What are ways to reduce challenges teams face during project execution? Post your questions to project management expert, Kara Austin, by 11am ET 14 Nov 2024
Online Community Specialist| PMINewtown Square, Pa, United States
What have team members experienced from similar scenarios in the past? What unknown factors might the team be facing and be apprehensive about? Why is the team hesitant to speak up & is there a way to motivate open dialogue? What do they not want to happen? These are things that might be holding them back from reaching an outcome
Ask Kara Austin! PMI’s Director, EPMO will be available for “Office Hours” on Thursday, 14 Nov at 11am ET to answer your questions about ways to reduce challenges teams face during project execution.
About Kara Austin: Kara Austin lives in Middletown, Delaware, and is the Director of the EPMO at the Project Management Institute. She has experience in leading mergers, Transformations and is passionate about Agile ways of working. She enjoys sailing in her free time in warmer weather. She enjoys learning and holds certifications in PMP, PMI-PBA, PMO-CP, DASM, CSPO and CSM.
Date/Time: Thursday, 14 November 11am-12pm ET
How do “Office Hours” work? -Comment your question below between now and 14 November 11AMET. -Please stay on topic. Please stay on topic. Questions should be related to the ways teams can reduce the challenges faced during project execution. We welcome your questions and thoughts on how this information is most useful in a practical setting. -Kara will answer questions directly on this thread during the scheduled time; visit the thread on 14 November to view the responses. Please note that you will need to refresh the page to view the most recent questions and responses during the live session. -Kara will attempt to answer as many questions as possible during the scheduled “Office Hours” but may not be able to answer each question individually. The discussion thread will close at 12pmET on 14 November, and no additional questions will be accepted after the event. -When commenting, please adhere to the ProjectManagement.com User Guidelines. -Please feel free to connect with Kara here on ProjectManagement.com as well as LinkedIn to expand your professional network.
Almost every time when I take a project forward, during the planning stage the roles and responsibilities of the team members are clearly defined. I worked mostly in a matrix organisation. Even then, I find sometimes team members fall back on the work, the reason being they received additional work from a different manager and they fail to prioritize nor do they inform on time that they are burdened with excess workload? How can this be improved or avoided?
Great question. This is something many of us can relate to. The key is to have team members 100% allocated to the project. If this is not possible, a RACI exercise with the team member and their manager is crucial. In an office environment, this is easy to pick up on where you can see the team member with a line of people at their desk or looking stressed. Having coffee or lunch informally may help the team member open up to share their workload concerns. You could also have coffee with managers to show them the project importance/impacts their team member is making. In a virtual environment, meeting once a week even for 15 minutes to “check in” is helpful. If the team member is not experiencing a concern, you are still building the relationship to open the door if a concern shows up later. You could also hold a retrospective meeting and share action items with the managers of the team to help with these issues. Retrospectives are powerful tools that are documented opportunities versus just a feeling or a complaint. Retrospective actions require attention to ensure continuous improvement and the team’s success to meet scope, schedule and budget, while having some fun along the way.
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1 reply by Bisharah Saeed
Nov 14, 2024 4:01 PM
Bisharah Saeed
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Thanks for the reply Kara! This was really helpful!
I commend the initiative to create an online platform for sharing knowledge and addressing questions within our community. As both a team member and a professional, I also have questions and will greatly benefit from this new format of interaction. 1) How can project leaders create an environment of psychological safety that encourages team members to speak up about potential risks, challenges, or hesitations without fear of negative consequences? 2) What strategies have you found most effective in uncovering and addressing the "unknown factors" that might be causing team apprehension or resistance during project execution? 3) When managing projects that span multiple departments or disciplines, what techniques can leaders use to break down silos and foster collaborative communication? 4) What are the most critical leadership competencies needed to guide teams through significant organizational changes? 5) What innovative approaches do you recommend for leaders to individually map team members' purposes and aspirations while maintaining overall project alignment?
This series of questions is a perfect way to engage the community. I look forward to seeing other ideas posted.
1) Creating an environment of psychological safety does not happen overnight. I tend to overcommunicate and be fully transparent. We have an internal EPMO Hub where I started a series of articles called “Solved Mysteries”. This series focuses on questions I receive often, and I want to help others by sharing knowledge. I am showing that we don’t have all the answers and it’s safe to ask questions. Openly sharing process and FAQs is one way to accomplish this at the baseline level. Another is to meet one on one with the project team members to ensure they can raise risks early and often to you personally if they are uncomfortable in a group setting. Another is to conduct an anonymous survey to ask for risks, issues, constraints, concerns or even new ideas for WoW (Ways of Working). This could reduce the fear and once you act on the feedback you can remove the anonymity if the team is comfortable. Project teams want project success, so should be open to raising concerns. They might need an iterative approach to build trust.
2) To uncover unknown factors, we can ask “what if we don’t do this project?”. We can dig into the lessons learned repository and interview team members from similar projects in the past asking, “what would you change?”.
3) Ensure the Project Manager is front and center as the face of the project. The Project Manager should be communicating status at all levels to ensure alignment. They should be available for any questions or concerns on demand. In addition, they should be proactively reviewing their stakeholder management plan to check in with some of the voices that might not reach out directly. It’s amazing when you ask someone “how are you?” twice. The second time they will give you a ton of detail, including how they think the project is going.
4) Communication, cross team engagement and the willingness to continuously improve yourself, the team, the product, the platform, the process, the technology, the company and the PEOPLE. People are the most impacted by change. Simply being human by addressing the hard changes and opening the door to talk is imperative. Showing the benefits of change is helpful, however must be organic and not mandated to be fully effective.
5) I would try AI. I am a firm believer that AI will not take our jobs and is actually a tool to help us save time to work on strategy, purpose and training. I have used PMI Infinity and Miro AI functionality as a shortcut for getting tasks accomplished to free up my time for professional development. Creating a roadmap against your company’s strategy is a guaranteed way to feel your sense of purpose.
In a large cross-functional/divisional project where business alignment is less-than-optimal, sponsors may desire (without a direct need) to contribute resources to the core team. The project organization, recognizing the corporate political environment, has little recourse but to accept these additional resources graciously and integrate them into functional roles.
As project execution begins, the project organization's fears become realized as the sponsors who contributed resources have variant status and internal-process knowledge than has been distributed through the PMO channel, creating conflicts in the steering committee meetings.
In addition, team dynamics are being affected as a few core team members have questioned leadership on matters interestingly related to the concerns brought up by the resource-contributing sponsors — translated, there are spies among us with varied objectives.
What thoughts do you have for PMO leadership and team members?
Not that this has ever happened to me :-)
George
I appreciate you being open and posting this question. We are all in this together and it fulfills a sense of purpose to help each other.
In this example, I am curious if you could focus the project on the technical side to allow developers and QA resources to be heads down while working through these other dynamics. Having a core team and extended team will ensure a focused approach as well.
I would not want to add more meetings to your calendar, however a pre-meeting to align before the steering committee meeting may be needed to build trust. If an issue is raised in the SteerCo meeting, then the whole project team bears the burden and will become very demotivated. I would be fully transparent to show that the project team should have a chance to fix any issues in advance.
The Project Manager has the opportunity to demonstrate soft skills by partnering with each sponsor to fully understand their goals. From there, the Project Manager can customize the meetings, reporting of status, the SteerCo agenda/attendees & celebrate success through recognition.
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1 reply by George Freeman
Nov 14, 2024 11:35 AM
George Freeman
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Kara,
Thank you for the reply.
Unfortunately, the issues of concern are rooted in the “corporate political” side of the equation, wherein those sponsors are only aligned at face value. Meaning, that they do not want the “change” that the project is intended to deliver; hence, they attempt to passively sabotage/derail the project while appearing to support it (since they were told they had to support it).
So, the question is more about “recommendations on how to manage issues of the corporate political variety that are not functionally grounded.”
In my over four decades in the industry, these types of problems are the most difficult to navigate, and advice to managing them is thin, as they shouldn’t happen in a properly setup/shaped project—so we think, but at times, they find their way in regardless of our attempts to assure alignment through the process.
I resonate this! The double reporting line of team members - to the PM and to the line manager - poses challenges. I am eager to learn the best way to tackle this during project execution.
The Project Managers of my team spend the majority of their time on their project. One approach that works for me is that during my one-on-ones I will not talk about project status. I will ask about if they are taking their vacation days, if their computer is working properly, if they have signed up for the certification they wanted, if there is training the team needs around agile practices, systems, AI tools or if they need anything at all. When you ask these questions, you will be surprised at the responses from the computer that has a blue screen to not knowing how to submit an expense report. I am always so glad I ask open ended questions. I get to know the team in a non-intrusive, real way. I will also use the time to fill out applications for training together to ensure they submit it. Time goes by so fast, and we must help our teams make time for their professional development, their lives and their growth.
Another way you can bring the managers together is by sharing performance updates. This can be positive or constructive feedback. The main point is to show a partnership where you are open with each other as Project Manager and Manager of resources.
Owners can reduce challenges by selecting project managers with enough technical competence to 1) avoid or mitigate people, process, and/or technical project threats and 2) exploit project opportunities.
On a regular basis, I encounter well intentioned PMs who have great people skills, but are way over their heads on the supply chain and technical aspects of the project, ruining careers, and unable to meet time to market milestones.
Keith, this advice is so appreciated. The mix of people skills and technical expertise are imperative to meet time to market milestones. If there is a gap with technical expertise, there should be a risk documented with steps to fill this gap with training or supplemental subject matter experts. Saving Changes...
Hi, everyone! Welcome to “Office Hours”. Kara is online and will be answering your questions over the next hour. Enjoy the discussion! A big thank you to Kara Austin for sharing her knowledge and expertise with us!
Thank you for having me! I am looking forward to collaborating with everyone. Saving Changes...
Keith PlemmonsConsulting Engineer| Southeast Associated Services, Inc.Moncks Corner, Sc, United States
Nov 14, 2024 9:47 AM
Replying to Keith Plemmons
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Owners can reduce challenges by selecting project managers with enough technical competence to 1) avoid or mitigate people, process, and/or technical project threats and 2) exploit project opportunities.
On a regular basis, I encounter well intentioned PMs who have great people skills, but are way over their heads on the supply chain and technical aspects of the project, ruining careers, and unable to meet time to market milestones.
Risk is a four-lettered word. Unqualified PMs tend to play the blame game instead of acknowledging their technical shortfalls. Slipping project milestones, contractor change orders, limited available workforce, and dysfunctional supply chains are a few of the early indicators of poor project performance.
Don't worry. Competitors with competent technical PMs will leverage their "Level 5" leadership (i.e. project managers) and rise to dominate their market and maximize their profit margins.
Risk is a four-lettered word. Unqualified PMs tend to play the blame game instead of acknowledging their technical shortfalls. Slipping project milestones, contractor change orders, limited available workforce, and dysfunctional supply chains are a few of the early indicators of poor project performance.
Don't worry. Competitors with competent technical PMs will leverage their "Level 5" leadership (i.e. project managers) and rise to dominate their market and maximize their profit margins.
100% agree. Gives us something to think about. Saving Changes...
George FreemanThought Leader | Author | Architect| Florida, United States
Nov 14, 2024 11:08 AM
Replying to Kara Austin
...
I appreciate you being open and posting this question. We are all in this together and it fulfills a sense of purpose to help each other.
In this example, I am curious if you could focus the project on the technical side to allow developers and QA resources to be heads down while working through these other dynamics. Having a core team and extended team will ensure a focused approach as well.
I would not want to add more meetings to your calendar, however a pre-meeting to align before the steering committee meeting may be needed to build trust. If an issue is raised in the SteerCo meeting, then the whole project team bears the burden and will become very demotivated. I would be fully transparent to show that the project team should have a chance to fix any issues in advance.
The Project Manager has the opportunity to demonstrate soft skills by partnering with each sponsor to fully understand their goals. From there, the Project Manager can customize the meetings, reporting of status, the SteerCo agenda/attendees & celebrate success through recognition.
Kara,
Thank you for the reply.
Unfortunately, the issues of concern are rooted in the “corporate political” side of the equation, wherein those sponsors are only aligned at face value. Meaning, that they do not want the “change” that the project is intended to deliver; hence, they attempt to passively sabotage/derail the project while appearing to support it (since they were told they had to support it).
So, the question is more about “recommendations on how to manage issues of the corporate political variety that are not functionally grounded.”
In my over four decades in the industry, these types of problems are the most difficult to navigate, and advice to managing them is thin, as they shouldn’t happen in a properly setup/shaped project—so we think, but at times, they find their way in regardless of our attempts to assure alignment through the process.
George
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1 reply by Kara Austin
Nov 14, 2024 11:39 AM
Kara Austin
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George, Great discussion with you here live.
Managing corporate political issues involves identifying key players, gaining their confidence, addressing issues at their source, leveraging external consultants, building a support network, communicating effectively, and understanding the organizational culture. By taking these steps, project managers can navigate the complex political landscape and improve the likelihood of project success.
Unfortunately, the issues of concern are rooted in the “corporate political” side of the equation, wherein those sponsors are only aligned at face value. Meaning, that they do not want the “change” that the project is intended to deliver; hence, they attempt to passively sabotage/derail the project while appearing to support it (since they were told they had to support it).
So, the question is more about “recommendations on how to manage issues of the corporate political variety that are not functionally grounded.”
In my over four decades in the industry, these types of problems are the most difficult to navigate, and advice to managing them is thin, as they shouldn’t happen in a properly setup/shaped project—so we think, but at times, they find their way in regardless of our attempts to assure alignment through the process.
George
George, Great discussion with you here live.
Managing corporate political issues involves identifying key players, gaining their confidence, addressing issues at their source, leveraging external consultants, building a support network, communicating effectively, and understanding the organizational culture. By taking these steps, project managers can navigate the complex political landscape and improve the likelihood of project success.
...
1 reply by George Freeman
Nov 14, 2024 11:59 AM
George Freeman
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I agree with your response.
However, it is often portrayed that a project professional should avoid the corporate political side and focus only on the functional elements of execution (i.e., it’s above your pay grade).
Although stakeholder management principles should guide one toward non-politicized project executions, corporate politics can always find a way in.
It would be great to have a higher degree of focus in this area for our profession.
PMI Team Member
