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What do the Dumb-dumbs in the executive offices know?

As project managers, we know that the processes we use are valuable. We want to help our companies to succeed. It makes sense to us that using project management throughout the company will lead to success.

No brainer, right?

Wrong.

Executives see projects as operational processes, and not part of a successful business strategy. Which means that they see project managers as staff people, not executive managers.

How do we do that?

As project managers, we need to learn more about the business of our companies. Do you know your company’s business plan? Marketing plan? Sales plan?

In this three-part post, I’m presenting some ideas on how to get started talking with executives about the value of project management practices. We’ll talk about the who, what, and when.

Part 1: Who

I mentioned that executives view projects as operations, not strategy. That’s the key to unlocking the mystery of executive support.

As project managers, we understand the strategy that we use to manage a project. We also know to break that strategy down into tactics.

Just like a project plan maps out the project strategy, the business plan maps out the company’s strategy.

In a project the communications plan and risk management plan are tactical support for the project plan. It makes sense that the marketing plan and sales plan are tactical support for the business plan in a company.

Knowing the strategy, as well as the tactical details, allows us to see our goal before we get there. It’s the same in running a business.

Executives deal with the strategy of the business, and their direct reports deal with the tactical details.

So when you want to talk with an executive, remember that strategic solutions are their only interest.

So how do we find out about the company’s strategy?

Do the research and read the plans. It may take some relationship building with people in marketing and sales in order to get access to the plans. There are many advantages to having these relationships - but that’s another subject.

Find out more information about the various executives in your company. Does any one of them have a project management background? Do they come out of an industry that views project management as a core competency?

Choose the person who you find you have the most in common with. When building any type of relationship, people are more comfortable when they can bond at some level.

One of the criteria for choosing an executive is how likely that person is to be open about his/her concerns.

How do you find that out? By talking with other people in your company. Figure out who knows the most about the people at your company. You may need to start talking with people outside of your own department.

One of the things that I learned in the Navy is to always treat the commanding officer’s secretary, the finance person, and at least one corpsman with great respect. These people can make, or break, your career.

The CO’s secretary can help out in many, many ways - from information to head’s up notification to scheduling time with the CO.

The finance person keeps your payroll records and authorizes your pay check. That’s someone to keep happy.

The corpsman maintains your medical records - including your shot records - and can make your transfers a living hell. Don’t make that person angry.

It’s the same in companies. If your executives have assistants - whether it’s an admin assistant, executive assistant, or personal assistant - those are the people who know the most. Build a relationship with them.

When you’ve learned about the company’s strategy and chosen an executive to talk with, then you’re ready to begin the sales process. That’s the What.

Until next time . . .

Would you rather talk to a brick wall than an executive at your company? Do you wonder why executives don’t have time to talk about project management? Then this call’s for you!

I’ll be participating in a conference call hosted by PM Lessons Learned (Henry Will is the founder). Here are the details:

Thursday Nov. 16, 2007, at 9PM (EST/NYC)

“Tips from a PM who’s also an ex-executive: How to talk with executives about the value of PM practices” - Diana Lindstrom, PMP (that’s me!)

For the phone number and access code, go to http://www.pmlessonslearned.com/

Just in case the link doesn’t work, here’s the info:

Conference Dial-in: (712) 432-6060
Access Code: 424424#

I’m looking forward to speaking with you then.

In September, I heard Billy Jean King (US tennis player; instrumental in getting laws passed to provide equal opportunities for female sports in high school and college (aka Title 9)) talking about leadership.

She said that followers choose leaders. Not the other way around.

What do you think?

Have you considered implementing a monthly report of Lessons Learned - a mini-newsletter?

It’s the idea that I not only offered to companies where I worked, but volunteered to implement it. And it worked quite well.

As the Lessons Learned editor, I interviewed each project manager each month. I asked questions, and became trusted by writing the stories objectively. No blaming; no finger pointing. Every month the project managers would read the Lessons Learned newsletter to see if their story was in it.

There were only two companies where project managers didn’t gather at the water cooler to discuss lessons learned. One company was probably too small, and the other wasn’t interested in changing.

Lessons learned are best told as stories. And told in a stand-alone format. No going through physical or electronic files. No blaming others. Just a learning experience.

My proudest moment at one company was when a new project manager was hired, and our COO gave him several issues of the Lessons Learned newsletter BEFORE he gave him the project management manual.

Stories - that’s how humans learn.

Are you one of the millions of “accidental” project managers? You were assigned a project and told when it has to be complete? No budget. No other people on the team. Just you, an idea of what the project is, and a deadline.

Not a very comfortable place, is it?

But for those of us who chose to be project managers, the story is a little different. Take mine, for example.

I get easily bored. Who doesn’t?!? (smile)

I love looking at the “big” picture while planning the details to make it happen.

From what I’ve read, that makes me one of a small number of people on this planet. And I think it’s a vital part of what a project manager needs to be able to do. Keep the project goal firmly in sight, while putting the roadmap in place.

I also love managing groups of people at almost anything. People are the reason that any jobs are interesting - for me. Kind of an odd confession for an engineer, huh?

Project management keeps me involved, challenged, and never bored.

Well, on second thought, I did get bored managing construction projects - but, hey, that can stay between us, can’t it? (smile)

Easily bored and find people fascinating - an unbeatable combination for a project manager.

As project managers, we often find ourselves looking into the deep, dark hole of burnout. What is burnout?

Burnout is the state of mind where we stop being creative, where our physical energy is low, where we can’t imagine doing one more thing, and where we’re very likely cranky and difficult to get along with.

Burnout is usually caused by working too much - and playing too little. When all we do is work, our brains never get the chance to recuperate. By concentrating all our mental and physical energy on one thing - work - we don’t allow ourselves a “change of scenery.” By that I mean allowing ourselves to think about different things so that we see things in a different way. Seeing things in a different way is what creativity is all about.

If you think you’re approaching burnout, or are already there, ask yourself these questions.

• Do you prefer to eliminate stress, or learn better ways for coping with it?
• Can you review your workload?
• Can you assess the roles/responsibilities of your team (or get a team if necessary)?
• Can you block out regular time for your favorite social activity, and then make it your priority?
• Can you arrange your next vacation now, and make it non-negotiable?

Here are some ways to avoid burnout - or recover from it.

• Keep a stress-level chart each day (1.0 = good day, 0.5 = so-so, 0.0 = bad). Review it weekly to see where you are, and where you want to be next week.
• Delegation - I know, I know. Everyone tells you to delegate, but how can you? There’s a whole industry that will help you learn how to delegate. The point of this article is to suggest that you either start delegating, or delegate more work to others. If you choose wisely who to delegate to, and what to delegate to that person, both of you benefit. Win-win.
• Start doing something that you really love. One project manager that I know took up sailing in order to prevent burnout and burn off stress. He started sailing every day by making it an appointment in his calendar.
• Evaluate your life when you’re not hovering around burnout. What do you do? What don’t you do? Then look at your life when you’re burning out. What’s different? What can you start doing again, or stop doing at all, that will move you away from burnout?

Another interesting definition of burnout is that we are not paying attention to the things that we need in life to keep our minds sharp. By focusing our minds on different areas of life, we often see a different approach for solving a problem in our projects. There is one caveat to this, however, and that’s to stop over-committing ourselves and our time. Warning symptoms are the words “should” and “ought.”

As project managers, we’re used to setting boundaries for our projects and our project teams. The secret to avoiding burnout is to know and enforce our own boundaries.

A special thank you to the members of the SdB+PM Forum for their contributions to this article. Without their great ideas and input, this article would never have been written. You guys are the greatest!

An orchestra conductor uses a musical score to direct a piece of music. Every instrument has a different part to play. It’s in the way that these parts work together that music is created.

Each instrument has its own part. The sheets of music that each musician uses tell exactly when, and what, to play. The musician knows how to play already - after years of studying, practice, and performance.

The conductor uses the musical score to know all the parts. He knows exactly when, and what, each instrument needs to play. The conductor has spent many years, usually, studying music. His emphasis has not been on the in-depth study of an instrument, but on the interpretation of the music. And on how to lead the musicians who make up the orchestra.

In the same way, a project manager “conducts” the project. Using a project plan, each member of the project team knows exactly when, and what, to do. She is able to perform the required work because of her knowledge, skills, and education.

The project plan is made up of many different parts - all the specific plans like communication, risk, quality, etc. - so that the overall project accomplishes it goal(s). The schedule and budget are integral parts of the project plan, but not the only parts.

Each member of the project team is interested only in the part that they contribute to the project. The project manager is the one who’s interested in making sure the project dove-tails together at the end.

By using a project plan, the project manager is directing the project. Utilizing the knowledge and skills of the project team members, the project manager is able to successfully complete projects.

Conductors of great symphony orchestras do not play every musical instrument; yet through leadership the ultimate production is an expressive and unified combination of tones.
- Thomas D. Bailey

How is project management like conducting an orchestra? In many ways.

A project manager does not need to be the subject matter expert to be able to lead the project team. Some people think that this is blasphemy.

But here’s why it’s not blasphemy.

Project managers must know:

- the technical and business requirements of the project product
- those areas of expertise and skills required
- the best process for producing those requirements
- the corporate culture and how to navigate it
- how to manage people and resources

Just like a conductor knows the musical piece that the orchestra is playing, the project manager must know the ebb and flow of the project process. A conductor doesn’t play every instrument, but he knows every note in the piece. He knows the phrasing of each movement. He knows the entry and exit point of each instrument - what instrument plays and when.

A good conductor also understands at a profound level how the instruments interact. Sometimes the strings carry the main melody while the brass provides a bed of deep, resonant notes. The percussion section maintains the foundational beat, keeping everyone together.

A good project manager knows when each member of the team needs to be contributing and what they need to do. The PM knows how to keep the project moving at just the right pace. That project manager understands that she is the foundation for the project - keeping everyone working together through her leadership.

A good project manager “conducts” the project. She doesn’t run herself ragged trying to perform all the parts.

The biggest failure that I can see – with the limited knowledge we have right now – in FEMA’s response to Hurricane Katrina was a failure in leadership.

Now that a new director has been appointed at FEMA, we’ll see if he has what it takes to succeed.

How do we know if someone’s a leader? And do project managers need to be leaders?

Someone’s a leader if the people around her/him are willing to do their jobs at 100%. Some of the characteristics of a leader are:

• Able to communicate vision
• Able to develop strategies to reach that vision
• Able to develop tactics to support those strategies
• Able to create passion about that vision

Think about leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., and John F. Kennedy. Both of these men had vision. They were both passionate about their visions. And they were able to get other people passionate enough to take action toward achieving those visions.

As project managers, we need to have a vision for every project – no matter how large or how small. And we need to communicate that vision to everyone around us. That’s a 360 degree radius.

Project managers are great at developing strategies and tactics – those are the tools of our trade. But do we create passion in other people for each of our projects?

Write a comment here and tell me how you create passion for your projects. I love to hear what you’re doing.

Let’s look at the qualifications of the most recent three FEMA directors.

The current FEMA director is Mike Brown. Before joining FEMA as a lawyer, he was an estate lawyer and worked for 11 years managing and adjudicating horse shows. He became FEMA head when his boss, Allbaugh, left and recommended him to the president.

Joe M. Allbaugh served as the second President Bush’s national campaign manager for Bush-Cheney 2000. Prior to that Allbaugh was Governor Bush’s chief of staff in Texas from 1995 to 2000. Allbaugh left FEMA in 2000 to run a Washington private consulting company to help companies make millions in Iraq.

Clinton’s FEMA director was James Lee Witt. Prior to his appointment to FEMA, Witt served as the Director of the Arkansas Office of Emergency Services (OES) for four years. Prior to that he had a background in commercial and residential construction, and was, at age 34, the chief elected official of his county with judicial responsibilities for county and juvenile court. He was re-elected six times.

In 2003, he became the Chief Executive Officer of the International Code Council (ICC), a 50,000-member association dedicated to building safety. It develops the codes used to construct residential and commercial buildings, including homes and schools.

My friend, James Huggins, has also asked me which one of the three people described above would I choose to head FEMA.

My answer, after several days of thought, is none of the above.

James Lee Witt was director of FEMA when Los Alamos, NM, was burning due to a poorly planned, and even more poorly executed, prescribed burn done by the Park Service.

Even with his experience in emergency services in Arkansas, he was criticized soundly by the people of Los Alamos.(Keep in mind that we have to discount that criticism just a bit because the pampered scientists who work for the Department of Energy are overpaid and over-served by that department.)

In every emergency situation, grim realities slap survivors every single day – for a very long time. I won’t talk about those realities now – maybe in the future.

In my opinion, the director of FEMA must have enough experience to deal with the experts who work for FEMA.And not one bit more. I refer you to my story in the previous post.

In addition, the FEMA director must be a person who can communicate – directly, honestly, and often – with all levels of government bureaucrats, media, politicians, and the general public.

I listened to a brief out-take of a teleconference held between the head of the hurricane center, the president, head of Homeland Security, and head of FEMA that was held days BEFORE the hurricane hit. The head of the hurricane center warned them about the at least 20’ surge that would hit New Orleans and the Mississippi coast.

And I heard the head of FEMA say exactly what all of us would want to hear - we’re ready, we have people on the ground already, we’ll do whatever it takes.

This brings home the lesson that actions are more powerful than words. He said all the right things – but didn’t do all the right things.

What do you think?