Forward Momentum: Delivering Results

By Vicki Wrona, PMP

I have trained thousands of professionals over the past 11 years and have observed a direct correlation between the different types of students and their success rate. My personal observation and the help of some past students have allowed me to label these different types.

• Vacationer: This person sees training as an opportunity to take a break from work. They tend to mentally check out once they leave the office prior to training, and are present physically but not mentally in the class. They are there for a mental break and a good time. If traveling, these people often stay out late and are therefore very tired in class. Most do not receive the organization’s intended benefit of the training, which is the application of new knowledge and skills, but often do receive their intended benefit of a vacation.

• Explorer: These students are lifelong learners and are attending class to broaden their horizons. They are interested in new learning opportunities and will listen and participate in class, absorbing any new knowledge they can get.

• Hostage: These people are in training because they are told they need it or because they have to be. They often start the class defensively and may not be open to the ideas presented. Sometimes they turn around and see the benefit of the information offered. Sometimes they do not. It is very rewarding for me when a former hostage begins to engage in the class.

• Distracted: These people physically show up to class but are not really mentally present. They are constantly checking their mobile devices, getting called out of class to settle fires, and tend to not return from breaks in a timely manner. Often, they miss more class than they attend. Sometimes this is out of their control. I understand that unavoidable issues arise at times. Sometimes those can be delegated but are not (which may be why they are in the class to begin with). However, I find that most people miss so much that they don’t receive benefit from the training and because they are haphazardly trying to address issues at work, they are not doing their best work there, either. Both the training and job performance suffer and all sides lose. 

• Applier: These students actively participate and are engaged in class and work to apply the knowledge after class. I know they do this because these are the ones who follow up with me, either to let me know they passed the exam or to tell me how they applied something we discussed and practiced in class or to give me new examples or analogies to use in future classes. They demonstrate to me that they have internalized the information in some way.

The students I find most gratifying are the appliers, explorers and transformed hostages. I love the “aha” or lightbulb moments when they connect information presented to what they are experiencing and figure out a way, either individually or with others, to resolve their situation. This is the reason I teach. This is what motivates me to keep sharing what I have seen and learned.

Please let us know if anything we have shared here has helped you…and how. Thank you for your interest in our articles!

(For those who really don’t know, and for those who really think they know.)

By Dr. Gerald Mulenburg, PMP

We are pleased to welcome a new contributing author, Dr. Gerald Mulenburg. We are sure you will find his articles helpful.

Project management first and foremost is about creating change. If there is no change that needs to occur, there is no need for a project. For any project creating change, multiple items need to be considered, including the amount of change involved, the factors affecting the change, and a number of other things. If the change can be clearly identified, or has been done before and the method for accomplishing it clear, the project is considered “simple.” At the other end of the spectrum, where not only what is to be done is unclear but how to do it is not yet known, a project is considered “complex.” (More on complex projects at another time.) For the project manager to manage a project well, it requires not only an intellectual understanding of the task to be accomplished but also guiding (some may say leading) the project team members to accomplish their tasks in a way that helps integrate the completed work at the right time into the desired result.

So how do we create change through a project? Answering the WWWWWH questions is a good way to start. What is needed? Why is it needed? When is it needed? Who is involved in doing it? Where does it need to be done? and, How is it to be done? Although this may sound simplistic, it is often not simple. Many people working on a project find it difficult to answer all of these questions, and some may not be able to answer any. So what?

Only if everyone working on a project understands both these questions and the answers to them can they make the smart decisions necessary to achieve the project’s objectives by being both effective and efficient. Effectiveness is of course doing the right things, and efficiency is doing those things right. The WWWWWH method provides those doing the work with a means to accomplish that work with all of its necessary features and functions, ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­within the cost constraints, and on schedule. In reviewing team member’s comments for many successful projects, they frequently identify having a clear understanding of the WWWWWH factors for their projects as reasons for their project success.

Try it, you might like it!

By Vicki Wrona, PMP

In September, Dr. Oz had a show on the best time to do anything. In it, he discussed several things that we can use to our benefit at work. This information centers around working with our natural circadian rhythms.

From a business perspective, I found the following information useful:

• Mundane tasks: Our analytical brain is slower on Monday, so Mondays are best for the more mundane tasks. And you thought it was just YOU who had a hard time getting into the work week. As it turns out, we all naturally do, to some extent!

• Issues: In general, morning is a better time for us to naturally deal with issues. Cortisol levels are high in the morning, which helps us deal with stress and think more clearly. Our brain function peaks in the mid-morning, so 10am is the time our natural body rhythms allow us to be most organized and able to deal with complex issues. I know those of you who are not morning people are thinking this can’t be true. But if you think about it, our internal circadian rhythms have developed over thousands of years from ancestors who better followed natural daylight. Due to lack of good lighting and the reality of their work, they didn’t typically stay up as late into the night as we do now. But that’s a topic for another time.

• Confronting problems: People are more willing to compromise at the end of the week, so Thursdays are a good time to confront those difficult problems.

• Brain Power: Our brains are most focused and rested on Sundays, which can be a good time to try a Sudoku or crossword puzzle…or study for the PMP exam!

• 2pm slump: our bodies naturally make more epinephrine at this time, which is a relaxing hormone. This is when we experience our natural slump. My takeaway here is that if I schedule a meeting at this time, I need to either keep people actively engaged or bring a snack. If I am working alone, I may need to walk or move around or stretch to keep myself awake and more alert.

Now that I know this, when I have a choice, I will choose options which work better with my body’s (and other’s) natural internal rhythms.

How do you work with yours or other’s natural rhythms or preferred patterns?

By Vicki Wrona, PMP

Why do organizations constantly rely on their PMs to also perform key technical work on a project? Several reasons. One is reality. We are doing more with less now, and the reality is that we may not have the personnel available to assign different people to those roles. Another reason is that most projects are small enough that working within both roles is not a problem. Still another reason is because often the PM is assigned because they are a strong team member and one of the higher performing employees. Their reward is being given the opportunity of managing a new effort. During that effort, the organization cannot afford to have this superior performer NOT working on what they do best — the  technical work of the project.

The trouble occurs when the project is large or complex. In this case, balancing both the management aspect (PM) and performing key SME work can be overwhelming and tough to balance, often resulting in neither being done well. Few people can be actively involved in their technical focus, or SME activity, when needed and then be able to step back and see the big picture from an unbiased management perspective.

This is true both from a time as well as a viewpoint perspective. Most people allow their SME time to overtake management time until there is a crisis, at which time they go into reactionary or fire-fighting mode to deal with the issue (often later than they should) and survive. From the viewpoint perspective, it is difficult for someone who has been deeply engrossed in one aspect of the project, such as their area of technical expertise, to step back and address issues and concerns from all areas objectively. Mere mortals cannot always do this. Yes, we have all been asked to do this and some have done it fairly well, but the larger and more complex the project, the more difficult and unrealistic the expectation.

Add to this the fact that when PMs are assigned both roles, planning takes a back seat. When this happens, there often isn’t clear understanding or definition of scope, schedule, roles, expectations, constraints, etc., compounding the number and kinds of potential problems experienced later. Without an initial definition of those various aspects of the project, it is harder to get agreement on the possible fix to allow the team to move the project forward.

Projects may be completed in this structure, but at what cost? Are team members burned out? Were there more crises than necessary? What superhuman, or brute force, effort did it take to get the effort done? Was it worth it? These are valuable questions to ask, and even better if asked first when assigning roles.