Project Management is Changing

Project Management and the expectations of PMs are changing – and by changing, I mean E X P A N D I N G!

For most of my career in Project Management the focus has been on the “Time, Cost, Scope, Quality” and other basics of solution delivery.  Over the last couple of years I've been a part of extending the goal posts to include and in fact elevate Change Management within Project Management.  While many will argue that this has always been a part of PM, it is typically under-served, ignored, or avoided in what I have seen.

My exposure started with a project that I was consulting on and despite on-time delivery, meeting budgets and scope, it was feeling more like a failed effort.  The project included multiple roll-outs across a large organization and as the roll-outs continued, adoption and utilization didn't! Obviously not my problem, because PMs deliver solutions and capabilities – what the business decides to do with them is not our problem!    Or is it? …………. No, can’t be.  (Phew - close one!)

Our fearless leader assigned a “Change Manager” to help with the adoption issue.  This began my own change of heart about the boundaries of Project Management.  The Change Manager brought to light the fact that we were deploying a solution to realize a business benefit and that we weren't being evaluated on delivering functions or capabilities, it was about the benefits.  To address this, the CM and project had to do some back-tracking.  We needed to bring along the people and find out what their concerns, questions, conflicts and fears were.  We identified things like system changes, process changes, and even some role changes within the 'Big' change.  People are apparently complex entities, so this was quite a bit of work that I won’t get into here, but I can’t argue with the successful results.

In the year that has passed since that project, I have been further enlightened on Change Management and see it now as the benefit-critical "people side" of the project.  We as PMs already moved processes, systems, solutions, and technical changes to future states. Producing benefits however, will continue to be hit or miss (mostly miss?)  until the people are ready to use and sustain them.

Through work that I've participated in to develop and integrate change management practices into Project Management processes, I've identified and collected a number ideas on how PMs, Sponsors and Change Agents can help with the people side of the change curve.  For some reason I called them the “Ten Tenets of Change Management” so I’m sure that my faithful readers (both of you) will identify some more here and I will need to re-name it soon!

I sincerely hope that PMs, Sponsors, and others moving toward positive change find some value in thinking about and using some of these ideas!

Change Great Things!

Ed Sullivan - PMP

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Ten Tenets of Change Management

1.  Show them the ‘WHY’
• The Vision - what is the future state and why is it better - what happens if we don't change?
• Organizational Benefit - reduced costs, competitive advantage, compliance, cut losses, speed to market, customer satisfaction, etc.
• What's in it for them?  - Other benefits more individualized or applicable to their team or department level
• Supporting data - provide data what supports the benefits and desired outcomes of the change
2. Maintain communications with honest assessments of progress and authentic behavior
• Provide regular status updates
• Acknowledge the unknowns, risks, possible downsides
• Address the unexpected - respond to new information, results, responses, reactions, findings
• Manage expectations (transition periods, incremental progress, interim benefits, ramp-up time, support needed)
• Understand and respect the past (work done, processes, people, contributions - assume the best decisions were made at the time when they were made)
• Use analogies or stories to connect the change to something the know and relate to
3. Demonstrate that you've planned -
• Show timelines, increments, pilots, training, research, comparables, pros & cons, etc.
• Give the change idea credibility by showing a level of commitment and demonstrate it has been thought through by doing the upfront planning work.
• Consider a challenge session where you can preemptively address the concerns and open the dialogue by asking them to challenge the ideas and direction and the 'Why'.
4. Highlight the support that exists
• Executives, managers, peers, industry trends, special interest groups
• Reference materials, white papers, articles
• Examples of success and movement by others towards the desired future state
• Connect people with the "Change Agents" - the unofficial leaders and internal support for the change.  These people can be there to sustain momentum and support when the PM is not there and after the project is over as it moves towards benefits realization!
• Let them know they are not alone - ask them who else will be experiencing a change.
5. Confirm what will be stable
• Identify what is NOT changing
• Explore more specifics about the change and provide comfort by acknowledging the routines, roles, and responsibilities that are stable. 
• With the change in a proper context and perspective it is likely to be less overwhelming and allows for more targeted support strategies.
6. Acknowledge the feelings
• Letting go, fear, endings, inadequacy
• Let them know they are being heard - listening, paraphrasing, thanking
• Talk to individuals about the 'sub' changes in their terms and how it might impact them.
• Get participation from Change Agents to describe how they are managing the changes
7. Guide towards ownership of the change
• Provide choices or options when possible
• Let them set time frames and make commitments
• Let them identify issues, risks, and mitigations
• Recognize their contributions towards the victories along the way
8. Prevent backsliding
• Track the progress against goals/plans
• Establish metrics and measurements
• Request status update
9. Reward positive movement towards the goal
• Give public recognition to stimulate similar behaviors and movement in others
• Celebrate successes and contributions
• Highlight and reinforce the connection between progress steps and the benefits (the 'Why')
10. Identify their strengths in the change
• What will they be really good at and demonstrate proficiency at quickly
• Help them link their strengths to the changing demands in the future state
• See Strengths Finder 2.0  for more ideas about a strengths - based approach

You can step over the line....

He was making calls that normally they let slide or only call when the infraction is really obvious.  Most of us parents on the sidelines have never played before so we're still learning about things like off-sides and indirect kicks.  So at half time my son's soccer game the referee did something really surprising...  he came over to the sideline and asked us how we thought the game was going and if we had any questions about what he had called on the field.  Silence....   But he did not leave it there, he reviewed three calls that he made that may have been controversial or misunderstood and described them to us.  He explained that "The goalie can step over the line of the goalie box and kick the ball if it is released behind the line" - in our case he did not release it soon enough and the penalty was called against us.  After two more scenarios he asked if we had any other questions and when no one did, he thanked us for coming to the game.  This all took about two minutes of his time, but made a big impression on all of us.


In this two minutes, he established his expertise in a way that was helpful, non-threatening, and positive and he gave us the gift of new knowledge and understanding.  In doing this he had to step over a line himself.  He did not follow normal protocol and go get a drink and talk with the line judges for the short half time.  He took a risk and made a positive impact.  We left this brief interaction feeling better about him, the league, referees in general, and ourselves. 


I think this is something we can benefit from as project managers too.  We can be on both sides of this dialogue as well (that may be considered off-sides in soccer - I really don't get that call yet!) .  We can receive new knowledge by being interested and 'coachable' with our project teams and share our passion and expertise in project management or any subject as a way of building a high-functioning supportive team.  All we need to do is care enough to share two minutes of time receiving a gift of knowledge from an expert with passion and pass it on.   I hope you do!




Do great things -- (with goals!)




Ed Sullivan, PMP

Still teaching at 99

No, this is not about some amazing near-centenarian who is still in the workforce slogging it out with the rest of us!  It does involve a woman I met a few weeks ago who recently turned 99 and is still teaching valuable lessons to everyone she meets.  She teaches by example.  Not everyone understands or appreciates the lessons as they receive them and I found myself recognizing my learnings only after some reflection. 

So what were the lessons?

• think positive
• say nice things
• smile a lot
• touch is important

When listed like that, they seem rather mundane, but let me provide more context and you may see why I find them so profound. 

I'll just start today with the first - "think positive"

Margaret is her name, she was born in 1912 and lived through the depression and has always been a positive person with a can-do approach to life.  When she was in her mid-nineties, she had a fall and injured her head leading to the need for brain surgery.  Post operation, she worked to regain her independence and eventually she moved back into her home where she had lived independently for nearly 40 years.  Unfortunatly this was short-lived as her memory was challenged either by the injury or in combination with some form of dementia and memory loss.  She eventually moved to a nursing home and has been there about two years now - which brings us to my visit a few weeks ago...

She was tired and did not recognize her son who was trying to introduce me.  She did not know that her mother or siblings have all passed or where exactly she was.  She does not understand much about her surroundings, her past, or her current life.  She could recall the name of one of her sisters and that for siblings "there were a bunch of us".   I imagine this type of environment with limited connections to past or present could be very frightening, cold and negative. 

Despite this, during our conversations she regularly inserted comments of positivity.  When walking slowly to a chair she said "we'll get there",  when talking about birthday cake she said "that will be nice" , when talking about something difficult she said "we'll get through it" on the subject of work she said, "well we've all got to work hard at it".   When asked how old she felt, she said "I don't know, maybe 29?"

With so much of her memory and history erased, positve responses and affirmations like these still came easily to the surface!  My belief is that these must be so core, so foundational and automatic in her being that she still has them with her.  She has used them (and still does) to motivate and provide strength for herself and others through the difficult times in life. 


Lesson learned!




Do Positively Great Things!



Ed Sullivan, PMP

Good for the Goose!

All summer long we had dogs chase away the birds from the man-made pond around our office.  They jumped out of a truck and ran around the pond watching and chasing until the birds decided to fly away.  Most of the birds were Canada Geese I am told which are seen as a nuisance.  I can understand why as they are a large bird which produce a large amount of  fecal matter and can harm water quality and also apparently pose a threat to air-craft when they gather too close to airports. 

This week ducks and geese arrived fearlessly back at the pond in massive numbers with seemingly orchestrated patterns of arrivals, take-offs and fly-overs -- truly beautiful to watch as many of us did.  It's cold and wintery now and the border collies are off the payroll but if they were familiar with the Hitchcock movie 'The Birds" I think they would have called in sick this week anyway!   

Watching the hundreds of birds fly in and hanging around the pond made me think about the whole problem and how the efforts were not a very complete or root-problem solution.  In the summer, the dogs came and moved the problem to another location where there were no dogs at the moment - maybe to your pond?  So we only solved the problem from our perspective and really only moved it on down the line to someone else not addressing the root cause. 

We also don't have our deterrent (dogs) here all the time so the birds came back by the hundreds and for a week or more and made themselves very comfy in and around the pond.  I'm not suggesting that we should address the root issues with the bird problem or that it should be managed any differently going forward.   I think most projects have aspects like this that cannot be solved in the current effort and require work-arounds and temporary fixes to  meet the other project objectives like time, cost, scope.   So my question is  if we sufficiently consider which problems should be fixed at the root cause and which ones are ok to treat like the 'goose' problem.  My guess is that we treat too many problems like the 'goose' problem because it is seductively easy to do so - right up until you are tip-toeing through a fecal-matter landmine!


Here are some potential questions to ask yourself to help your decision:

• How much more effort is it to fix the whole problem permanently?
• How many other ponds are nearby?  - are we pushing this problem onto the next project(s)?
• Is there an potential business case/ROI on fixing the problem
• How much float/capacity does my project have to fix this and still meet the other project objectives.
• How would you have wanted the last PM to have handled this problem?

Do you have others???





Do Great Things! -- (with wings!)



Ed Sullivan, PMP

Perspective Muscles

I attended the PMO Symposium last week and had a great experience.  It was my first time at the symposium and I met a lot of people (some of whom commited to be followers of this blog!) and took back a lot of ideas for my organization and some opportunities for myself to work on.  As I reflect on the conference and the themes there are many directions that I could write about but I keep coming back to persepective. 

To be successful, a project manager (and just about everybody else too) needs to see the world in diffferent ways than their default ones to be successful.  They need to understand the context from the perspective of the client, the technologist, the builder, the team, the sponsor, management, finance .... etc.   They need to be able to adjust their communciation and message and style and methods to the different contexts that are created by people with different perspectives - and still be true to their message.  They also need to form a functioning team from a group of people that will certainly have different perspectives on many things.  The more rapidly they can understand these, the faster their team can move through the storming phase of team building.

My theory is that we can flex and grow our perspective muscles by using them more.  If you are inquisitive and acknowledge and celebrate some different perspectives on things in contexts where it is not critical to do so, can that make you better at doing it when it does matter?  I honestly don't know but I think it could.

So back to the conference and different perspectives....

• I heard about a PMO in an organization that has 27,000 project managers - wow that is different!
• I learned of different perspectives on politics and perceptions from people from South Africa and France(Vive la France!)  and other places around the globe and found some common ground
• I learned about different perspectives on prices and value (of beer and houses esp.) from around the world
• I sat next to a four year old who had never flown before and was very excited about it and climbed over me several times to see out my window! 
• I looked out the same window myself and saw tiny perfect rectangles and squares of farmland  - I bet the farmer does not see it that way.  (That's about the size, where you put your eyes....)
• I heard about PMOs that get by on shoe-string budgets or that don't have PMs or that are at the Enterprise level, or that don't manage resources or that participate in strategy and Portfolio Management  -- many different types of PMO perspectives and contexts.
• I attended sessions where attendees perceived great value and I saw none - and vice-versa

So, maybe you can try flexing that perspective muscle in the next few days/weeks and see what happens I will let you know if I have any great break-throughs and you do the same! 


Do Great Things!  - With your Perspective Muscle!


Ed Sullivan, PMP