Learning Solutions for Increased Project Performance

Welcome to Our July Issue

In this issue, we’ll be focusing on Stakeholder Management. Every stakeholder has specific expectations and needs in relation to a project and every stakeholder brings something of value to it, whether that is knowledge, skills, funding, or political connections. Managing each stakeholder can be a juggling act made easier when a project manager understands and can utilize effective stakeholder management, drawing upon skills that include negotiation, persuasion, communication and more.

Included in this issue:

• Building Effective Project Partnerships
• Project Management Q&A
• Stakeholder Analysis Tool
• Turning an Angry Stakeholder Around
• Key Principles of Stakeholder Success
• Use Your PM Power!
• Building Trust in Stakeholder Relationships
• Reading Room: Stakeholder Management Skills
• Delivering Bad News to Your Stakeholders
• Create a Stakeholder Agreement
• Free 7/27 Webinar: Redefining Success for Life Science Projects

Next Month’s Topic: Working Globally

If you’re not a regular subscriber, sign up for pmPractitioner today and be notified when next month’s issue is available!

pmPractitioner is published as a service to the project management community. Each issue provides practical project management solutions and tips adapted from a variety of business publications and resources.

Building Effective Project Partnerships

A successful project is almost always the end result when every stakeholder involved commits to working together in a collaborative manner. There are a number of key principles to keep in mind as you attempt to build effective project partnerships.

They include:

Clarifying the Need for Partnering

• Identify critical stakeholders, their goals and needs. (See Stakeholder Analysis Tool)
• Be clear about your own goals and needs.

Building Common Ground

• Meet with colleagues in other departments to educate them about the project and to understand mutual needs.
• Explain how the project ties into the organization’s strategic plan.
• Agree on shared goals.

Knowing What to Expect of Others

• Clarify roles, responsibilities and functional contribution to project delivery.
• Share your knowledge and experience to help others, but don’t do their work for them.

Driving for Closure

• Document work plans and ensure buy-in.
• Ask for assistance in defining the best response to an opportunity or issue.
• Close problems: log them, assign an owner and agree on a deadline for resolution.
• Track progress.

Building & Maintaining Relationships Over Time

• Understand what it means to be a good listener and do it.
• Show your appreciation.
• Use the language of ‘we.’
• Provide feedback and facilitate a resolution of conflicts in a timely fashion.
• Obtain feedback and incorporate it appropriately into your project approach.
• Communicate, communicate, communicate.

Adapted from Creating Collaborative Project Relationships., Action for Results, Inc., 2007

July Project Management Q&A

Test your project management knowledge with these questions or use them as an exercise to help prepare for your PMP certification exam.

1. Which of these is a FALSE statement about early termination of a contract?

2. What is the main purpose of a Control Chart?
 

Answers appear at the end of the newsletter.

Stakeholder Analysis Tool

Here’s a stakeholder analysis toolto help you map out your stakeholders and their needs. Think about the following before you begin filling out the table:

• Identify who the stakeholders are, what they need from the project and what you need from them.
• Carefully assess the stake held by the stakeholder and judge how much influence the stakeholder might have on the project and its outcome.
• Identify potential supportive and adverse stakeholders.

From Action for Results, Inc.

Turning an Angry Stakeholder Around

No matter how conscientious, accommodating and communicative you are, at times you will find yourself dealing with an upset stakeholder. It can help at these times to think of the stakeholder as your customer and to approach the situation as many top-notch customer services companies do.

Here’s a technique from Enterprise Car Rentals that you can follow in an attempt to turn a volatile situation around:

1. Actively listen with an understanding attitude.
2. Record what the stakeholder tells you.
3. Apologize if you or someone on your team has caused the issue.
4. Find out what they need or want.
5. Propose a solution and attempt to get their buy-in.
6. If the stakeholder doesn’t like your solution, ask him what a fair resolution would be.
7. Follow up to ensure his or her satisfaction.
8. Never let the stakeholder lose face.

However you approach your upset stakeholder, the foundation is built upon those common courtesies we all expect. It really comes down to the golden rule of treating others the way you would want to be treated yourself.

Adapted from Creating Collaborative Project Relationships, Action for Results, Inc., 2007

Key Principles of Stakeholder Success

In the midst of a project, it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of the fact that stakeholder satisfaction is an on-going process. However, sustaining their involvement and interest throughout the process should be a primary objective of the project manager.

To create and sustain their commitment, you must:

• Ensure active involvement, consultation and communication with all impacted parties.
• Connect the stakeholders’ needs to project outcomes.
• Ensure proper sponsorship of the project and involvement by key senior management.

Remember, you SATISFY your stakeholders when you:

• Seek them out, identify and engage them.
• Actively involve them on a continual basis.
• Team up with your core team and others in nurturing stakeholder relationships.
• Inform your stakeholders of the project plan, progress and any changes.
• Strive for win-win situations and solutions whenever you can.
• Fulfill your commitments and hold others accountable for theirs.
• Yelp for help from your sponsor when you need it!

Adapted from Project Communications: The Critical Path to Stakeholder Satisfaction, Action for Results, Inc., 2008

Use Your PM Power!

Project managers are often in the position of having to influence or persuade stakeholders who are further up the ladder than they are, in a different internal organization, or even outside the company completely. They may feel as if they don’t have the “power” to get what they need to ensure their project succeeds. 

In reality, though, project managers have access to several sources of power that they can develop to increase their influence over others:

• Personal: The degree to which you are grounded in a point of view and the “presence” you exude.
• Competence: The personal skills and expertise you bring to the table.
• Position: Your job title and placement in the formal organizational hierarchy.
• Resources: Your project team, financing, materials you have available or to which you can gain access.
• Alliances: The current and past relationships that you have established, both formal and informal.
• Credentials: Your educational, experiential, and professional accomplishments.
• Value-Added: Your focus on accountability and contribution. Your reputation for getting projects done on time and within budget.
• Autocratic: Traditional command and control (“thou shalt” authority).

The source of your real power is controlled by you because it comes from using the skills, experiences, knowledge and personality that are uniquely yours.

Adapted from Caught in the Middle/How to Survive & Thrive in Today’s Management Squeeze, Lynda C. McDermott, Prentice Hall, 1994

Building Trust in Stakeholder Relationships

Simply put, trust means confidence. The difference between a high- and low-trust relationship is palpable. For instance, in a high-trust relationship, you can say the wrong thing and people will still get your meaning. In a low-trust relationship, you can be very measured, even precise, and they’ll still misinterpret you.

Building trust in your stakeholder relationships is all about behavior ... consistent behavior. More specifically, there are certain behaviors that are common to high trust leaders and people throughout the world.

They include:

• Talk Straight. Communicate clearly so that you cannot be misunderstood.
• Demonstrate Respect. This behavior is based on the principles of respect, fairness, kindness, and civility.
• Create Transparency. Be real and genuine and tell the truth in a way that people can verify.
• Right Wrongs. Make restitution instead of just apologizing.
• Show Loyalty. Give credit to others and speak about people as though they are present.
• Deliver Results. This is a way to convert cynics and establish trust in a new relationship.
• Get Better. Continuously improve by learning, growing and renewing yourself.
• Confront Reality. Take the tough issues head-on.
• Clarify Expectations. Create shared vision and agreement up front.
• Practice Accountability. Hold yourself and others accountable.
• Listen First. Genuinely understand another person’s thoughts and feelings, before trying to diagnose or advise.
• Keep Commitments. It is the quickest way to build trust in any relationship.
• Extend Trust. Extending trust leverages it to create reciprocity.

Stakeholder trust focuses on the context in which you can use these behaviors to increase speed, lower cost, create value, establish trust, and maximize your influence within your organization. Inspiring trust is the prime differentiator between a manager and a leader, and the prime motivator of successful projects, enterprises and relationships.

Adapted from Speed of Trust, Stephen M. R. Covey with Rebecca Merrill, Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2006

Reading Room: Stakeholder Management Skills

Achieving Excellence in Stakeholder Management, Joachim Scharioth and Margit Huber, Springer, 2009

Collaboration: How Leaders Avoid the Traps, Create Unity, and Reap Big Results, Morten T. Hansen, Harvard Business School Press, 2009

Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers: The People Skills You Need to Achieve Outstanding Results, Anthony C. Mersino, AMACOM, 2007

Power, Influence, and Persuasion: Sell Your Ideas and Make Things Happen, Harvard Business School Press, 2005

Radical Collaboration: Five Essential Skills to Overcome Defensiveness and Build Successful Relationships, James W. Tamm, Harper, 2005

Delivering Bad News to Your Stakeholders

“Bad news” can be defined as hearing information that is not ideal or based on the project plan – but the real bad news for your stakeholders is not hearing it until it’s too late!

Here are some tips on how to handle those not-so-pleasant developments in your project:

• If the matter is serious, don’t wait to do your analysis before informing the key stakeholders of a potential issue.  Let them know you’re working to assess the impact and alternatives and set an expectation for when they will get more information.
• Do your homework well in order to understand the issue and to identify potential solutions (engage your core team and other stakeholders/experts as needed). Know the potential ways to minimize negative impact, document clear recommendations, understand how schedule, budget, etc. will be affected.
• Engage in a dialogue rather than monologue about the situation and what can be done (opportunities and limitations), asking for additional input and ideas.
• If you encounter a strong negative reaction, even an irate one, stay focused on what you want to accomplish from the communication. Present the facts, stay calm, acknowledge your own struggle with the situation and allow time for emotions to cool off, if necessary. Invite the stakeholders to partner with you in sorting out the issue and finding a solution (language of “we”).
• Summarize conclusions and next steps, then document outcomes and any approved changes to the plan; communicate the new plan to all key stakeholders.

From Action for Results, Inc.

Create Stakeholder Agreements

It would be difficult to find a project manager who has never had the experience of having a stakeholder who has initially agreed to take on certain responsibilities but, for one reason or another, has failed to come through. Reasons can range from not having a strong commitment to something outside their everyday duties and tasks to simply not having a clear definition of their project responsibilities.

To avoid this, it’s essential to have a tool that will formally analyze, negotiate and agree, in writing, on the deliverables that are expected, the dates or timing of deliverables, cost to the stakeholder of providing the deliverables, and an alternate source for obtaining the deliverables.

Having all stakeholders complete and sign this “stakeholder agreement” at the beginning of the project can serve the dual function of cementing their commitment to it and giving you leverage for accountability if stakeholders fail to come through.

Adapted from Taking Projects to the Extreme, Kathleen Melymuka, Computerworld, Inc.

Free 7/27 Webinar: Redefining Success for Life Science Projects

We’ll be hosting a free webinar on July 27 on the topic of “Redefining Success for Life Science Projects.” The intermediate level webinar will take place from 1-2pm Eastern time and you can register here.

Summary

We all know what it means to have a project fail in the traditional sense. But what about the project that has been completed, appears to do well on the surface, but has given no real value to the business?  Is it still “successful”?

We’ll be introducing a foundation for redefining project success criteria for pharmaceutical, medical device and biotech companies that balances short- and longer term business needs, and allows project teams to set their project on the path to success from the start. Participants will not only learn how to build their project for the right outcomes, but also what the most important factors are that help us know, along the way, whether those outcomes are still the right ones and still achievable.  We’ll explore the role of the team in making success happen, and how to get every team member focused on the right results rather than just completing a set of activities. 

Tarja Mottram, CEO

Our presenter for this webinar is our CEO, Tarja Mottram, who is known for being able to facilitate innovation solutions to complex problems by crossing traditional disciplines and organizational boundaries, and generating new levels of collaboration between organizations, geographic entities, and public and private institutions. Her expertise on market-driven strategic management, portfolio and pipeline governance, and program/project management, along with her dynamic style, make her a sought after speaker in conferences and practitioner forums worldwide.

REGISTER HERE

From Action for Results, Inc.

Answers to July Q&A

1. The correct answer is (d) “The buyer will never be obligated to compensate the seller for seller’s preparations and for any completed and accepted work.”

Based upon contract terms and condition, the buyer may have to compensate the seller for seller’s preparations and for any completed and accepted work related to the terminated part of the contract.

(a) is incorrect. Contracts can be terminated by mutual agreement.

[Closing], PMBOK Fourth Edition, p. 342

2. The correct answer here is (c) “Determines whether or not a process is stable or has predictable behavior.”

Control charts help answer the questions, “are our process variables within acceptable limits? Is the trend we’re seeing traceable to random effects or is it illustrative of a larger problem?”

(a) “Shows cause and effect” is incorrect. Cause and effect – or Ishikawa – diagrams are used to help get to the “root cause” of a problem. Control charts only identify the fact that a problem may exist.

[Executing], PMBOK Guide, Fourth Edition, p. 196-197