Projects are challenging. Projects are exciting. Projects are wonderful. Projects are challenging. (Oops, said that already!) Projects are all those things at the same time for different people on the project. What we get to see is a mix of moods. Some of those moods may not be helping what needs getting done in the moment. Pay attention to what is needed on the project and choose your mood to support that activity. Here are some of those moods:

Planning:

speculation, prudence, ambition

Producing:

determination, resourcefulness, focus

Creating:

playfulness, experimenting, optimism

Learning:

openness, curiosity, patience

Collaborating:

inviting, engaging, listening

And if you can't produce an appropriate mood for yourself, ask for help.

Toyota uses the term mura — inconsistency or unevenness — to identify one of the contributors to defective work. Unevenness gets in the way of completing what we set out to do. In a physical sense, variation in drill speed would result in poor quality of a drilled hole. Variation in the ingredients of a batch of batter would result in bad cookies. Six Sigma is the a western response to attacking unevenness. Low variation in the variables of a process is referred to as high process capability. In other words, high process capability results in high quality results.

Low variation in the project setting is harder to get our heads around. The desired outcome — always getting the intended result — is less a function of the materiel process than human processes. There are two keys to high project capability. First, what we ask people to do is already in a condition for completing it. Second, people manage the promises they make.

Pacing project tasks is one way to eliminate one source of variation. This has similar effect as pacing a production line. Performers always know what is coming at them next and when they have to deliver. Establish a drum beat for doing work by designing tasks so they all take roughly the same duration to complete. For instance, establish a schedule for completing design details on an everyday basis rather than batches of different sizes. This will improve the reliability of completions which aids follow-on performers depending on that work as input to their work. The overall effect is to counteract the compound effects of dependence and variability.

If you've been around the lean movement for even a short time, then you've encountered the Japanese term muda; it means waste. Lean gets shortened to mean do only those things that add value for the customer. This is an over-simplification. Toyota uses two other terms: muri — overburdening people, process, the system, or equipment — and mura — unevenness or undue variation in the process or product. To be lean, whether in a production setting or a project setting, it takes addressing all three, usually concurrently.

One of the mistakes we make on our projects that keeps us from being lean is planning for the work without regard to who will do the task and that person's capability and interests. Some teams go so far as to plan full-time equivalent (FTE) personnel. This has the effect of de-personalizing (de-humanizing?) the work of the project team. The result is a plan, schedule, and budget that don't match the reality of the project. And we wonder why a project plan is not achievable?

Good project planning matches the work with the interests and capability of the specific people on your project. Even the beginner project manager understands that competence matters when we ask people to do a task. Interests might matter more. A team member who wants to learn something new comes to the task internally motivated to do his/her best. A person who loves one kind of activity but dreads another will perform differently on the two kinds of work.

What is a project manager to do? Simply, talk to your team as a whole to learn what people are capable of doing, what they have time to do, and what work most inspires them. Then do your project planning. Oh, and do that plan as a team exercise rather than your own task. There's no telling what you'll learn from them! When you are done you'll have a project plan that doesn't inadvertently over-burden your team. That's not to say that at one time or anther there won't be a crunch doing the work. But you'll know that and you'll know that you've matched the task to a specific person. Next week I'll offer a tip on minimizing mura on your project.

Shorten the project schedule.
Eliminate the delays on the project.
Get people working in all available areas.
Do it right the first time.
Cut the budget!

Does any of this sound familiar? It should, we hear it all the time on projects. But just calling for change doesn't work. Projects and project teams require care and attention, and on top of that change takes time.

People do what they do because they've been doing it for quite some time. The more we repeat our actions the more we limit our view of what is possible. You want to implement the Last Planner System®? Good luck! People have been trained to rely on a WBS, the CPM, and calculations of float to manage their projects. You can't replace what they know with what they don't know. They won't let you.

Succeeding with organization change takes persistence and patience, with an emphasis on patience. Being patient is not passive. Stay actively engaged with those people who must change. Encourage them. Acknowledge them. Appreciate their efforts. And…stay with them so you don't miss their moment(s) of breakthrough.