Leadership when managing projects heavily impacted by political constraints
Yassine BelkouraProgram coordinator| Douja Promotion Groupe AddohaMohammedia, Outside U.S./Canada, Morocco
How would you keep your team engaged and motivated when your project keeps changing scope and schedule because of political constraints, including mutiple hold and resume cycles? Saving Changes...
Be transparent (I.e. dont candy coat the issues) but also help them to focus on what they can control and recognize their efforts. Engage senior leadership such as the sponsor to come and regularly reinforce why the project is important and how their work benefits the organization.
Kiron
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1 reply by Yassine Belkoura
Dec 29, 2018 8:44 AM
Yassine Belkoura
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Thank you for your feedback, Kiron.
Transparency is always one of my top concerns when communicating with the team. There is nothing to hide since the political aspect of the project is obvious. The problem comes from the "hold and resume" aspect. Whenever the team reaches a stable productivity and perfomance, the project might be on hold because of some political decisions out of our reach, nor the sponsor's. It is hard to to get the team back on track. This is where the challenge resides.
Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Well, my day to day work life. In fact, at this time, I am leading a currency exchange project for a south american country where we are facing that situation. In my case, what worked for me, is to help people to understand that the world is driven by continues change and that impact everything in this world. On the other side, I try to demonstrate to the team that I am in control of all related to change to make they work life as comfortable as possible
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1 reply by Yassine Belkoura
Dec 29, 2018 8:48 AM
Yassine Belkoura
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Thank you for your feedback, Sergio!
I completely agree with your approach. Reminding the team of the "noble" objective of the project helps keeping a steady mind. It works some days better than on other days but it is definitely a great morale boost.
Saving Changes...
Yassine BelkouraProgram coordinator| Douja Promotion Groupe AddohaMohammedia, Outside U.S./Canada, Morocco
Dec 28, 2018 6:54 PM
Replying to Kiron Bondale
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Yassine -
Be transparent (I.e. dont candy coat the issues) but also help them to focus on what they can control and recognize their efforts. Engage senior leadership such as the sponsor to come and regularly reinforce why the project is important and how their work benefits the organization.
Kiron
Thank you for your feedback, Kiron.
Transparency is always one of my top concerns when communicating with the team. There is nothing to hide since the political aspect of the project is obvious. The problem comes from the "hold and resume" aspect. Whenever the team reaches a stable productivity and perfomance, the project might be on hold because of some political decisions out of our reach, nor the sponsor's. It is hard to to get the team back on track. This is where the challenge resides.
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1 reply by Henry Hattenrath
Dec 30, 2018 3:07 PM
Henry Hattenrath
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The challenge should be articulated as a risk and the project risk management plan should identify the trigger, responsible party, and the monitoring, mitigation and response activities. Since this appears to be a previous event, Lessons Learned should be conducted and the Lessons integrated into the risk plan for the event,
The responsible party may need to include the Owner, and their role in mitigation and response should be described in the risk plan. The Owner needs to be part of controlling the political influence upon the project, and as needed, provide executive management input to address the risk or to accept the consequence of the delays to the project from allowing the political influence to make changes in the project that affect the scope, schedule, cost and planned progress.
Saving Changes...
Yassine BelkouraProgram coordinator| Douja Promotion Groupe AddohaMohammedia, Outside U.S./Canada, Morocco
Dec 28, 2018 6:58 PM
Replying to Sergio Luis Conte
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Well, my day to day work life. In fact, at this time, I am leading a currency exchange project for a south american country where we are facing that situation. In my case, what worked for me, is to help people to understand that the world is driven by continues change and that impact everything in this world. On the other side, I try to demonstrate to the team that I am in control of all related to change to make they work life as comfortable as possible
Thank you for your feedback, Sergio!
I completely agree with your approach. Reminding the team of the "noble" objective of the project helps keeping a steady mind. It works some days better than on other days but it is definitely a great morale boost. Saving Changes...
MOHAMED ANSARI M AIndependent Consultant| FreelanceKozhikode, Kerala, India
Its quite frustrating for anyone encountered such a scenario in their projects.
As long as the PM is honest and keep informed about the change requests and competing priorities to all stakeholders (and the team), its certain that the team will be engaged in the project and it will touch the finish line, but may be with a delay. Saving Changes...
Vikash SinghSenior Project Managment Professional| Dragon oil- ENOC GroupDubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Project contract contains some clauses on political situations to deal with such situations.
It is better to review impacts in terms of scope, schedule and cost and make every stake holder aware of same. Initiate Change management process. As required, re baseline Project deliverables as per revised requirements. Saving Changes...
Henry HattenrathProject Consultant| Tectonic Engineering MSA LLCNew York, Ny, United States
Dec 29, 2018 8:44 AM
Replying to Yassine Belkoura
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Thank you for your feedback, Kiron.
Transparency is always one of my top concerns when communicating with the team. There is nothing to hide since the political aspect of the project is obvious. The problem comes from the "hold and resume" aspect. Whenever the team reaches a stable productivity and perfomance, the project might be on hold because of some political decisions out of our reach, nor the sponsor's. It is hard to to get the team back on track. This is where the challenge resides.
The challenge should be articulated as a risk and the project risk management plan should identify the trigger, responsible party, and the monitoring, mitigation and response activities. Since this appears to be a previous event, Lessons Learned should be conducted and the Lessons integrated into the risk plan for the event,
The responsible party may need to include the Owner, and their role in mitigation and response should be described in the risk plan. The Owner needs to be part of controlling the political influence upon the project, and as needed, provide executive management input to address the risk or to accept the consequence of the delays to the project from allowing the political influence to make changes in the project that affect the scope, schedule, cost and planned progress. Saving Changes...
Well it depends if the team welcomes change. It's all in the mindset. I love change. It keeps things challenging, interesting and innovative. Saving Changes...
Treat change as something normal. Make people comfortable with it.
On the other side, stakeholder management is paramount in anticipating changes and avoid dumb ones Saving Changes...
