WHO NEEDS A CIO ANYWAY? – HOW TO INFLUENCE AND GET WHAT YOU WANT IN THE PMO

Michael Lubrano SSBB, PMPSeptember PMI Meeting- Baton Rouge Chapter

INFLUENCE

Being successful with project execution is less and less about your general PM skills and more about your diplomatic skills.

How much of your job is related to communication and diplomacy?

HOW INFLUENCING SKILLS HELP YOU

Get noticed quickly Achieve strategic objectives Gain more flexibility dealing with people Resolve conflict better Have more fun! (yes, work can be fun) If you have a robust network and you understand

how to recognize influencing opportunities and employ the right influencing tactics, you’ll get more of what you want in the PMO.

REVERE VS. DAWES

Paul Revere William Dawes

MAP OF THE MIDNIGHT RIDE

NETWORK EFFECT

Revere’s Ride

Dawe’s Ride

CLIQUE

You

Friend

Friend

Friend

Echo Chamber

How many of your contacts are contacts of each other?

NETWORK EFFECT

Revere’s Ride

Dawe’s Ride

“Echo Chamber”

HIGH SCHOOL DATING NETWORK

Boys are BLUEGirls are PINK

TWO WAYS TO EXERT INFLUENCE

Direct Power – Military/Rank/Title

Indirect Power - Influence

BUTTERFLY EFFECTFrom Wikipedia, In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions; where a small change at one place in a nonlinear system can result in large differences to a later state. The effect derives its name from the theoretical example of a hurricane's formation being contingent on whether or not a distant butterfly had flapped its wings several weeks before.

HESITANCY TO INFLUENCE

See it, but:

•Settle for status quo•Keep expectations low•Assume the good ideas sell themselves•Blame others rather than taking action

Result

•Sabotage by trusted co-workers•Little enthusiasm for pitching in•Conflict and drama

HOW TO USE INDIRECT INFLUENCE

Start with an idea of the result

Be willing to become a broker

Mutual stake in outcome

Use expressive and receptive influencing skills

EXPRESSIVE INFLUENCE

Adapted from : http://www.exercisinginfluence.com/influencebook.html

EXPRESSIVE INFLUENCE - TELL

Adapted from : http://www.exercisinginfluence.com/influencebook.html

SUGGEST:

Let’s do the Mobile phone projectbefore the New Hire Online system to provide savings to the company immediately and create more revenue for new hires.

EXPRESSIVE INFLUENCE - TELL

Adapted from : http://www.exercisinginfluence.com/influencebook.html

Express Needs:

We are going to need everyone to pitch in on this project due to the government regulation that is going into effect in 2 months.

EXPRESSIVE INFLUENCE - SELL

Adapted from : http://www.exercisinginfluence.com/influencebook.html

Offer Reasons:

Continuing maintenance on this ancient hardware means we wont be able to upgrade the technology stack overall.

EXPRESSIVE INFLUENCE - SELL

Adapted from : http://www.exercisinginfluence.com/influencebook.html

Shared Values:

I think coding this in C# is the best option as we both like it much better than Java.

EXPRESSIVE INFLUENCE - NEGOTIATE

Adapted from : http://www.exercisinginfluence.com/influencebook.html

Incentives:

If you can deliver this project 5% under budget we will give you a bonus of $1000.

EXPRESSIVE INFLUENCE - NEGOTIATE

Adapted from : http://www.exercisinginfluence.com/influencebook.html

Consequences:

If we don’t finish this Legal Hold project on time we risk providing privileged information to opposing council thereby increasing our settlement risk.

EXPRESSIVE INFLUENCE - ENLIST

Adapted from : http://www.exercisinginfluence.com/influencebook.html

Envision:

We have a chance to enable the business in a unique and competitive way by leveraging this project. It will provide significant value and bring our competitors to their knees!

EXPRESSIVE INFLUENCE - ENLIST

Adapted from : http://www.exercisinginfluence.com/influencebook.html

Encourage:

We missed the last milestone, but we haven't failed yet. By fighting through these issues and hitting the next milestone target you will experience firsthand how sweet the success of solving these lingering project issues.

RECEPTIVE INFLUENCE MODEL

Adapted from : http://www.exercisinginfluence.com/influencebook.html

RISKS

Pick goals worth your effort

Failure will occur

Influential people are comfortable being visible

If you are not fully committed, you are unlikely to succeed.

INFLUENCING IN YOUR PMO

Be a broker in your network

Break through “echo chambers”

Use Expressive Influencing

QUESTIONS/COMMENTS?

“The herd seek out the great, not for their sake but for their influence; and the great welcome them out of vanity or need.” ~Napoleon Bonaparte