50 Days of Silence

50 Days of Silence – that’s what it might have looked like to those who read my blog. Why no posts for 50 days?

Was it writer’s block? No

Was it that there was nothing to comment about? No

Have we exhausted every topic for business improvement, quality management, project management or related topics? Of course not. (You’ll have seen articles from me in other publications.)

In all portfolios of projects there are times when you must simply concentrate on the work and decisions in hand.  Thinking takes effort and time. Getting a decision right takes research, so of the key questions for me are: What do we really want the outcome to be and does that fit with our strategy? Is that possible given the state of the art? Do we have the resources? Can we really start from here and if not how do we get to the next step?

How often do you set aside time to truly review the balance of your portfolio and properly think about where to go next?

And don’t forget, you may need to look at your personal portfolios too: your business, your projects, your career development, your personal “life” portfolio.

Giving yourself space and time to do that may mean scheduling some time away from the daily cycle of tasks and making space to consider your options.

So, that wasn’t silence, that was me getting inspiration and using those insights to spring clean my portfolios. Others might call it a comprehensive management review.  Either way, it is much easier to see a path forward you can take with confidence once that is done.

Legacy already

It used to be that I would expect the PCs being installed on desks would be one model behind the market – something would have been adjusted or replaced in the new model but it would not be so far ahead of our newly tested installation. In some suppliers the speed of innovation has increased and the availability of supply and services expands almost daily.

There is nothing more frustrating to me than towards the end of a project attending the launch of a product or service that you wished was available at project start. That is what happened to me today. We had the vision of focusing of the customer’s contact preference, being responsive, integrating backed systems with customer side service.

The organisation is close to the installation of the final part of the last phase of the 80% solution and I have just met a company that is launching proven technology that does exactly the unified Communications and CRM we wanted but wasn’t available in the UK. They have been in the USA and Europe for 4 years, today they launch in uk. The best solution available is legacy already – before the project managers have signed off the last work. While the return on investment will be realised, it won’t be the shiny new system we wanted on day one.

That is the frustration in business solutions – for most organisations, the solution is out there but finding it is harder.

Making the Most of your Team

“I’m calling to warn you: the CEO is cutting 10% of your budget. You’ll be asked for a plan to do this at the project review on Monday.”  Many project managers will have heard something similar.

You can talk to your suppliers about alternative solutions at lower cost. You can ban overtime and risk the project running over budget because you miss deadlines. Or you can think differently.

Project teams often have individuals that have latent skills: things they are skilled in that are ignored because they have been pigeonholed for specific skills they are associated with within the organisation. This is the opportunity to take advantage of these latent skills as well.

Ask the team the question: if we were starting today with a budget of 20% less, how would we do what we have to do in this project?  What skills have you got that we could use?

You may be surprised at the results. After initial horror at the suggestion of such a budget  cut, you will usually find creative or simply pragmatic solutions emerge from the team. Of course, you can’t take the idea at face value: work it through as a change request and prove it.

This might be worth a try for all projects in different situations: how can we do this cheaper? faster? simpler? better?

Danger:too many projects!

It’s still February and rugby is still the preferred sport for a few more weeks. The big debate seems to be, simply, why doesn’t England win the Six Nations tournament more? England has a relatively big population, the biggest sports economy, the national rugby organisation with the biggest turnover, most players, more registered professional players, etc.  The press question if those resources are being wasted. The answer cannot be about numbers and statistical ratios but about what is done with those resources.

At the end of the game, the important thing is the result created by the 15 guys on the pitch. If they have good enough facilities, high quality coaches and plenty of practice, a player can leave the locker room at the start of the game with confidence of a good start and a potential win. If the 15 are focused on doing the small things right, take the opportunities that present themselves and play for each other as a team, then they could be running back to their lockers as winners. That is true no matter how big your resource pool is. If you have a squad of 50 instead of 22 (15 plus the 7 allowed substitutes) the dynamics of communication between players becomes problematic and building a coherent team is harder. If you have just enough players the team will  probably work well. If you have too few in the team, guys start to play more than one position and risk loosing focus on the important things.

So in reality, it does not matter how many players England have: it’s the quality of the team that is selected to play the big game and the support they get to win. For England, the number of players available may be a distraction because the selection process has to cope with more possibilities. The temptation will be to spend the same effort on all players for consistency of process (and fairness). But that robs people of the attention they need (if they need more than average) or wastes the coach’s time (if things can be done quickly.) The team’s key players need the best coaches. Those at the start of their career need coaches who can help them grow. Every player needs an appropriate time with the right coach to get them ready for the game they need to play.

Like every international team needs a selection process, every portfolio of projects needs a governance process. And like every player needs a coach, every project needs the right attention in the governance process. Each project team needs good preparation before the game begins. The processes around a project portfolio also need to increase the opportunities for success.  In really large portfolios, the time and energy to do this can seem inefficient but not doing it can be really costly. This is where some organisations start to go wrong: they have lots of projects and management start to feel there is too much time and cost devoted to the governance process – they want to spend the resources on the projects. The real measure should be about how well the governance process works: how many projects slip through and fail or how many real opportunities are missed? The right level of governance for each project must make sure that the right projects are run and the right resources are available for the best chance of success.

Quite simply, if you don’t have time and resources for an effective governance process, you have too many projects running in your portfolio. Time to consider either rescheduling the portfolio or looking at changing the resources applied to governance.

Portfolio Ambition

It’s February and six weeks into the year I’ve listened to project portfolio managers wrestling with their organisations’ daydream-like expectations of the project portfolio. When the board signed off the portfolio with a list of change initiatives and project objectives in January, they had not made a proper evaluation of the resources available to complete the work or the risks involved.

Now that was a Surprise

When a surprise or bad news hits your desk as a project manager, how do you deal with it? “When the going gets tough, the tough get going” is the old saying but the smart leader only acts when action is needed.

Be Clear About Your Assumptions

Assumptions: we all make them.  Some times stated. Sometimes implicit. Occasionally, utterly unaware that we made an assumption. They are in all projects and can be found in all project planning decisions. If we don’t make assumptions we can’t plan – uncertainty will get in our way.

Welcome to 2012

Well it seems so odd to finally be in 2012!

I spend a lot of time in London and the pre-Olympic theme in many places has lulled me into a dream-like state of it already being 2012. Now it really is 2012. That got my attention: something has changed and yet nothing has changed.

Christmas was also a reminder of the truth behind “culture shock”. I hear change specialist worrying about culture shock for big changes in organisations or moving teams to new locations. However, the biggest shocks I see are when people arrive somewhere after being away. How many of us expected our parents to be the same with other children as they were with us or return “home” after a long trip  expecting to be treated to the same reception as we used to get only to find things have changed? We may have changed but so has own old home and the people in it. The behaviour is not what they expect it to be. That can grab our attention too.

That grabbing of attention makes me stand still for a moment to work out where I am,  what I expected and how to reset my expectations to deal with the reality.  That is fine if I have that time to spare.  If my project doesn’t have that time, I need to be better prepared.

In projects, you can prepare people and help them be ready for a change but if that change doesn’t meet their expectation then there will be a shock. Managing stakeholder expectations of the changes your project plans to make needs to include two-way communication to discover what they think it will be like and correct any misunderstandings. It is an area of change that, with a little more understanding of the people concerned, can show lasting results.  A little research will uncover assumptions and associated risks.

My new year wish for project managers is that your people are healthy in terms of change, your projects are wealthy or at least appropriately resourced, and you grow wise in terms of risk management.

Happy New Year

Well that was new …

As a project manager, there are times when you simply need to get new thoughts about the project’s direction to the stakeholders. Mostly people use a presentation deck of slides and a formal presentation. I went to three events last week where that didn’t happen – people simply got the group talking. That was coincidental (I didn’t plan a week without PowerPoint deliberately) but i’m recognising it was a great week and there are things project managers can learn from that.

The first event was a gathering of about 40 people. The discussion was wide ranging and through 2 hours we discussed the issues around a big topic in short sessions in 2s or 3s, groups of 8 or 10, or leader facilitated plenary. It had a consistent theme of “what can you do about this intractable and complex problem, how will that benefit everyone round you and how will it help you?” no one session was long enough to solve anything but we all understood the situation a little better. At the end we were asked to scribble down a list of 2 or 3 small specific and immediate actions we committed to do with the understanding that we’d get email reminders from the facilitator. The potential progress before we meet again in a few months could be incredible – lots of small solutions motivated by the individual’s own needs which when combined would make the problem a considerably smaller issue. We won’t solve it but the interaction of all those small changes could be significant.

The second was an event with an expert speaker at a comfortable venue with no projection equipment. I found I was watching the speaker and that helped me to listen more effectively. While I had heard the information before, I was hearing shades of meaning that I missed last time round. As a presenter, recognise that your visual aids should help your audience,not distract them.

Finally, I had a Friday evening speaking engagement at Southampton Solent University for BCS (The Chartered Institute for IT) at a local branch and Quality specialist group combined meeting. I usually have a lecture hall for these meetings and deliver from a stage but this was a smaller group and we sat down to a large round table discussion. We recognised how things had changed, how everyone round the table had different insights, and that we could learn from each other. I had the agenda I would have used for PowerPoints beside me and yes, as presenter, I did more talking than anyone else. Fascinatingly, I noticed how energised my audience was as they left the room. There was something in allowing them to participate beyond the question and answer session that changed how they felt. There are times when that engagement can change the nature of stakeholder support.

So next time you have a presentation to make, check with yourself: do I really need PowerPoint?

Project in Trouble: Don’t Panic!

Something about the current debates about English secondary education (age 11 to 16 years)  has reminded me of a project that didn’t go well.

The debate about introducing a new qualification before completing a review of the system (http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/education-committee/news/ebac-report-substantive/) is beginning to look like someone with power was making a big decision based on opinion and a perceived need to act quickly and not a more objective view - and after a few weeks the situation looks starkly different.

Sometimes, a manager must make a fast decision based on the information available because there is no time left to contemplate. However, often waiting for your team to give more information or think of alternative can mean a better decision. Action is vital when a project hits a problem but panic reactions and instinctive firefighting can lead to more trouble.  Unfortunately, that a problem has been found can build a desire to take decisive action fast.

I was in the meeting when Joe (the project manager) realised that his team had discovered something that was going to put him wildly over schedule and put a huge hole in his project budget. We talked about how he could calmly take this forward and rescue best value from the project for the stakeholders. He had some ideas but realised he needed more information from the team and had to test out some potential solutions.

He had a real sense of urgency about him when I left that meeting: he was telling his team that they must get all the work they had in hand to a sensible point to leave for a few days. The project team would need time to work on what to do about this issue. They agreed a good place to start was a workshop about the facts of the problem before they left that evening.

I knew Joe had a regular lunch meeting booked with the Mark (the senior manager responsible for the project) the next day. That seemed like a good opportunity to talk about the issue, bring some early information and ideas, and ask for support and guidance from Mark. It all sounded like a plan to get to a new plan.

I went on a business trip for a few days. When I got back, I could only wonder at what had happened.

The project team were running in various directions with panic written across their faces, Joe looked downtrodden and Mark appeared to be the new project manager issuing instructions to everyone but there was no sign of a plan.  Everyone was in firefighting mode but without the calm disciplined approach I know trained firefighters have. That didn’t seem to be an improvement.

I had a quiet coffee with the very stressed Rob (PMO consultant assigned to the project) and got the story. Joe had done all the things he and I had discussed. The team had defined the problem sensibly and had some ideas that might work but these were not complete before lunch with Mark.  Once Mark had heard the details of the problem he quickly knew how important it was.

However, just as Joe was about to discuss his ideas and plan, Mark got a phone call from his boss who demanded why he hadn’t taken change of the problem as 24 hours had already passed.  How the boss knew about the problem we never found out but Mark’s expression changed as he was berated and he was heard to say “I am already on it … I’m meeting with Joe now … I am confident we can find a way to satisfy this customer …of course I’ll take charge myself”. Now Joe and Mark are both trapped in a senior manager’s “Just Get On With It” pronouncement from afar.

Mark saw Rob and I return from our meeting and called us into his office. That at least gave the project team some respite. Sometimes, I just say the wrong things: “I see the solution to the issue isn’t progressing well - what does your plan look like?” After Mark described his frustrations for about 10 minutes, Rob started to relax and there was silence. What now? The only thing I could say was, “why don’t we call Joe in and see how far we’ve really progressed and what ideas his team has now?”

By the end of the day, we concluded that

•  all the activity had made some progress but not as much as we could have done,
• we had learnt some lessons and gained some valuable insights into the solution,
• we could see a logical plan to solve the issue by the end of the next day,
•  Mark was paying for the team dinner that night as they agreed to work late to make up the time he’d lost.

That dinner was considerably more elegant than the pizza the project budget might normally have yielded. The team was as good as their word and produced the solution the next day. They also had some other ideas which improved the project as a whole, made money for the organisation and delighted the customer.

Will the education debate end so happily? I do hope so. When I think of that team, they were all very intelligent and able – partly thanks to their education.