Learning Leader

Should there be a PRINCE3?

I'm often asked about this, particularly when a new edition of PRINCE2 is published.

My answer is: Possibly.

But I don't believe there should be.

My strong feeling is that PRINCE2 has stood up so well in the last nine turbulent years, and this is largely due to the fact that it was designed from universal, timeless management principles. The method is not based any passing technology or on some ephemeral management fad. What you will find if you look carefully are explicit principles running all the way through it. This is what makes PRINCE2 so scalable in the hands of an intelligent practitioner.

Take, for example, the very first sub-process we find in the Process Model-SU1: Appoint a Project Executive & Project Manager. Many get snagged on this immediately,when the can't find a suitable Executive or someone that has the job title 'Project Manager'. They miss the point, and miss it quite fundamentally. It is the underlying principle that helps us understand how to apply this sub-process in any given situation -'To get anything done in a project, you need a decision- maker and someone to undertake the planning,' (page 29). Who would argue with that?

Words may change. References may be tidied up, but if PRINCE2 has identified all the universal principles of project management, I don't believe we need a PRINCE3.

Dealing with Difficult Stakeholders

This week I'm in Prague leading a 'Managing Successful Programmes' (MSP) course. One of the questions that has come up is a particularly interesting one:

'How do you practically deal with difficult stakeholders whom you need to win over?'

I thought it might be useful to some if I shared here some basic responses.

Of course, the MSP framework is agnostic on this as it is on many other specific matters, but it made me reflect that one of the vital competences of effective stakeholder management is winning influencing and negotiation skills.

 

Whole books and management courses have been written on this subject, but can a Programme Manager take some simple, practical steps to make any kind of headway with these difficult individuals?

 

Here are some steps, largely gleaned from Stephen Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" and Roger Fisher, et al, "Getting to Yes":

1. Seek first to understand. Probably the most important thing you can do is to earn the right to be heard by them bylistening to them first. Listen to their heart as well as their head. In doing this you are giving them the dignity of being treated like a human being and not just a block or an obstacle, or not even someone who has to be humoured or to whom you need to pander.

 

2. Reflect back that you understand them. Re-playing, as accurately as you can their position, showing that you can empathise with their pain or sense of threat as well as their rational argument is usually far more effective that the  "Yes, but" sort of response we all usually fall into. This often takes the sting immediately out of the dialogue. It may not be vocalised, but the other party is thinking, "Ah! So you do understand where I'm coming from!"
3. Then be understood. "Thank you for helping me understand your position. Let me make mine clear and I think we might find we are not so far apart."  This flags that you are not about to be a doormat and be walked all over. You have a position and you need to that clear. Part of being understood by the other party is to have clarity in your own mind what are the non-negotiable principles of your own position.
4. Seek 'Win-win' or 'No deal'. Find our their 'WIIFM' ('What's in it for me?'). What benefits could there be in your programme for that stakeholder. What are the 'wins' for them. This is a deeper, and more personal level of  stakeholder analysis that is particularly warranted for the difficult individual.
   You need to be clear about what your fall-back position will be if you can't get agreement - your BATNA ('Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement'). In a programme environment this could mean some radical re-scoping of the programme to exclude the need for co-operation from  his stakeholder or even in the most extreme cases recommending that the programme is stopped altogether.
   Remember that this is the best alternative, and not a spurious alternative: that would be pretentious brinksmanship and the other party might call your bluff.
   Often reviewing the scope of the programme together with the stakeholder gives you both a chance to optimise the benefits and reduce the perceived disbenefits the difficult stakeholder. However, remember that a benefit for you might well be a disbenefit to the other party and vice versa.
5. Make the 'Ask'. Often influencing fails because we don't summon up the courage to make the request (the 'Ask') of the other party when we have the opportunity. I find sales people understand this. Often we can make the 'Ask' of the other party in a way acknowledging that it would be costly in some way for them, but thereby implying that they would be courageous to do it. Simply making the request in that way can seem like praise.
6. Take the risk. Not enough is discussed in business literature about the need for sheer courage. Let the challenge of meeting with this difficult      stakeholder and wrestling with them become part of your mutual programme 'story' that can be shared with them and other at the right moments.
   If you can't get agreement, be prepared to take the BATNA. This also can be courageous, because it is honest and less desirable than the negotiated agreement.

New PRINCE2 Manual Soon

The word is that the TSO, publishers of the best practice project management method, PRINCE2, will have the new edition shipping by the end of May. This edition has been a long time coming, but we have been briefed that there are only minor, albeit extensive, changes.

PRINCE2 is now a global success story. I have been told by a reliable source that 50,000 people worldwide have now taken the Practitioner exam. The United Nations is adopting it. A permanent search in my Bloglines on the word 'PRINCE2' reveals around 25 new entries each day, the vast majority of them being job adverts. We are probably at the 'Tipping Point' of PRINCE2 usage.

Whatever the reasons for the delay in publication (over a year), we just want the technical authorship to be right. As an original member of the team that managed the design and development of PRINCE2 back in the early 90's, I am keen to see some of the minor errors removed.

It is annoying irritation to those of us who are approved trainers to be coaching in such matters as project quality and configuration management to have eagle-eyed delegates point out some minor inconsistency in the internal referencing of the manual. Enough of that! Just get it right, TSO.

Meetings Buzz - the Power of Mix

It seems that my last post ('The Ultimate Meetings Management Tool?') has created some favourable buzz in the blogosphere. Hobart Swan, has started up a good blog recently on MindManager applications, references this use of MindManager with the Tablet PC as quoted in Marc Orchant and James Kendrick's Tablet PC  podcast.

Their references are very warm, especially from Marc in the podcast. But really, I can't believe nobody's thought of this mix of technologies before. This has made me think...

Perhaps it is the mix of technologies and some new application of the mix that creates a performance breakthrough. This is brought out nicely in Kathy Sierra's Creating Passionate Users blog where she posts, "Why I want a TabletPC". She has come (like me) to the mix by first being a convinced Mind Mapper. But when she encountered the mix of a Tablet PC, Mind Mapping and Mind Manager used to capture lecture notes, she had a 'Wow!' moment.

Mind Mapping, thanks to Tony Buzan, has been around for at least four decades. I was coached in the mid-90's by Tony's colleague, Vanda North, and my early responses to computer-based Mind Mapping were fairly equivocal. Even when MindManager X5 was first launched, I felt it lost some visual versatility ... but that was until I mixed pen technology through a Tablet PC. What a mix!