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Tag: Agile

PMTimes_Sep04_2024

The Role of Emotional Intelligence in Agile Leadership and Program Management

Written by KC Lakshminarasimham on . Posted in Articles.

The success of agile projects increasingly relies on the emotional intelligence (EI) of leaders. Agile methodologies focus on teamwork, flexibility, and ongoing improvement—all of which are significantly influenced by a leader’s emotional awareness and ability to manage interpersonal relationships. This article explores how emotional intelligence is integral to agile leadership and program management, showing how it can be a driving force for project success and the development of a motivated, resilient team.

 

Understanding Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence, a concept brought to prominence by psychologist Daniel Goleman in the early 1990s, refers to the ability to recognize and manage one’s own emotions while also understanding and responding to the emotions of others. The five key components of emotional intelligence include:

  • Self-Awareness: Recognizing emotions as they occur and understanding their impact on behavior and thoughts.
  • Self-Regulation: Effectively managing emotions, controlling impulses, and adapting to change.
  • Motivation: Maintaining a strong drive to achieve goals, often setting high personal standards.
  • Empathy: Understanding and sharing the feelings of others, which is vital for building trust and strong relationships.
  • Social Skills: Successfully managing relationships, influencing others, and fostering effective teamwork.

For agile leaders, these elements are essential in navigating complex team dynamics, creating a positive work environment, aligning with company strategy and maintaining high performance in demanding situations.

 

The Intersection of EI and Agile Leadership

Agile leadership goes beyond simply guiding teams through sprints and meeting deadlines. It involves a deep understanding of team dynamics, individual motivations, and how change affects both morale and productivity. Leaders with strong emotional intelligence can apply their skills in several key areas:

Building Trust and Encouraging Collaboration

Trust is foundational for any agile team. Leaders who demonstrate empathy and strong social skills can create an environment where team members feel valued and confident in sharing their ideas. This trust fosters open communication, allowing for more effective collaboration and innovation without fear of failure. By addressing the emotional needs of the team, emotionally intelligent leaders can remove barriers to teamwork and ensure the group operates cohesively.

Improving Communication

Clear communication is critical in agile methodologies, whether during daily stand-ups, retrospectives, or sprint reviews. Leaders with high emotional intelligence excel at interpreting nonverbal cues and understanding the emotional dynamics within the team. They can adjust their communication style to fit the situation, ensuring that their messages are well-received and constructive. In parts, they have the ability to contextualize to the larger, strategic goal.  This nuanced approach to communication helps prevent misunderstandings and keeps everyone aligned on project objectives.

Handling Conflict Proactively

Conflict is inevitable in any team, especially in high-pressure agile environments. Leaders with strong emotional intelligence can identify early signs of conflict and address them before they escalate. By approaching disagreements with empathy and a focus on resolution, these leaders can transform potential disruptions into opportunities for growth. Empathy develops over experience and leaders bring in more empathy with their experience. They encourage open dialogue and help team members resolve issues in a way that strengthens relationships rather than damaging them.

Motivating and Engaging the Team

Understanding what motivates different team members is key to driving performance. Leaders with high emotional intelligence recognize that individuals are motivated by various factors—whether it’s the challenge of the work, the desire for recognition, or the opportunity for personal growth. By aligning tasks with team members’ strengths and interests, emotionally intelligent leaders can boost engagement and productivity. They are well aware of balancing motivations and handling conflicts that may arise. Additionally, they maintain a positive team atmosphere by acknowledging efforts and celebrating achievements, keeping morale high even during challenging times.

 

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Program Management and Emotional Intelligence

In the broader realm of program management, where leaders oversee multiple agile projects and teams, the role of emotional intelligence gains significance. Program managers must not only guide their teams but also ensure alignment across different projects, stakeholders, and organizational goals. Here’s how emotional intelligence is crucial in program management:

Managing Stakeholder Relationships

Navigating the interests of diverse stakeholders is one of the most challenging aspects of program management. A high level of empathy and social awareness is needed to understand and address their concerns while keeping the program on track. Emotionally intelligent program managers handle these relationships with care, ensuring that stakeholder expectations are managed effectively and that their support is maintained throughout the program’s lifecycle. This skill is particularly vital in agile environments, where requirements and stakeholder needs can change rapidly.

 

Facilitating Change

Agile projects often involve significant changes, whether in processes, team structures, or project goals. Such changes can be met with resistance, especially if they disrupt established routines. Program managers with strong emotional intelligence can anticipate these reactions and manage them effectively. By clearly communicating the benefits of change and supporting their teams through transitions, they can reduce resistance and help their teams adapt more quickly, ensuring continued productivity.

 

Making Informed Decisions

In program management, decisions can have wide-ranging impacts across multiple teams and projects. Emotionally intelligent program managers consider not only the technical aspects of their decisions but also the emotional and relational consequences. They understand that the way a decision is communicated can be just as important as the decision itself. By involving the right people, considering emotional impacts, and communicating transparently, these leaders ensure that their decisions are well-received and supported by those affected.

 

Building Resilient Teams

The ability to build resilient teams is another area where emotional intelligence is invaluable. Agile projects, by their nature, involve iteration, and setbacks are inevitable. Program managers with high EI can help their teams recover from these setbacks by fostering a culture of learning and continuous improvement. They encourage reflection on failures, facilitate discussions on how to improve, and provide the emotional support necessary to keep the team focused and motivated for the next challenge.

 

Conclusion

Emotional intelligence is not just an optional trait for agile leaders and program managers—it is essential for their success. By developing their EI skills, leaders can improve team collaboration, resolve conflicts more effectively, and drive motivation and engagement. These abilities are crucial for the success of agile projects. As organizations continue to adopt agile methodologies, the demand for emotionally intelligent leaders will grow. Developing and leveraging these skills will be key to thriving in the complex, dynamic world of modern project management.

 

References

Goleman, D. (2005). Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. Bantam Books.

Druskat, V. U., & Wolff, S. B. (2001). Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups. Harvard Business Review.

Bradberry, T., & Greaves, J. (2009). Emotional Intelligence 2.0. TalentSmart.

Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., & Caruso, D. R. (2009). Emotional Intelligence: Theory, Findings, and Implications. Psychological Inquiry.

Dulewicz, V., & Higgs, M. (2005). Assessing Leadership Styles and Organizational Context. Journal of Managerial Psychology.

Boyatzis, R. E., & Sala, F. (2004). The Emotional Competence Inventory. Hay Group.

PMTimes_Aug14_2024

PM for the Changemakers

Written by George Pitagorsky on . Posted in Articles.

For changemakers to succeed, project managers and key stakeholders must recognize the need to go beyond the nuts and bolts of project management to address the need for strategic thinking, adaptability, and resilience to manage in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment. That is the message of PMI 4.0. “a growth strategy to address the PM needs of changemakers.”[1]

 

Changemakers

Changemakers proactively drive change and transformational efforts. The clever ones have for decades used project management concepts and methods to manage the projects and programs that make change happen. Change leaders – entrepreneurs, product and process innovators, and social change agents – have employed project managers.

Those who have not recognized the need for effective project management have floundered.

 

Going Beyond the Basics

Two PM experts said in a recent article that we have “entered a time when requirements-based schedules and estimates are no longer sufficient because the nature of projects has shifted to innovative projects.”[2]

We entered that time many years ago. We have been performing innovative and disruptive projects all along. Projects are and have always been the vehicles for innovation and organizational change.

The need for adaptability and agility has been recognized for years by the PM establishment after decades of practical experience in the field. The need for strategic management to align project work with organizational goals and values has also long been recognized.

Project managers who adhered too strictly to the standard approaches have often failed. Changemakers who have yet to make project portfolio and program management a priority have wasted time and money.

 

PM as an Art

However, project and portfolio management is not a cure-all. We still see large numbers of projects led by professional project managers fail, often because professional PMs have not been cognitively ready and trained to apply the effective decision-making, adaptability, courage, and resilience needed to creatively manage volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) situations.

PM is more of an art than a science.

 

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VUCA is the Rule, Not the Exception

Formal PM training has focused on the performance of projects in which requirements are well-defined and conditions are under the control of the project team or PMO. As a project manager, PM consultant, and technology executive I have never experienced such projects.

Granted, my experience has been in the technology and organizational change realm, not in engineering and construction projects where more firm requirements are likely. But even in those fields, changing requirements and external conditions beyond the control of the project manager have been common.

 

There is nothing new about requirements being discovered as product and process design and implementation take place. To address this reality, the Agile Manifesto was produced in 2001 based on twenty-plus years of prior experience. Jim Highsmith, writing for the Agile Alliance, stated

“In order to succeed in the new economy, to move aggressively into the era of e-business, e-commerce, and the web, companies have to rid themselves of their Dilbert manifestations of make-work and arcane policies. This freedom from the inanities of corporate life attracts proponents of Agile Methodologies and scares the begeebers (you can’t use the word ‘s–t’ in a professional paper) out of traditionalists. Quite frankly, the Agile approaches scare corporate bureaucrats— at least those that are happy pushing process for process’ sake versus trying to do the best for the “customer” and deliver something timely and tangible and “as promised”—because they run out of places to hide.”

 

The Future is Now!

No longer can we strictly adhere to ridged methodologies and attempts at setting schedules and budgets in concrete before we have a sense of the true nature of each project.

But let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater. To be successful organizations must adopt the skillsets and methodologies that directly address VUCA while honoring the wisdom of traditional project management. We need realistic planning, control, and execution.

 

In addition to traditional PM skills, Drs Kerzner and Zeitoun identified the following skills required to manage projects “in the future” in their article “The Transforming Dynamics of Project Management’s Future“[3]  –

“Brainstorming, creative problem-solving, Design Thinking, Idea Management, rapid prototype development, innovation leadership, strategic planning, managing diversity, co-creation team management, supply chain management, advanced risk management, and change management”

These are the same skills, under one label or another, that have been used to succeed in the past and present. The future is now and has been since the earliest days of project management.

 

The Foundation: Cognitive Readiness

The foundation for the effective application of these skills is cognitive readiness –

“The readiness of individuals and teams to apply their skills and to explore their faults and deficiencies and make the effort to overcome them. Cognitive readiness implies the courage and candor to objectively assess performance and improve it as needed. It implies resilience and the capacity to accept uncertainty and paradox. It is enabled by and enables a healthy perspective and the application of knowledge and experience.”[4]

Cognitive readiness, being ready for anything, is the single most important quality needed to address VUCA and the projects we perform in complex environments where change is the only thing we can rely on.

 

Four factors contribute to being ready for anything:

  • Technical and interpersonal skills along with business acumen to enable decision-making during the initiating, planning, controlling, monitoring, and closing of projects
  • A realistic view (systems and process thinking) of the way things are — Interacting systems and processes, the reality of not always getting what you want, and the inevitability of change — to have a solid foundation for planning and managing expectations and conflict
  • Emotional and Social intelligence, based on mindful self-awareness to enable responsiveness, candid performance assessment, and effective relationships
  • The courage and insight to confront and overcome barriers like bias, anger, fear, frustration, confusion, and clinging to untenable beliefs and impossible expectations.

 

Action

To succeed in ongoing innovation and change management relies on cultivating these factors.

To cultivate them, implement the training and ongoing learning management to integrate them into the fabric of the organization. Skills training falls short without the inclusion of the critical factors of systems and process thinking, mindfulness-based social and emotional intelligence, and the importance of the courage to speak truth to power.

If your organization is stuck in the past, unwilling, or unable to recognize the need to manage VUCA creatively, take it upon yourself to develop the skills and concepts you need to succeed.

 

For more on this topic see these other articles by George Pitagorsky:

Ready for Anything – Mindfully Aware https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/ready-for-anything-mindfully-aware/

VUCA, BANI, and Digital Transformation https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/vuca-bani-and-digital-transformation-managing-radical-change/

‘Delay Thinking’ is a Project Success Factor https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/delay-thinking-is-a-project-success-factor/

Decision Making – A Critical Success Factor https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/decision-making-a-critical-success-factor/

The Most Important Thing – Systems Thinking https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/the-most-important-thing-systems-thinking/

 

[1] https://www.pmi.org/chapters/luxembourg/stay-current/newsletter/introducing-pmi-4_0#:~:text=PMI%204.0%20is%20a%20growth,businesses%2C%20people%20and%20society%20overall
[2] https://blog.iil.com/the-transforming-dynamics-of-project-managements-future/
[3]  https://blog.iil.com/the-transforming-dynamics-of-project-managements-future/
[4] https://www.projecttimes.com/george-pitagorsky/project-management-education-cultivating-cognitive-readiness-and-optimal-performance.html)
PMTimes_Jun25_2024

Agile – Autonomy & Self-Organization

Written by Mohan Raut on . Posted in Articles.

In one of our coaching workshops, we were discussing what makes an Agile coach successful. We had a good discussion on this topic, and we came up with two concepts: autonomy and self-organization, which seem slightly similar, but they are mostly used interchangeably.

So first, let’s see what these terms talk about.

[Note: These are very vast topics for discussion; we cannot conclude this in a few lines of writing; I have only highlighted them briefly here in this article.]

 

Autonomy: The cultural steps toward empowerment

Agile development relies more on people, their mindset, and their culture than on processes.

Leadership,

Collaboration,

Informal communication,

Flexible and participative,

Encouraging, cooperative

Are other characteristics of agile software development.

 

Many organizations are embracing agile ways of working in an attempt to build faster, more customer-focused organizations. They are redesigning themselves to create a culture where decision-making is transitioned away from middle management towards those working with customers on the front lines, i.e., teams.

Ultimately, they seek engagement in order to create a culture where the team is more empowered to truly delight customers. Autonomy is the critical ingredient for this change.

Autonomy is always implemented through leaders. Leaders should have thought that employees should get well engaged with the organization, and if Leaders really want a high standard of engagement, they have to look for self-direction, empowerment, and a and a little bit of control from employees over what they have to do—their task, over when they have to do—their time, over who they have to do with—their team, and over how they have to do their technique.

If organizations and leaders think about these aspects, then employees will surely do things better.

 

Autonomy is not where leaders or bosses tell employees exactly what to do and precisely how to do it; Leaders take away all employee choices of any kind and largely control what they should do; and Employees are compliant with leaders and follow their instructions without digging up their own thoughts and experiences. This is very bad, controlling, and hijacking the working relationship between employees and their leaders.

However, autonomy is often misunderstood as power.

Autonomy should not be confused with the need for power, which is entirely a different matter and one that some employees will avoid at all costs. The difference between power and autonomy can be summed up as follows: Power is the desire to control not just one’s own actions but the actions of others, while autonomy is concerned with the ability to operate independently.

(more control and less autonomy)

 

Self-Organization: The Desire to be self-managed and self-driven

At its simplest level, a self-organizing team is one that does not depend on or wait for a manager to assign work. Instead, these teams find their own work and manage the associated responsibilities and timelines; they do require a mentor who can help grow their skills.

 

Defining self-organizing teams

A group of motivated individuals who work together toward a goal have the ability and authority to take decisions and readily adapt to changing demands. Let’s look at some important ingredients for a self-organizing team:

  • They pull work for themselves and don’t wait for their managers to assign work. This ensures a greater sense of ownership and commitment.
  • They manage their work (allocation, reallocation, estimation, delivery, and rework) as a group.
  • They still require mentoring and coaching, but they don’t require “command and control.”
  • They communicate more with each other, and their commitments are more often to project teams than to the Scrum Master.
  • They continuously enhance their own skills and recommend innovative ideas and improvements.

 

Five essentials of self-organizing teams

  • Competency: Individuals need to be competent for the job at hand. This will result in confidence in their work and eliminate the need for direction from above.
  • Collaboration: They should work as a team rather than as a group of individuals. Teamwork is encouraged.
  • Motivation: Team motivation is the key to success. Team members should be focused and interested in their work.
  • Trust and respect: Team members trust and respect each other. They believe in collective code ownership and are ready to go the extra mile to help each other resolve issues.
  • Continuity: The team should be together for a reasonable duration; changing its composition every now and then doesn’t help. Continuity is essential for the team.

 

Creating a self-organizing team

A common criticism of self-organizing teams is, “We cannot just put eight random individuals together, tell them to self-organize, and expect anything good to result.”

Creating a self-organizing team can be considered a three-step process.

Training: Proper classroom training can help satisfy many of the principles that self-organizing teams require. Specifically, hard skills training is needed to make each employee competent in a particular domain or technology. Soft skills training is also helpful.

Coaching: Once the team starts working together, adopt a coaching style to see if the members are facing any difficulties. They may require more support and guidance at the beginning. Some indicators of a self-organizing team are: scrum ceremonies, team enjoyment of the work, and teams pulling tasks for themselves.

By the end of this phase, you will know the team is self-organizing. However, keep your eyes open to observe the team’s behavior and provide need-based coaching.

 

Mentoring: Once a team starts self-organizing, the journey has only just begun. Team members still require mentoring to grow their skills and maintain the balance of the team. This mentoring should also help with continuity by ensuring everyone grows together and remains motivated. As mentioned earlier, a self-organizing team doesn’t need “command and control,” but it does need coaching and mentoring.

Teams are not always static; they change over time, but the frequency matters. Building a self-organizing team is an on-going process. Whenever a team’s composition changes, we need to repeat the whole team-building lifecycle (forming, storming, norming, and performing).

 

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How can we relate these two concepts?

Autonomy and self-management are two different concepts, but they are starting to be used interchangeably, as I said before.

Okay, to set up the stage, let’s see from 30,000 feet and consider, for now, these terms as

Autonomy is at the top management level, whereas self-organization is at the team level.

 

In self-organized teams,

  • There are no managers. Everything is self-directed and self-driven.
  • There is no one to set goals; teams decide their own learning path.
  • In self-organizing, a team sets their destination, sets accountability for the tasks, and decides how to reach the destination.
  • How many tasks, how often they have to do them, how many hours they have to do—it’s totally up to the team.

Autonomy, on the other hand, is different.

  • Autonomy means that there is someone who sets strategic direction and the goal for the employee [let’s call that someone a leader or top management], but the employee has the freedom to decide how to achieve the given goal.
  • Managers are there to guide, provide feedback, and advise employees, but they will not watch over the employee’s shoulder every step of the way.
  • There is always someone to review you, give you feedback, and promote you.
  • In autonomy, the team themselves decides and is accountable for how to reach the destination. But the destination is not set by the team; it is set by someone.

 

 

 

1A: Micromanagement Culture: no high-level purpose; just shut up and follow orders. The team is also not mature enough, and the manager takes almost all the decisions. Teams are management-compliant. Management always says we are here to decide what is good for you; you just follow what we are saying. This is leading to poor performance.

1B: In a large organization, autonomy is a tricky balancing act. For example, suppose you have hired a junior developer. First, they will need training, direction, and coaching. Then, over time, they will become more skilled and experienced. And then they will understand the company’s business model. As this happens, you can trust them with larger pieces of work and with less supervision.

Teams are similar in this quadrant. They aren’t all ready for autonomy right away, where team maturity is low, which again leads to poor performance.

2A: This quadrant exactly talks oppositely to 1B. So leaders are good at communicating what problems need to be solved, but they are also good at telling teams how to solve them. However, teams are well mature and self-organized; they know how to approach the given goal; this level of autonomy leads to dissatisfaction and a loss of motivation in teams.

 

2B: High autonomy with higher team maturity means leaders focus on what problems to solve and let the teams figure out how to solve them. This culture always brings continuous improvement and a healthy working environment.

Autonomy is the biggest factor when people decide to leave their current place of employment. Often, employees will stay in a position even if the salary is low, so long as they maintain some level of control over how they perform their work. Autonomy provides employees with a sense of collective ownership; they have organizational citizenship and, thus, a sense of belonging.

Yes, autonomy plays a critical role in reshaping our workplaces, but don’t forget to balance autonomy with self-organization for better results.

Even if at the organization level, leaders promote autonomy culture, it does not mean at the team level we achieved self-organization immediately. There are certain stages (mentioned above) that lead to self-organizing and performing teams for better results.

 

Studies found that in many organizations, there is a lack of system for team support, and reduced external autonomy is an important barrier to introducing self-organizing teams. These findings have implications for software development managers and practitioners.

Still, the process of designing, supporting, and coaching agile teams is not adequately addressed and understood in the context of software development organizations.

Further, there is a need for new knowledge on how companies should organize for the right level of autonomy and utilize self-organized agile teams to attain better performance, productivity, innovation, and value creation, and thus increase competitiveness.

 

 

Follows:

-Jacob Morgan

-Daniel Pink

–https://www.planview.com/resources/articles/what-is-self-organizing-team/

PMTimes_May07_2024

Avoiding Road Rage: Ensuring a Smooth Project Ride

Written by Tracy Contrino on . Posted in Articles.

One recent unseasonably warm Saturday afternoon, I was  running errands alongside two-thirds of the American populace.  Having finished the current errand, I reached for the seat belt, confirmed I heard the familiar “click”, and was off to complete my final run for the day.  Truthfully,  I was tired and moderately cranky, due to the fact that this gorgeous day was lost to me as I drove from one corporate megastore to the next.

Traffic is more congested than normal for a weekend, again, probably due to the lovely weather.   I approach a highway requiring me to use an onramp with no merge, and after what seemed like an eternity, I see an opportunity.  Accelerating, I pulled into the lane when a vehicle suddenly approached at high speed forcing me to make a split second decision- floor it or move to the shoulder.  My anger grew (did I mention that I was already in a poor mood?).  I decided to floor it. My SUV used all it’s muscle to pull through and into the lane, requiring, I’d imagine, the speedy dude to slam on his brakes. He tailed me at a dangerously close distance, clearly intentional.  This continued for a good minute until finally he pulled into the faster lane, sped off and mouthed obscenities through his window as he passed.

Ahhh, good ol’ road rage.  It’s so common, and although it most often ends without incident, it can and does escalate. When we’re in this situation, sometimes it’s difficult to think clearly and it’s certainly easy to make bad decisions. And oddly enough, after my nerves settled, my mind wandered to work.  I was reminded of a particularly challenging project and client that’s caused me some heartburn as of late.  The similarities to this road rage incident and my project issues were, well, astounding.  And another article idea was born:  applying strategies for successful conflict resolution to both road rage and project management.

 

Stay Calm: Did that driver just flip me off?

Our clients are the most important thing in our business, but yes, clients may be irrational, demanding, and unwilling to negotiate. When someone seems unreasonable, keeping your thoughts calm is the first line of defense, and avoids putting your mind into a flight or fight response.  Take deep breaths, relax your muscles, and remind yourself that getting angry won’t solve anything. In fact, getting angry with your clients makes you look bad.

Project managers are often the face of the company so it’s your job to ensure client success.  Does that mean escalation isn’t an option? Of course it is, but ensure that you’ve done what you can to remain focused and offer concrete solutions to the clients. Make sure you have meticulous documentation.  Do your best to keep the project moving despite tensions.  The only thing you can control are your actions- whether behind the computer or behind the wheel, a steadfast manner wins every time.

 

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Plan Ahead: Don’t aggressively speed, change lanes, or flash your high beams

Road rage is more easily incited if you’re rushed, anxious, or angry.  It’s not always possible to leave for your destination early, but certainly try to allow for extra time to account for unforeseen problems such as traffic, construction, or weather.

Project managers are familiar with rushing and more often than not, when our clients ask for urgency, they back off once they realize that they too need to act with urgency.   Although project managers may breathe a sigh of relief in such situations, the effort required to book resources in preparation for a rushed project, which later fizzles to a more standard schedule, is also stressful.

Planning is the definition of project management and a PM’s golden ticket is building a solid schedule.  It goes without saying (but I’m saying it) that a schedule gauges risk up front and protects the PM should things get really ugly. Sometimes a well designed schedule will encourage clients to add the additional time back in, helping you avoid the dance of perceived urgency altogether.  Keeping your clients educated, informed and updated when projects are high-risk makes all the difference.

 

Emotional Intelligence: Get this driver off my tail!

Successful project managers exhibit high emotional intelligence, can better control their emotions and know how to empathize with others.  When we have challenging clients, it’s incumbent on a PM to focus on the big picture- your project’s success.   It’s easy to make a client’s cranky disposition personal.  Don’t.  You can not control, and likely have zero knowledge of, the day-to-day activities of your clients.  Do your best to listen, be objective, be empathetic, and don’t let someone else’s bad day get to you.

As well, PM’s who exhibit high emotional intelligence are more successful communicators during stressful, awkward or challenging project situations.  We all know that clear communication with your clients is paramount. The messier the project, the better the communication skills need to be.  Communicating frequently and consistently will go a long way during a rough project because it will not only act as your record, the client will undoubtedly appreciate it, even if the appreciation goes unstated.

Whether driving a project via a Teams meeting or driving your vehicle home, control what you can control: remain calm, be courteous, and don’t inflame the situation by getting angry.

 

Leadership: Oh? You wanna race…?!?

Every project manager is a leader. Effective leadership motivates team members, sets a positive tone, and fosters collaboration. In stressful situations, it’s critical to maintain a leadership style that keeps everyone motivated. Showing genuine appreciation for team efforts keeps morale high. Plus your team looks to you for direction.  Maintaining a professional level of courteous interactions when engaging with testy clients fosters respect from your team members and reduces tensions when stress is elevated.

Believe it or not, the client looks to you as a leader too.  Bringing stability and calm to challenging situations helps reduce possibilities for poor communication.  There are always situations where a client outburst can’t be avoided, but as already mentioned, if you’ve planned well, stay calm, and use thoughtful and empathetic language, your leadership will shine through.

 

Steering the project toward success: Anticipate the actions of other drivers

As project managers, we’ve all had our road-rage-like projects.  It’s part of the job and it’s inevitable.  Although the experience can be exhausting and overwhelming, you play a big part in how the project will ultimately fair.  Plan ahead and plan well, stay informed, remain calm when tense situations arise (use that emotional intelligence!), be mindful that a client’s bad day is likely not about you, and finally, focus on the task at hand and the overall success of your project:  That’s all you can control and that’s what’s expected of you.

PMTimes_Feb1_2024

Looking Back and Looking Forward to Improve

Written by George Pitagorsky on . Posted in Articles.

There are many New Year celebrations – Tet, Rosh Ha Shona, and more. Why not make every day the beginning of a new year?

But now we are here celebrating the Western solar new year. We are reminded to enjoy the moment, reflect on the past and visualize a healthier, happier, more productive, and peaceful future.

 

Time to Reflect and Plan

Now is a traditional time for looking back, remembering the past, and looking forward, resolving to make a “better” future. In project management this is quality improvement through assessment, control, improvement planning, and follow through.

As individuals, we make resolutions to improve by giving up bad habits and cultivating positive behavior. We resolve to stop overeating or drinking and to exercise more, or to take that course that will lead to a new career, or to be kinder and more understanding and patient.

But many resolutions last a short time because we don’t follow through.

On a team or organizational level, do you make resolutions and follow through with them? Do you reflect and plan as a normal ongoing process, or is it a once-a-year event?

 

Quality Management

Among project management’s principles is assuring quality by critically assessing performance and planning to improve. Dr Deming’s PDCA cycle: Plan, Do, Check, and Act is one way of looking at the improvement process.

Reflect and resolve once a year and you are certain to miss a lot of opportunities to improve performance and wellness. Build PDCA into your normal way of doing whatever you do and you will reap the benefits of an ever-improvising process.

 

Learn

This article reinforces the message of my October article, “Learn from the Past to Perfect Performance, “Learn from experience. Set aside time for reflection, learning, and making the intention to perfect the way you live and work.”

Improvement is cyclical. It is ongoing. It continues as long as the target process or product lasts. The target process may be your own project management process or a new process resulting from a project. Here the focus is on the project management process.

 

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PDCA

The PDCA cycle is an improvement model that uses a scientific method:

  • Plan – propose a change,
  • Do – implement it,
  • Check – measure to see if the intended goals are achieved,
  • Act – decide whether to adjust by taking appropriate action in another cycle, or to standardize and stabilize the new process.

You decide to standardize and stabilize changes to your process when you have achieved planned benefits. Then you start a new cycle based on your new standard.

 

The Standard

You may or may not have a standard to start with.

When a new process is being designed and implemented the standard is a set of expectations. For example, you expect to complete 90% percent of projects within 10% of the original planned time and budget.

If you have done performance measurement you may know that your current standard is 40% of your projects meeting that expectation. If you do not have an objective sense of your past performance, you are at a disadvantage, but all is not lost. Chances are there is a subjective sense that you are not satisfying stakeholder expectations. Too many projects are delivered late and overbudget.

Part of planning is to set an expectation, a standard or benchmark to use as a target. You determine your goals and set the standard for measuring or checking the effects of your efforts. Research to determine if your goals are realistic. Make sure you are setting a realistic expectation about how long it will take to achieve your goals. Assess risks.

 

Plan to Achieve Goals

With realistic goals in mind, you plan the way you will meet them. To do that well, you have a decision to make. Will you refine your existing process or start from a blank slate?

How unstable and undefined is the current process? Is documenting it worth the effort or is it more effective to find a good model and adapt it to your current conditions.

In the realm of project management, don’t try to invent a brand-new process. You would be reinventing the wheel. Instead, take the time and effort to find a suitable model or models for the kind of projects you perform. If you have multiple project types you may need multiple defined processes, some agile, some more structured.

 

Cause Analysis

Look back to see why you are not meeting stakeholder expectations. Sep back and candidly assess causes. Are schedules and budgets dictated from above or are they the result of actual planning based on expected resources and conditions? Are projects initiated without regard of their impact on ongoing operations and other projects? Are estimators and/or performers in need of training or better tools or both?

Looking back at causes and on the state of the current process often causes conflict and resistance. Performers and project managers may be attached to the way they have been operating.

For example, they may be happy not to have to follow a defined process. They may not have knowledge of or may be in denial regarding the perceptions of stakeholders. They may be threatened by criticism and resistant to change.

Tread carefully to manage change in a way that engages and motivates the people who will have to go through the transition and live with the new process.

 

Do

This is where follow through comes in. Educate, train, and implement change. Treat it as you would with any project, with care to support the people involved.

 

Check and Act

Realize that the new or changed process is not complete until you have checked to see if goals have been met. This is quality control and testing.

If you have done it well, the planning has left a standard, a benchmark, to measure against to determine if your efforts have achieved what you intended. Check often during the life of the improvement process.

Based on your findings decide and act. You may decide to continue, with or without changes to your goals, methods, or both. Or you may decide to stop, standardize, and stabilize the process.

Standardizing and stabilizing the process does not mean that your improvement work is done. You have just set a new standard against which to measure performance and go into a new PDCA cycle.

If you have done the improvement job well, future changes will be tweaks rather than major changes, though as new technologies like AI are introduced, more radical changes may be needed.

 

It is always a new year. Look back at what you have done, how successful it has been, and what you can do to make it better. Look forward to plan check and act.

 

Related articles:

Learn from the Past to Perfect Performance.
 https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/learn-from-the-past-to-perfect-performance/#:~:text=To%20optimize%20performance%2C%20learn%20from,intentions%2C%20performance%2C%20and%20goals
The Key to Performance Improvement: Candid Performance Assessment
https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/the-key-to-performance-improvement-candid-perfromance-assessment/
Achieving Quality Performance and Results
https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/achieving-quality-performance-and-results/