Four Critical Components in Successful Project Implementations

As most project managers know, having solely a project plan does not guarantee project success. We can fill entire buildings with project plans that are associated with failed projects.

I have found in my experience that there are generally Four Critical Components that a project manager must consider when implementing programs or projects to assess the probability of success for his project.

1. Senior Management Support - this is a key ingredient to success. The project must have full senior management support and this does not mean just financially, but that helps of course, but senior management must believe in the output and must advocate for it to the general business community. This is where excellent stakeholder management skills come into play. A project manager must understand what BUSINESS KPIs are important to senior management, how the project supports those and what is the ONE PROJECT KPI that senior management will protect in times of crisis - cost, schedule, quality, scope?

2. A Solid Strategy - Thee project must tie up to an overall business strategy that can span multiple years and it must be an important part of that strategy. The strategy must be concrete (not just a vague vision), comprehensive, sustainable and drives significant incremental value to the company or client. If the project feels more like an off activity then it probably is a rogue project and we all know that at crunch time - nice to have projects are no match to critical to do projects.

3. An Enabled Talent Pool - we all know this - even the best project plans out there will not bring any benefit to the company and the project if the people leading and executing the plans are not properly enabled and/or not the caliber required by the project. Don't be deceived by some people saying that project managers are generalists - the best project managers I have seen are actually specialists. Not to say that they can't run general projects but they excel in their chosen fields. The project team members must also complement one another, know their roles and must be properly resourced to execute their jobs. The most mature team are those that understand that individual superheroes do more damage than good to a team and at the end of the day - it is the entire project team - working as one - that can deliver successful projects.

4. A Consistent and Appropriate Set of Tools and Processes - from process definition, handovers and even documentation requirements - all of these must be consistent and appropriate for the project being undertaken. A good PM will know the different process and tools (like those from the PMBOK) - a great PM will know which processes and tools will be most effective in the project. Discuss early on in the project what processes will the team follow, who will do what at every task (RACI), what documents will be required at what phase and what tools will be used to create and share project assets across team members. Regularly assess as well how the tools and processes are helping the project and be open to changing them if need be.

Gray Areas are Wonderful Places

As people rise up the ranks in management, there comes a time that they learn a very important lesson - management exists to live in the gray and to provide direction for the rest of the team to follow.

Managing gray is really a very dangerous activity -> if you lean toward one end more often than is perceived as required will bring you negative reviews. An example of a gray area is "the desire to service your customers" vs "the capacity to realistically deliver everything they ask for" or the gray area on " I believe in this employee and will give him a second chance" vs "I am sacrificing my company's interest by keeping him" or a simpler gray area that matches speed vs thoroughness. Work too fast on a project and you can be called reckless, work too thorough and you can be labeled as slow.

The key to successfully managing the gray is developing the ability to develop the sense to know, case by case, where you would lean into - to truly understand where the benefit will really lie and be wise in deciding and communicating the basis for the decision and what it means tactically to your team. There is no "one size fits all" nor a "silver bullet"

Few people understand the gray areas and fewer still write about it but there is a book that writes about it that I found enlightening in this discussion - >Managing the Gray Areas.

The thing is - we also quickly realize that the higher we go up the ranks, the bigger the gray areas become - eg "should I keep the model of this company being its new CEO and be reviewed as risk-averse" or "I should change the model of this company as its new CEO so I will be reviewed as revolutionary and out-of-the-box" thinker.

Bottom line - if you can't swim in the gray area and if you can't grow it - it will quickly show - not only through your output but also in the belief your team has for you...manage it will and it will be the only place you want to be.

Career Advice for Project Managers

I have a team of people right now that all have sparks in them and on one-on-one discussions with them - most of them want to be project managers. I just know that all of them will become great project managers someday and I see myself as one of the few people who can help them get there faster...by telling them what mistakes I had and how I learned from them and hopefully they learn the lessons faster than I ever did...I figured that my own success is driven by them becoming great project managers in their own right so I always see this as a win-win move.

My team gets juicier projects and our sponsors know that even amidst of several high profile, complex projects - my team delivers.

One of the basic discussion points though that I think most people miss that is critical to their careers is knowing what they want to be when they grow up and I am not talking about people wanting to be VPs or even CEOs at some point in their lives but truly describing in detail how they see themselves becoming that person and what exactly are they doing by then and most importantly knowing what would it take for them to get from where they are now to where they truly truly want to be.

I always tell them that it is like using a GPS - their own career GPS so to speak.

1. Know in detail where you want to be (eg you typing the exact address in your GPS and not just the city)
2. Know exactly where you are right now (even the GPS does this first time you turn it on)
3. Know the milestones or critical turns that you need to remember along the way
4. Check every now and then if you are still on the right path
5. Expect surprises along the way and when they happen, be ready to take action and change direction if need be

Situational Leadership and the One Minute Manager

In the book by Ken Blanchard, One Minute Manager, he talks about Situational Leadership. I could say that so far, this is the best theory I heard about management and leadership.

It does not come to us naturally as managers since we always think and say that to be effective, we have to have a management style that define us. This book would tell us that to be truly effective managers and leaderships, we should be able to flex to multiple styles to fit the development needs of our direct reports.

Does the direct report require direction or support or a mixture of both? This book tells us that our direct reports go through different development needs(D1 to D4) and that as managers, we are responsible for ensuring that our direct reports can be as productive as possible by providing them appropriate leadership styles (S1 to S4).

The book also tells us that the development needs varies by task and we should not label a person a D1 or a D4 without attaching the label to specific tasks.

At the end of the day - the book tells us that there is the golden rule (do unto others what you want done unto you) but there is the platinum rule - do unto others what they want done to them and the latter is the true measure of a true leader.

Be Interested to be Interesting - Listening Your Way to Success

One of the things that I value about my current company is that it values people so much so that it has a training program for managers geared towards developing them to become better people managers. What resonated with me the most today is the phrase "be interested to be interesting".

I have always found myself to be in the mood to solve problems so much so that when people come to me about a certain concern - my brain starts thinking about giving this person some advice on how to solve the problem as soon as possible thinking that it is after all what he came to me for - right? I realized today that may not be the best approach after all.

I learned that the best first approach is really to listen - and not just listen by saying "aha", "ok" or simply not talking. Listening is being fully engaged at that moment in hearing and understanding the other person fully. The first goal is to be truly able to paraphrase or summarize what the other person is saying as a statement without your own judgment or thoughts mixed into it.

Some tips I learned:

a. Have the word "you" in the first few words to indicate that what you are saying is not your thought but your speaker's thoughts and you are simply reflecting on what he said to ensure your speaker got his message to you right. Examples can be "From what I understand, YOU..." or "You are saying..."

b.Paraphrase - don't parrot. Don't simply repeat what the other person is saying but say it in your own words

c.Acknowledge the feelings, not just the content. An example would be "From what I understand, you are upset with your situation". You are not saying it is right or wrong to be upset but simply acknowledging what the other person feels.

d. Don't use it all the time. Assess whether reflective listening is the right approach for what you are trying to achieve, which may be providing the other person some room to process his own situation more clearly or allowing the other person to think himself through a solution. There are moments when a more direct approach might be required. Use your own judgment and sense of intent and appropriateness when practicing.

The Project Management Circus: Act 2 - The Lion Tamer (Project Sponsor Management)

The lights go out for a few second and there is a booming voice that announces Act 2.

A spotlight shines on the person coming into the cage and inside the cage were several lions.

The person has a whip on one hand a chair on the other and he has treats in his pocket. He has been here before and he knows the lions well - each one of them. He knows not only their names but their personalities as well. He knows what makes them tick. He knows he needs them to succeed. He knows they need him to control the chaos that can happen without him. He waves his hands to his spectators as if in victory even before the show begins.

The booming voice announces him as....The Project Manager.

Each project manager deals with this situation for every new project - facing the project sponsors and working with or through them to ensure project success. What does he need to succeed in this initiative?

1. Sufficient knowledge of who the sponsors are and where they belong in the hierarchy of the organization - the pack order.

2. True knowledge of what is their stake in the project - not just what they publicly say - but what their internal agenda is.

3. Knowledge of their comfort levels, risk tolerances and when thrown into a corner - which would they primarily protect if they can only choose one - scope, cost, schedule or quality?

4. Knowledge of their pain and pleasure points which may include what information does each one want to hear, when and how and what motivational triggers can be pulled if the project manager wants the sponsors to "jump through hoops'.

5. Understanding the defense mechanism of each one. When provoked - will Lion A run away and will Lion B attack? If the project manager knows who will go into the offensive as a defensive - he needs to make sure he knows how best to defend himself.

Balancing between sponsor motivation (the treats), punishment(the whip) and defense(the chair) is a key skill that each project manager should develop. It is so much better to know how to manage them that to find your head trapped between their jaws.

Red Pill or Blue Pill? (Living in the Matrix)

Most of us, unfortunately, were not given the choice that Neo was given in the movie The Matrix and we typically either land in a matrix environment or not.

I lived in both worlds and I can attest to the fact that whichever organization structure you are in - they all have their pros and cons. I can say, though, that it is the matrix environment that required me, as a project manager, to develop some specific skills that allowed me to navigate it.

Why is it tricky to navigate? For one, aside from your immediate project team, most of the people you need to be successful do not directly report to you. That means that, chances are, their priorities are different from yours and they can derail your project with less of a concern in terms of performance reviews - as long as their real boss agrees with them. There is also this need to have more communication channels which open your team up to a lot of possible miscommunications.

So what skills did I need to succeed in this environment?

1. Influence - John Maxwell, in his book, Developing The Leader Within You actually said that "Leadership is Influence" and never is it more apparent than in a matrix environment. Unlike a direct report, you need to influence more a person or team that does not report to you to buy into your plan and work with you to succeed

2. Communication - Communication takes on a deeper meaning in a matrix environment since it is the glue that keeps everyone pasted onto your objective as you try to move everyone to the goal and as I mentioned, I realized that in a matrix environment,  there is a need to have more communication channels laterally since one characteristic of a matrix environment is that the org chart is a lot flatter but broader.

3. "Ball Handling" - The matrix was created for several good reasons and one of them is to allow expertise to develop in a group while allowing these experts to work in your projects - sounds good but this requires that, as a project manager, you should know when to pass the ball and to whom. This message got imprinted on me in a workshop when excepts of the movie Goal! - The Dream Begins was shown to us.

4. The ability to see the bigger picture - There were times that I needed to admit that truly my project was less of a priority than a project my matrix team was working on and I had to give way and replan my project because at the end of the day - the question is "which project stands to give the company the best possible benefit vs cost". Some days - that project is not yours.

So why does the matrix still exist amidst the complexities it has? It is only the matrix environment that allows a company to have the expertise and flexibility to execute projects through different resources. For it to be as productive as possible though - the matrix must move as one as a project manager - you are one of those people that steer it.

And My Knees Still Shake...

Today is another workshop day and this time for project requirements that require the participation of several global representatives from different regions.

I have participated in several of these in my lifetime. I coordinated several of these and I led several of these types of workshops as well and today was the simplest one I will participate in in the past 3 years - I only need to welcome the team, give them the vision of the end result, tell them why this project is important to the company, my team, and me and yet - my knees still shook prior to the talk - the same knees that shook during my first ever public talk. This time though - there is a difference. I knew it would happen and I knew how to control it.

Unknown to my team, I was actually preparing for the 30 minutes of talk for a few days now - forming the structure in my head, deciding what I needed to say and what I need to accomplish. I probably played the whole thing in my head for several hours already- each time tweaking - each time enhancing - I made sure I knew what my message should be, how to impress that message to the audience I knew would be there and ensure they leave knowing how important the project is and more importantly, how important they are in ensuring its success.

That is my mission - get them not just on board the boat - but rowing - rowing like no man has rowed before - rowing with a determination to reach the destination I need us to reach with ferocity and perseverance.

I need them to be partners, not spectators. I need them to be fully engaged, not a temporal being. I need them to know that without them, this project will not succeed. I need them to know that they are the team that will see this to the end - and that we will succeed together or fail as one.

I know that during this project, as the rest I led, problems will pop up, conflicts will happen but after today - they all know that we are all responsible for each other, for the project and for the company.

My knees shake no more...

KNOW your team

As a project manager, I would argue that KNOWing your team is one of the most important thing you should do, especially if you are a program or portfolio manager who will have several projects running at the same time with different stakeholders and the only consistent, binding link you have with all these projects is your team.

How do you know your team and how do you use the knowledge? I typically ensure that I have or can get the following for each of my team members:

1) Basic Information - name, experience, expertise, skills, education - all your general resume-level information. This is his "what was and what is" information.
2) Career Goals - and based not just on "where do you think you are in 5 years" type of questions. A person may be an expert today at a certain skill but is dying to get out it and hates doing the same thing again. This is his "what is the future he wants to see" and can it be in your team.
3) Work Preferences - is he the type of person who prefers to work alone or in a team setting. I have seen individuals who excel when doing some tasks all by themselves. Don't discount them immediately out of your team if you know he has a fit in your team.
4) Culture Fit - will he fit with the "culture" of the overall team, including yours
5) Leadership Potential  - regardless of what role he might play in your team, although this comes more in handy when you are a program or portfolio manager obviously. This also is an important input in your "9-box" analysis of your team which is anothe topic in itself
6) Current Rate and perceived self-value growth rate
7) Unique traits and situations - for example - does he have any pet peeves that may affect his work?

Knowing the above for each of your team members and knowing your project - you can now do your "mission impossible" team selection and formation ensuring that each role is critical and that each player playing the role will complement the rest of the team.