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A Question to Start Every Project Meeting

By Michael W. McLaughlin on May 12, 2011 in Consulting Process, Managing Projects

Most people I know have a love-hate relationship with project team meetings. Those meetings can be drama-filled (especially if a deadline is about to be blown) or just plain tedious. Everyone knows there’s value in team meetings, but sometimes it’s hard to find.

Project leaders can add some excitement—and value—to any team meeting by asking one simple question at the outset:

What can we do differently (or better) today to improve this project’s outcome?

Once you ask the question, let people share their ideas—no matter how big or small. And, if possible, design an approach on the spot for putting the best ideas into practice. If you can’t, don’t leave the room without articulating a next step for the ideas you’ve heard.

Besides improving a project’s outcome, you’re sending people a clear message: I value your opinion. Plus, you’re encouraging an open environment for discussion, which will challenge people to search for ideas that will lead to a better result.

You’ve probably seen project leaders who act as though a good idea can only come from on high. Those individuals make their jobs harder than needed. And when such a leader looks for help with the next project, mysteriously, the best people are already tied up on something else.

It’s a simple question. Ask it at the beginning of every meeting, sit back, and let the ideas flow.

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The First Law of Projects

By Michael W. McLaughlin on April 26, 2011 in Consulting Process, Managing Projects

On a bright Saturday afternoon, a white, unmarked van rolled up to the receiving dock. Everything seemed normal, so the security guard disarmed the alarm system and signaled for the van to pull into the receiving bay.

Inside the warehouse, a skeleton crew was clearing the last of the week’s customer orders and preparing the facility for a major reorganization. Without warning, the van’s doors flew open, and four armed thieves emerged.

That robbery (and its fallout) sucked all the energy out of the project my team was working on.

Whether your project is big or small, it’s not immune to the inevitable disaster. As the First Law of Projects tells us, on every project, you will face at least one catastrophe. I’m not talking about the routine problems you’re used to dealing with on a daily basis, like schedule delays or team turnover.

I’m referring to something that threatens a project and, ultimately, defines it. You remember the event for years and talk about it when you reminisce with others. It’s the “Can you believe we survived that?” moment. It’s the time when you’re not sure how the project can go on—or if it will.

These events aren’t always as dramatic as robberies, power outages, employee strikes, or devastating floods. It could just as easily be a project sponsor who decides to pull the plug on a project, or a crisis of confidence in the client team. It’s also possible that you sowed the seeds of an inevitable disaster in your project plan. Mostly, though, the crisis is wholly unexpected and it throws you and the team for a loop.

Picking up the Pieces

Project leaders and teams react to the chaos of disasters in different ways. Some people see them as turning points and lead their teams through with ease. Others give in to the apparent futility of any remedial action to deal with the disaster.

In the midst of disaster, a leader’s reactions and behavior shape the quality and effectiveness of the team’s response. When it seems like the roof is caving in, the leader and team must collectively access and harness their highest levels of creativity and problem solving.

You won’t know when disaster will strike, but you can prepare for it by examining your own style under pressure. Ask yourself (and others) to answer these questions about your behavior in a crunch: Do I get overly agitated, or do I stay calm? Am I able to effectively tap the full resources of the team to manage a crisis? Is my reaction to a disaster limited to either fight or flight? In times of stress, do I get support or resistance from my team?

Before you begin your next project, think about your behavior in past crises. Did your actions prolong or short-circuit the problem? What are the three actions you can take to lead more effectively in the next disaster? It’s best to answer these questions now because the inevitable calamity will sneak up on you.

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Getting Projects to “Done”

By Michael W. McLaughlin on April 20, 2011 in Consulting Process, Managing Projects

Photo by Vancouver Film School

On any airplane flight, you’re likely to see at least one passenger turning blue in the face trying to force a bulging “carry-on” bag into an overhead bin. No matter how hard the person pushes, everyone watching knows that it’s not going to work–the bag is just too full.

Sometimes, a project plan can unintentionally end up like an overstuffed bag. Before you are tempted to cram too much into your plan, make sure you take into account these three basic realities:

Most project plans are one part reality plus two parts wishful thinking. The only given about every project is uncertainty. No matter how hard you work to create the perfect plan, you’ll still face unknowns. Plus, you’ll have to manage the inescapable problem of cumulative probabilities: If you have an 85 percent chance of finishing your first task on time, for example, and an 80 percent chance for the second one, the probability of completing both tasks on time falls to 68 percent. Not very good odds.
Projects have predictable, necessary down times. When a team achieves a milestone, people are going to slack off a bit. After a tough push to meet a goal, everyone needs a rejuvenating breather. When you develop a project plan, it’s easy to overlook that these pauses need to happen, and that it takes time for the team to regain the previous level of intensity.
The toughest problems hit you in the home stretch. It’s common to defer the hardest project decisions and issues until you absolutely must face them. As a project approaches its end, those unresolved issues can quickly become showstoppers, which may overwhelm the team and threaten the schedule.

Define Degrees of “Done”

What can you do about these realities? For one thing, do the most obvious and build some flexibility into your plan. It’s easy to define a project that includes everything you want and more. Unfortunately, disappointment will set in as the team slowly (and maybe arbitrarily) slashes project scope because there’s just not enough time to get everything done. The result: everyone gets frustrated.

Instead of chipping away at scope incrementally as a project unfolds, define two or more acceptable project outcomes before you get started. If the project progresses and your initial planning assumptions end up trashed, you’ll have a workable fallback position.

Give It a Rest

Expect a break in the action as you and your team finish key tasks. Take time to celebrate accomplishments, instead of diving right back into work. Everyone needs a breather, so be sure you’ve designed a plan that accommodates these natural breaks. And remember that it takes a team time to regain momentum after reaching a milestone.

Get Tough on Decisions

As a project starts to wrap up, the decisions you must make multiply—with incomplete information and not enough time to learn more. If you don’t decide quickly at this juncture, a project can easily grind to a halt. And, the decisions you make late in the project are often the most important ones.

Consider changing how your team makes decisions as the project enters its final stage. Some project teams choose to give decision-making authority to a smaller group of individuals. Using input from the team(s), this smaller group can speed the decision process by taking responsibility for and control of the strategic decisions that impact the success of the project. The goal of the group is to solve problems, not let them fester.

No matter what you do, there’s going to be a final push at the end of every project. But the things you do at the outset (packing the bag) will have a direct impact on how the project wraps up. You’ll never avoid all of the uncertainties your project will face, but if you plan for varying degrees of “done,” the periodic dips in project productivity, and for the tough decisions at the end, your plan just might be the right fit.

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Lesson of the Chef

By Michael W. McLaughlin on April 18, 2011 in Managing Projects

photo by fotoosvanrobin

The dozens of cooking shows on TV all have something in common: the chef’s dish comes out perfectly—in just a few minutes. The whole process looks effortless, which you learn isn’t the case if you try to whip up one of those “20-minute” recipes at home.

If you pay attention, you’ll notice that most of the chef’s work is done before any cooking begins. Using a technique called mise en place (French for “putting in place”), the chef organizes ahead of time all of the ingredients, spices, and implements to be used. That way, there’s no guesswork about what goes into the dish, and the chef can focus on cooking technique and talking the audience through it.

Mise en Place at Work

Mise en place is as much a mindset as it is a cooking technique, and it can serve you well when it comes to any project. If everything you need is ready before you jump into a task, you can focus on results. Unfortunately, the principles of mise en place fly in the face of the all-too-prevalent “let’s get this done now” mentality.

Look at the reasons why projects fail: lack of resources, scheduling mistakes, and poor planning. Too often, these problems bubble up because of a lack of preparation (mise en place).

Early Warning System

Adopting a mis en place mindset will help you prevent problems before they happen. Instead of guessing what type of project team you need, for example, look at the expected outcome. Work backward to determine the skills you need, when you need them, and how you will bring them on board. Otherwise, you may find yourself scrambling to find the right skills for a task when a project is going full steam. Be ready before the need arises.

Most chefs say they spend more time planning and preparing than they do cooking. Granted, that’s not the case with most projects, but two important lessons emerge from mise en place: Identify all of the components and tools you need before you begin; and be sure you measure all ingredients accurately and you know when to use them.

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Project Failures: Symptoms vs. Causes

By Michael W. McLaughlin on April 7, 2011 in Consulting Process, Managing Projects

Why do projects fail? In a multi-industry study of 163 companies, researchers at PM Solutions asked that simple question. Their report identifies five primary causes of project failure:

Requirements: Unclear, contradictory, and ambiguous
Resources: Lack of resources, resource conflicts, and turnover of key resources
Schedules: Too tight and overly optimistic
Planning: Based on poor data, insufficient details, and bad estimates
Risks: Unidentified, assumed, or not managed well.

You could look at the list above and conclude that there’s nothing new in this report–and you’d be right. What’s so alarming, though, is that such problems still plague us. This report says that more than a third of company projects are at risk of failing.

But when I look at this list, I see symptoms of project failures, not causes. At the center of any successful project is competent leadership. When you see a failed project, you’re likely to also find poor leadership.

If you perceive one of these seemingly obvious “causes” for failure on a project, you’ll want to look further. The real problem is lurking elsewhere.

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Project Snafu in Your Future?

By Michael W. McLaughlin on March 30, 2011 in Consulting Process, Managing Projects

Every project leader knows that problems will come out of left field to challenge the best-laid plans. It’s common, for instance, for project sponsors to make last-minute changes to the team, the budget, or the objectives. Such changes can upend your project plan, and are almost impossible to foresee.

For many projects, though, the seeds of trouble are sown long before a project kicks off.

Of all the factors that contribute to project snafus, assumptions top the list. Think of assumptions as disasters waiting to happen. And the more assumptions you make about a project, the greater the likelihood that one of those disasters will hit.

Let’s say, for example, that you assume you will have access to certain executives when you need to gather data. Or, maybe you make assumptions about how quickly the project sponsor will make decisions that impact the team’s progress.

Typically, you’ll get the nod to such assumptions and press ahead with the project. Everyone feels good because they think they have covered all the bases. But if any assumption doesn’t pan out, look out. And it doesn’t matter who made the assumption or why. You and the project sponsor must still dig yourselves out of a hole.

Obviously, the easiest way to mitigate this risk is to assume as little as possible. But you can’t avoid all assumptions, so focus on those that have the highest potential for negative impact. So, if you do make assumptions about the availability of executives for key meetings, nail down that access before you start the project. Look at all of your critical activities and determine if assumptions will govern their successful completion. If so, resolve them early.

Assumptions can help you move a project from concept to reality. But, in many cases, assumptions are really issues the team has chosen to defer. Every project has its own set of surprises, so don’t add to the list of potential problems by carrying a long list of assumptions into a project.

If you choose to make too many assumptions, a project delay or budget problem is in your future.

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The “Glue” That Makes Projects Work

By Michael W. McLaughlin on March 29, 2011 in Consulting Process, Managing Projects

We’re all aware of the laundry list of attributes that make for a successful project, including:

A clear objective and scope
A flexible project plan
Strong executive sponsorship and support
Competent leadership
A qualified project team
Relevant performance measures
A little luck

But, even if a project has these essential ingredients, you still need one more thing: candor.

Few things move a project along more effectively than an environment of open, frank communication. A lack of candor on any project team, which usually stems from fear, leads to bad decisions, flawed ideas, and poor morale.

It’s easy to find project leaders who say they want a candid working environment, but don’t really mean it. Why? Because many leaders have had bad experiences with candid conversations. So they create project environments in which communication can’t flow easily. As a result, they often don’t learn about real problems until there’s an emergency.

Candor can’t be a cliché. It’s not enough for a project leader to proclaim, “My door is always open.” Candor between a team and its leader begins with trust and respect. Slogans don’t engender trust. Actions do. The best project leaders show–though their actions– that it’s not only safe to be candid, but preferable.

Candor must be continuous. In too many cases, candor between a team and its leader doesn’t happen until there’s a messy problem to fix. Those conversations usually begin with a team member posing a question like, “May I be totally candid with you?” Once you answer that question with a “yes,” the news is rarely good.

Project leaders must encourage their teams to be candid continually, not just when there’s a problem.

Candor is a friend of collaboration. Once teams know they can be candid, without fear of reprisal, better ideas emerge, people express themselves more freely, and they raise issues (and resolve them) more quickly.

Remember that candor doesn’t mean unfiltered communication. Candor doesn’t give anyone license to blast away at the ideas of another. Candid communication must be artful, not ham-handed.

Think of candor as the glue that holds a successful project team together. How candid is your team?

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Handling Tough Client Situations

By Michael W. McLaughlin on March 22, 2011 in Client Relationships, Consulting Process, Managing Projects

Most of us have gone through one of those “tense” client conversations—the kind of meeting you really wish you didn’t need to have. Maybe it’s about a missed deadline, a blown budget, or an unplanned change in project scope.

One thing that makes these meetings tougher is that people put them off, hoping to find some workaround to whatever obstacle blocks their path. By the time a meeting is set up, the problem is often bigger than when it first emerged.

If you and your client can discuss any problem with these principles in mind, the solution will come more quickly and you’ll strengthen your ability to work together.

It’s not a win-lose proposition
Affixing blame doesn’t fix anything
Define the problem in a way that allows you to solve it
Get the facts out in the open quickly
But test the validity of all assumptions and facts
Disagree without being disagreeable
Prevent future problems by focusing on how decisions are made
Keep reminding yourself and others that no one intended to create the problem.

The most important point is this: The success of the services you deliver and the results you achieve depend, in large part, on the quality of the personal interactions you have with others along the way.

Keep that in mind and you’ll be able to tackle any problem client situation you face.

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Keep Your Project on Track

By Michael W. McLaughlin on March 11, 2011 in Client Relationships, Consulting Process, Managing Projects, Organizational Change

Most of us (myself included) have seen or been involved with a massive project flame out. It’s never pretty to watch a project team’s high hopes for success degenerate into tension, trepidation, and resignation.

You can point to the usual suspects that wreak havoc on any project–like shifting scope, tenacious resistance to change, or lapses in leadership. I’m sure you could expand this list. We know (at least in our heads) why projects fail, but the hard-learned lessons of blown time lines and canceled projects don’t seem to be taking root. The project failure rate is still higher than anyone should expect given our long history of doing projects.

If you want to improve your odds of a successful outcome, improve the quality of the questions you ask your team–especially as the project nears a milestone or completion. Be sure your questions get below the surface of key issues because research shows that people are less likely to reveal negative information as a project nears completion.

Roll out your best interviewing and diagnostic skills as your project approaches the end to help your team get over the last project hurdles.

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Top 4 Leadership Characteristics (Revealed)

By Michael W. McLaughlin on March 3, 2011 in Business Life, Managing Projects, Managing Your Business

In a post earlier this week, I talked about the findings from a global, multi-year study by James Kouzes and Barry Posner on the characteristics that people look for in their leaders.

Of the 20 leadership characteristics that Kouzes and Posner use in their study (see below), year after year, four consistently rank at the top of the list of desirable leadership attributes. Which four did you pick as the top ones?

What Are the Top 4 Leadership Characteristics?
Independent	Competent	Ambitious	Determined
Cooperative	Self-Controlled	Loyal	Dependable
Honest	Straightforward	Supportive	Mature
Intelligent	Forward-Looking	Caring	Courageous
Fair-Minded	Imaginative	Broad-Minded	Inspiring

Well, the four leadership characteristics selected most frequently are:

Honest
Forward-looking
Inspiring
Competent

Of course, all 20 of the characteristics included in the study are important. But when people are asked to pick the most important leadership characteristics, the same four come out on top.

If you want to learn more about the authors, you can read the interview I conducted with James Kouzes.

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