new information becomes available

Do you remember how many times you crashed your bicycle before learning to ride? Can you recall how many times you fell over before learning to walk? Probably not. That’s because when we’re young taking risks is part of growing and failure is synonymous with learning.

Yet, somewhere along life’s journey, things change. Contrary to the mantras of “fail fast” or “we want to create a culture where it’s OK to fail“, many professionals stop associating failure with learning. Instead, failure becomes associated with weakness or incompetence. This stigma causes us to take fewer risks. The result is we self-limit our own potential.

Unpacking Failure

Awhile ago I took a really big risk.  I was part of a failed start-up company and I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. I learned more during my time in a failed business than I ever did from MBA classes on entrepreneurship, marketing, or management.

Our business concept was purpose driven. Museums and art galleries provided us with used shipping crates that were previously destined for landfills. Our industry research indicated approximately 2 million of these crates were sent to landfills every year! Precious resources including water, trees, time needed to produce them, pollution from transportation, and landfill space was being unnecessarily wasted. 

For context, these were not basic wooden boxes.  Most of the crates were custom crafted to securely transport high value pieces of art. We would collect the crates, refurbish them, and place them online for resale and reuse.  Our business also included direct partnerships with art handlers to offer our products, alongside theirs, as an ecologically friendly and lower cost option to traditional crating.  

The primary business hypothesis was there would be a “middle market” of environmentally minded customers who would want to buy these crates. After launching the business we quickly discovered the following market dynamics.

• The high end of the market wanted new custom crates. Apparently no one was comfortable putting their Andy Warhol or freshly shredded Banksy in a used crate.
• The low end of the market couldn’t afford to ship the crate. The crates were heavy and could easily cost upwards of $500 to ship.
• And.... the middle market never materialized. After a lengthy campaign of marketing and direct sales appeals we only had a trickle of sales.

There are few things that feel worse than putting your heart and soul into a business, only to have it come up short. But taking risks can often have unforeseen rewards, and the value of the lessons I learned along the way were priceless.

Here are some insights from my experience.

1. Don’t get it perfect – just get it out there – One of the things we did really well was quickly getting our store online and products available for purchase. We didn’t waste a lot of time overthinking it, we just put a minimum viable product (MVP) out there. Once we were open, using agile principles, we quickly iterated and improved based on what we were learning from the actual market.
2. Market research isn’t everything – Before launching we spent time speaking with people in the art community. They all claimed to want low cost crating solutions that were environmentally friendly. When we presented them with our concept they were ecstatic. Yet, when it came time to actually buy our products they were nowhere to be found. This is a classic case of researcher bias where individuals will say favorable things just to be nice.
3. Define what success looks like – Before launch we defined a small set of goals. My partners and I agreed, if certain criteria weren’t met then we would pull the plug. This really helped with decision making when emotions were running high.
4. Don’t confuse business failure with personal failure – When you put a lot of time, effort, and money into something, it naturally becomes personal. This is true for start-ups, projects at work, and our daily jobs. It’s easy to blame yourself when things don’t go as planned. While it’s important to hold ourselves accountable, it’s healthy to keep things in perspective. A business concept can simply be ill-timed or mismatched with needs in the market. Sometimes things just don’t work out.
5. Everyone has the capacity to do new things – Resources are scarce in a start-up and there’s nobody to delegate to. This singular reason is why I believe it’s important for every business professional to spend some time working with a small business. It keeps you humble, focused, and grounded in reality. For example, while my role was initially related to strategy, project planning, and marketing, I had to expand my contributions to include warehouse operations, direct sales, and even driving a 26′ delivery truck.

Are you growing professionally?

As I reflected on some of these insights I found myself coming back to an important question that we should all ask ourselves.

“What professional risks are you taking that have the potential for failure?"

When you genuinely explore this question it naturally highlights opportunities for learning and growth. The funny thing that I realized is that even though our aversion to risk changes as we age, the inherent relationship between failure and learning doesn't.

So here's my challenge.  As project managers we're hard-wired to minimize risks.  Contrary to our PMI training, I recommend occasionally taking risks instead! It can be something as simple as working on a new project, learning a new skill, or applying for a position in a different part of the company you work at.  Just like learning to ride a bike, it’s OK to fall down. We all crash sometimes.  If you don't crash every once in awhile, then chances are you're not really challenging yourself to reach your fullest potential.  And that's really the biggest risk of all.  

** This article was originally published by Jon Hanley on his blog at practically project management

It seems like the word "transformation" crops up about everywhere these days so here’s some friendly advice. Since we haven’t reached maximum hype, just insert the word transformation into any new project request and it will significantly increase the odds that it will be sponsored or funded. Case in point. If you're a contractor bidding on a project to replace some broken toilets, just position it as a “bathroom transformation” and I guarantee you can charge double. I digress.

Anyway, at one point in my career I dealt with transformation related topics daily.  My job was focused on identifying emerging technologies, start-ups, or business models that might help us evolve our business. I would spend my days meeting with venture capitalists, startup founders, angel investors, academics, and a whole assortment of other interesting characters. I was primarily looking for innovative ways to solve problems we had, and to capture insights about problems that we didn’t even know existed.

One of my meetings inevitably led me to the offices of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Here’s a shortlist of companies they’ve funded; Facebook, Github, Box, Dollar Shave Club, Instagram, Oculus, Lyft, Slack, Zenefits, etc… It’s also worth noting that their tagline was “software is eating the world.”

Oddly, the thing I recall most from my meeting was their lobby. Tucked within tiny alcoves were photographs of hydrogen bomb tests from the 1950’s. After closer inspection I discovered they were all originals. I asked myself, “what kind of organization hangs original photos of hydrogen bomb tests in their lobby?” and filed the question in the back of my mind for reflection.

Fast forward to today. Everywhere you look “transformation offices” are cropping up in corporate headquarters.  My news feeds overflow with the latest cavalcade of articles zinging around buzzwords such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, block chain, and my all-time favorite… the cloud.

Here’s the thing. I have yet to see a “transformation” occur at a company that is worthy of the hype.  Most transformation programs are incremental. They typically involve process automation, replacement of old technology, or response to a competitive threat. This is valuable work but it rarely results in a company being truly transformed.

This takes me back to the question of “why the hydrogen bomb test photos?”  An answer has slowly emerged. Transformative organizations have no anchor to the past way of doing things. They embrace the destructive, disruptive, AND creative energies inherent in all new technologies -- with the intent of creating a different, and hopefully better, future. 

Because venture capitalists like Andreessen Horowitz manage large portfolios of different types of companies, they don’t have the same constraints as existing businesses. They can place multiple “bets on the future” by spreading their risk over numerous individual companies. One successful investment can offset the losses of countless failed ones. Even with savvy portfolio management, existing businesses and mature project management organizations typically can’t approach things this way.

While there are plenty of books on the topic, I believe the main challenge for existing businesses seeking transformation is best summed up in the Zen saying, “the sword cannot cut itself.”

This is why you’ve never read an article about Sears transforming retail by taking their catalog online, or Kodak transforming photography by digitizing how photos are taken, processed, and shared. To embrace true transformation often requires one to also embrace the destructive side of the equation. This often means wrecking an existing business, i.e. the sword cutting itself.  This is indicative of why Jeff Bezos was recently quoted as saying “I predict one day Amazon will fail. Amazon will go bankrupt. If you look at large companies, their lifespans tend to be 30-plus years, not a hundred-plus years.”

This takes us to the primary trouble with transformations. If you’re in an existing business, and you know your industry will be disrupted, it's really difficult to figure out what to do.  Maybe you should setup a new PMO team and call it a “Transformation Office”? Or possibly you should invest in cutting edge buzz word technology or acquire a start-up? 

Well, unfortunately the challenge really isn’t about creating a new organization or pursuing some new technology projects. It is primarily about vision, culture, and leadership. This is a much harder problem to navigate – but it’s not insurmountable. From my experience I’ve observed at least four general paths. The trick is to walk the paths simultaneously, without losing sight of your day to day business.

1. Technology Led Improvements – In the not too distant past, technology was viewed as an enabler. The “business” would define a need and the “information technology” function would initiate a project to address it. This approach needs to be flipped. It requires market savvy technology oriented leaders to demonstrate what’s possible and then work with the business to implement it. I believe this reorientation best captures what most organizations are doing with digital transformation. Culture and outdated organizational models are the biggest barriers here, not to mention that market savvy IT leaders are very hard to find!
2. Rapid Competitive Response – Today’s competitors can quickly emerge from anywhere. Even historically “stable” industries like razor blades or mattresses are seeing small disruptive competitors that present real threats to long standing businesses. Addressing this requires adding agility to the organization. A variety of companies have invested in cross-functional project teams, light-weight infrastructure, and externally focused leaders to mobilize rapid responses to competitive threats. For example, Best Buy was able to respond to Amazon’s next day shipping by offering ship from store capabilities. This was a cross functional effort spanning retail operations, logistics, e-commerce, accounting, etc… They started small by testing the capability in a handful of stores. Once proven it was quickly expanded across the entire business.
3. Diversified Partnerships – Joy’s law sums it up best; “no matter who you are, most of the smartest people work for someone else.” This means that in order to succeed, businesses need to develop diverse external partner networks. The goal here is to gain insights about new threats or opportunities while tapping into external talent to experiment with emerging capabilities. It often requires establishing a dedicated group within the organization to cultivate these partnerships. To be clear, these are not transactional vendor relationships and are typically not something that might be delegated to purchasing organizations. Some examples include Unilever Ventures, P&G Connect and Develop, Johnson and Johnson Innovation, etc…
4. Research and Disruption (the new R&D) –  This is the hardest one to explain and pursue. It’s really about taking a lead role shaping the future of an industry. While it's probably over-used, a good example of this is Elon Musk (and associated investors) being on the forefront of disrupting transportation. While Tesla gets most of the headlines, Musk plays a leadership role in the areas of space travel via Space-X with reusable launch systems, self-driving automobiles, ride-sharing services, hyper-loop, and the aptly named Boring Company. If you’re leading disruption in so many facets of the transportation industry, then it’s difficult to completely get left behind -- even if several ventures ultimately fail. This implies an approach where existing businesses pursue concepts that may undermine their current operations (i.e. the sword cutting itself).

In order to survive, practically every business needs to embrace elements of transformation. Ironically most of the challenges are internal.  They come from overcoming the forces within the business that are resistant to embracing all aspects of transformation – including the potentially destructive ones.  Understanding this is one of the first steps on the path to success.  As project managers, it's up to us to help our sponsors and leaders navigate these difficult challenges.  And, if all else fails, go ahead and hang up a few photos of atomic bombs going off, at minimum it’s sure to spark some lively conversation.

Speaking of conversation.  I welcome your thoughts and reactions to this article.  I want to hear more about your own experience with transformation projects.  What's worked, what hasn't, and what do you think we can we do as project professionals to successfully advance transformation for the benefit of our organizations?

** This article was originally published by Jon Hanley on his blog at practically project management

Working as a project manager in the Fall of 2009 I was presented with an Olympic sized challenge.  It began as an idea to have a few brands advertise during the 2010 Winter Olympics. The project quickly morphed into a massive program of over 10 different brand teams, a gaggle of creative agencies, countless retail promotions, and a significant “on the ground” presence at the games themselves. Most importantly, the program evolved beyond marketing. It became an authentic tribute to world class athletes and the lifetime of sacrifice made by their families. We had to get it right!

In a surreal moment I found myself on a small leadership team sitting with the Chief Marketing Officer. He explained that we had 4 months to execute one of the largest multi-branded marking campaigns in the company’s history – and he was counting on us to deliver with excellence.  You can imagine the collective "gulp" sound that came from around the small table.

Project managers dream of these types of challenges and I am forever grateful to have had the opportunity to lead. One of the most effective project planning techniques we used was visualizing a successful outcome.  It should be noted that this is also an effective technique used by high performing athletes.

Because of the high level of urgency there was a temptation to immediately jump into all the work that was already underway.  Instead, we took a brief “time-out” to ensure the minimum scope was defined. Since the Olympics ran for more than two weeks, we painstakingly defined every single activity and marketing execution hour by hour. This was visualized on large-scale posters and copies were distributed to every supporting team.  We identified numerous redundancies and unnecessary activities.  Once we had alignment, the posters acted as a lighthouse to guide everyone’s actions. We then developed the individual project plans by working backwards to determine the minimum set of activities “that had to be true” in order to deliver.  

This approach allowed us to clearly communicate a vision for success, identify and quickly escalate issues that might prevent us from achieving the goal, and to get people focused on the most important work. It also empowered us to eliminate or ignore scope that didn’t add value. Admittedly, there were plenty things that didn’t go perfectly, but in the end we made it happen!

If you’re ever feeling completely overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude or compressed time-frame of a project, here’s one suggestion. Invest in developing a visualization of the outcome and then develop your plan by working backwards. By getting everyone on the same page you’ll have a solid foundation to successfully manage the work and cut through the clutter that can slow you down.

** This content in this article was originally published by Jon Hanley on the practically project management blog