There’s an interesting message hidden in the offerings at the recent 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.

Society is becoming ever more reliant on digital solutions – even delivering anesthesia.  This is certainly evident in project management; although Microsoft Project leads the top 20, there are literally hundreds of others available.

PSI trainers often hear of enterprises looking for the “silver bullet” software solution, but our mantra is “Software doesn’t lead projects, people do.”  The human element is what drives project success; even the most powerful and sophisticated software will fail if:

• Project managers can’t strike the right balance of project oversight and either micromanage or under-manage.
• Project managers lack soft skills in people management, consensus building and communication.
• The people who will actually do the work have insufficient input into planning.
• The project charter and schedule are not updated, monitored or committed to by the teams and the project leader regularly (preferably every two weeks or less).

A company with the same problems no matter what software it uses may need a more comprehensive solution that goes beneath the surface.   But no matter what software option you choose, people will still be a decisive factor in the success of your project…at least until Skynet takes over.

Society is becoming ever more reliant on digital solutions – even delivering anesthesia.  This is certainly evident in project management; although Microsoft Project leads the top 20, there are literally hundreds of others available.

PSI trainers often hear of enterprises looking for the “silver bullet” software solution, but our mantra is “Software doesn’t lead projects, people do.”  The human element is what drives project success; even the most powerful and sophisticated software will fail if:

• Project managers can’t strike the right balance of project oversight and either micromanage or under-manage.
• Project managers lack soft skills in people management, consensus building and communication.
• The people who will actually do the work have insufficient input into planning.
• The project charter and schedule are not updated, monitored or committed to by the teams and the project leader regularly (preferably every two weeks or less).

A company with the same problems no matter what software it uses may need a more comprehensive solution that goes beneath the surface.   But no matter what software option you choose, people will still be a decisive factor in the success of your project…at least until Skynet takes over.

Recently, several studies confirm what PSI trainers have long known. The dreaded “S” word – stress – can exhilarate –if handled correctly.

All too often, people procrastinate and downplay future challenges; as the deadline approaches, they panic. The results (and the teams!) suffer. However, introducing pressure sooner can actually decrease it in the long run, and yields better project results.

The key is shifting The Worry Curve early on, using PSI methodologies to empower team members to take control of their roles by:

•  Participating in planning and meeting the project’s requirements, challenges, deadlines and risks;
• Publicly committing to specific, well-defined project responsibilities;
• Meeting every two weeks to report on their progress, identify problems, update the plan to include any required changes, and again, commit to their role in the project’s success.

Problems are solved along the way (not at deadline), by teams invested in their roles, in the team as a whole, and in the project’s success. Eventually, the project ‘crosses the hump” and the worst is over, instead of just beginning.

At this point…believe it or not, many team members look at their roles in the project in terms of the “F” word: Fun.

Impossible? To learn more about the Worry Curve and how it works, contact us.

There’s no consensus on the economic cost of job burnout (sustained, chronic stress), but some estimates top $300 billion. Burnout’s toll on individual projects, or project portfolios, can be equally dire – missed deadlines, reduced project quality, budget overruns and diminished career prospects.

Every project manager probably knows some of the signs of burnout in themselves and their teams…but how many know some of the signs that burnout is about to happen?

• A deadline that get pushed ahead to make a sale, land a contract, beat a competitor, or launch at a trade show, without project team input.

• Pre-planning and charter development without the active input of all stakeholders and team members on risks, potential problems and timeframes.

• Inadequate consideration by managers and team members of the impact of their other professional and personal commitments to the project schedule.

Projects succeed when team members feel a real stake in the process, in the project, in their role and in the team itself. The Project Success Method energizes teams and keeps them energized from the beginning of the project to the end…ahead of time, and on budget.

Google’s announcement that self-driving cars will hit the road this summer is heating up the “people vs. software” debate.  Is this the start of safer roads and drivers?  Or will it, as some experts fear, begin a slow takeover by our AI overloads?

No matter how complex the program, it’s unlikely any software will ever completely account for the X Factor in driving. (A lighting strike? Tornados? Flooding?)…not to mention the X Factor combined with the human element, such as modifications of the software by the adventurous or curious…or the malicious.

In the project management world, however, the debate seems settled in many quarters.  Time and again, PSI trainers have encountered inexplicable – and sometimes undeserving – reverence for project management software.

PSI views software as the servant, not the master. We’ve developed an add-in for Microsoft Project that puts users in control of their schedules.  It produces a more stable schedule because task duration, resource assignments and status do not change without the user’s input.

After all, if Google adds steering wheels to its self-driving cars, shouldn’t project managers be able to take the wheel in their management software, too?

Happy summer. Your project is about to get disrupted.

Summer brings vacations, kids free from school, office summer hours, and weddings.  It disrupts the flow of business (up to 20 percent decrease in productivity and a 13 percent increase in project turnaround times).  Global projects are particularly vulnerable to The Summer Syndrome, since many workers abroad often vacation at the same time, in August.

In the U.S. not everyone will vacation at the same time…but that’s a mixed blessing. A string of vacations taken throughout summertime creates a ripple effect as the project progresses. Decision makers, team members, vendors, consultants, shippers, payment processors – every function and business segment is affected.

That’s a compelling argument for the Project Success Method’s duration based project planning.  Our seven-step duration estimating process helps team members devise real-world timeframes (in which people go on vacations, for instance), while our add-in for Microsoft Project give managers more control of the schedule.

Of course project managers must still monitor for schedule slippage to prevent the Summer Syndrome.  However, the right tools and realistic scheduling can help make projects and teams have it “made in the shade” clear through to project completion.