Archive for the 'leadership' Category

Where Are the Good Examples of Leadership?

Big initiative and big challenges require leadership…passionate determined leadership. We've seen some really bad examples of corporate leadership over the last few years. US News and World Report just published their 2nd annual special issue on leadership. America's Best Leaders profiles 20 leaders and their initiatives.

Two stand out initiatives are City Year and Teach for America. These transforming programs have equally transforming leaders behind them. Alan Khazei & Michael Brown are the leaders behind created a youth service program putting 17 to 24 year-olds to work in their cities. Wendy Kopp is the leader behind putting recent college graduates to work teaching in the toughest schools. These are just two examples profiled in the special edition. You'll also read about Sandra Day O'Connor, Wynton Marsalis, Frank Gehry, Warren Buffett, and 13 others. Enjoy the issue.

No, this isn't another ruse to sell greeting cards. The idea of an International Project Management Day was conceived to bring recognition and appreciation to project managers. The stated purpose is

"Increase the awareness of the value of project management within the large business, government, small business, and social communities and promote project management as a true profession and key business strategy. This includes, but is not limited to: construction, information technology, entertainment, government, aeronautics, health care, ecology, social, disaster recovery, community improvement, and quality of life projects."

Take the time to acknowledge or appreciate someone on your project, in your organization, or your circle of family and friends.

Showing appreciation and acknowledgement is a good thing…a really good thing. It keeps us going both on the giving and receiving end. Let's take the time, not just on November 2nd, to let project managers, project teams, clients, and contractors know that we sincerely appreciate working with them. The Gallup Organization research indicates without appreciation and acknowledgement at least once every 7 days individuals and teams won't sustain high performance.¹

In addition to the IPM-day events you'll be attending, how about you begin building a habit in your organization for acknowledging and appreciating each other? Last year I invited readers to Try this with Me: Acknowledge and Appreciate. I followed it with my Field Report: Acknowledge and Appreciate. I have to admit I need to do more work. It takes my attention to engage with others in ways that they know I appreciate them. So, I'll be doing the exercise again for the next two weeks. Here's the exercise: Read the rest of this entry ¶

1. As reported in First, Break All the Rules, by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, published in 1999. [ ⇑ back ]

Whether you are doing construction projects, software projects, or any type, current common sense about succeeding at projects suggests going through a PMI certification process to learn the best practices. The agilists and leanies might disagree. However, there's one guy who offers recommendations — 15 of them — that just might produce better project results. His name is David Schmaltz, True North pgs, Inc. You might know him as the author of the fine book, The Blind Men and the Elephant, Mastering Project Work. David is not your ordinary guy. His views on projects — and life — are unconventional. And those views will help you succeed on your projects.

In 1993 David wrote a little book(let) where he shares his best advice. He titled it, This Isn't a Cookbook, The Elements of Project Style. I'll introduce you to the basic ideas. But don't stop with my commentary. Get his book; it's a gem.

"If you can't manage yourself, what business do you have managing anyone or anything else?"

Create Tangible Boundaries

When the world (client) doesn't provide tangible project boundaries you'll need (want) to provide them for yourself.

ScheduleSpaceAlongWithTasks

We can't predict the future, so allow for some slack time to be able to respond responsibly to what happens.

Read the rest of this entry ¶

LPSThe Last Planner System® is a lean approach to planning and delivering projects. It is based on a hierarchy of planning: should, can, will, and did. LPS is not a computer system. It is a set of protocols corresponding with the four above items: pull planning, look-ahead planning, task planning, and daily coordination. The Last Planner System is a registered trademark of the Lean Construction Institute. Last Planner SystemThe Last Planner System® is a lean approach to planning and delivering projects. It is based on a hierarchy of planning: should, can, will, and did. LPS is not a computer system. It is a set of protocols corresponding with the four above items: pull planning, look-ahead planning, task planning, and daily coordination. The Last Planner System is a registered trademark of the Lean Construction Institute.

Last week I wrote Don't CRM Lean into Your Organization mentioning the difficulty companies have adopting organizational change. Adopting new behaviors on projects and in organizations is one of the toughest actions we take as leader-managers. This is especially true when it involves switching paradigms. At Lean Project Consulting we use a change approach¹ based on five actions. The first thing to know is these are necessary but often not sufficient conditions. If you skip one of these actions you are assured of failure in the long-term. However, performing all five actions doesn't guarantee success. Very often a situation demands additional actions to ensure success, e.g., changes to systems or acquisition of new skills. The outline that follows can serve as a point of departure for planning your changes. Do the planning in a group and be open to multiple approaches rather than one "right" answer.

1. Be clear why change is necessary in terms that make sense to the individuals:
   State clear consequences for continuing with the current state.
   Make assessments of the value for changing.

People know what is important to their managers by how they spend their time

2. Declare an initial set of standards for measuring performance and get agreement that people will set out to perform to those standards. Begin a practice of checking.
   Be public with your standard-setting.
   Create alignment with the group that they will hold themselves to the new standards.
   People are accountable when there is a customer holding them to account.
   Good customers show their appreciation for results and efforts.
3. Show how it is done.
   People need to see that it is possible to be successful performing a new (set of) behaviors. Talking about it — merely "Jawboning" — doesn't work.
   Put each new person in action while you are introducing them to the new behavior.
4. Measure, acknowledge, reward new behavior, and be clear on the consequences.
   Put yourself in the position to catch people doing it right. Be with them in their work-setting while they are working. This also gives you the opportunity to coach or adjust unsuccessful action.
   People need encouragement and redirection while they are learning. Make yourself available for that.
   Keep the context of the change – consequences of not changing and the new value available – in the foreground for performers. Remind your team and yourself with regular stories of why this change matters.
5. Work with them on improving.
   This fifth action is the one that cements the change. Often people put up with little dissatisfactions during a change telling themselves that it will get better once they are familiar or competent. The truth is usually the opposite. The annoyances are only magnified by the frequency of action. Commit yourself to continuously improve the changed situation for the benefit of the participants, the customers, and the company. That action telegraphs the importance of the change.

Commit yourself to success. Nothing beats a passionate determined individual. Let your passion show to the people you lead in change. Stay engaged with them so they see first-hand that the change is a priority for you, not just them. And be consistent with that involvement.

Remember, people know what is important to their managers by how they spend their time, particularly changes to how they spend their time. Err on the side of spending extra time when you set out to make change.

1. This posting was abstracted from Lean Project Consulting's special report: Five Necessary Actions for Organizational Change, by Hal Macomber and Gregory Howell. You can get a complete copy by sending an email to 5-actions-change@leanproject.com. You'll get a link to a 2-page PDF which you are welcome to share with your colleagues. [ ⇑ back ]

Outgoing Industry Week Editor-in-Chief, Patricia Panchak has been writing about manufacturing excellence and lean manufacturing for 10 years. In Building A Passion For Manufacturing Excellence, her last column as Editor-in-Chief, Patricia says,

"Increasingly I'm convinced that it's the passion for manufacturing excellence… that separates the excellent from the merely very successful."

She goes on to explain that the love for what you are doing is responsible for the on-going never-ending drive to make business better. She describes how that occurs,

"(I)n successful manufacturing companies passion is palpable: when an executive talks about capturing new markets and increasing market share; when an engineer describes a new technology and the benefits it will deliver to her customer; when empowered, fully-engaged machine operators extol the results of a recent kaizen event and cite the time and money they've saved the plant, the company and the customer."

Passion is generated

I first read about this subject over 20 years ago in A Passion for Excellence: The Leadership Difference, by Tom Peters and Nancy Austin. The book was hot for awhile mostly due to the blockbuster success of In Search of Excellence. But passion soon faded from any conversation about business. I think it's back. Just last week I was interviewing someone who said she wanted to reconnect to her passion when she takes a new position.

Patricia wonders in her essay about the elusive source of passion, then goes on to explain that she found her passion in conversations with manufacturing leaders. I suggest that ones passion is not to be found…from my experience passion is generated. Get excited about what you are doing. Show that excitement to others. Moods are contagious. The people on your team will start expressing their own passion. And as Tom Peters claims a passion for excellence is the leadership difference.

Successful project management is simple…or is it? Lee Iwan (I don't know who s/he is) suggests there are 16 steps to delivering projects successfully. In an article appearing in Lifehack, Lee proposes a Step-by-Step Beginner's Guide to Project Management. If only it were so simple.

The leader-manager sees that the participants are acting as a team — taking care of each other.

These are the 16 steps:

1. Determine the objective and specific desired outcome. Write it down.
2. Identify and organize the people who might be interested or are required in order to bring the project to completion. Ask them to participate, and comment on their level of enthusiasm or belief that the project can or will be successful.
3. Identify a project leader and coordinator, this should be accepted by all involved in the project. No consensus, keep trying.
4. Begin “brainstorming” and create scenarios on how to achieve the desired outcome (this may have be broken down into sub-tasks). Make a date when all this creative thinking will be finished and a written draft can be printed and shared.
5. Identify factors that influence or limit the project that are beyond your control (global economic forces, natural disasters, competition, etc.) and factors that are in your control (capital invested, personnel, prices, etc.). Identify the risks or warning flags that might surface. Write this down.
6. Determine and identify the tools (capital, equipment, machinery), the people (administration, sales, suppliers, customers), and the time required to complete the objectives. Write this down.
7. Organize the people involved in the project. Review the proposed project, the factors of influence, the tools, people and time. Determine the best path, tools, time frame, and write it down.
8. Organize the tasks and sub-tasks in chronological order. Write it down.
9. Ask each participant if they are committed to participating in the project, completing their tasks on time and reaching the final outcome. If there is no commitment, find out why and resolve.
10. Develop a list of initial actions and outcomes that must be started and completed. Identify the responsible parties and dates. Write it down.
11. Request specific (realistic) dates for the completion of tasks, sub-tasks and objectives. Write it down.
12. The leader must follow-up on all dates and compromises. Make this information public to all others involved in the project. Communicate all deliveries of sub-tasks, or lack of delivery with the group.
13. Make certain that the group knows the status of the project at all times, everyone should either be waiting for information or the outcome of an ongoing activity, or actively working on obtaining information or finalizing an activity.
14. If a group member is unable or unwilling to finish tasks on time, discover why and take immediate action to support or replace the member.
15. For any major problems or setbacks, get the group together to work out new scenarios and dates of completion.
16. Celebrate the big milestones and victories.

It's not a bad list. If you only followed Lee's advice, then you would do ok with your projects. However…the author misses a central aspect of projects. Project participants are autonomous. They have the opportunity to say, "No," even though they often go along saying, "Yes." They also are likely to misunderstand what they are asked to do, just like you and I misunderstand what we are asked to do.

Projects require leader-managers who care for the project participants. The leader-manager sees that the participants are acting as a team — taking care of each other. Success depends on those relationships to avoid misunderstanding and to create a project setting where intervening in each others' work is not seen as meddling.

Tom's manifesto is one shiny silver lining.

Silver linings are everywhere if you're looking. I just found one in the Bill Swanson misdeed. You probably remember Bill is the CEO of Raytheon…the one that plagiarized the work of others and then promoted it as his own turning it into the must-have management guide for 300,000 people. I wrote about Bill's transgressions in the post Stand on the Shoulders of Others. A few days ago writer Tom Ehrenfeld, The Startup Garden, published a manifesto at ChangeThis, The Rewritten Rules of Management. Tom's manifesto is one shiny silver lining.

Tom starts with a recap of the flap. He quickly moves to some basic lessons for leaders. The irony of Swanson's misdeeds is the hypocrisy of his own leadership acts once he was caught. Had he only followed his espoused theories there would not have been a flap. Tom takes Bill to task for that and proposes we hold ourselves and our leaders to the same standards.

I really like Tom's finish,

"Business books are a small but emblematic artifact of this powerful culture. They give us small doses of insight and inspiration when done right. While many titles today are cynical, inauthentic, and unoriginal, the best of the batch provide leverage, guidance. When we accept leadership lies, we become complicit in a greater fib. So let’s demand that Swanson do more than shrug off his actions."

Tom's call for change is timely and well-argued. His writing is a joy to read. Treat yourself to it today.

We live in a time that makes it easy for those who are curious to get a leg up on their ambitions. Only a few years ago it would take days of tedious research to discover the insights and lessons of others. Today it is easy. Google, Wikipedia, and the New York Times archives are treasure troves for anyone with just a little curiosity and 10 minutes to spare to produce a starting off compendium. You'd have to be hiding under a rock for the last ten years not to know that. Yet, the plagiarists and scoundrels among us appear to be ignoring that facticity.

For the last two weeks, I've been entranced by two stories of misdeeds. The first is the episode of the Harvard undergrad with the six-figure book advance who incorporated other authors' text word-for-word in her novel. The second is the story of Raytheon's CEO William Swanson's presenting others' maxims as his own. I shared his rules with readers, Bill Swanson'sW. L. King's and Donald Rumsfeld's (and others') Unwritten Previously Published Rules of Management Success.¹ I'm not the only one who gushed about Swanson's keen insight. Business 2.0, The New York Times, and USA Today all had leading stories on Swanson's pocket guide.

The waste of this shamelessness is Bill Swanson's commentary on others' rules is quite good.

I won't attempt to chronicle the events. (GoogleNews Swanson's Unwritten Rules if you're interested.) What bothers me most is the shamelessness of their actions. Haven't they learned that when they wrong another to apologize? Saying, "I regret not giving enough credit to someone else's work," is not an apology. Saying, "I'm sorry for hurting you. I will never do it again. Let me do something to compensate you for that." That is an apology. We learned that in kindergarten.² But apparently not all of us learned the lesson.

The waste of this shamelessness is Bill Swanson's commentary on others' rules is quite instructive. It offers a view on a CEO's perspective. It's a great gift. I'm not saying that there is something really special in his commentary. I'm only saying that glimpse can shape how we engage with people who have power and authority. Swanson had the chance to be an example of someone who succeeded by standing on the shoulders of others. Instead, he chose to mis-represent himself.

I'll finish this commentary with Swanson's (or whoever's) oft-quoted Rule #32: "A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter — or to others — is not a nice person." Swanson comments,

"Watch out for people who have situational value systems — who can turn the charm on and off depending on the status of the person they are interacting with…This is not the make of a leader.

Bill, I agree with you. Apparently, so does the board of directors of Raytheon. The board cut Swanson's compensation following a jump in company earnings.

Some people think the board didn't act swiftly nor deal with the seriousness of his infraction. It doesn't matter. His career is over. There will be no more national awards, no more prominent positions on boards and philanthropies, and no more invitations to speak at graduations. Bill Swanson will have to leave his position as CEO of Raytheon before the year is out.

1. I'm leaving the Swanson's list up on this website for reference. [ ⇑ back ]
2. Robert Fulgham, "Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody." All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten [ ⇑ back ]

In the last two weeks, three people have recommended Scott Berkun's The Art of Project Management to me. (They hadn't seen my posting the Art of Scott Berkun.) While I was impressed with the book when I read it last summer, I hadn't picked it up since. Now I have. I'm even more impressed.

Two years ago, Boston University said that the PMBoK® only represents 1/3 of what a project manager needs to know to succeed, Project Management: Art and Science. The art of project management is generally not taught and not well-described. 18 months later Scott's book filled that gap. The Art of Project Management is a handbook for developing yourself as a project leader. Notice my shift in terms from manager to leader. I'm taking my cue from comments Scott made in an online forum¹, "It's what I wish someone had told me when I started leading projects." Of course there are management tasks on projects, but what people need most from us is leadership. Here are five chapter titles to give you a sense of what he means by leadership: Read the rest of this entry ¶

1. BlogCritics Review [ ⇑ back ]

I've been working with a number of architectural and engineering firms in the last six months. I've been surprised at how so few of them have the habit of conducting project kick-off meetings as their routine. Knowing that, I'm not surprised at the problems these firms encounter with project planning and schedules.

Why have a project kickoff meeting? One manager said, "Geez, there's only 200 hours in this project. I can't waste any of them on meetings." Sound familiar? Before I respond let's review my definition of a project.

A project is a single-purpose network of commitments undertaken by a temporary social system.

People come together on projects as strangers.

I've been challenged in an AE firm when I refer to the project organization as a temporary social system. People say that the "team" consists of employees who know each other. While that might be true, it is also likely that the group is not a team at all. Rather, the people are working on more than one project. The other projects are being done with other people. They get their assignments as work orders. These are not project teams. This is more like sandlot baseball than a well-practiced team.

Face it. Projects are temporary organizations. People come together on projects as strangers. We're not likely to change that. What we can do is make sure people share a context, have intentions that are aligned, and have a relationship that allows them to successfully coordinate action together. I know of no better way than by starting every project with a kickoff meeting.

What would you do in those meetings? Here's my proposal for an agenda.

Read the rest of this entry ¶

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The planning system is likely to become more reliable just because you are giving your attention to reliability; it follows the axiom: what gets measured gets done. However, without deliberate systematic attention to the design of the system planning system performance will settle on a plateau.

Planning (un)reliability is a function of (at least) five factors: dependence, variation, uncertainty, system design, and competence. The processes of making work ready, promising publicly, and reporting complete by announcing when you are done are usually sufficient for building competence for operating as last planners within the system. The acts of promising, re-promising, and estimating times to perform build the capability for doing those actions more competently through time. Using the Project Meeting Protocols (mentioned in previous postings) improves performance. But there is generally more to improve beyond what individuals responsibilities.

At least once every three weeks conduct a meeting with the project team to review the accumulated reasons for plan failure.

One significant impact on group performance is the design of the project. For instance, if work has been fractionalized by specialty, then the effects of dependence (you can't start 'til I finish) are increased. One of the usual (greatest) reasons for planning failure is the prior work of others wasn't completed. Often times work can be structured in a way that decouples one person's work from another. That, in turn, increases the reliability of the project. Another common reason is a constraint was uncovered once the task was started. This would point to a failure of the make-ready process of look-ahead planning.

What can you do? Read the rest of this entry ¶

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Take down those walls! I've been asked about why we're so committed to working in a space without walls. My personal interest goes way back to my first job coming out of college. (Admittedly, this was before systems furniture.) We all had desks in open spaces. Learning in that environment was fast. Collaboration was inevitable.

Jon Miller, writing at Panta Rei, advises us to adopt an open office with no walls if we want to become lean. I've been giving the same advice particularly where design or engineering work is done. The Japanese call this oobeya. Working in an open space accelerates learning and innovation while eliminating rework.

Jon notes the one big obstacle to taking the walls down: the CEO said, "No way." This same closed mindedness pervades lean initiatives. Here are four others:

Read the rest of this entry ¶

We can't see what we can't see.

I've been in a number of project conversations recently that raise the issue that successful people don't see why we need to take a lean approach. First, these people have been successful according to current standards for project success. Second, the basic precepts of lean are contradictory to current best practice. For instance, good project superintendents will act early to bring equipment and materials on site to avoid the possibility that when that equipment and material is needed it won't be available. That sounds like a good strategy, but do this over and over and the jobsite will be crowded with items that aren't needed.

The big issue is confronting our own common sense. There might be nothing wrong with that common sense. On the other hand, our accepted ways of doing things might just be the obstacle to improvement. What are we to do? I only wish I had a ready answer. I know one thing: we need friends when we are making change. People who have our concerns and best interests in mind. We need them because we can't see what we can't see. We need our friends to show us where we are blind and to remind us what we have set out to accomplish. Without our friends we can't succeed adopting lean nor can we succeed in making big change.

20 years ago I went on a study mission to Japan to learn about time-based approaches and quality improvement strategies. While there, I was introduced to a way of thinking about performance differences. Most of us compare ourselves to others. When we plot this on a normalized graph, a value of 1.0 represents the best of what the competitions are doing. Others fall below that. This approach misses the upside performance for the group. Perhaps the limit of performance is anywhere from 2x to 10x the best performance observed, or more. However most people see the best of the group as benchmark performance. What might it take to achieve that exceptional performance? Seth Godin has an idea.

In Understanding Local Max Seth describes the phenomenon of only being able to see the recent peak performance. For many of us that peak was followed by a steady slide. As time goes by, the peak looks less attainable or worse, an absolute limit. Seth claims that is hokum. By achieving one peak others become available to us, but only after we accept that lower perforce may come first. Only the courageous and determined among us plow on. Yet, a higher max is available to all.

Who knows what got into Seth to present this idea at this time! All I can say is, "Thank you!"

I have a suggestion for all of us doing projects. Adopt a disposition of patience and persistence coupled with confidence that what you are setting to accomplish is worthwhile and attainable. Engage your team in the worthwhileness of the endeavor and support them each step of the way. Each local max will become the passage point they need to reach the performance level needed to deliver on the promise of the project. This approach can make your projects exciting places to work. What could be better than that?

By the way, Seth's post generated tremendous commentary. So much that he followed the first post with a second one. You don't want to miss it!

'Leaders know that the value-added revolution rests upon: Emphasizing Experiences!'

Tom Peters has been on a whirlwind worldwide speaking tour. From a look at Tom's PowerPoint slides his general message is about the same as it's been for the last five years. In true Tom Peters style there are over 300 slides in these presentations. Set aside about 30 minutes to view one of more than 20 presentations.

For me Tom's message on customer experience rings as one of the biggest opportunities for delivering projects. Customers get excited about their projects. Let's get excited with them. At least one company has responded by creating the position CXO — Chief Experience Officer. What other ways can we put more of our attention on the experience we create for our clients?

Business 2.0 is one of my favorite magazines. They have a way of breaking great stories and introducing topics from new perspectives. In June this year their cover story was The CEO's Secret Handbook. They broke the story of a CEO's advice to managers in his firm. Everywhere I looked someone else picked up the story. There were so many stories I decided not to write about it. I took another look. The advice works for project managers and leaders just as it does for division managers.

Read the rest of the story Bill Swanson's 25 Unwritten Rules of Management.