Author: Kiron Bondale

Be a Mindful Project Manager

Written by Kiron Bondale on April 29, 2015. Posted in Articles. 6 Comments on Be a Mindful Project Manager

Mindfulness has received significant coverage as a good practice for improving one’s interactions with others on both a personal and business front. It is rare to find an article in the Harvard Business Review on leadership, conflict resolution or negotiation that doesn’t touch on the concept.

But what exactly is mindfulness?

Maria Gonzalez defines it in “Mindful Leadership” as “simply noticing the way things are.” Our own biases, emotions, and preconceived notions get in the way of truly seeing things for what they are. The decisions we make based on that altered view of reality are what get us and our projects into trouble.

So what does mindfulness mean to a project manager?

Be present. When meeting with your key stakeholders or your team members, don’t dwell on the past or dream of the future. Focus on what is being said, who is saying it, and how they are saying it. It can be a tremendous recognition for someone to know that the person they are speaking with is giving them 100% of their attention, especially because this occurs so rarely!
Be aware. Mindfulness is not about suppressing one’s emotions and reactions. It is about recognizing them as they bubble up and not letting them control you. When meeting with a stakeholder who has let the team down, or confronting a team member who repeatedly misses their commitments, it can be easy to let anger drive your behavior. Acknowledge the feelings of frustration but don’t let them drive you to an impetuous response.
Be calm. The first line of Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “If “, says it the best “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs…Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it.” Not only does calm in the face of chaos help you make better decisions, but it is also contagious. If your team members see that you can be calm even when it seems like nothing is working out for the project, they will draw strength from your composure and will be less likely to make things worse.
Be focused. Projects can have hundreds if not thousands of moving parts, and team members might be tempted to juggle multiple tasks along with their operational responsibilities. By focusing them on one or two concurrent tasks, throughput will increase, and you’ll generate less waste.
Be clear. Emotions can introduce unpredictability and inconsistency into decision-making. If you know what the expected end state or outcome is for your project, and what the relative priorities are of all of the project’s constraints, then that can inject objectivity into the decision- making process.
Have equanimity. I wrote in an earlier article that the “Serenity Prayer” should be a mantra for project managers. The uncertainty that is present in all projects will result in issues that you and your team will not have direct control over. While you may not be able to control the occurrence of an event that impacts your project, you have total control over your reaction to it. As the project manager, you need to set the standard of behavior for your team, and if they witness you accepting the bad with the good, and proceeding in a thoughtful manner, they are also likely to proceed in a calm manner.
Be a positive force. When your project is behind schedule or over budget, it can be easy to fall into a fugue, and this can colour your interactions with stakeholders and team members. However, if you can accept that things are tough, but still greet people with a smile on your face (and in your heart), that might be one of the easiest forms of recognition you can offer each day.
Be compassionate. Like charity, compassion begins at home. We are our own worst critics, and if we are beating ourselves up when things are going bad on our projects, this is likely to reduce our ability to cope with stress, leave us more open to getting into unnecessary arguments, and increases our likelihood of making poor decisions.
Be impeccable. This doesn’t mean that you are always right, but it does mean that you demonstrate integrity and honesty in all of your dealings. If you have made a mistake, then take responsibility for it and don’t look to find a scapegoat.

While each of these behaviors might seem obvious, incorporating them will take lots of practice.

Without this practice, the analogy of an anti-drunk driving television ad from the past decade comes to mind. It shows a view of the road through a windshield getting progressively blurrier as empty beer glasses are placed in front of the camera lens, one after another. Our emotions act in the same way – if we let them cloud our judgment, we are committing the sin of project managing under the influence.

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Agile Doesn’t Mean Accept All Change!

Written by Kiron Bondale on March 3, 2015. Posted in Articles. 5 Comments on Agile Doesn’t Mean Accept All Change!

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With few exceptions, gone are the days when a team would plan a business project to a low level of detail, secure approval from their customer on scope, schedule and cost baselines, and then not have to be concerned about anything changing over the project’s lifetime.

The greater the level of requirements uncertainty or the more dynamic the enterprise environmental factors and competitive pressures are, the greater the likelihood of change.

On a traditional project, two common alternatives are practiced.

If short-term profit motives, fixed timelines or limited budget are the priority, then applying strict project change control practices ensures that change is managed, but likely at the cost of customer good-will. Taken to the extreme, administrative and analytical efforts spent on analyzing multiple change requests might actually prevent the team from delivering scope in a timely or cost-effective fashion.

If customer satisfaction trumps everything else, then scope creep might be encouraged and the delivery organization absorbs the costs of the additional work. However, the clock keeps ticking and even if the customer is not out-of-pocket as a result of these changes, their time-to-market objectives may not be met.

Agile projects are supposed to address this challenge. Rather than considering change as an evil interloper to be shunned at all costs, it is welcomed as an expected guest that will ensure the project team delivers the right scope to achieve expected business outcomes.
But does this mean that there should be NO change control on agile projects? Unfortunately, this is one of the pervasive myths of agile. Agile doesn’t imply throwing out tried and tested practices but rather encourages the use of the right tool for the right job in the right manner.

Without some level of change control, two scope management issues could emerge.

Fundamental architectural elements are expected to be designed, implemented, refactored and stabilized in early iterations. However, if new work items get added by the project owner which imply significant changes to the implemented architecture, these changes might negatively impact deliverables which have already been transitioned to an operational state. This will result in a lot of re-work. The implications of this re-work could cause the team to be unable to meet a customer’s minimally acceptable product needs within their approved cost and schedule constraints. Additionally, team members might experience a drop in morale and productivity as they’d witness that a significant portion of their previous work effort had been wasted.
The project owner takes the team on a work item walkabout. Instead of scope getting refined and distilled through progressive iterations, the project owner continues to introduce new critical requirements in each iteration which appear to have very little to do with those identified before. The team completes work items at a good velocity, but the backlog never seems to shrink and once again, the likelihood of the team delivering a minimally acceptable product on time and on budget is reduced.

Do either of these scenarios mean that the project manager should turn a blind eye to what is going on or should whip out their handy PCR template and enact strict change control?
They could, but that would be a regression to traditional methods of dealing with change.
A different approach might be to have a discussion with the project owner at the end of the current iteration as part of the planning for the next iteration. The project manager should provide the project owner with a facts-based revised iteration plan and request a decision on how to proceed.

Faced with this information, a project owner usually has the following three choices.

If the underlying rationale supporting the business case is no longer sufficiently compelling to justify further investment, and the significant shifts in scope actually are signs that a new project should be justified and initiated, it might make sense to stop the project.
If the project owner is willing to fund additional iterations beyond the current plan then they can provide team members with a better understanding as to why the significant shifts in scope are occurring and the team can continue their work with renewed vigor.
If additional iterations cannot be funded or if a minimally acceptable product has to be delivered by the end of the current iteration plan, then the project owner will need to reprioritize the backlog with support from the team to fit within the current iteration plan.

On well-managed agile projects, change does not get suppressed, nor does it get free rein. It is appropriately managed to deliver business value in a time and cost effective manner.

Agile Transformation Through Effective Change Management Part-2

Written by Kiron Bondale on February 17, 2015. Posted in Articles. 6 Comments on Agile Transformation Through Effective Change Management Part-2

Last month’s article presented ways in which the first four stages of Dr. Kotter’s eight-stage change process model can be applied when attempting to institutionalize agile approaches, and this sequel covers the remaining steps.

If you’ve used some of the tips I had provided in the previous article, you should have key stakeholders embracing the immediate need for this transformation and have a well-defined end state vision. In addition, you’ll have defined a strategic plan to achieve that vision, and have effectively and frequently communicated the rationale for moving to agile methods and what the end state will look like.

So what’s next?

Empowering broad-based action

It does no good to train staff and then expect them to start managing projects in an agile manner if there are impediments in place which would prevent this.

Performance measurement systems are one example of this. If the objectives and measures defined for project team members are still based on silo-based role accountabilities which incent them to only focus on their area of specialization you are unlikely to get their full engagement in becoming generalizing specialists who are expected to put team success ahead of individual success.

Another example is over-prescriptive governance practices. While properly implemented agile approaches are more disciplined than most standard methodologies, teams are encouraged to utilize and adapt those working patterns which are best suited to their being able to maintain good velocity and high quality. If they are constrained with regards to how they complete work items, this is likely to be a source of reduced productivity.

It is important to do a holistic identification of what organizational, policy, process or cultural blockers might exist which would prevent successful agile adoption and to develop a plan to overcome these.

Generating short-term wins

It’s surprising how often agile implementations are attempted on multiple fronts with projects that might not be the best fit even in highly mature agile organizations.

Agile transformations, like any other process improvement initiative, aren’t free and the return on investment is likely to take a year or two. To avoid flagging interest and funding support, it is important to achieve some quick wins.

Part of the planning for the transformation needs to include the identification of a handful of projects which would be the focus of the initial implementation. Only one or two of these projects should be active at a time to enable the transformation team to closely monitor and learn from those project teams’ experiences.

Consolidating gains and producing more change

While it is important to focus on achieving quick wins with a few small projects, it is a mistake to declare victory too early as it is easy for staff to devolve from being agile to doing agile.

To avoid backsliding, the roadmap of agile projects should include progressively larger or more complex initiatives to help overcome doubts that the approach is only suited to small or low complexity projects.

As there are likely organizational blockers which will take a while to overcome, there needs to be continued, incremental effort towards resolving those.

It is also critical to recognize and promote those who are actively supporting the end state vision – often times, the team members on the first one or two agile projects make the best change advocates within their respective functional areas, and they should be provided the tools and encouragement to help with dissemination and sustainment of the behavioral changes.

It is also important to recognize that not everyone will be thrilled with the changes and while every attempt should be made to coach them to overcome their doubts and fears, they should also be monitored closely to ensure they are not sabotaging change efforts.

Hiring approaches should be reviewed to ensure that candidates are evaluated based on their fit with the developing culture and the desired end state.

Anchoring new approaches in the culture

The final step requires that the principles are firmly embedded in the culture of the organization such that leadership succession or other changes such as the acquisition or integration of other companies doesn’t result in the agile investment being marginalized over time.

To achieve this, it requires an undeniable track record – multiple projects of different levels of complexity need to have been successfully delivered using agile methods. It also requires ongoing reinforcement at all levels of the right kinds of behaviors. Finally, continued emphasis on hiring the right people, especially those in leadership positions will be crucial to sustaining the change.

Dr. Kotter’s quotation from Leading Change perfectly summarizes the effort required to successfully institutionalize agile delivery approaches. “…if shared values are the product of many years of experience in a firm, years of a different kind of experience are often needed to create any change. And that is why cultural change comes at the end of a transformation, not the beginning.”

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Effective Change Management is Critical When Helping Organizations to Become Agile!

Written by Kiron Bondale on January 12, 2015. Posted in Articles. 7 Comments on Effective Change Management is Critical When Helping Organizations to Become Agile!

With ever new year comes well intentioned change resolutions so perhaps your company has agile transformation as a key resolution. While agile is no longer a fad, there continue to be organizations which struggle with transitioning from traditional project management approaches. This can unfortunately result in a “been there, done that, never again!” outcome.

I’m neither an agile fanatic nor a Luddite.

I’ve always encouraged using or adapting the most appropriate approach, practices and tools given the context of a project and the culture within the organization and team. Having witnessed the tangible benefits which can be realized when an organization effectively embraces agile approaches, I am an advocate who would like to see fewer failures.

Here are some ideas on how Dr. Kotter’s eight-stage change process can be used to institutionalize sustainable agile practices.

Establishing a Sense of Urgency

Are your leaders, mid-level managers, and team members satisfied with the speed at which business value is being realized from project investments using traditional approaches? If so, how will you overcome this complacency?

You could bring the outside in, by benchmarking your organization’s performance against the best-in-class within your industry. If it turns out that you are already on par with those, research the companies which are the most-likely disruptors in your market and gauge their delivery performance.

You could also create healthy tension by conducting impromptu interviews with business partners to learn if they are content with the speed or quality of current delivery and share their unfiltered, candid feedback with delivery areas.

Creating the Guiding Coalition

It isn’t sufficient to have one or two key executives support the transformation if there isn’t buy-in from business partners and the functional heads of other departments which contribute to project delivery. Eventually, your organization might eliminate the functional structures which have been in place for years to better support the existence of teams which persist from project to project but in the interim, if there isn’t support from key contributing functional managers, they will find a thousand ways to cripple your initiative.

Executives come and go so you need to have a coalition in place which can survive even if one or two of them take on new roles. Engage your key sponsor in identifying and engaging like-minded leaders – the focus should be on those stakeholders who have the greatest influence and visibility within their departments.

Developing a Vision and Strategy

How will stakeholders’ lives be better once the transformation is complete? What does better speed to market mean to them? How is being part of a self-managing team a good thing? Why would I as a business customer WANT to spend more time with project team members?

It does little good to communicate the expected benefits of the transition to agile if you haven’t developed a compelling vision to enable each person involved in the change to understand why it is not only important, but urgent and critical that they support it.

Vision without execution is hallucination.

This is where an agile transformation consultant can help – while they won’t possess the organizational awareness you have, but their experience can help steer you clear of those strategies which are unlikely to succeed. Your consultant has to be an agile pragmatist – while a purist approach may be achievable in the long term, your strategies will fail if they don’t incorporate the hard constraints (e.g. budget limitations or regulatory requirements) which exist within your organization.

Communicating the Change Vision

If you think you are over-communicating the benefits of agile and the need and urgency for change, you are probably still not communicating enough. It is not enough to hold a town hall meeting, present some flashy multimedia content and demand that managers and team members be agile. Staff have grown cynical with such superficial initiative launches and while you may get them cheering during the meeting, there is unlikely to be follow-through afterwards.

Search for opportunities in all interactions which the members of the guiding coalition have with their constituents to draw connections to the vision. Leaders will also need to watch their own behavior – if they are talking agile, but are slaves to process and bureaucracy, it undermines the impact of their messaging.

But this shouldn’t mean that they paint an artificial picture of how easy or quick the transition is going to be. They need to effectively communicate the necessary compromises and constraints which will prevent rapid transition to a purist agile model. By doing this, they will demonstrate that they possess the necessary pragmatism to gain credibility and buy-in from their staff.

The first four stages help to establish the foundation for the transformation, Next month we’ll cover the balance. Till then, remember to be agile and don’t just do agile!

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‘What’ and ‘How’ will define your Project Management Brand!

Written by Kiron Bondale on December 9, 2014. Posted in Articles. 5 Comments on ‘What’ and ‘How’ will define your Project Management Brand!

When we think about brand, we usually think of the companies which have left indelible marks on our psyche due to the either positive or negative outcomes we have experienced with their products and services. Apple provides a great example of the power of positive branding – just thinking about that organization and its products brings a smile to the faces of many people.

How does brand help?

It provides marketing support to enable companies to distance themselves from their competition, especially when the products or services they offer cannot be easily differentiated based solely on price or features.
While this is important during prosperous times, it is crucial during economic downturns. Southwest Airlines was one of the few North American air carriers to survive and even thrive through the crippling fallout which impacted most of its competitors after 9/11.

When we think of brand in a phrase, a common word which follows it is loyalty. Brand loyalty is priceless – when customers become advocates, they become part of your marketing team.

But brand is not constant.

Companies which are viewed in a very positive light at one time, can lose their positive brand over time. Walmart is a good example of this. Under Sam Walton’s leadership, the company prospered nurtured by strong support from communities, employees and customers. However, in recent years, stories of sketchy labor practices and the impacts it has created on small business have tarnished its brand.

Ford suffered the double whammy of the oil crisis of the ‘70s and numerous quality issues which resulted in a number of creative but negative phrases based on the four letters comprising its name, and yet it has seen a resurgence in brand opinion resulting from innovative and strategic product development.

What are the implications for you as a project manager?

During good times, you might assure yourself of steady employment without any discernible brand so long as you are meeting expectations. However, when financial constraints force companies to downsize, they are less likely to cull staff who while having a track record of solid delivery have strong positive brands.

You can’t neglect your brand.

Take the time to pat yourself on the back after you’ve successfully delivered a particularly challenging project, but remember that “What have you done for me lately?” is the siren song which plays for those who rest on their laurels. Whether it’s reinforcing your brand through consistent performance or evolving your brand to remain competitive, you need to continue to invest in yourself.

A side effect of this is that if you suffer a failure but are able to recover gracefully, those loyal to your brand are more likely to forgive you in light of this loyalty than if haven’t taken the time to develop your brand.

Two key characteristics make up a project manager’s brand – the “what” and the “how”.

“What” includes the industry you operate in, the types of projects you have managed, and the nature of the project management work you do. One project manager might choose to focus on being a trouble-shooter – someone who can be brought in to rescue troubled projects the way “Red” Adair used to specialize in capping highly challenging oil well fires. Specialization helps to define brand. But you could gain a reputation for being highly versatile – being the “MacGyver” who can be thrown in to any project and still be able to achieve project success.

But “what” goes beyond the context of your projects to also include the outcomes.

If you have never experienced a failure in spite of having managed significant depth and breadth of project complexity, you will be perceived as a super-hero. However, if you have a track record of avoiding challenging projects or requesting transfers from such projects when the going gets tough, Clark Kent might be more apt.

“How” focuses on your methods.

If your project management philosophy is that the end justifies the means then your brand is likely to make it difficult for you to receive good team members. Resource managers are not going to want to subject their staff to your “winning at any cost” ways. But if you have developed a track record of taking the Bad News Bears and turning them into winning teams through team building, coaching and servant-leadership you are likely to be in high demand.

Your brand as a project manager is not just about what and how you’ve managed your projects but also about your commitment to project management. Active contribution to supporting and evolving the profession is another method of differentiating yourself and will help to boost your brand.

You will cultivate sponsors and advocates over time, but create a brand for them to rally around. Be the Chief Marketing Officer of Yourself, Inc. – no one else is vying for that job!

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