Surround Them, Margnalize Them, Forget Them!

Tom Peters a highly regarded speaker and writer said it best in his book The Project 50, “as project managers we should not try to convert our project enemies by overcoming their objections” and I would add through appeasement. Tom states “we should set out to surround and marginalize them; additionally, the most effective change agents ignore the barbs and darts, their time is spent on allies and likely allies”.

It seems to be in our nature to take on those that oppose us, particularly if they have been attacking us behind our backs. This taking on of the opposition is a waste of valuable project time and detracts the project manager from the task at hand. All projects will have detractors, whiners, and complainers. Don’t waste your time trying to convince them of the error of their ways. Let your project’s results answer your critics!

As project managers we need to spend our time working with our advocates and supporters, not answering our critics. If you say you don’t have critics on your project than I say you probably aren’t a very good project manager. The project manager that has friends everywhere on his projects is usually trying to satisfy everyone, and many times at the end of their project – if it ever ends – there will be low overall satisfaction due to all of the tradeoffs that were made between all of the competing interests.

When you push people, demand excellence, set deadlines, push for quality, hold individuals accountable, and are firm on agreed upon commitments you are going to ruffle some feathers. Get over it, and realize no matter what you do on your project there will always be detractors. Just don’t let the detractors sway you from implementing your project on time, on budget, within requirements, and most importantly with a satisfied customer as your biggest fan.

People are the Problem?

The employees within your company either help it to prosper or impede its effectiveness. Because employees at all levels of the organization make decisions that could effect your project, we as project managers need to be aware if these workers are motivated, properly placed, supported by senior management, and well trained.

A good question to ponder before starting work on that new project is: will your project team be staffed with the right people, having the right set of skills, doing the right things, at the right time, in the right place?

Also, are your project team members motivated and committed to doing a good job, and are they supportive of the company's goals, mission, and values? Do they have the support of their management? Is there a senior management representative assigned to your project that will act as Project Sponsor and be held responsible for the success of the project?

If not, STOP YOUR PROJECT!

Refuse to work on or manage a project that doesn't have motivated, skilled, properly trained team members. Better to kill a project (or recommend one to be killed) than to be the one that hears the words "You're Fired" when the project fails.

Good Website

In case you haven't heard the Ten Step website has some excellent free project management white papers and templates, and additionally they license (for a fee) a number of Project Management Methodologies (TenStep, PMOStep, SupportStep, etc). The prices are reasonable, and I personally have licenses for the TenStep and PMOStep methodologies and can highly recommend these for new or experienced project managers.

I have no affiliation with this site, but use the content and have found it to be an excellent source of project management information. If you visit the site let Tom Mochal (President of TenStep) know I sent you.

Tom has just recently written a book entitled Lessons in Project Management, and from what I understand it has received rave reviews. I will be purchasing a copy for myself within the next few weeks.

Until next time...