February 4, 2008 – When the Plan Fails

In an on-shore / off-shore set up you need to expect the unexpected. Half you your team is in a foreign country, half way around the world. You’re never quite sure what time it is where you live, let alone where ever they are. Languages, especially English, can lead to confusion. Names are redundant (there are four Toms where I now work). I’m not sure how you could possibly have seen the following surprise coming, though.

Picture yourself sitting at your desk on Monday morning, pulling together reports from the weekend and getting ready for the week. Fred comes by with a new face and introduces you to Gupta . The name sounds familiar. "I have a team member by that name, where are you from?" you ask.

"That is me," is the reply.

"What are you doing here? Don’t you normally work from India?" you ask, bewildered.

"Yes, but I am going to be the project manager on a different project here on-shore now."

True story. Talk about putting a crimp in your plans.

Resources quit. Scope gets breached. Bugs happen. Systems go down. Priorities change. So what do you do when life throws you a curve ball? Hang on for the ride and follow these steps.

Take a deep breath. Before you react, take a moment to calm your blood pressure before you say or do something you might regret. It might save your health as well as your job.

Confirm it. I hate it when I start yelling about something only to find out I have the facts wrong. Take it to the source and, calmly, get some answers.

Assess the impact. If the issue is scope related, determine the gap factor. Resources can be difficult to replace. Is there a more junior member of the team that might be easier backfill? Can she step up to the role?

Check the schedule and budget to determine what the damage will be.

Identify Options. Don’t work in a vacuum to figure out what to do. Invite your team and other stakeholders to help develop strategies to stay on track.

Present Options. Take your findings and options to the Sponsor or Steering Committee. Explain the challenge facing the project and ask them how we, as a group, should resolve it. One of the things I stress is that the project manager does not own all of the problems. They are "our" problems and "we" have to take steps to resolve them.

Get approval. If a Change Request is necessary, file it and get it approved. Get the go ahead to make the resource changes. Confirm commitment by getting approval.

Learn. Figure out the root cause and take actions to keep it from happening again. You can’t keep a team member from taking a better job offer, but you can make the current position better. Scope is drawn to determine when it does change, not if it will. You can take steps to manage it better.

Move on. It is better to get beyond the issue than to dwell on how things should have been. Once you have taken steps to keep it from happening again get on with successfully completing your project.

Stuff happens. You can’t control the surprises but you can control your reaction. If it were simple, anyone could do it, right?

June 4, 2007 – Under New Management

In the restaurant business the sign “Under New Management” is like a clean slate. It is as if they are saying, “All those bad meals and lousy service you had before are a thing of the past.” When you are part of the staff it leaves a lot of questions. “What kind of manager will this new guy be? Will he keep all of us old timers or replace us with younger and cheaper waitresses? How can I show my worth to her?” As a consultant I face these questions more often than others. Well, maybe not the waitress part, but you understand. Some days your world takes a turn.

Today marked such a day for me. My current client makes a point of rotating their management teams on a regular basis. The rational is that it give them experience in multiple areas within the company and allows ideas to flow from group to group. When this happens everyone has to re-acclimate to the new management style. Throughout your career you will likely work with many different types of managers and each time you will begin fresh. That clean slate is both good and bad. On one hand the poor performance of the past can be wiped out. On the other your new manager doesn’t know all the extra effort you have put in, your skill level or the promises that were made.

Let’s take a look at some of the “new boss blues” and actions to take to keep them from bringing you down.

Past Bad Behavior. To some extent this is your second chance at your job. This is true even if the previous manager gave the newbie your rap sheet. New managers are optimistic that things will be different under their watch. With this in mind there is no need to announce that you are “the one who did that think that caused the you-know-what to hit the you-know-where.”

Since managers generally have access to your records be prepared for any questions that might arise. Think through the situation and have an answer ready. Don’t directly deny anything that is in your record. Instead talk about what you learned from the experience, what you might have done differently then and how you are better because of it.

Abilities and Strengths. It takes time for managers to learn who the go-to people are and who is dependable. It took me nearly three months after my move to Syracuse, NY before I felt that I was connecting with the branch manager. Then they combined offices and shipped him off to Maine. I was back to square one.

You need to communicate your abilities to your new manager. Update your resume and trim it down to one page. Highlight the pieces that play to the strengths you want to promote. Send her a copy and request a fifteen minute meeting to walk through it. Unless she is anxious to do it sooner, schedule it for the second week. This will give her a chance to settle in and begin to see how things fit. Before the meeting plan out what you want to convey using the resume as the basis. Unless she is technically savvy, explain what you do in non-technical, business terms.

Promised Advancement. This is probably the most frustrating aspect of the whole deal and it just happened to one of my direct reports. I had started the promotion process for him just before the Area Manager resigned. If at all possible, get the exiting manager to complete the process or at least put the intent in writing for you.

If that fails, don’t hit the new manager with it within the first 2 weeks. When you do, first ask if her predecessor had mentioned the possibility to her. If not, explain your understanding of the situation, make your pitch and ask her to consider it. Demanding it will not likely obtain your objective.

More Reports. Here is an opportunity to be proactive. Meet with your new manager and walk her through the reports you are currently producing. Explain what information is available from which report and help her interpret what she is looking at. If she has a different set of reports take the time to compare them against the current ones. Point out any overlap and ask if you can stop producing the data in the old format to avoid double work. In the event that the current reports are company standards, ask her to consider switching to the existing forms where possible.

Getting a new manager is going to push you out of your comfort zone. Rather than letting your concerns fester, take action and meet the challenge head on.

April 30, 2007 – So What?

Anyone who has teenagers or has had to deal with them will inevitably run into one with a bad attitude. Even their body language says “SO WHAT?” As project managers we deal with a lot of issues, risks, problems and people. Some times it makes you want to throw your hands up and say, “So what?!?!” Actually, that might not be a bad idea. How would that look for issues, risks, budget or schedule problems and politics?

Issues. My natural inclination when someone raises an issue is to try and solve it. The next time you are confronted with one make sure to ask “so what?” So what is the impact to the project? Is it severe? Does it need to be address immediately? Is it something we can live with? Can it be addressed in future releases? Some times the impact is small enough that it isn’t worth the effort to address the issue.

Risks. Applying the “so what?” question to risks is easier since you aren’t feeling the immediate pain you do with an issue. Not all identified risks are dealt with the same way. In addition to Avoidance (sidestepping it), Mitigation (reducing the probability or impact) and Transference (making it someone else’s problem) there is the ultimate “so what” attitude: Acceptance. In Risk Acceptance you look at the probability of it becoming an issue and the impact to the project and decide it isn’t worth the effort to take action against it.

Budget or Schedule Problems. Budgets and schedules usually are scrutinized highly on projects, but sometime even they get trumped. There are times when a project has to get done. People may be willing to pay whatever it takes and wait longer to get it. I was managing on project where new requirements were requested toward the end of the testing phase. When we said it couldn’t be done the response was, “Would more money help?” Unfortunately money wasn’t the issue, time was.

Politics. I can’t stand politics. It is probably because my straight forward approach to life and management causes me to inadvertently step on toes I don’t see. The question can work here, too. I would suggest you let the voices inside your head ask the “so what?” question rather than blurting it out. So what if that person or group isn’t happy with the product? Does it meet the specs? Are they the ones paying for it? So what if they aren’t going to like the status I need to give? Is it better they hear it now before the project fails? So what…do I have to do now that I offended the boss?!

The answer to this question will help you gauge what your response should be. Sometimes you will luck out and be able to ignore the problem. Other times the answer will be to take action. Either way, you will be working from an informed position, not reacting blindly.