Colin D. Ellis's Blog, page 25

5 Attributes of Great Project Teams

Every now and then project managers create teams that just work. A team that is unique, has energy, motivation and the determination to get the job done. It’s something to be cherished, nurtured, celebrated and shared, because it doesn’t happen often enough and lack of collaboration amongst team members is a key contributor to project failure.

No two teams are the same, even if you have the same people from project to project, because no two projects are the same. They each have different outcomes, challenges and approaches, which means that simply repeating what was done before won’t work.

The key to continual team-building success is to recognise what makes a team great, then to work hard to build it before the next project starts. Before. Not during or ‘in a crisis’, but before you get started.

Only then does everyone get a say on what they’ve seen work well. On how they’ll keep each other and the stakeholders informed and on the behaviours required to ensure that everyone can be the best version of themselves.

You know these teams. You’ve been on one. You may have even created one.

So here are my five attributes of great project teams:

1. There’s harmony at the start

It’s incredible to think that according to one survey, almost 75% of a project team thinks their project is doomed from the start and believe those who commission the project are out of sync with those charged with delivering it. 

Great teams don’t think that way, there’s optimism from the start. There’s a sense of purpose, a forged vision of a better future post-project and a determination to act. They don’t rush blindly into delivery mode. They take the time to understand each other, share how they like to work and share a little about their interests. Once they’ve done that they talk, think, then act and ensure that the stakeholders are involved in the initiation process.

2. They hold each other to account

Great teams understand that in order to be able to maintain harmony in times of change, there needs to be an agreed expectation of how they’ll behave. An understanding that they’re all human beings and that by demonstrating anger and aggression they are undermining their ability to deliver.

They challenge each other in a positive way, setting stretch goals but never falling outside their behavioural expectations of each other. 

Should anyone step outside of the agreement they’ve made, they hold each other to account and won’t wait for the project manager or sponsor to do it for them.

3. They keep it simple

In his book The Game Changer, Dr Jason Fox says ‘if the concept is complicated, no-one will understand what it takes to change’ and projects are often hotbeds of complexity. From acronym project names to theorists telling you why their method is the best. Is it any wonder that there’s so much stakeholder disengagement?

Great teams don’t do this. They do brevity really really well. They don’t hide behind big words or over complicate conversations. They are high in empathy and speak in a way that brings the stakeholders closer to the work. Even in highly complex projects, they understand that by breaking down work and communication into easy-to-digest, simple pieces, they are much more likely to deliver to expectations.

4. They do collaboration without talking about it

Great teams always collaborate on how they’ll collaborate, before they start collaborating. They’ll agree when something should be run as a workshop, meeting, stand up or one on one. They’ll agree the principles of how they’ll work together and the tools they’ll use. They commit to a culture of continuous feedback to ensure that the collaboration doesn’t suffer. They call those responsible for the work ‘people’ not ‘resources’ because they know that only through great people can you get the job done.

They’ll create workspaces that work for their personalities and provide visual guides for those passing by. There’s laughter, music and a sense that they take their work very seriously, but not themselves.

5. They fail fast, then go again

Most organisations are really bad at failing fast, because leaders lack the courage to stop a project mid-flight and think it will reflect badly on them as an individual.

Great teams understand that the opposite is true and when there’s a tough decision to be made, then that’s the one they’ll recommend. They are solution-focused but know instinctively when something should be stopped. They make their recommendations early in order to maintain momentum and will stand by their decision.

Of course, as a project manager, you are the enabler for great teams, but you don’t own them. It’s your job to create the right kind of environment in which they can flourish, then get out of their way so they can get the job done. You take all of the blame and none of the credit and give yourself a pat on the back privately for a job well done.

What are you doing to create great project teams?

​When will the IT project madness end?

There is a scene in the fifth season of The Simpsons called Cape Feare where Bart Simpson’s nemesis Sideshow Bob – beautifully voiced by Kelsey Grammar – steps on a rake. Then another, and another, and another. In fact he steps on rakes for fully 30 seconds. Each one hits him in the face, after which he grimaces and then duly steps on another rake.

When I first saw this episode, I thought this 30 second routine was hilarious and yet at the same time it was a sad indictment of what Sideshow Bob had become. Someone, devoid of new ideas, who made the same mistakes over and over again and ultimately ended up back in prison.

Continually stepping on rakes is a perfect metaphor for the continued project failure that we see in the public service. Unfortunately, however, none of these cartoon villains end up in prison. Instead they remain at large ‘in the system’, ready to fail taxpayers again.

The Brisbane City Council $60m blowout is just the latest in a long line of examples of senior leaders in well paid positions ignoring the advice and reviews of thousands before them and betraying common sense by leading a project to failure.

They’ll do it again, as there appears to be no consequence for doing so, which leads me to ask the question, ‘when will this project madness end?’

In August 2015, Peter Shergold released his report into the continuing failure of Australian Public Service projects and made a series of conclusions. I’d argue that his language should have been stronger and he should have made recommendations, however, I’m sure there’s some political nonsense that stopped that from happening.

He was damning in his assessment of the maturity of senior executives and program and project managers alike, saying, amongst other things:

“Of the 20 capability reviews conducted by the APSC (Australian Public Service Commission) and released to date, 11 have noted that departments struggle with project management skills and program management practices.”

“Program and project management are too often seen as control activities based on templates and Gantt charts. They are actually creative processes.”

“Legislation will not change culture: people and their actions do.”

“Valuing leadership in program and project management will strengthen the public service as an effective, professional and resilient institution.”

Ah yes, leadership and culture – the two most important factors in getting projects delivered, yet routinely ignored by bureaucrats as ‘fluffy stuff’ or whatever the hell else they want to call it.

‘Follow the process and we’ll achieve consistency of delivery’, ‘Adhere to the framework and you’ll be successful.’ ‘We’re a PRINCE2 shop.’ ‘We need to be more agile.’ Process, process, process.

Here’s the thing, the process is only good as the people that use it and according to Shergold and the worldwide statistics for IT project success (it was an appalling 29 per cent in 2015), most of them aren’t good enough.

Sure they have a certificate that says that understand a method, but where’s the feedback from those who have worked with them that demonstrates they’re able to be a role model for others?

That demonstrates that they’re able to keep their emotions in check, continually strive to be the best version of themselves and create the kind of environments where people can perform their job to the best of their abilities?

All that process counts for nothing if the people sponsoring and managing projects don’t have the personality, planning skills or ethical responsibility to lead from the front.

In its 2015 Chaos Report (which analyses over 280,000 IT projects worldwide), The Standish Group said: “Over the last 20 years the project management field has experienced increasing layers of project management processes, tools, governance, compliance and oversight. Yet these activities and products have done nothing to improve project success.”

Nothing. Not. One Thing. Yet the public service continues to invest in them and not in the things that matter: leadership and culture building skills.

The best projects are a result of the person that leads it or the environment they create. It always has been that way and always will be. Project managers and sponsors need to make the decision to change and become role models for transformation. Where they choose not to, then they should be removed from the role and performance managed, not allowed to drag the team and agency down with them.

For too long, these poorly performing people have failed to build the kinds of teams that are able to fulfil the promises made to taxpayers. Or whose decisions are made in the name of speed or political positioning. The Census project and the disastrous East-West Link project are great examples of this.

They continue to make excuses, ‘the scope expanded’, ‘there were lots of unknowns’, ‘the risks were greater than we first thought’, ‘interest rate fluctuations really damaged our budget planning’, rather than fronting up to the taxpayer and admitting they got it wrong.

The Victorian Ombudsman in its report into the top ten IT project failures in Victoria in 2011 said: “Ultimately, accountability for these projects rests with the principal officer of the agency. If the project runs over budget and time, and fails to deliver, then they should be held to account.”

If that happened more often and we saw some public accountability for the blatant ignorance of past project failures and a lack of investment into the skills that actually matter, then maybe, just maybe, this IT project madness will end.

Don’t hold your breath.

Originally published as an article in CIO Magazine

Get your project out of the blocks quickly in 2017

The start is the most important part of any race. Usain Bolt, the Jamaican 100m sprinter, multiple gold medal winner and world record holder, was consistently slow out of the blocks when he first started competing, which forced him into the position of having to work twice as hard to catch up.

This is a great metaphor for starting a project off in the right way. If you don't start with understanding 'how' you'll work together as a team, you'll be constantly playing catch up with the work that you have to do.

As a project sponsor or project manager you need to think carefully about the people that you need to be involved in this unique culture you're creating. Think about the detractors, passives and promoters and invite them all to [at least] two days of culture setting. Or as Simon Dowling says in his excellent book Work with Me 'Throw a Starty Party!'

Two days of establishing a vision, agreeing behaviours and talking about how you'll work together. Two days where you discuss what works well within your current organisation, and what lessons you've learned from other projects and elements of your organisational culture.

Lessons around how you gather information, how you talk and communicate with each other and how you set your workplace up for success. Are you co-located (always the best option) or are you geographically distributed? How are you going to run your meetings? Stand up, sit-down or walking? Five minutes, 15 minutes or 45 minutes? How are you going to use music (because headphones are a culture killer)?

How are you going to celebrate success and reward great behaviour, collaboration and innovation? How are you going to keep it simple and, most importantly, how are you going to ensure that you don't take yourselves too seriously?

In essence, you're going to do a pre-mortem on your own project. You're going to think about all the things you need to do differently to ensure that your project doesn't die early. Nobody wants to do a post-mortem, so do the lessons learned first because if you wait until the end, it's too late.

I work with organisations to help them do this and, make no mistake, while the two days are a lot of fun, it's also hard work. Getting a culture right isn't easy, but the best chance you have of doing it is at the start.

In her book We Should All Be Feminists, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wrote that 'Culture does not make people, people make culture.' While James P. Carse said in his book Finite and Infinite Games 'Just as it is essential to have a definitive ending, it must also have a precise beginning.'

Creating this precise beginning is your responsibility as a project sponsor or manager and you must be fully engaged throughout. Once you have an established culture you can pass responsibility to the team to ensure its evolution.

As a project manager you need to put significant time and effort in ensuring that this happens. Netflix is an example of an organisation that takes this responsibility seriously. In its culture deck, it tells managers that 'We’re a team, not a family. We’re like a pro sports team, not a kids recreational team. Netflix leaders hire, develop and cut smartly so we have stars in every position.'

A joint McKinsey/Oxford University study that found that for project teams to be effective and to meet their goals they 'need a common vision, shared team processes and and a high-performance culture'.

It's this high performance culture that will keep people motivated and wanting to come into work. They'll invest their reputation and energy into the project and think from a position of possibility, not negativity.

This is no accident. It takes time and strong leadership from the project sponsor and manager.

Or as Ed Catmull, current President of Pixar Studios, says in his book Creativity Inc. 'Quality is not a consequence of following some set of behaviours… rather it is a prerequisite and a mindset you must have before you decide what you are setting off to do.'

I'll leave the final words in this blog to Usain Bolt ‘I worked a lot on starting well. After that, when I get into my stride, I just let everything flow.’

How are you building a culture that allows the team to get into their stride?

How to set your project up for success before Christmas

As we head towards the Christmas break, it’s time (for most) to put the brakes on to enjoy a much needed period of calm. For others, it’s a rush to deliver before losing key staff for an extended period of time. Whichever camp you fall into, it’s important to maintain momentum, whilst also taking the opportunity to get a complete break.

Having gone to the trouble of building a great team, plan and creating an environment in which people can do their best work, it’s important that people can take a step back from what they’re doing, enjoy their time off, knowing that when they return they’re able to pick up exactly where they left off.

So what can be done to maintain momentum and take a break? Here are five tips for project managers and five more for project sponsors, because the responsibility sits with both.

5 Things Project Managers Should Do Over Christmas

1. Update your controls

I’m not a fan of the word ‘control’, but the fact of the matter is that risk registers, communication plans, issue logs, dependency plans, schedules, and so on are a core part of a project manager’s job and need to be updated every week. At Christmas, PMs need to get the crystal ball out and take a longer term view and manage them accordingly.

2.  Re-plan

Once the controls have been updated and regardless of whether there are two weeks or two months left of the project post-Christmas, now is the time to bring the project team together and look at what tasks have been completed and what’s still to do. These sessions give the team focus for when everyone is back in January

3. Re-assess the risks

There’s a good chance that over Christmas the project will accumulate a couple more risks and it’s critical that they don’t become issues while everyone is away. Take a look at what’s currently a potential threat and the likelihood of it becoming an issue. Does the likelihood increase over Christmas? If so, you may need to take action.

4.  Say thank you

The great project managers take all of the blame and none of the credit, that’s what makes them so good to work for and yet over 70% of staff in Australia still don’t feel appreciated for the work they do. That’s an appalling statistic, so project managers should be that person that says thank you to the team. Say it to their face, write them a card or shout them a morning tea. The people on the team are the keepers of a project manager’s reputation, never forget that.

5. Take a break

A proper break. One where emails aren’t checked and calls aren’t taken (unless you’re actually on call of course). Spend time with the family, read a book, play some board games, have a BBQ (southern hemisphere only!), do fun stuff... Eat, drink and be merry, but don’t overdo it. As soon as they get back to the office, project managers need to be on their game again, with energy, humour and stories, not an extra 5kg.

5 Things Project Sponsors Should Do Over Christmas

1. Gain clarity on activity over the holidays

Just because it’s Christmas doesn’t mean that all project work should stop, so gain clarity on what is being done and by whom. Sponsors need to ensure that the project manager has secured the necessary resources to get the work done and has actions in place to mitigate risks.

2. Ask for the next three-month plan

Ensure that the year starts in the best possible way by ensuring that the project manager has provided a detailed plan for the first three months of the year. That way, sponsors can go into the break knowing that the activity continues the second everyone returns.

3. Celebrate the successes of the year so far

As Oprah once said ‘The more your praise and celebrate your project, the more there is in your project to celebrate.’ Of course, I’m paraphrasing (sorry Oprah), however, Christmas is a great time to celebrate the work done so far and the effort expended in doing so. It reminds the project team that they’re part of something successful and provides the sponsor with an opportunity to personally thank everybody.

4.  Encourage the team to rest and recharge

While Christmas can be tough work-wise, it’s also important to remember that it’s a time for family as well as a well-earned break. Encourage the team to rest and recuperate in order to come back refreshed and motivated in the New Year.

5. Take a break yourself

Governing projects alongside a day job isn’t easy, so sponsors you need to make sure you take the time to look back on what you’ve done well and the things that require work so that you too can go into the break feeling a sense of achievement and excitement for the year ahead.

Christmas is one of those very rare times of the year where we all get to take a few days off the tools and enjoy time with friends and family. In order to enjoy it to the full, project managers and sponsors need to ensure that everything has been done to set the project up for success once everyone returns. What are you doing to get your project in order now?

Does your project management service go to 11?

I asked this question of a client recently. She has engaged me to give their people the ‘soft skills’ (in reality, the hard stuff to change) they need to be able to consistently meet the expectations of their stakeholders. I wanted to know how those same stakeholders felt about the project management service they receive, so it seemed a reasonable question to ask, especially in light of the fact that this particular client is a fan of comedy movies.

Are the PMs role models for others? Do they spend time thinking of their communication approach? Are they consistently asking for feedback and actively involving the team in the decision-making required throughout a project? Do they celebrate success and make problem-solving fun?

‘Does your project management service go to 11?’ I asked.

In the 1984 mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel (brilliantly played by Christopher Guest) excitedly points out to the documentary maker name Marty Di Bergi (real life director Rob Reiner) a Marshall amp that the band own. This particular amp is unique. ‘Most amps’, Nigel explains, ‘go to 10. But this one is very special because if you can see [points to dials] the numbers all go to 11. If we need that extra push over the cliff, we put it up to 11.’

As individuals, we are all capable of so much and the project management profession should be at the forefront of organisational transformation, striving to make the service the best that it can possibly be. Be a little bit more special. Be that little bit different. Be that little bit more memorable for all the right reasons.

And yet, while we continue to measure project managers on the very things that change throughout the life of a project – time and cost – and not the thing that shouldn’t change – stakeholder experience – taking the service to 11 will always be the last thing on most people’s list.

Yes projects should always be managed to a plan (time and cost), but measuring project managers on this often forces them to become intransigent, reactive and direct, at a time when flexibility, empathy and level-headedness are required to keep morale high and progress on track.

For most project managers, the only time they seek feedback on the service they’re providing is at the end of a project during the completion of the lessons learned report. By this stage, however, most have made the same mistakes again and the lessons haven’t been learned. Such is the irony of the lessons not learned report.

To change the behaviours of a project manager you need to give them the insights into what great looks like, then change the way you measure and manage them.

Every project management development program should measure the service being provided before it is run, then again after the program has been completed. That way you ensure that those being developed put into practice what they’ve learned and you create a new level of expectation to manage them to.

Every year project management surveys are released detailing the 15 or more reasons for project failure, when in reality there are only two: poor project sponsorship and poor project management.

These two problems can be spotted and dealt with quickly by regularly asking your stakeholders (project team included) about the service both are providing. The information gained can be actioned almost immediately and confidence regained.

ProjectNPS uses the Net Promoter Score (NPS) approach to do just this and provide organisations with a benchmark of what good looks like. The net promoter score is now the industry standard way of capturing the detail of the experience the customer has had and allowing them to score it on an eleven-point scale of 0-10.

Australian telecom provider iiNet is one such user of the NPS system. iiNet’s CEO Michael Malone states in this interview that a 1-point increase in their NPS equalled an A$1.6 million increase in net profit after tax. He also explained that iiNet’s customer service team is its “heroes” and claims that a 0.1% improvement in customer churn added up to 20% recurring improvement in sales.

Whilst this statistic is for external sales, imagine what the same approach does for internal stakeholder confidence, a commitment to ongoing behavioural change and to the evolution of your culture?

As Tom Peters said in his book The Brand 50: “Client service is an hourly, daily, explicitly top priority.”

I use ProjectNPS for all my programs to measure the experience being provided before project managers are developed and then again once those same people have had the insights into what it takes to get to 11.

Development programs without accountability mean more of the same service and a repeat of the mistakes we’ve been making for the last 15 years.

Most project managers have the opportunity to make it to 10, but getting to 11 is the goal. What are you doing to take your project management service to 11?

Take action with risks (don't just write them down)

According to the Project Management Institute, almost a third of projects fail as a result of poor risk management. Unfortunately – much like the rest of project planning these days – it’s seen as a form-filling exercise rather than a ‘let’s take action to stop this happening’ exercise.

To stop a risk from becoming an issue (they only happen this way around), then you should follow these five steps:

Get a group of people together who can accurately assess what risks (or opportunities) your project could be exposed to. Don’t call it a risk workshop because no-one ever wants to go to one of those. Be creative with the name and have biscuits. Always have biscuits.Get the group to write them down and then take them through a process of identifying the likelihood of the risk occurring and the impact should that happen. Get the group to come up with the actions necessary to ensure that they don’t become issues.Decide which you need to address (typically the medium and high risks) and add the actions to stop them becoming issues, to your schedule. There is a cost and time implication to managing risk and it should be assessed at this stage before you take the action. Some risk may not be managed cost-effectively and may have to be tolerated instead.Make sure the actions are completed – we call this mitigation.Continually reassess the risks (at least weekly) to ensure that you’ve decreased the likelihood of them becoming issues and ensure there are no new ones that could surprise you. If there are, go back to step one and repeat the process.

Risk management takes time and costs money but it's preferable to the alternative of managing the issues. In order to be proactive rather than reactive take action, don’t just write them down.

Overcoming the Loneliness of Leadership

Last month I wrote about the choices to be made in order to become a leader. What I failed to mention is that at times leadership can be an extremely lonely business and you need to put some time and effort into looking after yourself in order to be your best self.

Leadership can be isolating because there are a lot of expectations resting on you. 

There are feelings about situations and other people that you can’t share.

There’s information about structures and plans that can’t be talked about.

There’ll be disagreements with others who don’t have the insights or behaviours that you do.

There’ll be habits and emotions that only you can work on.

There’ll be times when you can’t do the things you enjoy.

You have to relentlessly look for ways to improve your knowledge and skills.

It’ll be exhausting, frustrating and at times, confusing. 

But then nobody ever said that being the best version of yourself was going to be easy. In the times when you’re overcome by the loneliness of leadership it’s important to find an outlet.

For some it’s family and friends. Putting the books and thoughts down and spending time with those they love.

For some it’s exercise. Getting the heart pumping and the blood flowing.

For some it’s cooking. Taking the time to prepare something healthy and delicious.

For some it’s yoga and mindfulness. Thirty minutes of stretching out and clearing the mind.

For some it’s writing. Capturing thoughts and emotions to share or keep private. 

For some it’s music. Old stuff, new stuff, random stuff, it doesn’t matter. It lifts the mood, transports them away and resets their energy.

Leadership can be a lonely business, so find yourself some outlets, balance them with the choices you have made and enjoy every second of it. You may never get another chance.

Making The Decision To Lead

I’m currently working with a large government agency to help them evolve their delivery culture. Our monthly sessions focus on the leadership skills required to be successful every time and we’ve had some great results so far.

However, at the end of one of the sessions, one of the attendees approached me and said, ‘Colin, I love these sessions, but what I’ve come to realise is that I don’t want to lead a team. I prefer working on my own and love the detail of what I do. So I just wanted to say thank you!’

Now don’t get me wrong, my programs and speeches aren’t telling people that they can’t be leaders, if anything I’m imparting my knowledge because I believe anyone can make the choice to lead. However, I want those who choose project management as a career to fully understand what they’re getting themselves into, as it can be a lonely business.

When I started my career I certainly didn’t have all of the skills necessary to lead, nor had I made the decision to.

What I did have, however, was the ability to be flexible and the desire to learn from those around me. To be relentless in my quest to be professional and to never stop looking for better ways to get things done.

With that kind of drive comes mistakes and with those mistakes comes learning. This learning leads to improvement, but only if you are able to be resilient and not make the same mistakes again.

Given that project management is a relationship business, you have to decide very early on if you want to expend your daily energy understanding and managing the emotions of others, whilst capturing and managing the information necessary to keep the project on track.

It’s a multi-faceted role that demands certain personal qualities and, to be truly successful, you have to be a role model for others.

In short, you have to choose to lead. You have to look at yourself in the mirror, acknowledge what works and what doesn’t, then actively change some things.

Before you make the choice to lead, consider your answers to these 10 questions:

Will you put the time and effort into building relationships?Are you willing to change your communication style depending on who you are talking to, or the situation you are in?Are you prepared to question ‘the way we do things around here’ and be open to trying new ideas and ways of working?Are you excited at the thought of bringing a group of (potential) strangers together to build a plan to deliver something unique?Will you be able to manage poor performance without compromising your own mental wellbeing?Will you actively dedicate time (often during weekday evenings and at weekends) to improving your skills and/or invest in external mentoring?Will you be able to avoid getting dragged into the detail of the solution being built but ensure you have enough knowledge to ask the right questions?Can you build harmonious teams and trust them to get the job done?Are you prepared to let go of your methodology language and speak in a way that your stakeholders understand?Are you excited about projects and how they can help the organisation achieve its goals?

If we are to improve the perception of our profession and demonstrate to the next generation of project managers that they can succeed too, then we need more people to make the choice to lead. Are you in?

Project Management Is An Emotional Rollercoaster

I remember the first time that I cried as a project manager. I was 29, had just finished a project team meeting and I felt completely overwhelmed by the pace of change that we were introducing and my ability to deal with it.

The project was actually progressing OK. We had our fair share of system issues (as always), but as a team we were doing what we needed to do and for the most part I felt in control of the details.

Risks and issues were being managed well, dependencies were under control, milestones were being met and the stakeholders were as happy as they could be. That said, I felt that I’d been battling people for the best part of three years and it had completely drained me emotionally.

So I cried. For about 15 mins in a store cupboard. I can’t remember what I was thinking about at that exact time, but I know that I needed to let my emotion out.

A year earlier my Mum had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Six months later I had my own cancer scare. On top of all that, I was spending weeks away from home and weekends trying to get ready for the week ahead.

All of this I took in my stride. I never let any of this interfere with the day-to-day work that we had to do or the relationships I had to build and maintain with the stakeholders. I also had to manage the emotions of the team, who – as humans – had their own issues. After all, they were away from home and family too. They were dealing with difficult scope and change issues and were also feeling the brunt of the change we were implementing.

As the project manager and team leader I was the emotional sponge and I internalised all of my own stress and anxiety.

In his book Emotional Capitalists, Martyn Newman says that ‘95% of your emotions are defined by the way that you speak to yourself’ and at that time I was having heavy internal conversations.

Telling myself to stay focussed, strong and positive. To eat well, exercise and find time to relax. To remember to be empathetic towards others, to not overthink mistakes or decisions and to continue to stay on top of the plan we had to deliver.

I’d love to be able to tell you that I did a good job of managing it. That I managed to process this emotional information consistently well and to work the stress out of my system.

In truth, it took me about 14 months and remains a constant struggle. But I understand myself a lot more now and can easily recognise signs of stress so that I can deal with them.

So when well-meaning CEOs and senior managers – who haven’t done the hard project management yards – tell me that in order to improve project management results we need more ‘certified professionals’, you’ll forgive me if I disagree.

I’ve been there, done that and know for a fact that we need more people who can understand and manage their own emotions and those of other people.

The ability to process our own emotional information as well as that of others is the most critical part of project management and it isn’t covered in any of the textbooks that are studied. There are no multiple choice questions that you can answer that prepare people for this.

This is why so many people find project management hard. They expect a process and instead they get emotion. Daniel Goleman said in his book Emotional Intelligence ‘intelligence comes to nothing when the emotions hold sway’. In projects, emotions definitely hold sway.

For all project managers out there, it’s ok to acknowledge this and look for help and support. Internalising how you feel can be self destructive, so find someone you trust and share your emotions with them. In the last month one of my mentees shared the fact that they lacked confidence in their own ability and worrying about it was keeping them up at night. A few days later another mentee texted me to let me know that their hard work had been recognised and they’d been promoted! This is a normal week on the project management rollercoaster.

This is why my programs cover the emotional side of project management first. Project managers need to understand this before anything else. Without having insights into how you react in certain situations and without understanding what it means to be empathetic, project managers will always be on the back foot. They’ll struggle to create a coherent team, manage their own energy and consequently stay focused on the important details of the project.

As American conservationist and biologist once said ‘If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions… are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow’ and you can’t grow anything in toxic soil. Least of all successful projects.

Once you get on a roller coaster you can’t get off until it ends. So before you start your project ask yourself ‘is my project manager emotionally prepared for this?’.

For information on depression and anxiety, visit Beyond Blue

"We Want To Change Our Project Delivery Culture"

 

This is something I hear a lot from prospective clients and something I said myself numerous times, in my previous roles.

However, my first question is always 'how badly do you want to do it?'

Saying 'we want to be more agile,' doesn't change it, neither will a restructure. 

Refreshing the framework and templates used to support delivery may help if those using it have requested changes, but will further undermine it if they haven't. 

Sending everyone a course can be beneficial (providing it's the right course), but won't change it unless everyone commits to doing lots of things differently.

Making the office open plan and putting in a table tennis table won't change it.

Creating a culture change project is counter-intuitive and while well-meaning, won't change it.

Creating a community will change it but only if you introduce new thinking, lots of energy, action and a sense of fun. 

Creating a community will do it if the attendees hold each accountable for the changes that need to be made and report back to each other on progress.

Creating a community will do it if you give people a chance to talk about the opportunities they have and give them time to be creative about the ideas to address them.

Creating a community will do it if you make it about the individual and not the organisation. The latter will be the beneficiary if you focus on the former.

Creating a community will do it if you spend time and money to make it something that people want to be a part of.

And there's the rub.

Changing any culture is an evolutionary process that requires a financial and time commitment from everyone involved. How badly do you want to do it?