Even if PSI’s headquarters weren’t in Atlanta, we’d still be fans of the Hawks.

They gave us an exciting season – and gave the Cavs a close call in Game Three despite injuries.  They also brought to life the importance of teamwork. (Earlier this year, the NBA named the Hawks’ entire starting five “Player of the Month.”) In the Eastern Conference finals with the Cavaliers, the contrast could not be starker:  a team playing as a unit, vs. a team with a Superstar – the Superstar – LeBron James.

They were swept by the Cavs, but they succeeded in other respects.  They demonstrated that real teamwork, with no one player bigger than the rest, sharing the ball, communicating, and helping teammates is a powerful strategy.  Injuries and questionable behavior from opponents took a toll, but this is a young team committed to a long-term strategy.

That’s a lesson that project managers trying a new approach might take to heart – institutional success is a long game that requires a long-term commitment.   In project management, that’s a compelling and relevant lesson. A superstar is a phenomenon, but everyone in project management works on a team.

We can’t wait till October.

One distinctive – but misunderstood – aspect of the Project Success Method is the importance of frequent, face to face meetings. Frequent meetings are too often considered productivity-killing time-wasters – there’s even an app for that.

Yet, time and again, we’ve found that face to face team meetings are the best way to get things done, especially if the ‘mechanics” of the meetings are right:

•  Schedule consistently, using the same dates/times. Apps can help; a comprehensive roundup is here.

• Be brief. After 45 minutes to an hour, focus plunges.

• Create an agenda, stick to it, lead it and end it on time.

• Stay on track. Note essential, but non-agenda concerns, and follow up after the meeting.

• Refreshments? Beverages yes; food no.  Dehydration hampers focus, but it plummets if attendees sit still for an hour in a crowded, windowless room while digesting lunch.

• No electronics or side discussions.

• Air concerns, questions, problems and solutions…but not complaints or whining.

These “mechanics” help create a successful meeting, but proper planning and people skills are key.  Together, these elements can make meetings less of a necessary evil and more of meeting of the minds.

There are two big creeps in project management that travel in pairs and always cause trouble: the expansion of the project called Scope Creep, and its traveling companion Schedule Creep, the extension of the project deadline.

Both creeps show up in projects with:

• Incomplete project scope development in the charter.
• Vague requirements from clients or management.
• Unauthorized scope and/or schedule changes and additions after the project’s start.
• Poor communication among the teams.
• Poor planning by team members.
• A lack of project control.

Handling both types of creeps calls for vigilance by the project manager. Diligent monitoring can nip some problems early, and requiring that approved scope changes are accompanied by revised estimates in time and budget can be helpful.

Entrenched issues – like an “impossible” new deadline or no budget for additional staff – need a comprehensive solution. PSI prevents both creeps from trashing projects with a ‘compression” technique; and ‘forward pass scheduling.”   As important, PSI helps maintain the team’s commitment to the project – even through additions or changes.

These techniques, taught in our two day training and described with case histories in The Project Success Method book, manages scope, scheduling and more, so you can enjoy the creeps where they belong – while watching a scary movie.

One expert says we’re in a Golden Age of Procrastination.  For project managers, this is hardly news.  However, if any particular project aspect or team is consistently late, it might be time to look under the hood. What is the procrastination telling you?

Some possible reasons:

• Teams or team members perceive a challenge to their ability
• Teams or team members see the tasks as unwelcome demand on their time
• Team members are pressured by their functional managers to work on other priorities
• Team members are not motivated
• A particular task has hit a bottleneck
• Team members have been drafted into a timetable they consider unrealistic

The Project Success Method offers three integrated management processes that prevent or address these issues with a clearly defined, thoroughly planned, and proactively controlled process during execution.  The linchpin, however, is our proven consensus building approach with the team members that builds real teamwork and –most important – encourages the team’s commitment to the schedule and the project.

Some scientists say we are hard wired for procrastination, but if you want better, faster project results…what are you waiting for?

Everyone knows the feeling when a traffic jam or a babysitter not showing up plays havoc with a carefully planned day…

…and the back up plan needs a back up plan.

Like everything else in life, projects will have problems, too. Sometimes it’s a wonder how anything gets done. Weather, wildcat strikes, international unrest, or delays due to shipping or subcontractors can hinder progress. Internal issues like a new CEO, or a change in project sponsors can drastically affect a project’s schedule or its resources – and even the most robust planning process can’t foresee every sudden and unexpected event until it is imminent.

That’s why enterprises using our methodology have the edge. We offer more effective ways to prevent, detect and solve problems by using The Worry Curve to stay on track. Our strategy of thinking long-term but planning short-term makes worry productive – preventing molehills from becoming mountains.

As important, we train project managers and enterprises to form real teams with members committed to the project and to each other for mutual support and problem solving at every step of the way…

…short of baby-sitting, that is.

The appointment of Cisco’s new CEO, Chuck Robbins, has a message for companies and project managers everywhere. Cisco’s announcement stressed that Robbins would ‘move the company faster” when he takes the helm in late July.

If a worldwide leader in IT announces “the pace of change is exponential” it moves “speed” into pole position in corporate strategy for businesses everywhere. (Is it a coincidence that last year’s “People’s Choice” award for best new TV series went to “The Flash?”)

However, mere speed is not enough. What kind of speed is it?

Productive Speed:

• Combines long term thinking with focused short term planning
• Follows a credible schedule using duration-based project planning
• Monitors progress frequently to capture and stop schedule slippage early
• Secures commitment from team members on schedule changes

Toxic Speed

• Underestimates activity durations.
• Shortens non-critical tasks that don’t accelerate completion.
• Compromises on perceived non-critical tasks as the deadline approaches
• Ignores feedback or pushback from activity managers on timing.

Companies and project managers in the newer, faster economy need an updated toolbox and some new approaches in order to stay in the race.

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.

There’s an interesting message hidden in the offerings at the upcoming Project Management Institute’s World Congress.  Classes in Technical Skills comprised only 18 of the 65 classes listed by “content aim;” the largest individual class category was not about Agile, or Change Management – it was “Leadership Skills for Project Managers, Program Managers and Portfolio Managers.”

It affirms our conviction, backed by a survey quoted by PMI, that people skills are a major factor in a project manager’ career.

Trends in leadership theories abound; Googling “Business Management Leadership Theories” yields nearly two million hits.  It’s easy to get tangled up in Theory Overload –

Management By Walking Around, Emotional Intelligence, and others flourish.  Whatever the theory, though, our years of experience confirm that the best project managers:

-Recognize that the most important element in a project is time

-Earn and maintain the trust of the project teams

-Inspire the team members commitment to the project with mutual support and individual accountability.

Those three points work together and will work with just about any theory, yielding successful projects and successful careers.

Looking at lists of ‘epic product fails” it’s easy to wonder how experts in well-established companies could miss such obvious problems – snacks that cause gastrointestinal distress, for instance, or a complete misstep in brand perception (Yogurt shampoo?)

Now, though, product success could also hinge on identifying and satisfying new ‘must haves” in product attributes. Industries today wrestle with benchmarks unheard of twenty or even ten years ago. The ground rules for product – and project – success are changing to include new “must haves” like:

–sustainability in products and processes.  The Global Development Research Center even created a program for Environmental Assessment as a project management tool.

-confidentiality of personal data.  Three out of four Americans say they won’t use Google Glass because of privacy concerns.

For project managers, this means rethinking project charters with a more expansive collection of stakeholders, and a wider description of constraints, assumptions and risks.  We teach an extensive pre-planning effort (we call it the Project Success FirstStep Process^®) that covers forming the team, doing the ‘pre-work,” creating the charter (via an extensive, in-person process), and getting it approved before starting the planning phase. Everyone has a chance to put their arguments on the table.  The result is a charter, and a clear set of marching orders, that is approved by stakeholders and in line with what the customer wants.

That way, their projects or products can stay ahead of the Next Big Thing…instead of getting run over by it.