The problem is that we are not always good at focusing our attention on something.  For example, we are thinking about what we are going to say in an upcoming meeting while someone is speaking to us about an important project issue.  In another scenario, we may not take the time to fully develop a situation.  We may not gather all of the facts and process all of the information.  We get just enough information and feedback to develop a mental model of what we think the situation is, which means we have relied on perception to fill in the gaps.

Perception can be a dangerous thing because the brain uses information from our own store of knowledge or experience, which can lead to the wrong conclusion.

Check out the following images:

Figure 1

Source: www.crewresourcemanagement.net

In figure 1, our perceptual system can be misled into thinking that one line is longer than the other, when they are indeed the same.

Figure 2

Source: Coren, et al, 1994

In figure 2, we perceive the same thing differently depending on the context ("B" or the number "13").

Figure 3

Source: www.crewresourcemanagement.net

In figure 3, most people at first notice nothing wrong with the sentence.  We subconsciously reject the extra "THE" and we "see" only what we expect to see.

That is how the mind works, which means that we need to be very diligent in gathering information.  Our perception of reality may not be accurate.  This is very important in the aviation world because perceiving something incorrectly could be a serious error with negative consequences.  In project management, we may make an important decision or take an important action that directly or indirectly affects the success of the project.

In my next post, I'll discuss specific ways to build a proper reality in the project management context so that we can make good decisions.

Happy project piloting...

On February 12, 2009, Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed while approaching to land in Buffalo, NY.  There has been much discussion about this accident, and there is one interesting piece of information that provides some insight into human behavior (i.e. in project management teams).  Specifically, can a performance metric cause team members to exhibit undesired behavior in an effort to meet the performance metric?

Airline pilots routinely train to recover from a stall.  A stall is when the airplane is not going fast enough, with enough air going over the wings, for it to maintain normal flight.  If a stall is prolonged, the aircraft will crash, as with the Colgan flight (don't worry, pilots are well trained and aircraft designed to avoid this scenario).

The interesting thing is that pilots had a performance metric: they were judged by whether they lost no more than 100 feet in altitude while recovering from a stall in training.

The theory is that the Colgan pilot had the 100 feet (the performance metric) so ingrained in his head that he may have unwittingly focused on the metric to the detriment of the recovery effort itself.  Whether this is true we will never know for certain, but interestingly, the FAA has since removed that metric.

Which brings us to the human behavior aspect of a performance metric.  Most of us at one time or another have had a laser focus on a performance metric we were expected to meet (and we have seen others with the same thing).  But can this degrade the overall performance of the team member and the team itself, or produce behavior counter to the broader objective?  For example, what if a software team has a performance metric of releasing software that does not have more than x number of defects?  Might the software team be so focused on the metric of # of defects that they lose sight of the real goal of producing quality software that meets operational needs?  Could this cause a team to adjust procedures, or even leave out an important function to be sure that they meet the metric?

Do I think that performance metrics are bad?  No, of course not.  If you don't have any metrics, you can't measure anything.  The point is not that we should not have any metrics.  The point is to make sure your metrics are working to encourage desired behavior, not produce undesired behavior.

I see three further points:

1. Be careful that you have the right metrics and that you are incentivizing people towards the right behavior.  Don't assume, but monitor this over time.  Adjust your metrics if needed.
   
2. Always communicate the overall objective and mission.  Keep the big picture in mind and get people on board with it.  That will help them as they process day to day decisions and behaviors.  Make sure they are incentivized towards the broader mission and not just an obscure metric.
3. Maintain good communication.  Regularly talk with people to know what they are thinking and why they are doing certain things.

Interesting stuff since all of the individual decisions that people make each day are what make or break our projects.

Happy project piloting...

Here are 10 things included in flight planning that you should consider including in your project planning:

1. Weather (pilots always plan for inclement weather that may be encountered and plan accordingly):  What obstacles may be encountered in our project?  Should we plan to stay away from those obstacles?  Or should we continue with the plan but have a contingency plan in case those obstacles surface?


2. Communication (pilots plan ahead of time which air traffic control entities they will need to communicate with and even pre-program these frequencies into their radios):  In our project, what entities, individuals, and organizations will we need to communicate with during the course of the project?


3. Fuel (pilots always calculate how much fuel they need to get to the destination and monitor this throughout the flight):  How many resources do we need and how many do we have available to complete the project?  Do we realistically have enough resources available to finish what we started without "running out of gas"?


4. Payload (pilots know what they are carrying and how much it weighs): What are we actually going to accomplish?  How do we know when we are done?
   


5. Checkpoints (pilots establish checkpoints to monitor their progress): What checkpoints are we going to use to keep track of how far we have come, where we are, and how far we have to go?


6. Pilots (a good pilot looks at themselves to ensure they are properly certified, they have the right experience level, and are mentally and physically able to perform): Are we as the Project Manager properly prepared for this project?  Do we have enough experience and the right certifications?  Or do we need to seek out a mentor or other resource to help guide us?


7. Equipment (pilots thoroughly understand the equipment on board): What tools do we have available to help us navigate through the project?  What will we use to make the day to day management easier?  Is our understanding of the tools adequate?
   


8. Time en route (pilots calculate how long it take to get to the destination and what factors such as wind will impact that time): How long will it take us to realistically complete the project?  What will cause it to take longer than expected and how do we need to adjust our estimates for those items?


9. Procedures (pilots review pre-established procedures, such as to depart from a major airport): What standard procedures and processes have been established that we can expect to use in the course of the project?


10. Special use airspace (pilots look for military and other airspace that needs to be avoided):  What political, cultural, or other areas should be avoided during our project execution?

Happy project piloting...

I read an interesting article by Jay Hopkins at Flying Magazine on the topic of groupthink.  His focus was on pilots, but my mind went to project management teams.  According to Jay, groupthink is "a cohesive, task-oriented, problem-solving group isolated from conflicting opinions..."  The group collectively tries to rationalize or discount warnings, team members do not speak up, contrary viewpoints are discounted, and there is a false illusion of agreement because people hold back their true feelings or opinions.  Everyone simply goes along with the prevailing group "opinion."  Aviation is interested in avoiding this because there have been tragic accidents where groupthink in the cockpit was a significant contributor, but since this is a human trait I believe it applies to every team environment.

I am sure this has never happened to any project team on which you have participated.  I have certainly seen it in my experience.  As Jay articulates, there are several key points to consider in order to avoid groupthink:

• One of the roles of project manager or leader or even executive is to create a culture where the discussion can always be open and frank.
• The leader should also be careful in what he/she says in the beginning because team members are more apt to go along with the leader's opinion as opposed to voicing their own opinion.
• Take all internal and external opinions seriously.
• Be alert for anyone who is not saying anything.  Ask them directly for their opinion.

One other interesting note Jay makes is that people with similar personalities especially have to be wary.  In this case, you have to use "aggressive skepticism" to identify alternative courses of action.

Keep the risk of groupthink in mind the next time your team (or yourself) needs to come to a decision.

Here are five keys to handling a project management crisis (derived from lessons on how aviation cockpits are trained to handle a crisis).

1.  Use all available resources.  Pilots are taught to use all of the available resources at their disposal.  In 1989 United flight 232 was a DC-10 airplane that had a major engine failure while flying to Chicago.  It lost all hydraulics, which means that the pilots did not have complete control over the aircraft.  There happened to be an instructor pilot traveling on board, and the pilots used him as an extra resource to help fly and manage the airplane.  They also utilized their airline's maintenance experts and air traffic control resources.  When you experience a crisis, don't pretend you can do it all yourself.  Bury your pride and utilize all of the available resources and expertise that you can get your hands on.

2.  Watch out for confirmation bias.  Confirmation bias occurs when we are looking for things that support what we desperately want to believe is true.  Pilots have been known to land at the wrong airport because they thoroughly believed it was the right one and ignored signs to the contrary.  In project management, we may desperately want to believe that the new product will be ready next week and ignore or justify any data that is telling us otherwise.  This is especially prevalent in a crisis.  In a crisis, you must proactively seek evidence to the contrary of your presuppositions, encourage team members to raise warnings when they see something that doesn't support the current thinking, and listen to those around you and don't get singularly-focused.

3.  Understand the problem completely.  In the movie Apollo 13, after the spacecraft had experienced what was obviously a serious problem, the flight director had a line where he essentially said to work the problem and not make it worse by guessing.  Don't immediately take action just because you feel the need to the fix the problem NOW.  Be sure that you understand the problem before launching into action just for the sake of taking action.  Otherwise, you could very well be making things worse.

4.  Don't throw out your procedures.  Pilots have procedures and checklists for just about everything, and they are trained to follow these in a crisis.  You may not have a "checklist" for the crisis that you are experiencing, but you should have processes in place for your essential operations.  Don't just throw these out in a crisis.  Follow those processes or you may make mistakes that make matters worse (or create a new crisis).  You may need to speed things up and make a risk decision on taking a shortcut in a real emergency, but that should be an intelligently made decision, not because the process was simply ignored.

5.  Communicate.  Pilots need to step up their communication with each other, air traffic control, company resources, and even passengers in a crisis.  In project management, people get funny in a crisis (I'm talking to you stakeholders, team members, and senior management).  When they do not get clear communications, assumptions get made, and the assumptions are usually wrong.  Keep everyone informed.  If the news is bad, don't sugarcoat it.  Tell it like it is.  Be honest.  Communicate regularly so they know your status and the progress you are making.  It is far worse to have someone wondering and guessing as to what is going on then to know they are being kept up to date and in the loop.

Keep these keys in mind the next time that you experience a "project management crisis."

Happy project piloting...

Aviation psychology does not strictly deal with mental illness.  It is more oriented towards helping pilots work through things like:

• Phobias
• Airsickness
• Anxiety
• Stress
• Accidents
• How to communicate information to pilots

I don't know about you, but the next time I get on a plane (tomorrow in fact), I don't want my pilots having serious issues with any of these.

Do you ever consider the human side of project management?  Project teams are made up of people.  People are human beings.  We all deal with things (who doesn't have a phobia about something?), and have to work through events in our life.  Perhaps we need to get beyond the tools, processes, and procedures in project management and take a close look at what is going on with our project team members.

Is there a phobia that is affecting someone's performance?  Some people are not comfortable with speaking up in a meeting with other people, or making a presentation.  Are there stimuli that make certain people more anxious?  What is going on in their personal life that is consuming their thoughts and generating high amounts of stress?  What a person or team has failed at something, how are they handling that?

We certainly cannot be psychologists and there is an aspect where the work just needs to get done.  I mean, we can't play psychologist every day.  However, if you want to build a great team, these are things that should be considered, and there some simple things we can do to both improve our teams and help people.

What can you do?  I am no psychologist but some things do come to mind:

• Take the time to get to know people.  People like to be known, and how will you know what is going on in their life without taking some time to learn?

• Be aware of the different personalities on your teams.  Some people will go so far as to have them take personality tests.

• Adapt how you obtain information.  Some people will give you everything you need to know in a meeting.  You may need to sit one on one to get all the information out of others.

Happy project piloting...

Did you know that there are golden rules that pilots follow?  Golden rules articulate the basic principles of airmanship and of interaction with automation and crew.  They are especially helpful for training pilots that are new to certain aircraft or aircraft systems.  It helps to establish a basis for good airmanship.  If you always follow the golden rules, your risk of a "mishap" or making a consequential mistake goes way down.

I suggest that you create some golden rules for your project management culture as well.  They should be the standard that you expect everyone to follow when working on projects - the basis for project management professionalism in your organization.  What should these be?  We can get some ideas from the many project management resources out there, as well as from the aviation golden rules.  Here are some examples from aviation that provide some themes*:

1.  Fly, Navigate, Communicate - in that order.  This clearly establishes a pilot's priorities.  One of your golden rules should be to articulate the priority of work.  For example, perhaps completing your critical project tasks should be treated with higher priority than constantly checking your email.

2.  One head up at all times.  To pilots, these means that someone should always be flying the plane.  There should never be a situation where everyone is focused on a task inside the cockpit.  One of your golden rules may simply be that there should never be an initiative without a designated person to manage it and maintain awareness of the project progression ("keep their head up").

3.  Use the proper level of automation for the task.  You may need to designate that certain tasks should be managed using your established "automation system" (project tracking system), or you may designate which tasks should and should not be managed with "automation."

4.  Practice task sharing and back up each other.  Pilots are not lone wolves.  They work together, share tasks, and back each other up - they work as a team.  This could be one of your golden rules as well.  This will eliminate many mistakes.

5.  Understand the situation before acting.  When a problem occurs, don't just react.  Take the time to understand the situation before formulating an action plan.

6.  Actively manage individual workload (we talked about this in a previous post).

7.  Create a shared problem model with other crew members.  When a problem occurs, one of your golden rules may be to communicate with other team members to create a shared problem model.  This ensures that everyone agrees what the problem is so that they can start from the same reference point and work towards a common objective: a solution.  This simple rule can eliminate a lot of wasted effort.

8.  Apply recommended procedures.  Don't play the cowboy.  There is a reason the recommended procedures are recommended.

These are just examples, but they provide some good themes.  If you are looking to create a project management culture, put together some golden rules that establish a pattern of professionalism and behavior that is expected in your organization.

Happy project piloting...

*These particular golden rules are briefing notes produced by Airbus that are used to train new pilots.  You can find more here.

In my last post, I talked about the danger of distractions.  One of the discussion points was that we need to understand our priorities so that we do not get distracted by other things.  I heard once that distractions are really just misallocated priorities - we are working or spending time on the wrong things.  In concept, that sounds great, but in reality when the manager calls and asks for something it is probably not realistic to say "sorry, but that is a misallocated priority."  We all deal with interruptions and distractions.

I believe that interruptions and distractions are major threats to project management work in our teams today.  We get so distracted by other items, multiple projects, non-project work, requests, and a host of other interruptions that it is difficult to finish our high priority tasks well.  We need to manage this properly or it will manage us.  Here are some key concepts and techniques taught to pilots (who cannot afford to be distracted from their primary job of flying the airplane).*

First, as soon as an interruption occurs, there are two immediate priorities:

1. Recognize and identify the disruption (i.e. realize the disruption for what it is: a disruption)
2. Re-establish situational awareness (don't lose sight of the overall situation)

Second, we re-establish situational awareness by walking through the following three step process:

• Identify (what was I doing?)
• Ask (where was I interrupted? - i.e. which item in the checklist)
• Decide / Act (what decision or action will I need to take in order to get back on track?)

Third, walk through the following decision making process:

• Prioritize: use your established priorities to determine where the disruption fits into the priority structure.
• Plan: do you need to postpone some other tasks, get more time, or simply communicate the impact of the disruption on other high priority tasks?  A disruption may be legitimate.  If you need to address the disruption, don't ignore the fact that you need to plan its impact, otherwise you create a snowball effect.
• Verify: make sure that the action that was postponed was accomplished completely.

There is one thing that keeps popping up in this discussion that is a requirement: priorities.  If you don't know your priorities, it is impossible to manage interruptions & distractions.  A pilot is taught clear priorities - number one being to always fly the airplane first.  What are your teams taught?  If they don't have clear priorities, they cannot even know if a disruption is a disruption.  Make sure you have set clear priorities for your team.  In addition, each team member may need to set their own priorities for their individual activities and tasks in order to stay in tune with the priorities handed down to them.

Happy project piloting...

*These concepts come from various sources including briefing notes from Airbus.

In December of 1972, an Eastern Air Lines jet was flying over Florida on its way to Miami.  When the flight began its approach, one of the crew members lowered the landing gear and then noticed that one of the landing gear lights was not illuminated.  They discontinued their approach and circled the airport so that they could solve the problem and ensure all of the landing gear wheels were indeed down.  While they were troubleshooting the problem, all of the pilots fixated on the issue and failed to notice that the autopilot had disconnected.  The airplane slowly descended and crashed into the Florida Everglades.  None of the pilots heard the altitude warning chime.  By the way, the problem with the landing gear was a burned out light bulb.

This is a classic example of why pilots have since been taught over and over again to always fly the airplane first and avoid fixating on a distraction.  This is part of their training on how to work together as a crew.

A distraction is really a misallocated priority.  It is focusing on something that isn't the top priority.  It is our job as project managers to avoid fixating on distractions, and to keep our project management teams from fixating on a distraction.  It is easy for a problem to creep up that engulfs everyone on the team, and before you know it, the rest of the project has fallen behind or fallen apart.

How do we keep this from happening?  Here are some key principles from pilot crew resource management training:

• Always "fly the airplane" first: problems are going to appear, don't neglect the management of the project - keep it "flying."  Then follow good protocol to deal with the problem.

• Exercise good task delegation: does a problem need to be addressed?  Yes, but not by everyone.  Delegate the responsibility of the problem to an individual or group of individuals.  Keep everyone else focused on the responsibility of executing the project.

• Clearly articulate roles and responsibilities: make sure that everyone understands their role during different phases of a project.  If the Captain is the "flying pilot," it is the First Officer's responsibility to troubleshoot problems and report to the Captain.  The Captain's first responsibility is to fly the airplane.  This is laid out ahead of time.  If there is a defect in your software build, a discrepancy in a deliverable, or a test that fails, whose responsibility is it to address?  Lay these roles out ahead of time.  Don't wait until things are busy.

• Reduce interruptions and distractions: this is hard to do in an office environment, but help your team by keeping unneeded interruptions and distractions from them.  Pilots exercise a "sterile cockpit" where nothing is discussed but the flight itself when the flight is below 10,000 feet.  Why?  To avoid unneeded distractions.  Do the same for your team, especially in critical periods.
  

• Know ahead of time what is a serious vs. minor problem: when a problem arises, use this definition so you know whether to address it then or prioritize it for later.

• Institute standard operating procedures: these help to ensure that people do not miss key steps because they are distracted by something else.

• Include training on how to deal with distractions in your regular team training: yes, you need regular team training.

Happy project piloting...