Lonnie Pacelli's Blog, page 80
March 28, 2014
The Big Investment Opportunity...in Autism?
CNBC published a piece on how Google and Autism Speaks are teaming up to link private investors like venture capital, private equity, and hedge funds to create more autism-related business development opportunities. On one hand, I am thrilled that resources are becoming more abundant to help autistic people cope with their disability and promote a more independent lifestyle. On the other hand, I would hope that private investors keep balance with their desire to generate ROI and the social goal of helping the now 1-in-50 people born on the spectrum lead normal lives. I'm not so naïve to think that private investors are going to be solely philanthropic when it comes to investing in those with autism; I just hope they see the duality of their purpose.
March 22, 2014
Using Cloud Computing to Solve Bangalore's Garbage Problem
I love stories like this where technology is used in new and innovative ways to help solve social issues. The Bangalore Municipal Authority is using Cloud Computing and the people power of "ragpickers" in Bangalore for more socially responsible recycling as well as helping ragpickers make more money per month by more efficiently finding and selling recyclable garbage. Very cool!
Top Ten Blind Spots for Leaders
The Globe and Mail recently published a brief article on ten blind spots for leaders. Interestingly enough, the items listed focus on several very key themes, as follows:
1. Ability to collaborate with others
2. Accepting accountability for growing the capabilities of his/her team
3. Accepting accountability for personal growth
When I was a young leader, these themes were definitely blind spots for me. I saw on-time on-budget within-scope as the pillars of a great leader. As I matured as a leader, I recognized that if you want repeatable on-time on-budget within-scope you have to invest in themes like the above to make that happen. For my leader colleagues out there, how good are you at living and breathing the above themes and creating an environment where you consistently deliver results?
1. Ability to collaborate with others
2. Accepting accountability for growing the capabilities of his/her team
3. Accepting accountability for personal growth
When I was a young leader, these themes were definitely blind spots for me. I saw on-time on-budget within-scope as the pillars of a great leader. As I matured as a leader, I recognized that if you want repeatable on-time on-budget within-scope you have to invest in themes like the above to make that happen. For my leader colleagues out there, how good are you at living and breathing the above themes and creating an environment where you consistently deliver results?
The 25 Highest Paying Companies for Internships
$60-80k a year for an internship? Impossible? Glassdoor published a report on the 25 highest paying companies for internships. Proof positive that the biggest companies on earth continue to compete for A-list talent and that they're willing to shell out big bucks for that talent even before they finish their degree. Wow. Amazon.com Widgets
March 14, 2014
Gene Study Offers clues as to why Autism Strikes More Males
MSN published a really interesting article on why autism is more prevalent in males than females. To quote the article, "Girls seem to tolerate more genetic mutations than boys do before showing symptoms of disorder." Autism occurs about four times more in boys than girls. Continuing to build a greater understanding of this increasingly prevalent disorder (1 in 50 newborns are on the Autism Spectrum) will help us learn more about Autism's origins and how we can help those with autism better cope. Amazon.com Widgets
Government-as-a-Platform (?)
Forbes magazine published a short piece on how the some agencies in the Federal Government are turning to Cloud Computing to increase efficiency and enable better data sharing between agencies. The article used a new-to-me term, Government-as-a-Platform, to describe federal agencies' cloud adoption. I am all in for something that makes better use of our tax dollars, I just hope that governmental agencies think lean when implementing cloud solutions and demonstrate responsibility when spending our money.
Five Workforce Myths busted
Forbes Magazine put out an interesting piece about five workplace tenets which they claim are no longer true. I was a bit skeptical when I first started reading but there are a couple of the myths that I wholeheartedly agree with the author. Workforce myth #4, hire people who have all the answers really resonated with me. I believe that a key inflection point in someone's journey to leadership is when there is a shift in thinking they need to have all the answers to them knowing what questions to ask. Some of the best leaders I've ever worked with know the exact right question to ask that causes people to stop dead in their tracks. Those "knockout questions", as I like to call them, serve as the gateway to breakthrough thinking and can really help bring out the best thinking in your organization.
Workforce myth #5, keep yourself organized at work with a to-do list, is a bit of a misleading statement. The point of the myth is not to chuck your to-do list, but to think about what not to do to ensure precious time isn't spent on things that no one will ever care about. I constantly ask myself this question when I start working on something, "If I don't do this who will care?" I'd keep a to-do list, but watch out for those low-value tasks that no one will care about.
Good thoughtful piece; check it out.
Workforce myth #5, keep yourself organized at work with a to-do list, is a bit of a misleading statement. The point of the myth is not to chuck your to-do list, but to think about what not to do to ensure precious time isn't spent on things that no one will ever care about. I constantly ask myself this question when I start working on something, "If I don't do this who will care?" I'd keep a to-do list, but watch out for those low-value tasks that no one will care about.
Good thoughtful piece; check it out.
Enterprise Big Data Analytics: 10 prominent Trends to Look for in 2014
eWeek published a cool slideshow articulating 10 big data trends for 2014. What I like about the trends is that it digs into the operational realities and challenges of slicing and dicing structured and unstructured data. Topics such as the benefits and challenges of SQL, authentication, data errors, Hadoop, and search as an unstructured query language. Good stuff for those challenged with implementing enterprise-grade big data solutions.
Project Management Screw-Up 5 - We Didn't Have The Right Sponsorship
Excerpted from The Project Management Advisor - 18 Major Project Screw-Ups And How To Cut Them Off At The Pass (Prentice Hall, 2004)
Some years back I was appointed the lead program manager on an initiative which had as its objective to consolidate a number of disparate order management systems into a single system which supported all of the company’s order management needs. There were about five program managers working with me who each dragged in their respective customers to participate in the project.
The project was sponsored by the IT organization with no sponsorship from the business owner. The project lumbered along for about two months with the customers continually questioning why they were working on a project that wasn’t on their manager’s radar. The business owner had finally had enough and called IT management and the lead program manager (me!) into a meeting.
The meeting started off with the manager saying to IT, “Who told you to go do this project?” Now, I’m no rocket scientist, but it was pretty clear at that point that this was not to be one of my shining project management moments. While the meeting was very uncomfortable, I learned an extremely important lesson: absolutely, without a doubt, secure sponsorship on a project at the beginning, or suffer the consequences. Amazon.com Widgets For any project, it’s crucial to get an appropriate level of project sponsorship. The ideal project sponsor for your project would possess the following characteristics:
He/she directly experiences the pain of the status quo and would directly benefit as a result of doing the project
He/she actively helped craft the project mission statement
He/she has the decision making authority to secure or re-allocate resources to/from other projects as necessary to ensure that your project can be completed successfully
He/she is willing to go to bat for your project with peer managers if you need help in getting something from another organization
He/she is willing to meet with you on a regular basis to ensure that you’re getting what you need to succeed
He/she is willing to make difficult decisions that may be unpopular but are in the best interests of the business
He/she has some “skin in the game” to ensure the project’s success
Now, I recognize that as a project manager you only have so much control over your project sponsor. Nonetheless, it’s important to diligently try to manage your project sponsor to ensure that you’re getting what you need from him/her. Depending on the scope of your project, it may be beneficial to have a steering committee in place in addition to the project sponsor. Your steering committee is typically comprised of key managers of your stakeholder organizations. The primary functions of a steering committee are: Be a decision-making body on key issues that cannot be resolved by the project team
Eliminate any project barriers that the project team is running up against
Be a supporter of any resultant change that the project will bring about to their respective organizations
Provide counsel and guidance to the project team on key aspects of the design and implementation of the product
Assist the project manager in securing required resources for the project
Provide recommendations to the project sponsor on major issues which are beyond the authority of the steering committee
You need to decide whether a steering committee is beneficial to the project. Some criteria that I have used on projects are as follows:
There are multiple stakeholders that are directly affected by the outcome of the project
There are internal or external subject matter experts that can provide functional, technical, or execution guidance to the project team
The project sponsor has limited time to spend on the project and delegates some of the project decision making responsibility to the steering committee
I’ve successfully completed projects with and without a steering committee depending on the criteria above, but every successful project always had an engaged project sponsor.
How it happens:
The project sponsor was either too high or too low in the organization – Just because you have someone that is willing to sponsor your project doesn’t mean that they are the right sponsor for the project. Optimally, your project sponsor should have decision making authority over the in-scope project areas while at the same time being close enough to the work that they understand the implications of the issues that are raised. If your sponsor is too low of a level, they’re unlikely to be able to make decisions that will stick and will have to be getting authorization from their management before committing to decisions. If your sponsor is too high of a level, you��re likely to get decisions made but you’re probably not making best use of management since others at lower levels could be making the decisions you need made.
The project sponsor was being inundated with issues that could have been resolved by a steering committee – In deciding whether or not you need a steering committee, consider what you’re going to need from your project sponsor and whether or not decisions can be made by others at lower management levels. If you are continually bringing issues to your project sponsor that can be addressed by other managers, you run the risk of exasperating your sponsor and being labeled as crying wolf. This will put you in a very difficult situation for when you really need help because your credibility with your project sponsor may be eroded.
You made the project sponsor work too hard to try to understand your project - In the environments that I have worked, I never gave a project sponsor anything other than presentation-type slides when it came to project reviews and requests for help. Typically, your time with the project sponsor is limited and he or she has to understand where things are at and what you need from him or her in an efficient manner. Be very conscious of what you share with the sponsor, how much detail you give him/her and what you want him/her to do for you to help the project succeed.
You walk a fine line here of being credible with your sponsor and giving them the elevator pitch. If you’ve already established credibility with your project sponsor to the point where you’re a trusted project manager, then you can possibly afford to be more high-level in your communications as he or she is going to trust you with the details. If you’re an unknown quantity or (gulp) have gone negative in the credibility column, you’re going to need to be prepared for deep-dives on areas that the project sponsor will want to go. One technique I’ve seen and used is to have appendix slides which have supporting detail in areas where there’s likely to be question. The appendix slides are only meant to be used in the event that a specific question arises to support your claims and would not even be seen if no question arises on the topic.
Being prepared to go through details is important, but there will be the occasional situation where you just don’t know the answer or don’t have supporting detail. Your best bet at that point is to simply say “I don’t know, and I’ll get back to you on with the answer.” It���s much easier to fess up quickly than guess at the answer and later be found wrong. Keep in mind as well that there are only so many “I don’t knows” you can use before your credibility becomes an issue. More than a couple in a meeting can turn into a problem pretty quickly.
You didn’t tell the project sponsor what you need – Working with a project sponsor is a two-way commitment; you need to deliver what the sponsor considers important and they need to help you when you’ve run into an issue you can’t resolve on your own. The issue could be with another organization, a need to change policy, a team member not participating as agreed or a host of other reasons. It’s super important that you are very explicit with what you need the project sponsor to do for you. In your reviews with the project sponsor, it’s helpful to have an “asks” slide which very explicitly lays out what you need the project sponsor to do and when you need it by. As I’ve discussed earlier, make sure that your requests are appropriate for your project sponsor to be addressing. If your requests are inappropriate, you run the risk of exasperating your project sponsor and losing credibility.
You met either too much or not enough with your project sponsor – Depending on the criticality of the project, you may need to meet with the project sponsor either more or less frequently. I’ve been on projects where we’ve met with the project sponsor on a monthly basis for a one-hour update and have also been on projects where we’ve met weekly for an hour or more. You need to decide along with your project sponsor what the right frequency needs to be. I’ve found that meeting at least monthly is important to keeping the sponsor engaged and ensuring project success.
Warning signs:
You don’t have an identified project sponsor - If you’re running a project and don’t have someone at an appropriate level in the organization sponsoring the work, then you most likely don’t have a viable, sanctioned project and it’s just a matter of time before the project meets an abrupt end. Someone at an appropriate level in the company needs to care enough about the work that you’re doing to sponsor it. If not, then you’re better off stopping the work yourself before someone stops it for you.
You can’t get the project sponsor’s attention – Cancelled meetings, unresponsive emails, unreturned calls, are all signs that your project sponsor isn’t engaged, doesn’t care, is the wrong person, or has more important things to do. Regardless of the reason, if your sponsor won’t give you the time of day then you’re unlikely to get the support for your project when you really need it.
Your project sponsor doesn’t help you with management issues – Your project sponsor has a responsibility to the project to provide guidance on key issues that materially impact the resulting work product. Armed with the right decision factors, a good project sponsor will provide direction on key issues on a timely basis and keep the project moving forward. I’ve seen some project sponsors, though, that are either unwilling or unable to provide direction on key issues which can ultimately stall out a project. Having an unwilling or indecisive project sponsor is a pretty clear signal that you’ve got the wrong sponsorship for the project.
Turning things around:
Make sure your project sponsor is current and engaged - Do a regular status meeting with your project sponsor and make sure that they know the status of the project, where there are problems, and what you need from them to keep the project moving forward. Make sure they know enough about the project so that when you need them to make decisions you’re not spending unnecessary time getting them up to speed on project basics.
Get clear on your project sponsor’s expectations – Identify the expectations of your project sponsor at the onset of the project to ensure you’re working towards a common end result and that project deliverables are in line with what your sponsor wants. Periodically validate the expectations to ensure that any changes in expectations are clearly communicated and understood between you and the project sponsor.
Right-size your time with your project sponsor – Chances are your project sponsor has a long to-do list of things that they’re doing and will not want to feel like their time is being wasted. Determine with your sponsor the frequency, time and method of communications that you need and stick to it.
Tell your project sponsor explicitly what you need for the project to succeed – As discussed earlier, let your project sponsor know as explicitly as you can what you need them to do to ensure project success. But, make sure your requests are appropriate. Don’t ask them to make decisions that others (or you) could be making.
Strongly consider stopping the project – If you aren’t able to secure appropriate sponsor engagement, then you should think strongly about stopping the project and refocusing resources on other projects that management cares about.
Take Aways: Make sure your project sponsor is interested, engaged, and active in the project Actively decide if a steering committee is necessary for the project in addition to having the project sponsor Raise issues to the project sponsor that are appropriate for him or her to resolve Keep your communication very clear, crisp, and credible Be very clear on what you need the project sponsor to do to ensure project success Deliberately decide with the project sponsor on how frequently you need to meet based on the criticality of the project
Some years back I was appointed the lead program manager on an initiative which had as its objective to consolidate a number of disparate order management systems into a single system which supported all of the company’s order management needs. There were about five program managers working with me who each dragged in their respective customers to participate in the project. The project was sponsored by the IT organization with no sponsorship from the business owner. The project lumbered along for about two months with the customers continually questioning why they were working on a project that wasn’t on their manager’s radar. The business owner had finally had enough and called IT management and the lead program manager (me!) into a meeting.
The meeting started off with the manager saying to IT, “Who told you to go do this project?” Now, I’m no rocket scientist, but it was pretty clear at that point that this was not to be one of my shining project management moments. While the meeting was very uncomfortable, I learned an extremely important lesson: absolutely, without a doubt, secure sponsorship on a project at the beginning, or suffer the consequences. Amazon.com Widgets For any project, it’s crucial to get an appropriate level of project sponsorship. The ideal project sponsor for your project would possess the following characteristics:
He/she directly experiences the pain of the status quo and would directly benefit as a result of doing the project
He/she actively helped craft the project mission statement
He/she has the decision making authority to secure or re-allocate resources to/from other projects as necessary to ensure that your project can be completed successfully
He/she is willing to go to bat for your project with peer managers if you need help in getting something from another organization
He/she is willing to meet with you on a regular basis to ensure that you’re getting what you need to succeed
He/she is willing to make difficult decisions that may be unpopular but are in the best interests of the business
He/she has some “skin in the game” to ensure the project’s success
Now, I recognize that as a project manager you only have so much control over your project sponsor. Nonetheless, it’s important to diligently try to manage your project sponsor to ensure that you’re getting what you need from him/her. Depending on the scope of your project, it may be beneficial to have a steering committee in place in addition to the project sponsor. Your steering committee is typically comprised of key managers of your stakeholder organizations. The primary functions of a steering committee are: Be a decision-making body on key issues that cannot be resolved by the project team
Eliminate any project barriers that the project team is running up against
Be a supporter of any resultant change that the project will bring about to their respective organizations
Provide counsel and guidance to the project team on key aspects of the design and implementation of the product
Assist the project manager in securing required resources for the project
Provide recommendations to the project sponsor on major issues which are beyond the authority of the steering committee
You need to decide whether a steering committee is beneficial to the project. Some criteria that I have used on projects are as follows:
There are multiple stakeholders that are directly affected by the outcome of the project
There are internal or external subject matter experts that can provide functional, technical, or execution guidance to the project team
The project sponsor has limited time to spend on the project and delegates some of the project decision making responsibility to the steering committee
I’ve successfully completed projects with and without a steering committee depending on the criteria above, but every successful project always had an engaged project sponsor.
How it happens:
The project sponsor was either too high or too low in the organization – Just because you have someone that is willing to sponsor your project doesn’t mean that they are the right sponsor for the project. Optimally, your project sponsor should have decision making authority over the in-scope project areas while at the same time being close enough to the work that they understand the implications of the issues that are raised. If your sponsor is too low of a level, they’re unlikely to be able to make decisions that will stick and will have to be getting authorization from their management before committing to decisions. If your sponsor is too high of a level, you��re likely to get decisions made but you’re probably not making best use of management since others at lower levels could be making the decisions you need made.
The project sponsor was being inundated with issues that could have been resolved by a steering committee – In deciding whether or not you need a steering committee, consider what you’re going to need from your project sponsor and whether or not decisions can be made by others at lower management levels. If you are continually bringing issues to your project sponsor that can be addressed by other managers, you run the risk of exasperating your sponsor and being labeled as crying wolf. This will put you in a very difficult situation for when you really need help because your credibility with your project sponsor may be eroded.
You made the project sponsor work too hard to try to understand your project - In the environments that I have worked, I never gave a project sponsor anything other than presentation-type slides when it came to project reviews and requests for help. Typically, your time with the project sponsor is limited and he or she has to understand where things are at and what you need from him or her in an efficient manner. Be very conscious of what you share with the sponsor, how much detail you give him/her and what you want him/her to do for you to help the project succeed.
You walk a fine line here of being credible with your sponsor and giving them the elevator pitch. If you’ve already established credibility with your project sponsor to the point where you’re a trusted project manager, then you can possibly afford to be more high-level in your communications as he or she is going to trust you with the details. If you’re an unknown quantity or (gulp) have gone negative in the credibility column, you’re going to need to be prepared for deep-dives on areas that the project sponsor will want to go. One technique I’ve seen and used is to have appendix slides which have supporting detail in areas where there’s likely to be question. The appendix slides are only meant to be used in the event that a specific question arises to support your claims and would not even be seen if no question arises on the topic.
Being prepared to go through details is important, but there will be the occasional situation where you just don’t know the answer or don’t have supporting detail. Your best bet at that point is to simply say “I don’t know, and I’ll get back to you on with the answer.” It���s much easier to fess up quickly than guess at the answer and later be found wrong. Keep in mind as well that there are only so many “I don’t knows” you can use before your credibility becomes an issue. More than a couple in a meeting can turn into a problem pretty quickly.
You didn’t tell the project sponsor what you need – Working with a project sponsor is a two-way commitment; you need to deliver what the sponsor considers important and they need to help you when you’ve run into an issue you can’t resolve on your own. The issue could be with another organization, a need to change policy, a team member not participating as agreed or a host of other reasons. It’s super important that you are very explicit with what you need the project sponsor to do for you. In your reviews with the project sponsor, it’s helpful to have an “asks” slide which very explicitly lays out what you need the project sponsor to do and when you need it by. As I’ve discussed earlier, make sure that your requests are appropriate for your project sponsor to be addressing. If your requests are inappropriate, you run the risk of exasperating your project sponsor and losing credibility.
You met either too much or not enough with your project sponsor – Depending on the criticality of the project, you may need to meet with the project sponsor either more or less frequently. I’ve been on projects where we’ve met with the project sponsor on a monthly basis for a one-hour update and have also been on projects where we’ve met weekly for an hour or more. You need to decide along with your project sponsor what the right frequency needs to be. I’ve found that meeting at least monthly is important to keeping the sponsor engaged and ensuring project success.
Warning signs:
You don’t have an identified project sponsor - If you’re running a project and don’t have someone at an appropriate level in the organization sponsoring the work, then you most likely don’t have a viable, sanctioned project and it’s just a matter of time before the project meets an abrupt end. Someone at an appropriate level in the company needs to care enough about the work that you’re doing to sponsor it. If not, then you’re better off stopping the work yourself before someone stops it for you.
You can’t get the project sponsor’s attention – Cancelled meetings, unresponsive emails, unreturned calls, are all signs that your project sponsor isn’t engaged, doesn’t care, is the wrong person, or has more important things to do. Regardless of the reason, if your sponsor won’t give you the time of day then you’re unlikely to get the support for your project when you really need it.
Your project sponsor doesn’t help you with management issues – Your project sponsor has a responsibility to the project to provide guidance on key issues that materially impact the resulting work product. Armed with the right decision factors, a good project sponsor will provide direction on key issues on a timely basis and keep the project moving forward. I’ve seen some project sponsors, though, that are either unwilling or unable to provide direction on key issues which can ultimately stall out a project. Having an unwilling or indecisive project sponsor is a pretty clear signal that you’ve got the wrong sponsorship for the project.
Turning things around:
Make sure your project sponsor is current and engaged - Do a regular status meeting with your project sponsor and make sure that they know the status of the project, where there are problems, and what you need from them to keep the project moving forward. Make sure they know enough about the project so that when you need them to make decisions you’re not spending unnecessary time getting them up to speed on project basics.
Get clear on your project sponsor’s expectations – Identify the expectations of your project sponsor at the onset of the project to ensure you’re working towards a common end result and that project deliverables are in line with what your sponsor wants. Periodically validate the expectations to ensure that any changes in expectations are clearly communicated and understood between you and the project sponsor.
Right-size your time with your project sponsor – Chances are your project sponsor has a long to-do list of things that they’re doing and will not want to feel like their time is being wasted. Determine with your sponsor the frequency, time and method of communications that you need and stick to it.
Tell your project sponsor explicitly what you need for the project to succeed – As discussed earlier, let your project sponsor know as explicitly as you can what you need them to do to ensure project success. But, make sure your requests are appropriate. Don’t ask them to make decisions that others (or you) could be making.
Strongly consider stopping the project – If you aren’t able to secure appropriate sponsor engagement, then you should think strongly about stopping the project and refocusing resources on other projects that management cares about.
Take Aways: Make sure your project sponsor is interested, engaged, and active in the project Actively decide if a steering committee is necessary for the project in addition to having the project sponsor Raise issues to the project sponsor that are appropriate for him or her to resolve Keep your communication very clear, crisp, and credible Be very clear on what you need the project sponsor to do to ensure project success Deliberately decide with the project sponsor on how frequently you need to meet based on the criticality of the project
March 8, 2014
Humor - Credibility = Doofus
Ed was just appointed team leader in a public works organization of the federal government. In preparing for his first meeting with his new team, Ed thought long and hard about some of his prior managers’ leadership styles. One characteristic he particularly admired in several of his managers was the ability to connect with the team through humor. He decided on a strategy that would help the team accept him as a leader—he would show his human side and use humor to connect with them. Ed had his first meeting with the team and was very satisfied with the results. The team seemed to really like him. The meeting was filled with laughter and both the team and Ed seemed to really be enjoying themselves. Ed was very happy and believed things were getting off to a great start.
With each passing meeting, though, there seemed to be a growing concern among the team. While Ed seemed to connect with the team, he didn’t see the cooperation on getting things done as he had hoped. There were also a couple of team members who asked for permission to interview for positions outside of the group. Ed was growing concerned over the trend and asked Betty, one of the team members, what she thought was the problem. Betty’s counsel hit Ed right between the eyes: “Ed, you’re a great guy and people really like you, but I just don’t know if you’ve got what it takes to lead this group. The team is concerned which makes me concerned.” While Ed’s focus on using humor to connect with the team was great, he didn’t take the time to establish the necessary credibility with them.
Want to see what Ed did wrong? Check out Why Don't They Follow Me?
