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Tag: Best Practices

PMTimes_Sep25_2024

Skillful Efforting to Achieve Leadership Success

Create a realistic work-life balance in the context of leadership and project management to achieve optimal performance and success. Apply it to your own life and influence those who work for and with you.

Leadership boils down to the ability to cultivate a positive mindset, relate well with others, and make effective decisions. To sustain a dynamic work-life balance requires all three.

What is the mindset that promotes optimal balance?

In a recent article, Jerry Seinfeld is quoted:

“It’s a very Zen Buddhist concept: Pursue mastery. That will fulfill your life. You will feel good.

The problem is, that developing a skill takes time and effort. Mastering a skill takes considerable time and effort, not all of it — or even most of it — enjoyable. ”

He recommends that you “Make ‘Did I get my work in?‘ your favorite question to ask yourself, and while you may not achieve every goal you set out to accomplish, you will definitely accomplish a lot more.” 1

The mindset here is 1) to expect to make an effort to get what you want and 2) that the way you make the effort makes a great difference in the way you and others feel and the outcome of your work.

 

Working Hard

In Working Hard but Not Too Hard  I wrote

“Working hard is applying a high level of effort, being consistently focused, productive, and effective, and applying emotional, physical, and intellectual energy. Working hard is rewarding, it leads to personal and organizational success.”2 https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/working-hard-but-not-too-hard/

As wise individuals in our roles as performers, leaders, and managers, we recognize that hard work is necessary to develop skills and accomplish goals. Of course, working smart is highly valued, but it is not a replacement for working hard.

 

Overdoing It

We also recognize that we can overdo it. We can become so obsessed with succeeding that we forget our personal wellness and the wellness of those who are affected by our behavior. We work too hard.

If we work too hard, we get tired, disengaged, and less effective. If we miss the signs that we or our team is working too hard, stress levels increase, quality suffers, and we enter a spiral that does not end well.

 

Self and Other Awareness

This is where self-awareness and awareness of others come into play.

“Self-awareness is the ability to “step back” and observe yourself objectively to know your behavior, motivations, feelings, values, and desires.  It is knowing your personality and the way you display it in your life.” 3 https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/self-awareness-a-critical-capability-for-project-managers-d23/

An effective leader is aware of how others –  for example, your team members, clients, boss, significant others, and peers – are doing. Are they excited, motivated, and in the best shape to get the mission accomplished? Are they slowing down, or getting tired? Or are they past that stage and exhibiting the symptoms of over-work?

 

The Symptoms

The symptoms of overwork are easy to spot – more arguments and emotionality, an increase in errors, absenteeism, and lower productivity are the most common.

The quicker you see the symptoms, in yourself and others, the better. Catching overwork early gives you the ability to apply the least amount of effort to remedy it. Avoiding it is best.

 

Skillful Effort

The way you make the effort makes a great difference in the way you and others feel and the outcome of your work.

Ideally, the effort is effortless. As in Flow where skills and experience come together to perform optimally as if there was no one doing it. When that is not the case, be aware of tendencies to over or under-effort. The Buddha compared skillful effort to tuning a stringed instrument. Too loose, poor sound quality. Too tight, a broken string.

 

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Avoiding Overwork

Avoiding and remedying overwork begins with recognizing and acknowledging it. It can be avoided by consciously addressing it as an issue when planning and scheduling.

The more people are aware of the issue of overwork, the better. Make work-life balance a topic in team building. Acknowledge the degree to which there is an expectation of 24-7 availability. Will there be tight deadlines that lead to overtime? What are expectations about weekend work, and vacations?

Also acknowledge the influences of poor planning, cultural norms, personality issues like workaholism and perfectionism, and fear to push back against unrealistic demands.

When expectations are explicitly stated people can be better prepared and more accepting of what happens. Expecting a 9 to 5 arrangement and having 24-7 demands come as a surprise is likely to result in disruption at home and work.

If your project is going to require working intensively, build in practices that enable that kind of work – stress management techniques, breaks, meals, comfortable working conditions, a sense of camaraderie and adventure, and recognition when it is time for a rest.

If one intense project is followed quickly by another, beware of burnout. Take a lesson from extreme sports teams, there is an off-season for R and R, and the players get massaged and conditioned during the season.

Schedule realistically. You can add optimism to your mindset but consider it an aspiration. Hope for the best, plan for the most likely, and be ready for the worst.

 

Remedying

If you have not avoided it, and you, your team, or other stakeholders are suffering the symptoms of overwork, acknowledge it and treat it as you would a physical injury or sickness. Acknowledge it, seek its causes, relieve the symptoms, and remove the causes. And most importantly, take good care of the patients.

As we have said, poor planning, cultural norms, personality issues like workaholism and perfectionism, and fear of pushing back against unrealistic demands may be the causes. Each situation is different. There may be no options to eliminate causes, so all you can do is minimize the impact of the symptoms. Sometimes the options are severe, like changing jobs.

What can you do to reduce the symptoms and maintain the kind of motivation that will fuel success? The minimum remedy to explicitly acknowledge what is going on. That alone will reduce stress and discord.

Then find ways to institute the same practices you might have planned for to avoid the situation.  Implement breaks, meals, comfortable working conditions, morale building, and recognition when it is time for a rest. Negotiate schedule changes, additional (or fewer) resources, and other means fir reducing pressure.

 

Action

If efforting – doing the work – is an issue that needs to be addressed, bring it to the surface. Correct imbalances among expectations and realities with self-reflection and candid communication.

Implement practices to avoid over-efforting and make hard work as effective as possible while sustaining wellness. Avoid the expectation that you can get what you want without hard work.

Recognize the real-world nature of your situation. If intensive effort is a fact of life, make it known so that people can make decisions to join the fun or opt for a less intense environment. Assess all the factors (family, physical and psychological health, career, finance, etc.) from multiple perspectives, considering short, medium, and long-term impacts.

Then decide what to do, when, and how to do it.

 

 

1.https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/jerry-seinfeld-says-achievement-success-comes-down-to-repeatedly-asking-yourself-this-6-word-question.html?utm_medium=flipdigest.ad.20240910&utm_source=email&utm_content=article&utm_campaign=campaign
PMTimes_Sep11_2024

Developing Leadership – How To Take Control

Everyone is a leader. We lead and are led by others. And everyone leads themself.

But not everyone is a good leader. Ego-driven leadership refuses to learn from the past, fails to plan effectively, is self-serving, vindictive, is not limited by truthfulness, and manipulates.

 

Leadership

Leadership is “the process of getting a group of people in a direction, to pursue common objectives.  The most effective leaders use mostly non-coercive means and seek to satisfy the group’s best interests.”[1]

According to the U.S. Department of the Army Field Manual leadership is:

“A process in which a soldier (person) applies his or her beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and skills to influence others to accomplish the mission….

The soldier (person) watches what you do so that his/her mind and instincts can tell him/her what you really are: an honorable leader of character with courage, competence, candor, and commitment, or a self-serving phony who uses troops and expedient behavior to look good and get ahead.” (Slightly edited for gender equity.) [2]

When you apply this to yourself, it implies significant self-awareness. Good leaders must know their beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and skills. They must realize that they influence others by their behavior – what they say and do. They must continuously assess and improve their skills and performance. And they must know what the mission is.

 

Start with Yourself

If you aspire to be a good leader, start with yourself.

  • Define your goal,
  • Assess your leadership capabilities,
  • Identify strengths and weaknesses, and
  • Commit to a development plan.

Any good leader does this for their “troops, ” employees, or followers. It represents one of many leadership qualities – developing skills in oneself and others.

 

Define Your Goal

What is your personal goal as you hone your leadership skills? Your most valued goal motivates your behavior. My goal is to be calm, compassionate, competent, and self-aware.

Leadership goals are complex. We have personal goals, like being happy, succeeding, making more money, being in control, getting ahead, and maximizing our wellness. There are organizational goals – being profitable, serving, ecological health, etc. Every stakeholder – employees, managers, executives, clients, suppliers, partners, etc. – has personal goals.

Good leaders step back from their own goals to acknowledge all the goals and consider them when making decisions that will affect themselves and others. When goals conflict with one another, apply your values to decide on your actions while considering short and long-term impacts.

If your goal is to further your personal agenda regardless of its effect on others, consider that compassionate servant leadership promotes optimal performance. And optimal performance furthers your agenda.

 

A recent Harvard Business Review article, Compassionate Leadership Is Necessary — but Not Sufficient posits that “Compassion in leadership creates stronger connections between people.  It improves collaboration, raises levels of trust, and enhances loyalty. In addition, studies find that compassionate leaders are perceived as stronger and more competent.”

“The article’s authors define compassion as “the quality of having positive intentions and real concern for others.”  According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, compassion is the “sympathetic consciousness of other’s distress together with a desire to alleviate it.”   Compassion is exhibited in helpful acts of kindness. “[3]

Consider Servant Leadership as an option. You can apply its principles in deciding on your goal. It is an approach to leadership built on the idea that managers are there to serve their subordinates. “Servant-leaders share power, put the needs of others first, and enable people to develop and perform optimally.”[4]

As you define your goals reflect on the leadership behavior you want to exhibit. How do you want to be perceived? How comfortable and competent do you want to feel? What is your position in the hierarchy, what influence do you have, and how do you lead from there?

 

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Assess Your Leadership Capabilities

Leadership capabilities are combinations of many skills.

“Leadership skills boil down to the ability to create a vision, motivate and influence followers to realize the vision, build teams, communicate, listen, and negotiate.  These skills are supported by mindfulness, compassion, and wisdom.”[5]

We can summarize leadership capabilities as maintaining a positive mindset, relating well with others, and being able to make effective decisions.

In a Google search, Search Labs | AI Overview identified the following 16 skills:

 

  • Communication
  • Empathy
  • Conflict resolution
  • Delegation
  • Resilience
  • Ownership
  • Critical thinking
  • Honesty
  • Feedback
  • Self-awareness
  • Integrity
  • Relationship building
  • Agility and adaptability
  • Innovation and creativity
  • Decision-making
  • Negotiation

 

Other sources add Empowering Others as a skill.

That’s a lot of skills to manage. Focus on the capabilities and then home in on the skills that may need tweaking.

 

Identify strengths and weaknesses

There are many assessment tools. These tools are most effective in the context of an ongoing leadership development program. It may be your organization’s program, though make sure you have your own.

For example, a leadership development program may contain assessment tools, coaching, training, and candid criticism, including 360-degree feedback. It would be structured to accommodate the needs of beginners as well as seasoned leaders.

To assess your capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses, objectively observe your behavior and its effects on your ability to achieve your goals. Obtain feedback. Answer the questions: Are you achieving your performance goals? Are conditions harmonious and productive? What would you change to make things even better than they are?

 

Commit to a development plan.

Thinking about leadership and planning to improve are starting points. Action is what makes for success in a continuously improving ability to lead. Committing to the plan means planning and then acting to meet objectives.

On the surface, the plan is to define your goal, assess your leadership capabilities, identify strengths and weaknesses, and commit to a development plan.

On a more tactical level, it includes taking part in workshops and training programs, finding a coach, adopting mindfulness and other methods to support stress management, relationship management, focus, and decision-making, as well as honing skills like the ability to create or interpret a financial plan or make better use of technology.

The key point is to take control of your leadership development, to continuously improve. Assess, plan, act, repeat.

 

[1] https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/compassionate-leadership/
[2] From Wisdom at Work Discerning Insights on Leadership 9-10-24 Joel & Michelle Levey <[email protected]> ]
[3] https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/compassionate-leadership/
[4] https://www.projecttimes.com/george-pitagorsky/the-caring-manager.html
[5] https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/compassionate-leadership/
PMTimes_Sep03_2024

Managing Software Testing

You cannot test quality into software.

Some project managers make the mistake of stepping back when software testing takes the forefront in their projects.

 

It may be due to a lack of hands-on testing experience, concerns over the increasingly technical nature of software testing, or a willingness to let the QA Lead drive the bus for a short period. None of these reasons are valid. Regardless of their roles prior to becoming PMs, they can and should continue to lead the team during testing. In the next few articles, we’ll focus on helping PMs better understand how to guide their teams to delivering better software. Testing the software is just one part of that journey.

 

Let’s clear up some misperceptions. The purpose of testing is not to attempt to break the software, nor to find every possible defect, but to demonstrate that the software will fulfill its intended purpose with a reasonable level of confidence. As highlighted by the quote above, software quality must be built into the project and development process from the beginning rather than being added through testing. Testing allows us to confirm that the expected quality is there and to find and correct those places where it is not. Remember the definition of software quality that we are using:

 

Quality code is code that in order of importance, does what it is supposed to do, is bug free, and is well-crafted.

– Stephen Vance

 

The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) definitions for verification and validation apply during this project phase, so their formal definitions may inform discussions about software performance under testing.

  • Verification: The determination by objective, repeatable methods that an item satisfies its stated requirements.*

 

In other words, the software works as it is intended to work, and it meets the requirements it is connected to.

  • Validation: The determination by objective, repeatable methods that an item can be used for a specific purpose.*

 

In other words, the software is suitable for purpose, meaning the requirements correctly describe the business need that the software satisfies.

 

(*Adapted from The Project Manager’s Guide to Software Engineering’s Best Practices, by Mark J. Christensen and Richard H. Thayer, IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos, CA, 2001.)

 

Every test should be traced back to a requirement, either functional or non-functional. If we cannot trace a particular test back to a requirement, we need to question why that test is needed and what purpose it serves. To ensure that we are not wasting time with unnecessary tests and that we are performing the required tests in an appropriate manner and sequence, we start by developing a test strategy. The test strategy defines what will be tested, how it will be tested, and what results are needed to determine that the system is ready for production.

 

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Once the test strategy is established, one or more test plans are created to meet the goals of that strategy in a methodical, effective, and efficient manner. Test plans describe the purpose of the test, entry and exit conditions, and specifically where and how the system will be tested. Once we have test plans, we can dive into the detailed planning of each test or series of tests. This usually results in test cases, definitions of test environments or regions, test interfaces, test data, and so on.

 

While the project manager is not responsible for creating any of these documents or artifacts, they should be closely involved in their development, review, and ultimate approval. They will have a significant impact on the project schedule, including task duration, task sequencing, key gates, and their location in the schedule. Quality assurance and testing schedules must be coordinated with those of the other teams within the project and typically external to the project (for example, the infrastructure team). These, in turn, impact the budgets and resources that go into the project plan. There may be significant risks or issues that will need to be addressed via specific testing, such as a new external interface or a set of complex calculations, with solutions that must be clearly described in both the testing and overall project plans.

 

The project manager is not expected to be an expert in software testing design or execution, just as they are not expected to be software engineers. They are expected to be familiar with the role, purpose, and types of testing required by their project under the delivery methodology being followed. PMs should ask thoughtful questions, ensure open issues are properly resolved, and participate in walkthroughs of key quality assurance and testing deliverables. We’ll briefly go through common ones in the following sections. While PMs should not be the ones driving the team through testing, they need to ensure that it is being done and done effectively. Some tips on how to do this are covered below.

 

The key point to remember is to be proactive, not passive, with these deliverables and tasks. Although quality cannot be created by testing, testing should identify where quality is lacking so it can be improved. Thorough testing supported by appropriate metrics will find and eliminate most defects and improve confidence that the team is delivering a high-quality system. This section highlights key considerations and leverage points for PMs to help them get the best results possible. There are separate books, whitepapers, and training courses that go into software testing in greater depth. Don’t hesitate to refer to them if desired or if you encounter a particularly unique or difficult testing issue.

 

Next Up: Types of Software Testing

 

Concerned about all the news stories about significant software failures over the past few months? My upcoming book, Building Better Software is focused on providing Project Managers an easy-to-follow guide for successful software development projects.

 

PMTimes_Sep04_2024

Surfing through Change and Anxiety

Change often triggers fear of the unknown and a sense of helplessness, expressed as anxiety. Change disturbs the peace. In the realm of project management, change is a given. Projects both create change and are subject to changes that seem to make planning futile.

But project management – if done well and if you are self-aware enough to manage your emotions -reduces anxiety by dynamically making everyone aware of actions, outcomes, and the probability of success. Effective PM accepts and manages volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA).

 

Cognitive Readiness

Cognitive readiness is a critical quality to enable surfing through change. It is the capacity to operate skillfully in any situation, particularly when faced with VUCA.

Cognitive readiness is critical because everything is changing, sometimes more and sometimes less quickly, unless we can calmly and competently respond to each change without reacting to emotions like disappointment and anxiety it can bring.

For more on cognitive readiness see my PM Times article, “PM for the Change Makers” https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/pm-for-the-changemakers/.

 

Multiple Levels of Change

On a global scale culture wars are on and have been since the dawn of time. Imagine how the traditionalists reacted when some smart aleck insisted that you can start your own fire.

For example, take gender fluidity. There are multiple perspectives on what happens in society when a person’s gender preferences mean no more than the color of their eyes. Not knowing how it will turn out creates anxiety. Worst-case stories create fear and anger. Resisting the change reactively is counterproductive.

In the realm of project work:

  • Methods and cultures change. For example, as organizations turn from structured “waterfall” to Agile methodologies, or strengthen, weaken, or eliminate a PM Office.
  • During a project’s life, change takes the form of late deliverables, staff turnover, changes in requirements, and more.
  • Projects deliver products and services delivered to change organizations, the marketplace, the public arena, and individual experiences.

 

Breaking Norms

When a deep-seated norm is challenged by a change, there is anxiety and resistance. We see the same dynamic in organizations, families, teams, and personal relationships when security, long-held beliefs, and models are challenged.

Anxiety may be triggered by shifts from rigid procedures to agile and adaptive approaches and changes in management style. It may arise over behavioral issues, disruptions, changing attitudes about abortion, political beliefs, monogamy, gender identification, race, and more.

We feel anxiety if we are faced with life-changing choices that leave us feeling as if the ground has given way and we are in free fall, out of control.

 

The Impact

Feelings of anxiety may be subtle or acute. Self-awareness identifies feelings quickly before anxiety morphs into anger and despair, fueling physical symptoms and reactive behavior like aggression, withdrawal, and depression. Anxiety about being anxious makes it all worse. Managed well it becomes a wake-up signal.

 

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The Cause

Hypothesis: we resist change because we are threatened by anything that upsets our sense of reality or threatens our security. We seek assurance that things will be OK. We like the stability of solid ground under our feet, or at least having a reliable parachute. We like certainty and to be in control.

 

How to work with Anxiety

The best we can do when anxiety arises is to “be with” or accept what we are feeling and not let it drive behavior. Then we can do what we can to cut through to a calm presence.

Present and consciously aware, we can perform optimally in any conditions. We stop worrying about making deadlines and we figure out what best to do under the circumstances.

A method to change the way anxiety influences your ability to perform optimally uses feelings as triggers to:

  • Focus attention to be mindfully self-aware
  • Acknowledge what is happening – you may not want to keep it going but in the moment, it is what it is
  • Accept discomfort – don’t run away from painful or annoying feelings of anxiety, anger, or disappointment
  • Step back into a calm mindful presence being here, now.
  • Cultivate a positive mindset with confidence that you will be OK; stop the scary negative “stories” you create
  • Let go into Flow to allow your skills, intelligence, and experience to optimally work together to do what needs to be done, or not done.

The anxiety may not disappear, but it will become a short-term visitor rather than a persistent demonic ghost. While it is there, treat the symptoms using skillful methods like breathing techniques, bodywork, conceptual reminders like sayings or mantras, and/or, if appropriate, medication. As you work to address the symptoms, address the causes.

 

NOT for Everyone

Addressing the causes of anxiety is not for everyone. It is not easy. It requires confronting long-held habits and beliefs, including the strong need to avoid discomfort.

It is the path of a peaceful warrior, using an array of concepts, tools, and techniques to create a personal path. We learn acceptance to become comfortable with anything that comes our way and to let go into optimal action.

 

Next Steps

Address these questions:

    • What changes rock your world?
    • What do you cling to or push away when you are anxious about change? Why?
    • How self-aware are you? Do you recognize feelings as they arise or after you have reacted to them? Do you know why you are anxious?
    • How does anxiety (or any emotion) feel in the body? Can you be calm and accepting in the face of physical and psychological discomfort?
    • What frightening stories are you telling yourself?
    • How confident are you that you can handle anything that comes?
    • Are you ready to change your attitude?

 

Cultivate an attitude of confidence in your ability to handle anything, you can go beyond treating the symptoms of anxiety to cutting its roots. Weave a path that works for you using meditation, breath, and bodywork, with concepts like systems/process thinking and spirituality.

For a guidebook to developing the skills for managing anxiety and achieving optimal wellness, check out my recent book The Peaceful Warrior’s Path: Optimal Wellness through Self-Aware Living.

PMTimes_Aug14_2024

PM for the Changemakers

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)