Effective Waste Management: Curb the Ego's and Meetings!

It amazes me how much time and money companies and organizations can simply throw away to satisfy various egos.  There are so many examples to pull from:

 -          Executives having outrageous demands and systems just to see information "their way."  There are companies out there that will take information from a system of record, massage it in a variety of tools to present to the executive team.  The executive team will question the data or make adjustments and then another team will adjust the data in the system of record.  When asked why not just look at the system of record, the answer is, "The executives just like to see it in Excel."

-          Organizations hire industry leading experts to improve processes.  They bring in the organizations because they did not have the expertise on the team to perform the functions.  Then they allow the internal team that feels that they are experts to subject the known experts to micro-management and questioning of every technique.

-          Executives that have had project failures in the past create so many processes and checkpoints that the resulting workflow is so chaotic and time-consuming as well as a perceived lack of value. 

Most of these items have to do with ego.  The ability to be right or to prove someone wrong can create countless hours of waste and cost to an organization.  Yet, this cost often goes unchecked.  As a consultant, there is always a tremendous amount of "low hanging fruit" that can be found in companies plagued by pointless process.  Most of the workers within the process will be the first to complain or question the value…..to other people.  So what can we do and how can you curb this behavior? 

The first item is to create a system of measurement.  While time tracking is done in many companies, the value of the information sometimes does not match the effort.  Find a way within the current time tracking activities or if there is not time-tracking today, start by tracking your time.  At the end of each activity, record your time with a note or marker as to whether or not there was any value to the activity.  For instance, if you go to a team meeting and the meeting was an hour long to provide information to you that is beneficial, then that was a valuable activity.  If you went to a meeting about a project where two people argued about the same things over and over and no resolution was found in the meeting, mark that as a non-value add activity.  Run this time tracking for about a month and start to look at the amount of time in the non-value add category.  What is the data saying to you?  What can be done with the data?  After just a few weeks, you will begin to see where the time wasted activities are.  Now begin to classify those.  How many of those can be categorized into areas such as ego, mistrust, or pointless meetings?  You will be absolutely surprised at the outcome! 

When you are faced with a process or an individual that is a constant source of ego and waste, find a way to measure those interactions.  How many e-mails, communications, or documents are required?  When these documents or communications are negative towards them, what do they do?  All of these data points are key to understanding and navigating the political minefield of ego.  The collection of these statistics may point you to stay away from certain topics or may teach you a way to communicate effectively.  Whatever the case may be, finding the data point to measure and then studying the outcome will point you to the path of resolution.

I am interested in hearing from you on this topic.  Do you see waste and cost simply due to ego?  What do you think can be done?

Turning Around Failing Projects (Excerpt)

A couple of people have asked me about my Turning Around Failing Projects speeches.  Here is a small excerpt from my book Project Management That Works (a best seller published by AMACOM in 2008)

The statistics are staggering.  The propensity for project failure is enormous.  The general accepted failure rates range from as low as 59% to an unbelievable 94% of projects failing to meet their goals.  When studying project failure, the survey questions try to determine if the project met the desired scope, timeframe, or met all of the requirements that the project set out to complete.  However, these all take on new meanings when you consider something Rob Thomsett says in his book Radical Project Management:

"Projects fail because of context, not because of content"

If this statement is correct, then a large part, if not the entire 59% to 94%, of projects failed because of the improper setting of expectations.  They may have delivered the contents of the project but failed to deliver on the expectations of time and cost.  This drastically changes the landscape of the meaning of project failure.  Now, pair Rob's definition with PMI's belief that a poor project schedule or inadequate budget is the direct result of poor project management, and project failure rests on project manager's shoulders.

It is usually assumed that a project is being run in the first place by a trained project manager.  However, most of the time, someone is managing a project along with their other duties.   

How to Spot a Project that Is on Its Way Down

The first task in turning around a failing project is to learn how to recognize when a project is failing.  In many cases, you need to start with the first step of the classic twelve step process with the first step being identifying that there is a problem.  Although there are many reasons that projects may fail, there are some key indicators that projects are on the way down:

1)      Poor project planning or no plan at all. It has been said that a failure to plan is a plan for failure.  If you do not prepare for problems, they will surely derail you and your project.

2)      Disagreement on project requirements. A lack of good documentation of requirements or receiving different answers from different team members about the goals of the project muddies the waters and makes it difficult for a project to succeed, since no one is really clear on what success means in this instance.

3)      Lack of team involvement. Sponsors, stakeholders, or team members are not involved in team activities or are not responding to inquiries about the project. When people are not involved in the project it has no real life.

4)      Lack of a clearly defined end. Have you ever had a project last a year and every time you ask how much longer will the project last, the answer is just another two to three weeks? Failing to set a clear end point means a project will never end and if it never ends, it can never truly succeed.

5)      Unrealistic Demands.  If I said I needed you to rebuild theEiffelTower from the ground up for $30 in three weeks with five seven-year-old children as laborers, you would laugh.  As ridiculous as this may sound, real demands as ridiculous as this have been set for projects. A project with demands that can never be met is sure to fail.

6)      Failure to stop or plan again. Anytime a new project manager is assigned to a project, one of the first things that they want to do is to stop the project and assess where they are in the plan or re-plan in lieu of having a written plan.  A team that responds by saying they are almost finished or they are too busy to plan is a clear sign of a project on the way down. Every team needs to be able to stop and rethink the project's plan.

These are all general theories and a search of the Internet will bring up many sites that have early warning signs, causes for failure, or theories as to why projects fail.  The funny thing is that project managers seem to make the same mistakes over and over.  The whole point of a project management process and profession is to continually improve.  However, the reasons for project failure still continue to remain the same.  Unfortunately, unless the way the projects are being planned or how the expectations are being set changes, the results of the project are unlikely to change.

Someone Isn't Being Heard

One common reason for project failure is that communication has fallen apart and someone is not being heard. Consider the following example.

A project manager was assigned to a support project that had no project management structure.  The project was consistently not meeting the customer's expectations and senior management wanted a plan to improve customer satisfaction.  The project manager started to investigate the root causes of the satisfaction issues.  She met with the team as a whole and then individually.  As she met with the team members, the issues were becoming quite clear.  The causes of the customer satisfaction issues had already been identified by the team and they attempted to put action plans in place to rectify the problems.  The project manager investigated the options that the team had put together and saw that they were quite viable.  She compiled the information into a presentation and scheduled a meeting with her senior management.  She outlined the options and asked for a decision from senior management as to which option they agreed with.  They chose an option and she implemented the plan.  There was an immediate improvement in the timeliness of customer service which in turn led to an improvement in customer satisfaction.  As the improvements continued for the next couple of weeks, senior management brought the project manager in to thank her for a job well done.  They asked how she came up with the options she presented.  "I didn't," she replied.  "The team developed the options.  All I did was examine them for viability and present them to you."  The senior management team was in disbelief.  They wondered why the team hadn't presented the options to them before this.  The project manager replied, "They may have not understood the best way to present the information to you or how to approach you with their ideas.  But it was their ideas all along."

There are many reasons why the team may not have been able to communicate their options to the management in this example. Teams can develop behaviors based on small insignificant events.  At one point, a senior manager could have said "no" too abruptly and demoralized a team member.  That team member then begins to have the attitude that senior management doesn't care or will not listen to them.  A few episodes of that and groupthink can set in.

According to www.dictionary.com, groupthink is defined as:

The act or practice of reasoning or decision-making by a group, especially when characterized by uncritical acceptance or conformity to prevailing points of view.

 

or

decision making by a group (especially in a manner that discourages creativity or individual responsibility).

 

For a very serious example, groupthink was the cause of the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster.  This is no small statement.  Groupthink was the ultimate cause of one of the worst space tragedies in our time.  When the analysis of the disaster was complete, it was determined that the O-rings of the rocket booster were the cause of the explosion.  An engineer at the company that manufactured the O-rings had warned senior management that when the weather drops below a certain temperature, the integrity of the O-rings is compromised.  The engineer asked for more time from senior management to be certain.  The panel that was formed to uncover the reasons for the Challenger disaster found some startling information.  Originally, the company that made the O-rings recommended that the Challenger should cancel the launch until the temperature rose above 53 degrees, which was not expected to occur for several days.  NASA has already cancelled the launch a few times and was under enormous political and societal pressure.  They applied pressure to the engineering company.  Fearing the loss of future revenue and backlash from causing another delay, the engineering company began to question it's own data and began to rationalize their decision.  The engineering company asked for five minutes to discuss the situation.  During the five minutes that the company was isolated enormous pressure was put on the engineer about his data and analysis.  The question for the company became whether to choose safety and possible loss of revenue or risk and future revenue.  Inevitably, the pressure to conform outweighed the right decision.  When the engineering company called NASA back, they recommended that the Challenger should launch.  The official findings of the panel stated that the technical malfunction was the O-rings, the cause the disaster was groupthink. 

When anyone in management stops listening to their team members, disaster can strike at any time.  When a project is failing, first look to the communication.  Over 90% of a project manager's job is to communicate.  Whether it is documentation, meetings, one-on-one conversation, or phone calls, all are forms of communications.  When you refer to the list of key indicators, communication is central part of all of the items.  When communications stop, people stop being heard.  When team members are not being heard, project failure is sure to follow.

So what do you recommend to open communication? How do we prevent these kinds of failures?

My Next Big Thing!

For my many followers and fans, we have exciting news.  We are getting very close to launching the next big endeavor for me.  Many of you responded to a request for an endorsement of my speaking and seminars.  I am now one of the most recommended people on LinkedIn.  You can view my profile here and if you haven't recommended me yet, I would appreciate your endorsement. 

Now to the subject at hand; I have finally found the question that I need to ask and to answer.  That question is, "What Do I Stand For?" Think about that question.  Think about your answer.  Do you know?  Do you know how to make the decision and fulfill your answer?  Follow this blog and watch in the coming months to find your answer!

There is a book, a kit to help out, and seminars all in development for this topic.  We are tying this together with many of the things that have been happening with me and R2 Consulting.  This is a huge step forward for me and my company and I am literally bursting at the seams with activity.

My blog posts in the coming weeks will be developing this topic further and starting to discuss the content for the series.  I thank all of you that read this column and continue to support me in my endeavors.  I can't wait for this next chapter to begin!

Rick

My Travel Pet Peeves!

When you travel as much as I do, you begin to see patterns and things that begin to rub you the wrong way.  Here are a few things that absolutely drive me crazy when I travel (in no particular order).

1)      Using your cell phone on speaker phone mode in the gate area.  Why do you people do that?  Do you think we care about the conversation?  I recently joined into one.  A lady was talking about how bad her man was treating her to a girlfriend.  It would be one thing if this was being done in a corner somewhere.  Instead, I was sitting in a chair in the gate and she sat down right next to me to have this conversation.  I assumed she wanted me to join in.  When I started answering questions, she gave me the dirtiest look.  I said, "Oh, I thought you wanted my help since you sat down next to me and are on speaker phone.  If this was private, I would have thought you wouldn't be broadcasting it to everyone in the gate."  She was not amused.  Some people can be oblivious to the world around them.

2)      Calling someone as soon as we land and speaking so loud that everyone on the plane can hear you.  I understand the need to call people and communicate from the plane.  However, be mindful of those around you.  On a recent flight, a lady called a shipper of goods to inquire where they were in the delivery process.  Evidently, they had tried to deliver and couldn't.  She began to scream at the top of her lungs how that driver will turn around and go back or she would have his job.  The tirade was nasty and loud.  A gentleman in the very front of the plane finally turned around and yelled, "Shut up, nobody cares!"  She then started telling the whole plane the situation…..and again…..nobody really cared.  She then yelled something that leads me to #3.

3)      Nobody cares who you are.  At least once every trip, I hear somebody exclaim, "Do you know who I am?"  There are many important people in the world.  However, when there is an inconvenience, there is always the person that thinks they are more important than everybody else.  One exchange recently was pretty funny to watch.  The plane was delayed by weather.  The gate agent was trying to handle everybody's connections and accommodate the entire plane.  A guy marches to the front of the line and steps in front of an older lady.  He then demands to know the reason for the delay.  The gate agent said the weather was unsafe to fly through.  He demanded answers as to when he would fly.  She was very polite to suggest that if he returned to his spot in line, she will deal with him when it is his turn.   He responded, "Do you know who I am?  I HAVE to be in Detroit tonight.  I have a very important business deal that must be done tomorrow."  The gate agent again requested that he return to his spot in line.  When the guy yelled that he would have the gate agent's job, another passenger stepped in.  "Nobody cares who you are.  Get in back of the line."  He then turned around and announced he was the Senior Vice President of some small company nobody had heard of.  The whole line just started cracking up.  It was pretty funny.  When a flight is delayed, everybody has a reason to be on that plane; else, they wouldn't have bought the ticket!  The "I am more important than everyone else" game is ridiculous.

4)      I demand to speak to the President of the airline!  When a flight is canceled or delayed, it is a pain.  It unfortunately isn't a rare occurrence.  I have been bumped, had flights cancel, had flights delay five hours and then cancel, and completely missed them.  Revenue for airlines is all based on people sitting on seats on an airplane.  Because people miss, cancel, and move flights, the airlines will overbook.  On some occasions, everybody will actually show up resulting in an oversold situation.  This is normally resolved by seeking volunteers to move their flights.  In rare occasions, a passenger is bumped.  It is a term and condition on every airline's ticket.  It can be frustrating when it happens, but it does.  When weather has occurred or someone has been involuntarily bumped, the outrage ensues.  I was on a plane recently from Birmingham to Atlanta.  The flight is normally between 25-35 minutes in length and is always scheduled for an hour.  Atlanta being one of the busiest airports in the world, the Birmingham flight is frequently placed on a ground hold due to incoming traffic in Atlanta.  Even with the delay, we are generally to our gate +/- 20 minutes.  One day during this delay, a guy announced he had enough.  He called customer service and demanded to speak to the President.  I have heard this many times.  Someone screaming, "Then get me to someone who can make a decision.  I want to speak to the CEO.  Get me the number!"  First, they will never give you that number.  Second, why are you more important that everyone else?

5)      Bringing food on the plane.  This one is probably more controversial.  I understand not having time to eat or being hungry.  However, the plane is so cramped and everyone is on top of each other that whatever you do bring on the plane, everyone can smell.  There is nothing like having the person in front of you eating Chinese food while the person next to you is eating Mexican food.  The blend of aromas is joyous.

6)      Not sharing the space.  I am a big dude.  I take up quite a bit of space, especially on little planes.  I tend to book window seats and try to sit an angle so that it is comfortable for the person sitting next to me.  However, I get angry when they are all in my space.  Not a care in the world.  Reading the newspaper and the paper being in my face.  Using the armrest in between us to store your drink because you have used your entire tray.  Be mindful of space!

In the end, travel can be stressful.  Even when it is as routine as it is for someone like me; it can still be a challenge.  I have several tips that I have developed over the years…..but that will be a subject of another post.  What are some of your pet peeves?