Two steps away from the county line. Just trying to keep my customers satisfied.

Those are the words from Paul Simons song Keep the Customer Satisfied.

One of the most difficult challenges faced by senior project managers is scope control.

Whether it's an internal or an external one, clients always want the most they can get and team members are trained to try and satisfy the client.

It it's a major project you might have dozens of client interfaces with hundreds of staff and project team member all trying to make the "customer satisfied". The combination of trying to satisfy the customer and the customers desires for more, inevitably leads to scope creep. It's often little things that add up and become a big thing and when you move your focus for a second it's the little things that turn a big project south.

How do you as the person in charge control the inevitable? Well here is a short list.

Have a charter that clearly outlines the project mission and goals.

Have an agreed to list of priorities.

Make sure the clients know that there WILL BE trade-offs in time and scope if they ask for "extras". Keep the tradeoffs in front of the team and the client’s team. This may tend to retard client requests when they are confronted every time they ask for something, even if it is cost free.

Carefully define contract deliverables. If it’s not on the list ask for extra time to complete the work for extra coasts. If the client is confronted every time they ask for more with cost or schedule issues they will be reluctant to go up the food chain for permission.

Build a detailed WBS and if it’s not in the work plan it’s a change, ask for written notice whenever there is a change.

Make a critical path schedule for the project and review it with the team and the client. If a request from the client affects the critical path, ask for a time extension, or at least some consideration for the costs of "crashing the schedule".

Ensure that there is a system that requires decision makers to approve any client requested additional work. 

Team members who notify senior management before making client requested changes are REWARDED for helping control scope.

How do you reward team members for controlling scope?

Here are just a couple of suggestions; you need to look at your own operation to find better ones.

Ensure that change control is not confrontational. Pose it as focusing on effective and efficient work process for the team and client.

Add time to their task work. Don’t crowd them to finish and start other things, or overload them with new work. If you can, pay them extra for the extra work (overtime).

Publicly acknowledge scope control by publishing change lists to team members so they can see how others are controlling scope.

Each project and team is unique, make sure you tailor the scope control process to the needs of the client and the team.

The secret of invisibility! The "no one is thinking about you" phenomenon.

Today on my usual morning stroll (this time to the beach with the sun shining on the eve of Festivus) two things kept coming back to me.

Who among my supervisors are thinking about me at this minute and what would that have to do with my career(if I worried about it like I used to). The answer is no one is thinking about me or my job except me. So that means as long as nothing pops up about me, my job is secure.

I would bet a dollar to a doughnut that the same phenomenon affects most middle and upper level managers in most businesses and in the public sector. Out of sight is out of mind.

I gave some thought about who I would think about when I was running a significant profit center. I rarely thought about my employees. I most often thought (and worried) about what my boss was thinking about me or what I was doing. The truth is my boss was worrying only about what popped up on his desk that day and most of that was bad. If I could avoid being in the bad in-box I was invisible.

Invisibility in the work place is NOT a negative thing. Invisibility is a secret power thing (like superheroes have). You are invisible always and then when you can take credit for something good, you swivel the secret decoder ring and become visible. If you are only visible when good things happen and you are never in the bad in-box, your career would be assured.

I always made it a point to keep my mouth shut when I was screwing up and when things were going my way I would wear my silk CEO suit and an expensive tie so I would be noticed. I could never understand project managers who always wanted attention by causing problems.

I wanted project managers who were playing golf with their clients on Friday afternoon while their assistant managers gained valuable experience by being left unsupervised to manage for short periods. My best mangers knew the secret of invisibility and used it to their advantage. After a Friday afternoon of being invisible, they would show up Monday or Tuesday with some good news about their client relationship and future work, or enhanced revenue projections.

So try and learn the secret of invisibility, and remember your boss is not thinking or worrying about you. She is constantly trying to figure out what her boss is thinking regarding her, which is nothing. Your bosses boss is worried about their boss, on up the line. The CEO is worried about his/her spouse and their retirement portfolio not you.

So as tomorrow is Festuvus, you should be making your list of grievances and putting up the bare aluminum pole.

So my gift: Stop worryng about what others are thinking and try to learn the superhero secret of invisibility/visibility.

Conventional Wisdom and Reality on Stakeholder Buy-in.

From the beginning of the planning phases of a program, stakeholder buy-in is essential. Program success is unlikely unless the community is drawn in from the start. Once stakeholders are on board with a program’s ideas, they are likely to remain involved, supporting the program over its lifetime. 

From Innovation Network
 
The preceding quote is pretty much the conventional thought on stakeholder buy-in. But when is conventional thought, incorrect thought, or not applicable to the reality on the ground?
 
Maybe when the stakeholder's competing interests are irreconcilable and complete buy-in is not possible.  

• When does an executive decide that "enough is enough" and stakeholder interests are not reconcilable.
• What happens then?
• Who gets their feelings hurt?
• How do you repair damaged relationships?
• Who makes the decisions and how do you move forward to a successful project completion.

I don't have any answers (and maybe no one has), but I find myself asking these questions because I am in the middle of a project with just such a conundrum.

In this case the decision to move forward without full stakeholder consensus was made by the CEO due to budget and external force reasons. (We will be experiencing lots of that over the next few years).

The outcome is unclear at this stage, but I am sure, without any doubt, that the project will be a winner for the greater organization. However there are already hurt feelings and damaged relationships. I am NOT the project manager, just a consultant, but I am sure I will have to suffer also. The good thing is that I have a long successful track record with this organization and I also have a secure fall-back position.

What am I doing? Running for cover? maybe or maybe not?  At the second highest level I checked to see how I was fairing and I am fine. It appears the actions of others on the team caused the reaction. When I run into the CEO, I will figure out what to say on the fly. With others on the project, I will act pleasant and professionally and not worry about what they may say, think, or feel about me.

I am at an age when I know that I am doing my best (or worst) and do not care one whit about "career" issues. Hopefully, everyone gets to that place in their professional life eventually.

So what's the point of this posting:

• Conventional wisdom often fails on the ground.
• Occasionally all your good work goes down the drain.
• Don't worry too much if you are doing your level best
• Act professionally and never hold a grudge when things don't go your way.
• Don't worry about what is said about you, your boss's opinion is all that counts.
• Live in the future and don't over dwell on the past.

So the final take away, Projects can be successful for the organization, but not always for the team; and In the words of the Rolling Stones:

You can't always get what you want, And if you try sometime you find, You get what you need.

Time flys when you are having a good time.

I just checked in to make a new posting here and found that I have been a "bad boy".  I have been gone for a month. It seemed like just yesterday.

That makes it a good time to review Dr Rogers' Rule No 1 and No 2.

Rule No. 1 If you can't measure it, you can't manage it. No matter what the goal, even managing artists, you set the measurements, set a baseline, and then measure your progress and report against the baseline. If you aren't measuring success or failure then you are not practicing good project management. You might be doing something else but it isn't project management.

OOPS! I set the measurement as a weekly one page blog. I failed to manage the measurement stage. Remember you get to set the metrics. My meetrics were one one-page blog post  each week.

 Rule No. 2 Failure to plan is a plan for failure. If you start a project (or any endeavor) without at least rudimentary plans you will be defeated, unless you are incredibly lucky.

OOPS Again! I didn't have a good plan for actualization. I failed to set a time and place for blogging and I fell behind and failed. I also took on a significant remodelling project that is on track for completion by March, but it was a tough start up.

How am I going to correct these failures?

1. Post the metrics in my office where I can see them.
2. Set a specific time and place each week to go to my blogging place and make my postings.
3. Simplify my life by dropping some other task.

Simplicity in plans and updates and following your own rules will help you succeed,.

As a teacher I can get away with a failure now and then. My failures rarely have a significant effect on others than myself. My successes I hope have more of an impact. However if you are managing projects that effect the lives of others and involve large teams you cannot fail to plan or measure. Make it a daily part of your lives.

Mea culpa! I will get back on track.

However as it is the solstice season my next post will be on Rule 8 Have Fun!

Getting what you want by knowing when to walk away.

Negotiating.

If one doesn't know how to do something well,  fear often takes over our rational minds. That's why so many people fear negotiating.

You often here words from the negotiating fearful, such as: "I don't like confrontation", "I don't like to .... be taken advantage of or take advantage of others", "I don't know how to ask from those who are superior to me (in business/society)."

 Karras

Never fear to negotiate, no matter how great the differences are. It is impossible for both parties to recognize where and how an agreement can be made without undertaking the process of negotiating. The final outcome only becomes apparent after extended discussions.

That said, the real secret to successful negotiating is to know when to walk away from the deal without feeling anger. Just let it go.

That might be easy for me because I have never "held a grudge" in my life. Its just not in my personality to hold bad feelings towards others. I learned when I was very young that we hurt ourselves more by being angry at someone than we hurt them with our anger.

However, I never go into any kind of negotiation without understanding my walk away position. When I walk away, I then apply my skills and resources to making another deal. I don't look back and wonder.

I have had the opportunity to formally learn about negotiating and to try my hand against some masters on the international and national stage.

I once ran a negotiation for a client about a leased building. The owner of the building was 86 years old and we were taking a ten year lease. He (the owner) was worried that our proposal to install a new roof on his building (at our expense). He was worried that we would put a cheap roof on his building and it would come home to haunt him when our lease was up in ten years. I learned something about taking a long term approach from this master.

When I was much younger I took over an international negotiation between two major corporations, my employer was a U.S. based international company and the client was a Japan based international company.

My charge, "if we walk away from this we will get sued by the client and our stock will drop significantly on the NYSEX."

There was plenty of cultural nuance and a lot of lawyers swarming around the Japanese firm. In this case our only walk away position:  If the contract choked us into bankruptcy we would let the client sue us and stall the inevitable."  There was enough bad juju and hard feelings to go around for both sides.

My skill was to remain upbeat and positive and stay awake during the 24 hour marathon negotiating sessions. In the end we discovered that the client's walk away position was more liberal to us than ours. They did not want us to go out of business, they just wanted a superior product at a discount price. We never got close to our walk away position. We were able to satisfy our client,. Future negotiations, for follow on options, went smoothly.

On another occasion, while working in South America, our local bank purloined $50K from the joint-venture account of our local partner and my employer. The bank claimed our partner owed them the money. My position was that it was the joint-ventures money not his. In this case, my walk away was to cash-in a $350K international letter of credit sitting in a bank in New York City. My statement to the bank president as I walked out the door at 5:00 pm, was that "I would catch the 8:00 pm flight to Miami and be in NY at bank opening in the morning and he could keep the $50K as I would cash the $350K irrevocable "international letter of credit" on his bank. The one we had in a safe deposit box in New York". Before I returned to my office, the local bank had couriers sending cash to cover my checks and they had replenished the $50K into the joint venture account.

In the final analysis know when to walk away without guilt. You have the right to make deals favorable to yourself or your employer. That doesn't mean the deal won't be favorable to both parties, its your job to make it right for you.

Using "red herrings" as bait to catch what you want.

This appears to be a facetious post, but its not. It's nefarious.

Make a list of the proposed projects including the one you favor and the unacceptable one. When you have several options for projects to undertake in your workplace or even in the community. (I learned this trick while working in a City Engineer's office.)  Include at least one proposed project that is absolutely unacceptable to every possible stakeholder (including yourself).

• Put the pros and cons on the list.
• Include your "real" project as second ranked (or maybe 3rd if you have the skill to pull it off).
• Submit the list and sit back until the inevitable firestorm over the first project breaks.
• Ague for the first project until you assess that any further argument will make you look really, really stupid and then cave in arguing that the second (or third) project on the list should then be first..

Two things will have been accomplished.

• You will have vented the energy of those who oppose everything. My dad called those folks the "aginer's" ("I'm aginst it!", those who oppose anything new and have never supported anything)..
• You will have an opportunity to figure out who is for the other options (not yours) and have taken that time to formulate persuasive arguments for your “real” project.

When you drop the proposed project, you will have shown yourself as a very "willing to compromise" and wise individual.

The term of art for this is using a "red herring", a red herring is an idiom referring to a device which intends to divert the audience from the truth or an item of significance (Wikipedia)

A perfect example of this is going on right now between the White House and Fox News (?) Network. The White House accuses Fox of being the mouthpiece and research arm of the GOP. Fox News takes the bait, and spends a lot of time whining about how the White House and President Obama is getting all "Nixon like". The White House keeps throwing gas on the fire, and Fox keeps it up. Fox is so obsessed with this "non-issue" that they ignore real news and influence issues. We get public health care.

So two take a-ways from this posting.

• Learn how to spot a "red herring"
• Learn how to effectively use a "red herring" to get what you want or divert attention

Opportunities for learning and enhancing your resume in these tough times.

Times are tough for all of us out in the hinterlands. Stop looking at the news. Folks in Washington D.C. and New York are dreaming about the good old days and by wishing so, they hope to bring them back.

But I say, good days are for those looking forward not looking back. There are great opportunities for young professionals as the world resets its economic models.

But if times are tight, and my company is not providing training, and there are no opportunities to learn new skills and then demonstrate them to my bosses, what can I do to enhance my future career?

Use your project management skills and knowledge by VOLUNTEERING to manage projects for your church, social group, community, governments, NGO, etc.

In our connected world you don't even need to travel. In 2004 I mentored several project managers who were working on projects in Afghanistan after the war. We met in Hiroshima, Japan to prepare for the projects and then we stayed connected through email, synchronous chats, and regular teleconferences (from Geneva to Phoenix to Kabul). One project resulted in a new girls school for a small village, another project resulted in a rug manufacturing facility.

A particularly good way to help your career is to find a community or charitable project that your bosses have been supporting and then get on board. When my project managers found out I was working with a group planning a "sun deck" for the Sisters of Mercy Hospice, they were more than eager to show their stuff.

One caveat, managing volunteers is the hardest thing to do. (Harder than herding cats, and I herd five cats, twice a day, in my back yard, and one of them is a runner!)

On the flip side, if you can get a project launched and completed with volunteers, you clearly demonstrate that you have leadership, organizational and persuasive skills.

Volunteers can't be fired (except for really egregious behavior and you know what that is) and you can't pay them a bonus. If they are adults, you can rarely bully them, and if you do bully them into submission, you will never have those folks for volunteers again. (and you won't have their friends either).

Volunteer projects are slippery eels, and they are not always done on schedule, within budgets or even to the satisfaction of the recipient. Lots of times, when for reasons beyond our control,(sometimes its the client fault) you fail and your clients don't show compassion or understanding When that happens I just chalk it up to the clients "bad karma" problems and move on. If you think you can fix the problem easily, try to, but don't waste psychic energy trying to make everything perfect, just move on.

After you have successfully completed your volunteer management role:

• You will be in great demand, so make sure you don't over commit.(That's easy to do.)
• Strategically, take on projects that will give you new viewers, new skills and are fun for you.
• Toot your own horn lightly. (Make sure your bosses learn about this in a natural way.)
• Make sure everyone who contributed is acknowledged, even those who got in the way, or contributed less than they thought they did.
• Put the success and the skills demonstrated in your resume.
• Don't get upset if others get the credit.
• Don't worry if the systems you set up are ignored in future projects. Just consider future projects and opportunity for someone else to learn something.

One final caveat that I learned from my wife. Make usre you find suitable roles for yoru volunteers adn never, ever let your volunteers be abused by your clients or other members of the team.

Thats a good way to hurt gentle souls, especially if they care about the project and they want to help.

Confidence for the new project manager.

Confidence, what does it mean and where can the new project manager find it.

M-W.com defines it partially as:
A: a feeling or consciousness of one's powers or of reliance on one's circumstances
B: faith or belief that one will act in a right, proper, or effective way

My students know my motto is "Indolese rapio" so in this case I am going to do a little stealing by just pointing you in a good direction.

How can you gain confidence. One of my favorite improvement web sites is "Mindtools" and click here to see what they have to say about confidence.

There is also a nifty 3 minute video on improving your confidence.

From my vantage point, the most important part of building self confidence is learning new skills, honing and practicing that skill and using it often. Every time you successfully complete a task, remind yourself that you are building confidence.

One thing that confidence brings is the ability to inspire others to want to work with you and to convince clients to let you take the lead. The flip side is over-confidence which is mightily destructive in my view.

So if you are (or want to be a "confident" person, first get competent and then smile a lot.

Confident people are upbeat and smile a lot. They don't go around scowling and complaining.

I once had a Japanese client come to my beach cottage for a weekend. He remarked, through the interpreter, that he now knew why I was so personally confident. I asked why was that?
He said: "You don't worry about the success of work so much, because you are so wealthy:" From his perspective of the cost of a beach house in Japan I must be a multi-millionaire (I was not, it was a cottage not a Macmansion) I told him what I had paid for the home, and his jaw dropped. I then pointed out that my confidence came from my team and my clients who trusted me to successfully get things done for them. I also pointed out that smiling used less energy than scowling.

I am pretty sure that while I am mostly a confident person, when I was not feeling competent I didn't always exude confidence.

But I tried always tried to look confident by dressing well and smiling a lot.

Now that I don't manage so much, I still try to dress at least OK and smile even more.

Its amazing the effect one person can have on a group by being upbeat and confident that the future will be better than the past.

My suggestion to become a confident person:

• Learn a lot of skills and practice them. (be competent)
• Dress well, look good (you don't have to be movie star to project your best)
• Smile a lot (it uses less energy than frowning)  

During these trying economic times, would you rather be working with confident people or gloomy folks. My guess is that if your bosses are half competent they will be looking to hang on to confident people not workplace doomsayers.

Master many skills and make sure you look good doing it.

One of the great things about being on the downswing of a career is not to have to master many new things and not having to look hat good while doing it. I can't be promoted any more.


I am really skilled at a few things, so I get to wear Hawaiian shirts while doing those things. Some things I'm not so good at (and maybe do care more about), for those things I wear the requisite jacket and tie, but no white shirts.


On more than a few occasions recently my ties (selected and bought by my wife) get compliments.


So here goes.

The pundits are now saying, get used to 10% unemployment. What does that mean for you. It means continued job stresses and a convenient hammer for employers to do two things to you:

• Make you work more hours and be more productive
• Pay you less for the privilege of work.

How can you cope? Well, there are plenty of examples from history to help us. Even some relatively younger folks (like me) who did not experience WW2 or the great depression have some ideas from when  those two ideas were the operative mode in U.S. business.


So if you are going to work longer hours for less pay, how can you succeed and even thrive.


Most importantly, make sure you pick up some new Project Management skills that will increase your productivity in those extra hours. Just working longer hours without added productivity won't help you move up.  Make sure your previously normal days are productive and not distracted.


PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENTS

• Turn your personal cell phone off. Maybe permanently  (we had our home phone disconnected, no ringing in the house now).
• Stop reading anything but direct work email: I delete 90% of my email without reading. That's the first thing I do when I fire up the email.
• Turn your email off for most of the day. Open it only a few selected times each day, so that you don't get side tracked. Maybe your email has a sound that pings when your boss sends a message or team mates send messages, that might help you to read only the most important messages.
• Skip playing office politics unless you are a master of it. Amateurs always get burned.
• Work your first eight on you present job assignment only.
• Work you extra hours on the extra work you are given. When the extra work is produced in a timely manner, when you behind on the regular work it will be overlooked for a time. (Anyway if you eliminate the distracters from your first eight hours, you get more work done in your second eight hour shift.

NEW SKILLS

• Go spend a Saturday or a few week nights at the community college or other learning venue for some new computing skills.
• If you are Project Manager, maybe database management or some great graphics program.
• Take a course in presentation creation and giving. Maybe a theatre class would be great. (I can't tell you how many junk powerpoints I have seen) Even the simple act of standing Down Stage Right (that's to the left looking forward) is not often followed. If we read English from left to right, your eyes naturally return to the speaker if she is on stage right.  Chinese might be different. Join Toastmasters and learn how to speak in public.
• If you business has lots of social events, brush up your ballroom dancing skills (I'm not kidding). Early in my career I was in a black tie business and being able to make a not so painful "Fox-Trot" around the dance floor with my wife or an amenable female colleague was a way to set myself out in front of others.
• Use your new skills to ask for new and exciting assignments. Your extra hours will be more challenging rather than drudgery.

SELL YOURSELF FOR SUCCESS

• Always dress one or two steps above your position. More would look phony.
• If you are a man get an expensive suit or jacket to wear when you might meet board members, officers and executives of your employer. In my day I had $1K suit for special occasions, and always a suit in my office (I still do today) for emergency calls. Nothing says, "Don't promote me!", like scuffed shoes, and a wrinkled shirt or tee shirt.
• If you are a woman, check out what successful women in your business wear: my guess women executives do not wear "uniform suits' above a certain level. Skip the uniform black suit and dress like an executive. Be easy on the makeup, very easy on perfume, and no cleavage please, unless you are in a specialty niche in sales or entertainment. (Women employed by WWE ignore this, maybe!)
• For both men and women: shop discount stores, vintage, used clothing or on-line. You don't need to be this year's fashions with boutique labels, but very wide lapels and poodle skirts will tip off the boss. My guess, for most businesses your boss and their spouses are NOT fashionistas and won't know what the latest NY/Paris fashion is. Last years fashions and colors will be fine if its well made and suits your physique.
• Get a three hundred dollar watch (no more than that, a Rolex will look phony on a PM and maybe will be perceived as fake.
• Keep a newer cell phone on hand, it doesn't need to be an iPhone or a Blackberry unless they improve your productivity. But a shiny new cell will say, I keep my technology up.
• Unclutter your work place. No excuses.  "I know where the stuff is".. as a quote.. doesn't cut it when your boss walks by and its a mess and you are out of the office, what will they think. At least clear your work space every evening before leaving.
• Be the first employee in each day and NOT in the first group to leave. If you are productive you don't need to be the last to leave.

In summary:

• Become more productive, stop letting others steal your productivity.
• Learn new skills, especially social skills.
• Present yourself well but not over the top.

Napoleon Bonaparte PPM?

I have been asked by some of my students to suggest or review books on project management. The book Napoleon on Project Management by Jerry Manas was suggested by a former student. Through a historical review of Napoleons life, war and administration, as well as his writings, Manas draws a portrait of Napoleon as a master project manager (as well as a leader). Napoleon Bonaparte PPM?

Because I love history (mostly the local history of where I am living at the time) I picked up a copy. Unlike Leadership secrets of Attila the Hun, another of my favorites, Manas’ book relies on quotations and writings (ascribed to Napoleon).

Napoleon’s Six Winning Principles as recounted by Manas.
 

Exactitude
Speed
Flexibility
Simplicity
Character
Moral Force

Napoleon once said “In war, everything is perception-perception about the enemy, perception about one’s own solders”. Manas points out that perception is more than seeing, it the processing of what we are seeing into a rational world (or project) view.

Dr. Rogers has eight rules for Project Management and if you look carefully you can see the overlaps. Remember my motto is: Indolese rapio. (genius steals)

Exactitude: Being prepared and using facts and past experiences to guide you.
Rule 1 If you can’t measure it you can’t manage it.
Rule 2 Failure to Plan is a Plan for Failure.
Rule 5 Project Communication is a two way process not a one way street.

Rule 7 When all else fails read the directions.

Speed: Projects fail when schedules are either not built with consensus (military can give orders) and followed up on. Things go wrong on projects when the attitude of the leaders is lackadaisical or unconcerned.

Rule 3 Focus on product over process.

Flexibility: Having teams that are adaptable, empowered and unified.

Rule 5 Project Communication is a two way process not a one way street.

Rule 6. If it hasn’t been doen before that’s reason enough to try it.

Simplicity: Projects with clear simple objectives succeed.

Rule 3 Focus on Product over process.

Character: Means integrity, calmness and responsibility.

Rules 1-8. If you have your own consistent set of rules that guide your actions you will be seen to have integrity, you will be calm because you know what to do and you will always take responsibility for yourself and others.

Moral Force: Providing order, purpose, recognition and rewards.

Rule 1 If you can’t measure it you can’t manage it.
Rule 5 Project Communication is a two way process not a one way street.

Rule 8 Have Fun

I recommend this book because:

It’s a fun read for those who like historical work. It’s an easy read, not too complicated and It outlines another famous persons consistent rules, supporting my contention that each of us should write down our own hard learned rules for work and for life.

Dealing with difficult personalities, uncertainty and literalism.

Dealing with difficult personalities is a fundamental truism for management. One of the good things about projects is that they last a finite time and team members change often. Because of this dynamic environment, most project managers just rely on the inevitable personal change. This is being lazy, and I can assure you that I relied on this lazy technique from time to time. But good management is dealing with the present time reality.

This is the first of a series of postings on dealing with difficult personalities. In this post we will deal with literalists. In future posts we will discuss other types of annoyances.

Let me start with a caveat. There are no bad people just bad managers. Using your human capital to its best project advantage is a great skill. What kind of person am I? Why was I effective as a project manager and business executive? Why did my success confound certain individuals who worked for me?

I am by nature (most good folks are) kind of introspective. Not that I spend time inspecting my belly button lint, but I do spend time trying to puzzle out why some folks are more successful at work than others even when intellectually they seem to be more or less equally gifted.

These are my personal observations, they do not reflect any formal psychological or sociological studies, research or findings. What makes us unique also makes us interesting to work with.

Here are some observations and suggestions.

• Literalists are those who read every direction, correspondence, direction etc from a pure literal view. They seldom look at the context or the importance of the matter, but focus on its correctness and internal consistency. Literalists do not like internal contradiction even when the area is minor or insignificant. Uncontrolled a literalist can bombard managers with clarification requests, observations of “mistakes”, and seldom complete tasks on time. As life and work are, more often than not, messy and inconsistent, how does one deal with literalists.

Literalists get upset (and sometimes angry and combative) when their supervisors are not able to provide a consistent information environment, or worse when the manager providescontradictory or inconsistent directions. Among others, these inconsistencies can come from the clients, government regulations, incomplete scope documents, or conflicting market signals.

How does a manager deal with individuals who have problems dealing with inconsistent information?

My recommendation:

Eliminate fear as a motivator or demotivator on your project.

Create a place where honest mistakes, based on judgment are not punished, just acknowledged and repaired.

Make sure that your team members know that the outcome of the project is more important than perfection.

Keep a culture of open communication, one that embraces ambiguity as a reality of the work place.

When faced with continued questions from a literalist, never give them an answer, ask them a question., such as: What do you think? What would you do? Did you check with the source author? Be supportive of the answers, offer other options for decision making.

When your team members know that making decisions based on sound judgment is encouraged and rewarded more than asking questions are, they will make decisions. If the environment of the project encourages decision making, make sure you team members feel comfortable to report their decisions. Never react negatively to a decision made by your team. Engage in positive communication.

If a mistake, due to inconsistent or ambiguous information was made, I would apologized to team members for not providing good information, clear up the information inconsistency and add what additional information is now available. Ask the team what they would do differently now.

If you have a literalist on your team, make sure you constantly reassure them that you know that the world is ambiguous and that their need for consistency is a good thing, not a character flaw. Encourage them to make decisions, record the ambiguity and report it. Ask them not to stop what they are doing, but go forward with what they think is right. Reward them, never punish them.

Is your multitasking gypping you and your employer?

In Cognitive Control in Media Multitaskers, by Eyal Ophira, Clifford Nass and Anthony D. Wagner—claim that their findings show  heavy media multi-taskers performing worse on a test of task-switching ability than those who multitasked lightly.

Heavy multi-taskers were worse over time in filtering irrelevant stimuli.

Heavy multi-taskers were deficient in managing memory (cognitive abilities impaired)

Heavy multi-taskers were slower in the ability to switch tasks.

The study  described that multitasking hinders small business owners in working ability.

Well here comes the plug: Please refer to Dr. Rogers' 8 Rules for Project Managers.

Dr. Rogers' Rule No. 3 Focus on product over process.

if the prescribed process at your work is media multi-tasking, change the process, the one you are using probably demonstrates that you are doing lots of work but not getting much production.

Instead of getting lots of irrelevant things done poorly. (Rule 4 Effective and Efficient Work) Try focusing on essential things and work them till they are done.

Turn off your phone and close the e-mail window. That ring tone telling you there is an email might just be a piece of irrelevant junk that diverts you from relevant work. Turn off the ringer on your phone for significant periods of time (maybe even fifteen minutes to start) I did, my phone no longer rings in my house, they go to voice mail without an annoying ring or musical serenade. My phone at work also goes to voicemail for most of the day.

My anecdotal evidence is that i am getting lots more valuable work done in less time.

So try Rule No. 6 If it hasn't been done before, that's reason enough to consider trying it. Turn off the phone, turn off your email dinger, pull one computer application up at a time and finish the task at hand. My guess is you will have a less harried and more productive day.

Let me know how you fare.

GAPPS Global Aliance for Project Performance Standards

The purpose of the GAPPS - Global Alliance for Project Performance Standards initiative is to develop agreed frameworks as a basis for review, development, and recognition of local standards that will facilitate mutual recognition and transferability of project management qualifications. It is intended that the framework and associated standards be freely available for use by businesses, academic institutions, professional associations, and government standards and qualifications bodies globally.

As project management has become a more widely used management approach, both public and private sector entities have become interested in standards that describe levels of acceptable workplace performance. Many of these entities operate across national boundaries and are thus interested in standards and qualifications that are transferable. Governments, concerned with ensuring an internationally competitive workforce, and individuals, desiring greater mobility, are also interested in the mutual recognition and transferability of qualifications.

Those of you who follow my 8 Rules, will know that most of my concentration is a combination of hard rules and soft delivery.Those of you have studied with me, know that my teaching is about the real world techniques and methods for delivering the outcomes of the PMIBOK.

By this posting, I invite you to check out GAPPS.



GAPPS is a kind of "opensource". The individuals who founded GAPPS felt it necessary for a global standard that is independent of any proprietary standards. Proprietary in this context means standards that cost to use and support a non-volunteer organization. This posting is in no way meant to diminish the hard work and outstanding results that the proprietary organizations have achieved corporately and individually.



This a different paradigm for Project Standardization, and by combining ISO and GAPPS one starts to get their individual arms around what the global PM community is about. A view that is not filtered by the prism of proprietary vision.

GAPPS (along with ISO) believes that the setting of standards and the creation of certifications represent a conflict of interest. Although ISO will accept an arms-length relationship, GAPPS prefers to collaborate with rather than compete with the various credentialing bodies. In fact, most of the major credentialing organisations are GAPPS members.

Performance based competency standards are also called occupational competency standards, and are widely used throughout the world. PBCS have been developed within the context of government endorsed standards and qualifications frameworks

I hope you will take a few minutes to make the globalpmstandards.org project manager standards one of your favorite sites on your web browser.



Take a few minutes to download and read the standards.



Take a chance to study and understand CIFTER.



In my humble opinion, knowing the GAPPS system of standards and comparing your skills, knowledge and experiences against the standards you might see some real room for growth in the global PM community..

Dr. Rogers Rule No. 1

Dr. Rogers Rules for Project Management Rule No. 1 If you can't measure it, you can't manage it.

This is a fundamental axiom of my professional life.

Every time I tried to manage something without a concrete measurement system in place, the project became a action of personal sacrifice and agony,and unnecessary personal hard work

A lifetime ago I was called on to manage the architectural and engineering design for a $100M plus high tech manufacturing facility . The first item on my agenda was to build some kind of budget estimate for the engineering. At the time I picked up the project, engineering was working on a reimbursed basis. The client was expecting the engineering and construction to be converted to a lump sum or a guaranteed maximum price. Getting a handle on $5 million of base priced engineering was essential for project success.

I approached the lead piping engineer, who was also the lead engineer for the entire project and asked if he had some measurements for project progress. His answer: we design until we get it right and don't worry about costs, and "by the way you can't measure engineering design output".

I rolled my eyes and moved on asking him what the output of engineering design was for a piping system. Right off the top of his head he said "these are the outputs I check to see if we are meeting the design schedule.:

1. Pipe system calculations.
2. Pipe system sketch (pre-cadd days)
3. Client check and approval
4. Draftsman completes formal drawing
5. Engineer markups drawing
6. Draftsman corrects drawing
7. Design specification draft
8. Design specification review and approval
9. Engineer approved drawings
10. Architectural coordination drawing check.
11. Construction plans ans specifications
12. A couple of meetings.

My response: looks like some measurable outputs, and oh by the way we can add engineer hour budgets to these items and have a cost/schedule plan. Pretty simple.

The engineer completes the system calculation and she earns 8 hours as per the budget for the work.

This particular design engineer became a believer in Rule No.1 over night with just a little coaching.
At another period of my career I had the opportunity to manage a group of artists doing a significant public exhibition project. There was a budget and a schedule.

Again the lead artist, we just work until we are done, run out of paint or run out of time and then you get what you get.

Solution: We measured paint consumption versus a linear map of the installation against the artist labor budget and came in ahead of schedule, under budget and what the artist thought was a superior product.

The fundamental take away for the project manager is:

You get to decide what to measure and how to measure it.

In a future post I will report on Earned Value Management, pros and cons and pitfalls, but that's all for this week.





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Focussed Thinking

A just read a blog article by Kimberly Weifling (the author of Scrappy Project Management) about Muddy Thinking on Project Connections.

This is the quote that stuck out.

People work on low priority items while urgent issues languish.

Sounds like Dr. Rogers Rule 3 Focus on product over process and Rule 4 Effective work is doing the right thing. Efficient work is doing the right things well.

In my career, nothing made me crazier than team members focusing on the easy things, or the things they liked to do and doing them extremely well, when what was needed was a focus on issues that effected the project outcomes.

Perfectionism is great when it comes to brain and heart surgery and maybe watch making, but getting a program up and running ready for debugging or a construction project completed rarely requires perfection. What is required is a quality product (defined as what the customers needs). If you have seen the word perfection in any quality manual, let me know where to find it.

I remember a project where the color of the brick was discussed for over a year. The project was heading into the unrecoverable zone, the client said "add 5% more Iron Oxide and make the brick", I don't want to see any more samples until its installed. That's a focused decision. Good enough and necessary now.

Perfection is rarely required in Project Management and even if you subscribe to Six Sigma you know that the [product acceptance rate is not perfection its: Is the product within the acceptable bandwidth. In fact in some industries better than the bandwidth is harmful.

I had an up and coming assistant manager once. He had all the tools: Young, handsome, articulate, a degree from a prestigious university. However he had one "fatal" flaw. he was a perfectionist. We were hardly ever able to get any work product out of him until, the last minute or later. If we needed a piece of his work to check across team boundaries he would never give it up. It was always "not good enough, not ready". We couldn't rely on him in a crunch situation he would hold out for perfection when we needed "good enough" to make a decision or change direction.

Same project, another outstanding young lad would present me with a list of everything he had accomplished on the project, when all I asked for (or needed) was a list of the missing pieces. He hated to have executives ask what he was doing, he only wanted to focus on what he had already done. He actually did his work well, he just wasn't forthcoming with it without some prying (high maintenance person) Does this sound familiar.

Rule 3 Focus on product over process.

I can't make this stuff up: I worked for a company (now out of business) that focused on process over product. The result was that their projects were never done on time or within budget, but they were always able to prove that it wasn't their fault because the processes were flawless.

That's when I added this rule to my tool box. It has always kept me thinking about where we were going, not necessarily worried about how we would get there. Sometime the ride was bumpy but I rarely went into a ditch or off a cliff.

Rule 4 Effective work is doing the right thing. Efficient work is doing the right things well.

As human beings we all have a tendency to want to do things that are both easy and that we do well. Without control this is the kiss of death of a project. Everyone is doing things well and they think they are so efficient. But efficiency requires doing the right things.

Juran's Pareto's Principle tells us that 80% of our actions get 20% of the needed results. Conversely 20% of our actions get 80% of the required results. My Rule 4 makes me focus on the 20% first.

In construction, at the end of the project a list of uncompleted items is compiled by the owner, architect and contractors. This is called the punchlist. I was taught that the most effective way to complete the punchlist was to tackle the most difficult and puzzling issues first and pick up the easy stuff as you went along. Our human tendency would be to start with the easy stuff and put off the hard stuff. For a while we think we are being very effective and efficient., until all the easy stuff is done and we have burnt a lot of daylight.

One of the roles of a good project manager is to be able to get the individual team members to focus on effective activities and efficient work. This is easier said than done and it is usually why PM's with high Emotional Quotient EQ do better than those with high IQ only.

My succinct advice: Always focus on the project activities that are critical to successful completion and don't sweat the small stuff. (and its all small stuff anyway).

If you want to know what middle managers would sound like if they were creatures from a video game. Watch this on You Tube Eat Your Brain.

DR ROGERS' 8 RULES OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

I freely admit that I have taken these ideas from others; notably Dr. Covey (who "adapted" from Peter Drucker and maybe a little from Dr. Deming). There are others from whom I have lifted my ideas but I suspect they, in-turn, received their ideas from others.

Flatterers imitate. Indolese rapio (Genius steals) is my motto.

My purpose of writing "MY Rules" was for MY career. Continually referring (and yes changing my rules) kept me focused on success. I can look back upon a mostly successful career, and enjoy a continuance of a very amazing life. (Amazing to me and my wife. That's what counts.)

The purpose of this blog is just to list here my rules. Remember they are "my" rules not your rules. I suggest that every person who wants a successful career to physically write (paper and pen, no computer stuff unless disabled of course) a short list of rules to work by. having fun might not be one of your rules but it was surely one of mine.

So read these for the first time (or once more for fun).

In future blogs I will be expanding on each rule individually and hope you take the time to comment and maybe post up your own rules.

Dr. Rogers Rules for Project Management

Rule No. 1 If you can't measure it, you can't manage it.

Rule No. 2 Failure to plan, is a plan for failure.

Rule No. 3 Focus on product over process.

Rule No. 4 Effective Work is doing the right things. Efficient Work is doing the right things well.

Rule No. 5 Project Communication is an active, two-way process, not a one way street.

Rule No. 6 If it hasn't been done before, that's reason enough to consider trying it.

Rule No. 7 When all else fails, read the directions.

Rule No. 8 Have fun!

Coaching and teaching roles of a good Project Manager

This morning I am grading twenty midterm graduate student examinations.

One of the scenarios was " how you would go about staffing, organizing and controlling a project that is mostly labor related". Mostly the answers were as expected, derived from the readings and the students' own professional experiences. The work was solid, but not very inspiring, with a couple of exceptions. I am, by nature, self questioning. I didn't find fault with the students. I wondered if I had been pointing them in the right directions in my lectures.

Maybe I had better go back and check.

A long with Stephen Covey's traits of highly effective people I provide the following list for Great Project Managers

Seven Traits of Great Project Managers

Great Project Managers are:

Organized: keeping track of things in an orderly manner.

Not easily distracted: being able to stay focused on the task at hand during times of confused demands.

On time: not procrastinating, meeting deadlines and being where you are supposed to be when you are supposed to be.

Empathetic: being able reading other people's emotions without their having to tell you what they are feeling.

Results oriented: focusing on non-personal problem solving rather than blame casting and fixing people's personalities.

Highly internally motivated: not needing lots of outside "ataboys" to get the job done, being satisfied with a successful job without external praise.

Honest and ethical. How can people work on projects with you if they cannot trust your statements and your ethical behavior.

Well, there is another one that I left out.

Great Project Managers are good Coaches and Teachers.

In my work I seldom, if ever, get to pick my team. I am given what was a"available" or what I could hire. So I was often forced to train people or coach them to improve. I always was a teacher, mentor and coach so it was easy for me to move from industry to teaching.

I seldom was assigned superstar technicians,but I was often assigned superstar people, people. so I mark myself as truly lucky. Don't get me wrong, I got my share of lulus, including the pathological liars among others, but overall I worked with hundreds and hundreds of great people, and the loosers really stick out.

Back to coaching and teaching.

I am reading a book titled Giants Among Men by Jack Cavanauh. Its about the NY Giants of the 1950s and early 1960's. In the middle 1950's the Giants were coached by Jim Lee Howell and the assistant coaches were Tom Landry (defense) and Vince Lombardi (offense). Pretty good assistants would you think?

No two men could be more different in approaches than Landry and Lombardi, but they were good friends and colleagues. Both knew that teaching, preparation, and training were key to success on the football field. When game day came, neither man could do more than sit back and let his team do what they were prepared for. Landry never showed emotion and Lombardi showed too much. In fact one of his players opined that "on game day he (Lombardi) was pretty much useless." waving his arms and shouting. But the team was prepared, as were Landry's teams.

So, back to teaching and coaching as PM attributes. If you are given your project staff you can do it yourself or delegate. If you have no one with the needed skills to delegate to you need to teach the skill,or go outside the team (which i suggest is done occasionally, as most project skills are not that difficult. (except maybe writing computer code)

If you have the people with the skills for the project, then coaching makes all the difference.

Practicing and drilling skills, reminding folks about their important role in the team's success, checking off the needs and then providing feedback.

If we rely on our EQ we will know who and when to either pat on the back, or kick in the butt.

Next semester the list will change to add coaching and teaching.

Taking a walk and thinking

I start every day with a long walk and try to think of one productive improvement in my workplace, or life or in those of my colleagues. I open my mind to the unexpected. I don't labor on any one area or person. My walk is a failure if I haven't had at least one good idea.

Today my walk was more reflective. Why did I have a successful career for 25 years in Project Management.? The skills are simple and we expect to work hard for the good wages that project management pays.

Before I left industry, I was a Vice President (one of 12) for a billion dollar AEC company, working for the most part in the U.S. with some global work. My global work took place before that gig and then again during my tenure as a college professor.

What set me apart from the perennial team players and technocrats? I always assumed that desire to lead plays some part in reaching a leadership position but its not solely the reason.

Other than my technical skills, these are the issues that set me apart from my peers:

I never hold a grudge:

No matter what happened on a project, I never felt the need to blame anyone or feel that anyone ever set out to hurt me. If I was damaged by the actions or inaction's of others (intended or not) I never let them "rent space" in my head. "Renting space in my head" was a term I learned from a clerk at the auto parts store. (Words of wisdom) If someone acts and you are hurt, physically, emotionally or professionally and you keep thinking about the person who harmed you, that person has free rent in your head and they continue to damage you as long as you dwell on them or their actions towards you.

The best way to deal with folks who hurt you is to never hold a "grudge" and forgive and move on. That doesn't mean I never took an opportunity to return a poor favor. "Revenge is dish best served cold."

I never worried what others thought of me, neither my bosses ,team mates, peers nor subordinates:

You probably think this is a conceit, and maybe it is. In my professional work, I cannot remember a time when I did anything to make anyone like me, other than getting the work done. I am not unaware, and in fact I am pretty skilled at office politics, but my focus was on "organizational behaviour" rather than back biting and bickering.

If I seemed always to be around the positive things that happened in the organization and rarely around the negative, I am sure this did not hurt my career.

PS: I spent a few years working for high level government agencies and I did spend a year working at a US Embassy in South America, and ten years in successful university administration, so I can say that I am somewhat politically savvy. I just never waste any energy trying to be liked.

I was willing to innovate and suffer failure:

My wife thinks this is crazy. But I always believed in Dr. Rogers Rule 6 If it hasn't been done before, its worth trying.

That doesn't mean it is always worth pursuing innovation to the end, its just worth giving it a shot after asking this risk management question. What happens if it doesn't work, can we live with or recover from that outcome?

In 1984 Canon introduced the "digital fax" and our world has never been the same. prior to digital fax, we used analogue fax which came through about 50% readable. overnight we were able to transmit 100% legible documents. At that time my bosses were skeptical (due to analog fax). So i bought two fax machines from a project budget and had one put in the home office. Within weeks all the remote sites had fax machines.

In 1983 (when it was introduced) we experimented with computers and in fact I can remember hauling that Compaq (portable) that weighed 28 pounds and ran Lotus 123 spread sheets on a green screen. Lugging it onto airplanes and stuffing it in the overheads. Maybe that's why 1/2 of all peopled over 50 in the United States have chronic shoulder injuries.

http://oldcomputers.net/compaqi.html

I was always willing to listen to any idea, proposed form anywhere in our organization.

My partner and I performed a project miracle in the late 80's in the microelectronics industry by listening to the youngest and least experienced members of the team. Both my partner and I were in our mid thirties and we kept one guy over 50 on the team to remind us why we should listen to youth. The "youngsters" came up with unbelievably good ideas because they failed to have any "tried that before" noodles in their brains.

We didn't always use their suggestions, but we always listened, asked questions, and gave reasons why we would or would not use the idea. At the end of that project we were able to distribute some $750K (1989 dollars) in project bonuses, all the way down to the receptionists and document control clerks. (Well maybe I did do some things to make folks like me.)

I never cared who got the glory as long as the project was successful:

I have never cared who gets the glory when we won, and never cared if I got the blame when we lost. Team was everything. I attribute that to my high school sports training and to the times and place I grew up in.

In the 1950's in industrial New England, parents didn't spend too much time watching their kids play pick-up sports, teams were led by the older kids and you played hard for the team you were on even though later in the day you might be on the other team. There wasn't a lot of "team" building exercises, you teamed up or you were out.

Maybe that's why it was a lot of fun and not very hard to find solid project teams in the 1980's. By the end of the 1990's there was more "team building" stuff going on, because the team members came from a different generation where teams were organized by adults. That's not how I grew up. Your teams changed and eventually you were the older kid who led the team or you got shut out.

Gen X and Millennials who are team members look to others to organize them and they can sniff out a phony leader in a heart beat. I have a lot of admiration for Gen X and Millennials, I take them where they come from, not from where I come from. They make great team members because they want to be "on the team" but it takes a little work to get them there.

The other thing:

The other thing that helped my career is a God given knack for remembering details from documents and drawings. I also have a very, very good memory for things that have happened or need to take place. I am awful with names and faces.. A mayor of a major city told me that it took him twelve interactions to connect a name and a face. For me its probably twice that.

What makes you successful?

What is your knack, and do you use it to your advantage?

PM in ten pages or less, my life reduced to ten pioints

I was just reading my newsletter from Project Connections

http://www.projectconnections.com/index.html

They have reduced my career to ten bullet points. (maybe I only deserved 2)

From the newsletter

PM IN 10 PAGES OR LESS

On a Clear Day Project scope definition shouldn't be hazy.

Who's On First? What are the roles and responsibilities of the team

Didn't You Get That Memo? Keep an action item list so you can follow up just to be sure the pesky mail dropper wasn't working. I usually look in my spam/junk email every few weeks to make sure I haven't lost anything but for a fast pace project that's too late.

Unless You've Got a Three-Sided Coin How do you make decisions, use some kind of decision matrix would be good.

Do You Feel Lucky? Continuous risk assessment is necessary.

Phenomenal Cosmic Powers, Itty Bitty Living Space! Project management tracking systems are all over the place.

Show Me the Money Project budgets are necessary for even the smallest projects to help in decision making and planning.

All Things Trite and Trivial - Keep and agenda.

Test Your Deliverable, Not Your Patience - Review the deliverables before delivering them. Sort of quality assurance for projects.

Current Action Items Project status reports.

PM Connections is a great source for serious professional project managers, along with their newsletter and blogs about PM they have over 200 templates for everything PM. There is a subscription fee but worth it. If its too pricey you can be a member and just get the newsletters.

The idle project manager.

The idle project manager doffs his hat to Peter Taylor the "Lazy Project Manager" and I suggest a visit to the Lazy Project Manager at http://http://www.thelazyprojectmanager.com/index.htm

While Peter Taylor suggest that being lazy is not being stupid, the "Idle PM" suggests that being stupid does not suggest your lazy, it just means your stupid.

I have created this blog for weekly viewing by my graduate students studying Project Management.

In my "IDLE" moments, which in truth I have more and more every day as I follow Peter Taylor's approach, I search out the latest ideas and approaches to managing projects, building teams and learning how to "lead from the middle".

This weeks abbreviated start up blog is being used as a space holder so my students and our friends can find their way here and get on board.

My second item of the day relates and interview I heard on PBS with Steve Carell the star of the Office. Steve plays Michael Gary Scott who is a text book of low Emotional Quotient EQ"

• From Wikipedia .....Michael holds inflated views of himself and considers himself an office comedian, but his attempts at humour tend to fail. Often, he says things that are inappropriate, offensive, or unwittingly mean in the hopes of getting a laugh. For instance, he objectifies his female employees and holds stereotypical views of black people. However, despite his general air of braggadocio, Michael can be very insecure and spineless when dealing with his staff. He lacks maturity and self-awareness, has few friends, and is quite lonely, made worse because his efforts to make friends with people usually backfire. Indeed, he seems to have a knack for putting himself and others into awkward situations. His subordinated, with the exception of Dwight Schrute, think of him as inept, and several of them remark that they get their work done when Michael is distracted. Before he was promoted to regional manager he was a great salesman; his promotion put him above his level of competence, making him an embodiment of the Peter Principle.......

The reason I add the "Fresh Air" NPR Interview of Steve Carell is his quote "Michael Scott is someone with an enormous emotional blind spot.....If you don't know a Michael Scott then you are a Michael Scott........."

Listen to the interview....http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15592867