With the spread of COVID-19 as a declared pandemic across the world, the transitioning to working remotely, or what is classically called ‘work from home’ (WFH) has equally spread fast. Many organisations have realised that their staff can continue working from home without interruption, therefore minimising the impact of the virus lockdowns.
However, working remotely has it’s own challenges that need to be overcome in order to stay productive.
Herewith an Infographic guide, with compliments from Wrike, that covers everything you need from room temperature to ergonomic chairs, from what you play on your headphones to what you put in your belly. We trust that this will help you to stay super productive!
Many teams all over the world, have been forced into a ‘work-from-home’ situation due to the Coronavirus spread and countries’ response with different degrees of lockdown measures to curb the spread. Inevitably, virtual teams have many challenges. This article will position how the skill of ‘Active Listening’ can play a huge part when leading virtual teams.
What is active listening?
Active listening can be described as follows:
Clarifying
Feedback
Focus
Improve the communication
Repeating
Intent
Encouraging
What are communication challenges to overcome?
The challenges people are coming across, include the following:
How to listen when you are part of a virtual team
Technology is overloaded; organisations and schools are using the networks, which could cause connectivity or sound issues
When no video is used, you cannot read body language. Tone of voice becomes very important
Participants can talk over each another, or some don’t get a chance to speak
How to address communication challenges with listening skills?
You will find with remote work that virtual teams require new rules and new ways of collaboration. Different ground rules will apply, for example to time-box discussions and to ensure that every participant get a chance to speak. More 1-on-1 discussions are required and you need to have more empathy.
Communication with virtual teams can take a lot of energy. Therefore, beware of low energy levels, for example if a person hasn’t eaten, or it’s at the end of a long day, people may lose interest.
Stages of Listening
Reception during communication can be explained with:
Intake
Meaning
Significance
Response
3 Phases of active listing
The following image provides a nice breakdown of the three phases of active listening, namely comprehending, retaining and responding.
Levels of listening
There are also different levels of listening to be aware of.
Level 1: Internal listening
You ask a question. When a person answers, you think of your own life, interrupt them, or just keep thinking of your own things, and stop listening while they’re speaking. It’s all about ME.
Level 2: Focused listening
The person who listens, asks clarifying questions. Now it’s about voice, information, body language (if it can be seen), emotions that are being observed.
Level 3: Global listening
The person listening has a sense of curiosity. You listen with emphathy. You consider the environment and you take into account a person’s background.
Level 4: Listening for potential
You listen with intent and a positive attitude while thinking of future possibilities and potential.
How to become better with active listening
What will really help you is to have curiosity and to use keywords. If you’re not interested, or curious, you won’t listen, or spend energy there. While listening, look for keywords, ideas and concepts. If things are repeated, look for patterns, because repeated themes are more important.
Another way to become better with active listening, is thinking in a visual way. To do this, you can draw notes, or draw a picture. This gives context, meaning and focus.
You can also improve your active listening skills by being aware of yourself. Do this through reflection, mindfulness and self-awareness. Ask yourself questions like:
How do I listen?
What is good and what not?
Can I improve something?
Nonviolent communication
Nonviolent Communication is an approach to nonviolent living developed by Marshall Rosenberg beginning in the 1960s. NVC is based on the assumption that all human beings have capacity for compassion and empathy and is really about communicating honestly and receiving empathetically. It is an essential ingredient to active listening.
The steps involved with NVC are:
Observe – when I see, hear
Feelings – I feel
Needs – because I need
Requests – please could you now. The needs of the other person are important and always considered
Tips to improve
There are several ways to keep improving your active listening skills. They are:
Conscious practice
Write down keywords
Note your own ideas
Ask neutral clarifying questions
In your mind repeat what other persons says
Try to visualize what the other person is saying
Ask additional questions until you can form a mental image
Don’t talk; rather use non-verbal signals like sounds and expressions, grunts and body language
Reply with 1-2 syllables
Admit you are lost
Repeat back or paraphrasing to show understanding
Adjust your own posture
Mirror the other person
Apply mindfulness
Check the environment
Drawing of notes, or pictures
The skill of ‘Active Listening’ should not be underestimated; it becomes even more important with virtual teams. It is something that can be practiced and improved over time.
As a virtual team lead, it is your responsibility to hone this skill and to model the behavior of good active listening to your team members so that they can also practice it and improve their listening skills. You will find that it will greatly contribute to building trust within teams and to help overcome the challenges of working virtually.
Sources:
Webinar by Pascal Papathemelis from Agile 42
Corporatecoachgroup.com: “How to improve active listening skills”
In light of this crisis, some of the best things a Project Leader can do, is to arm yourself with information and to be a pillar of strength for your project team(s).
By now we all know that the Coronavirus, known as the COVID-19 pandemic, has serious implications for economies all over the world and is causing a huge business impact in every country where it is spreading. Countries, organizations, and individuals are faced with extremely serious risks, uncertainties, challenges, questions, and decisions—in many cases existential in nature. It is important to arm yourself with accurate, comprehensive information to manage your organization and teams through this crisis by making informed, thoughtful decisions.
Let’s look with a broader lens before we try to understand the impact on project teams.
Based on the rapid, exponential spread of COVID-19 across the world over the past month, McKinsey has revised its Scenario Analysis (as shared in the previous article) to include 9 potential scenarios. These scenarios capture outcomes related to GDP impact, public health response, and economic policies.
Stages of Recovery
Different countries have had different levels of success in handling this crisis, therefore McKinsey is proposing 4 stages of recovery readiness.
Overview of the 4 Stages of Recovery
To understand what state of readiness a country is in, the 9 scenarios are mapped to the 4 stages of readiness. The best prepared areas are in the upper right box.
For every country and territory, there is a path to recovery—before parts of the economy can be restarted, you must first slow the spread of the virus. If you prematurely restart the economy prior to truly containing the spread, you risk re-starting the spread. Most countries expect to experience significant decline in GDP in Q2 of 2020, which would be the first time since WWII. In fact, GDP drops to its lowest point globally in Q2.
COVID-19 Scenarios Overview
Based on the COVID-19 scenarios, here are the proposed paths to recovery.
If you examine the Stage 2 scenario: A3-Virus is contained, which captures the situation where the virus is contained by mid-Q2, it is expected that public health containment and mitigation efforts, along with a seasonal decline, leads to a reduction in case load.
The result is that by the end of 2020, beginning of 2021, GDP will have recovered to the pre-pandemic levels for most countries.
Under the A1 scenario (medium virus spread), we endure a slow, global recovery—there is severe and large-scale human and economic impact. Most countries will take over 2+ years to recover to the pre-pandemic GDP levels. In this scenario, the GDP shows a gradual U-shape recovery stretching multiple years.
Implication for Companies and Projects
If the Stage 2 scenario (A3-virus is contained) materializes in your country, you have the possibility that the economy should return to normal within a year, with little impact on larger projects and programmes that were able to continue, despite wide-scale lock-down measures in many countries. Of course many small projects would have been put on hold, postponed, or cancelled altogether due to the economic downturn.
However, in the event of a possible A1 scenario in your country, the slow economic recovery, may cause many planned projects to be postponed and multiple cost-saving measures are expected to be implemented by stable companies who will try to survice over the 2+ years that it will take the economy to recover to pre-pandemic GDP levels.
Our response
There is no point in panicking about the situation we as project practitioners are finding ourselves in. Rather prepare for the eventuality that uncertainty, challenges and difficult decisions are lying ahead for most companies.
In another McKinsey article: “Saving our livelihoods from COVID-19: Toward an economic recovery“, they state:
The pandemic could give rise to a new era of human development
McKinsey, April 2020
Recognise the impact of COVID-19 on people’s livelihoods. There will be an increase in unemployment and poverty. This means that some of your team members are experiencing a decline in household income that could last months. This will have a demoralizing effect on families and on teams we lead. We need to raise our awareness and focus on providing emotional safety to our teams. When people feel safe (a basic need) and still secure in their jobs, they will stay committed and motivated to work productively.
It will be the government’s responsibility to help companies to safeguard employment. People will be allowed to return to work under strict health protocols. We need to support those protocols in order to contain the virus and still stay economically active.We can expect that companies will make structural changes during the economic recovery period like leaner operations, digital and industrial reconversions, the introduction of new channels, agile organizational structures, digital innovation and innovative learning techniques. These changes will certainly have an impact on how projects are prioritized and executed in future. As project professionals we need to position ourselves to have market related skills to fill the demands of the recovering economy.
We need to work on being more resilient in these difficult time and keep developing our leadership skills. This is why I’m reading a book called: “Prosper!: How to Prepare for the Future and Create a World Worth Inheriting” by Chris Martenson and Adam Taggart. It gives specific, attainable steps you can take today that can limit your vulnerability and help you to live your life with greater purpose.
Keep yourself informed, be realistic, but stay positive while leading your teams as best as you can through these uncertain times. As long as value is delivered by projects and the outcomes serve companies and their customers, you will stay in high demand.
Please comment and let us know how you are dealing with the pandemic crisis. How are you supporting your teams through this? Share anything that will help others who are in the same predicament.
The best way to go about implementing a monitoring policy is to:
Establish a goal from the beginning and use it to guide your policy
Remain transparent through the process to keep your team in the loop
Tailor the policy to your team and acquire software that they’re comfortable with
Adjust accordingly after evaluating the effects of your new policy
A good remote working policy comes down to what works best for you and your team.
Few people could have seen this coming; the importance of remote working to slow the spread of COVID-19. Many businesses had to send their workforce away to continue business operations at home. Working from home is a safe alternative to commuting to the office, but also creates new issues some project managers may not have faced before.
Work from home challenges
Transitioning to work from home has its own challenges since team members must practice even more self-discipline now that their colleagues are not around. It also requires employees to carve a space out at home to focus on their work.
On top of that, many may have stress and anxiety surrounding the state of our world and find it hard to push through the day.
Doctors and psychologists both recognize that our “new normal” is taking a toll on many aspects of our health and difficulty to keep up productivity, is expected. For project managers in the era of COVID-19, it’s important to strike a balance between being empathetic with our team while also keeping our projects on track.
Remote Work Policy
This balance gets tricky when deciding how to keep track of your team and project progress. A remote work policy can include a set of protocols to follow, protections for the business as well as increased monitoring.
Setting clear expectations and protocols might be all some teams need to keep projects on track and to keep project managers in the loop. Requiring periodic check ins and status reports might be enough to keep track of your team without keeping a closer eye on them.
However, this might not be enough if you start to see things falling through the cracks, deadlines not being met and other red flags. These red flags can signal issues with productivity or more serious matters.
Uncertainty with remote working can partly be mitigated by getting some protections for your business. If you don’t already, you should consider fidelity bonds. These bonds protect you and your clients from employees who commit things like theft and embezzlement. Although assuming the worst can put you down a rabbit hole, implementing protections provides at least some peace of mind.
Monitoring and time tracking
Remote monitoring software helps project managers keep a pulse on projects and how efficiently tasks are executed. Time tracking software is simple and can help manage project scope while more advanced software can track online activity to ensure your team members are on track.
There are many risks and benefits associated with monitoring. On the plus side, you’ll have clear, unbiased oversight of your team. Consequently, some team members may feel stressed and may interpret the increased monitoring as a lack of trust. You can consider a hybrid of self-reporting and software monitoring to streamline some tasks while giving your team some control.
Decide if monitoring is necessary
JW Surety Bonds put together this flowchart to help you decide if you should begin monitoring your remote team. This decision map walks you through key questions and scenarios to think of before diving headfirst into a monitoring policy. Take a look at the flowchart below and see if monitoring is the right move at this time for your team.
Please
include attribution to JW Surety Bonds with this graphic.
Many people like to dream. Some people manage to make dreams come true by launching a change that brings about success.
Today you will find inspiration from well-known founders and CEO’s who have all dreamed big, people who didn’t let fear hold them back to pursue the big ideas and turn them into reality.
Infographic brought to you by Wrike project management web based software.
When you find yourself leading a virtual team, you will often need to take on the role as team coach to facilitate optimum performance. In order to do so properly, a good place to start, is with your understanding of what a team really is.
Much about teams and team performance can be learnt from the authors Katzenbach and Smith. No wonder that their definition of Teams became an industry standard over the years:
“A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.”
Katzenbach and Smith
In an article: “Organisational Culture” published in the Harvard Business Review, Katzenbach and Smith stated that teamwork represents a set of values that encourage listening and responding constructively to views expressed by others, giving others the benefit of the doubt, providing support, and recognizing the interests and achievements of others. They explain further that teams require both individual and mutual accountability. Teams rely on group discussion, debate, and decision, sharing information and best practice performance standards. Teams produce work-products through the joint contributions of their members. This is what makes possible performance levels greater than the sum of all the individual members, also stated as a team is more than the sum of its parts.
A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. The essence of a team is common commitment towards a purpose in which team members can believe. The attainability of specific goals helps teams maintain their focus on getting results. The combination of purpose and specific goals is essential to performance. In essence, goals help a team keep track of progress, while a broader purpose supplies meaning and emotional energy.
In working with teams Katzenbach and Smith have found when a team shares a common purpose, goals, and approach, mutual accountability grows as a natural counterpart. When people work together toward a common objective, trust and commitment follow. Consequently, teams enjoying a strong common purpose and approach inevitably hold themselves responsible, both as individuals and as a team, for the team’s performance. This sense of mutual accountability also produces the rich rewards of mutual achievement in which all members share.
Project Lead as a Team Coach
Having the responsibility to facilitate positive change in teams you lead, whether in person or virtually, you have much neuro-science research to back you up according to the Neuro Leadership Institute. How can this help you to coach teams for optimum performance?
Well, virtual team members have differing skill sets and depending on their background also different levels of experience to consider. It is important for teams to have the right mix of skills including technical or functional expertise, problem-solving, decision-making skills and interpersonal skills. Interpersonal skills include risk taking, helpful criticism, objectivity, active listening, giving the benefit of the doubt, and recognizing the interests and achievements of others.
As a team coach it is good to be cognizant of behavioral differences in the virtual team. There are a variety of individuals with an even bigger variety of personalities. Having a basic understanding of personality types, will help you tailor your communication plans. Remember also that virtual team members may be at different levels of engagement and motivation.
Christopher Samsa from the Neuro Leadership Institute continues to explain important factors to consider as part of brain based team coaching. They are:
Collective intelligence
Collective emotion
Collective performance
Collective Intelligence
Collective intelligence is the prediction of the group’s ability to perform well. There is a correlation to how group members are social sensitive of one another, if there’s an equal distribution of conversation turn-taking and even the proportion of females in the group that can increase the collective intelligence.
As a team leader and coach you can help the team to be more meta-cognitive, to be mindful about planning out their work, tracking their progress, and assessing their own knowledge.
Collective Emotion
Collective emotion refers to the ability to empathise and to cooperate with one another. Some factors that come into play are:
Social regulation – a person’s ability to be explicit about their emotions. For example, if you join a meeting just after receiving some bad news, instead of trying to keep it to yourself, mention it and put it out in the open.
Mirror neurons – when we perceive some-one in pain, sadness, it fires the same emotions in your brain.
Social context, if are you friend or foe. A perceived similarity will help, perceived closeness will improve commitment. If one member shows progress, the whole team will feel they are making progress especially if they have a common purpose and shared goals. Work towards having positive connections and similarity in groups.
Help the team stay cool under pressure by managing expectations and helping other reappraise.
Collective Performance
Collective performance is about understanding the team behaviour at systemic and habitual level. Look at the culture of the team and figure out if they are generally positive. If they are connected to each other and are they contributing to team performance.
A common tool that many of you are familiar with, is the Tuckman model for teams. The Forming Storming Norming Performing theory is an elegant and helpful explanation of team development and behavior.
Principles for results coaching
The principles to use in order to coach for results are:
Self-directed learning – let people discover, find answers themselves, learning something new, making new connections.
Solutions focus – look forward into how to solve problems, instead of only discussing problems and issues.
Positive feedback to the team and individual members often.
Stretch – provide stretch goals that are not always easy to attain.
Structure – be consistent with the agenda and format of discussion, it will help to make people feel safe.
Model for Coaching
In their research, the Neuro Leadership Institute shares another very useful Model, called the Co-create Model. Based on this model you need to remember the following when coaching teams for optimum performance.
Source: Neuro Leadership Institute
Spend enough time in the Forming stage to establish a common purpose for the team based on the shared vision.
Agree on the performance objectives based on the common purpose; they could be business objectives or project milestones and deliverables.
Identify the gap between where the team is now, versus performance objectives and the common purpose. This is where you need to take into account the budget available, the project timeline, the team’s experience, skills and emotional status.
Explore all possible ways of bridging the gap. This is where the team can be stretched.
The Team decides on the best way forward and allocates who does what. Allow the team to discuss how they will manage progress and accountability and when they will meet next to review the actions.
The Harvard Business Review: Organisational Culture, 1993. By Jon R. Katzenbach, founder and co-leader of the Katzenbach Center at Booz & Company, which focuses on cultural and leadership joint research within client situations, author of “The Wisdom of Teams” and “Leading Outside the Lines”. And Douglas K. Smith, Chairman of the Board of ‘The Rapid Results Institute’ and author of “On Value and Values: Thinking Differently About We In An Age Of Me”.
Neuro Leadership Institute: Managing your team virtually, April 2020
Managing Organisations during the COVID-19 Vortex, is a comprehensive book to help leaders navigate their organisation through the Coronavirus crisis. From managing day-to-day practicalities, to scenario planning and sense-making, this book offers guidelines from over 20 leading experts to help executives deal with their most pressing challenges.
It helps leaders find the guidance, knowledge and will to persevere through this time, and offers them guidelines for navigating their organisation through the Coronavirus crisis.
Topics
Some of the topics covered by the book are:
How to manage uncertainty and complexity
Leadership excellence in the COVID-19 crisis
Promoting mental wellness in the workplace
Sense-making for better decision-making in a crisis
Effective crisis communication
Economic and social scenarios
Business contingency planning during COVID-19
Retaining resilience in chaotic conditions
How to navigate lockdowns with certainty
Best practices for managing virtual workers
The legal implications of COVID-19 for employers
This book will give leaders the context, tools, guidelines and perseverance needed to face this crisis head-on and lead their organisations into a future beyond the Coronavirus. It is available now in PDF e-format at WWW.KR.CO.ZA
Contributors
Contributors include among others:
Tim Cohen, Editor and Journalist, Daily Maverick
James Hebbard, Chief People Officer, Tencent
Michael Davies, CEO of ContinuitySA
Navlika Ratangee, Clinical Operations Director, ICAS SA
Feedback
What people are saying about the book:
“A global pandemic is not normal business disruption. It threatens workforce directly. It requires strong leadership, extensive set of activities to assess the risk, stress test pandemic plans and put people rst – safe, productive and engaged. This book will be a valuable resource for leaders during unprecedented times.”
Jeanett Modise, Chief Executive: Human Resources, Sanlam Limited
“As business leaders struggle to come to terms with managing their organisations through this vortex, it is heartening to see a great team of specialists coming together in the spirit of Ubuntu to share their perspectives and ideas on how to plan for this new world of work.”
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“The multitudinous impact of COVID-19 forces humans to reconnect. An insightful read on a vortex of socio-economic impact and counter strategies grounded on rekindling neglected intra- and interpersonal relationships, novel depictions of leadership agility, re ections on breaking down walls of work and revaluing the power of organisational culture.”
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If you’re working in a structured project environment with a project office, the chances are that you are using a right-size governance approach.
What does that mean? Essentially, the level of management attention and oversight varies appropriately, depending upon the characteristics of the project, such as size and complexity, or the level and significance of the impact of the project on the organisation.
In the example below, projects are classified for governance purposes into three types based upon size and complexity.
Project categorisation
Type ‘1’ projects demand formal ratification of key deliverables such as the business case and project initiation document. They will not be allowed to continue (or at least that’s the idea) until there is real evidence that the legitimate governance stakeholders have given their authorisation to proceed stage by stage.
Type ‘3’ projects? Well, they typically take only a few weeks, a few staff, and not a lot of money, and have a very limited impact on the organisation’s strategy. They often simply require a sign-off as an agreement to operationalise and close the project. It’s not unusual for work to continue while the sign-off is being negotiated.
Ultimately, the choice of governance affects the way the project is controlled, monitored, and the way decision-making is managed.
It all sounds good, doesn’t it? Except that it simply isn’t working.
Right-size governance is failing on so many levels
Twenty years ago, most of us recognised that adopting strict life cycles and gateway processes may well reduce risk, but at a huge cost to the agility of delivery. It didn’t matter how many times PRINCE2 theoreticians told us it was ‘just a framework’ and its strictures must be adapted to the project and organizational context, there were methodologist practitioners who were determined to implement a rigid, formulaic system. This was the era when the joke was:
What’s the difference between a methodologist and a terrorist?
“You can negotiate with a terrorist!”
Right-size governance was introduced to proceduralise the judgements about which governance techniques to apply and when. It makes logical sense. In line with Pareto’s law, you concentrate most management attention on the top 20% of projects. But like so many well-intentioned ideas, it had not factored in the Machiavellian behaviour of organizations and their project stakeholders. In a review comparing the actual governance approach taken by projects against the approach suggested by project size and complexity evaluation, we found over 25% of projects were not in line with the right-size governance recommendations. Here are just some of the examples we come across:
Under-inflation: When projects are misdescribed as ‘simple’ to ensure low levels of governance oversight. “I know I said it was large, but actually it’s quite straightforward – I’m sure it’s a type ‘3’.”
Over-inflation: When project classifications are confused with project ‘status’. Yes, it does happen! “This is definitely a type ‘1’ project. Look how important it is!” Perhaps we should read here – “…look how important I am!”
Process override: When there are clear indications of a project of being one type, but alternative governance approaches are mandated, often by a powerful stakeholder. “I don’t need all this, and I’m not prepared to pay for it.”
Right-size governance so rarely deals with change
In the organisations we work with, the classification of projects for governance purposes is part of the project initiation process. It must be because fundamental decisions to questions are dependent upon understanding the nature of the project. Questions such as:
Who will be involved?
What level of project manager skill is necessary?
How should we register the project?
This works well where the level of simplicity and complexity is obvious, but for those in between, it can be more difficult to predict in their early stages. We don’t know what we don’t know yet. Selecting and implementing the governance for the project at this stage is a problem.
The PMOs we work with report that it is often these projects that get into trouble simply because the management oversight is just wrong. While there may be good intentions to review the project categorisation at stage gates, in reality, what happens is that the project drifts into a governance black-hole with nobody prepared to expose the existing governance regime to challenge.
The PMO’s role
Clearly, with some projects and programmes lasting over several years, the governance approach must be reviewed. In these circumstances a PMO can add real value, monitoring the risks associated with projects in the wrong governance state and highlighting the need for change to occur. We suspect, however, that many PMOs are subject to the ‘magpie effect’ – they become overly focused on large projects and programmes. Strange really, because these are the ones we assign our most experienced (and costliest) project and programme managers to – exactly because of the known risks. It seems an exercise in project manager disempowerment for the PMO to pitch in as well. Rather it is those middle level projects where changes in context are most likely, and where the skills and experience of the managers involved may be more suspect, that the PMO should focus.
Adaptive governance
Reviewing your governance approach is one thing – adapting it is something else. Indeed, one might consider that the whole idea of adapting governance is an oxymoron. After all, the purpose of governance is to give predictable approaches, based upon best practices, to reduce the risks associated with the management of projects. Adapting governance – well it sounds like the sort of can that is best left unopened!
Yet if yours is a complex project environment where the organisational context of projects is varied and varying, or indeed if you are working on Agile projects, adapting governance approaches is exactly what you are expected to do.
As governance is about reducing management risk, it has to remain alert to the sources of management risk, and the first and possibly most important is where and by whom are management decisions being made. So often demanding and dangerous stakeholders are involved or included in the decision-making, and yet good practice means that only the decision-makers should be limited to those who have a legitimate right – which means the decisions are made at the right place by the right people.
A second, and in some ways, more subtle point about adapting governance to better suit changing circumstances was made by Cohn, an early Agile theorist. He pointed out that project governance – far from eschewing change – should welcome it and see change as a positive consequence of having learned something and avoiding the mistake of doing something not wanted. A far cry from the rigid, predictive governance strait jackets of yesteryear that saw the role of keeping to the script and frustrating change.
Agile projects
So in the Agile world, governance matters but it’s a much more consultative process. It’s not just about whether the project is complex, but what the clients’ attitudes and desires are around the way the project should be conducted. If the client is open to exploration and the requirements are difficult to define then the Agile space is a great place to be. But if the client needs and demands predictability in the delivery then it probably isn’t.
Bringing those legitimate stakeholders much closer into the project – moving from a negotiative relationship to a collaborative relationship – is key to shortening decision making time. Scrum practices such as the product owner is a good example of attempts to do this. But, as the use of these practices increases, there is a very real danger that (as per the role of the project sponsor) the business will become project-weary and circumvent the Scrum mandate, allowing projects to run without a genuine product owner in place. You may even know instances of that happening in your own organization right now!
Governance practices must diversify and become change competent
As project management disciplines and approaches extend into more diverse areas, as the product development processes projects encompass become more sophisticated, and the demands made by stakeholders increase, project governance must respond – it too has to diversify without losing its role of providing senior managers – the investors in projects – with the confidence they need to implement their organisation’s strategy.
About the Author
Christopher Worsley has over 40 years’ experience in project and programme management. He is a visiting lecturer on the University of Cape town MSc in project management and is the author of the following books with his wife, Louise Worsley.
Christopher will be talking on the importance of adaptive planning practices at the Project Management South Africa (PMSA) monthly meet-up on the 28thApril 2020.
While the whole world is currently dealing with the Coronavirus, and more specifically known as the COVID-19 pandemic, the project management community has a responsibility to deal with this issue on our projects in a decisive, direct manner. What are the important things to do?
When faced with such an extreme risk, uncertainty and challenge, the first thing to do, is to arm yourself with accurate, comprehensive information to best prepare to manage through this crisis by making informed, thoughtful decisions. As Project Management Professionals we need to be planning for this on our projects. Of course this will include to put it on your Risk Register, including a series of scenarios, the expected impacts and mitigation actions with risk owners.
Take the project conversation to your Sponsor and Steering Committee to consider if the project should be put on hold or delayed. You will need signoff on decisions made.
Business Implications
According to a McKinsey article, on the COVID-19 implications for Business, published prior to the lockdown of several countries, there are 3 potential economic scenarios for the Coronavirus Disease. They are:
Quick recovery: The case count continues to grow, given the Coronavirus’s high transmissibility. However, countries are able to achieve rapid control, as seen in China and the virus is assumed to be seasonal.
Global slowdown: Most countries are unable to achieve the same rapid control that China managed. In Europe and the United States, transmission is high but remains localized, driven by strong countermeasures taken by individuals, firms, and governments, while virus is assumed seasonal.
Global recession: In this worst case scenario, the assumptions are similar to that of Global Slowdown, except the virus is not seasonal—i.e. unaffected by spring in the northern hemisphere. Infection cases grow throughout the year, resulting in healthcare systems being overwhelmed for many countries. A recovery in consumer confidence is pushed out to Quarter 3 or later.
The sectors to be most impacted by the pandemic, forecasted by McKinsey, are Aviation and Hospitality, as well as Consumers.
The immediate actions that organisations are expected to take, with application to dealing with this on your projects, are discussed in the next paragraph, based on the McKinsey recommendations.
#1 Protect Employees
Provide clear communication to employees on what to do. Companies, and specifically Project Managers, need to provide clear, simple language to local management and teams on how to deal with the Coronavirus pandemic. These recommendations should be consistent with best practices outlined World Health Organisation and other health agencies.
Secondly, provide autonomy to local managers, so they feel empowered to deal with any quickly evolving situation. With that said, corporates should also monitor and ensure guidelines are being safely followed.
The third one is very applicable to Project Managers to remember. For any crisis, telecommuting has been an important tactic for maintaining operations. Provide an infrastructure for remote work.
To this point, do the following:
Allow employees to telecommute.
Train our leaders. Leaders should be sensible and reasonable in their expectations as to when workers are available for work.
Identify employees who are most crucial to maintaining business continuity. Ensure these employees have the proper tools and infrastructure to work remotely.
Develop a disaster recovery scenario that incorporates telecommuting.
#2 Setup a cross-functional response team
We should set up a cross-functional Coronavirus response team that should include members from every function and discipline within the organization. The leader of the team should report directly to the CEO.
This response team will have several workstreams, focused on the following areas:
Center for communication and coordination
Employee protection of health, welfare and ability to perform their roles
Financials stress test and development of a contingency plan
Supply Chain Management including monitoring, response and long-term plan within the context of Business Continuity Management
Sales, Marketing and Customer engagement including responses to demand shocks.
It’s important for this team to think through different scenarios, to create a single source of truth, to provide clear policies and guidelines, to monitor issues with rapid responses, to track adherence to policies, to update demand forecasts, to support supplier stability and more as applicable to the industry or sector you are in.
#3 Ensure sufficient financial liquidity
It’s recommended to have at minimum 3 months of cash at hand, to have an adequate buffer of stock or other parts at hand, to understand how prepared key suppliers are.
#4 Stabilise the Supply Chain
The activities related to Supply Chain Management include medium-term risk management in our Supply Chain. In the aftermath, there are long-term actions to take related to Business Continuity Management (e.g. supplier regional diversification).
On projects you should consider procurement commitments, including possible delay in deliveries of materials or bringing in contracted staff. A common occurrence on projects, is where people are outsourced from national or international Agencies and you need to consider the implications for those commercial contracts too.
#5 Practice Customer centric design principles
Engage with customers and ensure transparency.
On projects you need to make communications on of your top priorities to address uncertainty, fear or possible panic. Be open with your team, stakeholders, and your sponsor. Communicate your scenarios and plans, and then update with how events are affecting your project and changes to those plans. Also plan for regular review cycles to reconsider plans and responses.
#6 Help the community
Look for ways to support the community. We should adopt strong Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices. Some important activities could include targeting nonprofits and community outreach organizations in your local area, encouraging our employees to volunteer. Let others know what your organization has done. The communication should include only the most pertinent details, including the amount of funds committed, the key beneficiaries and recipients, and what you aim to achieve with your donation.
As Project Managers we have valuable skills to offer, so it’s important to link into responses among your wider business and social communities and offer your help.
Finally, you need to consider your own role. Who will step into your role, if you are taken ill? What about work-stream leaders and other key people on your project? Convene your top team and sketch out alternates for everyone – and alternates for those, if your project is big enough. Even consider the possibility of an orderly temporary shut-down of your project.
We all know how each year can pick-up speed and we become busier than ever. For this productivity to be sustainable, we need a whole lot of motivation.
Especially in the life of a project manager, there are always many important things to do to keep projects on track. Here we think of:
being a leader who needs to motivate others
being a team builder so that your project will have a high performing team
being an excellent communicator, keeping all stakeholders informed and aligned
being a good organiser and planner
being a problem solver of all the inevitable problems that come up
being a negotiator and influencer
knowing how to keep the customers satisfied
keeping your business and industry knowledge current
To all of you who are in the trenches everyday, keeping your eyes on the goals and leading your projects to successful outcomes, I want to share this Infographic, with compliments from Wrike, to bless you with great motivation tips to get more done every day!
Half of today’s workplaces are comprised of millennials, while in the near future, they will make up to three-quarters of the workforce. Generation X, or people born 1965-1979, sometimes need a helping hand in dealing with them in the workplace. They might not have similar mindsets, and they might enjoy different working styles, but should be able to function properly and as a team in the same space.
Managing a team is a complex task, especially if you are leading a group of people with different outlooks on business and life in general. Being in charge can become that much easier just by understanding millennials as employees.
Here are 5 tips for dealing with millennials on projects.
#1 Offer words of encouragement
Regarding their employment, millennials tend to keep an open mind – meaning that they strive for more than just a regular desk job with low career goals. By approaching their work as something meaningful, they will feel appreciated and reciprocate accordingly.
Most of them would perform better at a job that promises a learning experience and the ability to grow within the company. The employer should be there to offer a face to face talk with an employee and land a helping hand or an opportunity to educate them further.
If you, as a leader, recognise a team member’s hard work, they would feel stimulated to stay and continue the good work. A simple ‘well done’ goes a long way.
#2 Work fewer hours
Even though statistics show that they work one hour less on average than Gen-X, millennials are hard workers. Almost 90% of them think that flexible working time makes for a more productive result. People feel motivated to finish their workload and would do it successfully if met with an adequate need.
Furthermore, many consider that working remotely can make a tremendous difference in how quickly a job gets done. So, a chance to work from home now and then can result in flying colors.
Consequently, if offered a dynamic and flexible working time and place while still delivering results, it will set the team and their work apart from the rest of the pack.
#3 Keep up with them
Millennials are curious and tech-savvy; they keep abreast of the latest fashions in technology and consider it to be an important part of progress.
Most of them grew up with electronic devices, and they can offer new insight into how tech can be an integral part of communication with co-workers within and out of the company. Being a part of their group chat can be significant. It is also a big advance in thinking innovatively while leading them on a project.
#4 Teamwork makes the dream work
Over 70% of millennials believe that teamwork is necessary for an effective working environment. They think that being able to rely on another person’s opinion helps their thought process.
Having defined roles in a team is a great way not to allow head bumping. It can be quite an advantage for a project manager to hear different ideas while simultaneously counting on millennial workers to accomplish projects successfully and efficiently.
#5 Create future leaders
Most millennials will not settle for stagnating in their work. This is a massive problem for not only millennials but any ambitious person. Nobody expects to be handed a promotion on a platter, but people must see an opportunity for growth. By offering a tip or a hint that an employee is heading up the ladder, you would motivate them to work harder.
A leader should not feel intimidated by younger employees with potential but should take upon themselves to train them to become future leaders capable of guiding and being ready for upcoming endeavors.
Conclusion
Having a good perspective on millennials in the workplace, might help project managers to deal better with them. Though not a different species, they are more conscious about the business world around them and how it works, how cruel it may be, and they are always on the lookout. They value hard and honest work, just like any other generation.
A significant number of them require a support system and solid relationships while still being given the freedom to express themselves through their work, whether that’s in an office with flexible hours or not.
Regardless of the negative connotation that sometimes comes with the word ‘millennial,’ they are tireless workers focused on the future and its perks, as well as constant improvement.
About the Author:
Raj Vardhman is the co-founder of GoRemotely.net. He is a WordPress virtuoso and white hat SEO expert with a passion for developing SEO strategies. His experience and work over the years have driven him to give other individuals lessons about taking control of their work and finding remote jobs.
In many organisations there are distinct criteria that companies use to pick suitable individuals for leading their projects. The job of a project manager is not easy. You need to come up with good project plans, monitor proper execution and ensure that you deliver or exceed the expected results. It is for this reason that project managers require specific qualifications and some years of experience, including the possession of leadership skills. These are the things that often set project managers apart. With good leadership qualities, you will effortlessly lead a team of people who work efficiently. This article will highlight some of the most crucial leadership skills for project management.
Source: Pixabay
Patience
One thing that often ruins projects before they even start is the lack of patience of individuals involved. Patience is among the essential leadership skills for successful project management. You need to be patient with everyone involved in the project, including stakeholders, suppliers, your employer, and your team members. The moment you lose patience and start rushing the project, is the moment you start making errors. Such errors will ultimately lead to project failure and thus you need to move at a consistent pace.
Team organization skills
Being a project manager involves a flair for team management. A good project manager has to make sure that the entire team works in synchronization in order to deliver positive results. They should be able to organize the team in such a way that it functions efficiently and are able to ensure that the plan is executed in a coordinated way. A good project manager should keep in mind that high performing teams deliver better results.
Source: Pixabay
Risk management skills
Every project manager should have knowledge about risk management regardless of the project type. Such expertise enables you to identify potential problems, identify mitigation strategies and risk owners. You need to consider what the best mitigating actions are and implement them. This ensures that the risks don’t affect the continuity of the project. Your ability to efficiently plan for and respond to any risks, will help you lead your team through complexities that may occur throughout your project. A strategic project leadershipshort course can help you achieve this.
Communication skills
Any experienced project manager will concur that projects requires excellent communication skills. That is because you want team members to understand their roles and responsiblities clearly so that there is no misunderstanding about what is required of them and how to achieve this. You also have to be able to communicate with any additional stakeholders involved to ensure they understand what the project entails, how you will be implementing the project, and what your deadlines are. Remember that project managers spend the majority of their time collaborating with others to keep them engaged and informed about the various aspects of the project.
Source: Pixabay
Negotiation skills
Effective project management also relies on excellent negotiation skills. It is among the best project management skillsthat any project leader should possess. The question is, why is this skill essential? First, project management involves leading a group of people from different backgrounds. That means conflict could arise at any time. Thus, it is vital that you are able to negotiate with the parties involved in the conflict so you are able to diffuse the situation before it escalates. Negotiation skills could also help obtain the best possible agreement with your suppliers, which will enhance the overall outcome of the project.
Source: Pixabay
Critical thinking skills
Critical thinking is a skill that enables leaders to make the best possible decisions in any situation. You need to be able to think critically in order to come up with appropriate solutions to any problems that may arise throughout the duration of your project. Critical thinking skills can also help you create working solutions to impeding problems that will help prevent them from occurring.
Conclusion
The application of the above leadership skills, will help improve your project management capabilities. By developing and practicing these skills you are ensuring that a project runs smoothly and effectively from commencement to completion.
Please let us know in the comments which of these leadership skills do you consider important and what other leadership skills would you add?
About the Author:
Jenny is a passionate writer and guest blogger. Writing helps her to improve her knowledge, skills and understanding about her industry. She loves to educate her audience about education and technology via her writing skills. Apart from writing, she loves traveling & photography.
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