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Understanding the Chemistry and Physics of Change: Part 2: The Chemistry
by Angelo Baratta, Paradigm Shifter

RECAP OF PART 1:

In Part 1, we presented the Three Laws of Organizational Change:

1.  Law of Persistence: A person or process continues its current behavior (won’t change) until an unbalanced force is applied.

2.  Law of Power: The force required to cause a change depends on two things: the mass of the object (how big the thing is that we’re trying to change), and how fast we need to get to the new state.

a. Force = how big X how fast
b. Work = force X how far

3.  Law of Reciprocity: To change something we have to interact with it. Every interaction produces an equal and opposite response.

The key conclusion based on these laws is:

In order to effect a change, a force is always required.
Change doesn’t just happen.

This means that change will never take place without work (energy over time). So what and where is the source of this energy? To answer this question we need to understand the Chemistry of Change.

WHAT IS THE SOURCE OF ENERGY/FORCE FOR CHANGE?

To affect an organizational change, we need a force that is strong enough, and we need the energy to see the change through to completion. But where does that energy come from? And what kind of energy is required for organizational change to succeed?

There are three distinct kinds of energy:

1. Mechanical
2. Electromagnetic
3. Emotional

In every case, regardless of the type, energy is generated by difference; the greater the difference, the greater the energy.

Think of a hydroelectric generating station. What do you picture? Do you picture a dam and a waterfall? The energy generated is a result of the difference in height from top to bottom. The purpose of a dam is to create that difference. Water, moving from high to low, supplies the energy that turns the turbines and creates electricity; the greater the distance between the top and the bottom, the greater the force and energy.

‘Difference’ is the source of energy; and energy is required to exert a force.

Electricity is measured as the potential difference between two points.

To make a choice and pursue a goal that is different from the status quo requires emotional energy. When we care about something we have more energy for it. When we don’t care (apathy), we have no energy for it. Emotional energy is the energy required to fuel organizational change.

Without emotion there is no motion.

Since we derive energy from difference, it is a perceived difference in personal future value that triggers our chemistry of emotion. When we perceive a difference between where we want to be, and where we are, and when that difference matters to us, then that sparks emotion, and that produces energy for action (motion).

To effect an organization change requires emotional energy which can only come from people. In order to generate emotional energy in an individual, three conditions must be met:

1. They must be aware of the impact of the change
2. They must care about how it affects them personally, either directly or indirectly
3. They must be able to place a personal value on the impact. 

Emotional Energy = function of (perceived value of a difference)

A single organizational change can create multiple stakeholder impacts. A new status quo can lead to stakeholders experiencing one or more of the following perceived and real consequences:

1. They can be better off—more value.
2. They can be worse off—less value.
3. They can be unaffected—no change in value.

Evaluating the difference for each stakeholder is the key to determine if we have enough power and energy to effect the target changes. Accomplishing this is difficult for a number of reasons, in particular:

1. It can be difficult to accurately quantify the direct impact of a change.
2. Even when we can quantify the impact, we cannot easily and accurately determine how that impact will be valued by each stakeholder.

For example: a $1000 per year raise to someone earning $20,000 may have much more value than the same $1000 per year raise to someone earning $100,000. This makes intuitive sense. But what about a $1000 raise to ten people, each currently earning the same thing? Will each place the same value on the same $1000 increase? Not necessarily. Value perception is individual and circumstance and time specific. There is no formula to compute it, as of yet. That same raise a month from now may be valued very differently than today by the same person.

What all this means is that as difficult as it is to quantify the direct impact generated by a change, it can prove almost impossible to quantify the value of that impact to each stakeholder, even when interacting with the stakeholders themselves. And to make things more challenging, that value is subject to change without notice.

To reiterate, there are three potential responses to a change, based on each stakeholder’s perception of consequences and how they value them:

a)       Response to a perceived increase in value: support/assist
b)       Response to a perceived decrease in value: block/resist
c)       Response to no difference in value: apathy/ignore

A perceived decrease in value as the result of a change will elicit a resistance response. Therefore, if every project you’ve been on had resisters, then maybe it’s the changes that need to be reviewed. Perhaps most organizational changes tend to result in a reduction in certain stakeholders’ value propositions. If that’s the case, resistance is only natural.

Chemistry is about the emotions generated by the stakeholder’s question: “What difference will it make to me?” In order to generate a force for change, we need to turn on people’s emotions in the direction of the desired change.

People will react to a real or perceived change in their value outcomes. People are less concerned about the technicalities of the change and more interested in the value impact of the change to them, real or perceived. The greater the distance between their perception of current value and potential future value, the greater the emotional force and energy. The change itself is not the cause of how people feel about the change. The perceived impact is the cause. And that’s chemistry. Feelings generate energy and force. Apathy generates inaction.

In order to increase the support energy and decrease the resistance energy, we need a good understanding of the total stakeholder impacts. But how do we get that?

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UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENCE: THE STAKEHOLDER VALUE P&L

A program/project may produce numerous individual change impacts. Any one of these may contribute to project failure. Therefore, it is crucial to understand all the forces (support, resist, apathy) that will come into play on that project. A Stakeholder Value Profit and Loss (P & L) Statement is a tool that makes all the potential impacts overt. Think of it as a P & L for the project.

To develop a Stakeholder Value P & L, identify the following for each stakeholder:

1. The change
2. Real impacts
   1. The impact of that change
   2. The direction of the impact; this determines the direction of the force—assist, resist, ignore.
   3. How each stakeholder feels about the impact of the change?  Quantify likely range of values each individual stakeholder will attribute to the impact—strength of force.
   4. How long will the feelings last? This is a measure of how much energy is likely to be spent by each stakeholder. A stakeholder may initially react with great resistance but quickly lose interest or change their feelings. That’s a strong force but minimal energy.
3. Perceived impacts (repeat a. to d. above)

More projects run out of energy before they run out of money, than the other way around.

And, by the way, running out of money is really running out of investor energy. Understanding the real and perceived impact of each change to each stakeholder group and individual stakeholder is essential to success. This should be undertaken at the very beginning of a program as part of the selection process. Don’t start a program that does not have sufficient force and energy to complete. The following formula summarizes the concept:

Force for change:
Assist force – Resist force > force required for change

It would be nice if we could simply plug in numbers into this formula and generate an answer. But we can’t. What we can do is to use our Stakeholder Profit and Loss Statement to analyze our change and develop alternatives that generate more assist forces and fewer and weaker resist forces. We can minimize the risk of failure but we cannot guarantee success.

PERCEPTION IS REALITY

Perception is reality. Right?

Perception is not reality. However, people make decisions based on their perception of reality. That means that as change managers we always have two choices.

1. We can make real changes to our project that will result in a real change in the future reality, thereby changing the forces and energy available.
2. We can affect the perception of the reality, while leaving real consequences alone, thereby changing the forces and energy available.

We can alter the available force and energy by changing the real impact or by changing the perceived impact. As an ethical manager, I would support improving the real impact and working to bring the perception in line with the reality. As a program/project manager you must be able to detect the difference and you should work to maximize the real value and bring perceptions in line with the real.

WHEN DOES CHANGE MANAGEMENT BEGIN?

All projects introduce change.  Therefore, all projects require force and energy to complete. Understanding how much force and how much energy will be required is something that every project needs to understand. And it needs to understand this at the very start of a project. In fact, I would say that it’s a requirement for starting the project. That means that a change management assessment, using the Stakeholder Profit and Loss Statement or similar concept, should be undertaken as part of the decision to proceed, rather than as part of the subsequent project planning and execution. Once a project is started, people’s commitments tend to become fixed and jeopardy becomes attached to major changes or cancellation. Changing the impact reality becomes much more difficult once the plane is off the ground (so to speak).

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SUMMARY

Progress requires change. Change requires effort (work and energy). People are the source of the emotional energy required for project work. That energy can be applied in support of the change or against the change. The strength of the force will be determined by the difference in perceived value created by the change. The direction depends on whether the value goes up or down for a particular stakeholder. The job of the project manager with regard to change is to fully understand all impacts and how they affect each stakeholder’s perception of value. The Stakeholder Profit and Loss profile is a good tool for achieving that.

The best case is when every single stakeholder sees real value as increasing for them as a result of the change. This is the holy grail of Change Management. It is the single scenario that requires the least energy to implement any given change because the resistance forces will be zero and the support forces will be at maximum. It is the only condition that generates a win-win-win…. scenario. The focus of Change Management should be to create such scenarios, not to manage people through win-lose initiatives, as is too often the case.

About the author

Angelo Baratta is a business process designer, researcher and author with more than thirty years of experience in business process engineering and project management. He led more than a hundred projects for more than fifty organizations that gave him great insight on business processes and critical success factors of project success.

He is the author of the book “More Perfect by Design: The Science of Designing More Perfect Business Processes.”  He is a frequent speaker at PMI’s events. He hopes to help businesses by helping them improve their business processes. He lives in Ontario, Canada, with his wife and three daughters.

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Back to January Issue

Report On The Survey “Use of PMBOK” Part 1 of 2
by Tan Heng Meng, MBA, BSc (Hons), PMP

Introduction

Why this survey?

The Project Management Institute Singapore Chapter (SPMI), is chartered by the Project Management Institute, and separately registered in 2012 as a society with the Registry of Society under the Societies Act (SPMI, 2012).  Amongst its visions and missions, SPMI aims to deliver value to its members as well as promote the practice of project management (PM) more pervasively.

Currently there is a lack of data and information on how project management (PM) practitioners are using the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) from the Project Management Institute (PMI).  Thus it is difficult to know the aspirations and learning needs of PM practitioners and this makes SPMI’s effort to deliver value to its member a big challenge.  Motivated by this lack of accurate information, SPMI is collaborating with the University of Adelaide to undertake a “Use of PMBOK” research program to meet this need.

The objective of the joint research program is to identify and conduct research project to enabling SPMI to extend its knowledge about SPMI members in order to conduct its business more effectively. The research program is operated jointly by the University of Adelaide and SPMI.

Methodology

A web-based survey on “Use of PMBOK” was undertaken.  For the survey, SPMI use its mailing list to invite PM practitioners in Singapore to participate in the survey.  The survey instrument was posted on surveymonkey.com from 5-25 November 2013 to allow participants to respond to the survey.

This survey is intended to study how the PM practitioners in Singapore use the PMBOK. Total number of respondents for this survey is 447, among which 413 are working or residing in Singapore.  For the rest of the reports, only the responses of the 413 respondents will be used for analysis.  Thus the findings of this report will provide insights on how the PM practitioners in Singapore use the PMBOK in their work.

The result of this survey will be presented in two parts:

1. Part 1 – The content of this report will focus on presenting survey results pertaining to the use of PMBOK by the PM practitioners in Singapore.
2. Part 2 – To be published in subsequent issue of the PMQuest Journal, will present the findings concerning the learning needs of the PM practitioners.

Detailed Survey Result

Respondent’s Profile

It is a well-known fact that majority of PMI members are IT project managers.  Thus it is not surprising that the biggest group (26%) of the respondents is working in the InfoComm (ICT) industry.  Although other respondents are working in non-ICT industry, many of them are handling IT projects for their companies.  The distribution of the respondents by industry is shown in Figure 1:

Figure 1: Respondents’ Profile By Industry

N=413
Source: SPMI’s Use of PMBOK Research, 2013

In terms of the project size that the respondents handled, it ranges from small projects to large projects with total budget exceeding USD50 million.  The median project size is USD1 million to USD5 million.  Detailed distribution of respondents by project size is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Respondents’ Profile By Project Size

N=413
Source: SPMI’s Use of PMBOK Research, 2013

The respondents were asked to indicate the key role of project management experience that they had.  The result is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Respondents’ Profile By Project Experience

 N=413
Source: SPMI’s Use of PMBOK Research, 2013

It is interesting to note that most of the respondents are involved directly in project management as either a team member (54%) or a project manager (38%).  In terms of years of experience, over 50% of the respondents had 10 or more years of experience in project roles.

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Level of Project Engagement

The PMBOK Guide 5^th edition  (PMI, 2013) groups the forty-five (45) PM processes into five process groups and ten knowledge areas.  The respondents were asked to indicate their project engagement in terms of process groups and knowledge areas.  The results are shown in Figures 4 and 5.

Figure 4: Project Engagement Level By Process Group

Q: To what extend are you engaged on the following process groups to complete your role in this project? (0 = Not Engaged, 4 = Fully Engaged) 

N=413
Source: SPMI’s Use of PMBOK Research, 2013

In terms of process groups, it is not surprising to find that the respondents are most engaged in the Monitoring & Controlling, Executing and Planning process groups.  This is because the key project role of 92% of respondents is either a Project Manager or a Team Member.

Figure 5: Project Engagement Level By Knowledge Area

Q: To what extend are you engaged on the following knowledge areas to complete your role in this project? (0 = Not Engaged, 4 = Fully Engaged) 

N=413
Source: SPMI’s Use of PMBOK Research, 2013

In terms of knowledge area, the respondents are highly engaged (2.91 to 3.31 out of a fully engaged level of 4) in eight of the ten knowledge areas defined in the PMBOK 5^th edition.

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PMBOK Processes

PMBOK defined forty-seven (47) processes.  Each process belongs to one process group and one knowledge area.  In order to understand the respondents’ mastery of PMBOK processes, a number of questions on the use of the processes are included in the survey.

Detail of the PMBOK process that the respondents have used more successfully is shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6: PMBOK Process That Has Been Used Most Successfully

Q: Name the knowledge area and the process group the process in the PMBOK which you have been used most successfully to manage your work.

Legend:
I=Initiating, P=Planning, E=Executing, M&C=Monitoring & Controlling, C=Closing

N=413
Source: SPMI’s Use of PMBOK Research, 2013

The top process groups and knowledge areas of the PMBOK processes that are used most successfully by the respondents are:

• Process Groups:
  • Planning (36%);
  • Executing (28%) and
  • Monitoring & Controlling (28%).

• Knowledge Areas:
  • Scope Management (28%);
  • Integration Management (17%) and
  • Time Management (15%).

The results suggest that most of the respondents excel in using hard skills to execute their project tasks.

The processes defined in the PMBOK guide represent a collective wisdom of commonly accepted project management practices.  These represent useful resources for the project practitioners who are engaged in project works.  The views of the respondents on the usefulness of the PMBOK processes are shown in the following figures:

• Figure 7 shows the PMBOK processes that the respondents found most helpful in their project work;
• Figure 8 shows the PMBOK processes that the respondents found their own techniques were more appropriate than that documented in the PMBOK.
• Figure 9 shows the PMBOK processes that the respondents found difficult to use.

Figure 7: Top PMBOK Processes Which Were Most Helpful in Work

N=343
Source: SPMI’s Use of PMBOK Research, 2013

Figure 8: Top PMBOK Processes Where Your Own Techniques Were More Appropriate

 N=343
Source: SPMI’s Use of PMBOK Research, 2013

Figure 9: Top PMBOK Processes Which Were Difficult to Use

N=343
Source: SPMI’s Use of PMBOK Research, 2013

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Comments on PMBOK

Many respondents gave their feedback and expectations of the PMBOK.  These feedbacks can be summarized as follows:

1.   Include more case study & industry specific examples

Specific comments include:

• Actual usage of each knowledge area in various industries.
• Be more industry specific. The level of focus on the PMI basic 5 process groups varies between different industries. Management support, internal business process, culture, etc., are the few areas which are worth to take a deeper dive.
•  Case studies of established projects or well-known failures are good learning (lessons learnt) material for everyone, will be good to have such information readily available, covering multiple sectors (business or industrial).
•  Detailed used of project methodologies for example, 6 sigma or lean methodologies will provide better project control and monitoring.
•  Industry, Nature of project (IT or non-IT), Experience of PM.
•  Having access to case studies or practical examples to demonstrate relevancy.
•  How do you effectively track cost and benefits / ROI of a project?
•  Identify how should Risk Management be incorporated at any part of the project, especially for projects with low risk awareness and how to advocate consistency and importance of risk mgmt.
•  More reliable references and data.

2.    More guidance on stakeholder management

Specific comments include:

• Most projects are run and managed through building of network and relationship with stakeholders.  It will be interesting if more effort is spent in measuring the value of productivity with the level of relationship with project stakeholders.
•  Managing stakeholder expectations
•  Dependency and personal agenda of various senior management stakeholders.
•  Company's cultures and top-down altitude management
•  Better resourcing and HR input

3.   Relationship of PMBOK with other framework and methodologies

Specific comments include:

• Incorporate Agile into PMP.
•  Desired to receive more guidance on agile project management.
•  I believe in applying what you learned in the job. PMBOK is a good and ideal methodology. It needs to be flexible to accommodate different sizes of projects/programs.  I practice PMBOK and Prince 2.  The fusion of both methodologies provide a good project management process
•  I feel the project framework and processes in the PMBOK aren't as robust as that in PRINCE2. PMBOK is excellent in that it covers all areas of a project. Thus PMBOK and PRINCE2 complement each other rather well.

Concluding Remarks

This survey is the first in the world to explore how PM practitioners are using the PMBOK guide of the Project Management Institute.  The insight gained from this survey will enable SPMI to formulate better programs and activities to achieve its objectives of delivering value to its customers as well as promoting the practice of project management more pervasively.

This is the first of two parts report of the survey.  In the next installment, key trends of the learning needs of project management practitioners will be presented in an article to be published in the March 2014 issue of the PMQuest Journal.

Bibliography

PMI. (2013). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide). Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, USA: Project Management Institute, Inc.
SPMI. (2012). Constitution Of Project Management Institute Singapore Chapter. Singapore: Project management Institute Singapore Chapter.

About the author

Mr. Tan Heng Meng is a seasoned IT professional with over thirty years of working experience.  His professional practice specializes in Project Management, Business Analysis, IT Service Management and Service Quality.  He has held positions of Director for Asia South Region, Division Manager, Consulting Business Development Manager and Engineering Manager of several US multinational and local companies.

Currently he is serving PMI Singapore Chapter as a Board Member and the Chair for REP Relationships.

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Back to January Issue

Editor's Corner

First of all, on behalf of the editorial team, I would like to wish all of you a very wonderful new year in 2014.

Year 2013 has been a very exciting and challenging for the PMQuest editorial team. When the team was first formed in July 2013, we spent some time to figure out what could be done in order to bring more values to you, fellow members of the SPMI. After consulting with some members, it was clear that SPMI members had longed for a platform where we can continue to enhance our project management knowledge, and at the same time earn some PDUs (for free of course) to retain our credentials.  Thus we decided to start a bimonthly online publication known as PMQuest.

With the support from the SPMI board and contributors, the first issue of PMQuest was finally published on 15^th September 2013. We would like to take the opportunity here to deliver a big THANK YOU to everyone who has contributed to the PMQuest publications in one way or another.

In this first issue of PMQuest for 2014, we are very excited to publish the survey report of the world’s first survey on “Use of PMBOK”.  You can find useful insight on how project managers perceived the PMBOK.  This is the first of two installments of the report.  Part 2 of the report will be featured in the March issue.  “Understanding the Chemistry and Physics of Change: Part 2: The Chemistry” by Angelo, is a continuation of an article published in the last issue.  This article uses Physics and Chemistry to explain organizational changes, a very novel way of understanding changes.  Additionally we also included some very interesting articles covering areas concerning leaderships, quality management and a book review.

We hope you enjoy this issue of PMQuest, and once again, your continuous support is very much appreciated.

Thank you and Happy New Year!

TING Mey Ling
Editor, PMQuest

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PM Trends

Report On The Survey “Use of PMBOK” Part 1 of 2
by Tan Heng Meng, MBA, BSc (Hons), PMP 

Currently there is a lack of data and information on how project management (PM) practitioners are using the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) from the Project Management Institute (PMI).  Thus it is difficult to know the aspirations and learning needs of PM practitioners and this makes SPMI’s effort to deliver value to its member a big challenge.  Motivated by this lack of accurate information, SPMI is collaborating with the University of Adelaide to undertake a “Use of PMBOK” research program to meet this need.

A web-based survey on “Use of PMBOK” involving PM practitioners in Singapore was undertaken with the intention to study how the PM practitioners in Singapore use the PMBOK. The results of the survey will be presented in 2 parts, and this article presents part 1 of the survey results focusing on presenting survey results pertaining to the use of PMBOK by the PM practitioners in Singapore.

To find out more, click here…

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Special Feature

Understanding the Chemistry and Physics of Change: Part 2: The Chemistry
by Angelo Baratta, Paradigm Shifter

In part 1 of the article published last week, three laws of organizational changes were presented. The key conclusion based on these laws is:

In order to effect a change, a force is always required.
Change doesn’t just happen.

This means that change will never take place without work (energy over time). So what and where is the source of this energy? To answer this question we need to understand the Chemistry of Change.

To affect an organizational change, we need a force that is strong enough, and we need the energy to see the change through to completion. But where does that energy come from? And what kind of energy is required for organizational change to succeed?

Click here to find out the answers…

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Human Resources

Positive Leadership In Project Management – Evaluating and Retooling Your Leadership Capabilities
by Frank P. Saladis PMP

The project manager, by nature of the position assumes a leadership role upon acceptance of any project assignment. Most project managers will agree that their position can be complex and involve multiple roles and significant responsibility. In many cases the responsibility is not matched with the authority that is sometimes needed to accomplish certain goals.

In today’s changing project environment, one must continually adapt to the environment and focus on improving acquired skills and adding new skills to maintain an edge as a world-class leader.

To get some tips on how to achieve it, click here…

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Quality

Real World View of Quality Management
by Michael DiDonato, M. Sc (Project Management), PMP

The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines Quality as "the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements".  In addition, Project Quality Management knowledge area includes the processes and activities of the performing organization to determine quality policies, objectives, and responsibilities so that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken.

As we know from the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Guide, Quality is "PLANNED IN, NOT INSPECTED IN".  In addition to this, the author advocates that quality not only required to be “Planned In”, but must be “Trained In” as well.

Interested to find out more? Click here…

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Book Review

Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers (2nd Edition)
by: Anthony Mersino, PMP, PMI-ACP
Reviewer: Heng-Meng Tan, PMP

PMBOK Guide (Project Management Institute, Inc., 2013, p. 17) stated that project managers accomplish work through the project team and other stakeholders and effective project managers require a balance of ethical, interpersonal, and conceptual skills that help them analyze situations and interact appropriately.  However, the subject of soft skills or interpersonal skills is only briefly covered in a 7-page Appendix X3, merely briefly documents 11 categories of soft skills that a project manager should master.   There is little guidance on soft skills beyond this.

The book “Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers” by Anthony Mersino is therefore a great resource for project managers who want to keep abreast of the soft skills needed to improve the effectiveness of their project management practice.

To read more about this report, click here…

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PM Good Read

5 Tips for Boosting Your PM Career

URL: http://www.projectmanager.com/5-tips-for-boosting-your-pm-career.php

Tip No. 1: Reigniting Your Passion
Tip No. 2: Expand Your Network
Tip No. 3: Invest in yourself
Tip No. 4: Enroll Advocates
Tip No. 5: Value Your Reputation

Top 5 Trends in Project Management

URL: http://www.projectmanager.com/top-5-trends-in-project-management.php

Trend No. 1: Incorporating Social
Trend No. 2: Leveraging Mobile
Trend No. 3: Collaborating Global
Trend No. 4: Prioritizing Relationships
Trend No. 5: Upgrading Technology

Free Writing Courses Worth Investigating

URL: http://freelancefolder.com/10-amazing-free-online-writing-courses/

1. Learn to Write a Feasability Study
2. Writing Interview Winning Resumes
3. Intensive Grammar Workshop
4. Introduction to Technical Communication: Explorations in Scientific and Technical Writing
5. Becoming Digital: Writing About Media Change
6. The NetWriting Masters Course
7. The School of Journalism
8. Technical Writing
9. Marketing Writing Tips
10. Creative Writing 101

7 Signs That Your Project Will Be A Success

URL: http://www.projectmanager.com/7-signs-that-your-project-will-be-a-success.php?utm_source=Constant%2BContact&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Project%2BManager%3A%2BDecember%2B2013%2B-%2BWeek2

1. You Have A Project Plan
2. You Collaborate With Your Team
3. You Track The Project Budget
4. You Have A Process For Managing Risk
5. You Put Every Change Through The Change Process
6. You Manage Stakeholders Effectively
7. You Store Your Files Centrally 

Seven Habits of Highly Destructive Project Managers

URL: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Seven-Habits-Highly-Destructive-Project-37888%2ES%2E5817714031967879171?view=&srchtype=discussedNews&gid=37888&item=5817714031967879171&type=member&trk=eml-anet_dig-b_pd-ttl-cn&fromEmail=&ut=3n4y5ivZjW1C41

1. Motivate by intimidation
2. Not knowing your team
3. Not being open to ideas
4. Negative expectations
5. Not communicating performance expectations
6. Viewing themselves as the only decision makers
7. Creating a negative work environment

Back to November Issue

Applying the ‘Productive Lazy’ approach to your Sponsor
by Peter Taylor

How to control your greatest asset and potentially your biggest threat

Critical to any projects success is having a good project sponsor.  However, like the saying goes ‘you can pick your friends but you can’t pick your relatives’ and the same is true of project sponsors.

So what makes a good project sponsor and how do you deal with the one you have just inherited for your project?

The Project Sponsor is the key stakeholder representative for the project and provides the necessary support for the Project Manager with the primary responsibility of achievement of the project objectives and benefits. An inappropriate choice of Project Sponsor can seriously impact the possibility of success of the project and provide you, the project manager, with an unwanted additional overhead.

Now you can’t practically ask a sponsor for their CV^[1] and put them through a formal interview process, nice as it would be sometimes to utter the phrase ‘I’m sorry but I just don’t think that this is the job for you right now’. But you should evaluate the sponsor you have and complete, in a subtle way of course, a ‘Strengths and Weaknesses ‘assessment so that you can adapt your project approach and communication methods to maximise their sponsorship support for the project that you are now managing.

You can also openly discuss your intended plans for project management and communication to ensure that they fully buy-in to what you intend and how you intend to achieve it.

Responsibilities for project sponsors typically include:

• Providing direction and guidance for strategies and initiatives
• Negotiate funding for the project
• Actively participating in the initial project planning
• Identifying project Steering Committee members
• Working with the Project Manager to develop the Project Charter
• Identifying and quantifying business benefits to be achieved by successful implementation of the project
• Reviewing and approving changes to plans, priorities, deliverables, schedule, etc.
• Gaining agreement amongst the stakeholders when differences of opinion occur
• Assisting the project when required (especially in an 'out-of-control' situation) by exerting their organizational authority and ability to influence
• Assisting with the resolution of inter-project boundary issues
• Chairing the Project Steering Committee
• Supporting the Project Manager in conflict resolution
• Make the project visible in the organisation
• Encouraging stakeholder involvement and building and maintaining their on-going commitment through effective communication strategies
• Advising the Project Manager of protocols, political issues, potential sensitivities, etc.
• Evaluating the project's success on completion.

The Project Sponsor should be a senior manager having the financial and organisational power to act quickly and decisively in the overall governance of the project. It is an active, hands-on role, requiring a supportive working relationship with the Project Manager and effective communication with major stakeholders. The Project Sponsor should have a broad knowledge of the business including experience and expertise in the functional areas addressed by the project.

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Ask them what they expect

It is important to get the project off to a good start and build a strong relationship with the project sponsor. Don’t take any secondhand statements, references, quotes or rumors to be the truth of the project sponsor’s views and expectations. Ask him. Clarify directly and take only his word for what it is he wants and expects.

Now it may well be possible that the sponsor may not yet know what he expects. It may be his first time as a project sponsor and the role is as new to him as the project sponsor is to you. If that is the case you need to help him and guide him in the responsibilities that he may have.

Either way, consider your first meeting with the sponsor, new or not so new to the role, known or unknown to you from previous projects. What would be reasonable to cover in such a meeting?

I joked that you couldn’t practically ask a sponsor for his credentials for this job and put him through a formal interview process. Indeed, more often that not the project sponsor has been chosen by the business well before you have even been selected as the project manager. But let’s just assume that you can interview him, this could be fun.

‘Tell me why you think you are the right person for this job?’ – Well, what skills are you looking for in a good project sponsor?

‘What strengths will you bring to the role?’ – What are the strengths that would make your life as a project manager much easier?

‘What are your points of weakness and what actions will you take to address these issues?’ – What weaknesses are you looking to avoid at all costs?

Manage the first meeting

In preparing for that first meeting (interview) with your sponsor you will need to understand that some sponsors will have a very fixed vision for the project and will tell you, and the rest of the project team, exactly what they want, when they want it, and what will happen if they don’t get what they want. Be cautious with these sponsors, their strength of purpose and character may challenge your interview skills. But it is still essential that you end up with the clarity of purpose that you need to run this project and work closely with the project sponsor.

Other project sponsors may have a vision that appears to be an undefined conceptual possibility developed with a small dose of delusion and aided (allegedly) with hint of illegal substance abuse.

Ok then, so your sponsor will be somewhere between the above extremes (if you are lucky). What should you be asking them?

Ask the questions you need to ask

Well consider the following key topics; business objective(s), anticipated impact of the project deliverables, expected quality standards, significant risks seen at this stage, key dates on the project horizon, key stakeholders (beyond yourself and the project sponsor), and any budgetary constraints that are likely. In addition you need to learn what style of communication and relationship this particular sponsor expects from you.

First impression counts, so do your preparation well. If you conduct a good, professional, confident, first meeting with your project sponsor you will not only demonstrate your capability in a good light, but also provide a valuable service to the sponsor.

Open discussion works

‘Tell me about the project we have’. Feel free to start the conversation in a simple way, with an open question, and then follow up with other questions that you need to ask in order to reach a suitable level of confidence in your understanding of those key topics; business objective(s), anticipated impact of the project deliverables, quality standards, significant risks seen at this stage, key dates on the project horizon, key stakeholders and budgetary constraints.

One tip here, you are only on an information gathering exercise right now. I know I said take the project with a firm hand from day one, but as far as the project sponsor is concerned I would advise being a little gentle to begin with, at least until you understand what type of sponsor you are dealing with. You can put your firm grip in place and negotiate hard later on, right now just learn and inwardly digest what you are told.

OK, now you need to go ahead and ‘interview’ the project sponsor. But what happens if they fail the interview? Consider first if remedial work can be put in place to help them ‘raise their game’, or alternatively, can you fill any deficiencies that you identify – either by process or resources? If the failure is so significant that this will be a real project risk. I guess now only two options remain – this project isn’t big enough for the both you, and one of you has to leave the project.

Once the interview is out of the way, maybe you can check their references, or maybe the next step is to get them to complete a psychometric test.

Here’s one simple test you could try, just to help you filter out the extreme cases! The question may or may not help with profiling your project sponsor but at the very least it is a great fun at a project team social gathering.

Apply the power grid

But let’s not be pessimistic, that isn’t going to happen to you, you won’t get an extreme case of project sponsor and they won’t fail the ‘interview’. So, what is your next move? Well perhaps you should consider the power base that your project sponsor has. Use the power grid below to assess your project sponsor, assess his rating of interest in this project from high to low and his actual power in the organization, also from high to low.

This will give you an indication of the way in which you should work with him.

Actually this power grid is for all project stakeholders and if you end up with a project sponsor that is in the ‘low interest’ and ‘low power’ quadrant you really have a problem. It is unlikely that this sponsor is ever going to support your management endeavours.

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Types of power that count

Again for all stakeholders, but in particular for project sponsors, you need to be aware that there are a number of types of power that can be present in any organization. 

Where does your project sponsor fit?

• Legitimate— This can be through a formal title or position (authority)
• Reward— This can be through an ability to provide positive consequences on people (carrot)
• Coercive— This can be through the ability to provide negative consequences (stick)
• Purse String— This can be through budget control (money)
• Bureaucratic— This can be through knowledge of the ‘system’ (intelligence)
• Referent— This can be through association with someone else's power (network)
• Technical— This can be through technical knowledge relating to the project (skill)
• Charismatic— This can be through personality alone (character)

Can you categorise your sponsor? Probably he will have more than one of the above list will apply, and that is a good thing.

Discover what’s in it for them?

Finally you need to understand what ‘is in it for them’ – what their previous experience as a sponsor has been (both in their knowledge of being a sponsor and of real project experience i.e. was a previous project a nightmare project?) if that is appropriate. Even if they have never ‘sponsored’ before they will, no doubt, have an opinion based upon stories they have heard from projects in the past.

And finally

And ‘what’s in it for you’ is the ability to work in that desired ‘Productive Lazy’ management style but still deliver for your sponsor.

Manage your sponsor well and they will be your ally in the coming weeks and months.

Peter Taylor is the author of two best-selling books on ‘Productive Laziness’ – ‘The Lazy Winner’ and ‘The Lazy Project Manager’.

In the last 3 years he has focused on writing and lecturing with over 200 presentations around the world in over 20 countries and with new books out including ‘The Lazy Project Manager and the Project from Hell’, ‘Strategies for Project Sponsorship’, ‘Leading Successful PMOs’, and ‘The Thirty-Six Stratagems: A Modern Interpretation of a Strategy Classic’ - with a number of other book projects currently underway.

He has been described as ‘perhaps the most entertaining and inspiring speaker in the project management world today’ and he also acts as an independent consultant working with some of the major organizations in the world coaching executive sponsors, PMO leaders and project managers.

His mission is to teach as many people as possible that it is achievable to ‘work smarter and not harder’ and to still gain success in the battle of the work/life balance.

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