The silver lining on the people management cloud of project-oriented structures

While the relative level of formal authority vested in a project manager is greater in project-oriented (formerly projectized) organization structures than in matrix ones, the downside of this authority is that the project manager will spend much more time on people management administrative activities such as performance evaluations, hiring and supporting their professional development. While this is important work, it doesn’t directly relate to the management of their projects and they might perceive it as a distraction.

In addition, in those organizations which are purely project-oriented (i.e. everything they do is project work with no functional or matrix structures to be found elsewhere within their walls), when projects end, if the team members who were contributing to them cannot be deployed to different projects then they may find themselves out of a job which is likely to stress their project managers even more at the very time when they are trying to line up other projects for themselves.

But there is a silver lining to this people management cloud.

Having these responsibilities will force the project manager to learn about the hopes, dreams and career aspirations of their direct reports. This should provide them with a greater ability to enable them to connect the team members’ individual purposes to the success objectives of the project. They will also be better positioned to understand the competencies over which their staff wish to gain mastery which they can use to identify opportunities for personal development for these team members. Finally, even as project managers working in matrix structures will need to learn how to effective delegate, empowering their staff to work with autonomy is even more critical when there is a formal reporting relationship in place.

Project managers in project-oriented organizations might chafe at the additional responsibilities they have to shoulder, but these also give them more power to inspire their team members.

What they weren’t telling you when you took over that project…

Lemon

When house hunting, savvy shoppers quickly learn the meaning of some seemingly innocent phrases found in listing descriptions. For example, lots of potential means that you will have to spend a lot of money to make the house livable. Quaint implies that no upgrades have been made since the house was originally built.

When taking over a project from another project manager, similar rules apply. The customer, sponsor or departing project manager are all very motivated to get a competent replacement as quickly as possible. And while they wouldn’t blatantly mislead you, here are some telltale phrases to watch for while you are being wooed for the role.

We are a little over budget: The project has a cost variance which cannot be absorbed, metrics are likely not in place to quantify how big the problem is, and everyone involved is in denial.

We have a slick sponsor: That’s because he or she is made of Teflon with nothing sticking including escalated actions, risks, issues or decisions.

The team is very creative: I’ve just got two words for you – herding cats!

Stakeholders are very engaged: The only problem is that the majority of them are actively engaged in attempting to sabotage the project.

We’ve completed some deliverables: The team has produced a bunch of documentation.

There is a dynamic decision making process: Project governance processes were not well defined or practiced and decisions are being frequently challenged and reversed.

We are constantly learning: That’s because we are also constantly forgetting to apply the lessons we should have already learned.

This project will be a real feather in your cap: You’ll need the cap because you’ll likely tear all you hair out while managing it!

The project has been managed in an agile manner: Scope is constantly changing, nothing is documented, and everyone is doing whatever they feel like.

We have a project control book: Of course, no one looks and it because the content is very out-of-date.

You will need to roll your sleeves up: That’s because we have a significant resource shortfall.

While the purchase of a house might be the most significant personal investment many of us will make, leading a project represents an investment in our careers.

Caveat emptor.

Leverage diversity when boldly going where no one has gone before!

When Gene Roddenberry staffed the U.S.S. Enterprise with a highly diverse set of races, species & genders, he used Star Trek as his soapbox to challenge pervasive social injustices of the late Sixties. However, by doing so, he also provided another benefit of diversity: improved risk management.

When you consider the Enterprise’s original mission, it meets many of the criteria for a large, highly complex project:

• Scope – to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations.
• Schedule – five years.
• A unique endeavor – its original mission statement “to boldly go where no one has gone before” reinforces how unique the mission was.

In multiple episodes from the original series, and later through some of the movies, we saw instances of where diversity was a key contributor in helping the crew overcome dire situations. One such example comes from Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan. Of the entire crew, Spock was the only person strong enough to withstand the radiation within the matter/antimatter chamber to jumpstart the Enterprise’s engines. Anyone other than a Vulcan would likely have been overwhelmed before the process could have been completed.

So how does diversity facilitate more effective risk management?

When identifying risks, use of checklists and historical data can help unearth uncertainties which would otherwise have been missed, but they are no substitute for a diverse range of expertise. If team members and stakeholders have similar educational and experiential backgrounds, there is a greater possibility of key risks remaining unidentified.

When analyzing risks or when monitoring early warning signs of risk realization, diversity is a good way to overcome risk biases and groupthink.

Finally the quality of risk responses is constrained by the creativity and imagination of the team. It is well known that properly harnessed diversity promotes greater creativity.

So the next time you have the opportunity to tackle a challenging project, resist the temptation to staff the project with team members who are just like you by making diversity one of the key criteria for resource selection.