The Opsimath

Managing Transitions, The Neutral Zone and the Premier League

Football's (English) Premier League will commence next season in an interesting, even unprecedented, position. Out of the top six teams from the season that has just finished, four of them will start with a brand-new manager.

So this could prove to be something of a transition time for the top six, and perhaps a time of opportunity for those teams who are not undergoing such a change.

The writer William Bridges ('Managing Transitions') stresses that change and transition are not the same thing. They are related of course, but they have a different timescale, and different characteristics. For example, transitions will usually involve something that  Bridges calls the Neutral Zone.

He says that we pass through the Neutral Zone on our way from an ending to a new beginning. This in-between time can often feel intensely uncomfortable, confusing and chaotic. Everything may appear in flux now that the old way of doing things has ended, or is no longer an option, and a new path or replacement is not yet clear. The concept of the 'learning gap' also adds to this picture - as players learn to work for and with the new manager there is every possibility that their performance will 'dip'.

But the Neutral Zone can also be a highly creative time, when one can experiment with new ideas, attitudes and behaviours. This is certainly something that the new managers in the Premier League will be seeking to do - establish their own new ideas, their own ways of working.

All of this means that the teams who are not introducing a new manager could be looking forward to the new season with some anticipation, unless of course there are changes and transitions behind the scenes in their clubs too!

So fans of Arsenal and Tottenham, could next season be your season? Transition Management suggests that you could well have a great chance.

How do I choose a PRINCE2 Training Course?

My colleague, Patrick Mayfield, recently wrote this excellent piece on this subject: http://www.pearcemayfield.com/news/203/how-do-i-choose-a-prince2-training-course.html

Today I received this thanks on LinkedIn:

“Thanks for posting this, I found it an informative article, having been involved in projects, (mostly in team lead or admin roles), I wanted to take my career further, and was able to use the article to select an accredited training organisation. The class was limited to 12, the trainer was an experienced PM, and really brought the subject to life. I am now a certified PRINCE2 Practitioner, looking to gain PM experience.”

It’s good to have helped!

Buying Cheap–a personal tale

Recently my wife and I made a trip to Scotland which necessitated an overnight stay. So, after a few minutes on Google I found a hotel really close to where we needed to be, the photographs on their website seemed OK, albeit they were mainly of weddings that they had hosted, and the price was ‘right’.

Now, I say that the price was ‘right’, but of course you and I know that what I mean is that it was in fact cheap.

I have stayed in cheap hotels so I should know better, but still felt the need to rationalise the decision:

• it’s just one night
• it’s got to be better than a (insert your choice of bad hotel chain)
• Scotland is known for its excellent sense of value
• it’s just one night (getting desperate now)

It will be OK because we know we are not spending much – we are in fact saving money…

But that’s not what happens. Price is such a temporary factor in any purchase, and it soon disappears completely when you are faced with the reality off the quality of what you have purchased.

The price of this hotel is already a long-distant memory. If only the same could be said for the stained carpet, the wafer-thin blankets, the extra blanket that was a little too soiled to be used, the TV that had no reception, the loud pigeons nesting right outside the window, the stone-cold porridge, the strange cooking smell that is still living in my nostrils …

No. Those memories are still clearly with me. I bought on price, I am still living with the quality.

Buying cheap, when will I learn?

Driving Richard up the Wall

This is a guest post from my colleague Richard Rose

Driving me up the wall!

Due to the apparent increase in poor driving I have witnessed over the last few years I have come to the conclusion that there could be two types of driving instructor out there. Those who merely concentrate on getting their pupils through the test and those who not only get their pupils through the test but leave them with a proper understanding of road awareness and risk management

The former could be said to fall into the “pile ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap” bracket where they might fill their vehicle with three pupils for an hour-long lesson each paying half the price of a regular session, thereby providing them with only twenty minutes experience at the wheel. Thus the instructor gets 50% more revenue and the pupils get 66% less experience, which means they actually end up paying 50% more for their time behind the wheel! Whereas the latter type of instructor might seem more expensive but the pupils get a full hour at the wheel coupled with quality tuition.

I was contemplating this the other day and asked myself the question “would I put my daughter’s life in the hands of the former because I could save some money or would I apparently pay a bit more to try to minimise any future harm that could befall her whilst out on the road?”...of course the answer was simple!

So...taking this analogy further, why would an organization, or even an individual, employ the services of a ‘rock bottom’ priced project/programme management training provider when they put 25 or more delegates in a classroom and then train them to pass a professional exam without leaving the delegates with the where-with-all to embed their new-learned practices back in the workplace? Surely the requirement of an organization is that it has appropriately skilled project and programme resources coupled with the ability to use their skills in any situation? This leaves me with a number of views:

· The price is NOT always right!

· You only get what you pay for (as my late father-in-law was fond of quoting when cheap things failed to function!)

· A commodity CAN be differentiated – if the accompanying service is outstanding

· Why court disaster when you could do so much better?

Therefore I say to you...neither endanger your loved-ones by going cheap on driving instruction nor endanger the delivery of your organization’s strategy by going cheap on your training provider! I know the recession is biting hard but we will only pull ourselves out quicker by having staff that are properly equipped for the future.

Richard, I can only totally agree!

How old are you?

I read this recently; I believe it to be from General Douglas MacArthur.

Youth is not a period of time. It is a state of mind, a result of the will, a quality of the imagination, a victory of courage over timidity, of the taste for adventure over the love of comfort.

A man doesn't grow old because he has lived a certain number of years. A man grows old when he deserts his ideal.

The years may wrinkle his skin, but deserting his ideals wrinkles his soul.

Preoccupations, fears, doubts and despair are the enemies which slowly bow us towards earth and turns us into dust before death.

You will remain young as long as you are open to what is beautiful, good and great; receptive to the messages of other men and women, of nature and of God.

If one day you should become bitter, pessimistic, and gnawed by despair, may God have mercy on your old man's sole.

So, how old did you say you were...?

Stop sending people on PRINCE2 training courses...

... that is, unless you are truly serious about improving your organisation’s project management culture.

As part of my role within pearcemayfield, I get the occasional pleasure of delivering PRINCE2 training courses. It is almost guaranteed that at some point within the course we are going to have a discussion that includes a phrase like, “if only our senior management team could understand this...”

I was part of the team that developed the latest version of PRINCE2 (launched in 2009) and at the time it was recognised that one of the major areas of concern in the world of project management was the lack of understanding that many project boards/corporate management teams/directors had about leading projects. That situation has changed little.

This lack of appreciation of what is involved in successful project management leads to project managers and project team members being ‘sent’ on PRINCE2 training courses. The aim is that by training ‘them’ all the problems will be solved.

The reality is that on a good PRINCE2 training course (not all are good - be careful) delegates are exposed to current best practice in project management and then can easily see the gap between what they are learning and the present reality of the workplace to which they will shortly be returning. At times their frustration is all too evident.

Furthermore, sending people away for 5 days for a 'standard' PRINCE2 course could well be entirely the wrong solution. Surely we need to be a little more thoughtful with our training and development interventions. (More about that another time...)

Of course, I do not want people to stop attending PRINCE2 training. It is an important part of how we can change the world of project management for the better. What I want is for senior managers to become more open in their recognition of the need to change their behaviour. This will mean addressing such things as their ability to set direction, delegate and make timely decisions.

In this way, project managers returning to their workplace, complete with PRINCE2 certificate, will be able to apply all their learning in a supportive, best practice environment.

The Complete Project Manager - and finally...

... the complete project manager needs management and social skills. Easy, what more needs to be said?

In the five previous posts we have looked at what the complete project manager needs to be conversant with - programme, portfolio, benefits and change management, tools and techniques, project management methods and knowledge. But here's the 'soft' one - management and social skills (they even get called 'soft skills').

This one really does get taken for granted, yet there is so much that needs to be said about this.

But instead I will just focus on four competencies that our complete project manager requires. Based on the excellent work of Daniel Goleman, these are:

1. Self-awareness - including emotional awareness (how well do you understand your current emotional state?), self-assessment and self-confidence
2. Self-management - are you in control of yourself? This includes being able to take the initiative, to be trustworthy and to be conscientious. Are you also able to manage your emotional state?
3. Social awareness - do you know what is going on around you - are you aware of the way the team and your organisation is thinking? Do you really understand the word 'empathy'?
4. Social skills - it is a joy to see people with great social skills. Are you one of them? A 'people-person'?

How do you rate yourself as a project manager (or how do you rate the project managers that work for you?

In pearcemayfield we meet some great project managers, and some not-so-great ones. If you would like to be in the former category, why not give us a call? We might be able to help...

The Complete Project Manager (5) THE BIG WHY

In the previous post we encouraged Project Managers to ask why they were using a particular technique or tool. But there is a a bigger why to ask - why are we actually doing this project?

What is the reason for the project? Hopefully, the answer we come up with has something to do with BENEFITS!

Why are benefits something a bit more important than simply a line or two in the project business case?

Well, we need look no further than the first of the seven principles behind PRINCE2 - 'Continued Business Justification' Every single project should have a reason to exist; every project must be justified within the wider business context. And that justification comes because the project will deliver something that will allow the project to realise business benefits.

There is a great diagram used in both PRINCE2 and MSP that always generates good discussions on both courses.

It shows that on the journey to benefit realisation, the project outputs are a vital early start point, but there are not the 'end', they are the 'means'.

Benefits are the 'end'. Benefits are the reason that we are running this project.

Managing benefits therefore, is something that our complete project manager would do well to become acquainted with, and this recently launched book and course comes highly recommended.

Why?

Because it will bring you benefits as you learn more about becoming the complete project manager!

The Complete Project Manager (4)

Techniques and Tools

The Complete Project Manager must have access to a range of project management tools and techniques, and we've already looked in an earlier post about how Bodies of Knowledge are rich in such techniques.

It is not a great surprise to hear such an obvious statement, and it is not the purpose of this post to list what all those tools and techniques might be. Instead, let's consider how a Project Manager should be using them.

The thing that is important (and something that all too many Project Managers fail to do) is to choose the appropriate thing to do at any given time in the project, and then ensuring that they use it intelligently.

A specific example came in a recent workshop about risk management. Now, everyone knows that risk management is important in a project, but the way in which it is implemented is variable to say the least.

I have encountered risk logs (or registers) that contain just two or three entries; and those entries read something like, "There is a risk that the project will run late." Pointless, absolutely pointless. There is nothing further that I can do with such a risk description; it gives me nothing on which to plan a response.

At the other extreme are the risk logs full of hundreds and hundreds of risks, the majority of which just simply do not belong there. They are either better handled at a corporate level, or they are of the "Martians might invade our project" type! To have so many risks means that we easily lose sight of what matters.

And what really matters when using project tools and techniques is that we think about WHY we are doing what we are doing. We are not using a technique for the sake of using it. We are not completing entries in a risk log because that is what Project Managers do. We are identifying risks because we wish to do something about them. There is a purpose to this activity. We understand WHY we are doing it.

So next time it is time to reach for the risk log, why not ask the question 'WHY?'

The Complete Project Manager (3)

In the two previous posts we considered first how the core requirements for a project manager might be 'the knowledge and the method'. Then we looked at the art and science of Change Management.

Now let's consider the wider environment of

Programme and Portfolio Management

A project may form part of a wider programme, or it may 'stand alone' within the organisations wider portfolio. Either way, the complete project manager should have a sense of the best practice approaches to both programme and portfolio management in order that they might grasp the context of their project or projects.

Both programme and portfolio management are well served in that we have methods like MSP (Managing Successful Programmes) and Management of Portfolios (MoP) to help us.

I would argue that of the two it is probably more important for the complete project manager to get an understanding of MSP, so let's take a little look at that.

What can MSP offer the project manager above and beyond a project management method. Here are just five suggestions:

1. A far stronger emphasis on managing and realising benefits. This is a key aspect of MSP and the complete project manager will benefit from the insights that this emphasis brings
2. A focus on leadership and stakeholder engagement. Every project manager would do well to step up this aspect of their role
3. The introduction of something called Transition Management, and how there is life after a project!
4. The role of the Vision and Blueprint in bringing about large-scale transformation. This combined with the MSP Principle of 'building a coherent capability' gives a very powerful way of ensuring we deliver the right things
5. The introduction of the role of 'Business Change Manager' who could prove to be a major ally of the project manager within the business.

There are other aspects that MSP gives us that will be of interest to the complete project manager, but hopefully this list whets your appetite.

After Christmas we will look at the other elements of this diagram. Until then, have a peaceful and joyful Christmas break, and here's to a great 2013.