Forward Momentum: Delivering Results

By Kathy Martucci, PMP

I think you would whole-heartedly agree that Matrix Management is a well-established, well-recognized foundation of project management methodology.   Therefore, it must be in keeping with all the other basic truths of PM and just plain old good management– or is it?

If one of our goals is to KISS (Keep it Simple, Stupid!), does Matrix Management align with that goal?  It SOUNDS simple: all the people with similar skills regardless of their direct line of supervision are pooled and supervised by a person responsible to the project.  Simple.

So what gets complicated?  What about conflicting loyalties and priorities?  Those of us with both project and operations duties often hear that “Production is King” or “Operations is Priority Number One”.  But when a project deadline is looming, whose work takes precedence?  Two managers must now negotiate to answer that question.

Where are Matrix Management resources located, and how much independence and autonomy do they have?  As often encountered in truly virtual teams, not seeing someone face-to-face on a regular basis can have its complications.  Diligent oversight by both the direct supervisor and the project manager is imperative to execute and track work effectively.

So, what’s a KISS advocate to do?  First, take full advantage of the opportunity to foster the specialization that comes with matrix management and offer your staff the corresponding professional development it can provide.  Second, encourage the communication channels that are created as all the subject matter experts in one area are under your supervision.

And, Keep it Simple!

By Vicki Wrona, PMP

Recently, we have seen some good and bad examples in the news regarding reacting to making mistakes. Professionally, what can we learn from these?

First, let’s discuss different reactions to mistakes. There are three approaches to handle a mistake: apologize right away, apologize to save face and don’t apologize at all.

There was the recent baseball game involving the Detroit Tigers’ pitcher Armando Galarraga. Up until the end of the game, he had pitched the elusive perfect game, retiring 26 straight batters. It appeared that batter #27 was easily out but the umpire called the runner safe, causing the game not to go down in the record books as a perfect game. Later that evening, when umpire Jim Joyce saw replays, he realized he made a bad call which cost Armando Galarraga a perfect game.

Joyce had the presence of mind to know and admit when he made a mistake. The next day, Joyce admitted his mistake and expressed real remorse in his apology to Galarraga, saying that he hasn’t forgiven himself. To his credit, Galarraga graciously accepted the apology, recognizing that there are times when mistakes are made.

A second example of a recent mistake we have heard plenty about in the news is the BP oil spill. Here, as with Toyota earlier this year, BP refused to admit wrongdoing on their part, finding many other items and people to blame. Finally, when BP’s CEO Tony Hayward did issue an apology in a TV commercial, it was largely seen as insincere, inauthentic. They appeared more sorry to have gotten caught than for the tragedy caused.

A third approach is to ignore the mistake entirely as demonstrated by FIFA and Malian referee Koman Coulibaly. After countless hours of watching video tape no one seems to be able to explain the mysterious foul that caused the final goal scored by the U.S. to be disallowed. This led to a draw between Slovenia and the U.S. and could have ramifications later in the tournament. So far, even though the game report claims a foul on Edu of the U.S. team, FIFA has not responded to the criticisms levied by the international media.

Why do I mention these situations? Because as leaders, managers or employees in the business world, we can learn from the actions of others. Is your project going to be late? Are you starting to run over budget? Did an unexpected event occur that you don’t have a plan for? Don’t be afraid to admit mistakes if they are real. If there is a real mistake made, admit it and discuss what is being done to fix it. This doesn’t mean you go around admitting every little thing. Focus on the ones that matter, those with repercussions. Not admitting a mistake or trying to shift the blame to someone or something else doesn’t fool anyone, except maybe yourself. And in the process, you will lose credibility. We would do well to remember this when working with our customers, bosses or team members.

Patrick Lencioni does a good job of describing this in his new book Getting Naked. He discusses how being open, transparent, even vulnerable with clients allows for trust and honest, true relationships to build. His consulting firm has operated on that premise for years and has grown.

There are even consultants now who advise firms on how to make amends, understanding that admitting a mistake could include accepting a possible legal liability. According to the June 13, 2010 Dallas Morning News, Lee Taft of Taft Solutions says that a true apology can have a positive legal effect. For example, in 2004, the Dallas Police Department was involved in a fake drug scandal. Rather than pretend nothing happened or try to blame someone else, the Dallas City Council apologized to victims and announced that new measures would be put in place to make sure this could not happen again. There was a legal risk in admitting this so openly and there were legal awards paid out because of this scandal, but the conclusion by some is that the city paid less than they might have because they removed the “outrage factor” and inflated awards.

Just as there are risks when admitting mistakes, there are risks in not admitting a mistake. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that doctors who make mistakes and stay silent increase their suffering, putting them at higher risk for addiction, burnout or suicide.

What can we learn from all this? Remember that you are not fooling anyone by pretending an error or bad situation didn’t happen. The important thing is that you step up and do your best to fix it. Keep honest and open lines of communication. That can overcome many legitimate mistakes. In summary:

1. Apologize quickly and with feeling, showing that you understand the impact of your actions
2. Offer a solution or remedy if one is available
3. Show how you plan to work this into your process to prevent it from happening again

By Craig Covello, PMP

You’ve probably heard the acronym “KISS”, which stands for “keep it simple, stupid”.  I must admit, I was never a fan of any phrase that assumes the audience has diminished capacity.  And in this case, there is definitely nothing “stupid” about the benefits of keeping things simple, particularly when it applies to project management.

If you have spent any time studying project management courses or preparing for the Project Management Institute’s PMP exam, then you know that there is a good deal of complexity and abstract thought associated with generally accepted project management principles.  The number of concepts can be overwhelming.  They include a good understanding of organizational structures, project scope, time management, cost containment, quality metrics, human resource management, communication plans, risk mitigation and even procurement.  The number of tools and techniques associated with project initiation, control, monitoring and closure can number into the hundreds.  Some might even argue they number into the thousands.  Yet, as with all things, we soon learn to prioritize and select the tools and techniques which suit our project management style as well as the scope and duration of the efforts we undertake.

A case could be made that you could count on your fingers the essential components of a good project management plan.  In my world, these would include:

1. A statement of business requirements to be addressed.
2. Project charters, which include information identifying project sponsors, the project manager, a project ID and the anticipated duration of the effort.
3. A definitive statement of project goals and criteria for measuring project success.
4. Specific definitions regarding what is within scope and beyond the scope of the project.
5. Risk assessments, including an appropriate level of contingency planning.
6. A stakeholder list with subsets identifying active project participants, roles, specific responsibilities and contact information.
7. A definitive list of project deliverables.
8. The project budget.
9. The communication plan and meeting schedule.
10. Executive level status reports designed to summarize past expenditures, provide fiscal projections and identify issues requiring escalation.
11. Meeting minutes, action items and issues logs, which I consolidate into something called “project notes”.
12. Detailed project tasks, assignments and associated schedules.

Okay, I admit I don’t have 12 fingers, but I’m sure you get the idea.  Having small set of project definitions, controls and reporting mechanisms is one way to keep things relatively simple so that everyone has the opportunity to maintain the big picture during the life of the project.  Methodologies, forms and formal procedures can be beneficial until they reach a point of critical mass.  When that happens, they may actually impede progress, hinder communication and obfuscate status.  The confusion and associated slow response to the tragic oil spill in the Gulf comes to mind.  Please forgive my armchair quarterback analysis, but the situation might have been significantly better if some very basic questions had been answered before attempting to address the myriad of details.  Specifically,

• Who’s in charge?
• What are the immediate and long term objectives?
• What is the anticipated duration?
• How much money is available?
• Who is available to help?
• What is the communication plan?
• What contingencies will be executed on a specific date if “Plan A” is unsuccessful?

If you can get your head around those questions without referring to reams of documentation, then you have a much better chance for project success.

Less is sometimes more.

By Vicki Wrona, PMP

I have always prided myself on my ability to manage and motivate my team as well as to get many of my employees promoted. I took the time to get to know their business and personal goals, to clear roadblocks, and to coach and develop them. However, it is a little different story when your team is completely virtual.

When I moved to the role of managing virtual team members, some aspects of my old management approach still worked well while others fell woefully short. Even the aspects that worked, though, had to be modified. For example, I couldn’t walk around and casually talk to everyone to see what they were working on, where they were concerned, and understand the daily nuances of the work at hand. This made a difference when communicating with my new virtual team. I found that much as I tried, I couldn’t relate to everyone as well as I used to. I started to be taken by surprise by things that happened (or more often, what didn’t happen), to hear of obstacles that I didn’t know were presenting themselves, etc.

What did I learn from this?

1)      Extra touch. My general management style was still good, but needed to be modified to include good use of technology and more conscious effort to keep in touch with everyone. It takes extra time to talk to people and get to know them. It also means making an effort to schedule a few more and focused meetings. When working remotely, the team default is to stay separate and not schedule any meetings. Also, it is not enough for me to talk to each person individually; I also have to make sure they are talking to each other. Surprisingly, often they aren’t.

2)      Increase feedback provided. In an office it was easy for me to provide ongoing, informal feedback to individuals to let them know how they were doing and to help develop them. Remotely, that is more difficult. I have to make an effort to let people know what has been done well or what was not done as I expected and encourage interaction with that person. I have to create a feeling of trust and openness so the dialogue can occur even when I do not initiate the conversation.

3)      Additional planning. I have to perform additional planning when communicating work to be done. This may include putting instructions in writing or creating more checklists than before. It may also mean creating processes for task management and completion, problem solving or conflict management.  Sometimes, processes need to be created for things taken for granted in a co-located office. Processes for version control, hand-offs, checklists of the common errors in completing work may have to be created to produce a consistent, quality product among scattered team members. 

4)      Use technology, but don’t let team members hide behind it. I had to adapt to relying a little more on lack of touch, such as using email, but not too much, because so much of the message is lost with this method of communicating. In today’s society, the bigger problem is getting people away from email and IM and getting them to actually call and talk to another team member. Yes, more communications are conducted using email and IM, and much of it is fine and has served us well. However, more misunderstandings do arise when using this medium and I have to be ready to step in when necessary to coordinate a call or a meeting to ensure people actually talk to each other to work things out. Other tools such as shared sites or collaborative software are essential.

5)      Meet in person. Make an effort to bring people together in person where possible. Have you ever noticed that you can build a pretty good working relationship with someone over the phone or over email, but once you meet, that relationship has moved to a whole new level? It’s different. That’s the power of face-to-face. Try to get everyone to meet each other at least once. Then the interactions are a little more personal and (hopefully) even better.