Relationships

Leadership is about building and sustaining healthy relationships. Today I'd like to introduce some concepts I find quite different and extremely powerful.

Let’s begin with a simplistic business model.

Gross Revenues – Production Costs – Transaction Costs = Profit

In this model, Transaction Costs are the costs of building and maintaining effective relationships.  This variable has always been there, but because traditional accounting systems were built to track and analyze production costs, true transaction costs (relationships data) have generally been absent.  Relationship data that is gathered is considered “soft”, and gathered retrospectively, making it of marginal / limited predictive value.

Now let me introduce some underlying tenants regarding the value of relationships:

1. Businesses (and projects) leverage relationships to produce goods and services which are marketed and sold to customers, again leveraging relationships.
2. Thus, one might appropriately conclude that, from a variety of perspectives, relationships (both internal and external) are an organization's (and a project's) greatest resource.
3. Healthy relationships are more beneficial and less costly than unhealthy relationships.
4. Healthy relationships reduce transactions costs - while transaction costs associated with unhealthy relationships can be exorbitantly high. Thus, organizations and individuals (market entities) successfully establishing healthier relationships are more efficient and, therefore, more viable in a free market than entities with less healthy relationships.
5. Relationships based on or motivated by power, self-interest, greed, and benefit for one at the expense of the other are more costly, and thus irrational in a free market.

So it might be reasonably concluded that to keep project costs and cycle times down, our goal as project leaders should be to establish and maintain healthy relationships (with core team members, sponsors, stakeholders and customers).  

But what are the criteria for healthy relationships?  Relationships are complex and you might expect that the criteria for successful relationships might be very long and dependant on many variables.  Well, you're going to find this surprising. There are only two, the relationship must have;

1. Mutual, and approximately equal benefit to the parties involved, and
2. Mutual pleasantness

And, what is even more surprising is that there are just four causal conditions for healthy relationships.  There must exist;

1. Intersection of purpose - the parties must share a common or intersecting purpose
2. Mutual respect
3. Mutual trust
4. A means to conduct the relationship

Over the next few weeks, I will provide some conclusions from this cutting-edge research on relationships. In this posting I will introduce only one of the underpinnings; respect.

Respect is the result of 4 important attributes:

1. Competence (both technical and interpersonal)
2. Integrity (moral virtue, values, and consistent / aligned behavior)
3. Responsibility (commitment of necessary resources, dependability)
4. Charity (genuine, active concern / desire for the welfare and success of others) 

Competence: The project leader and team members must demonstrate consistent competence in their roles and facilitate learning within the team. Competence is adequacy, sufficiency, qualification, appropriateness and mastery.

 

Integrity: Those working on the project must demonstrate high levels of integrity. They must honor commitments, act predictably, maintain high values, perform to high standards and always be forthright.

 

Responsibility: Project team members / leaders must demonstrate commitment and dependability. Respect has much to do with predictability.

 

Charity: Good leaders (and team members) are perceived as genuine. They demonstrate sincere concern for others through frequent appropriate small actions / deeds. Demonstrating charity is showing true concern for the welfare and success of others.

 

Just as we are able to manage production costs, we are able to manage transaction / relationship costs.  More in the weeks to come . . . .

 

I'd really enjoy hearing your reactions!

For The Newcomer

Projects are conducted in a world outside the world of "Production Management" or the "Hierarchical" organization with which you are so familiar.  Thus, at becoming a project leader, you enter a new world.  This transition can be quite difficult and many are unable to successfully navigate it.  The rules in the "Hierarchical" organization, may not apply here.  During your service as a project leader, you need to retain a memory of and ability to work with the hierarchical world, but recognize several significant differences;

1. Risk - in the "Hierarchical" organization, we avoid risk-taking behaviors and even create policies (rules) discouraging it.  In the "Matrixed" organization (your project core team), you need to encourage and reward risk-taking.  You have entered a world of unknowns, and as such, you will be defining things as you go which includes risk-taking.  In the project world, it may be easier to get forgiveness than permission.  Make risk-taking a matter of discussion within your core team and be alert for opportunities to reward it.
2. Rank - in the hierarchical organization, you are expected to recognize and respond appropriately to rank (called "political savvy").  Decisions require approval up through the chain of command.  All of this requires "time" (your most precious resource as a project leader) of which you have very little.  In the project world, core team members must check their rank at the door.  You will be required, most times, to go to where you can get the most authoritative / quickest / most efficient response irrespective of the chain of command.  You will need to heighten communication with the hierarchical organization to minimize negative consequences associated with rapid response.
3. Rules - the hierarchical organization is replete with policies, procedures and rules. These have been refined over time into "best practices" and become institutionalized. By definition, a project is to produce a "new" product / service or process. "New" suggests that rules are defined as you go. Unlike the hierarchical organization, these rules facilitate the effective / efficient execution of a prototypical product / service / process and may thus only work in your unique project environment. The most efficient path in one world may not work in the other.  Here again, heightened communication efforts are necessary to minimize negative consequences for core team members.
4. Results - in the hierarchical organization we tend to focus on bottom line impacts.  In the project environment there is a distinction between means -vs- ends.  Means are the resources used to produce the desired ends.  Our focus must be on developing the means (in project work this is the team) to produce our desired ends (the desired results or deliverables / tangibles) and provide our team the freedom to create.  As project leader, your responsibility is singular; to protect the means or your core team. The core team has the responsibility is to produce the results.  When your focus slips to the ends, the team typically suffers, thus negatively impacting the resulting ends.

This is by no means meant to be an exhaustive list of differences, but by paying attention to these four critical distinctions, a leader in the hierarchical organization can survive and even thrive in the project environment.  We'd love to hear your comments.

Leading Virtual Teams

Virtual teams (teams composed of individuals who are not co-located) are becoming the norm. They present a variety of advantages over traditional teams, but come with their own set of problems and limitations. Recognizing both positives and negatives of virtual teams will improve your ability to leverage strengths and mitigate some of the potential problems.

Strengths: Geographical customer perspectives represented, global agility, improved execution of global products / services, enhanced diversity, improved ownership of output by global stakeholders, improved customization for regional customers.

Challenges: Communication, core team ownership, change management, core team meeting effectiveness & efficiency, coordination of execution, homogenization of global stakeholder expectations.

Leveraging Strengths: Having team members residing where ideas and perspectives originate can produce a large advantage. Team leaders should therefore ensure virtual team members are engaged in the creative processes associated with the initiation phase of projects. Virtual team members are also in place for roll out or execution of finished products / services and can obtain first-hand feedback from remote or local customers / stakeholders. Team leaders should leverage this information availability by meeting with team members regularly. Virtual team members typically have differing perspectives and thus diversity becomes a strength. Team leaders should leverage this diversity in the early, creative stages of projects. Virtual team members are more adept at getting buy-in from their local stakeholders, so team leaders should leverage them throughout the process to ensure input, commitment and ownership by local stakeholders. Finally, virtual team members can represent regional or local expectations allowing products and services to reflect these needs and perhaps take on regional characteristics. Bottom-line: Team Leaders must recognize and leverage the strengths of virtual teams to ensure the advantages play out in their projects.

Overcoming Challenges: By far the greatest challenge is communication. We suggest that at the beginning of each major project you set aside time and money to allow for at least one face-to-face meeting with all virtual team members. This can initiate good communication and encourage familiarization with other team members, minimizing communication issues further into the project. It “greases the skids” for future communication. At this first meeting the core team should conduct the work breakdown structure or create the project plan. This starts the project with the ownership typically lost in virtual teams. It will bind the team together as they part and go to their respective work locations. As changes occur, team leaders need to draw input from other team members, ensuring that ownership and commitment are continued. Meeting agendas published in advance do much to ensure meeting efficiency and effectiveness. Following the same format each meeting and keeping them brief and on task also helps. The work breakdown structure or project plan creation process also helps maintain coordination of tasks and assists by clearly defining responsibility for each task. Minutes distributed to key stakeholders by their local virtual team members will help homogenize expectations globally. Bottom-line: Team Leaders must ensure that virtual team members participate in the creation of the project plan / work breakdown structure, gain ownership and then meet regularly. Doing these things will mitigate a majority of potential problems.

As you can see, virtual teams come with challenges, but we hope you see that recognizing the strengths and potential problems associated with them is the first step to leveraging the strengths and mitigating the challenges. This is a relatively new phenomenon and so definitive answers do not always exist yet. If you have experiences with virtual teams and ideas or suggestions that may help others, please submit them to us at the e-mail address below and we will revisit this topic again in the near future.

Prioritizing Stakeholder Communications

Communication is critical to any project's success.  But to whom do you communicate?  How ofter? Using which medium?  These are not questions to be lightly considered.  Your success depends on the answers to each.

 

To Whom Do You Communicate?

Your project's stakeholders include the customer, upper management, members of your core team, extended team members and anyone who has any interest in your project. You need to communicate with each of them. However without some parameters, this can (and usually does) consume your every waking hour. You must prioritize your communication efforts. We suggest the Audience Focus Tool below to assist in this effort.

Audience Focus Tool

Communication with stakeholders in the bottom two quadrants (especially Influence) is important to initiate or nourish support for your project. Use stakeholders in the top quadrants (where support is high) to assist and build support. Your time available for communication should be budgeted to ensure you are building support for the project as well as maintaining existing support. The squeaky wheel analogy is really true here. Listen for unmet needs and focus time and effort on stakeholders in the Influence quadrant. This tool helps to properly allocate precious communication efforts / time.

 

How Do You Communicate?

Recognizing stakeholder needs / interests is important here. Today, no one needs / wants communication that isn’t focused on an immediate need or interest. Just recall the last telemarketing call you received during an evening meal. Ask yourself “What are this stakeholder’s interests in this project?” then be certain that your communications focus on those needs. Remember, management needs communication about all three elements of the triple constraint (time, cost and quality). Individual style preferences are reviewed below in the Styles Matrix.

Styles Matrix

Use of tools like Meyers-Briggs or DiSC (as shown above) to identify personal preferences can help you tailor the message to meet their individual information preferences. The first bullet in each box identifies the format preferences for each of the DiSC styles. Subsequent bullets identify the types of information commonly of interest to the person possessing that style. To use this tool it is important to be able to accurately identify individual style preferences. You should do this for each of your stakeholders, including core team members. Then, using members of your team with a particular profile to assist in communicating with stakeholders of the same preferences is a wonderful time saving idea that can serve to motivate core team members as well.

 

How Often To Communicate?

Stakeholders in the bottom two quadrants of the Audience Focus Tool will need the most frequent communication (especially those in Influence). We suggest two levels of communication; broadcast and targeted. Broadcast (possibly minutes from the core team meetings) should be enough for stakeholders in the top two quadrants of the Audience Focus Tool and for those in the D or C quadrants of the Styles Matrix. Targeted communications should be as often as the stakeholder wants them. Those in the I or S quadrants of the Styles Matrix or the top two quadrants of the Audience Focus Tool will need less frequent communications.

 

 

Core Team Motivation

The most commonly cited reason for project failure is lack of team motivation.  Without a committed and motivated team, even great ideas never make it to fruition.  What does it take to develop and maintain team motivation?  We’ve not got time to delve into the depths of motivation, but below are some crisp tips.

Developing Motivation

1.       Ownership – The fountain of commitment.  If they (the team) build it (participates in defining “how” the project will be completed), it (ownership / commitment) will come.  It is this commitment that drives results!

2.       Focus – Having a clear vision (mission statement) with a detailed knowledge of what each team member will contribute (work breakdown structure) and the result are primary factors in motivation.  Lack of focus is the most commonly voiced frustration of core team members and results in diffuse outcomes.

3.       Power Through Alignment – Teams desire power to accomplish tasks and meet deadlines.  When the Project Leader ensures that projects are visibly aligned with key business strategies, teams acquire that power by driving business results. Alignment of key stakeholder expectations also produces power for the team.

4.       Belonging – Individual team members will either spend their energy working with one another, or protecting themselves from one another.  Encouraging team members to invite co-worker involvement is difficult but produces great results.  The ability of each team member to express ideas / concerns is key to motivation.

        Maintaining Motivation

5.       Recognition of Needs – Project Leaders who quickly identify individual needs / strengths / weakness and assign work in a way to leverage each not only sustain motivation but also enhance results.  Doing tasks that challenge, offer growth possibilities and produce visible results motivate.

6.       Sense of Achievement / Momentum – Nothing is more frustrating than an absence of forward momentum.  Being blocked from accomplishment is frustrating and discouraging.  Project Leaders that monitor, actively communicate and encourage celebration of movement toward goals / milestones drive motivation.

7.       Meaningful Rewards / Recognition – Money is not the only reward, nor is it the best.  Recognition, challenge, change, involvement, empowerment, and growth are all more powerful motivators.  Working in an exciting / fun environment is more motivational than the money derived from working in a hostile one.

Managing Sponsor and Customer Alignment

As a project leader, there were many times that I became frustrated because the project sponsor and customer seemed to both have different views of the project than I did.  The sponsor's goal is to resource the project and keep costs and time to schedule.  The customer's goal is to derive as much value as possible from the project.  And the project leader's goal is to ensure that these often opposing parties are all happy when the project is complete.  Opposing perspectives can lead to all sorts of problems, and I eventually learned that before a project gets too far out of the starting blocks, a wise project leader ensures alignment between these three key stakeholders.

Reconciling your vision of the project (project requirements documentation or project charter) with the Customer and Sponsor will establish an initial “mind-meld” and ensure the project gets underway with aligned or homogenized expectations.  Once this is managed, then a project leader just needs to maintain that alignment - much easier than creating it mid-project!

The process of achieving this alignment is critical to the success of your project.  Following is the outline of a process you may find useful to ensure that you, your project sponsor and customer (or customer advocate) share common expectations: 

1. Get Customer and Sponsor Together: Never assume that the Sponsor and Customer have a common view / understanding of the project or have even spoken with one another directly about it.  Try to get both parties together in the same room with you when ever possible.  The more important the project, the more important this step is. 
2. Review the Project Charter:  Overview the draft charter you have created with both the sponsor and the customer.  Respond to their questions and take note of their suggestions, input and reactions. 
3. Begin by Listing Specific Expectations: Ask both parties to identify and list, in priority order, their expectations of desired project results (deliverables, time frames, acceptable risks, etc.).  Ask them to be specific.  Have them share their expectations and facilitate a discussion to initiate alignment.  Refer to Managing Expectations posts (Part One - Apr 13th 2011, and Part Two - April 25th, 2011) for information on how to gain alignment of expectations.
4. Identify Assumptions:  Work with both parties to identify assumptions that may underlie their expectations.  Work to identify those that may pose risk and incorporate them into your risk log.
5. Discuss Trade-Offs: Where differences exist, use Resolving Conflict to work through issues that may arise / exist and consider trade-offs.  Then document agreement by updating your draft Charter.  I usually come prepared to do this on the spot.  Getting all of these parties together again may be difficult.
6. Agree to The Revised Project Charter:  The final step is to get both to agree to the revised charter.  Your revised charter now needs to be managed throughout the project to ensure that expectations don't diverge as the project progresses and changes are implemented.

 Projects where I started this way usually went more smoothly than those where I skipped this important step.  If you will do these steps prior to or during your reconciliation meeting, you will successfully align expectations and start your project with support from your key stakeholders.  Try it, you'll like it!

Making Your Project Green

It’s increasingly difficult to go a day without hearing news of global warming or its impact on our planet and lifestyles.  Each day a larger percent of newsprint is dedicated to reporting on the ecological impact we are having on our communities, nations and planet.  We have known for years that our decisions impact our environment, but until now, the pain associated with those decisions was a future, not an immediate source of concern.  With the impacts of pollution, global warming, and increasing energy / food costs, perhaps it is time for us to add “ecological impact” to the list of important considerations as we make key project leadership decisions.

Typically the three mantras of all project leaders are “Quality”, “On-Time” and “Within Budget”.  However, a growing number of organizations are leveraging their success by innovating more eco-friendly ways of conducting their business.  As project work is typically at the cutting edge of innovation, it should be the front line for eco-friendly ideas and solutions.

Following is a list of some areas where we should consider the size of our “footprint”:

1. Communication – What is the most environmentally efficient way to communicate?
2. Vendor Selection Criteria – who can provide the best solution with the smallest negative impacts to the environment?
3. Resource Utilization – is there a better / less harmful way to accomplish each task?
4. Project Prioritization – how can we more actively integrate “environmental impact” into our decision criteria?
5. Quadruple Constraint – in addition to “better”, “cheaper” and “faster”, can we add “cleaner”?
6. Travel – Could it be accomplished as effectively in a more environmentally friendly way?

Here is a link to a short Environ Sim that may help you with this new thought process.  See how you do.  Let me know what other issues you'd like to see added.  Enjoy!