Learning Leader

Measuring the Effectiveness of Project & Programme Managers: Have We Got It Right?

We had a great day yesterday with a few of our major clients at Lotus F1 headquarters.

That's me with the nearest thing you'll to me sitting in a Lotus position...

I'm not a "petrolhead", so it astonishes me how wide and passionate is the appeal of Formula One. Some people got very enthustiastic during the 'Pit Stop Challenge'!

We had canvassed our clients on what were their hot topics and the one that emerged most strongly was, "How do we measure the Effectiveness of Programme and Project Managers?" So at the end of proceedings I had to stand up and give my assessment. Here it is on SlideShare.

 

Measuring the effectiveness of Project and Program Managers: Have we got it right? from Patrick Mayfield

From my perspective we can't separate competence from learning, nor the role from the context in which it happens. So we have a lot to improve in how we measure and develop project and programme managers.

Do let me have your views.

pearcemayfield India is launched!

Over the last few years we have been doing an increasing amount of work for clients in India. I have personally visited this amazing country several times and have been invited to speak at conferences in different cities across the sub-continent.

What has impressed me and my colleagues is the huge appetite and enthusiasm for what we deliver – premium coaching and advice on leading change through PPM. In some cases the people we have been speaking with are at the cutting edge of both PPM and learning approaches.

Clearly there are quite a few Indian businesses that are ready to lead the world.

So we are delighted to announce today the opening of our Indian Office.

Based in Delhi and led by our Country Manager, lubaid Khan, we are now in a position to offer our clients a pearcemayfield Indian-based service. Now our Indian clients can access our world-class services from within their own country. Initially we are launching PRINCE2 courses in Bangalore.

Check out our pearcemayfield India website for details.

Where will this all lead us? I don’t know, but I believe it will be a two-way street. We regard our partner Indian company as having the potential to provide other parts of pearcemayfield with skills and resources in all kinds of areas and expressions of what we do, from e-learning to PMI training.

These are very exciting times.

P3O: The 'Big Idea'

 

 

I have found myself frequently sketching out the same diagram on what I see as the fundamental 'grand idea' behind P3O. So I have converted it to a sub-seven minute video.

Let me know what you think.

Audio Book a Hit! ... #PRINCE2

Recently we launched an audio series on the increasingly popular PRINCE2 project management method on our website... and it's really taken off!

What we set out to do was to record 'informed conversations between John Edmonds and me, where I interrogate John in a friendly, conversational sort of way, since John was one of the authors of the most recent edition.

I think people appreciate that we have hit upon a fairly accesible way of getting into an otherwise dry management reference.

Now ... where are the out-takes?

 

The Art of Training Alchemy

One way I explain 'what we do' is as a sort of alchemy. We turn the base metal of dry management theory and turn it into the pure gold of business performance.

Now although parts of the PRINCE2 reference book on project management include passages originally written by yours truly and more recently and extensively by my colleague and fellow-blogger, John Edmonds, nevertheless I will admit something...

... the PRINCE2 reference is quite a boring read.

It's boring if you try to read it from beginning to end, as you would, say, a novel. It's dry if you read huge chunks in one go. (Although I do know clients who have done this.) It does not have any unifying 'story' of a project to lead you through it by example.

So our business is simply to bring this dry book - and others like it such as MSP, P3O, M_o_R, Making Sense of Change Management, and so on - to life. We turn the lead into gold.

I say 'simply', but these seems to be beyond many in the management training business. 'Bringing to life' for me includes:

• catering for different and complementary ways of assimilating information (the visual, aural, intellectual and kinaesthetic)
• the element of colour, surprise and fun
• encouraging clients in what they aleady know and understand
• bringing fresh, value-added stories, images and research to reinforce the core material
• using conversation to lead people into new, profoundly more effective, ways of seeing things and doing things.

I've bemoaned often enough the black-and-white slide copies that pass for course materials or study guides, how PowerPoint visuals are mistaken for dense bullet lists, how material is presented in a way that suits the lecturer, not the delegate.

I continue to bemoan these practices because they are becoming all the more common, it seems. In these lean times, we see a resurgence of this as the norm, particularly as the market demands 'commodity training' to be delivered ever more cheaply.

When will the people who buy such nonsense ask themselves what outcomes they are really buying? If you pay base prices, you are likely to get base metal.

The extreme dysfunctions of directing a project

How much time does a busy executive give to directing a project?  Too much and you will find the project sucks you in. Too little and you are not doing your job. But what are 'too much' and 'too little'? 

There are two extreme dysfunctions in directing a project:

1. micromanagement; and
2. absenteeism.

Micromanagement is interfering with the delegated role of the project manager. This behaviour basically shows an inability to delegate, or an absence of trust. Here the Executive requires every twist and turn of the project to be brought to his or her attention. As a consequence, the project manager is likely to do less useful work in order to serve this obsession with excessive reporting and planning.

Absenteeism is the opposite. Here the executive is not engaging with the project primarily as a decision-maker, but when present, if at all, is there to be briefed. There is no conception in the mind of such an executive that at key moments in the project the project manager needs to be empowered by decisions, decisions to proceed as planned, decisions to adjust scope or requirements, decisions to stop work, decisions to provide resources. Without this decision-making role the project manager is again disempowered.

Sometimes I've seen both behaviours exhibited by the same individuals: they take an 'arms length' approach to direction. Then when a crisis is drawn to their attention, they panic and throw themselves into the project; in doing so, they disempower the project manager and her team.

But there is a cure for these two extremes, and a very sensible use of the executive's scarce time. We coach executives on this in our briefings. This better approach save everyone a lot of time and waste.

Who do you write your business case for?

When you write a business case for your project or programme, who exactly are you writing it for?

My colleague, John Edmonds, and I were talking about this yesterday as we reviewed our Business Case Workshop material.

We identified three audiences:

1. Your investors. These people are the obvious target of your business case. You are writing it to 'sell' your project to them so you gain their approval and funding. PRINCE2 calls these investors the Project Board; more specifically it is the Project Executive or sponsor. In MSP it is the Programme Director and the Sponsoring Group. These people will make the investment decision.
   
   Questions they will ask are: "How likely is it that I will get a return on my investment?" "How does this support our strategy and critical is it to that strategy?" "How can I compare investment in this initiative against another?" and "What risks are there to the achievement of this business case?"
   
   
2. The second audience is, perhaps, a surprise: You. The very act of writing a business case will help you clarify your thinking. "Thoughts untangle themselves as they pass through the fingertips," is one of my favourite quotes.
   
   Most project managers I know are reluctant to begin writing a business case, let alone to  review it occasionally. However, if you do, you will find you begin to shape your project or programme design based on where the strengths and weaknesses are of the business case that emerges. For example, a case where benefits are predicated on early or time-constrained 'quick wins' is bound to influence you towards a shorter solution, or perhaps a phased delivery.
   
   
3. Other stakeholders. A stakeholder is usually defined as "any individual or group with an interest in the project/programme or its outcome".  Other stakeholders will be influenced by the reason why we need the project, its meaning and purpose, perhaps much more than the appeal of what you will deliver. In your business case will be reasons and benefits that are relevant to each one of these stakeholders.
   
   So you might be writing for quite a wide audience. Although these other stakeholders may never see the Business Case as a document - because it is usually fairly commercially sensitive - it needs to be mined for meaning, as the source of answers for all stakeholders' 'why' questions. Thus our business case becomes a key input into crafting our influencing and engagement with stakeholders.

So next time you have to write a business case, think of the audience, in that order. You may find it motivates you to write a better one.

The Power of Principles

Over the last decade, my colleague John Edmonds and I have been persuading authors of best management practice - the writers of methodology - to distill all their practices and procedures into a few time-honoured principles.

We have advocated the Stephen Covey definition of a 'principle' for rigour: something that is universally true, self-validating in practice, and empowering to the practitioner. Covey describes these as 'true north' principles: wherever you are, the principles point in the same direction. Such a concept is very welcome in the confusing and sometimes chaotic environment of a project.

I'm delighted to report that these principles have emerged strongly and clearly in the latest editions of PRINCE2 project management and MSP programme management (mainly because we helped to write them!).

The power of these principles is now bearing upon the design and running of all kinds of programmes and projects. An informed practitioner can test the application of these methods against a short list of these principles. She can scale down these methods, where appropriate, to an irreducible minimum of elements and rid herself of bureaucratic clutter and noise.

The message now is that the princples are the only mandatory aspects of these management methods. The rest is negotiable.

How to choose the right PRINCE2 training course

You can get the second edition of this free 9-page Guide here. I've updated it based on the latest information from the PRINCE2 Examinations Board and from what we see happening in the PRINCE2 market place.

The Guide includes a checklist that includes all the sorts of questions people wish they'd asked at booking time but rarely do.

Anyone about to invest in PRINCE2 training is well-advised to read this first. If you are such a person, I'd be grateful if you let me know how useful or otherwise you find it.

Modesty Prevents ....

My colleague in pearcemayfield, John Edmonds, also blogs. He is also both a superb trainer and a modest man. So this emailed comment from one of his recent delegates came to my attention, and I felt that I ought to quote it:

"I've not long finished the PRINCE2 Practitioners exam, and now back home I want to pass on my thanks to you for the quality of the training you delivered this week on the PRINCE 2 Practitioners course at Cardiff University.  I was thoroughly satisfied by the way in which you delivered the training, through your reassuring, logical and engaging style, through the variation of training techniques, and the quality of training materials such as the manual, course notes, and cards.  This has been one of the best training weeks I have undertaken due to the careful and caring manner in which you delivered the training, so that the training was delivered at just the right pace and with just the right information.  With such a topic, it would be quite easy to get lost in all the information that goes with it, but you ensured our understanding by breaking the topic down, then validating our understanding at the end of each section and at the start of the next day."

Forgive me, John ... :)