Project Management Stakeholders

Adapted from the book - Power and Politics in Project Management by Jeffrey K. Pinto

In the project management world there are many different opinions regarding how to successfully manage a project.  One of the most important things we need to do in project management is manage the expectations and relationships with our stakeholders. Some things to keep in mind to help us manage our stakeholders are:

Assess the culture (is it supportive, what is the balance of power, what are the stakeholder attitudes?)

Identify the goals of the stakeholders (are the goals realistic, attainable, communicated?)

Assess our own capabilities and limitations (are you politically savvy, respected, a good negotiator?)

Define the problem (define goals, risks, relationships)

Develop solutions (create action plan, determine the right solution for the right time)

Test and refine the solutions (New learnings must be incorporated, replan, retool, rethink)

While there is plenty more to do in regards to managing a project successfully, this list of "must do" items will help you get started.

Principles and the Project Manager

Principles are mile posts that help to guide our conduct. They come from natural laws that are recognizable by all cultures. Principles have been around since the dawn of time.  They are timeless and aren’t dependent on us making them a permanent part of our lives.

I believe a most of our problems in society come from the fact that many of our leaders and manager don’t live principle-centered lives.

What are principles that are easily recognized? These are a few: Patience, Kindness, Tolerance, Integrity, Honesty, Encouragement, Trustworthiness, Empathy…

Principles should guide our conduct, and when they do, they are easily recognizable by others.  When our leaders decide to reject principles in order to gain power, influence or money, the organizations they lead are in deep trouble.

Many times leaders attempt to put aside principles to get short-term gains.  They believe by making speeches filled with empty promises they will gain the trust of others.  This happens all the time in our organizations, and results in the same mistakes repeated over and over.  Having said that, we keep electing the same people to office over and over, don’t we?  Where has this gotten us?

Albert Einstein said, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them”.  To solve the tough problems we need to look at our paradigms and habits and be willing to change them.  Sometimes this means firing (not re-electing) our current leaders.

Do we really think we can just buy our way out of the current mess on Wall Street without fundamentally changing the way things work (paradigms and habits) and putting principled leaders in place?  Can you or your organization really change things for the better without focusing on principles and rethinking your paradigms and habits?  Do organizations really believe that layoffs alone change anything when their current broken paradigms and habits are left intact?

I have seen the results of unprincipled leadership, and the behaviors these “leaders” exhibit can have a profound, lasting, and negative influence on others.  The sad part is these leaders believe they are part of the solution, however we know better.  You can’t lead your way out of a problem that you don’t fully understand, and if you try to do it without principles the results are easily predicted. DISASTER!

Big problems cannot be solved by small people and small mindedness.  Remember, principles aren’t values. The Mafia has values, but their practices certainly aren’t related to principles. As Stephen Covey say’s “Principles are the territory. Values are the map”.

My Love/Hate Relationship with Project Teams - Revisited

Project teams can be a project manager's greatest resource or can be a huge impediment to getting things done.  I have a lot of opinions about project teams and most people would find them to be controversial.  I will state them here and hope for feedback.

My general theories about project teams follow:

Project teams often tend to waste a lot of time, and like to blame others (inside and outside the team) for lack of project process

Project team members are rarely on the same page

Internal politics doom many project teams from the start

Project managers usually often don't have the ability to reward or punish bad behavior

One or two "bad apples" can spoil the whole bunch

Many functional managers don't believe they have to support project teams, and at times they do all they can to undermine the team approach to managing projects

A "visionary" is a person that is usually often disengaged from everything, and accountable for nothing

Lack of leadership, direction, and follow-up from top management is the number one cause of project failure

If you have a member of your project team that would rather be doing something else, do everything you can to grant their wish

Most project managers and many managers are wimps when it comes to managing individual members of their teams

Lots of organizations talk a good talk when it comes to project management and change, then go about managing change using the same old failed processes

Many project team members are loyal to their functional departments, not to the project

Teams by nature are dysfunctional, and because of this fact the project schedule and estimates should reflect this

Dysfunctional project teams are usually the fault of senior management because of their refusal to attend important project team meetings.  Ultimately the project manager is still accountable for project team dysfunction.

Many Some project teams are composed of the wrong people doing the wrong things at the wrong times.

Project team dysfunction is normal.  Staying dysfunctional is typical, but in the end detrimental to the careers of those involved.