PM Leadership: Growing a Collaborative Project Team 203 A presentation for Training Directors Forum

1
PM Leadership Growing a Collaborative Project
Team (203) A presentation for Training
Directors Forum 2006
Speaking
Teaching Tools
Training
presented by Lou Russell Russell Martin
Associates 6326 Rucker Road Suite E
Indianapolis, IN 46220 [phone]
info_at_russellmartin.com www.russellmartin.com
Consulting
2

• Agenda
• I Brake For Brick Walls
• Insanity is Just a Project Constraint
• Now That Were Organized, What Do We Do?
• Only People Can Kill a Project

3
I Break For Brick Walls
Were all sane but
Together we create insanity

• Sane Intervention
• Build collaboration
• Keep time focused on project
• Adapt practice Flexible Structure

4
How Does a Project Get 1 Year Late? 1 day at a
time.
Conflict, turf wars, and payback automatically
add 30 to the duration of the tasks of all
parties involved. - Lou Russell
5
My Reaction to Conflict
TOTAL SCORE _______
Following are several statements about personal
reactions to disagreement and conflict. Circle
the number that best describes you. The higher
the number, the more you agree with the
statement. When you finish, total the numbers
you circled and write it in the space provided.
Strong Agreement Mild Agreement
6
My Reaction to Conflict (continued)

• If you scored
• 80 or above you have a realistic attitude
  toward conflict and seem willing to work to
  resolve it.
• 50 - 79 you appear to be dealing fairly well
  with conflict, but need to work toward a more
  positive approach.
• Below 50 you need to first understand why, and
  then work hard to learn techniques of conflict
  resolution. When you have finished this course,
  you may wish to complete this exercise again.

7
How and Why Conflict?
diffuses future big conflict
Ambiguous boundaries __________________ Confli
cting interests __________________ Value
differences __________________ Communication
barriers __________________ Unresolved prior
conflict __________________
causes action
promotes learning

prioritizes
builds cohesiveness
8
Give Them a Bridge to Retreat Over
Keep People Safe

• use their interests to drive solution
• allow opponent to save face
• structure as a victory for them

Build your opponent a golden bridge to retreat
across. -Sun Tzu
9
Insanity is Just a Project Constraint
10
When Reactions Seem Insane
From work by William Bridges
New Beginning
Endings
Excitement
Energy
Denial
Hope
Anger
Impatience
Fear
Acceptance
Shock
Skepticism
Frustration
Creativity
Confusion
Stress
Neutral Zone
Time
11
Change versus Transition
Circle those words/phrases that are a part of
change and box those that are part of transition.
External
Process
Situation
Internal
Identity
Decision
Adaptation
State of Mind
Disruption
Circumstance
12
Change Vs. Transition
13
Building the Resiliency Attitude
House
Cat
Tree
Flower
14
Resiliency

• Attitude
• We attract what we fear
• Future Vision
• Look past today
• Order Upon Chaos
• Just Do Something
• Flexibility
• Let go, adapt
• Seek Opportunities
• Possibility Thinking

15
Now That Were Organized, What Do We Do?
What is your Team PURPOSE?
16
Team Purpose

• Does each individual believe that
• The project can be successful (measured the same
  way)?
• The project is challenging and important?
• Their own role is clear each knows what to do
  and feels needed?
• Their values / beliefs are not in conflict with
  the direction of the project?

17
A Great Leader
Strengthen the hands of the strong

• needs to know how to leverage the strengths she
  already has, and to surround herself with others
  to fill in her own gaps.
• realizes that each of his people is unique and
  coaches them to leverage their own strengths.
• is about releasing the potential that is already
  there.

18
Only People Can Kill a Project
From IT Leadership Alchemy Leadership
Training ASTD Infoline Leadership

• SALT
• Self-understanding
• Resiliency
• SULPHUR
• Interpersonal and Relationship Skills (listening)
• Communication Skills
• Employee Development (Coaching and Motivating)
• Creating and Actualizing Vision
• MERCURY
• Customer Orientation
• Strategic Business Acumen
• Project Leadership
• Managing Change
• A Plan for Action

19
The 10 Leadership Competencies

• SALT Self-understanding
• Develop clarity of personal values, purpose and
  vision
• Develop and execute a personal branding strategy
• Demonstrate authenticity through behavioral
  alignment with values and vision
• Taking accountability for personal and leadership
  actions
• Knowing and trusting own intuition
• Learn to learn new technology
• SALT Resiliency
• Willingness to jump in and get things started
• Seek opportunities for performance improvement
  and development
• Build off of others ideas for the benefit of the
  decision
• Maintain appropriate, empowered attitude
• Persistence in managing and overcoming adversity
• Act proactively in seeking new opportunities
• Prioritization, time management
• SULPHUR Interpersonal and Relationship Skills
• Understand and appreciate diversity of
  perspective and style
• Participate and contribute fully as a team member
• Demonstrate empathy and understanding

20
The 10 Leadership Competencies

• SULPHUR Communication Skills
• Understand and adapt to your audience - helping
  others learn
• Express intention clearly and concisely in
  written communications
• Build collaboration and clearly articulate
  intention in verbal communications
• Formal presentation skills
• Listen for understanding
• Manage flow of communication/information
•  
• SULPHUR Employee Development (Coach Motivate)
• Motivating employees to high performance
• Coaching for development and improved performance
  
• Manage with appreciation/respect for diversity of
  individual values and needs
• Delegate tasks as needed and with awareness of
  employee development opportunities
• Select appropriate staff to fulfill specific
  project needs and responsibilities
• MERCURY Customer Orientation
• Understand and apply customer needs and
  expectations
• Gather customer requirements and input
• Partner with customer in gathering requirements,
  maintaining communication flow and managing work

21
The 10 Leadership Competencies

• MERCURY Strategic Business Acumen
• Demonstrate ability to ethically build support
  for a perspective you feel strongly about
• Holistic view - think in terms of the entire
  system and the effects and consequences of
  actions and decisions
• Operate with an awareness of marketplace
  competition and general landscape of related
  business arenas
• General business acumen - functions of strategic
  planning, finance, marketing, manufacturing, RD,
  etc.
•  
• MERCURY Project Leadership
• Build cohesive teams with shared purpose and high
  performance
• Set, communicate and monitor milestones and
  objectives
• Gain and maintain buy in from sponsors and
  customers
• Prioritize and allocate resources
• Manage multiple, potentially conflicting
  priorities across various/diverse disciplines
• Create and define systems and processes to
  translate vision into action
• Maintain an effective, interactive and productive
  team culture
• Manage budget and project progress
• Gather and analyze appropriate data and input and
  manage noise of info overload
• Manage risk versus reward and ROI equations
• Balance established standards with need for
  exceptions in decision-making
• Align decisions with needs of business and
  organizational/team values

22
The 10 Leadership Competencies

• SULPHUR Creating and Actualizing Vision
• Create a clear and inspirational vision of the
  desired outcome
• Align the vision with broader organizational
  strategies
• Translate the vision into manageable action steps
• Communicate vision to enroll/enlist staff,
  sponsors and customers
• Influence and Evangelize (sales, negotiation)
• Gather appropriate input
• Understand individual motivators and
  decision-making styles and utilize to enroll
  others
• Facilitate win/win solutions
•  
• MERCURY Create, Support and Manage Change
• Improvement Initiatives (three levels managing
  your own transition / transformation, managing a
  corporate (external) change initiative, coaching
  others through transition)
• Identify and implement appropriate change
  initiatives/efforts
• Promote and build support for change initiatives
• Understand cost/benefit and ROI of change
  initiatives
• Manage transition with employees - guiding and
  supporting the change process
• Support staff in navigating transitional
  process/challenges through organizational change
• Demonstrate and build resilience in the face of
  change

23
Scenario

• You have just kicked off an extremely political
  and critical project. It is running about six
  months late, and you have been looking for ways
  to get back on schedule. This project must be
  completed before a new product launch can take
  place, which is critical to the survival of your
  company.
• There is a new person joining your team who will
  begin a new task on Monday. This task will
  involve technology that the programmer is not
  familiar with, but it is technology that you are
  an expert on. There is no other member of your
  team with your expertise in this technology.
• What are the three actions you will take on
  Monday?

24
Preferred Behavior Styles
C
D
High Task Diligence
High Task High Speed
High People Diligence
High People High Speed
S
I
25
You Are the Leader Your Project Needs

• The seed of leadership is in everyone. Identify
  and leverage your natural leadership strengths
  while minimizing your weaknesses.
• Your strengths are also your weaknesses.  
• Nurturing leadership competency is done on two
  levels self and others. The two are always
  connected, influencing each other.

26
Thank You!

• Visit our Web Page www.russellmartin.com for
  more Leadership stuff or to order books. Visit
  www.lourussell.com for keynoting information.
• See the back of this handout for a coupon for a
  FREE DiSC profile
• Order books from me (free shipping, signed) or
  buy in the bookstore
• The Accelerated Learning Fieldbook
• Project Management for Trainers
• IT Leadership Alchemy
• Infoline on Leadership
• Leadership Training
• Training Triage Performance-based Solutions Amid
  Chaos, Confusion and Change

27

• Triage Leadership Its Not Just for Medics
  Anymore
• By Lou Russell
• Russell Martin Associates
• You, like many others, are getting calls asking
  for the impossible to be delivered tomorrow. As
  if that werent enough of a challenge, you have
  very little staff anymore and even less budget.
  And you know that this business problem is
  critical and has to be tackled by someone, so
  Jerry Garcia once said its terribly pathetic
  that it has to be you.
• Obviously, sending someone to a three hour, let
  alone three day workshop is out of the question.
  There is no chance that an already stressed out
  person can transfer new knowledge back to the
  churning that is his or her day-to-day job.
  Besides, theres already too much work to do and
  too many hours of the day devoted to it. Youd
  love to help your staff feel less burned out, but
  youre too burned out to deal with them. What
  does it take to fix things in todays
  multitasking, priority changing business
  climate?There are eight trends moving
  businesses toward more and more chaos (ASTD
  2005)
• Drastic times, drastic measures the impact of
  uncertain economic conditions
• Blurred lines Life or work? new technology and
  new ways to work
• Small world and shrinking global
  interdependency
• New faces, new expectations the diverse
  workforce
• Work be nimble, work be quick increased
  pressure to work quickly
• Security alert! safety and security concerns
• Life and work in the e-lane Internet-driven
  societies
• A higher ethical bar ethics and integrity

28

• Reading through this list, its not logical to
  think that the fog will clear any time soon. It
  appears far more likely that the pace of business
  will quicken. My newest book came out last week
  titled Training Triage Performance-Based
  Solutions Amid Chaos, Confusion and Change. I
  have found in my consulting work that managers
  are practicing triage every day, choosing by
  default or design their own survival techniques.
  This book is my attempt to build these warriors
  up with real techniques for the real chaos of
  today.
• When faced with a mission critical business
  problem, burned out staff, diminished budget and
  time pressures, a Triage Manager knows how to
• Ask. Listen more than you talk to fully
  understand the whole problem.
• Hear. Hear through the words to what is meant.
  Hear what is not said.
• Solve. Build a full solution, not just a Band-Aid
  (like a 1 day training class). Integrate both
  team and individual components. Have you thought
  of leveraging web communication? Coaching?
  Simulations? Job Aides? Simple thank yous?
• Build. Quickly (in less than 24 hours) build the
  components and implement the solution. Use
  repeatable tools, assessments, techniques and
  surveys. Limit complexity try not to reinvent
  the wheel.
• Plan. Build a project plan to track the
  successful completion, measurement and follow-up.
  
• These are exciting and interesting times. The
  important thing is to stay grounded in the needs
  of the customers and the business. If you get
  distracted by the minute-by-minute preferences of
  each subject matter expert, the fluctuation of
  the budget, or the irrational need for speed, you
  will fight your projects as you fight the change.
  When you stay focused on the business instead of
  the chaos, you can weave and flow with a flexible
  intervention. Get used to adapting your solution
  to what you just discovered as you go. We are
  the messengers. The solution already exists in
  the teams we are helping. Our job is to help them
  reveal it and leverage it. This is Triage
  Leadership.

29
(No Transcript)