"Ignorance keeps you perky"

Earlier this year Peggy Noonan wrote an article about President Obama's new term: "Every new president starts out fresh, in part because he doesn't know what he doesn't know. Ignorance keeps you perky."

The months since have shown that running a government is more challenging than running a campaign. Though you and I are not seeking to be the leader of the free world, Noonan's point can be translated to those who strive to deliver projects and lead teams. When we first take over a project or team, our optimism may be based on ignorance. What is it that we don't know?

This all comes to mind as I prepared for my podcast interview next week with Michael Roberto, author of Know What You Don't Know: How Great Leaders Prevent Problems Before They Happen.

In the book, Professor Roberto essentially tells us that leaders must first hone their skills as problem-finders, not just problem-solvers. He offers very practical advice on how leaders can overcome the many barriers that make it a challenge to discover problems earlier instead of reacting to them later when the consequences can be much more severe.

The podcast episode is not scheduled to be published until late October but I invite you to get your copy of Michael's book now and enjoy the interview when it comes out.

In addition, here's an article that Michael just recently published that will give you a taste for what's in store.

Here's to us all becoming better problem-finders!

Labels: Books I Love, conflict, crisis, denial, illusion, podcast, project management, project sponsors, risk management

posted by Andy at 11:00 AM  

Strategic Misrepresentation?

I was doing some research today on project cost overruns. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of high-profile examples of massive project failures when it comes to cost.

I was particularly intrigued by an article entitled "Underestimating Costs in Public Works Projects: Error or Lie?" by Bent Flyvbjerg, Mette Skamris Holm, and Søren Buhl. Just the term underestimating instead of overrun caught my eye.

Yet even more interesting was a conclusion they put forward in their paper: "Cost underestimation cannot be explained by error and seems to be best explained by strategic misrepresentation, i.e. lying."

Strategic misrepresentation? That could be the most creative way of saying lying that I've heard in quite a while!

"In case after case, planners, engineers, and economists told Wachs that they had had to 'cook' forecasts in order to produce numbers that would satisfy their superiors and get projects started, whether or not the numbers could be justified on technical grounds...."

As we discuss in our project management workshops, reality has this annoying way of always winning. Bad news doesn't get better over time. If your project is struggling, rather than trying to find creative ways to cook up a batch of strategic misrepresentation, how about applying that creativity into innovative solutions to get back on schedule.

We-can-make-this-up: 5 of the most dangerous words in project management. It's not that you can't. It's just that hope is rarely a good strategy. And that's what we see way too often.

Check out our Lipstick on a Pig: How Illusion Leads to Crisis keynote. It's perfect for a company meeting, retreat, or association gathering. We can help your teams learn to lead and deliver.

Labels: accountability, crisis, denial, illusion, keynotes, risk management

posted by Andy at 10:25 PM  

New Option for Earning Your PDU's

Thinking about becoming a certified Project Management Professional (PMP)? Or maybe you are a PMP and need some PDU's to keep your certification?

We have a new offering to help! Today we are announcing our new e-learning product What You Need to Know About Risk Management.

2 PDU's for under $50 USD is a great deal! But beyond that, you'll get practical learning that you can apply in your organization regardless of the corporate culture.

Click here to learn more!

Labels: e-learning, PMP certification, project management, Project Management Institute, risk management

posted by Andy at 5:33 PM  

You are invited! Free webcast to learn how to manage risks

Risks are a daily part of being a leader. It's not a matter of if things will go differently than you planned: it's only a matter of when.

One of my favorite employees ever said, "The project schedule is the schedule for exactly how the project will not occur!"

Yet I find few people have a practical understanding of risk management. What if there were some straightforward steps you and your team could take to get a better grip on the projects you are working on?

There are. And we're offering a free webcast to help you learn.

Date: Thursday, September 18
Time: 11:00am Central (Noon Eastern, 9:00am Pacific)
Duration: 45 minutes

Click here to register. I look forward to meeting you!

P.S. For a recent article about risks, check out this newsletter issue.

Labels: illusion, risk management, webcasts

posted by Andy at 10:19 AM  

Silence is deadly (for projects and teams)

If you've been around projects long enough you know the drill... There are real problems being encountered but everyone above you seems to either be unaware or uninterested in grappling with them.

Denial is a powerful defense mechanism but rarely an effective project management strategy.
Eventually there's a project crisis. Rinse and repeat.

Since we regularly help organizations deal with issues related to these, I was pleased to read some recent results from research performed by VitalSmarts and The Concours Group. They surveyed more than 1,000 executives and project management professionals across 40 companies in a wide variety of industries.

Their Silence Fails study found direct correlations between our willingness and ability to speak up about issues and how successfully we deliver projects. The five most lethal issues that don't get discussed are:

• Fact-free planning. Failure is nearly predestined through insufficient acceptance of reality when it comes to timeframes and resources. The problem isn't that the limitations exist. The problem is people won't discuss the reality.
• Absent without leave (AWOL) sponsors. What happens when the sponsor doesn't lead? Can we talk about that? If not, prepare for failure.
• Skirting. When people skirt around the predefined process, we're often left with the resulting scope creep. If we can't discuss how this impacts projects, we'll likely soon be discussing why the project failed.
• Project chicken. We know we're late but we also know another team is late so we don't speak up. It's a deadly game that happens way too often. And the result? It's not pretty.
• Team failures. Just because we put people on a team together doesn't make them a team. Do we perpetuate the dysfunction by pretending everything's fine or do we intentionally work to improve the team dynamics. The answer can significantly impact a project's success.

Does your team or organization struggle with these issues? Contact us today about our Lipstick on a Pig: How Illusion Leads to Crisis in Real World Projects keynote. It's perfect for a company meeting, offsite, or retreat.

We discuss these dynamics in more detail, including practical ideas about how to break out of the rut of failure caused by illusion. Contact us today for more information.

Labels: crisis, denial, Lipstick on a Pig, planning, project management, project sponsors, risk management, teams

posted by Andy at 12:17 PM  

Illusions in the Maine Medicaid Project

In a recent issue of CIO Magazine, Allan Holmes details the Maine Medicaid project. If you're tired of failed IT projects, I have bad news for you--it's another one. But don't let that stop you from learning from it....

In my Lipstick on a Pig keynote we discuss how you can often deconstruct a crisis to find fundamental illusions that eventually led to the disaster.

This story is packed with examples. Here's a learning exercise for you... Block out 15 minutes to read the article. If you have any leadership role on projects, it's a must-read. But don't stop there. Browse the comments that other readers have left. As you read both, note the illusions that led to this unfortunate crisis. I found the illusions in the reader feedback almost as interesting as those in the article.

OK, here's the link. Zap me a quick e-mail (or post a comment here) regarding your observations.

Labels: illusion, keynotes, Lipstick on a Pig, project management, risk management

posted by Andy at 10:44 PM