Back to School is over so … Happy Holidays!

Some 32 million Americans started their holiday shopping by Labor Day…and are demonstrating that the impact of procrastination on holiday shopping and project implementation is similar.

Last minute shoppers use the back-scheduling approach, working from the latest allowable time for the task. They shop on Christmas Eve; no room for slippage. If the car stalls or snowstorms hinder overnight delivery, recipients get gifts from the nearest 24 hour drugstore – and the distinct impression that the giver couldn’t be bothered.

The early bird shoppers use forward scheduling and select the earliest possible start date.   In our terms, shoppers are shifting the Worry Curve and avoiding procrastination. They save time, aggravation and money by avoiding last minute desperation splurges, just as project teams can find and handle problems because they have room for slippage – no need for crazy overtime and budget overruns.

Smart retailers see the wisdom of an early start – some are already airing holiday ads. Meanwhile, smart project managers can take a tip from those early bird shoppers and learn how to get a jump on their project deadlines…and much more.

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.

Many experts advise that disruptive technologies, especially digital disruptions. will be responsible for the loss of many jobs and the creation of many others.  Where will disruption leave your job? Your company?

The result of relentless technological advancement is that continuous, ongoing learning throughout a career and within any enterprise is a feature, not a bug.

Continued employability will likely rely on a track record of successful projects and a willingness to learn new techniques and methodologies.  No one can afford an “I already know that” mindset or an “I don’t have time to learn something new” attitude.

Wouldn’t it be great if there were a project methodology that was simple to understand, consistently delivered good results, and didn’t require a large investment in time to learn?

And even more important, a methodology that could work with most any existing project management methodologies and most likely, will work with whatever new methodology emerges next?

If that seems too good to be true, we invite you to learn more, and to discover an approach that could change the course of your projects and your career for the better.

That’s the kind of disruption anyone would welcome.

Microsoft’s Windows 10 is generating a storm of coverage about its rollout being hijacked by scammers tricking folks into installing ransomware on their computers.

No doubt Microsoft thought it was making the upgrade foolproof by automatically installing the upgrade.  Sadly, we live in a world where hackers hack, spoofers spoof, people don’t read the instruction manual and drivers don’t ask for directions.

In other words, we may be hardwired for optimism, but project managers should save it for team morale-building: realists make better project planners.   Project plans based on best-case scenarios don’t take into account that fraudsters hack, employees give notice, or competitors preempt a new product launch.  Similarly, plans built using worst-case scenarios, not only result in unrealistic project completion dates, but a loss of credibility.

The Project Success Method can show teams and managers, in a matter of days, how to plan for contingencies, and how to schedule for the unexpected with techniques like the Worry Curve, forward pass scheduling, strategic compression and much more.

It’s the kind of project management approach even a pessimist could love.   It might even turn them into optimists as the project deadline approaches, on time and on budget.

One cause of project failure can be found on desks in offices everywhere:  “Side of the Desk Syndrome.”  This strikes when team members juggle tasks for different projects, especially for projects that are “add ons” to a regular workload.

The result:  The extra projects are shoved to the side of the desk, and tackled in spare moments. The tasks are deprived of the kind of focus that gives good results, or left untouched until “crisis mode.”

Luckily, there are some remedies:

-A simple, repeatable and proven methodology that can be learned in two or three days.

-A scheduling system that frees teams to tackle tasks on a schedule based on their own time estimates and with their full commitment.

-A proven cure for procrastination that empowers team members without micromanagement.

“Side of the Desk Syndrome,” while not life-threatening, is part of a serious business problem.  One 2012 study reported that the average large IT project runs 45 percent over budget and 7 percent over time, but delivers 56 percent less value than predicted. Cumulatively the study estimated that cost overruns for large IT projects ran to about $66 billion – enough to fund about 91 more missions to Pluto.

Who owns your project? Is it the customer? The stakeholders? The project manager? The project sponsor? The one who signs the checks?

Despite semantics about distinctions between “responsibility”, “authority” or “accountability”, the key is performance.  The project team and their performance drives the outcome, and a powerful way to enhance performance is by fostering ownership of the project – not necessarily by profit sharing or company stock – but with psychological ownership.

So effective is psychological ownership, one study shows, that it can boost motivation and productivity even among unmotivated employees with a bad attitude.

PSI’s training encourages ownership from the very start of the project and throughout:

• Teams are actively engaged in planning and scheduling.
• Teams control their schedules provided they meet the deadlines they agreed to.
• Face to face meetings every two weeks encourage dialog and team unity.
• Encouraging communication so that everyone feels they’ve been heard.

Employee ownership is not bestowed or assigned, but developed over time.  With a skilled project manager, even diverse teams can “own” their projects and find professional satisfaction…and a bit of personal satisfaction as well.

That’s what I call The Joy of Ownership.

How’d you like to get an extra 40 percent of productive time at work and maybe even save lives?

Don’t multitask.

Despite claims that texting during meetings or operating a tablet and smartphone simultaneously is working smart, science says otherwise:

• One research study found that switching repeatedly between tasks causes brief ‘mental blocks” while the brain recalibrates itself for the new activity. The cumulative effect of switching consumes up to 40 percent of someone’s productive time.

• Some other studies claim multitasking can actually cost 15 IQ points and even shrinks your brain.

In project management (or any office environment), multitasking causes poor focus, sloppy planning and implementation, or emails with typos. It can put a career or a project off the rails…but in other circumstances, it can kill.

Multitasking behind the wheel – known as distracted driving – claims more than 3,000 lives a year and causes hundreds of thousands of injuries.

So as summer comes to an end and school begins, make sure all the drivers in your family monotask on the road; no eating, drinking, texting, phone calls, putting on makeup or even changing clothes while driving.

Don’t roll the dice just to save a few seconds or minutes. You might just save an eternity that way.

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.

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.