Analyzing the process

This process has three main phases (the production includes the data collection and their verification):

1. Production
2. Delivery
3. Acceptance

And then the two actors:

1. Leader.
2. His/her (potential) followers:

Change their respective roles as shown in the following table:

Therefore, its elements can be viewed differently.

This table shows how the attitude created by the reception influences the results (from success to failure).

The recipe for the success: making menus

There are two ways for increasing the message “readability” and then improving its acceptance’s rate.

1)    Condensation (number of items and then quantity of words used)

2)    Orientation (changing priority and then quality of the words used)

Both strategies can live together. The former would form the introduction; then, after a brief pause left for enabling the audience to stay for the longer version. This is also true for documents issuing; a careful use of an outlined Table of Contents allows the readers a preferred path.

Conclusion

The introduction must contain the message core. Then, an outlined index will offer different paths either in viewpoint (areas of interests) or deepening.

Quote:

the title comes from General C. Powell

The appeal of the plans

The idea of allocating the people time into neat lines has its appeal. Building a sort of bulwark against any inconvenient seems a reassuring act. However, the rows appearing on Gantt are just the result of so many others traced on a series of documents that often are neglected (from Risk to budget). The excuses range from the boredom of bureaucratic work to lack of courage to assess (and receive written confirmation) about vague promises or uttered decrees.

Time and energy

Time is just an empty container. Only energy can make it useful; then, if no accident diverts our efforts, the time will be made meaningful by the results of our actions. This can only be obtained when a portion of the future is allocated along with the necessary resources (energy, tools and skills). For longer and complex activities this container should be structured into smaller units.

These are the reasons to support this policy:

1. Natural gates for checking results.
2. Time allocated for reviewing and reflections.
3. More manageable units for dealing with issues.
4. More homogeneous the tasks’ nature, easier the Risk Management.
5. Given a better articulated plan, risk proximity becomes easier to evaluate.

Conclusion

The “strategic” choice of delivering something that could be considered “good enough” is not an easy one. Less than perfect outcomes are likely to receive some critics. When these are taken as suggestions, any comment is a new source of energy.

This document is issued with the scope of providing all necessary elements for introducing and managing the project.

In the PMBook, it is called “Initiation”. In the proposed version, all “reasonable” questions are listed for probing all aspects: from commercial to technical and financial.

One of the success’s factors for managing projects is the negotiation of the correct terms. From a clear picture of what has to be delivered (when and how) it is easier to create a common ground where all stakeholders can find a match for their interests.

Topic of the day

There is an interesting discussion about the 2.0 Project Management, in essence the adoption of “social media” could improve the communications among the stakeholders. An increasing of volume (either in a number of exchanged messages or people reached) does not increase the quality of information; where the quality is the ability to answer to the need of knowledge.

Tools like “IM” can increase the speed of transmission and then improve the sensation of mimicking a conversation; however, when the information is left to each person’s memory, it has lost most of its value. (Written) history is at the basis of property. With no shared traces, it is extremely difficult to have any serious reference. Good willingness and cooperation are essential values that could be easily overwhelmed by the pressure produced by financial hassles.

The first engineering lesson I received from my grandpa, a hammer smith. “Iron can be worked at the right temperature. Check the color and hear the softer sound of the hammer. Use force not violence”.

Building reality

The perceived reality is our reality. Sound crystal references like calendar, clock and money are entangled in a web of sensations. The biggest task of the manager is still using these elements to build a common and shared system where any stakeholder can find the “right” place for bargaining his/her own merchandise (money, skills or information) with the reasonable certainty that no big robbery has allowed, within the clear boundaries set by the Project Charter.

The importance of techniques

The role of facilitator (between producers, suppliers and future consumers) can be carried out only if the Project Manager’s skills are good enough for explaining and convincing of the feasibility of “plans”.

The key value is reliability – See document.

Better is our comprehension of the surrounding environment (where cultural aspects are seldom available on the books) easier we can make our assessments. They form the lattice where our promises are built to stand most of the foreseeable conditions (as stated in the Business Case).

Nets work just for their ability to be built and respond to the challenges in a mix of resistance, resilience and acceptance. All this is constructed using softer skills with other people and a bit harder skills (willingness) toward ourselves. It comes true during any negotiation; latching on an easy promise, with neither serious check nor working controls is a breach of our professional oath (see post )

Finding and removing the cause

In my experience, finding the reasons of the problems (delays, poor output quality etc.) is not very difficult. Usually, the easiest symptom to spot is the gap between people and the rules they set.

Like surgery, before any operation, it is necessary to assess the ability of the patient to recover. Therefore, any sort of knife, from bayonet to laser, need to be use with force. Not violence; it has to be played by ear too.

I am reviewing the Risk Analysis in the current project. An exercise carried out frequently; however, every time it is a source of new discoveries. Most of them are about me; namely, in my ability to deal with people. In some previous posts, I cited “friction” as a source of big risks. It is time to spend some energy on this concept.

“Friction” from physics to human relationships

(Military) history is a huge mine for digging out “new” ways to understand “current” situations. Insofar, as I know the term “friction” is used for defining scenarios where, for many reasons, the energies of both sides are consumed over a longer period – instead of a shorter and more intense clash. There are infinite causes for this “risk”; thereof the damage to the project’s output is still huge.

The impact of “lack” of politeness

This kind of condition in the projects is usually formed by the lack of the most basic form of politeness. Let me recap some common situations:

1. The project’s plan (resource allocation) does not have a name (see post from Curt Finch).
2. The person allocated to the specific task is unaware or do not endorse (possibly by previous results) the estimations.
3. People (most notably Senior Managers) are not dutifully engaged in their roles (e.g. deserting meetings, avoiding replying messages destined to ask for confirmation – see post from  Ksenia Woodgate). Notably, a common problem is created when producers are thinking of behalf of the customer, thereby making erroneous assumptions (this situation can be labeled in many ways: from “Scope creep” to “misunderstanding of requirements”)
4. Project managers do not pay enough attention to the results of their communications. All their efforts to delivery “nice” documents fall in the oblivion; nevertheless, no change in the use of the tools (from face meetings to templates) can be traced.

The politeness as “soft skills”

Most of the so called soft skills are based on a very basic form of respect of the counterpart as a human being. There is a quite long but interest post from Lisa DiTullio .

In the last decades in the Western world, the word politeness is associated with “unselfish lying”. Everyone shall have the right of express him/herself in the most direct (sometimes resenting the “theatrical”) way; this should tap the capital of our creativity; regardless of the impact on our peers (to be intended as human beings).

Soft skills, as crafty described in Wikipedia, are based on the knowledge of ourselves and then our culture to be confronted with the others. It is seldom required to be cognizant of exotic costumes. Usually, professional people share a lot of behavioral rules (from garments to the voices’ tone).

“People living in glass houses cannot throw bricks”

Therefore, there is “my” interpretation of the Emotional Intelligence tenets:

Self-awareness

“Am I conscious of my usage of the rules? This consciousness implies the ability of gauging the receivers’ acceptance of our “message”.
It could range from hiding behind the role, from bending the rules in order to gain some kudos.

Self-management

“Have I evaluated the required effort/skills for maintaining the promise?” The negotiation is useful for its opportunity to gauge the counterpart’s interest on the topic. With no metric to measure the goal, it is almost impossible to have a shared evaluation of results.

Relationship-management

Once my part of the deal has been assessed, “am I able to involve the other people? This needs that everyone accepts – at least – the previous rule.

Social-awareness

“Do I know the written and unwritten rules before to start any other activity?” The power of the “fait-accompli” (already done things) exists only if the others can reckon our done. This means to share the same set of metrics.

Conclusion

One of the most difficult tasks in Risk Management is the measurement of “likelihood”. I am working for offering a homogeneous viewpoint. It has to include math (from Bayes to Spearman rho) to the leadership. It is a long, fantastic trip that involves a big chunk of self-awareness, both “professional” and human.

More references

I was quite amused by reading MBWA “management by wandering around” as well described in this post. At the first impact, it seems that “lazy chats” are situated at the opposite spectrum of a well prepared report.

Speaking for myself, I have to admit to using this technique with good results. However, it needs to be integrated with more “serious” work on the keyboard and meeting rooms’ chairs. The most difficult thing to do in this spectrum is to strike the balance between the time spent sitting in the “Ivory tower” trying to make sense of the figures and then matching them with people’s  instances, and creating the right environment for letting the people to do their best. Thereof, the biggest challenge is still to understand it and frame their outputs in the project’s scope. Yes, details are essential in this trade.

Oceans are made of single drops. It does not make a lot of sense to analyze one by one, not if you are accountable for taking the ship in the safe harbor. Details are needed for focusing on the way these drops are drifting, catching to understand their movements in order to see the favorable stream. Then, do not forget the wind or the fuel reserves.

Scoping the report

Highlight (weekly) reports are used for transmitting the key values about the project’s trend. They can be considered the communication system that transmits information from the surrounding reality (e.g. production floor, customers, market) to the brain, which has the tools for making proper reactions. Each bit of information is made by packets. Namely, words, numbers and diagrams are set for creating the environment where containing actionable information are rapidly understandable.

Mining for the information, checking their validity and finding the best way to present them is a long and complex process that requires many skills. The first one is the ability to negotiate the most important topics with each recipient. In other words, most of the process of collecting and checking information should be re-usable for some different professional roles (e.g. Sponsor, CFO, and CIO).

People are still at the core of the system

I, professionally, grew up with a couple of myths:

1. Total Quality Management
2. The dashboard from where it were possible to mining all information about all processes in real-time.

To be honest, I am still fond of these concepts. The long array of successes and failures has convinced me of the paramount importance of the people in this search. Their abilities, capacities and attitudes are the most important values to be look at in the effort of building together the best place to produce.

Let me clarify, also to myself, what makes “comfortable” the workplace.

At the top of the requirements, there are the human relationships. Creating empathy is the most urgent and important task. However, it never comes alone. It is too easy, especially for a consultant, to quickly build personal links based on the office politics. They are worthless and become dangerous.

A workplace is an ideal fabric woven by rules. Some of them are clearly set (taking the form of documents – e.g. RACI) others are to be read in each person behavior. The latter are much more important. It is amazing how much information can be retrieved just asking for them with no other intention that understand the person’s situation. No betrayal is allowed; neither on spoofing for future speculations nor on making empty promises in a trade that will be easy nullified by reality.

It is not a romantic vision of a European grew up with John Ford movies. Leading by example requires a lot of work on us, finding good models offers the chance of measuring how long it our way will be, and in the same time some catching ideas for communicating and shaping our decisions.

The importance of vision

Projects can be considered company’s progenies. They are the result of mating the company’s resources with something external. It could be the customer or the vendor. However, in order to respect the true nature of the project, it shall be something new and unique. Like any other descendant, in its genetic code there are substantial traces of both parents, which have to nurture the creature and supply it with the necessary pedagogy (processes) and dowry (technology).

The project vision cannot be the same of one of their parents. A lot of problems are brewed by an unbalance presence of one parent. Especially, when the project lacks of its own vision. The reason for which resources are allocated and much more important people spend their energy for delivering what has been approved.

From vision to mission

Once the idea can be easily explained to all stakeholders using the vision, leaders and managers have to work out the mission. “When ideas coming to the earth, they spend some time in a brothel” said Mark Twain.

Ideas, by Plato’s definition are pure and perfect. Human nature is far from this, including our understanding of the surrounding environment. Therefore, the project must start with the “political” work of translating the original concept into feasible targets.

Flexibility as value

The mission’s reason to be consists in charting a possible route to reach the target within the given tolerances (money, time and quality – all these values are part of a commercial agreement that forms the reason sustaining the vision). Defining the estimations as the art of gazing in the crystal ball is just nonsense, assuming that the project manager is able to work out the correct terms.

In the “Iron Triangle” where quality remains the  Silent Guest, the balance among the values (scope, time and money) shall be reached and maintained through the entire project’s life.
In a playground it could easily become a tug of war between producers that want to reach excellence and customer who want something more (than agreed) for his/her money.
This is a childish viewpoint, perhaps based on some George Grosz cartoons.
Flexibility is not pliability. There is nothing to do with anatomy and the spine’s stiffness. Flexibility is the ability to change (in response to “external” pressure) in order to maintain the same form or output.

Vision and errors

“errare humanum est, sed perseverare diabolicum” (‘to err is human, but to persist (in the mistake) is diabolical. The only way to define a mistake is done through an honest reference to the truth (or the common perceived reality).
Vision helps us in two complementary ways. What we are doing and why.
Everything that does not match with the vision (duly translated into the daily reality) can be labeled as error. Without a clear and shared concept of what is needed for reaching the target, there is no way for defining, measuring and repair the damage.

Time

Time has just only one direction (at least in philosophy). It is forward; therefore, there is no chance to “physically” modify what happened in the past. However, vision lives in the future and, once it has been infused in the outcome, it starts a new life in the final users.
In the middle, between the past actions and the future plans there is a lot to do today.

Just to inform you that I am taking few days off. Just before the opening of hunting season, when walking in the woods is not healthy.

Thank you for your support, advice and friendship.

Warmest regards

Eugenio