Tag Archives | managing projects

Facing an “Arms-Crossed” Client

By on June 1, 2011 in Client Relationships, Consulting Process

michael w mclaughlinMore than once, I’ve had to face “arms-crossed” guy. You may know him (or her) too—the client interviewee whose body language flashes, “I don’t have time for this. I’m not interested. Do we have to do this?” Since reluctant clients often play an important part in piecing together a project, it’s essential to break through the negativity.

Sometimes, no matter what you do, “arms-crossed” guy won’t budge. But if you need that person’s help, you’ve got to try. Here are a few tips for coaxing information from an unwilling interviewee.

Start Easy

If there’s no apparent threat or risk, “arms-crossed” guy may warm up. So start your conversation with the basics. Normally, though, this guy could care less what you think about the plaque on the wall honoring his community contribution seven years ago. Don’t go there.

Instead, begin by stating exactly what you want to learn, who sent you, and how you plan to use the information. Also, confirm how long the meeting will last. You’d probably do this introduction with any interviewee, but it’s critical with semi-hostiles.

Then launch into easy, factual questions, for example, “How many people do you manage?” “How has your business (or function) grown, and who are your best customers?” The point: Start without controversy, show that you listen, care, and have credibility.

Plus, resist the urge to respond to snide comments about the project, your role, or anything else that gets lobbed at you. Once you take that bait, you’ve lost the possibility of turning a bad interview into something useful.

You might be able to pierce the wall of resistance by letting a reluctant interviewee talk. Simple, fact-based questions offer the interviewee an opportunity to thaw. Allow time for an interviewee to expand on answers by pausing for several seconds after each response before you dive into the next question.

Define Your Must-Haves

If your interview isn’t going well and there’s little hope of turning it around, check your interview notes. Identify the essential information you must have from this individual. Usually, you’ll have options for finding what you need elsewhere. Still, zero in on what only this person can give you and ask away.

Keep a brisk pace as you move through your questions, but don’t leave the impression that you’re writing off the interview. Treat the reluctant interviewee as an important part of your process, no matter how hard that is.

Get Closer to the Issue

Once you’ve finished an interview, you’ll need to confirm whatever you learned. Find others who can flesh out your information, interpret what you know, and point you to others who can help. When you’re rebuffed by an interviewee, get closer to the problem. Find people who are directly affected by the issue and seek out their opinions.

No matter how much “arms-crossed” guy resists, you’ve got to stay above the fray. Don’t complain about him to others in the client’s organization—chances are they already know about the attitude. And don’t avoid him in the future. Who knows—“arms-crossed” guy might turn out to be your best ally; treat him well and keep chipping away.

Comments { 4 }

A Question to Start Every Project Meeting

By on May 12, 2011 in Consulting Process, Managing Projects

michael mclaughlinMost 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.

Comments { 0 }

What Happens When You Leave?

By on May 9, 2011 in Client Relationships, Consulting Process

michael mclaughlinYou may know how this feels. You’ve got a good track record with a client, but the client doesn’t clue you in when a suitable new project arises. In spite of your great work, you learn about the new project right before it’s about to go to someone else.

Of course, you can scramble and possibly get back on your client’s radar. For clients you already know, it doesn’t have to be like that.

How Quickly They Forget

You need more than trust and a record of delivering value to remain relevant with your past clients. You also need a champion (or two). Most of what clients remember about you and your work stems from the conversations they have when you are no longer around. You’ll rarely hear those conversations–or have the chance to directly influence them.

That’s where a champion comes in. I’m not just talking about a satisfied client who is willing to act as a reference for you. I’m referring to someone who will be an advocate for your work, defend you against inevitable critics, and help shape the story about your work that you need to stay in the game.

Every consultant faces an invisible barrier to landing new work: client indifference. If you want to become more than just another consultant who did good work, identify and nurture champions along the way. These people can keep your history alive when you’re not there to speak for yourself.

Champions Where You Least Expect

You won’t have more than a few champions in any client organization. Nor will you need more than that. In many cases, one well-placed champion can be enough. I know a consultant who’s been booked solid for two years on a range of projects due to a champion relationship with one executive in a large client organization.

Like many champion relationships, this one emerged slowly and unexpectedly. The client executive didn’t initially hire the consultant, and he didn’t have management responsibility for the project. But the consultant and the executive worked side by side on specific project tasks, faced some tough project issues together, and connected on a personal level.

Once that project ended, the consultant had a champion. And he didn’t have to force it. The relationship grew naturally in the course of their work together and through adherence to a few guiding principles.

Focus on the Here and Now

When someone who is “talking” to you often looks beyond you to others in the room, you get the message: that person is obviously lining up the next, more important conversation. Don’t send that message to clients about your projects. Once you’ve started a project, put your ambitions for follow-on work on the back burner.

Resist the urge to look beyond the current project, at least until your client signals that it’s ok. Stay focused on the here and now and your client’s trust in you will grow. In time, the client will draw you into other opportunities and you may find that you’re developing a champion.

Steer Clear of Politics

Politics percolate just below the surface in every client organization. In an effort to please client sponsors, many consultants get caught in the morass of client politics. It’s helpful to know what’s happening behind the scenes. But, get sucked into the client’s drama, and you lose your objectivity and cut off access to potential champions.

If you’re backing someone else’s agenda, expect to take arrows from detractors. I know a consultant who aligned herself with her sponsor’s project strategy, which others didn’t agree with. Instead of orchestrating a healthy debate about alternatives, the consultant pushed for her sponsor’s solution.

The result: when the sponsor’s idea was ultimately rejected, the consultant became the target for criticism. She hasn’t been back to that client since.

It’s not enough to have a champion in an organization. When someone advocates on your behalf, others have to view you as credible too. Taking sides in office politics will tag you as biased and self-interested. That’s a showstopper even a champion can’t overcome.

Don’t Look for a Two-Way Street

In a perfect world, the more value you give to clients, the more you receive. The value profile of most client relationships, though, isn’t that clear-cut. Sometimes, you give and give without getting anything in return. At that point, some people give up and move on to something else.

Don’t expect a quid pro quo from your clients. I know consultants, for example, who schedule regular meetings with their clients to review the latest regulatory issues and competitive information. Those meetings happen whether there’s an ongoing project or not. There’s no expectation of an immediate return, but a return on the effort always materializes.

A potential champion watches how you behave when there’s nothing in it for you (like a new project). So always search for innovative ways to help out, especially between projects.

Extending Your Influence

Your long-term success with any client depends on both what happens during a project and afterward. You’ll benefit from a client champion or two to watch out for you when you’re not there, and to help write the narrative of what you accomplished. Nothing beats the marketing power of a client who knows what you do, how you do it, and is willing to go to bat for you.

Comments { 0 }

9 Signs of a Bad Client Situation

By on May 1, 2011 in Client Relationships, Consulting Process

michael mclaughlinYou know you are in a bad client situation when:

  • You show up for the project kickoff meeting and your client says, “Oh…was that scheduled for today?”
  • Your client still mispronounces your name after your third meeting.
  • The client asks you to match your consulting rates to those in a proposal the client solicited from a Ukrainian programmer on Elance.
  • You have to go through an assistant to an assistant to get on your client sponsor’s calendar.
  • Your client continually tells you, “This project should be so easy for you.”
  • The client starts every status meeting with, “I’m sure I told you about this change…”
  • Your email to the client confirming that day’s final briefing comes back with an automated, out-of-office reply.
  • At the final project meeting, your client says, “Remind me again–why are we here?”
  • The invoice you sent to the client comes back to you as “undeliverable.”

What others would you add to the list?

Comments { 5 }

The First Law of Projects

By on April 26, 2011 in Consulting Process, Managing Projects

michael mclaughlinOn 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.

Comments { 0 }

Getting Projects to “Done”

By on April 20, 2011 in Consulting Process, Managing Projects

michael mclaughlin

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

Comments { 2 }

Lesson of the Chef

By on April 18, 2011 in Managing Projects
michael mclaughlin

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.

Comments { 0 }

Project Failures: Symptoms vs. Causes

By on April 7, 2011 in Consulting Process, Managing Projects

michael mclaughlin

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.

Comments { 4 }

Project Snafu in Your Future?

By on March 30, 2011 in Consulting Process, Managing Projects

project leadershipEvery 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.

Comments { 0 }

The “Glue” That Makes Projects Work

By on March 29, 2011 in Consulting Process, Managing Projects

candorWe’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?

Comments { 2 }