The Highlight report

The Project Control Cycle

Perhaps this is the result of the project manager blindly following process; believing the highlight report is something that should be prepared and not a consequence of the project control cycle. Or is it simply a lack project management maturity in some organisations?

So what is the purpose of the highlight—progress or status—report? Put simply, project reporting is there to show to the sponsor and senior stakeholders that the project is on track to deliver the expected benefits. Of course, in the real world things rarely go to plan so the report is likely to say something about slippage, cost overruns, resource issues, scope etc.

However, before I look at the content I need to discuss a couple of things. First, project planning. Second, checking progress. If these things aren’t covered off then you’re in trouble and the highlight report won’t save you. The project is out of control!

Keeping the Project Under Control

The project manager is accountable for controlling the project and taking any action needed to make sure the project delivers the expected outcomes. He must create an environment where any change to the project plan is fed back as information. What’s needed is a robust plan plus a means of tracking and managing progress.

These provide the basis for measuring progress. Of course, the project manager needs to know what’s happening by regularly meeting with the team to check progress, assess any issues arising and to check risks. And when I say meeting I also mean MBWA!

know Verb
Be aware of through observation, inquiry, or information

Progress should be recorded by updating the schedule—completed activities and milestones—, spend to date, and forecasts for completion and cost. Once this information is to hand the highlight report is written.

The Progress Report

The progress report—let’s not call it the highlight report anymore—is prepared for the sponsor and key stakeholders. It should be concise and to the point. What should it include? Well I think the following is a good starting point. If appropriate use RAG status definitions to highlight areas needing board intervention.

1. Business objectives
2. Progress summary and outlook—the highlights and low-lights
3. Schedule summary—the milestones
4. Budget summary
5. Key issues
6. Key risks and opportunities
7. Changes

In addition, make sure the original and current baseline dates plus forecast date or actual achieved date is shown for each major milestone. Likewise, forecasts of project finances should be included since this information tells the sponsor and senior stakeholders that the project is on track. If it’s not they need to act.

And finally. Acknowledge achievements!

Have Your Say

How often do you prepare a highlight report or project progress report? What information do you include? Do your stakeholders use the report? Please join the discussion.

Images: Bart Everson .

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Here’s some simple advice that will give you greater confidence and help mitigate project cost risk.

Therefore, when preparing a project plan a number of approaches should be employed to arrive at an estimate. For example, historical cost data, defined Work Breakdown Structure or Product Breakdown Structure—possibly standardised across projects—and a systematic understanding of the types of cost associated with feasibility, development, and deployment.

However, you can greatly improve the quality of your estimates by breaking down those areas you are least confident about into many parts. A lack of data will increase the uncertainty of the cost model equation.

Therefore, more data points should be included since the use of more relevant data will inevitably increase the validity of your estimating model.

Have Your Say

How do you approach project cost estimation? What estimating techniques do you use? Please join the discussion.

Images: Grim… and Dilbert by Scott Adams.

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How do you inspire people? How do you inspire others to buy into your vision?

Creating a vision for the future is relatively straightforward. Inspiring others to follow your vision is a challenge.

Vision

Inspiring Others

Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself believe. – Winston Churchill

Inspiring others is about expression. To inspire others leaders must be

• Trusted – a vision that emphasises altruism, social responsibility and the inclusion of followers is likely to inspire followers. In contrast, a vision that focuses on the leader and self-interest is more likely to inspire only those with feelings of inferiority.
• Believable – people are motivated if they have purpose. The leader’s vision helps employees to see their purpose in the workplace. And the most effective vision is one that takes account of the interests of stakeholders.
• Passionate – Inspiring others isn’t easy. Inspiring others when you are passionate about the subject is easier. Your passion will inspire others if you express it! Expressive passion is contagious. It is believable. It is trusted.

Of course, if you want to inspire others to do something then it has to be a part of your life. You must lead by example!

And finally, make sure your vision is simple, relevant and clear.

Have Your Say

How do you inspire the people you lead? Do you have a socialised vision?  Or is it all about you? Please join the discussion.

Image: Mark Brannan.

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A year ago I learned that my employer needed to make savings of around £80 million and cut 1,000 jobs. Last month a further 1,500 job losses were announced.

Discover Your Purpose and Identity

I prepared myself for the worst. Simply hoping for the best was not an option. Here’s my story. From this I hope you learn how to discover your purpose and identity.

It is the chiefest  point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is. – Erasmus

Discovery

My preparations have taken me on a journey of discovery. I’ve learned about those things we often take for granted and of things I hadn’t even considered. The things that define me.

It seems strange now but at the beginning of last year I didn’t really understand or appreciate my talents or values. Such things are at our core yet I had lost connection with them.

What’s more, I learned that people see me very differently to how I see me. For instance, that I am my worst critic. And I don’t need to apologise for my temperament.

I learned to be comfortable in my skin. I found myself.

A Fish Out of Water

I’m different okay! That’s it. That’s all I need to know. Period.

(I also learned that my brain is highly sensitive to dopamine and acetylcholine is the key neurotransmitter used by introverts.)

Personal Branding

In the same way that our temperament is hard-wired so are our talents. John Purkiss and David Royston-Lee describe our talents as the bedrock on which our personality stands. In their excellent book Brand You: Turn Your Unique Talents into a Winning Formula they show us how to identify our talents and our values to ultimately discover our sense of purpose.

Your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room. – Jeff Bezos

After reading Brand You I was most surprised by this fact: most of the career choices I’ve made took advantage of my purpose—even though I wasn’t conscious of this—whereas the jobs I least enjoyed either failed to engage my talents or compromised my values.

Discovering my purpose—my brand if you like—has made a lasting impression on me. Now I have a new and lasting focus on what I want to do. I know not to compromise my values—to be true to self—and to positively and relentlessly promote my unique combination of skills.

I find simple solutions to complex business problems – Martin Webster

My job was deleted last year. I faced redundancy. Now I have another job. What was my advantage? What convinced the employer of my value?

Simply this: I was authentic. I was me.

Have Your Say

What steps do you take to discover your purpose and identity? How do you promote your unique talents at work?  Please join the discussion.

Image: Gabriela Camerotti.

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In Sustaining Change I write about the role projects have when implementing beneficial change. I argue that sustainable change is achievable when people are engaged and urgency is increased. Dolphins, Not Whales is about encouraging quick wins—delivering results rapidly—by breaking large-scale change into smaller manageable chunks.

An incomplete solution that allows forward movement is better than no solution and no movement. – Dan Rockwell

Leading Imperfect Change

I’m engaged in a large-scale endeavour that promises to deliver significant benefit to a number of organisations. It’s true that a lot of effort has gone into preparing the vision, strategic plans, business case, specifications, design documents and so on. This got me thinking… should we take a good-enough approach or try to plan every little detail? Are we better off leading imperfect change?

Organisations are often depicted as machines. For example, the surgical team within a hospital or fire-fighters responding to an emergency follow the machine metaphor. In these circumstances it’s right that they work like a well oiled machine. Failure of one part can be catastrophic!

However, the machine metaphor doesn’t fit the rapidly changing organisation where creativity and innovation are the norm. Business change is complex. Strategy emerges. Strategy evolves. What the organisation needs is flexibility. The ability to adapt and flex as context changes.

Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius… – Marilyn Monroe

Do organisations spend too much time analysing and over-specifying things when they design and plan business change? Maybe complexity is bested by simplicity? As I’ve said before successful change requires momentum and the creation of short-term wins. Keeping things simple may help us achieve this.

Have Your Say

What do you think? Is it time for change? Are you practised in leading imperfect change?  Please join the discussion.

Image: Phototrophy.

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In Live to Work I said I was loosing out. That I spent too much time working and supporting others.

Now I’m taking control. I’ve re-evaluated my priorities. And I’ve learned that I can master the things that stress me out. Here are 4 strategies for dealing with over-commitment.

Dealing With Over-Commitment

My source of stress is over-commitment. And dealing with this—whether at home or at work—is to manage time more effectively and to learn to say no more often.

The following strategies for dealing with over-commitment help free us from stress.

#1 Know Your Priorities

#2 Know Your Managers’ Priorities

When we’re at work our priority is work. We have objectives. They were set by your manager. Yet work keeps piling up. Something has to give.

Therefore, we need to know our manager’s priorities. And those of our manager’s manager. Knowing their priorities—what makes them tick—helps us to negotiate our work load.

#3 Learn to Say No

Or rather, learn to say no for now.

Saying no is unhelpful and conveys the wrong message. So don’t say it! As an alternative, postpone or renegotiate. It’s more useful to say something like “Yes, I can help with this. I’ll start on it next week once I’ve finished the… Is that okay with you?”

When juggling it is inevitable that something is dropped. Therefore, it is better to say no for now than to fail. People remember you for your failures more readily than for your successes. So stop letting things fall between the cracks because you are over-committed.

#4 Delegate Often

A man has to know his limitations. – Harry Callahan

Not only am I prone to over-committing, I’m also reluctant to delegate tasks. I guess I like to be in control. However, I do have a great team of willing and highly competent people.

The reality is we cannot get everything done by ourself. Indeed if we could we wouldn’t need a team! Therefore, we must either learn to delegate well or be buried in the work others should and could be doing. It is our responsibility to delegate tasks to others and control the outcomes. The more we delegate effectively the greater our success.

Image: Ben Sutherland.

Have Your Say

What strategies do you have for dealing with over-commitment? Please join the discussion.

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Over the past few days I’ve given this much thought. Here are some things I’m doing to get my life balance right.

Life Balance

When things get busy and it seems like there’s no time left for the good things listen to your body. It usually gives you some clear signals. You may feel stressed or a little overwhelmed. Or maybe you’re simply down in the dumps. I was weary. I’d taken on too much and left little time for myself and those I love.

Recognising how I was feeling was first step to putting things back in balance.

The next step was to identify the things I could cut out and the things I should do. The following 5 steps helped me achieve the right life balance.

#1 Set Priorities

I decided what was most important, what had to be done first, and what could wait.

And I realised that most things could wait. And that someone else could some of them for me. As soon as I grasped this I started feeling better. By prioritising—creating space—I was energised and could look forward to making plans to achieve my goal: getting the right life balance.

#2 Set Realistic Goals

Every day we need time set aside for ourselves. Just half an hour each day to do something that just makes us feel good.

I’m still working on this. Maybe I’ll pick up my watercolour paints and sketch book or cook something special once a week. Perhaps I’ll walk my our 6-year old golden retriever more often.

#4 Schedule Time for Our Relationships

Earlier I said we should live in the present. My meaning in saying this is two-fold. We should make the most of each day and we should be focused, in balance and aware. For me this means giving people our presence: giving people our full attention.

Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it. – Thomas Fuller

Our most important relationships—spouse, children, family, friends—benefit greatly when we spend quality one-to-one time together. Yet these things often fall by the wayside when we’re busy. I’m making firm arrangements. I’ve arranged concerts, weekends away, lunches…

#5 Look After Yourself

It’s all so easy to sacrifice our health because we’re too busy. We must take care of ourselves. To perform at our best we need combine a healthy diet, regular exercise and plenty of sleep.

Well I’d love to say that I’m going off to the gym. But in truth I’m happy swimming, walking my dog and getting to bed at a reasonable hour most nights.

Have Your Say

In what way do you bring greater enjoyment into your life? What tips can you share for finding a healthy life balance?  Please join the discussion.

Image: mediafury.

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However, many organisations have problems with the way they tackle change. These problems are usually related to people, processes, systems, technology or structure. Change is complex. Change is wicked! And the pace and scale of change today can overwhelm organisations.

Sustaining Change

Projects are key to creating beneficial change. They are the vehicles for managing and implementing change. Those organisations that recognise project management is a core capability (or competence) are most likely to find success in sustaining change.

Successful business change projects have the following characteristics.

A Business-led Change

A Sense of Urgency

Executive management describes the business need—why the project is necessary—from the outset. Their mandate will also specify the time-scale within which the project must deliver the benefits. What’s more, successful organisations set a challenging schedule and stick to it—even when expert opinion suggests this is unachievable. Change should be delivered with urgency and in no more than nine months.

Time-Boxing

Detailed analysis has the effect of putting the brakes on change. Therefore, the idea of time-boxing is used to push the project team to make decisions about what is really needed. Successful businesses break tradition and create a sense of urgency when delivering change.

Quick Wins

Large scale change needs momentum plus a sense of achievement and bags of optimism. Time-boxing encourages quick wins ensuring results are achieved quickly. Instead of detailed analyses and the preparation of a hefty business case or full requirements specifications the project team is moved to change and learns what is really required through a series of iterations—breaking large scale change into smaller chunks and success stories.

Dolphins Not Whales

Thus, large scale projects are broken down into a series of shorter steps or phases. Each step will deliver benefits and move the organisation to sustaining change. It is urgency that sustains change and this is only possible when results are achieved rapidly. Not only does this give recognition and encouragement to those working hard to accomplish change it also builds faith in the change effort.

David Feeny—a prominent British academic and authority on business transformation—first introduced the concept of dolphins not whales. It effectively shows people how sustaining change should be implemented. That is, creating a climate for change by increasing urgency and engaging and enabling the organisation through short-term wins.

Sustaining Change: Dolphins Not Whales

Dolphins, not whales is a great way to grasp what is at the heart of change. When leading change use this to win hearts and minds.

Have Your Say

What approach do you use to implement large-scale change? Do you take an incremental approach or favour the monolithic project?  Please join the discussion.

Image: NOAA’s National Ocean Service.

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A Definition of Leadership

In Leadership: a Very Short Introduction Keith Grint differentiates leadership from management. He reasons that the difference between leadership and management is context. That is, management is equivalent to déjà vu and leadership is equivalent to vu jàdé. Literally, this means seen this before and not seen this before.

In other words, managers tend to resolve previously experienced problems whereas leaders must innovate to solve novel or unruly problems. For the manager problems are complicated but rarely complex. There is little uncertainty. Problems are tame.

We also experience critical problems. That is, crises. Times when difficult or important decisions must be made. But there is certainty and we know what decisions to take. We command.

In contrast, leaders deal with wicked problems.

It is about the questions not the answers.

Forms of Authority

Thus we have three forms of authority and three different approaches to power

1. Command―critical problems―physical
2. Management―tame problems―rational
3. Leadership―wicked problems―emotional

Coercive or physical power is needed in crises. For example, when a problem or situation threatens the survival of the organisation. Decisive action is needed and people respond to a call to action.

Managers use rational power to deal with problems of compliance. For instance, when a service isn’t performing. The manager’s role is to solve puzzles for which there are always answers.

Wicked problems are different because they cannot be solved by the individual. Solving wicked problems is about engaging people and working together in a common purpose.

Leadership is about follower-ship. Coercion is ineffective when dealing with wicked problems. Followers must want to help!

Image: Deborah Schultz.

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Do a search on project management training and you’ll find that most of the courses listed talk about methodologies, roles and responsibilities, project planning, documentation, reporting and so on. A few mention communication skills and team building. And fewer describe the project leader.

When I think about someone who consistently delivers on projects I don’t think of the times they produced a great Gantt chart or the quality of their progress reports. No. I think about their qualities, attitudes and behaviours. Their tenacity. The way they take action. And the way they inspire and motivate people. Their project leadership skills.

Project Leader

Project managers come in all shapes and sizes. They come with different experiences, skills and strengths. But they are often treated as a one-size-fits-all resource. They’re not. There are four types of project and as many types of project leader.

Leaders are defined by their followers.

Some projects are evolutionary and some revolutionary. Some have clear goals. With these it is clear what is needed and how to do it. Others are inherently foggy. This is a project where there’s no clear understanding of what to do nor how to do it. Whether the project is about improving operations or responding to a change in business circumstances it is clear that every project has different characteristics that need different leadership skills.

Therefore, choose project managers according to the sort of behaviour, skills and attributes needed to run the project. If the project is akin to painting by numbers choose someone with experience and the ability to plan and deliver. On the other hand, if the project is more like a walk in the fog you need someone who is calm, has excellent communication skills and builds trust.

Leaders are defined by their followers. If we correctly match project with project manager we are more likely to succeed. We are more likely to find the right project leader!

Have Your Say

What are the most importance qualities of a project manager? What makes an effective project leader? Are project managers responsible for delivering business benefit? Please join the discussion.

Image: Kitty Terwolbeck.

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