Thursday Project Quote

“The major problem with communication is the illusion that it has occurred.” - George Bernard Shaw

5 Avoidable Problems in your Project

Here are some of the common problems that plague projects that will hopefully bring awareness more quickly when they start to occur so you can put strategies and focus to correct quickly and be back on track to delivering a high payoff project on time.

1. Lose focus on who the real customer is and what will make them happy. You need to be relentlessly focused on who your customer is and what they demand. In both small and large projects, it is easy to fall into the trap of internal objectives, scope decisions that are not what the customer would do. This is a common mistake of great PM’s. When project success matters, it serves me to focus the team and project relentlessly on what the customer is asking for.
2. Communication flow in all directions through team, stakeholders, customers, sponsors. For successful communication plans, it is important to collaborate with the project team, customers, end users, sponsors for all impacted groups and type of information that needs to flow. It is not always your job to push communication but bottom line is you are responsible to make sure it happens and its timely and effective. It is proven statistic that it takes multiple times, in multiple methods to get the message across. Error on the side of too much than not enough as it only builds trust and alignment and contributes to gaining successful support along the way.
3. Jump into execution mode without gaining alignment, common expectations and creating plans. This is often the default for new PM but even the most experienced can fall victim. Take the time to map out the “board” of decision makers, who has influence and what you need to go to gain support. Build relationships and alignment to the project goals so there are common expectations and clear objectives. The next step is to build a plan. Taking the time to plan will reduce time later that results in thrash in implementation activities.
4. Lack of focus and strategic priorities agreed to. This can lead to trying to do too much at the same time. As the leader of the project it is your job to keep focus of the team on the right areas, remove obstacles and ensure successful payoff at end of project. This takes ruthless prioritization, this means working with the customer to be realistic when you see conflicts, making trade-off decisions and driving clear priorities that are aligned.
5. Lack of anticipation of change, future needs and the inevitable change that will occur in any project. Every project has changes, but it is easy to get caught up in the great plan that you have developed rather than all the factors that impact it. Take the time to brainstorm, gather feedback from experts on where trouble areas may be, what scenarios could occur, and anticipate what alternatives would be to stay on track. Your customers are depending on it and being prepared with a plan is critical.

What other problems have you encountered along your project journey’s?

Quick Guide to Crafting your Program Marketing Campaign

Are you struggling to understand how to power up your message for you program? Are your customer’s, stakeholders and team informed and cheerleaders for your program? Much like the political campaigns of Clinton, Obama or McCain the foundation for success is market awareness and getting the word out. What lessons can we learn from these famous campaigns and apply locally to your project?

The first key is YOUR MESSAGE. Know it. Refine it. Manage it. And then

STICK TO IT! Repetition and consistency build recognition and familiarity and eventually trust with your audience.

Start early with your message and deliberately plan communication and building support and cheerleaders for your program. Some critical principles to note are:

• Marketing is not an emergency. It’s a planned, thoughtful exercise that started a long time ago and doesn’t end until you’re done.
• Making promises and keeping them is a great way to build a program brand you want recognized
• Marketing begins before the project is delivered
• Living and breathing an authentic story is the best way to survive in a competitive landscape through your program or project
• Good marketing encourages the right sort of conversations. Conversations among the team and other organizations happen whether you like it or not.
• Projects and Products that are remarkable get talked about.
• People are uninformed and impatient. Start with that and craft your message to be effective then you will be surprised by the outcome.
• Marketing that works is marketing that people choose to notice.

A practical way to craft this positioning with a well thought out statement. In order to craft this consider, what is main outcome of your project and why it is significant or unique, who is your target audience and what is your call to action that is needed. Take the time to work through this and make it simple and concise, even if your project is complex and technical. The clarity of this core message is worth the time investment to get it simple and clear.

Example Scenario

SITUATION: Launching a new product to market

OBJECTIVE: Increase revenue, build market awareness and sell solutions

OUTCOME: Market will have knowledge of product and build a funnel for x% of sales.

AUDIENCE: Market segment – small businesses, project stakeholders internal to organization that will be ambassadors to customer

MESSAGE: Simplify your marketing with easy to customize collateral

METHOD: Create campaign to target customers through email, web, radio, customer sales visits

INDICATORS of SUCCESS: #sales contacts, Revenue sales dollars, Profit margin

Public relations efforts, like advertising, can help to build project awareness among shareholders, customers, project team and stakeholders. Many small and large businesses consciously utilize PR as a way to obtain free press about their products and services. The key of PR is that it is an effective way to generate valuable word of mouth advertising.

PR events can leverage the effects of advertising and promotion programs by tying all these marketing elements together. For example, a local on-site PR event for a public product launch could be a tent event that could have featured product, raffles, etc that gain attention and make people stop in. Your target market could be reached through billboards, radio announcements, local clubs, Public relations is an ongoing process and must be worked at every day on every level of your project from the way you deal with your target market. Make it a habit to constantly consider the image you are projecting.

Create an Action Plan

Objective: Implement new software functionality for customer upgrade

Who?	What?	When?	Cost	What Else?
Sponsors	Scope, Schedule, Resources, Risks	Biweekly email, monthly meeting
Sales	New features, schedule, what is not included	Sales training, staff meetingsContinuously as new info committed to	$
Large customer accounts	Schedule, new capabilities, technical ability	At product checkpoints, through account teams	$
Service	Support process, training plan, release schedule, impacts	Product checkpoints, per training plan schedule	$
Project Team	New features, what is excluded, changes to current release in new release, schedule, scope, risks, etc	Weekly meetings

So to recap, what you need to do to build a strong marketing campaign campaign and building cheerleaders and communicators to help get your message out and ensure a high payoff results and successful program is delivered.

1. Identify the situation by defining the problem.

2. Define goals and outcomes.

3. Identify your target audience.

4. Determine your message.

5. Choose a method to get your message across (product and distribution).

6. Determine indicators of success.

7. Develop an action plan.

8. Implement

Overcoming the Pain of Change in Project Implementation

As a project leader and innovater you are charting new grounds. One of the power skills to get better at is getting your team and impacted organizations on board. It is not always easy but critical success factor. If those opposed build a platform it will only make effective change more difficult. Change is neverending, change is constant. It is worth it get on board and navigate it as best you can.

This is another post called “Acknowledging the pain, change in an organization” that is on this topic and speaks to acceptance, resistance and ideas to put into action

http://www.cmoe.com/blog/acknowledging-the-pain-change-in-an-organization.htm

Secrets to a Powerful and Savvy Sponsor for your Project

Whether you are the manager, sponsor, stakeholder, project manager there are key questions and roles that you contribute to success of your projects and programs. When I ask other project managers, what is key to effectiveness of delivering projects and ensuring success one of the frequent top items is the sponsor. Developing a good sponsor is not an accident, it is a function of the program or project manager’s relationship behavior. As the project manager, it is key to take control and drive that relationship for the sake of delivering a project with high payoff results

Sponsors often get asked to sponsor a project and think it will be good visibility and underestimate the time commitment it requires. The more communication early with them to establish expectations, working relationships and protocol is important. They may be up for late night calls, weekend consultation, fighting battles with vendor or management to get necessary decisions made. It is so critical to emphasize this and make sure proper time and commitment is there from the sponsor. In my opinion, a project is dead early without an empowered sponsor who is committed to the project and believes in the results outlined. The signs to watch for are that they are respected, champion the project, communicate the sense of urgency and have a strong bias for action. Don’t under estimate this, and if you see the signs have a conversation early on what you and the project need. The sponsor is there to help you as the project manager achieve desired results! Make sure they are committed to the journey.

Here is my list of what I use to sit down with sponsor and explain what will be needed from them and types of subjects I will work with them on. It creates a good list for a constructive conversation. When I have skipped past this thinking my sponsor is behind the team, it comes up later forcing this topic to be addressed so I advise take the time do it early. If you are down the road in your project and struggle with support, take the time to do this anyway and explain the reasons why.

Responsibilities/ Expectations of Project Sponsor:

· Champions the project, provides overall direction and funding, and approves all major milestones.

· Sets the vision, common goals and critical success factors

· Helps project manager understand full business context of environment and project decisions

· Establishes or secures policy

· Attends regular program reviews

· Establishes the authorities of the project team and stakeholders

· Approves the charter and scope of the project including deliverables

· Challenges assumptions, plays devils advocate to develop other alternatives

· Sets priority of the project relative to other projects in her/his area

· Ensures that resources are available to carry the project to its completion

· Removes obstacles or other constraints that are beyond control of PM

· Keeps other managers from interfering with progress, controlling scope and protects the team so results are delivered

· Authorizes changes in scope

· Works with senior management to provide updates or asks for help on issues beyond the control of the sponsor

As a program manager, you are usually driving innovation that drives change. This challenges people in the team and impacted groups in many different ways. The term I often use is “Pain of change” for that transition period. There is that small percentage that are highly adaptable and ready for anything but there are always those that do not want to learn or do anything different. Managing all types of people, managing the cultural change, managing the technical and most importantly delivering the defined project outcomes is what delivers high payoff projects.

In some cases, you may just be starting a program and asking how do I find a sponsor and build this partnership for success. Even if you embarked on your project without finding a sponsor, it is never to late to make this change and it will always help to have that advocate. Here are some questions that can help you navigate finding the right person to be the sponsor.

· Who has the financial backing to be a sponsor for this project?

· Who has the political influence in the organization to be a sponsor?

· Who has a history of having their initiatives implemented?

· Will the person defend the project should it run into problems or begin to lose organizational support?

· As the project manager, with whom would you have a good working relationship?

· Who will provide the project direction and focus but at the same time, ensure the project is being accomplished according to the plan?

· Who it the end result will take ownership in the resulting product of your work and would therefore have a vested interest in its successful operation?

Once you find that sponsor start immediately to build that relationship. Make sure lines of communication are open and timely with any information. Investing your time managing relationship with your sponsor is critical for your personal effectiveness and for the team success. These crucial conversations must be driven so take responsibility to make it happen. Good luck!

The Easy How To Guide for Planning a Powerful Project Kickoff

This is your chance to get your project started on an extraordinary path forward for success. Don’t underestimate how critical it is to invest time and get started on the right track. Projects are temporary organizations to deliver a service, product or result. People come together on projects as strangers that meet and quickly become like a family since you hare interacting and highly dependant on each other for success. That is not likely to change. What we as project leaders can do is make sure people share a context and are on the same page, have alignment for action, and have a relationship that allows them to successfully coordinate action together rapidly.

Get Ready

Before you start running down the road to the kickoff, some preparation questions to ask are:

• Do you know what the project objective is?
• Is value to customer clearly defined?
• Is there a clear project sponsor?
• Have you mapped out the key talent and skills you need on the project?
• Do you know what the budget is?
• Do you know the challenges?

The key is to plan ahead and organize. Show the team that you are on top of it, organized and ready to work together to deliver a successful project.

The Project Startup Meeting

Take immediate charge of the meeting. Introduce yourself. Have others introduce themselves, what value they bring to the team and some little known info.

Start with background on project and answer the “Why we are here?” and “Why it is critical?” question that is at the forefront of people’s mind. You want to create value quickly. Review the agenda and what outcomes for the meeting are.

The kickoff is intended to bring everyone up to speed, not to discuss every item in detail.

Now that you have laid the groundwork and set the tone for the meeting, move on to

· Project sponsors and what they are looking for

· Review the promise to the customer

· Project assumptions

· Team operating guidelines

· Team member expectations and commitment

· Empower the team - Value of each member/ role definition

· Scope that is known

· High Level Milestones

· Review Calendar – when meetings will be held

· Communication plan

· Key success factors

The time to plan for your kickoff will depend on a few different factors such as size of the team, scope of the project, is it face to face or virtual so walk through each of the areas listed above and determine how much time is adequately needed to cover and add time for Q&A. It will allow buffer time so that everything can be completed in your scheduled time.

During the Meeting, be sure to keep the meeting flowing and avoid wasting time. Be the leader and end a topic, and move on.

Be personable and have fun so that everyone will enjoy participating more. I bring soft toys that can be found at the toy store to set the tone of fun. In a virtual environment be creative and put a cartoon on file sharing program, share a story. Everyone will be more focused and enjoy the meeting more if you take this approach.

Wrap Up

Now after you have covered all these topics you should have a pretty good list of input to go back and update your info with. There should be a list of questions that could not be answered but will be over time and action items that team members can go back and work on.

Make sure everyone has blocked calendar at the time of team meetings and will make it a priority to attend.

Ask for feedback on the meeting, process and what should be common practice going forward. End the day with a big thank you to the team and an encouraging speech that creates the end vision for everyone to work towards.

Project Tips: Managing Your Emotions

Managing our emotions is one of those basics. Its something that influences your effectiveness as a manager and a project manager. We all have a different style of dealing with conflict and adapt in situations. One of the most important elements is staying in control of your emotions. There are times all of us want to lash out at our superiors or peers for violating our boundaries, not “getting it”, interfering with our projects, crossing the line, stepping behind our backs, taking advantage of our absence and simply playing the old business game. You might be asking “why?”, so let me explain some of my learnings. I have learned by being in the trenches and still working at it every day. This is an important factor and relates to earlier posting on building trust in your team and relationships.

It is a crucial skill to master as a high performing project manager or manager. It is so easy to be caught up by our own feelings. This can lead to words said you regret later or short sighted decisions being made that you want to undo later. Emotions drive our actions so if you can control your emotions you can take deliberate and more effective actions. This requires the ability to reflect and objectively evaluate how you feel and work to achieve optimal results for your project and business.

So what can you do? Stay focused on the important things. Some issues the best course of action is to let it go. If you are in a hot situation there are a few things you can do to stay calm and collected. Here are a few tips to stay in control during those highly charged conversations.

- Don’t speak if you can avoid it. Let others do the talking and carefully listen to issues at hand. Delay your reaction. Don’t let what someone says to you encourage the wrong reaction. The importance of think before you speak cannot be over emphasised. You should choose your words carefully when you speak, ensuring that you don’t hurt the sentiments of the person opposite you. You can later analyze the situation and find the solutions to what bothered you.

-Stay focused on the outcome that is needed. Focus on the issues and not the emotion or attacks that might be expressed in frustration.

- Be aware of your trigger points. If there are specific individuals that evoke more feelings, than be even more cautious about tone of voice and what is communicated.

- Learn from your responses and the reactions they cause in others. Constantly evaluate how you might respond differently. What would have been a better way to communicate. This is how you can continue to improve as it takes practice and application to get better over time.

- Acknowledge rather than agree. It is possible to acknowledge that someone has a different point-of-view than you have without agreeing with their point-of-view. It is important that others feel heard, that you understand what their position is.

- Find an outlet outside of work to express emotions. For me this is working out. By doing physical activity, I let the frustration go and can be more productive. It could be running, shopping, spending time with your family. Find what it is for you and know when to use it

These are a few fundamentals that will help you succeed at those critical conversations through the course of your projects. If you follow these simple tips, you will succeed at what you want to. Keeping a rein on your emotions while at work goes a long way in achieving healthier relations. It will also bring professional growth. Its critical to your project and critical to your success and reputation!

How to be an Enterprising Project Manager

Imagine what you could accomplish if you never quit and always did all that you could do to get your project done. It requires being enterprising.

What does enterprising mean?

In Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1), enterprising is defined as

1.	ready to undertake projects of importance or difficulty, or untried schemes; energetic in carrying out any undertaking: Business is in need of enterprising young people.

2.	characterized by great imagination or initiative: an enterprising foreign policy.

An Ant is a great example of being Enterprising. On a hike once, I observed this massive trail of ants industriously working. As you lay a stick across their trail or put your foot there you quickly observe that they immediately begin to go around over or create a new way to continue their work. You put another obstacle in the way, they quickly adapt again and find a new way. They NEVER give up. They always persist to find a new way and blaze a new trail. As a PM, that is the attitude it takes. Being a quick change artist, being persistent and enterprising will develop and help you deliver successful projects. In considering how you could do better, it requires constructive evaluation, asking sponsors and team to share info with you along the way.

I think it is important to push forward and drive projects as much as possible and requires you doing the best that you can. Being an enterprising project manager, will require dedication, quick to seize opportunities, solve problems and be disciplined. In each project, you have the same amount of time in everyday. So if you are working in your project, even an average 8 hour day you want to make the most of every minute. So how can you do that? Think of people around you, think of people in office, on the news who manage to push forward and succeed despite the most incredible obstacles. Ron Pausch is one of those people I saw in the news, a young child at Shriners recovering horrific burns are a few that come to mind that working hard everyday to make the most of every minute. They are quick to seize opportunities regardless of anything else.

As a PM, the worst message is “no” and it happens all the time. It is the role of asking people on your team, at vendors, other organizations to make things happen and get the work done. It requires developing a plan, revising your plans, following your plan, modifying approach and always being ready to attack problems. Its an attitude of regardless what comes up, having the attitude of “what can I do to make this work”. As the leader, you work to push forward with that clear picture in your head of what success for the project is and taking the steps along the way to stay on track towards that goal.

The difference between success and failure can be very small. Successful PM’s may often work harder but most importantly they are using a variety of tools to work smarter which is more important. One area to evaluate is how you use your time, do you spend time micromanaging or spend time getting the very best resource on your team who is competent to complete work without taking your time. It is important to make use of every hour and really drive the day rather than get pulled to each crisis that others in the team should really be resolving. You need to run your project and you need to run your day. You need to If you can boost effectiveness of time 20% every year, you can double your productivity every few years. Enterprising project managers will drive project activities with clear goals. This can be done by planning the next day at the end of the day, planning week and making minor adjustments as work progresses.

Don’t mistake trivial activity for productivity. You probably know some people who always seem to be busy being busy. To be a successful PM, you need to spend time on the productive activities. Its important to not mistake the junk that is trivial with actions on strategic activities results producing high payoff activities. If you spend time on activities, others can and should be doing its costing you a lot as you are not doing that other activity. Focus on your highest value activities and be relentless at asking “what is the highest and best use of my time?”

Another key is to prioritize and focus relentlessly. Assuming that you have picked your high payoff, high leverage activities you have a clear focus. Staying focused is easier said than done. It takes discipline to stay on track and create boundaries when you need them. This can be as simple as logging off email and scheduling time to more quickly go through at end of day. It could mean not logging on till key deliverables are done in the morning.

Every time we choose to do less than we possibly can and model that within the project team, we limit our possibilities, potential and results for your project. You can alter your project results by doing a little more each day to work smarter. So take the example of the ant and keep your head and find that alternative to deliver your projects!

Your Project, Your Relationships, Your Communication

A very common theme in the success or failure of your project is the power of relationships. High performing PM’s have solid relationship skills. Some of this may come naturally but for many people who become a PM move from being a subject area expert need to work at developing. It can be a learned skill with practice. In my opinion, this is something worth learning about and continue to pursue regardless of the environment. Powerful relationships with vendors, partners, and in your organization with translate to time, money and benefits for your program or project.

Most people have a blind spot. I am no exception. Most Project Managers believe they are doing their job very well. While stakeholders of the project are sitting back less than happy with results. the reason is they often have different goals than the immediate goals you have for project team. Working with your stakeholders to clearly define success criteria is a key step very early in the process. A project manager (PM) who alienates the stakeholders, holds senior management at arms length and doesn’t have strong communication in the team can only expect problems. One of the great lessons I learned was creating a formal and informal network deliberately and early. How your stakeholders feel is connected to the payoff. You want them to feel connected and empowered.

Good PM’s use communication to resolve issues. PM’s at the other end of spectrum often feel that their communication is used against them and operate in a cover you tracks (CYA) mode. How you view your communication can become a predictor for how you communicate and work to improve in the future. So what make good communication? It is usually judged by the one receiving how relevant, concise, delivery, and timing influence how the listener responds. When there are complaints, they are usually due to the quality of the message, how much info, and the frequency information is received.

Communication alone does not make a great PM but without it you are sure to struggle with delivery of high payoff results with your team. Your relationships, your communication are the lifeline of any project regardless of the size.

10 Tips For Creating an Environment of Trust in Your Virtual Team

My primary working environment is with virtual teams today and periodic face to face meetings. Many of these ideas are applicable with all your teams even if not virtual. For the last 10 years I have worked in a virtual environment. There are many advantages and also challenges that is creates. Technology has evolved as well and become far more useful. As the experts say, communication is primarily body language, tone of voice and lastly what words you say. This is ironic is technology advances and for most companies today they are not using video technology which would enable the use of communication with body language, tone of voice and language. The most common is the use of telephone and a file sharing programs that you can write, draw, show files, programs to the others on the program. There are so many factors that contribute to establishing trust and you can view some of my other posts for more info. Here are some highlights from typical strategies I have begun to focus on more with the team.

1. Build the self-esteem of team members by showing respect for their
opinions. You can ask questions (even if you know), ask others to update with info on specific areas so they are engaged, schedule presenters to share info relevant to the team.

2. Help team members focus on the problem rather than blaming each
other. Project team meetings are not the place for blame game but a place to have the reality candidly presented so you can leverage the team brainstorming, solutions development cross-functionally. If there is an issue requiring corrective actions, take it up in the right time with the individual and their manager directly.

3. Familiarize the team with why trust is important and will impact the success of the project and how external view of the project is perceived. You can do this by taking time for introductions, sharing personal information. Another way is to bring up typical examples of issues and how you would like the team to address them.

4. If possible, meet face-to-face early in the development of your team for a kickoff meeting. By investing the travel and time early in the process you can properly establish and agree on operating framework, establish personal relationships that will carry through project, share a meal and the connecting time that is tough to replicate virtually. Miscommunication and conflicting expectations often arise early in the project. Face-to-face meetings will allow team members to develop relationships and trust much more quickly.

5. Set up time with leads in different areas to learn more about details in their area of expertise. This can be done on a weekly or bi-weekly basis and can be an excellent way to build a strong foundation. It will allow them to get to know you more, open communication and build your expertise for later in project to better assess risks.

6. Do what you say you will do. One of the quickest and most effective ways to build trust is to follow through on your commitments every time or reset expectations if when something comes up. Team members are more likely to trust one another if they feel team members are competent. Stand behind your team and your team members. Do not make disparaging remarks about the team’s performance in public. If you receive negative information about a team member, be sure to investigate it thoroughly before making decision on what you will do with the information.

7. Try to give each team member the opportunity to contribute. Don’t rely more heavily on those team members who happen to be in your location or time zone. Rotate through meetings, the time you spend on each topic. If you can’t cover everything in one meeting, rotate presenters so each one has time to present info, accomplishments, issues and action plans.

8. Be aware of time of day for attendees on the call. Work to make meetings engaging so you can keep energy, interest and attention on the call up. Ask people to close instant messenger tools, email so they can focus on the meeting. Find ways to amplify the energy during the call. Find items that are “hot news” to share, change bulletins sent out, make a big deal of accomplishments.

9. Create a system for project info. It can be fun to start with team brainstorming a name and logo for the project. This can then be a sense of identity, branding for the team through course of project and logo used on all project documents. Select tools carefully that will document sharing, archiving, backup systems associated to project documents, work product produced so that it can be accessed easily. Also, you can use online collaboration, project planning tools or a simple to do list shared out depending on how many people are in your team.

10. Plan, Plan, Plan. In a virtual environment it is even more important to be prepared in advance with technology, agenda, right participants to be in the meeting. Test in advance and know how to effectively use the technology. Had extra items to cover if you end early and prioritize so you don’t run out of time to handle the hot topics. If you struggle with time keeping, ask for help and give someone else the job to ensure you stay on track. It prevents frustration by the team and maximizes payoff for time in meeting. As a reminder, just calculate the cost of your meeting whether with your employees, peers, senior management and vendors and you quickly realize that its highly expensive so be deliberate about scheduling meetings.

Bonus tip: Another key operating guideline is “speed of action”, this means how quickly do people responds, what is expectation and creating a culture of urgency and quick action within the team. If you start this early, than not only can you make things happen faster but some of the time in people’s to do lists and inbox is quickly reduced.