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I was working with a potential new client on an initiative they’d been considering for over a year. It was a manufacturing process technology they knew would add value and drive efficiency to their operations. But alas, they never got past the initial discussions. I was asked by someone I knew at this company to come in and help get things off the ground.
“We don’t track our risks. If something happens, we figure it out.” The comment caught me by surprise. This person is running a $500k program and don’t track risks? There are no mitigation plans? Nothing? Nope. As this person explained, the executive overseeing the project previously had a project manager who did nothing but talk about risks.
“Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.” — Aristotle Suffering is defined as undergoing pain, distress or hardship. In 2018, I checked the box on all three…and loved every damn minute of it! First of all, I’m a runner. I signed up for a trail marathon and got in via a lottery.
I haven’t written anything for awhile. In fact, I used to post to a professional group weekly and when I didn’t three weeks in a row, I got an email asking if I was OK. Yeah, I’m good I told them, just busy. It started in December with a new job, travel, holidays, kiddo sporting practices and events, church council, and a host of other little tasks.
Why did you pay $50 for a book on project management? Aren’t you already a PMP? Why do you get up at 5AM to go to the gym and run races on weekends? Do you like not sleeping and pain? Why would you volunteer to stand in front of a crowd of strangers and present? What if people don’t like what you’re talking about? Why do you spend your time going to events where people talk about ideas they have or solutions they’re developing?
As I got to the stoplight, I could see the on ramp onto the highway. It looked like a normal freeway entrance, with the exception of the truck upside down on its roof. You could tell it just happened as other vehicles were stopping to assist. Luckily, a few cars back from me was a police officer, who quickly made his way to the scene. Within a minute, another police car went flying by.
“Ladies and gentleman, from the flight deck welcome on board. Well, the first half of today’s flight is gonna be bumpy, so flight attendants will be seated until we find that smooth air. Sit back and relax!” You know it’s going to be bumpy when flight attendants aren’t allowed up. But, as we take off and get to cruising altitude, I tell myself I’ve been in way worse turbulence than this.
There is a great quote from the ever-classic movie Caddyshack: Judge Smails: What did you shoot today? Ty Webb: Oh judge, I don’t keep score. Judge Smails: Then how to you measure yourself to other golfers? Ty Webb: Height Early on in my career I had a great mentor. He taught me more in 6 months about leadership and managing projects than I’d known my whole life up to that point.
“You are receiving this email because your child’s math homework assignments are late. Please address this with them and ensure all homework is turned in on time.” What do you mean my son’s homework is late? I thought he was good at math. This doesn’t make any sense! Then the questions started coming into my head fast and furious: Is he struggling in math?
It’s been a REALLY long winter! Anyone in the norther U.S. can attest to the constant cold and continuous snow that was dumped on us over and over again. Even some of my peers in the southern states talked about how cold the winter was. Needless to say, there was a lot of inside time staying warm! Over the last couple weeks, though, temperatures have been going up and the snow quickly melting.
When I was a kid, I played baseball. A lot of baseball. Every chance I got I would put my glove on and play. My favorite positions were first base and catcher. I would watch my Minnesota Twins play; Kent Hrbek at first and Brian Harper behind the plate, plus all the other great players. Those were fun times! But one player I aspired to was a bit older.
Over the past year I’ve written considerably about PMOs, from setting them up to keeping the lights on to sound operational processes. Hell, I even wrote a book (with a lot of help from AI)! I enjoyed this process because it drew on my experience and the experience of other skilled practitioners whom I’ve had the opportunity to hear at various events or worked with throughout my career.
Whether you have a Managed Service Provider (MSP) supporting your business already or not, reasons to contract with one vary as much as the providers out there ready to serve you. Companies contract with MSPs for a variety of reasons, including cost savings, efficiencies, scalability, and taking responsibilities off your plate and having someone else manage IT for you.
Evergreen. According to Merriam Webster, Evergreen is “universally and continually relevant; not limited in applicability to a particular event or date.” We hear about evergreens during the holidays or when talking about pine trees and their green needles. I have also talked about evergreen, long-lasting relationships, with customers. But have you thought about “Evergreen Relationships with your coworkers, teams and stakeholders?
As 2023 comes to a close, it’s time to look ahead at another new year and the opportunities, as well as challenges, it will bring. Here are my 2024 project management outlooks, which is also where I’m basing some of my professional development on. AI as a Project Team Member “I don’t know. Ask ChatGTP.” AI will continue to evolve.
You’ve probably heard it countless times. “Robots will take our jobs!” “AI will make me irrelevant!” If you’re in a job where your functions are repetitious, that function can be automated. Yeah, there’s cause for worry there. AI will impact every industry and influence jobs for years to come. Project Management is one of those areas I’m excited to have AI make a greater impact.
It’s well known that effective communication is one of the most critical skills to project management success. Project managers spend the majority of their time communicating. As they advance in their careers, PMs will find themselves communicating with a special kind of stakeholder; the executive! Let me tell you how NOT to communicate with an exec using an experience I had as an example.
I had to reread the question twice. Was this a legit question or were they messing with us? I scrolled down and looked at the responses of others and re-responses from question asker. Yep, they’re serious. “I recently passed my PMP exam and now my company wants me to lead a project. I’ve never lead one before. Where should I start?
I went fishin’! Not just a quick half-day fishing trip, but a two day guided trip with 5 other people on Lake of the Woods in northern Minnesota, right along the Canadian border. If you’re not familiar with Lake of the Woods, it’s a big lake. Its surface area is 1,679.5 square miles and a max depth of over 200 feet. There are multiple islands and at points, you can’t see the opposite shore.
“Sorry sir, we have no seating in the restaurant or at a high top table at this time. There are seats at the bar, however, and they offer a full menu. Otherwise, it will be about 30 minutes.” I’m hungry I thought to myself. So is my buddy, whom I just got done playing golf with. Bar it is. As we bellied up we were greeted by a smiling but all business bartender.
“You’re in charge of project Sunrise.” What the hell? What’s project Sunrise? This company was always unique in naming its larger projects, but Sunrise? I hadn’t heard of that one. “The project will test the theory to build foundational infrastructure from which all other apps will be built. Sunrise comes from the dawning of a new type of functionality.
“Hi Jason! I was wondering if you would have an hour to grab coffee or lunch and catch up. Also, I need some help.” This person worked with me for almost four years and we’d been through some crazy ups and downs at that company. It’d be great to catch up with her again! Fast forward one week where we met for coffee. When she worked with me, her smile was constant and had a great sense of humor.
Everything that’s ever been invented, explored, or personal adventures started as an idea. Someone asked “What if…” “What if” I could do this? “What if” we had a product to do that? “What if” I went here? “What if…” are two words that become very powerful when brought together.
Let me start with a user story. As a cyclist I want to stay upright So I don’t crash and hurt myself Sounds easy, right? On a nice evening in June, my user story didn’t go as planned. If you watch any bike racing, like the Tour de France, you’ve seen large groups of cyclists suddenly go down. These pelotons are moving along at a fast pace and when one person crashes, others inevitably follow.
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” – George Bernard Shaw. Have you ever had conversational Deja vu? You think, we’ve had this same conversation before. Or, why am I repeating myself yet again?! This happens at work and at home. It occurs with kids a lot. If this happens to you, you’re experiencing the illusion of conversation.
“Stop Everything!! We have a really big problem!” I have the utmost respect for this person. Smart, driven, and ready to step in and help at a moments notice. But they’re also a lot like Chicken Little. The sky is constantly falling. The project invariably has show stopping issues. The world is always on fire. Twice a month this person would sound the alarm.
I have what my wife calls an unhealthy obsession with the Race Across America, or better known as RAAM. Dubbed the “World’s Toughest Bicycle Race”, RAAM riders start on the west coast in Oceanside, CA and end on the east coast in Annapolis, MD. Along the way they bike over 3,000 miles (4,828 km), climb over 175,00 feet, and cross 12 states.
Imagine you’re a private pilot. You got licensed about 5 years ago and in that time, logged a lot of uneventful hours in the air. Being cautious, flights occur only on clear or high-cloud days with little wind. You’re also only VFR (Visual Flight Rules) so can’t fly on just instrumentation. Now image today is a great day to fly. You hop in the rented Cessna 172 Skyhawk and prep for the 75 mile flight to where you and your spouse are going to have lunch, then fly back.
Once your PMO is up and running, operationalizing and doing continuous improvement (CI) go hand-in-hand. When people ask what’s the difference between the two, I say operationalizing are static functions you’ll always perform and CI is iterative. They’re done at the same time. Sometimes CI may lead to changes to the PMO’s operations, but you’re only making more efficient something you’re already doing.
I had a boss once say the trick to continuous improvement is to make it seem easy to the outside world, even though it’s a lot of work within an inner circle. Every improvement is strategic and intentional. She was amazing at CI. Now that the PMO is chugging along, it’s time for you, as the PMO leader, to look at continuous improvement. It’s not easy, and it is necessary.
The PMO Pilot Project. I LOVE pilot projects! It validates our intentions and strategies. We test out PMO best practices and gather lessons learned. The PMO matures more quickly. Totally worth it! When it’s time to establish and implement your PMO , conducting a pilot project should be part of the process. Here are some things to consider when running a PMO pilot project.
You’ve done the PMO Assessment. Then you created the PMO Business Case. You’ve been to meetings and finally got approval to establish your PMO. Now the fun really starts! Now, I’ve seen PMO Establishment and Implementation called out as two separate steps. For this article and from what I’ve done in the past, I combine them. The reason is, there will be overlap.
You’ve asked a lot of questions to a diverse group of stakeholders. You’ve done an assessment. Now it’s time to create a PMO Business Case and start moving the needle from idea to reality. If you notice, I call it a PMO Business Case, not a PMO Charter. I don’t like the word “charter” when talking about creating PMO’s.
As a consultant, I love doing assessments. Why? Because assessments help clients identify pain points and areas of opportunity. My favorite is the PMO assessment. Whether considering standing up a new PMO or revamping an existing, doing an assessment is a key initial step to setting one up. Though there are PMO maturity models, which are all good, I don’t like to talk about those right away.
Starting up or revamping a PMO is tricky and complex. They’re established to address a number of business opportunities and problems. If a PMO will help navigate these turbulent waters, it should not be on one or two people to determine its direction. Committed organizations will setup a PMO Steering Committee. I’ll start by saying a PMO Steering Committee is not a guarantee.
I grew up in a bit of a risk-adverse home. One parent was an engineer who had been with the same company since graduating school. The other was an administrative assistant who worked for the same school for many years. Both believed you find a job, stay with that job, try not to rock the boat, and retire. I thought this was the way it was done. That is, until I graduated college and started out on my own.
“Please tell me what you’re thinking. I promise I won’t be upset!” She looked nervous. She was smart, forward thinking, and I could tell from her body language she didn’t agree with me. But, given the last project manager wasn’t open to feedback and often got upset when he received it, she didn’t want to repeat scoldings that were given in the past.
I finally gave ChatGPT a try. My kids and I have been messing around, having it write songs, create jokes, and rewrite a paper my one kiddo already did. It’s been interesting and funny. I wondered what else it could write. I recently read about a company having financial issues because one of their key projects was behind schedule and over budget.
“This piece of sh!t. I buy connected silos that don’t connect. How the f$%@ can I operate if I don’t know what’s going on? Why don’t they f$%@ing connect?” My friend is a farmer. He originally took over his family’s small 40 acre hobby farm in the early 2000’s. With a degree in business, he decided an office wasn’t for him and applied his business skills to growing the farm.
Why do you want a PMO? That’s a hell of a question to ask when you’re the consultant asking a client why they want to start a Project Management Office (PMO). But, it’s one I felt necessary because thus far their reasoning wasn’t sound. Responses had been between “I read somewhere that…” and “Someone told me we should…” Those aren’t good reasons to start a PMO.
“That doesn’t surprise me.” You’ve heard it. I’m sure you’ve said it. But yet, when something happens on our projects, we’re surprised! How did this happen? Why didn’t see this coming? But I ask you, knowing the dynamic and fluid nature of projects, should we really be surprised? I think of a client project from a handful of years ago.
Tis the season to take a step back to look forward. As another year wraps up, it’s time to peer ahead at this dynamic career of project management and what may change in 2023 and beyond. Here are my predictions! Reimagining Stakeholder Engagement. Stakeholders are a big deal on any project. I learned that years ago to the tune of a $2M project failure due to not properly identifying key stakeholders.
Andre George Previn was a German/American pianist, composer, and conductor whose career had three major genres; Hollywood films, jazz, and classical music. He achieved success in each, with jazz and classical being a major part of his life. Andre also scored over 40 Hollywood films. Yeah, pretty successful guy. My son, who is a musician and participates in musicals and other theatre productions, educated me on him.
Tis the season to be Thankful! We all have things we’re thankful for and everyone’s list is different. Here is my annual list of what I’m thankful for in this dynamic career we call Project Management! Having a Thanksgiving Dinner Release Plan. Our family is hosting a lot of people on Thanksgiving! Lots of people means lots of food, and lots of food prep.
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