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Your presenter is:Alison Sigmon, M.Ed., LPC, PMP

Managing Revolving Project Resources

Creating culture to quell the confusion of change

What’s on tap for our time together today…

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Cost of failure of projects

Revolving door…reality of today’s project stakeholder

Creating culture in your project

Leadership & charisma: What you do matters

Process & templates: The tools you use helps

Communicating early & often: How you go about it

Wrap it up!

Project managers are constantly juggling schedules, cost, and resources. Because of the rapid, evolving nature of projects today, people will come and go on projects. This webinar will consider how to respond to resource shifts and mitigate the impact of changing roles and people through establishing culture in your project.

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Tons of time, training, and money have been invested in ensuring project management processes are in place and people know how to

use them. And yet projects still fail.

• A study reviewed 10,640 projects from 200 companies in 30 countries

found only 2.5% of the companies successfully completed 100% of their projects.

• A separate study analyzed 1,471 IT projects and found the average overrun was 27%, but 1:6 projects

had a cost overrun of 200% and a schedule overrun of 70%.

Source: http://gmj.gallup.com/content/152429/cost-bad-project-management.aspx

Cost of failure of projects

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There are a variety of reasons this happens on the functional side and behavioral side of project management.

Today we’ll focus on the behavioral side because if we address that then most of the time the functional side will fall into place.

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Ebb & Flow of Stakeholders

Reality of today’s project stakeholder

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A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) breaks down a stakeholder as a person or organization that:

• Is actively involved in the project• Has interests that may be positively

or negatively affected by the performance or completion of the project

• May exert influence over the project, the deliverables, or the team members

Basically, a stakeholder is anyone (or any other project) involved in or somehow affected by the project.

Having a stake in it

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Stakeholder structure is a lot like concentric circlesThe more directly involved in the day-to-day activities of a project, the closer to the center of the concentric circles the stakeholder will be. Position on the circles changes over the life of the project based on the type of work needed.

Skipping across the circles…

Core team

Marketing

Sponsor

Analyst

Programmer

System architect

User experience

Product designer

Content

Copywriter

Graphic artist

Quality Assurance Customer

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To maximize efficiency and response to global demands of business, stakeholders may come and go at regular intervals on a project.

For this to be as seamless as possible, processes must be streamlined and tight.

And where does this start?

With the project manager (Um, that’s you)

Keeping it tight keeps you flexible

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Culture: Touchstone for

revolving resources

Stepping up as they step in and out

Calm in chaos

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A "project culture" is a collection of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that live outside of the individuals in the project.

It provides a set of consistent standards and norms to which the team can refer throughout the project.

Too much, too little, just right…

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Solid, strong culture in a project• Remains unchanged as

stakeholders reduce work, leave, or join the project

• Stakeholders adapt their behavior to the project and not the other way round

Absence of culture in a project • Behaviors may be very inconsistent• Confusion abounds• Turf battles ensue

Too much culture in a projectHomogeneity – useful viewpoints may be ignored or downplayed to preserve the existing culture.

Management through culture

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Revolving stakeholders should enhance not hurt your project, but a few things need to be in place for that to happen. Creating and maintaining processes that support consistent behaviors serve as a foundation for the natural ebb and flow of stakeholder activity on projects. These norms provide a touchstone for the shifts and become the identity or culture of the project.

Project culture addresses stakeholder burning questions: expectations for contribution, documentation, meetings, workflow, reviews/status, roles, responsibilities, communication expectations, and transition.  

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Lead, follow, or get out of the way

What you do

The tools you use

How you go about it

Creating culture boils down to three basic things

Leading with charisma – Reflect, Represent, and Realize

Processes and Templates

Communicate Early and Often

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Leadership & Charisma

Leadership: The art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.

~Dwight D. Eisenhower

Creating culture in your project: What you do makes the difference

Project success

Not based solely on timelines, budgets, and scope and the processes that support them.

Success is also tied to how stakeholders feel about the project, the team, and the leadership.

(Um, that’s you again, project manager)

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Group perception of your skill, your knowledge, and your ability to be “like us” are very important to establishing the norms and standards of culture in your project.

The same but…different

It’s this culture that becomes a touchstone for changes and transitions of the many stakeholders and the work done for the project.

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When people feel you are invested in their success and believe you support their interests, they tend to feel more motivated to support you.

The project has a greater chance of success when stakeholders feel:

• More connected to what their work will accomplish for the “big picture” of the business

• More trust and respect in the project experience

• More fairness and familiarity as it relates to consistency and understanding

• More confidence and inclusiveness in the project environment

Lend a helping hand

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Although it’s a tall order for anyone to assume, project managers have a not so secret helper – CHARISMA… When people think of a charismatic leader, they tend to describe them as being visible, strong, energetic, values-driven, principled, outgoing, self-confident, powerful, and influential. The charismatic almost seems larger than life. People LOVE being part of their orbit.

What’s interesting about charisma is

anyone can have it with a little effort.

The charismatic in you…

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Research says…

According to an article in Scientific American Mind, recent research on charisma, originally thought to be an innate attribute of a leader, was actually found to be an attribution given by followers.

When followers see a leader as one who advances group interests, that leader is considered to have more charisma.  Perception of charisma of a leader had a direct correlation to how well a company was doing.

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What’s this got to do with project managers?

For culture to be established and embraced in a project stakeholders need to feel their interests and the group’s interests are being served.

With the understanding that charisma is made and earned and not born, project managers can use the “three Rs” of leadership to build culture in their project:

• Reflecting • Representing • Realizing

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Reflecting project management style

In traditional leadership, reflecting requires that one learn about the culture and history of a group.

In project leadership this requires the project manager to have a deep understanding of why the project is important to the business, how it will be integrated and used, and when it is needed.

To do this project managers must do a lot of listening and asking questions.

• Be curious and stretch beyond what’s currently known

• Research what others have done inside and outside the company on similar projects

• Help stakeholders connect the value of the project to the company’s future

• Understand what’s important to the stakeholders

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Representing feels all right

In traditional leadership, representing requires that the person lead others to draw the conclusions you need them to draw instead of telling them. It just “makes sense” or “feels right” to others because the person representing is a proponent of the group.

In project leadership this is the ability to ask questions and facilitate dialogue among stakeholders. You don’t have all the answers. They do as individuals and as a team. It’s your job to create a culture that promotes open discussion early and often.  It also requires that you know what you don’t know and partner with someone who does. Representing doesn’t mean you’re the expert. It means you know how to connect with others who are and can integrate what they know into a compelling story for the project that becomes part of the lore (and work) of your project’s culture.

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In traditional leadership, realizing requires that the person pursue the top interests of the group. They get the group organized and focused.

In project leadership it basically comes down to making stakeholders feel like they matter whether they are on the project for a short time or for the long haul.

When project managers are present they:

• Are organized and transparent• Do what they say they are going to do• Clear with stakeholders about project roles

and priorities• Model a culture of consistency • Purposefully execute the project as it relates

to the “big picture”• Listen and ask questions

Going for what really matters

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Process & Templates

Creating culture in your project: The tools you use

If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulder of giants.

~ Isaac Newton

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Helping stakeholders find their way

 

Your behavior establishes your reputation as a project manager, and your reputation

determines how people feel about your project and its culture.

Charisma helps with shaping a positive project culture

environment and process and templates facilitate it.  

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Tools for managing resource shifts

Whether stakeholders are involved with your project for a short period of time or the duration, process and supporting templates can ease transitions that invariably occur. • Orientation to norms, standards, & team • Role/responsibility• Tech tools – Google Docs, Sharepoint• Documentation and naming scheme• Change control process• Change template• Status reporting process• Status report template• Work Authorization system• Deliverable review process• Project charter• Project scope• Time tracking process

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Communicating Early & Often

Creating culture in your project: How you go about it

Communication works for those who work at it.

~ John Powell

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Putting a communication process in place will help with transitioning resources.

As part of the process it’s important to determine stakeholder information needs and define the most appropriate communication approach.

Communicating shouldn’t be a surprise

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Talk to me…and listen

Consider the following when planning your communication process:

• Method of communication • Frequency of

communication• Feedback requirements• Distribution• ROE – Rules of

Engagement• Principle lines of

communication• Authorization to make

decisions

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Cost of failure of projects

Revolving door…reality of today’s project stakeholder

Creating culture in your project

Leadership & charisma: What you do matters

Process & templates: The tools you use helps

Communicating early & often: How you go about it

Project managers are constantly juggling schedules, cost, and resources. Because of the rapid, evolving nature of projects today, people will come and go on projects. This webinar considered how to respond to resource shifts and mitigate the impact of changing roles and people through establishing culture in your project.

Wrapping it up

Questions???

Thank you!

Alison Sigmon, M.Ed, LPC, PMP

asigmon@systemation.com

Twitter @alisonsigmon

www.slideshare.net/ahsigmon

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