Friday, August 31, 2007

How to Build Helping Relationships

At Certified Project Management we take a process consultation approach that highlights the importance of dealing within the reality of the client system and jointly assessing opportunities for improvement and diagnosing problems as they occur.

Process Consultation was developed in the 1960's by Edgar H. Schein at MIT. The following is a review of Mr. Schein's seminal work in the field.

Book Report: Process Consultation Revisited: Building the Helping Relationship. Schein, Edgar H. (1999) Addison- Wesley.

By David Faith, PMP

In only 256 pages including extensive bibliography and index, Edgar H. Schein’s book, Process Consultation Revisited: Building the Helping Relationship , (Addison Wesley 1999) succinctly yet thoroughly, steps the reader through lessons learned from over 40 years of consulting and teaching experience in the field of Management and Organizational Development. During that time, Dr. Schein literally defined the field of Process Consultation which is a method of engagement that places priority on understanding and developing relationships, human systems, and efficient processes . The Author is the Sloan Fellows Professor of Management Emeritus at MIT. In addition to a Harvard PhD in social psychology he also holds an MA and BA from Stanford University. Since 1952 he has published several other books and papers on Process consultation, as well as Management and Organizational Psychology.

Process Consultation (PC) is extremely relevant to today’s Project Management. If you have ever found yourself on a project engagement without direct authority, entering a new group, leading diverse groups of people, responsible for managing change, or working in a matrix reporting relationship where lines of authority are blurred or ambiguous, then this book was written for you.

As the title suggests, the focus of the book is to help the reader understand in a practical sense “how to be helpful.” To this end, Schein’s key assumption is “One can only help a human system to help itself.” From this perspective Schein draws on his background and experience to illustrate both obstacles and opportunities that present themselves to the practitioner.

The book is well organized and each chapter ends with detailed case studies and practice exercises that ensure that the reader is left with a clear understanding of the subject matter which will often be elaborated in subsequent chapters. The book is roughly organized in four main sections.

The first section defines Process Consultation, the psychodynamics of helping, listening, and using various techniques including active inquiry. He begins to examine the role relationships of the consultant and client. Here, it is important to note that Schein’s use of the term “client” and “consultant” throughout the book, denote the person being helped, or asking for help, and the helper, respectively. Thus, these terms are generally applicable in many work and life situations.

The second section describes what Schein terms the ORJI cycle which stands for Observation, Reaction, Judgment and Intervention. In substance this is an intra-psychic process map that he uses to explain how human beings sometimes respond to hidden forces when deciding how to act. He also includes a very interesting chapter on the dynamics of “Face Work” which are the interpersonal rituals that we use to claim social value for ourselves and assert for, or deny social value to others.

In the third section the author focuses on appropriate process interventions. He explains how, when, and under which circumstances it is appropriate for the helper to intervene using deliberate feedback in a person to person setting. The author goes on to describe the ways that groups arrive at decisions and how to effectively facilitate meetings.

The final section puts some meat on the bones, and applies the concepts from the first three sections to an extended case study. Finally, the author distills the essence of Process Consulting as developed in the previous chapters to ten easy to remember rules.

This book deserves a venerated place in your personal project management library, not only for the practical and illuminating in-depth treatment of the subject matter, but also for it’s concise and accessible style packed with plenty of real-life examples from one of the best in the craft.

David Faith, PMP is a Principal Consultant and Project Manager at Certified Project Management, Inc. specializing in merger and integration projects . Some of his recent client engagements include leading cross functional project teams through fast paced change initiatives at Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wachovia Bank.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Case Study: Understanding Expectations II

In the first installment of this case study we learned how an Enterprise Project Office (EPO) was established after an independent assessment indicated that a company failed to meet financial performance targets because of a perceived lack of IT governance and accountability.

During the initial engagement meeting the project manager was tasked with three main objectives:

1. Advance the progress on designated high risk projects.
2. Mentor EPO Staff
3. Provide input on best practices and process efficiency for the EPO.

During the first week the project manager met with the EPO staff and two key functional IT managers who were responsible for systems and content development.

The EPO staff was noticeably demoralized. During the recent reorganization. Experienced Product Managers formerly distributed among functional IT units were reassigned to the Project Management Office, demoted to the role of Project Coordinators, and given ninety days to show progress toward project management competence.

The day after the consultant project manager arrived, the CIO resigned. It was clear that the V.P. of the EPO and his Program manager were in an escalating and adversarial relationship with many of the other managers in the company. During subsequent inteverviews the project manager found the other Sr. IT functional managers to be professional and polite yet consistently guarded and noncommittal. Business unit managers were noticably resistant to the idea of the EPO and consolidated governance.

Meanwhile the EPO Program Manager focused the project coordinators on creating status reporting templates and other document templates. This effort was ongoing throughout the tenure of the consultant. As an example, weekly meetings were scheduled, during which, detailed discussions about how the status templates were created (e.g. font size and colors) often dominated the agenda. Often the Program Manager would direct her subordinates to produce various levels of detailed status reporting which were due immediately without advance notice or guidance as to the reason or audience for these ad-hoc requests. The program manager also repeatedly insisted on having her staff "drive" the projects to which they were assigned. Although she never explicitly defined how exactly this was to be accomplished, most of the project coordinators assumed this meant facillitating working meetings and maintaining an issues list along with meeting minutes.

Historically, the functional IT managers ran the working meetings in the company with the support of their corresponding business unit representatives. When the project coordinators were tasked with meeting faciltitation, the other participants percieved beaurocratic interference and as a result meetings became ineffective and progress slowed.

Additionally, because standards and processes were being designed prematurely, no explicit internal or external policy was in place, no measurements were defined, and no clear overall plan was being communicated internally, the EPO itself was operating in a chaotic unstructured manner!

The following week ,the V.P. of the EPO and his Program Manager engaged the other senior executives in explaining their vision of how, by increasing IT accountabilty and oversight, IT committments could be monitored which would subsequently provide feedback to executive decision makers in order to better prioritize business initiatives. Unfortunately, these discussions also were characterized by a focus on explaining proposed EPO process methodology which was, at the time, theoretical.

Throughout the next few weeks, the project manager also became familiar with the people, processes, and systems involved in his assigned projects. He obtained the project budget authorization and drafted a project charter which contained his understanding of the project purpose, stakeholders, schedule, and high level business requirements. After attending several working meetings and listening intently to both the overt content and subtext, he was able to confidently approach the IT Managers, who were initially resistant to his presence.

Using the draft of the project charter as a vehicle to initiate a conversation with the Sr. IT managers, the consultant project manager involved the IT Mangers in a productive discussion about the scope of the project. The project manager focused on how to be helpful to these managers without compromizing the mission of the EPO. He framed the discussion by empathizing with the IT Manager's position, explaining that; it is becoming common across all industries for shareholders to demand promised benefits by executives in exchange for invested funds. In addition, the project manager listened to the manager's concerns , asked how best to engage with each manager's staff, and offered to include them in decisions affecting status reporting. The project manager followed up on his intention by creating a steering committee that was composed of key managers who were both responsible and impacted by the project outcome.

This constructive intervention was only attempted after a level of trust and credibility was developed between the project manager and the formerly resistant/adversarial managers. It was also facilitated by the fact that the project manager was an outside consultant, and therefore had a measure of implied independence, and perhaps a percieved ability to influence the status quo.

The project manager performed the following steps in order to turn potentially difficult management situation into a portfolio of solid working relationships.

1. The project manager committed to his intention of being helpful, despite formidable political obstacles.

2. The project manger listened, and learned the business, explored external and internal environments, understood implied and explicit assumptions, and remained objective, operating within the current reality of the situation.

3. The project manager was willing to learn and stay open-minded in order to access possiblities that would have been hidden, had he relied on his past experience alone.

4. The project manager realized that everything he does within the client system is an intervention. Accordingly he was careful not to make premature reccomendations.

5. The project manager understood that it is the client who is the ultimate owner of the problem and the solution. In this way he was able to maintain objectivity and direct and influence events while avoiding taking on too much responsibility without appropriate authority.

6. The project manager focused on the important relationship issues and prioritized his activities so that he would be most effective by working through and with others.

As a result, in a very short time, the project manager was able to obtain needed guidance from potential adversaries who were willing to help him navigate a new and unfamilar client environment. By gradually building trust and credibility the project manager successfully transitioned from unknown entity to trusted advisor which in turn enabled him to advance progress on the high-risk projects that he was assigned.

The project manager set an example for the EPO staff. In this way, they were able to learn at their own pace, in their own style, as they formed their own opinions about the project manager's credibility and effectiveness.


In conclusion, this case study points out how project managers must work to expose and balance implicit as well as explicit expectations of multiple stakeholders under schedule deadlines. Also as the example presented here illustrates, empathy and relationship building skills are often critical when attempting to influence project outcomes without direct authority.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Case Study: Understanding Expectations I

One of the peculiarities about Project Management that separates it from other occupations is that each project assignment is different. Differences in projects can be observed in people, places, issues, risks, durations, complexity, budgets, and process. Minimizing the degree of difference between projects, and groups of projects, has been the subject of much research. As a result, various project management processes and methods are commonly being introduced to increase quality and reduce variation in project outcomes. Some examples are Six Sigma, the capability maturity model or CMM, the PMI PMBOK, and PRINC2.

Yet, regardless of the process and methods used, it is still necessary for the Project Manager to be able to rapidly comprehend and synthesize a number of key project factors in order to meet the project objectives in a timely manner.

Foremost among these factors is understanding the expectations of the Project Sponsor and the rest of the project stakeholders. In fact, misunderstanding customer expectations is one of the main causes of dissatisfaction in any service encounter. Often, as this brief case study suggests, it is wise to invest time to uncover both explicit and implicit expectations in order to mitigate possible conflicts early in the project.

At an initial client meeting with the newly appointed Vice President and head of a newly formed Enterprise Project Office (EPO) at a mid-market financial services firm, the Project Manager was informed of the following facts:

1. The company management had missed financial targets the prior fiscal year. Additionally some high profile compliance oversights were identified. The board of directors responded by reorganizing senior management. The reorganization included separating the President and CEO functions and hiring a new Chief Executive from outside the company.

2. The new CEO engaged an outside consultant to assess the company's operational performance. The consultant spent several months interviewing staff and examining operations functions. He indicated in the findings, that among other issues, a percieved lack of accountability in the management of IT related committments and recommended that an EPO be established to initially govern and prioritize the IT project activity.

3. The CEO hired the consultant as a Vice President to establish the new EPO. The V.P. promoted a recently hired manager from the IT department into the position of Program Manger in the EPO. Other Product Managers, who previously focused on different business deliverables of IT department and who were formerly designated as Program Mangers were reassigned to the EPO and administratively retitled to Project Coordinator roles. They were given a ninety day trial period during which they would be evaluated and, if perfomance was satisfactory, subsequently would be promoted to Project Manager. Some of these immediately resigned. The remainder were characterized by the V.P. as under performers.

4. The V.P. stated that his intention in hiring a consultant was to rapidly advance progress on a number of pre-identified critical projects that were currently at risk, and at the same time provide mentoring to the remaining project coordinators. During the meeting the Program manager remarked that she was working with the team to create standard templates and tools for reporting and she would expect input on best practices. However, she stressed that highest priority should be given to project execution. It was decided that the Project Manager would report to the Program Manager and weekly status meetings would be conducted jointly with the V.P.

In this case the explicit assumptions and expectations were clearly communicated. The Project Manger was hired to:

1. Advance the progress on designated high risk projects.
2. Mentor EPO Staff
3. Provide input on best practices and process efficiency for the EPO.

The V.P. also implied, but did not state, that this change was sudden, and that the rest of the IT organization and other business units may not be completely comfortable with the new organization.

In the next installment, we will explore this case in more detail as the Project Manager meets other stakeholders and learns more about the environment.

In the meantime, you are invited to post your comments, ideas, questions, and suggestions.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Partial List of Engagements

Bank of America
Citigroup
CS First Boston
Jackson-Hewitt
Navistar
Ogilvy & Mather Advertising
T-Mobile
Tropicana
UBS
US Air Force
US Navy
Wachovia

David Faith is a Principal Consultant and Senior Project Manager with over 14 years experience including extensive work within the financial and investment banking industry His background includes Training and Development, Project Management, Business Analysis, and Software Development. Strengths include delivering tactical and strategic solutions, working as both an individual contributor and manager (managing teams of 3 to 100), interacting with clients, and implementing and managing projects with recent emphasis on merger transitions. He has successfully executed mission critical projects through the complete project lifecycle and has experience both using and designing standard and custom process methodologies. His Offshore experience includes P&L responsibility for three software development centers. He is a PMI certified PMP (Project Management Professional) and has in depth experience with Six Sigma and CMM Quality Processes in Financial Services, Telecom, and Manufacturing Environments.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Testimonials

Testimonials for David Faith, PMP, Principal Consultant
Certified Project Management

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“Great Project Manager. Great drive. Excellent use of costing and scheduling models. Was a big help. Very good people skills, helped keep the project on track. Good communicator, worked well with others at remote sites. Would certainly fit best in a leadership role.”

- S.R. Vice President,
Program Management Office (4th Largest US Bank)

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“Worked well with others. Communicates well up and down the chain. Well organized, good planner. Worked well through turmoil. Did a good job. A polished Project Manager. Would fit best as a Project Manager. Would work best with line managers.”

- B.B. Director, Senior Vice President,
Corporate Governance (4th Largest US Bank)

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“Excellent Project Management skills, can stick him anywhere a good Project Manager is needed. Excellent people skills, good communicator.”

- O.A. Manager, Operations (3rd Largest US Bank)
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“Professional. Competent.”

- S.H. Sr. Technical Lead, Business Services,
Operations (3rd Largest US Bank)
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“Very good at working on multiple problems and fixing them.”

- A. L. Vice President Corporate & Institutional Banking,
Compliance Officer (3rd Largest US Bank)
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“Excellent. Easy to work with. Diligent. Works well with others. Solid with large data. Would hire him back. Would fit best in business development. Thinks outside of the box. Would fit well in strategic level Project Management position.”

- B.S. Senior Vice President, CIO,
Corporate & Institutional Banking (4th Largest US Bank)
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“Good. No issues. Good Project Manager and gate keeper of information. Not afraid. Progressed well under difficult circumstances. Exceptionally good job with technical issues. He has good skills.”

- B.K. Director, Senior Vice President,
Senior Operations Manager (4th Largest US Bank)
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“Fabulous Project Manager. Worked on very risky, challenging project and did very well. Added value to the project and put needed structure into the project. Did a great job of facilitating. Did a good job in a delicate situation. Would fit best as a Project Manager.”

- J.S. Vice President,
Program Management Office (3rd Largest US Bank)

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Building Helping Relationships

In a departure from the typical staff augmentation model, Certified Project Management provides help in managing organizational change through experienced Project Managers who know how and when to give help.

For example, we understand that sometimes a person seeking help does not know the exact solution they are looking for. Often all that is known is that something is not working right and outside help is being sought.

While it is occasionally the case that our clients anticipate what specific remedy is needed to manage a given business problem, more often than not there is considerable ambiguity around improvement efforts. Often mangers in an organization sense that things could be better, but might not have the time to translate these feelings into specific plans of action. Our consultants do not assume that the manager knows what is wrong or what is needed 100% of the time. Instead they help to define the steps that lead to the concrete action steps that ultimately improve the situation.

We feel that central to any successful organizational change effort is the creation of conditions where mutual learning can take place and new possibilities can unfold.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

About Certified Project Management, Inc.

Certified Project Management helps Senior Managers and Executives meet their goals.

According to a survey by KPMG, for the past two years Executives are making more commitments to achieve business results through project based initiatives. These commitments are are often expressed as project benefits in a business case. It has been estimated that as many as 86% of firms fail to deliver these benefits to their stakeholders.

Certified Project Management provides seasoned Project Managers who work with your team and help execute your vision in a way that leverages your internal organizational strengths, while minimizing risk. - So that you can continue to deliver on your promises.

We focus on nine tactical areas; project integration management, project scope management, project schedule management, project communications management, project cost management, project human resource management, project quality management, project risk management, and project procurement management.