Cultural change can “trickle up” from project participants and spread throughout your organization. Here’s how.

by Neal Whitten, PMP, Contributing Editor

MOST ORGANIZATIONS ARE in need of a “culture” makeover. Members are uncertain about the behavior expected of them on projects. Members commonly do not have the basic project management skills of planning, tracking, and interpersonal communications that are required to work effectively. People complain about the unproductive culture within which they must work. Furthermore, there is a myth that touts that the only way to change the culture of an organization is for the change to come from higher management.

You want to change the culture of your organization? You can. Project by project. Here’s a highly effective method you can use, which doesn’t require permission or intervention from higher management.

When a new project is started, a culture-training class should be mandatory for all project members assigned to the project. Culture training is the formal training of all project members in key hard skills, soft skills, and processes that are essential in helping to ensure a successful project. Culture training provides all project members with a common understanding of how the project will be run and the role that each is expected to play. A Project Management Office or training organization is a likely organization to conduct culture-training classes or to find suitable instructors to do so. The project manager can teach a portion or all of the class if desired.

Culture-training classes typically are one to two days in length, depending on the size and duration of the project and the “culture maturity” of the project members. Very small projects of five or less members may require classes only a half-day long. Let’s look at some topics to address in a culture-training class:
Roles and Responsibilities of Project Members. These positions include the project manager, resource managers, product architect (chief technologist), business architect (client’s advocate), product manager (sponsor), team leaders and team members.
Project Planning Process. Includes discussion of the development process to be followed, how the project plan will be developed and approved, and how the plan will be maintained.
Project Tracking Process. Includes discussion of project tracking meetings, metrics to be tracked, identifying high-risk/high-priority problems, and creating problem recovery plans.
Escalation Process. Includes discussion of the process to be followed when escalation is required to resolve an issue.
Project Reviews. Includes how to conduct project reviews, their frequency and timing. Performed at selected points along the project cycle, a project review is an independent review that examines the health of a project.
Post-Project Reviews. The process to be followed in conducting the project review at the end of the project.
People Communications. Includes discussion of common interpersonal communications problems that can arise on a project and how to avoid or deal with them. Examples include attacking problems and not people, asking for help, being willing to help others, and asking questions rather than assuming.
Soft Skills. Discusses attributes and behaviors that one can adopt to become a more effective project member. Topics include how to deal with criticism, managing time, how to make and meet commitments, and being accountable for one’s own actions.
Lessons Learned. A discussion of the lessons learned from the most recent post-project reviews and how to apply the most significant lessons.

CULTURE-TRAINING CLASSES provide uncommonly great benefits to starting a project and its members on a productive footing toward launching and implementing an effective project. Culture-training classes not only can give new projects a jump-start, but can also help power projects through to a successful completion.

Don’t exhaust yourself in trying to sell top management on project management best practices. The buck ultimately stops with you—not with your management.

by Neal Whitten, PMP, Contributing Editor

I CONVERSE WITH thousands of people each year. One of the questions most asked by project managers is: “How can I get buy-in for ‘project management best practices’ where I work?”

This standard answer is the wrong answer: “You must sell your ideas to top management. Once they buy-in to your proposal, they will lead the charge for reform. This reform includes directing their staffs to comply. Then the next level of management will direct their staffs to comply. And so on, until ‘the word’ has traveled down to the troops on the front lines and the changes are embraced by all. If they don’t support you, then you cannot substantially influence the practices accepted in your projects or across your organization. Therefore, you must keep working to sell the top management.”

In most cases, this approach does not work. In the few instances where this approach does work in driving and institutionalizing project management best practices, it is a welcomed experience. It would be great if this approach worked all the time, but it is wishful thinking.

So, what’s the solution? Think, for a moment, as if you were top management. Ask yourself what you would expect of someone who is coming to you for support to solve a problem. What would you expect that person to communicate to you? You would expect to be made to (1) fully understand the problem, (2) fully understand the solution (and that solution will be owned and led by someone other than you), and (3) fully understand precisely what is expected of you—what your role is—to help bring about the solution. These are the issues you address.

If you have done these things, then you almost always will get the support from top management and from the management below them. However, if, after an earnest attempt, you still are ineffective in selling change to top management—for whatever reason—don’t resort to the common behavior of withdrawing, complaining, and whining yourself exhausted. If you behave this way, the problem will now be you! … if it wasn’t already.

Instead, you should fix the problem as it relates to your domain of responsibility; that is, in those areas that fall within your job assignment. For example, if you are a project manager, it is your job to ensure that project management best practices are defined and enforced on your project—not across your organization that is made up of many projects. Defining project management best practices for your project is not management’s responsibility, it is yours (unless they have already been defined and institutionalized in your overall organization).

As a project manager, you have more influence in changing the way your project is planned, tracked, controlled and run day-to-day than anyone in your top management could possibly ever have. Your project will be planned according to how you lead the planning activities. It will be tracked based on your direction of when, where, how, what, and so on.

IF YOU ARE SUCCESSFUL in selling top management on change and in obtaining their support, then that is the most effective method to change the culture of an organization. However, in absence of their full support, you must take the responsibility, accountability and authority to drive the needed change in those areas that define your domain. Don’t wait for someone else to do it for you. If everyone focused on solving the major obstacles that prohibit him or her from achieving their commitments, then the entire organization would experience a giant leap forward in improving its performance. Don’t become part of the problem. Be part of the solution in those areas that impact your performance and success.

The best-run meetings almost always end well before their scheduled end time.

by Neal Whitten, PMP, Contributing Editor

“MEETINGS, MEETINGS AND MORE MEETINGS. Aren’t we ever going to get some real work done around this place?” How many times have you have heard this? Perhaps you’ve said it yourself a time or two. It has been my experience that most meetings are poorly planned, conducted and, frankly, waste a significant amount of time.

Let’s look at a short list of meeting guidelines that can correct this common but pervasive problem.

Plan the meeting. Make sure that the attendees critical to the meeting’s success are properly informed and have committed to attend. Reschedule the meeting if the required attendees cannot participate and the meeting cannot be sufficiently productive. Inform attendees of the meeting objectives so that they can come to the meeting with the proper mindset and come prepared. Of course, disclose the meeting date, time and location.

Start on time. Always begin meetings on time. Don’t review progress for latecomers during the meeting. Consider scheduling meetings to start precisely 10 minutes after the hour so that attendees can arrive on time from prior meetings.

Identify the meeting leader. All attendees need to know who is in charge of the meeting. Everyone looks toward this person to demonstrate the needed leadership throughout the meeting.

State the meeting objectives. Clarifying the scope of the meeting at the start will help the meeting attendees remain focused and productive.

Assign a person to take the minutes. The meeting leader must not take the minutes. This action causes the meeting leader to lose concentration and the ability to be fully engaged in driving the meeting. It also negatively affects the progress and pace of the meeting. The minute taker preferably is a person who is not, otherwise, an essential participant.

Keep meeting on track. The meeting leader ensures that the meeting begins and remains on track to achieving its objectives. Overly lengthy discussions, tangential topics, and scope creep are discouraged and the appropriate actions are taken to refocus the meeting attendees.

Enforce common respect for all participants. The meeting leader creates and enforces a productive and respectful meeting environment. The meeting’s success is dependent on the free flow of information and ideas, as well as the full participation of the attendees. Problems are attacked, not people.

Summarize meeting achievements. When the meeting objectives have been met, the key points and assignments are briefly summarized. This action helps the attendees to be clear on the meeting outcomes and allows them to immediately begin taking the appropriate actions while the meeting minutes are being prepared.

Distribute meeting minutes within one workday. Either the minutes taker or the meeting leader prepares and distributes the minutes within one workday of the meeting. In either case, however, the meeting leader is ultimately responsible for the content of the minutes and ensuring timely distribution.

End the meeting on or before its scheduled end time. The meeting ends on time to accommodate other commitments of the attendees. The best-run meetings will almost always end earlier than scheduled. Consider ending the meeting 10 minutes early to accommodate attendees arriving to their next meeting on time. If the meeting requires more time than was scheduled and the meeting cannot be continued immediately, then give attendees a heads-up as to its likely rescheduled date and time. End the meeting on time.

THE MEETING LEADER IS RESPONSIBLE for following these or similar guidelines. Attendees rightfully look to the meeting leader to run effective meetings. Posting these guidelines in all meeting rooms can help to educate and remind meeting participants what they should expect and demand when they give up so much of their limited time to meetings. There is a direct relationship between effectively run meetings and the overall effectiveness of the related organization, project or team.

Here’s a great tool for improving the performance of projects and turning failing projects around!

by Neal Whitten, PMP, Contributing Editor

A PROJECT REVIEW—an independent review performed at selected points throughout the life of a project—allows us to examine an active project to determine its overall health. If any significant problems are identified, actions can then be recommended to address them. These midproject corrections can help improve the performance of projects and can turn failing projects around.

A project review is not the same as performing routine (recommended weekly) project tracking meetings. A project review is a special event to examine the current state of a project from an impartial source—one or more reviewers from outside the project.

Project reviews are typically performed on projects that last six months or longer and are performed every three to four months. They are best performed near major milestones, especially prior to releasing additional funding for a project. Project reviews should be scheduled in advance and appear as tracked activities in the project plan.

Project reviews should be arranged by someone not directly on the project being reviewed. A Project Management Office (PMO)—also commonly called a Project Office—is a likely organization to administer project reviews. The PMO selects the members of the review team, typically composed of one to five “experts” from outside the project. Depending on the project to be reviewed, review team members might have skills in areas such as the technical aspects of the product being developed, project management, quality, marketing, business management and legal.

The PMO prepares a list of topics that selected project members must address during the project review. The topics list is approved by the project review team and then provided to the appropriate project members to aid in their project review preparation.

The project members requested to present before the project review team typically are members who perform in leadership positions on the project, such as the project manager, the product manager, the business architect, the product architect, the team leaders and selected resource managers and team members. On small projects, all the project members may be asked to participate in the project review.

The project review is conducted by the review team. The goal is to identify only significant project problems. The selected project members present the requested information to the review team and respond to questions asked by the review team. A project review might take anywhere from two hours to three days, depending on the size and complexity of the project. For most projects—those of 50–300 members—a full day should be sufficient. By contrast, a project of five members may require only two hours.

After the project review, the review team prepares summary charts and presents its assessment informally to the project manager, then to management, the project members, and, optionally, the client. Out of professional courtesy, the project manager is permitted to see the findings first. Many times the project manager will identify inaccuracies in the findings or items taken out of context. Such comments from the project manager can help ensure the integrity and usefulness of the findings. The problems identified must be logged as “action items” and tracked to closure by way of the project’s tracking process.

A PMO can perform an administration role before, during and after the project review to ensure that all parties perform their duties when, where and how required. A PMO also can monitor that the problems identified are properly addressed and closed.

PROJECT REVIEWS ARE a powerful tool in managing projects. They act like a routine physical by a doctor; that is, the project undergoes a reasonably thorough examination and any significant problems identified are treated appropriately. The purpose is to ensure that the project is and remains in the best of health. How healthy are your projects?

A mentor’s advice can impact your career and help protect your projects from crash-and-burn.

by Neal Whitten, PMP, Contributing Editor

PROJECT MANAGEMENT MENTORS are, by far, the best way to develop effective project managers. Mentors must be seasoned project managers who have “been there, done that, messed up and lived to learn from the experience.” Mentors must be accessible to work with project managers while the project managers perform their basic tasks such as planning, tracking and problem management. Mentors especially must be available during crises.

For those of you with years of project management experience, think back on how much a project management mentor—the right mentor under the right circumstances—would have helped you accelerate your learning of both hard and soft project management skills, avoid some hefty mistakes and, as a side benefit, might have moved your career ahead sooner.

The project manager, in the position of being the most influential person on a project, can have a profound impact on the outcome of the project. With projects commonly costing or impacting many thousands, even millions, of dollars, doesn’t it make good business sense for a project manager to be provided mentoring help in the quest for success, both of the project manager and of the project?

Here is a short list of example guidelines that a mentor follows to help the mentee develop his or her potential:

Helps Enhance Performance. A strong measure of the mentor’s effectiveness can be seen through the success of the mentee and of his or her project. However, it is important to note that the mentor’s objective is not promotions for the mentee—any expectations in that direction can interfere with the great learning opportunity. Focus must be on performance and achieving results—although promotions might be a byproduct for the mentee who consistently exceeds expectations.

Provides a Penalty-Free Relationship and Never Betrays Confidences. To be most effective, trust must be developed between mentor and mentee. Discussions need to be relaxed and candid on both sides. The mentee must be encouraged to be inquisitive, without concern for asking dumb questions or confiding about mistakes made. The dialog between the two must be held in confidence and should not be used in performance evaluations. For this reason, the mentee’s manager—or any manager in the mentee’s chain of command—usually is not the best mentoring choice.

Helps Identify and Develop Strengths, Interests and Specific Skill Areas for Improvement. The mentor needs to help the mentee to recognize his or her strengths, interests and areas for improvement. The mentor will recommend classes, conferences, workshops, books, articles and even other experts to help the mentee’s personal growth.

Assists in the Creation of a Development Plan. The mentee has the responsibility to create an individualized development plan that includes, with help from the mentor, the identification of knowledge, skills and experiences needed and a plan to acquire or achieve them. The development plan should complement any related aid offered by the mentee’s company.

Meets at Least Monthly. The mentor needs to be accessible to the mentee during crucial periods such as the development of new plans, establishing a project tracking process, re-planning exercises, and crises. In most cases, face-to-face contact of one to three days per month should be adequate as long as telephone access is available within 24 hours.

I HOPE THIS SHORT LIST of guidelines is long enough to spark your interest in seeking a mentor (if you don’t already have one). The time and cost invested in acquiring a mentor is small compared to the benefits that can be gained.

The most effective project managers are developed day-to-day, not year-to-year or project mistake-to-project mistake. Mistakes will happen, even with the best of mentoring. However, project managers with strong mentors should find their effectiveness continually improving. The company and everyone connected with the project will share in those gains.

If you’re among the 99 percent of us who fail this simple test—but shouldn’t—you could be in a position of weakness, to the detriment of your current and upcoming projects.

by Neal Whitten, PMP, Contributing Editor

THIS TEST IS MADE UP of only two questions. The answer sought for each question is a simple “yes” or “no.” See how you do.

Question 1: Do you work in an organization where it is mandatory to perform a post-project review when a project or a major phase of a lengthy project has completed?

Question 2: Do you work in an organization where it is mandatory for the project manager of a new project to go before a small review board to prove that the lessons learned from recent projects will be directly applied to this project?

If you answered “yes” to both questions, you are in a very, very small minority. Yet, the benefits of an organization that can answer “yes” to both questions can be striking. If you can answer “yes” only to the first question, what’s the point? Where’s the improvement occurring? Where are we institutionalizing the lessons learned?

Picture the following: You work for a company that is five years old. Each year there are 10 projects, each of one-year duration. Today, at the end of five years, your company has the experience of having conducted 50 projects. The founders of the company had the foresight to insist on learning from both their mistakes and their successes; therefore, it was mandatory to perform a post-project review at the end of each project. Furthermore, it was mandatory, at the start of a new project, for the project manager to convince a small review board that the most important lessons learned from recent projects will be aptly applied to the new project.

At the end of the first year of this scenario, there were 10 post-project reviews and a lot of lessons to learn. The 10 new projects for the second year benefited from the lessons learned from the first year. At the end of the second year, the post-project reviews revealed the next layer of lessons to learn. The 10 projects started in the third year benefited from the most recent lessons learned. And so on, until we have experienced five years of consistent improvement.

It is my assertion that the company depicted in this scenario will become a major force in whatever industry it serves. The products and services produced will be among the most advanced and successful, the employees will be among the most productive, the quality of the work will be among the best, the morale will be among the highest, and the customers the most satisfied. Why? Because we consistently get better in designated key areas by deliberately analyzing, measuring and improving our performance.

Isn’t it interesting that we expect professionals in other professions to continually improve, but we don’t expect the same from ourselves, from our organizations, from our projects. For example, we expect an athlete to continually improve his or her skills and “stats.” We expect a sports team to go over the mistakes and successes of the last game and to review the performance and weaknesses of the upcoming opponent. We expect NASA to continually learn from every earlier space launch and mission. We expect airlines … you get the idea.

We are paid professionals. We need to demonstrate the leadership and boldness to insist on organizations that perpetuate self-improvement. For example, don’t merely add an activity to a new project plan that says the project manager must “review lessons learned from the most recent post-project reviews.” Reviewing something, by itself, usually yields little improvement. However, having to convince a review board of three members that you have appropriately applied the most significant lessons learned to your new project can yield marked improvements. If you cannot convince the review board, then you must replan and return to confront the review board until you can demonstrate the application of these lessons.

ARE YOU LEARNING from project to project? You are a paid professional. Try this at work!

Micromanaging, consensus management and democratic rule all can be highly ineffective leadership styles.

by Neal Whitten, PMP, Contributing Editor

IN RUNNING A COUNTRY, democracy is the best thing going to date. However, in running a business or project, my experience has shown that the benevolent dictator style is the most effective. A benevolent dictator leads by actively soliciting information and opinions from team members and others—listens, then demonstrates the leadership, courage, and boldness to personally make the right decision, and stands accountable for that decision. A benevolent dictator also holds his or her subordinates accountable for their decisions and they, in turn, hold their subordinates accountable for their decisions, and so on. In other words, everyone is encouraged and expected to make the decisions that affect their own domain of responsibility.

Now, I’m not talking about micromanaging. Micromanaging occurs when a leader chooses to make decisions for anyone and everyone within his or her influence. The micromanaging “leadership” style is highly offensive; it neither teaches the importance nor capitalizes on the promise of accountability. It should only be used in rare instances, for very short periods of time.

Many organizations and projects attempt to operate on either consensus or democratic rule. Consensus, which has been over-hyped for years, is mostly an ineffective tool in managing teams and projects. Consensus is obtaining the buy-in from a team or group by adjusting the final decision to a position with which everyone can live. For other than the most-trained teams, consensus causes the most important decisions to be compromised, to be watered down. In an attempt to satisfy all team members in buying into the team’s decision, the solution is almost always non-optimal and, frankly, is often without vision and personal commitment.

What’s that? You say there is personal commitment because everyone had a say in the decision? Yes, everyone had an opportunity to speak their mind, but my experience shows that many don’t speak up or they are quick to compromise or live with someone else’s proposal—even if they feel it is weak. Many members of a group consensus don’t feel personally committed. They hide behind the facade of the team or group.

What do I mean by personal commitment? Personal commitment is when you, personally, are charged with making a decision and then you are held accountable for the outcome of that decision. Teams cannot feel this level of accountability, only individuals can.

What about using the democratic voting process? Organizations or projects that consistently reach decisions by democratic rule frequently can be more ineffective than reaching decisions through consensus. Why? Because the majority vote is usually enough to lock in a decision. Unfortunately, everyone with a vote to cast is looking out after his or her own personal interests or the personal interests of the team he or she represents. Consequently, the right business decision can easily be overlooked or dismissed.

You might be asking about now, “If the benevolent dictator concept is so effective, then why don’t more leaders adopt this style of leading?” Two big reasons: The first reason is that in the free world many of us shy away from any association with the word “dictator.” Even with the adjective “benevolent” added we still feel uneasy. The other big reason—and it’s the biggest one—is that to be a benevolent dictator means we have to make decisions that will, at times, be unpopular. Many of us have a hard time making decisions that are criticized by others. In fact, the primary reason why project managers fail is because they are too soft and have difficulty making the tougher decisions (see PM Network, December 1997, “The #1 Reason Why Project Managers Fail: Too Soft!”).

I often hear project managers and resource managers say they cannot effectively adopt the benevolent dictator concept because they have a serious shortage of project members and employees with the good business sense—the leadership skills—to make the tough decisions expected of a benevolent dictator. I strongly disagree! For most of us, I believe we do have the people we need, they just haven’t been trained properly. After all, they watch how we manage and copy our styles.

ALL OF US NEED to be trained, coached and mentored in the skills and behaviors that make for the most effective leaders. Nearly everyone will rise to the expectations that we set for them—providing we constructively nurture them along the way. If you want your project to be run like a business where decisions are made based on what’s best for the business, and you want the project members to consistently take accountability for their own actions, then teach and encourage the powerful benevolent dictator concept at all levels of a project and organization. It’s good business!

Commit to a project plan that only includes essential function, with a “closet plan” for nonessential function.

by Neal Whitten, PMP, Contributing Editor

Does this conversation between a project manager and a project outsider sound familiar? It’s a Y2K project, but it could be any project.
Outsider: “Will your project complete on time?”
PM: “We have no choice.”
Outsider: “I didn’t ask if you had a choice. I asked will you complete on time?”
PM: “This is an important project. There’s a lot riding on the success of this project. We must complete on time.”

(Translation: “No, we won’t complete on time. Anybody with any project experience knows this.”)

Is this a Y2K-unique problem? No—it’s common on most projects. The primary reason it’s so common on Y2K projects is that most of the project managers and other project leaders on these projects were trained on pre-Y2K projects. Let me explain.

One of the most common problems with projects is taking on too much work—attempting to exceed requirements rather than meet minimum requirements. This contributes to a plethora of ill effects, including late deliveries, budget overruns, low morale and poor quality. Attempting to cram the proverbial 10 pounds into a 5-pound sack is a common occurrence.

One solution is to build products that meet minimum requirements. You may be thinking that such a product would have low appeal to your client or customers, but it’s not what you think.

“Meet minimum requirements” means give the client what he or she needs to be successful; but don’t provide unessential function. Additional function is what future releases and future business opportunities are all about. It is important to earn the reputation for being reliable in meeting customer commitments and then be trusted to continue to upgrade on a routine, predictable basis. This is good business.

You say you always only provide essential function? For most of us, most times, that’s not true. Have you ever faced slipped delivery dates and chosen to remove some of the function originally planned? When the project began, everyone swore that all the planned function was essential. Yet, as the project progressed—and got further behind schedule—some of that essential function no longer looked so essential.

We’ll use a Y2K project as an example, because Y2K projects are at a heightened focus these days—and, interestingly enough, the No. 2 problem with Y2K projects is that they are taking on too much work (the No. 1 problem is that too many projects are starting too late). Here’s what should occur.
Let’s say you’ve identified 100 functions (enhancements or changes) that need to be made in your company’s programs. You know that all 100 functions are desirable, but you recognize that your limited resources won’t allow all the functions to be ready by the hoped-for date. You find that 40 functions fall within the high-priority category, 30 as medium and 30 as low. You build a project plan to implement only the 40 high priorities. Why? Because you don’t want to jeopardize the timely completion of these 40 by building a plan to include the other 60 functions—all of lesser importance and, for purposes of illustration, deemed nonessential.

You might be thinking that you should build a plan with all 100 functions and later, if (actually, when) the project gets into trouble, you can always back out of lesser-priority function. Don’t go there! This foolish plan requires spending valuable time, dollars and resources working on other-than-the-most-important functions. Moreover, when you back out, it costs again. What needs to be done is to build a plan that significantly reduces rework. This means the original plan must be only essential function.

What about the other 60? You carefully look these over and put work-arounds in place that, although not optimal, can get you through until more substantial actions can occur.

But there is something else you do. You decide on the most important of the 60 functions—maybe it’s all of the 30 medium functions or some subset thereof—and you create multiple, independent small projects with any and all resources you can muster. I call these small projects collectively a “closet plan.” These small projects are managed with the same care and attention to quality as the primary project. If any of these small projects can complete by a predetermined date (e.g., system test) and the risk to the primary project is judged to be acceptable, then the completed small projects are merged in with the primary project. There are many advantages to this technique: from reducing risk to the primary project, to motivating the members of the small projects to complete by a predetermined date, to setting customer expectations that are most likely to be met or exceeded.

MOST OF US have been conditioned to believe that “meets minimum requirements” is unexciting and noncompetitive. I believe it to be the opposite. Deliberately practicing meeting minimum requirements helps an organization or company to be first-to-market, earn increasing credibility from their client(s), and strongly posture their enterprise for taking on new business opportunities. Adopting the concept of meeting minimum requirements can set your organization up for exceptional performance.

It’s far easier to retain good employees than it is to find and hire them.

by Neal Whitten, PMP, Contributing Editor

PICTURE THIS: You are a professional, salaried to get the job done. You’ve been working 10–15 hours of overtime per week over the past few months. You feel that this extra effort is occasionally expected of those who have a reputation for “getting things done.” The events that caused you to work the extra time were mostly out of your control, but you rise to the occasion and complete the job on time. You feel good about your accomplishment.

Within days, you are at a meeting when your boss singles you out and thanks you for the extra effort you have demonstrated, effort that yielded positive results. He hands you a certificate of thanks for your achievement. He also gives you a check for $150, with the suggestion that you use it for dinner for two at your favorite restaurant.

How are you feeling now? Probably great! Appreciative of the attention … Feeling good about your recognized contribution … Liking the certificate and loving the check.

Over the next weeks and months, you experience a feeling of wanting to give more. To help others more. To live up to the expectations that you perceive both your peers and management have of you. You like working here a little more than before.

Let’s examine what just happened. You received a “bonus” that amounted to about one dollar for every overtime hour you worked. And you are elated! What an easy and inexpensive method to win your continued dedication and support! Yet, many organizations—from my experience, most organizations—do not engage in this highly beneficial and cost-effective practice of quickly recognizing extra effort that has yielded measurable benefits to the organization, a client, the product … you get the idea.

Now let’s look for a moment at a more typical situation. After each bout of consistent overtime—what feels like a Herculean effort—with no tangible appreciation coming your way, you increasingly have doubts about this organization being the right one for you. You feel more and more used, perhaps even abused. You are even less motivated to spend extra time working on problems that are mostly beyond your control.

What happens? Your attitude and enthusiasm take a hit. Your productivity wanes. You begin to look for greener pastures. You find an outside offer that is too tempting to resist. You’re history.
Your leaving could cost your old company tens of thousands of dollars. How? The project will have lost a skilled resource. Schedules, budgets and even quality may be adversely affected. There may be a negative impact to the client and to the company’s relationship with the client. It may take weeks or months to find a suitable replacement—and what if that replacement doesn’t work out and yet another applicant search is required? I could easily go on with other negative ricocheting events that could come about from your departure.

The message? It is far easier to retain good employees than it is to find and hire them. A few hundred dollars well placed from time to time can save thousands of dollars. Even thousands of dollars spent rewarding outstanding contributors can easily save tens of thousands of dollars later.

Another tip: Never give certificates without also including cash or some tangible equivalent. Why? Because today, more than ever, such behavior is seen as a cheap, insincere method to patronize the employee for his or her continued best efforts. But don’t give cash without a certificate, either. After the cash is spent, there’s no lasting, tangible reminder of how much the employee is valued. Certificates can live on for years and be invaluable and recurring sources of pride.

If you are a project manager and don’t have the authority to give awards, then at least be a catalyst and work with the project members’ managers to influence fair but generous award giving. You will find that people will be more willing to go the extra mile for you.

IF YOU EVER DOUBT the appreciation a person feels for receiving a well-timed award, look at awards you received and recall how much they meant to you. Moreover, think how you felt when you worked in a stingy organization that continually overlooked awards. As I said, awarding for outstanding achievements is so inexpensive when you consider the alternative of losing the hearts and minds—or employment—of your employees and project members. Don’t risk losing your treasured talent. Award generously. It’s good business for everyone.

Asking for and obtaining help is a sign of professional maturity, not weakness.

by Neal Whitten, PMP, Contributing Editor

DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR? You are a member of a project—project manager, team leader, team member, or manager. You have made commitments to completing project tasks. The overall success of the project is, in part, tied to you meeting your commitments. Your commitments are in jeopardy.

What do you do? Do you continue on your current path, where you know you are not likely to meet your commitments of time, cost and/or quality? Or do you ask for help? If you are like 90+ percent of project members (my estimate), you don’t ask for help. Instead you allow your missed commitments to damage the overall integrity of the project plan and project.

What? You say you would never do that intentionally? I disagree! Most of you have, by your past behavior and record, brought harm to one or more projects and did not ask for help. Instead, you waited for help to descend upon you—and often resented the attention and direction of that help.

We are all guilty of not asking for help at some time or another. To learn from our mistakes and mature professionally, we must understand the importance of asking for help as articulately and as early as possible.

It’s not easy to ask for help. Remnants of what I call the “John Wayne Mentality”—asking for help is a sign of weakness, but going it alone is a sign of strength and virtue—remains strong in our culture. Perhaps this mentality was required for survival in the Wild West. But today, as people come together as a team to pool their talents and skills to create achievements far more complex and superior than any one person could hope to accomplish, asking for help is a sign of strength. Not asking for help is a sign of weakness, and can undermine the success of the project.

Today’s best leaders and organizations encourage teaming and teamwork, and they recognize that a project’s success correlates directly with the success of each of its contributors. A great benefit of teams is that they are made up of people with a wide range of skills and experiences, which increases the potential for sharing and helping one another on a project.

When you find yourself in trouble and at risk of not meeting your commitments, seek help. However, there is a preferred approach to seeking help, particularly as you go up the corporate hierarchy to ask:

• Clearly define the problem that you need help on. A problem that is incompletely or vaguely defined wastes valuable time, energy and funds.
• Describe the proposed solution. If more than one plausible solution exists, list them, but be accountable and take a position on the solution you favor.
• Be specific about what you are asking for. A vague request may get a vague response. Telling an executive exactly what you need, as clearly and precisely as possible, increases the likelihood of the executive satisfying that request. Being specific has the added benefit of helping the executive to feel that he or she is really helping.

If you question whether or not asking for help is the right thing to do, ask yourself this: If this were your own business (see “Behave As If You Own the Business,” PM Network, September 1997) and an employee of your business was faced with the same situation as you are today, would you want your employee to ask for help? Or continue on a destructive project path? This becomes easy to answer when you think of it in terms of owning the business.

When you ask for help you show your human side and also send the signal that you take pride in your work and care about the success of the project. This creates an interesting side effect: the respect others have in you typically increases over the level of respect you experienced at the outset of the project. Of course, not asking for help and endangering the success of a portion or all of the project is a quick method for losing the respect and trust of others.

DON’T RISK BECOMING part of the problem because of misplaced pride and an out-of-date “John Wayne Mentality.” We all need help from time to time. And in today’s highly competitive, fast-changing climate it is more essential than ever for project members to be honest and ask for help when it is needed. Everyone helping helps everyone win!

You don’t have to be rude, insensitive, arrogant, or a bully to avoid being too soft.

by Neal Whitten, PMP, Contributing Editor

WHAT DO I MEAN BY TOO SOFT? It is my experience that most project managers are not willing to make the tough and unpopular project-related decisions, even though their instincts warn them that they are not taking the most effective action. These managers are not leading their project teams to quickly resolve their project’s most important problems. They allow the project team frequently to operate on consensus and what seems to please the most people or please the most vocal, influential people. In order to avoid or reduce conflict, they tend to make decisions that often are not in the best overall interest of the project.

Project managers who fail, most often fail for the following reasons: weak soft skills, weak hard skills, ineffective project sponsor. This article focuses on weak soft skills.

Let’s look at some examples of project manager actions (or inactions) that are indicative of too-soft behavior. Do you recognize familiar behavior here?

• Holds back from providing constructive criticism to project members
• Avoids escalating to higher levels of management project-related problems that are at an apparent impasse for resolution
• Unwilling to passionately defend the right project plan to the project sponsor, executives, or client
• Puts off insisting on and driving good project management practices throughout the project
• Delays asking for help when needed
• Lax in holding project members accountable for their commitments and actions
• Takes on too much work instead of assigning tasks to the appropriate project members
• Remiss in seeking out and obtaining needed project management training of both hard and soft skills
• Evades taking a position on an issue rather than alienating project members
• Avoids or excessively delays making key decisions.

Project success is about results: delivering a product that satisfies the customer and offers the organization an appropriate return on investment. The project manager’s job is to lead the project’s members in the pursuit of a successful project and product. In most cases, a project’s success is directly related to the impact the project manager had on the project team throughout the project.

The most effective project managers behave as if they are running a business and that they own the business (see “Behave As If You Own the Business,” PM Network, September 1997). They believe that the buck stops here and that they are fully accountable for the project. There are many decisions they must make and be held accountable for, and they frequently and respectfully draw upon the knowledge, experiences and insights of those around them so that they make the most informed decisions. But they are careful not to place an over-reliance on consensus management; they recognize their duty to be fully accountable for the outcome of the project. This can mean that, at times, the most effective project managers will stand alone with what they believe to be the right decision.

Not being too soft doesn’t mean you have to be rude, insensitive, arrogant, or a bully. None of these attributes is acceptable—ever! On the contrary, an effective project manager must strive to demonstrate behavior for others to model. For example, make yourself available and approachable to coach and support others through their problems and setbacks, be a constructive catalyst when change or a given action is required, and demonstrate respect and dignity for all project members. It’s not about finding fault or making someone feel uncomfortable; it’s about helping the project’s members and encouraging them to help each other so that the prevailing attitude is we all are successful together.

If you believe that too-soft behavior will win friends and influence others, don’t go there! It will have the opposite effect long-term. Those around you will lose respect for you as a leader, your project’s outcome will be negatively impacted, and your career can become stagnant … or even shortened.

IF YOU HAVE DIFFICULTY making unpopular decisions … if you allow what others think to be more important than what you think about yourself … if you follow the “squeaky wheels” around you rather than your own inner compass … then you might not be ready to be an effective and successful project manager. But don’t despair. Almost all project managers who perform their roles effectively today had these challenges to overcome yesterday. You too can persevere if it is important to you.

It really is your business … so what are you waiting for?

by Neal Whitten, PMP, Contributing Editor

MANY PROJECT MANAGERS forever seem to be searching for that special tool or technique that can significantly increase their likelihood of success, both for themselves and for their projects. They spend a lot of time in the classroom learning the basic project management skills and practices. They attend seminars and read professional papers, magazines, and books to identify key soft skills that will make them better leaders. They perform apprenticeships under the supervision of experienced project managers or—more times than not—venture out on their own to make their own mistakes and pray that the damage to schedules, costs, quality and customer satisfaction will be minimal and repairable. But all the while they are seeking that special tip or motto
or tool that will help it all “click” for them.

Of the broad body of knowledge, skills, and special insights that I have acquired over the years—information that has greatly helped me become a more effective project manager—perhaps the most helpful piece of information to affect my thinking and behavior as a project manager is this: Behave as if you own the business.

The best project managers demonstrate a passion for driving their project to a successful completion. It is a passion born out of the position that the project rep-resents his or her own business—and that business has fewer than 10 employees. Why so few? Because most of us can more easily relate to a business that is small and one that we personally own. The small business model helps us to more easily understand the potential impact of our choices and behaviors on the overall outcome of the project. If it is the right thing to do for our business, then it is almost always the right thing to do for the project that we are driving.

Project managers are faced with making dozens of decisions a week. If we get in the habit of making these decisions as if we were making them for our own personal business, I assert that we not only would make better decisions overall, but that we would make them more quickly. If you have owned your own business—even if only part-time—or associate with some action or activity with which you feel personal ownership, then you are more likely to relate with this concept.

You see, something happens to most of us when we work for others. It seems the larger the company we work for, the more distant we become in truly believing and behaving as if it is our company. Our passion for making and meeting commitments, owning problems and their solutions, and demonstrating a true behavior of accountability seems to diminish proportional to the size of the company with which we work.

But if you own a small business of 10 or fewer employees—or imagine it so—most decisions that you face would seem far easier to make than if you worked for a larger company. Why? Perhaps the biggest reason is the view from which a small business per-son operates. That view associates every decision with a corresponding impact of the survival of the small business. Said another way: Every decision counts! Perhaps another benefit for thinking from the perspective of the small business model is that a small business person often feels the direct connection between each employee’s survival (mortgage payments, food on the table, saving funds for special dreams) and the overall success of the business.

Feeling ownership for something brings out the best that we each have to offer. This is why it is so important for bosses to “let go,” and drive responsibility, authority, and accountability downward. As long as the managers (versus nonmanagers, a category in which the author includes project managers) across an organization or project insist on owning the plans, processes, documents, and the like, the full potential and passion that employees have to offer will almost never be realized.

As a project manager, the next time you must make a decision—big or small—imagine making the decision from a perspective of owning the project (business). See for yourself the positive effect that this mindset has as you lead the members of a project in putting together the best plans; in staying on top of the project’s biggest risks and mitigating those risks; in running meetings more effectively; in helping project members solve their problems; in con-trolling the creep of product function, schedules and costs; in ensuring the delivery of a quality product; and, of course, in satisfying your customers.

THE YOU-OWN-THE BUSINESS mindset works not only for project managers, it works for all employees at all levels of an organization. It is a powerful concept that must be practiced. You will get out of your business what you put of yourself into it.

Are you and another project team member just unable to see eye-to-eye? After an earnest attempt to negotiate a resolution without success, you have to call on higher levels of project leadership for help.

by Neal Whitten, PMP, Contributing Editor

ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT but common situations we face in our jobs is how to resolve critical problems when we must depend on someone else-someone who chooses not to accommodate our needs.

I have often been asked to come into organizations and assess progress on a project. In every case the top problem I identify is that the most critical problems are not receiving adequate attention. I am talking about problems that, if not solved quickly, will cause significant harm-missed schedules, compromised quality, cost overruns, lost customers. If inattention to these critical problems has such an impact on an organization’s success, why aren’t we better at wrestling them to closure?

Let’s look at some reasons: We are afraid of conflict. We are afraid we will “burn bridges.” We think we will lose on the matter anyway. We don’t want someone to look bad. We don’t want to look bad. We aren’t convinced our position is correct. We don’t want to expend the time and energy. We don’t know how to resolve such conflicts professionally. We aren’t sure what is acceptable behavior in our organization.

When two parties are unable to agree on the resolution of a problem and that problem, if left unresolved, can have a significant impact on the project, it becomes an issue.

After an earnest attempt by the two parties to negotiate a resolution without success, higher levels of the project leadership must be called upon for help. This is called an escalation. Here are escalation guidelines to follow:

• Escalate only after a sincere attempt has been made to resolve the issue with the other party.
• The dissenter is responsible for escalating the issue. This means that if you are the one who needs the other party to come around, you must initiate the escalation.
• Initiate the escalation within two workdays of knowing the problem is unresolvable at its current level. Usually the escalation meeting can occur within two days. If you are escalating to high levels of management, initiate the escalation within two workdays in order to get your meeting on their busy calendars.
• Escalate the problem, not the person. Don’t make the disagreement personal. You are escalating because the issue is a business matter that must be resolved.
• Always inform your management prior to initiating an escalation. Your managers must be aware of your intent because you will need their support. They may be able to help in preparing your position, or they may wish to attend. However, if they do not support your position, management might direct you to abstain.
• Always inform involved parties before beginning the escalation. You want all parties prepared, to ensure the escalation meeting is productive and focused on facts.
• When an escalation is under way, do not stop working the plan-of-record. If some aspect of the plan is being escalated or might be affected by the outcome, don’t wait for the issue to be resolved before continuing work on the plan. No one can know for certain the outcome of the escalation; keep everyone marching together until officially decided otherwise.

Escalate is not a dirty word. Escalations are a healthy and essential part of business: they provide a check-and-balance mechanism to help ensure the proper course is taken; resolve problems early; help reduce frustration among project members; improve overall productivity by reducing rework that can result from implementing the wrong plan of record; help prioritize work activities; and encourage employee participation and ownership of problems.

There are different approaches to conducting an escalation. Some organizations insist that the next levels of management on both sides of an issue be present; others allow the dissenter to take the issue up the other chain of management with optional presence of the dissenter’s management. Be certain that you understand the approach followed in your organization.

When two parties disagree on the resolution of an issue, usually neither party is “wrong.” Both parties are correct from their own points of view and missions. Often a person with broader responsibility for the project is required to resolve the issue and weigh the options more objectively on behalf of the overall impact to the project.

After an issue is resolved, both parties should abide by the decision made. Only if significant new information becomes available that could reverse the decision should the escalation be revisited. Otherwise, consider the issue closed.

Remember, unresolved issues can bring a project to its knees. They deserve the highest priority attention.