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.

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.

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.