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Author: George Pitagorsky

George Pitagorsky, integrates core disciplines and applies people centric systems and process thinking to achieve sustainable optimal performance. He is a coach, teacher and consultant. George authored The Zen Approach to Project Management, Managing Conflict and Managing Expectations and IIL’s PM Fundamentals™. He taught meditation at NY Insight Meditation Center for twenty-plus years and created the Conscious Living/Conscious Working and Wisdom in Relationships courses. Until recently, he worked as a CIO at the NYC Department of Education.

Rushing the Project to Disaster – Greed and Fear

Written by George Pitagorsky on . Posted in Articles. 15 Comments on Rushing the Project to Disaster – Greed and Fear

With the Gulf of Mexico oil spill as a case in point we have another example of the interplay between greed and fear, and how they drive projects to disaster.

A former contractor on the BP Atlantis platform reported that many engineer-approved documents that were needed to assure safe operations were missing.  How often, albeit in far less critical projects, do we find documentation and due diligence go out the window in the face of pressures from the sponsor and client to get the product operational.

This post is not meant as an analysis of the spill and its causes.  Many others are engaged in that and chances are that the answers about what happened and why will be lost in the millions of words of reports, news conferences and the like.

However, we can use this catastrophe as a reminder of what happens when we cut corners to rush to completion, so sponsors and clients can reap the benefits of the project, and managers can reap the benefits of the perception of being on time and within budget.  In the end, the rushing increases the risk of losing far more than is gained by a few days, weeks or months of early completion.  We have seen the results of cutting corners and avoiding project delaying risks many times before.. Remember the Challenger and its ‘O’ ring, for example. 

What we seem to have is a collective learning disability.

Greed blinds the sponsors and clients and their representatives.  They want what they want and won’t take no for an answer.  Fear drives the project managers, quality assurance people and others who fail to push back.  In the event that pushing back doesn’t succeed, they need to take a courageous personal stance and blow the whistle before the disaster occurs.

All the procedures and policies in the world will not overcome greed and fear.  The only thing that will is the courage to be rational and to have the kindness and compassion to help even the people pushing hard for doing the wrong thing to avoid self destructive behavior.

As project managers, while doing our best to be as agile as possible, we must methodically follow safety and quality procedures and hold those who don’t accountable.  We must raise red flags in a way that gets the attention of the people who are unconsciously or consciously leading themselves and others into an abyss.  When that fails, we must be ready to put our integrity on the line and escalate issues to levels at which there is sufficient authority to act, and some rational thinking going on.  We must also accept the fact that in any given situation there may be no such place.

 As Pete Seeger asks in his song Where have All the Flowers Gone:

“When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn?

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The Challenge of PM in Engagement Management

Written by George Pitagorsky on . Posted in Articles. 14 Comments on The Challenge of PM in Engagement Management

If you don’t consider the big picture it is likely that you will work sub-optimally.

All too often, project managers lose track of the context of their projects and all too often managers, clients and client contact people lose track of where PM fits in their process.  Taking a step back and looking at the project context allows us to apply project management methods in a way that is tailored to the needs of the situation at hand.

Engagement management (EM) is a context for project management. Engagement Management is a process that brings together client relations (sales and support), project management, delivery and quality management to satisfy clients.  EM operates across multiple projects and ongoing relationships.  The EM view helps project managers to work more effectively with client contact people (e.g., sales, business analysts, application managers, etc.) to avoid “over-sold” projects and irrational expectations. 

Engagement Management is a process that extends from sales through the closing of an engagement.   An engagement may be a single project or a series of projects and ongoing support activities.  An engagement is embedded in a client relationship and a relationship may involve multiple engagements.

Where does Project Management Fit In? 

Projects are at the heart of an engagement.  Projects deliver the products or services that will satisfy client expectations.  In the engagement management process, we often find that sales people or, in engagements that are within an organization, client relationship managers or functional managers set expectations with clients.  Those expectations evolve into a contract and the contract establishes project constraints – time, cost and scope/quality. 

Thinking that project management begins with the kick-off of the project work under contract or from the moment there is a formally initiated project is a problem.  This kind of thinking leads to projects that have irrational deadlines and budgets.  That leads, in turn, to unmet expectations, dissatisfied clients and sponsors, burned out performers and disharmony in relationships among sales, delivery (technical), PM, support and client relations groups.

Project management work must begin as soon as anyone begins to set time, cost and quality constraints.  Estimating is a precursor to setting deadlines and budgets.  Project planning is required.  Who does the estimating and planning when there is no involvement of PM practitioners and delivery experts in the sales process?  In a healthy engagement management process, there is a project management presence representing the delivery team in proposal creation and contract review by an interdisciplinary management team to decide whether the contract is one that should be signed.  This creates the necessary checks and balances to make sure that sales people or relationship managers do not unilaterally set costs and deadlines just to get the business.  It protects the performance organization and the client.

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Risk and Uncertainty – Managing Expectations

Written by George Pitagorsky on . Posted in Articles. 16 Comments on Risk and Uncertainty – Managing Expectations

As stated in last month’s entry “A key assumption supporting healthy expectations is that there is uncertainty and that the more complex and hostile the working environment is, the greater the uncertainty.”

Attitudes regarding risk and uncertainty are central to establishing healthy expectations.  While it seems quite obvious from personal experience and history that uncertainty is the only certainty.  Anything can happen.  That is why project management 101 teaches that risk management must be an integral part of project planning and control for the project to be performed effectively.

The central activities of risk management are identification, assessment and response planning.  These must be integral parts of the estimating process.  When they are done well, stakeholders will have realistic expectations because estimates and the assumptions underlying them will be communicated so as to leave no room for delusional thinking.  Further, risk management enables the plan to be optimized.

What is delusional thinking?  It is thinking that in a complex project a single point estimate is guaranteed to be realized.  Delusional thinking is thinking that there will not be any changes, that everything will be thought out with 100% accuracy and that everything will go as planned.  Risk management dispels delusional thinking because it explicitly states the nature of the risks that might befall the project in terms of their probability of occurrence and their potential impact on the project’s performance and outcome.

Response planning takes it a step further.  It attempts to squeeze out risk and uncertainty by identifying avoidance and transfer options, to minimize the residual risk and to establish reserves or buffers that enable development of a range of possible outcomes. 

Engaging the Stakeholders

Every project manager with any sense understands the need for and principles of risk management.  The challenge is to engage project performers, clients and sponsors so that they understand, take part in and even insist upon an effective risk management process. 

For performers who provide estimates of their work, the PM should make it clear that a multipoint estimate with assumptions for most likely, optimistic and pessimistic scenarios is necessary.  For performers who are given estimates, there must be an opportunity to assess assumptions and risks and accept their assignment, rather than being forced to work under irrational assumptions.

For clients, they must be drawn into the risk management process so they can help to identify risks from their perspective and understand the degree of uncertainty that exists in the project.

Sponsors must be exposed to clear statements of risk and uncertainty, in the form of range estimates and statements of assumptions, even when they are trying to force project managers to commit to unrealistic estimates and schedules.

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Mindfully Managing Expectations

Written by George Pitagorsky on . Posted in Articles. 13 Comments on Mindfully Managing Expectations

Last month I wrote about the place for pushback in managing expectations in projects.  As comments pointed out, it is not just push back that is needed.  Push back is one factor among many.  When we do find the need to push back it must be done consciously as a part of the overall process of managing expectations and within the context of meeting project objectives in the most effective way. 

Clearly, the expectations of stakeholders, both those with power and those without, have a significant effect on project success and the degree to which the project is faced with unnecessary conflict and performance shortfalls.  Sponsor and client expectations of delivery of something on some date within some budget must be informed by their awareness of project risks and complexities.  Where expectations do not consider risk and change, there is a pressure that is created to do the “impossible” or suffer the consequences.

This pressure can be quite powerful as a motivator but too much of it or the wrong kind will have negative effects.  What is the right balance?  When does pushing the edge or stretching to optimize performance become a dysfunctional charge into trying to do too much too quickly and for a bargain cost?

How Do We Manage Expectations? 

The first step is to take a step back from ourselves and assess stakeholders’ perceptions, needs, desires and mental models.  In a project everyone has expectations. 

Expectations drive performance; committed people work to meet their own expectations and the expectations of others.  If the expectations are “stretch” then performance may tighten up and extra effort will be applied to hit targets.  Lessons learned will enable future projects to be more optimally performed.

In the body, if the stretch is too much a muscle gets pulled.  Personal performance degrades, at least until the muscle heals.  If there is not enough stretch there is tightness, rigidity, slowness, increased danger of pulling muscles and reduced capacity to stretch.

Projects are like bodies in this way.  Too much stretch and there is dysfunction – burn-out, taking unwise shortcuts, lost opportunities and in many cases unmet expectations.  Too little stretch and project targets may be met but costs and performance efficiencies across multiple projects will suffer as will the ability to hit performance peaks when needed.

Expectations are Thoughts

They represent what we want to have happen and think can or will happen?  Underlying expectations are assumptions regarding how the project will play out to deliver the desired outcome.   A key assumption supporting healthy expectations is that there is uncertainty and that the more complex and hostile the working environment is, the greater the uncertainty. 

To manage expectations, we facilitate so that everyone is aware of and tests the validity of their expectations.  Then we can work to get a mutual agreement regarding objectives, product scope and the work itself.  Work is realistically scheduled; costs are estimated; risks, the inevitability of change, environmental and resource constraints are understood; project performance and management processes are defined; roles and responsibilities are understood and used as a basis for accountability. 

These are the major factors that, when brought together, establish stakeholder expectations.   Expectations drive performance and establish the benchmark for project success.  Make sure they are rational:  What is the likelihood of their being met, given expected resources and conditions?

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Effective Estimating and the Courage to Push Back

Written by George Pitagorsky on . Posted in Articles. 10 Comments on Effective Estimating and the Courage to Push Back

When it comes to setting the expectations that are the foundation for project success the courage to push back against unrealistic demands from sponsors, senior managers and clients is a critical factor.  In an earlier blog entry, I discussed the importance of setting realistic expectations and how that relates to the fact that we will probably never be 100% accurate when making estimates early in project life. 

Courage is the quality of mind that enables a person to act effectively when confronted with difficulty, danger, pain, etc., even in the face of fear.  It is the ability to act in accordance with one’s beliefs in spite of criticism or fear of consequences.  Why would a project manager or project performer need courage?  It is because we are often faced with some difficult choices, particularly when it comes to estimating and scheduling.  Choices like telling a client that his or her desire for a delivery by a critical date is a pipe dream or informing a senior manager who has just told his boss’s boss that a project will be performed for some ridiculously low cost and within a time frame that is virtually impossible without the use of magic.

So how do we manage to muster the courage we need under such circumstances?  First we begin by understanding that the more we rely on effective estimating and presentation skills the less courage we need.  Our estimating skills enable us to build an objective foundation for our estimate.  We use objectivity to overcome irrationality.  These estimating skills include the use of scenarios based on well founded assumptions, accurate scope definitions, the use of past performance data, effective task analysis and realistic assessments of resource availability and capability.

Effective presentation skills are needed because objective reality is not enough by itself.  While we would like to think that the people we deal with are rational beings who simply need the facts to make good decisions, there is much evidence to the contrary.  When people are driven by the desire for something they really want, their brains become clouded.  They discount even the most irrefutable facts and believe what is most convenient to believe in the moment as opposed to what is more likely to be the case in the future.  In other words people are easily deluded.

Effective presentation skills not only present an objective argument but do it in a way that engages the participants and gets them to confront their own thinking in light of the facts.  We present the facts and assumptions and ask for feedback.  We say things like “While I would love to tell you we can deliver by next Tuesday, the estimates say that we probably won’t be able to.  Please let me walk you through the estimate and let’s see what we can do.”  When the client says things like “well if you can’t do it we can get someone who can.”  We need to respond with “You may be able to get someone who says they can do it but that’s different than actually doing it.  If you spend a few minutes with me now to look at the reasoning behind our estimates you may very well avoid some serious disappointment later.”

If you get their attention, then present a brief argument that focuses on what they can understand.  Summarize.  Be ready to go to different levels of detail as needed.  Ask questions like, “Have I left anything out or made any erroneous assumptions?”

Courage is not about not being afraid.  It is about working through the fear to remain calm enough to think and communicate clearly and effectively.  With courage we can push back and protect our clients, sponsors, teams and ourselves from the consequences of beginning a project with unrealistic expectations.

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