
Today Stephen provides us with an interesting perspective on how aquired needs theory of motivation shows which leaders make good change agents in a change management initiative.
Acquired Needs Theory describes three types of motivational needs: Achievement, Authority and Affiliation.
These were first identified and described and by David McClelland in “The Achieving Society” [1961]. David McClelland was a pioneer in the field of workplace motivational thinking, and was a proponent of competency-based assessments in favour of IQ and personality based tests.
In summary, the acquired needs theory states that needs are formulated over time by our experiences. We will tend to have one of these needs that affects us more powerfully than others and thus affects our behaviours, and they fall into three general categories of needs:
Achievers seek to excel and appreciate frequent recognition of how well they are doing. They will avoid low risk activities that have no chance of gain. They also will avoid high risks where there is a significant chance of failure.
Affiliation seekers look for harmonious relationships with other people. They will thus tend to conform and shy away from standing out. The seek approval rather than recognition.
Power seekers want power either to control other people (for their own goals) or to achieve higher goals (for the greater good). They seek neither recognition nor approval from others -only agreement and compliance.
Acquired needs theory focuses on those with an achievement motivation, and David Mclelland stated as a result of his experiments and research that:
(1) Most people do not possess a strong achievement-based motivation
(2) Those people who do, display a consistent behaviour in setting goals.
Acquired needs theory indicates the following characteristics and attitudes of achievement-motivated people:
Acquired needs theory indicates that people with a strong need for achievement, make the best leaders – provided they develop the people skills necessary to get the best results from their people.
So find the people who are achievement oriented and who have the necessary people skills and encourage them into a small team to help lead and manage your change initiative.
If you want to work with Stephen Warrilow, take advantage of his 7 FREE “How to Do It” downloads that will take you through all of the key stages of “How to manage change” – and show you how to manage change successfully. 
About the author:
Stephen Warrilow, based in Bristol, England, works with companies across the UK providing specialist support to directors delivery significant change initiatives. Stephen has 25 years cross sector experience with 100+ companies in mid range corporate, larger SME and corporate environments.

By Stephen Warrilow
Change management is often at the heart of project delivery in that many business projects bring about change in organisations which usually affects people or processes or both. For this reason it is of utmost importance that project managers should understand the business of change management. You will feel less like a “tree with a tie” if you understand change management and know how to lead a change initiative.
There are 2 quite different streams of thought that have shaped the practice of change management.
(1) The engineer’s approach to business improvement with the focus on business process.
(2) The psychologist’s approach to understanding human responses to change with the focus on people.
As Michael Hammer, co-author of “Re-engineering the Corporation”, has said about the people issues: “the human side is much harder than the technology side and harder than the process side. It’s the overwhelming issue.”
The single biggest reason for the astonishingly high 70% failure rate of ALL business change initiatives has been the over-emphasis on process rather than people – the failure to take full account of the impact of change on those people who are most impacted by it.
Closely allied to that reason is the lack of process to directly address the human aspects of change.
The traditional project approach to change management – sees it as a set of tasks which if executed successfully get a result. In other words the typical process led approach which has failed so consistently and so spectacularly over the last 20 years.
In contrast, I advocate a program based approach to change management because, based on my experience, I have found that:
The broad principles of how you approach any business initiative or any activity that may require or instigate change are universal:
(1) Clarity in all areas – especially of the business need for the change, of the specifics of the change, the benefits of the change, and the impacts of the change.
(2) Communication – constant communication – two-way communication – communication that explains clearly what is change management and what is happening or not happening and why. Communication that listens actively and demonstrates to people that you have thought through the impacts of the change on them, and that you are prepared to work with them to achieve their buy-in and commitment to the change.
(3) Consistency – in all aspects of the way in which you lead the change – manage the delivery – handle the communication – and ensure the realization of the benefits.
(4) Capability – constant attention to the management of the tasks, activities, projects and initiatives that are delivering the capabilities into your organization that will deliver the benefits that you are seeking. Ensuring that your people have the full resources and capabilities they need to support them through the change.
For change management to work, it requires careful focus on these key factors that will determine the success of your change initiative:
(1) Determining that you are embarking on a change that sits outside of business as usual and needs to be handled as a specific initiative
(2) The quality of leadership that you provide
(3) Using a program management based approach to your change initiative and how you define change management for your organization
(4) The thoroughness of your pre-program review and planning process
(5) The extent to which you identify and address the cultural change in your organization that is required to deliver the change and the desired business benefit.
So this is how I define change management:
“It’s all about people – and processes that work for people.”
If you want to work with Stephen Warrilow, take advantage of his 7 FREE “How to Do It” downloads that will take you through all of the key stages of “How to manage change” – and show you how to manage change successfully. 
About the author:
Stephen Warrilow, based in Bristol, England, works with companies across the UK providing specialist support to directors delivery significant change initiatives. Stephen has 25 years cross sector experience with 100+ companies in mid range corporate, larger SME and corporate environments.

The Maslow Theory of Motivation also known as “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs” model was developed in 1954. Starting from the premise that each human being is motivated by needs that are inborn, presumably as a result of evolution, here is the hierarchy in ascending order:
(1) Physiological needs
These are the very basic needs such as air, water, food, sleep, sex, etc. When these are not satisfied we may feel sickness, irritation, pain, discomfort, etc. These feelings motivate us to alleviate them as soon as possible to establish homeostasis. Once they are alleviated, we may think about other things.
(2) Safety needs
These have to do with establishing stability and consistency in a chaotic world. These needs are mostly psychological in nature. We need the security of a home and family.
(3) Love and needs of belonging
Humans have (in varying degrees of intensity) a strong desire to affiliate by joining groups such as societies, clubs, professional associations, churches and religious groups etc. There is a universal need to feel love and acceptance by others.
(4) Self-Esteem needs
There are essentially two types of esteem needs: self-esteem resulting from competence or mastery of a task; and the esteem and good opinion of other people.
(5) The need for self-actualisation
Maslow theory of motivation proposes that people who have all their “lower order” needs met progress towards the fulfilment their potential. Typically this can include the pursuit of knowledge, peace, aesthetic experiences, self-fulfilment, oneness with God, etc. So ultimately this is all to do with the desire for self transcendence.
A paradigm shift that forms the basis for good leadership and successful change management
The Maslow theory of motivation brought a new face to the study of human behaviour. Maslow was inspired by greatness in the minds of others, and his own special contribution to the field of motivational psychology led to the creation of the concept of Humanistic Psychology. This is based on belief that humans are not simply blindly reacting to situations, but trying to accomplish something greater.
It also forms the basis of much current understanding of what constitutes good leadership and forms a major foundation of prevailing models and theories of successful change management. Maslow theory of motivation emphasise and remind those of us involved in leading and managing change of the complexity and multi-faceted nature of human needs and motivational drives. Aligned with that is people’s transcendent needs and aspirations as well as the more prosaic needs of survival and love.
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About the author: Stephen Warrilow, based in Bristol, England, works with companies across the UK providing specialist support to directors delivery significant change initiatives. Stephen has 25 years cross sector experience with 100+ companies in mid range corporate, larger SME and corporate environments. Take advantage of his 7 FREE “How to Do It” downloads that will take you through all of the key stages of “How to manage change” – and show you how to manage change successfully. NOTE: I was fortunate to discover the work and writings of Stephen Warrilow at end of 2009. It was apparent that his extensive Change Management knowledge and experience would add value to my project management blog. It will equip readers with knowledge and skills to manage change successfully. Enjoy the Change Management articles that Stephen Warrilow has given permission to share with you. I trust that you will find great value and I encourage you to download Stephen’s free material to implement in your own change projects. |
While I was an IT project manager at a corporate insurance company, we were approached for a printing solution that would provide: 
The solution that we proposed was too expensive. It would involve procurement of expensive hardware and software and the customer didn’t have enough budget provision.
We then proposed a scaled down customized solution, using existing hardware and software with some upgrade to RAM and disc space and a different architecture design. This proposal was accepted by the customer and the project could start.
Initially it was estimated to be a 3-month project, but it took 5 months to complete due to many unforeseen problems. Even though this was one of my troubled projects, I managed to have a satisfied customer who was happy with the end result.
In all honesty, I would attribute the success of the project to following project communications management best practices. We had a communications plan which attributed to building a very committed project team, as well as a supportive customer.
The team met for progress meetings weekly and minutes and progress reports were distributed afterwards. The customer was well informed throughout the project and we had 2-weekly feedback sessions with the customer as planned in the communications plan. Consistency with information distribution and performance reporting was key.
Through my regular verbal and written communications, I built trust with the customer who accepted the problems (risks that became issues) and delays that we experienced as we kept it totally transparent. Change requests were submitted to obtain approval for changes and the consequent impact on the timeline. The engineers who were part of the project team persevered and kept going while having to resolve many issues, as they were clear about the end goal of the project. The project team members acquired good skills while working on the project, which they, as well as the project manager, could reference in their future careers.
As you can see from this case study example, it is sticking to simple best practices in project communications management that will enhance your chances for successful projects significantly. In this instance we delivered the project to budget and with quality, but in spite of being ‘late’, we managed the stakeholder’s expectations and achieved customer satisfaction at the end. This is why I think this case study is a good example of the difference that project communications management best practices can make.
You are welcome to share examples from your own experience so that we can all learn from one another. For more BEST PRACTICES project management articles, please subscribe to my RSS feed.
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As part of the project management best practices posts, project communications management is a topic that is close to my heart. Project communications management is probably the main piece of the puzzle when it comes to best practices for running successful projects. I know that it has been one of the best reasons for my track record of successful projects.
It is an accepted fact that communications will take up about 90% of a project manager’s time. This is the reason why I start with project communications management as a best practice and excellent communication skills are at the top of the list for a skilled project manager.
In theory project communications management is about appropriate generation, collection, storage and distribution of project information. During the project planning it requires determining the information and communications needs of stakeholders, during execution it is about distributing the information in a timely manner, doing status reporting and progress measurement, during closure it is about gathering information to formalize project completion. How is all of this applied in practice?
This is where you must pay special attention…

For project communications management to be used as a best practice, it needs to be applied in a regular, consistent manner throughout the life cycle of a project, from initiation, to planning, during execution, controlling and closing. Project communications management must be done to the point where it becomes a routine task on the project. It keeps all stakeholders well informed and gives them the re-assurance that the project is in good hands. (That is what project managers are paid for, not true?)
Document in your communications management plan which information will be written, which will be oral (progress meetings, presentations), whether it is formal or informal. How will information be stored and distributed. The communications management plan is part of the overall project plan and can be as simple as a one-page communications matrix to a detailed communications plan depending on the size and complexity of the project.
Information distribution is about making information available to project stakeholders in a timely manner. It deals with how the information will be stored, shared and exchanged (written, oral, internal, external, formal and informal, etc)
Performance reporting is to provide stakeholders with information about project status, progress and forecasting. It generally provides information on scope, schedule, cost and quality, as well as on risk and procurement where applicable.
Project administrative closure is a neglected aspect of Project communications management, but this is where project results are reviewed and documented. This is where project success is analyzed, lessons learned are discussed and archived. 
Following this project communications management best practice, will lead to a well structured project and a consistent performance by the project manager. If you practice your project communications management skills, you will be well on your way to be an efficient project management professional.
In my next post I will share a case study to illustrate that applying project communications management as a best practice, will inevitably lead to a successful project. Please subscribe to my RSS if you don’t want to miss the project management best practices future blog posts.

Leadership characteristics are extremely relevant as a key success factor in change management. They have been extensively researched by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner. Their groundbreaking studies, commenced in 1983 with the driver to identify the characteristics of good leadership.
They devised a leadership characteristics survey consisting of thirty-eight open-ended questions designed to capture “Personal Best” stories of peak leadership experience.
The leadership characteristics research was conducted over 15 years with 75,000 people, on a worldwide basis and included middle and senior level managers in private and public sector organisations, community leaders, student leaders, church leaders, government leaders, and hundreds of others in non-managerial positions.
The last study was conducted in 2002 and the prioritized list of leadership characteristics is as follows:
1. Honest 88% 
2. Forward-Looking 71%
3. Competent 65%
4. Inspiring 66%
5. Intelligent 35%
6. Fair-minded 47%
7. Broad-minded 40%
8. Supportive 42%
9. Straightforward 34%
10. Dependable 33%
11. Co-operative 24%
12. Determined 20%
13. Imaginative 23%
14. Ambitious 17%
15. Courageous 28%
16. Caring 21%
17. Mature 20%
18. Loyalty 14%
19. Self-Controlled 8%
20. Independent 6%
It is interesting to note that these figures have remained largely consistent over the full 15 years of research. The results of this research and subsequent analysis of leadership characteristics has led them to the defining of the 5 practices of excellent leadership and which are crucial in change management.
In summary they found that despite differences in the circumstances and details of people’s individual stories, their “personal-best” leadership experiences revealed recurring and similar patterns of behaviour in their descriptions of the characteristics of good leadership. 
Leaders define and establish principles about the way people should be treated and the way goals should be pursued. Leaders set the benchmark by creating standards of excellence and then demonstrate these standards in their own behaviour and thus establishing an example for others to follow. They create the environment in which people can succeed.
Leaders have a clear and passionately held vision of what the changed organisation can become. They have the skills and energy to enthuse and inspire people to share that vision, and get excited about the future possibilities. 
Leaders are challenging and seek out opportunities to challenge and change the status quo. They seek innovation and improvement in the organisation, are prepared to experiment, to take risks and to accept the inevitable failures as part of the learning experience.
Leaders are enablers and empower people by involving them and believing in them. They engender mutual respect and trust and in so doing motivate their people to extraordinary effort and achievement.
Leaders know that extraordinary achievement in an organisation is very hard work. They also know that emotional dimension is extremely important. So they regularly acknowledge their people’s achievements and celebrate team and individual accomplishments, and is so doing they make their people feel good about themselves. 
All of these are qualities and practises that make up the leadership characteristics for successful change management initiatives.
| About the author:Stephen Warrilow, based in Bristol, England, works with companies across the UK providing specialist support to directors delivery significant change initiatives. Stephen has 25 years cross sector experience with 100+ companies in mid range corporate, larger SME and corporate environments. Take advantage of his 7 FREE “How to Do It” downloads that will take you through all of the key stages of “How to manage change” – and show you how to manage change successfully.
NOTE: I was fortunate to discover the work and writings of Stephen Warrilow at end of 2009. It was apparent that his extensive Change Management knowledge and experience would add value to my project management blog. It will equip readers with knowledge and skills to manage change successfully. Enjoy the Change Management articles from Stephen Warrilow. I trust that you will find great value and I encourage you to download Stephen’s free material to implement in your own change projects. |

When I started out as a project manager, I always tried to apply project management methodologies and practices in a technically correct way. In that sense, I had a natural tendency to find and use best practices in project management before I even knew that such a term existed or what the proper meaning of project management best practices is.
According to Wikipedia, a best practice is a technique, method, process, activity, incentive, or reward t
hat is believed to be more effective at delivering a particular outcome than any other technique, method, process, etc. when applied to a particular condition or circumstance.
Best practice can also be defined as the most efficient (least amount of effort) and effective (best results) way of accomplishing a task, based on repeatable procedures that have proven themselves over time for large numbers of people.
Project management best practices can and should evolve to become better as improvements are discovered. It is about developing and following a standard way of doing things!
I would summarize it to say that project management best practice is a standard approach to follow that has been proven to work within a business industry or environment and then gets adopted by most people within that specific context.
Some consulting firms specialize in the area of project management best practices. A key strategic talent is required to provide good “best practice” consulting to organizations: the ability to balance the uniqueness of an organization with practices it has in common with other organizations.
The make-up of a typical project manager consists of a person’s natural abilities or talents, learned skills and project management knowledge.
In the Project Management Paper: ‘Still more Art than Science’ by Kate Belzer, it has been stated that project management is both an art and a science. Understanding processes, tools, and techniques are the hard skills, also referred to as the science of project management.
For successful project delivery, project managers also need soft skills, referred to as the art of project management. Soft skills help to define the business value, clarify the vision, determine requirements, provide direction, build teams, resolve issues, and mitigate risk. Communication is quite simply the most important soft skill. The ability to apply soft skills effectively throughout the life cycle of a project will enhance the success of a project exponentially! Often projects fail because of a project manager’s inability to communicate effectively, work within the organization’s culture, motivate the project team, manage stakeholder expectations, understand the business objectives, solve problems effectively, and make clear and knowledgeable decisions. These are the skills that take time to acquire through experience, coaching, and mentoring.
To me the art and science of project management requires the intuitive application of your talents, your hard and soft skills, your knowledge and experience in the right combination that is applicable to a specific project situation. To find that kind of balance is a project management best practice in itself.

My work experienced has exposed me to working in organizations with too few specialist resources, lack of sufficient time for projects and inadequate project budget planning or allocation. I have also worked in highly controlled, standardized approach organizations with expert resources where everything in a project is set up to succeed. This means that planning is based on previous similar projects and expert judgement estimates, resources are dedicated to the project for periods when needed, adequate budget is allocated, proper scope and quality management is applied. Of course, all of this was based on project management best practice.
Even though normal risks and issues were experienced in both type of organization’s projects, the organisations where project management best practices were applied consistently, have shown more successful projects and satisfied customers, meaning that these projects always had a better chance of being on time, to budget and with the desired quality.
If you liked this article, please subscribe to my blog (to the right) and receive more project management tips and articles.
About the author: Linky van der Merwe is a former Project Manager at Microsoft Consulting Services and an IT Project Manager with 13 years IT industry experience and 10 years Project Management experience.
She consults with small-medium business owners and service professionals about project management and project processes, best practices and successful delivery through projects. She is most experienced in corporate infrastructure projects (upgrades, migration, deployment etc) and process optimisation. She can be reached at linky@virtualprojectconsulting.com
In: Home
31 Dec 2009Being in the middle of summer, I took my kids to a lovely beach, called Clifton(see picture on the right), in Cape Town. While spending the day overlooking the beautiful ocean, I had time to reflect on the past year and specifically what project success I have accomplished in 2009.
There is no denying that it was a most difficult year. Yet, we all aim to be successful in what we do. Looking back at 2009, you can evaluate if you were successful, personally, professionally and with business projects delivered. There are a few simple questions you can answer:
By doing this you can write your own Report Card to assess your accomplishments. It will help you stay focused on the positive things that you have achieved in 2009 and that you can be grateful for.
To give you a glimpse of my Report Card for Virtual Project Consulting, I wrote down my reflections on the past year.
Looking back on 2009, I realized how much I have to be grateful for. I did more research in the past year on internet marketing, social media and other topics that interest me than in the 5 years before that. Being an optimistic, but impatient person, I learned the virtue of patience and of having faith to keep doing what you believe in with diligence and skill. It really takes perseverance to become successful, but it takes a positive attitude to be happy in any circumstances.
Do you have your business strategy for 2010 in place?
Do you have a Social Media strategy that gives you a plan, a strategic approach for social networking and many tactics to use to grow your business online, establish your brand and make more money?
Look at the Social Media Starter Project Kit! 
I’m giving away the Social Media Strategy template for a limited time until 15 January 2010. Use the opportunity to create a social media strategy for your business as part of your overall marketing plan for 2010.
Thanks for the opportunity to share. Please feel free to share one or two of your own accomplishments and even 2010 resolutions…..
Where business owners and service professionals find Project Management and Social Media solution services.
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