Forward Momentum: Delivering Results

By Rob Zell

Before you can really solve a problem you have to get inside it, poke around in the guts of the matter, experience the pain it’s causing the organization, understand how people cope with the issue and how it ripples through other systems.  You probably knew this but I was made keenly aware of it through one of my hobbies: running.

As a runner, I have always shopped for cushioned shoes with good stability control. This is what I described to a number of very competent shoe salesmen in very good running stores and they all fitted me in very comfortable shoes that fit the bill. Recently, I started having knee pain and self-diagnosed that I needed new shoes. I went to a well-known running shoe store near my home and described my needs as I understood them. The salesperson asked me to walk across the floor a few times and observed my stride and how my feet struck the floor and recommended a completely different kind of shoe. I was pretty surprised to hear the result, but I took a chance, purchased the shoes and have been running pain free ever since. Surprisingly, these shoes have less cushion and less stability than any other shoe I’ve ever worn.

In business, internal consultants such as myself are often approached to solve a problem that the organization has identified. The business leader will have data and history that highlights the problem and leads to a narrow set of conclusions. “Just fix this issue for me,” the leader will say. “We have a good solution, we just need a few tweaks.”

To be great at solving problems we need to go a bit deeper into the analysis and really explore the issue. In their book, Analyzing Performance Problems, Robert Mager and Peter Pipe shared a decision tree to use to diagnose issues. The beauty of the framework is that it helps identify where the real problem lies and if it’s even worth pursuing. If the issue is worth pursuing, then the analysis continues to examine the various factors that could be contributing to failure.

To get inside the issue you have to change your perspective. Don’t examine the issue as a trainer or project manager, examine it as a guest. If I, as a guest, wanted to make this purchase, how easy is it to get answers? To find the price? How do I know the value compared to other items? What is the sales experience like? How do I feel when I’m done? How does it feel to make the same purchase at a competitor?

You should also walk in the shoes of the salesman, the stock clerk, the delivery agent, the packer, the shipper, the manufacturer, the manager, the district manager etc. At each phase of the delivery, someone is impacted by the process. This is true for services, manufacturing, even leadership. The farther you go back up the chain, walking in someone else’s shoes, the more information you gather. Ask the people at each level or phase what their experience is like handling that item or performing that function.

I will concede that you may not have the time for that kind of in depth analysis on every project. I will challenge you to ask who makes the ultimate decision on the viability of the product or process. I am well known in my training classes for asking, “Who makes the ultimate decision on what gets executed in our stores?” I work in retail and often deal with operations leaders and support staff who are keenly aware of initiatives that are designed to improve operating margin. After fielding answers, I reply, “The front line employee. The minimum wage associate decides, in the moment, the action that will reap the greatest benefit and/or alleviate the most pressure.” I usually let that sink in a bit and then continue to explain that if your process is too difficult or causes them discomfort, they will ignore it. Not out of malicious intent; they will do so out of a sense of self-preservation.

If you aren’t taking the time to understand all of the ramifications of the problem, you may be creating solutions that actually cause “pain” in the individuals who have to execute your plan. You will have created a fix based on a faulty diagnosis or at least, a diagnosis that failed to take into account the depth of the issue.

Like running shoes that fix a problem you don’t really have, they will cause pain until you explore the issue from a different perspective. Once you uncover all the facts, you can create solutions that keep the organization running, healthy and happy.

Have you been handed issues to fix and had success at diving deeper to get to the true problem? Share your success stories so we can learn how to deal with leaders who didn’t have the right perspective on the issue.

By Vicki Wrona, PMP

Recently, a colleague made a statement that I love and thought I would explore that with you. She tells her teams, “Don’t make the same mistakes, make new ones.” This resonated with me for several reasons.

First, she gave her team members permission to explore, be creative, and make mistakes at work. If you are never wrong, never fail, or never make a mistake, then you aren’t pushing yourself and growing personally. The same goes with work. If you have never worked on a project or initiative which has had trouble or has not succeeded 100%, then you haven’t stretched yourself. Anyone who has worked on larger initiatives or more complex projects has had problems, even failures. Not everything succeeds. What we want to do is take control where possible and avoid those issues or problems which can be properly managed, minimizing the occurrences of problems or failures that are beyond our control.

Second, this statement emphasizes the rule to avoid repeating past mistakes. How do we avoid making the mistakes that have been made before? By reviewing lessons learned and familiarizing ourselves with the problems and issues that prior similar projects have had. We can also interview our SMEs (subject matter experts), those who have been involved with similar initiatives in the past. They have a wealth of information if we make the effort to talk to them and ask the right questions. I would suggest that when you initiate a discussion with a SME that you are prepared with the right questions to gather the information you need.

Another way to avoid making the same mistakes is to involve SMEs in the project or initiative. We cannot do all of our work alone; unfortunately many managers or project managers believe they are supposed to. That is not true. Involve your team, talk to SMEs inside and outside your team as well as outside your organization where possible, use all the resources you have. If at first blush you don’t think you have many resources or help, think about it some more. With some thought, you’ll probably realize you have access to more sources of information and knowledge than you think. Be proactive. I’ll bet you know of managers or project managers who are able to gather intelligence better than others. Emulate them.

In closing, keep this phrase in mind when managing your own work as well as other people. Be the role model you need to be.

How have you helped yourself or your team stretch beyond the comfortable while avoiding making the same mistakes?

By Vicki Wrona, PMP

Maybe you’ve heard the advice to “fake it ‘til you make it”. Well I’d like to expand on that saying.

Do you ever find yourself angry with something or someone and need a way to change your mood? If you are upset, sad, or experiencing a negative emotion that needs to go away, just smile. You may feel silly but your brain cannot handle the crossed signals coming into it. Your mind is clearly upset but your face is smiling. Within a few minutes, your mood will lighten, and you will find yourself able to deal with that difficult person in a rational way rather than emotionally and negatively.

I once worked for a telemarketing firm. “Smile and dial” they would tell us while we worked toward our goal of 200 calls an hour. If you smile while talking on the phone, that positive emotion comes through in your voice and the person on the other end will pick up on that. Do this especially if you are upset or dreading the conversation.

As covered in Whole Living Magazine, researchers at Northwestern University found that simply putting your body in certain positions triggers hormonal changes. Positioning your body in a posture of power to act more confidently raises levels of testosterone, a hormone which makes us take action, while also reducing cortisol, a stress hormone. This includes both sitting and standing positions, such as sitting with your hands behind your head and one ankle on the other knee or walking with your eyes focused straight ahead and head held high. Using this knowledge wisely can help you boost your performance at work and in life.

If you are working on a task or problem and just want to give up, give yourself the ability to be more persistent by crossing your arms. Your brain will pay attention to the body language more than your inner negative voices wanting you to quit.

You can also sit up straight or stand tall to boost your confidence. What I have found to work well is to sit or stand tall and talk with assuredness on what I DO know. That helps overcome nervous energy when making a big presentation or negotiating with a tough negotiator, such as your boss or customer. I’m not suggesting that we all become the cocky and annoying person who acts all-knowing and over-confident, sometimes due to lack of awareness and sometimes to cover a lack of knowledge and/or possible insecurity. I don’t want anyone acting like they know everything when they don’t.

Your mom may have used this technique when she put her hands on her hips to stand firm and make a point. At that point, you knew she was not budging.

Another interesting trick is to nod your head to increase positive feelings. Your body language reflects your inner state, so if you are feeling positive when talking, you may start to nod your head. It also turns out that if consciously nod your head while talking, you will feel more positive. It works in both directions.

If you don’t quite know what to say and want to encourage the other person to provide more information and continue to speak, you can either put your chin in your hand in a thoughtful pose or lightly stroke your chin. If you also nod your head at the same time, you encourage the other person to continue speaking and to agree.  This will help you gather more information and collect your thoughts before responding. Again, not only are you encouraging the other person to participate, you are convincing yourself to act reflectively when you need it.

I hope these tips help when you find yourself in a difficult, negative or uncomfortable situation.

How have you applied any of these body language techniques? If you have not used this trick, how can you apply it?

By Dr. Gerald Mulenburg, PMP

When I learned of an opportunity to sit in on a major NASA project review as a “fly on the wall,” I jumped at it. This seemed like a great way to learn about the new Kepler project. Kepler is a special purpose mission in the NASA Discovery Program, with an objective that the project’s principal investigator William Boruki says is to “explore the skies for terrestrial-like planetary systems around other stars, in order to answer one of the most enduring questions humans have asked throughout history: Are there others like us in the universe?”

Fly-on-the-wall was an experiment in knowledge sharing, offering project practitioners an opportunity to learn from observing good project-related meeting processes as they occurred in real time. This idea surfaced after several senior project managers commented that they had little, if any, training or experience in holding reviews, making presentations, holding team kick-off meetings, or in many other project management activities until they “had to do one.” A common refrain was, “I’d never even seen one!”

To participate as a fly began an interesting and revealing odyssey for me, watching and listening to peer review presentations and discussions from the Kepler-Ground Segment development team to other NASA and contractor managers. These were the key players who would decide how the project would be structured and who would establish a preliminary schedule for this portion of the project.

Now operating in space, Kepler was a joint project between two NASA Centers. Mission control and overall data management were the responsibility of the Ames Research Center, and the telescope and the launch portion were to be managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The primary instrument of Kepler is a specialized one-meter diameter photometer telescope, positioned in Earth’s orbit to “stare” for four years at a small portion of the night sky, containing over 100,000 stars similar to our sun, and to capture images of Earth-like planets rotating around them. This peer review of the project’s ground segment portion emphasized that Kepler was not a large, complicated project.

I was impressed that the meetings started on time, stayed on time, and even finished a little ahead of schedule, despite a lot of active discussion about the control and management techniques to be employed in the project and who had what responsibility. No fewer than eight separate functional organizations with integral roles in the project attended the meeting, from across three continents including North America. And this was said to not be a complex mission! My hat went off to the Kepler project team for their thoroughness, professionalism and ability to stick to the purpose of the meeting. Some useful tips that I picked up as an observing fly for future use in meetings include:

1. INTRODUCTIONS: Not introducing everyone in the room; only the key players at the main table. Other important contributors, who gave parts of the presentation or contributed to the discussions when appropriate, introduced themselves. Some of these people were high-level representatives who did not seem to mind their secondary roles in the meeting.
2. PURPOSE: Clearly stating the purpose of the meeting at the beginning and, even more important, clearly stating what the meeting “was not” about. This set the stage for efficiency and minimized distracting comments. A facilitator kept the meeting moving along but never “squashed” anyone who had a relevant comment or contribution.
3. OMBUDSMAN: Assigning a key member at the table as an ombudsman with a strong enough personality to cut off discussion when it would be part of a later presentation (not relevant now), or to end comments that contributed little (those who love their own voice) or when it would be more appropriate for an off-line conversation (those who can’t let go but just-might have something important to say). This process worked well and was conducted in a polite, professional manner.
4. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: A particularly useful chart on one wall, referred to often during the meeting, showed a roles and responsibilities matrix with the key organizations involved in the project, listed across the top as column headings, and the project functional elements as role headings down the left-most column. The row-column intersections in the matrix clearly identified the organization responsible for each of the functions, removing much confusion that might otherwise have occurred.

I believe fly-on-the-wall is an extremely simple but valuable knowledge-sharing technique, easily duplicated in any organization. Tips from observers in well-run meetings can be shared with project managers and teams, and have high potential for encouraging an outcome of project success.

In what ways do you think the  fly-on-the-wall technique can help your projects?