July 2010

Beginning with the end in mind

After 16 months of collaborative working with Project Leaders, Steve Billingham, Geotechnical Instruments Ltd Managing Director offers the following thought:

“Do not accept the norm. Things can always be improved and you may be surprised by which members of staff are keen to help if you change the rules and ask for volunteers. The experience with Project Leaders ltd at Geotech has been truly business changing and it hasn`t stopped. Far from it, we now have a totally new energy, a desire to achieve and a motivated team who I can only say, I am privileged to work with “!

Background

Initially Project Leaders Ltd was asked to run a series of classic “instructor-led” training sessions across a range of subjects for Geotechnical Instruments Ltd (Geotech). Broadly these covered 2 areas; Project Management (technical planning skills) and Leadership (behavioural and personal development).

This training ran alongside 6-sigma and problem-solving training and combined to make the company’s “business transformation programme” (BTP) for 2009.

Geotech is a market leader in the gas analysis sector and has enjoyed brand-leadership advantage for some years. The Board had decided to invest heavily in their staff in 2009 to ensure the business continued to compete and grow, sustaining competitive strength into the future.

The BTP was deemed to be a success both in immediate commercial terms (for example achieving a 35% stock value reduction) and, possibly more significantly, in terms of the visible transformation of its future leaders.

Specific benefits of the BTP include:

• Stock reduction of 35% value
• Testing and integration of 6-phase stage and gate process for new product introduction
• Accurate costs awareness in service department leading to relevant KPIs, cost controls and data for root cause analysis
• Accurate KPIs for sales order process
• Reduced rework in service allowing more to be done with fewer people
• Specific variance analysis work leading to stringent external body quality mark (UKAS)
• Broad, cross-company understanding of the need to change
• Development of a strong leadership and accountability culture where more individuals take ownership for results
• Development of a strong coaching culture where individuals understand the importance of continuous personal development
• An increase in entrepreneurial activity and mindset

Project Management Mentoring

The BTP helped to develop important skills in the short term and, as all training programmes do, helped identify areas where additional development was necessary.

Key amongst those was the ability to drive new projects through quicker, and involve more people in the process from different departments of the business. The picture above represents the core team made from 5 separate parts of the business. (taking an action-learning approach).

It was agreed that Project Leaders Ltd would act as a “Project Mentor” for a new Project Manager in Geotech in order to help meet the following objectives:

• Speed up projects from concept to implementation (or sales release)
• Apply financial “decision rules” to make decisions based on overall financial value of the project and not simply production cost
• Plan and organise projects according to established project principles
• Improve project communications to increase buy-in and reduce issues and confusion
• Apply standard estimating techniques to set stretching but realistic targets and manage stakeholder expectations
• Involve and develop colleagues that had not previously been directly involved in new product projects
• Manage clients and external stakeholders inputs and expectations
• Manage suppliers to contribute additional value to the project

How it worked



Initially Project Leaders Ltd had a high level of involvement in helping to establish a robust plan and project charter that was understood and agreed by all key project contributors. This required involvement on a 2 to 3 day/ week basis as a defined plan emerged from the original product concept.

Geotech follows a “stage and gate” process and Project Leaders Ltd’s involvement was intense up to Gate 2, by which time the specification had been agreed and the financials signed off.

The arrangement was deliberately flexible to allow for the right amount of support at the point and time of need, this helped move the project along at the right speed without involvement when the project was running smoothly or when there was nothing additional to do.

An excellent example was in dealing with suppliers for one particularly complicated engineering component issue. For a short while it appeared the solution required was physically and commercially impossible to resolve. This culminated in a number of potential component suppliers being invited in to help in the problem-solving process and, eventually, the impossible was achieved (for the same cost as the replaced component!)

Specific benefits of Project Leaders Ltd’s involvement

• Project lifecycle (timeline) reduction of 50% minimum resulting in £thousands saved in resource opportunity cost and accelerating sales incomes
• Project brought in on cost and before client expectation
• Development of new Project Manager who is now independently running projects and mentoring others
• Development of supplier negotiation skills
• Improved project communications with shorter, more productive meetings and regularly updated and circulated plans and reports
• Removal of significant costs by challenging assumptions (e.g. moving to a new accreditation body, massively reducing certification costs and delays) – this alone covers the investment of the programme in year 1
• Involvement of team members from different functions to reduce pressure on projects division and build strength across the business
• Motivation of individuals on the project team
• Improved perception amongst key customers and suppliers

Underlying principles

Training in a classroom can only go so far. In the worst cases people learn very little and even at best people learn important skills but rarely get to apply them in time. This means investment in training is difficult to evaluate in terms of its impact on the business and in times of increased stringency this becomes an ever-more important issue.

Companies should not reduce investment in their people when money is tight, on the contrary, those who sustain a support programme for their best resources will keep them at a time when they can not afford for them to go elsewhere.

By applying the project mentoring approach the host company sees direct commercial (and non commercial) benefits before their eyes. Savings are made in real time and people are being trained and developed simultaneously, the classic win/win.

Of course, what also gets left behind is a newly trained and motivated project leader and team who are able to mentor another new project manager from within the business. This builds internal capability, builds morale, reduces bottlenecks and of course reduces the long-term dependency on outside (expensive and low value-adding) training bodies who do not understand your business.

It is Prudence Clarke, Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic and

Roger Thornham to whom most of the credit should go for their extensive research and development to date.

In simple terms, too many Project Managers are struggling with leadership, whether it be managing stakeholder expectations, negotiating with suppliers and contractors or raising team morale when the project has gone off the rails.

Prudence and the team have been grappling with this reality for 7 years, combining university and industry research to boil down those few factors that differentiate Project Managers from Project Leaders. Before going into these, I’d like to take a moment to consider the issue.

As a jobbing PM and PM trainer and consultant, I know this is an issue. There is a real deficit of leadership behaviour on projects. I believe there are a number of factors at play here.

Often, PMs become PMs because they were good at something else, software development, quantity surveying, forestry, you name it. This comes about through a misguided, (although usually well-intentioned), belief that project management is a fair way of promoting a subject matter expert into a wider role. Project management is of course a huge change of scenery from being the specialist in a niche.

One of the best presentations I’ve ever seen is by

Benjamin Zander please indulge when you have a spare 20 minutes or so.

The bit that really stayed with me was when he says that, as the conductor, he leads the orchestra but makes no  noise. He  positions leadership as coordination, guidance, a focal point, but not running round and trying to play  all the  instruments. Project Leadership, we have found, requires Project Managers to come out of the pit, and to  keep  everyone, players, composers and audience alike, delighted with what is going on. This is hard.

I also find that PMs are usually selected from the mid regions of the organisational structure yet the outcomes they need to achieve require the engagement of those higher in the food chain. When sponsorship is weak (which it so often is) PMs have little or no chance to influence the right people in the ways they need to.

Lastly, projects are about “change”.  Of course introducing change at almost any level creates a range of behavioural responses, not by any means all positive. It takes real leadership talent to deal with humans when they are expressing conscious and sub conscious resistance. All this also takes place in the pressure-cooker environment of balancing time, cost and quality parameters.

So, the result of our research has been to describe 7 facets of personality that create the basis for effectively leading projects, the difference between project management and project leadership. These are the facets we need to understand in order to elevate the role into a significant change catalyst and leader of business progress.

Our facets are a direct descendent of the

“big five” personality traits which have been updated and adjusted to reflect contemporary project leadership challenges.

So the 7 facets are:

1. Pragmatism – goal-oriented, focused and determined completion of tasks
2. Creativity – seeking novel solutions to old issues
3. Positive intolerance – taking tough decisions to get projects achieved
4. Stability – effective performance under pressure
5. Communication – clear and effective articulation of any issue to any audience
6. Motivation – of self an others in the project, especially when times get tough
7. Group orientation – collaborating with others to improve project outcomes

Of course these headings can be, (and have been), deliberated and adjusted indefinitely. However we agree, from our extensive review of 100 years of leadership literature and, possibly more tellingly, repeated consultation of industry leading Project Managers, and the refinement of that consultation, that these fit the current picture.

Both training and consulting on project matters, I know first hand that the behavioural side of the job is given a second class status in comparison to technical tools. (Even those are patchy at best). However, from my own background in rehabilitation, I have always contested that “soft skills” are always the hardest to improve and embed.

So I am using this blog to canvas opinion on the facets – your views as to their relevance and experiences of where they have been applied, or where a deficit in one or some have costed the project.

I will use my next 7 blogs to unpack these facets a little further. This supports the work being done on the new PM specific psychometric that has been developed in accordance to the research with my business partner and web specialist

Jake Brumby

So, over to you, what are your first impressions?

Team - I’ll use player’s initials although they should have nothing but pride for the way they’ve contributed. Overall we have applied some of the principles of action inquiry,  throwing the challenge of new product introduction to anyone in the business who was “up for” the task.

This developed a team who equally matched skill and will. The outcome has been a radically improved time to completion as we have not had to push people (in the main) to meet / exceed their promises. We have also challenged some long held assumptions that will save ten of thousands of pounds and untold project hours in the months and years to come.

individuals:

• SB has provided direct but light touch sponsorship from the top – allowing us to move forward quickly, escalate a few decisions and expedite answers. He also excels in “managing by walking about”
• OB has provided unswerving clarity from board level on the financial case for speeding up
• CAM has managed his first NPI project. He has succeeded by keeping on top of all activity areas (note- not micro managing) all of the time using personal contact and a simple “tracker” tool. He has also learned to communicate assertively with the big chiefs to clarify requirements and encourage suppliers to exceed their previous levels of performance whilst simultaneously building stronger relations.
• JB has played a crucial role as technical critique for all proposed changes and ensuring we have considered options and consequences. One flip side of rapid development is gaining too much momentum such that decisions are sometimes made too quickly. JB has helped us avoid at least 2 major bear traps, without slowing the overall process. He too has helped manage supplier input and worked relentlessy to test new ideas and sub components as they have come through the project.
• AET has led the way on testing and shown that work can be acted upon quickly and progress made in a matter of minutes rather than days/ weeks with the right mindset.
• GS has remained positive and relentlessly pursued progress from third parties to fulfil his part of the project. He embodies the whole team’s ethos that more than 24 hours without a meaningful progress report is unacceptable. He regularly seeks the Project Manager to proactively update on where his task areas is.
• SE has taken a tough step to resume some of his former work in order to get this project forced through as quickly as possible. He has shown that all players in the team must be flexible and not too proud or hierarchy conscious to do whatever job is required to accomplish the project.
• DK has also thrown hierarchy to the wind and, despite being one of the most senior and key members of the company, was one of the first to volunteer for this challenging project with he words “I will do whatever you need me to do” and has stuck by those dangerous words.
• RJR has given top-level technical stewardship and stakeholder alignment.

There have been other contributors but the key learning points are these:

• Cross functional working has enabled the team to learn across silos and ask questions the experts may not have thought or dared to ask
• Letting people volunteer for the team has made it easy to keep interest levels high
• Effective senior sponsorship has cut through the usual political interference
• Relentless attention to task progress and holding each member responsible for clearly defined parts of the project has bred a culture of accountability
• Nipping issues in the bud and recognising contribution has allowed us to keep the tone focused but also fun..
• Involving suppliers in positive competition, sharing information with them generously, and pushing them for their best response has had remarkable outputs
• Having a process but not being a slave to it has kept momentum up
• Clarifying the commercial imperative of fast production has helped us make the best decisions quickly – hence being ahead of schedule
• Being clear about the critical path and sharing daily updates on its progress has been vital
• (both the last points described brilliantly in: http://www.newproductdynamics.com/book.htm )
• Encouraging difference of opinion whilst always keeping one eye on the clock has helped us avoid some major post-release problems

What do we need to get better at? (not exclusive to this project by any means)

1. Clarifying requirements quicker
2. Applying positive intolerance with colleagues and 3rd parties
3. Increased knowledge share across departments
4. Pushing for best performance

Not a very long list, all things considered. I was tempted to conclude that, for an inexperienced project team this has to be considered a great success, but the reality is that, because of their lack of pre-conceived concepts and barriers, they have set a very new standard for project management in their business.

Nothing you won’t see in the text books I guess, but to see it diligently applied in the workplace has been inspiring

The firm in question is: and you should keep an eye on them. Proof positive, supporting recent FT bulletins,  that manufacturing and technology in this country has a bright future.

]]> http://projectfour.wordpress.com/2010/02/08/high-fly-npi/feed/ 0 author achievements sacred cow THE-LEAGUE-OF-EXTRAOR-R48864-0 soaringEagle2 continuous-improvement geotech http://projectfour.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/232/ http://projectfour.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/232/#comments Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:13:28 +0000 author http://projectfour.co.uk/2009/12/10/232/ ]]> Believe what you will, but there is a rhythm to and a reason for things, often times I think we’re too busy or clever to spot it. I haven’t been sniffing the pot pourri, I am both an atheist and positive sceptic (my dear friend Pru has the good grace to call me a “pragmatist”), but I firmly believe this.

I am involved in 2 projects and one programme for 3 different customers. I am spotting similarities in the problems to solve. Now, if you asked me to explain the challenges I’d over-stay my welcome. Luckily, AA Milne has done it for me and I found out tonight when Ethan, my Son, asked me to read this specific poem as our bed-time wind-down. (hence my point about unforeseen rhythm and reason, call it coincidence if you prefer)

Read it and reflect – ring any bells? – I’ll add my thought at the end (as a warning, if you want the really profound stuff, stop at the end of the italics)

The Old Sailor
by A.A. Milne

There was once an old sailor my grandfather knew
Who had so many things which he wanted to do
That, whenever he thought it was time to begin,
He couldn’t because of the state he was in.

He was shipwrecked, and lived on a island for weeks,
And he wanted a hat, and he wanted some breeks;
And he wanted some nets, or a line and some hooks
For the turtles and things which you read of in books.

And, thinking of this, he remembered a thing
Which he wanted (for water) and that was a spring;
And he thought that to talk to he’d look for, and keep
(If he found it) a goat, or some chickens and sheep.

Then, because of the weather, he wanted a hut
With a door (to come in by) which opened and shut
(With a jerk, which was useful if snakes were about),
And a very strong lock to keep savages out.

He began on the fish-hooks, and when he’d begun
He decided he couldn’t because of the sun.
So he knew what he ought to begin with, and that
Was to find, or to make, a large sun-stopping hat.

He was making the hat with some leaves from a tree,
When he thought, “I’m as hot as a body can be,
And I’ve nothing to take for my terrible thirst;
So I’ll look for a spring, and I’ll look for it first.”
Then he thought as he started, “Oh, dear and oh, dear!
I’ll be lonely tomorrow with nobody here!”
So he made in his note-book a couple of notes:
“I must first find some chickens” and “No, I mean goats.”

He had just seen a goat (which he knew by the shape)
When he thought, “But I must have boat for escape.
But a boat means a sail, which means needles and thread;
So I’d better sit down and make needles instead.”

He began on a needle, but thought as he worked,
That, if this was an island where savages lurked,
Sitting safe in his hut he’d have nothing to fear,
Whereas now they might suddenly breathe in his ear!

So he thought of his hut … and he thought of his boat,
And his hat and his breeks, and his chickens and goat,
And the hooks (for his food) and the spring (for his thirst) …
But he never could think which he ought to do first.

And so in the end he did nothing at all,
But basked on the shingle wrapped up in a shawl.
And I think it was dreadful the way he behaved -
He did nothing but bask until he was saved!

Senior managers are struggling with leadership. “To-do” is so ridiculously long that what is done rarely hits a critical path (that lies camouflaged in the undergrowth). My view, make a decision, get on with something. Don’t get me wrong, I teach people how to plan and am a big fan, but I see so much time wasted “feinting in coils”, usually because of an absence of decent planning. The options will always be multiple and information always incomplete. Weigh up the odds quickly and make a decision. I am surrounded by decision paralysis.

Time is money (or possibly something even more valuable?)

This stands for “Concept, Feasibility, Realisation, Operation and Termination”

I was describing the inaccuracy levels of early estimates and exponential increase in cost of change as you go further into projects, in short the costs of poor planning (the C and F of CFROT). At that moment, I’ll call him “Mike” (because that’s his name) had his Eureka moment..

“That’s it!”  he exclaimed

“great, erm….what?” I rather weekly inquired

“that’s it, our problem, all our projects go straight to ROT!”

his point being, his organisation does not spend enough energy in the Concept or Feasibility parts of their projects. Weekly described project briefs, based on poor estimates and built on very shaky plans go quickly into the Realisation (making the thing) phase.

“Going straight to ROT” has since stuck with me as I reflect on hundreds of projects I have encountered. If I may borrow a Michael Jackson lyric Mike “you are not alone”

So it leaves me to pose some more questions, and I’ll post some thought on them in the following weeks.

Why do so many organisations dump good money down the toilet because of a lack of willingness to plan? Is planning activity too often seen as the unnecessary bit with too many meetings before “real work” begins?  Is this as widespread as I think (or am I suffering from “confirmation bias”)?  What can be done about it?

I’ll put some ideas down but would love to know what the world thinks – especially if I’m wrong…(again)…

On the flip side, these moments can, in some, represent the jolt needed to get out of an unsatisfactory situation. After all, the only route closed is the way back to “how it was”.

I have been lucky enough to have worked in situations where I have seen both responses up close. I have beliefs about some of the aspects that define the differences. A lot seemed to stem from the individual’s familial and social network, yet there were also differences in attitude and approach that I truly believe can, in part, be developed with a bit of straight-forward advice. This then needs to be followed up from time to time to help on the discipline side of things.

What separates those who make quick and lasting progress and those who fall back to square 1 is a persistent attention to whatever they have decided is important. That bit is not up to me, but where I can help is some straight thinking about the reality of a situation and some simple tools for moving in a new direction.

I am relatively new to formal coaching but feel my years in rehabilitation and then project management can combine to look at behaviour and practicalities to plan an effective recovery. So, by running some free sessions I can test this assumption and hopefully help some people along the way.

For this reason I need you to put this idea in front of anyone you think may be in this situation (redundancy) or is having to make people redundant so I can arrange some sessions.

I am, undoubtedly, firmly in the “enthusiastic but technically very poor” category when it comes to catching waves. Maybe that puts me in a better position to reflect on the ingredients for success than those who seem to ride effortlessly, sub-consciously.

What am I going on about this time?

Well the analogy is this, for me to surf successfully all manner of variables need to converge favourably at one optimum moment. I need to start flapping my arms in the sea at just the right time, the wave needs to be right (not too fast / slow / big / small etc), I need to jump up at the right time, plant my feet in the right place, find the composure to stand up, not have anyone or anything in front to distract me, attachment rope thingy out of the way and so it goes on. On around 1:100 potential rides, I get it right, it all comes together.

Some of this I can manage through training but really, most of it is a combination of fortuitous occurrences combined with the fact I have put myself in the sea and am ready to work to exhaustion until everything else comes into place. It certainly isn’t going to happen if I sit in the car park talking myself through the long list of hazards that will almost definitely get the better of me.

The benefit of my weakness in surfing – to bring this one to a point – is that it teaches me respect for 2 things:

1. Some things are beyond my control and I need to get good at adjusting

2. Surfing is best learnt in the sea

And so it goes with some of my recent experiences. For all the messy waves and flotsam and jetsom that currently surround me, I can’t help feeling an overwhelming sense of optimism. Recent monumental events in the US ring of possibility (and who hasn’t used that outcome to look for optimism in the World?) and we hear the future boss of the world talking of “higher causes” and the like.

On a less global but no less important level (for me anyway) I have just come away from a meeting with Prudence Clarke, founder of the ground-breaking PLACEleader© project manager’s leadership development programme. All our talk is of what can and will be. Our allegiance is based on joining forces to expand what is already a first-class leadership development tool for Project Managers. I will get into the details in future posts but it’s definitely one of those 1:100 moments. Finally it looks like I am truly going to be able to combine my technical project management knowledge with my passion (born of my background in rehabilitation) for helping individuals work through complex problems.

I have found a match in values, philosophies and beliefs borne of an evidence-based confidence in approaches.
In short, what the team at PLACEleader will be developing is a focused coaching service for Project Managers going through their demanding 5-day leadership programme. Their concern is that value from the programme is being lost due to inadequate post-course support once learners return to the harsh realities of their projects. We will soon be able to provide ongoing support and guidance that allow these leaders to practice, test and hone their leadership competences. In PLACEleaders I have found an organisation that believes passionately values I have held dear for yonks and who intend to address the issue head-on and in a very high quality way. Prudence was keen for me to promote their mantra ““Managers are necessary, leaders are essential” – what do you think?

So I’ll leave it there for now – I have a new business case to write, but as Watford Junction whizzes past my left ear I can’t help but wonder how much of our luck is in our own hands?

I hear PricewaterhouseCoopers are soon to publish some FANTASTIC findings as part of their Managing Tomorrow’s People project www.pwc.com/managingpeople2020

Thousands of recent graduates from around the world have been asked about the corporate benefits they most value. Choosing from a selection of benefits (which included cash bonuses, pension contributions, interest free financial assistance, maternity leave and a host of others), training and development came out as the most popular……………….by miles.

In fact, almost three times as many graduates named it as the benefit they would most value over the next five years than chose cash bonuses as their number one choice.

My first reaction to this breaking news is to jump for joy. Obviously as someone who has dedicated most of his working life to learning and development in one way or another, it is great to have some sort of validation (and if it bodes well for fighting the crunch – all the better). As a project trainer I can maybe make a more straight forward case for the direct benefits of learning a few new skills. I recently received an email from a former course delegate informing me he had managed to reduce his project timeline by 10 MONTHS just by applying some of the tools we had shared on the course.

However, as project management has also taught me, I am wary of leaping at an optimistic assumption without considering the variables. I’d like to think a bit about some of the influencers of this conclusion, and also clarify that at this stage the data is yet to be published and thus proven. I would like others reading this to add their thoughts.

What else, other than my biased belief that continuous development is a reason for us all to get out of bed, could be influencing this result because let’s face it, this is BIG news. Grads going into consultancy want education above cash handouts – how can this be?

Well, maybe it was the timing of the survey – was the cohort consulted before the current financial iceberg was assessed below its immediately visible surface? If we asked them right now what would attract and retain, would lower-order motivators (cash and security) kick in?

Or maybe the sample cohort is biased – are grads still sufficiently idealistic to think that self-betterment (is that a word?) buys greater fulfillment than 3 good holidays a year and will really enable them to deal with their daughter’s first deposit on a house?

Or is it a gen Z / millennial thing? Has ubiquitous global travel, a flatter world and a non-stop, interactive, coms rich, socially networked existence prompted a deeper belief in the need for intellectual and emotional enrichment?

Frankly I’d love to know and am hoping the PWC report will shed light. These are always valuable bulletins for us all to get a more informed perspective. I suppose for now I am going to have to take the news I have as an untested endorsement of what I know to be one of the most basic of human needs – to learn, to problem-solve, to grow. The simple fact that “training” departments have morphed into “learning and development” reflects an understanding, to one extent or another, of this trend. However, I am mightily encouraged by the numbers I have glanced and look forward to seeing how companies genuinely respond to what tomorrow’s leaders find important.

Sheep dip’s definitely out..

I would, as always love to know what you all think.

As the world continues to crash around our ears, markets plummet, financial institutions implode (and the rest of us will get the shock wave sooner or later) I can’t help feeling there’s something quite cleansing about the whole thing and that something this drastic must also present opportunities. Believe me, I’m not in any ivory tower and fall prone to the same insecurities as everyone else but I can’t shake this feeling that there are good things coming with this latest chill wind. Along with increased awareness about how we are using all sorts of resources, it’s got me thinking more about what’s really important, and what I can, frankly, live without.

Anyway, the point in this post is to reflect more on the concept of sharing good management knowledge with those who can least afford it but potentially make the most difference with it. I’m always looking for max cost/benefit opportunities.

Only today I’m listening to the fact that the voluntary sector is now feeling even more pressure for survival. I was working for a charity that had all it’s savings with Baring’s Bank in 1995 when Nick Leeson mislaid $1.4bn. We weren’t reckless, Barings was about as safe a pair of hands as we could have hoped for (we thought). For a few tense days we considered a bleak future. As it happened the money was protected and we got unprecedented mainstream airtime as a result! (see – opportunities!). Now it seems history has repeated as good causes with prudent savings in off-shore banks are biting their nails.

This is the best possible time for those with anything to spare to help out, and no cash needs to change hands.

The other thing that gets trimmed when money’s tight is training (mistakenly of course in my opinion). So I’m thinking there are a lot of Charities out there who could do with some excellent management training in how to survive in hard times and there must be trainers out there with a bit of time on their hands. Let’s see what we can do to help both parties.

If there are a few less fee-paying or in-house (you big corporates) jobs to do, this is a great opportunity for us (trainers) to give a bit back and at the same time try out some new ideas in readiness for when, as inevitably it must, the economy picks up again. We have no excuse for running stale training next year if we are able to innovate, whilst running free training for charities.

This is also a superb opportunity to create some much-needed “feel-good”. It’s easy to get a little gloomy in the face of such a down turn but, believe me, there’s nothing so self-actualising as the feeling that you’ve done a solid day’s work just for the good of it. The only way to test my claim is to try it.

So, if you’re a trainer and can free up some time, please let me know. I want to build a list first then go confidently to the voluntary sector with a bulging hamper of training goodies.

Drop me an email at spencer@projectfour.co.uk if you want to get involved.

As I was writing this I got my first two offers – the list has increased 200% already!!!! Great stuff Kate – please check her out, if it’s quality you need, go no further! http://www.capellaassociates.com

And thanks Resh – more strength to your elbow at Equal Adventure.. http://www.equaladventure.org

Cheers!

• With the odd exception, most companies I end up working with seem to believe that their project or supply management methods are “worst in class”
• In reality, if we were to take the best bits from how dispersed individuals are managing projects or suppliers we would end up with a perfectly adequate system
• Whilst it is easy to share and agree excellent processes in the classroom, delegates’ opportunities to implement new skills are limited at best

I guess these observations are nothing new. I can’t help wondering however if the solutions to these issues aren’t pretty straight forward and can in some ways be interrelated. Let’s take them in order.

Why is it that so many of the people I work with seem to believe that their systems and processes are quite so bad? Well, many of them have been in their company for some years and I think there is a great deal of internalisation going on. I have the benefit of seeing a multitude of approaches from multiple sectors and have yet to see one standardised cross-company system uniformly applied by all Project or Vendor Managers.

Their are two root causes I believe. Firstly, companies struggle to work horizontally. As soon as cooperation is required across functions (say from finance to I.T. to sales) even the most basic communications break down. Is it possible in your company that there are divergent objectives in the choice of suppliers or project business cases between different functions (e.g. cost versus quality?)

Secondly is the ultimate nemesis. We are all so “busy” that we don’t give up time for such luxuries as planning, understanding requirements, interrogating contracts, renegotiating metrics etc. We are doing our best just to keep 1/2 a step ahead of the sheer volume of work coming our way. Of course, much of this urgency is borne of an absence of planning, cross-functional thinking and solid communication! There is only one direction for this spiral..at some stage someone needs to be brave enough to point out the self-fulfilling madness

Taking the second of my observations – I strongly believe that the solution to most project or supply management problems already reside in the organisations I visit. Usually I am able to speak with managers from the business before I go in to deliver training. These meetings always bear fruit in terms of the tacit experience of the manager and often the physical evidence of their effective systems (plans, scorecards, contracts etc). Quite often these will be similar to “generics” covered in the training and often those who have proofed the training will not be aware that there are excellent (often times better) examples in offices all around them! Again I suppose this is reflecting the fragmented nature of modern businesses and the shortage of high quality developmental communication that is undertaken in the average day. Businesses need to learn better from themselves.

Lastly, an old bug-bear, why do so many firms insist on paying good money for training and then apparently making virtually no attempt to ensure that new skills get a chance to flourish? I am lucky enough to regularly re-visit many of my contracts and am frequently told that delegates have not had an opportunity to apply what was covered in the course. It seems that they have had enough time away from “real work” already in attending the course so they would be pushing their luck if they wanted to cause further disruption by daring to try and work in a different way!

So, what’s the answer to these endemic problems? I look at it with the passion of a trainer and the pragmatism of a project manager. When the passion gets in the way I end up frustrated, why can’t they just SEE how simple these issues are and the relative cost / benefit of addressing them in a meaningful way? But I know this won’t get anyone very far!

With a problem-solving head on I think we can achieve multiple objectives in one go, if we are smart at the outset. The best training I get involved with have a number of shared characteristics:

• A well-informed sponsor who stays central to the process. By well-informed they have a good view of what is going on across all functional silos in the business
• A pragmatic view on consultation. They understand consultation is important to get the training right but that it can also run out of control, confuse stakeholders, over-promise and lengthen the development timeline by weeks or months
• Open and honest communication – being as quick to identify their own flaws or knowledge gaps and not simply expecting the supplier to read minds (this displays a wider cultural trait that will encourage better horizontal communication)
• Use the training as advertising – get good practice from wherever it can be found in the business and underpin every module with an in-house example
• Use training to solve real issues – scenarios are nothing new and, genuinely, don’t need to take long to generate. Make sure the training has been designed to tackle real issues in the demonstration of how new tools and techniques can be applied (e.g. a recent delegate managed to cut 10 months of his project using critical path analysis in the class!)
• Don’t be afraid to use up course time in discussion – Socrates (or Protagoras depending on who you ask) knew this method to be an excellent means for adults to learn more about complex issues. I have found a stimulating debate followed by reflection and summary more rewarding on the whole than the most beautifully crafted Powerpoint deck
• Spend as much time and effort on the “befores” and “afters” – it’s oft quoted that 80% learning happens outside the classroom – use simple interventions, facilitated internally, to leverage this learning. The best outcomes I have seen have come from self-generating and policing learning groups (or communities of practice if you will). It should be part of the training design, long before a course runs, to prepare the ground for skills application post-course. There are of course a multitude of virtual / on-line applications that can allow this group-development to occur for widely dispersed groups. I suspect younger learners in your business will already be expecting to see these in action.

I’d love to hear about any creative solutions to these issues – or if you think I am way wide of the mark…