Volkswagen, once renowned for “German Engineering,” is in turmoil with the news that it engineered its cars to falsify fuel emission standards.   A disastrous ripple effect is causing a CEO resignation, a 30 percent drop in share price, the loss of corporate reputation and a hit to Germany’s GDP.

This huge, skillfully-engineered effort to deceive consumers and regulatory authorities requires more than just replacing the CEO, considering the size and scope of the deception. There were clearly problems throughout the entire enterprise:

•  Lack of transparency
• Lack of accountability
• Lack of sufficient controls to monitor and prevent malfeasance
• Profound human error and failure of ethical standards.

This should be a wake up call for management everywhere to review their project procedures and new product development systems enterprise wide.  Management, project managers and teams should take the lesson – if you don’t take accountability…..accountability takes you.

Between online productivity tools and tracking software, is micromanaging passé?

Hah.

In today’s multi-project environment, empowering teams is a survival technique, not a management technique. Yet PSI trainers and consultants still find managers who over-monitor, dictate how tasks should be done, or insist on daily work breakdowns. The result? A demotivated, demoralized, disengaged team.

Micromanagers hide by calling themselves “perfectionists“. Here’s a quick summary of the difference:

• A perfectionist insists that project materials and reports contain no typos.

• A micromanager rewrites everything for style, not substance, and proofreads everything personally because s/he doesn’t trust Spellcheck.

If that sounds familiar, try these behaviors:

• Barring emergencies, wait for the update meetings.
• Don’t ask to be copied on emails for small details.
• Monitor activities with a one-to- two week (5-10 working days) timeframe to avoid tracking minutia.
• Share the big picture; let staff figure out how to achieve it.

Of course, letting go is easier with a system that empowers teams so managers can supervise multiple projects effectively.

Meanwhile, for the micromanager in your office, send them this. They’ll probably need to lie down with a cool compress for the rest of the day – so you can get some work done.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Andy Rubin, the creator of Android, is launching an incubator for innovators…and it reminds me of a familiar mindset.

His Playground Global LLC will provide support and advice to tech startups making devices for consumers or businesses. This “studio” lets inventors do the fun stuff (creating new products). Playground handles the operations – the scut work, so to speak.

I think “scut work” needs an image overhaul. It’s how Things Get Done. Improving how Things Get Done is a worthwhile investment – but you wouldn’t know from some responses project managers tell me they get when pitching Project Success Method training to senior management:

“It’s just more overhead”

“We bought software to handle that”

“How much can anyone learn in just two days?”

“It’s micromanagement”

It’s like the joke about making politics and making sausage – but it’s the “scut work” that takes a new product from a blank screen to a sales floor. Improving that process is a worthwhile investment that’s paid off for our clients in time and money again and again – and saved weeks of panic-driven overtime by team members caught in a time crunch.

“Paralysis by Analysis,” “Information Overload,” “TMI.”

If the key to a successful project is controlling time, one timewaster to eliminate is over-reporting. Some managers spend too much time tracking too many activities at too low a level of detail.

Luckily, reporting doesn’t have to be like doing your taxes, if you have some guidelines on how much detail is enough:

Each activity should produce a deliverable or change in product status with just enough information to indicate a change in status.

• Subdivide long-term activities into tasks of about a month, so you can track and monitor progress reliably.
• As a rule of thumb, a good level of detail is between three and fifteen working days.

Of course, some large, complex projects – just like large, complex tax returns – need some outside help. Our hands-on course in Control Methods & Practices with Microsoft Project streamlines controlling the performance of projects characterized by complexity and dynamic change.

A concise reporting strategy lets everyone spend their time on the project and not on reporting. Whoever said “the Devil is in the details” was likely a project manager.