Mel Bost – PMO Expert

Do you think that you can snap your fingers whenever you need some vital information? 

Do you think that your LinkedIn connections or your Facebook or Twitter friends will come running to your aid whenever you need help?

If it was late at night, and you were sitting in front of your laptop, in a foreign country, several thousand miles from most of your network, with a useless cell phone because you provider had no network, and you needed help, what would you do?

When this happened to me just a few weeks ago, I was thrilled by the responsiveness of my network, and I just had to share this fantastic networking experience with my readers.

Most of you know that I was in Panama recently facilitating two three-day courses on Project Lessons Learned for the Panama Canal Authority’s Construction Division. 

At the end of the second day of the second session, the division’s manager requested that, the next day, I speak to the class about some specific project lessons learned success factors and barriers experienced by other organizations.  He also wanted to know how these success factors and barriers fit into a cohesive project lessons learned system.  He requested this information because he wanted to impress upon the class that Project (and Contract) Lessons Learned would (and should) be an ongoing part of their daily activity.

I left the building that day worried because, while I had many examples, anecdotes, and ideas about project lessons learned success factors and barriers, I was not aware of any single document or study that would address his request.  Since I unfortunately hadn’t anticipated his request, after dinner that evening, I sat myself down in front of my laptop, and began to brainstorm about who in my network might be able to efficiently guide me in the right direction–time was of the essence since I had to be back in the classroom about eight hours later!

During my brainstorming, I remembered that Michael Guidry’s Northwest Arkansas PMI Chapter recently featured Deborah Grassi, a Senior Manager in SAP Change, Training, and Communication at WalMart.  Deborah spoke about lessons learned from a significant WalMart project.  So, I dashed off a quick email to Michael explaining my conundrum.

I sent another quick email to Dan Ranta, a Director of Knowledge Sharing with whom I had worked at ConocoPhillips. 

I also wrote to Wayne Thompson, my frequent collaborator on podcasts for his popular blog “Project Management War Stories.” 

I also recalled that Lisa Austin , a manager of Knowledge Management at Williams Midstream, had recently spoken to the PMI Tulsa Chapter about Knowledge Management at Williams.  While I had unfortunately missed her presentation, I thought contacting her was worth a shot since she and I are connected on LinkedIn.  Lisa quickly replied that, if I had not already seen the website and blog on Knowledge Management in the United Kingdom operated by Nick Milton, Director of Knoco, Ltd., I should check it out. 

Nick Milton was formerly a knowledge management executive with BP.  Now, is a knowledge management consultant who consults with corporations worldwide on knowledge management issues.

I quickly accessed Nick’s website, and found a section on Lessons Learned that included a survey that he had conducted in 2009 of companies in many different industries.  The survey discussed these companies’ varying Lessons Learned practices, which factors had been barriers in establishing Lessons Learned, and which factors had led to success in Lessons Learned and lasting change within the organization.

BINGO!!!

I immediately messaged Nick on LinkedIn and introduced myself.  I explained that we had common interests in Project Lessons Learned, that I was in the midst of teaching a course on the subject, that I had been referred to his website, and that I was very impressed by survey.  I requested that we connect on LinkedIn.  Almost immediately, Nick approved by connection request and explained that he was with a client in China, but that he would love to talk about our common interests in Project Lessons Learned. 

Nick and I emailed a few more times that evening, and Nick was kind enough to permit me to present his survey and discuss its findings with the course participants.

The survey had 74 responses from individuals in such varied industries as oil and gas, engineering and construction, consulting, mining, industrial products and services, etc.  It mainly focused on project groups, and it covered success factors, barriers, key systems components, and other enabling factors. 

As I read through the survey, I was pleased that it supported many of my recommendations, including the use of the After Action Review (AAR) as the preferred basis for a project lessons learned framework, as well as the inclusion of Risk Management when identifying candidates for lessons learned.

The next day, I distributed the survey to the course participants, and we discussed its findings within the context of the Construction Division’s business and project/contract environment. 

Throughout the day, similarly helpful information flooded in from my network.  In fact, nearly one hundred percent of the people that I contacted responded with useful information.

I learned two valuable lessons from this experience: (1) when training, listen—and be responsive to—your audience, as it often provides valuable insight as to how you can develop and improve your materials; and (2) believe in the power of your network!

Remember–the responsiveness of your network is entirely up to you.

As Robert Cialdini has stated in his work on INFLUENCE,  RECIPROCITY is a powerful motivator.   Always do what you can for others before asking a significant favor in return. 

Your network will only be as responsive to you, as you have been in fulfilling its needs.

Last week on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” Paul Reiser was a guest.

You may remember Paul as the male lead in the sitcom “Mad About You” which starred Helen Hunt as his wife.  The madcap comedy of this twosome kept me in stitches for many evenings.

Paul was appearing on “The Tonight Show” to promote his new sitcom “The Paul Reiser Show.”  However, as luck often has it in the TV business, Paul’s show was canceled after just two shows on air. 

The way he said the TV executives pitched the cancellation to him was “Well, you have some viewers and then you have not so many viewers.  Your show fell in the latter category.”

So he was a “lame duck” in a sense but, since he was already scheduled for Jay Leno’s show, he showed up to provide some laughs and a look a reality in the wacky world of TV sitcoms.

Jay asked Paul about his two sons, who I believe are seven and ten years of age.  Apparently, the last time Paul and Jay spoke, Jay recalled that the two boys had requested a 3-D TV for their home.

Paul explained that one of his sons had exclaimed “Dad, didn’t you see that last jungle picture in 3-D.  The trees were slapping me in the face as the animals swung through the trees.  It was so real.” 

Paul explained that he had always been a 2-D person himself and, in fact, throughout his life, he had tried to avoid being slapped in the face by anything resembling tree limbs as he navigated the world. 

But, of course, the boys were different.  They really enjoyed the idea that they could actually experience being slapped by something unreal and yet so lifelike in appearance.

To all you project managers reading this blog, how do you treat your projects?  Do you go through the motions, treating your projects like 2-D, always hoping that something won’t leap out and slap you in an unexpected manner? 

Or do you approach you projects with a 3-D mentality, relishing the idea that every slap in the face represents a new opportunity to lead?

If you are experienced enough to have managed several projects, you know that 3-D is the only flavor for projects in today’s fast-paced project environment. 

So why avoid being slapped in the face by treating projects as 2-D?  Take a risk and embrace new experiences and new opportunities to lead–you will be glad that you did.

I once worked with a college professor whose reference books on his desk had notations in the margins which consisted of columns of scribbled, handwritten dates such as “8/25/1982.”   When I questioned him about the notations, some of which consisted of five or six dates in a column in the margin, he said that many of the “topics” and “subjects” were really recurring themes in his research work.  The only difference was the social or environmental or technical ”context” at the particular time he reexamined the topic.   So to remind himself of those “contexts,” he placed dates in the columns as documentation of the different perspectives he had experienced.

When I thought back on this situation, it occurred to me that a topic I had written about during my days in the ConocoPhillips Program Management Office (PMO), and which was published in the company’s newsletter several years ago, had even more significance to the project community now than it did when I originally wrote it.  So, I decided to resurrect this topic, which roughly can be termed “Change Creates Opportunity.”

You see, in the turbulent times in which we find ourselves today, with uncertainty at every turn, and no assurance that a well-intended decision-based action will, in fact, create the significant long-lasting result that were intended at the outset or at the decision point, we need a “theme” around which to rally our efforts.

I have worked for five major petroleum companies over a twenty-five year period, and I was involved in at least three major mergers.  Accordingly, I often have thought that my middle name is “transition.”

Here are some resources that I used to adapt to the changed, post-merger environment during those transitions. 

These concepts were introduced by William Bridges in his book JobShift: How to Prosper in a Workplace without Jobs. You may also be familiar with Bridges as the author of Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes, a highly acclaimed book which discusses how people respond physically, emotionally and intellectually to the transitions and changes in their lives.

The approach set out by Bridges takes advantage of your unique skill set and competencies; tools that you can use to contribute to your PMO’s success.

Bridges’ main theme is that “change creates opportunity.”  While change does tend to destroy old opportunities, the bigger implication for you, personally, is that change creates new “needs” within an organization. Many of these needs go unmet until someone recognizes them and takes action. Change relocates the opportunity by changing internal customer needs and the terms under which success is possible. 

What does this mean?

 An employee should consider the workplace as a “market” with supply and demand forces at work.  By looking at the “supply of” and “demand for” services and needs on a continual basis, you can determine what roles and skills are necessary and act accordingly.

In this type of market environment, you must learn to find the needs that are not being effectively or economically met by others–both inside and outside the organizational boundary (because external contractors and vendors can and often do meet these very same needs). This shift in thinking replaces the idea that job roles are restricted to only their formal definitions, and allows an employee more autonomy and ownership of their contributions to the PMO.

Change also creates new interfaces. These interfaces may be a face-off between two organizations, between a business and its environment, between two patterns of experience and expectations, or between new technologies and users of old technologies. 

Because interfaces juxtapose value systems, assumptions, needs, and languages, they create “unmet” needs. They demand workers who are good at brokering, translating, interpreting, training, linking, facilitating, negotiating, and servicing. These activities bridge the gap in comprehension and familiarity created by the interface. For example, your group may need assistance from the Global Internal Audit group to assess standards and processes in your work area or your project, but no one may be assigned to provide this linkage. The first step would be recognizing the need.  The second would be assessing what type of skill or competency is required to fill the gap. The third would be effectively closing the gap.

So, what does this imply for your day-to-day activities within the PMO?

Continually scan the environment for these unmet needs that define the marketplace for your group.   Be aware of what skill sets and competencies exist in your group for satisfying a variety of these needs.  Act as a facilitator or provide the linkage (REMEMBER THE LINCHPIN?) whenever possible to close the supply and demand gap for services.

Remember: “Change Creates Opportunity.”

The market will continually change but, by developing skills to recognize, adapt to, and fill the market’s changed needs, you add value for yourself and the PMO.

Is your PMO ready to meet the “unmet” needs in the marketplace?  Is is ready to react to a change as large as a corporate takeover? 

The rate of change is increasing. 

Today, there is a ”groundswell” of needs being satisfied through social media by varied stakeholders (rather than the traditional supply route of institutions).  New external requirements, such as Smart Grid, or Sustainability, or Carbon Footprint, or “the Green Movement”,  are other examples of forces requiring a change response within the PMO organizational framework. 

I encourage you personally to think about the concept of “Change Creates Opportunity.”  It is a perspective that creates win-win solutions.

If you have other changes you have experienced in your PMO, please share them with our project community through the Comments.

Thank you!!!

I genuinely want to share my experiences developing several Program Management Offices (PMO) and an IT Project Office with others who may be facing the same issues and similar situations.  I believe that I have valuable insights about the behavior of project teams, project managers, stakeholders and project organizations that are worthy of sharing with others.   The comments that I have received on my posts from the “project community” have supported my belief.

What do I mean by the word “community” and the phrase “project community”? 

In my mind, a “community” is a loosely connected group of people who have common interests in a field or discipline.  They are all interested in the growth and well-being of that field or discipline. 

A “community” need not be all in the same organization or in the same geographical area.  It does, however, need some framework for sharing information and collaboration.  Such a framework allows the community to benefit from the work of its members, from the input of outsiders whose ideas impinge on the community environment, from academics, and other researchers. 

Social Media and Social Technology facilitate such a community environment.

Rich Maltzman, who writes “Scope Crepe“, first alerted me to the importance of a “project community.”   We were talking about the evolution of PMOs–from strictly IT PMOs, or Shared Services PMOs with a particular “mindset,” to Enterprise PMOs (EPMO), and to PMOs designed to serve specific targeted project goals and objectives or requirements (such as Smart Grid with some utilities). 

Rich said that regardless of how many PMOs there were in an organization, it was important to maintain a sense of “project community” across the PMOs.  “Communities” contribute to the well being and ongoing growth of the members of the community.

In her book Open Leadership, Charlene Li presents an excellent model of “engagement” that could apply to either an organization or an individual engaging a community.  The hierarchy of increasing engagement proceeds as follows:

1.  Watching

2.  Sharing

3.  Commenting

4.  Producing

5.  Curating

The evolution of this blog has followed this model. 

First, I watched as the “project community” embraced the PMBOK, and the literature surrounding the progress of projects in a corporation from early simple executions to large scale executions of tremendous strategic importance to the corporation.  At this point, the PMI and its chapters engaged with the “project community” via publications, on-line web sites, and periodic meetings throughout the world. 

As I progressed through the stages of Sharing and Commenting, I was reacting to the written and spoken words of others in the “project community” who were contributing to the processes, standards, and methods by which good Project Management Practice was being spread throughout the community. 

Now with the stage of Producing, I am contributing to the literature and culture of the “project community” with my own unique observations, analysis and insights.  

I feel that the Curating stage lies ahead because I am still a “youngster” when it comes to “contributing.”  Social mediums, such as blogging, have certainly furthered this journey–and, yes, it is a “journey” of growth and awakening and finding out how much I don’t know about things I should know.

I also write this blog because it has restored some sense of “identity” to me.  When my manager at Exterran Corporation informed me in October 2009 that my company position or job had been eliminated in a budget cut, that my services were no longer required, and that I should clean out my desk and leave the building, I was amazed by my own loss of “identity.”  Like many other people, I largely associated myself, my work life, and my accomplishments with a “Corporation.” 

If you have seen the movie “Up in the Air“, this experience was very much like sitting across the desk from George Clooney and listening to him say, in his monotone voice:

“You are being terminated from the Company and I will need your access badge.  Please be prepared to leave the building as soon as possible with your personal belongings in this box.  And don’t worry.  All  your questions will be answered if you read what’s in this small packet.”

Authoring this blog has renewed my sense that I have something worth saying, something worth contributing, something worth reading and assimilating into the day-to-day “project environment” that the “project community” lives every day. 

The “Journey” has not been without its setbacks though.

Recently I sat across the desk from a manager at a major energy company who said to me  ”You know what your problem is?  You have no ‘brand.’  You come to me with no ‘brand’ that you can identify yourself with.  That means you are really unknown.” 

How untrue.  My brand–and my mission–is to give the “Project Community” the substance that it needs when it most needs it.

The head of a major executive search firm recently said to me “You know what your problem is?  You are like so many other people out there right now with too much time on your hands.   So you write this junk and think others will care about it.” 

The project community does care about these issues.  The proof lies in the comments to this blog and the constant positive feedback that I have received.

What I have to say is directly related to events in our world today.  The BP crisis in the Gulf points to the fact that we really have not learned our lessons from previous mishaps.  Someone needs to keep reminding us.

The Social Media revolution is an event that we cannot deny.  People are relying on other people–through social media–to satisfy their wants and needs; needs they once satisfied by going to established stores, banks, or other institutions.   Charlene Li referred to this phenomenon as a “groundswell“–a social trend whereby people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions such as corporations.

So, why do I write this blog?  To “connect” to the “project community” and hopefully, to give that community back as much as it has given me over the past twenty or thirty years. 

If everyone were to approach their interactions in a similar manner, they could find the “self direction,” “mastery,” and “Purpose” that Daniel Pink writes about in Drive.

I urge you to consider how you can contribute and give to the “project community.”  What skills, experience, ideas, innovations and specifics can you contribute to everyone who wants to grow and nurture the project discipline in the same manner?  What project lessons can you share with another project manager who is facing a similar situation or scenario?  What project analysis did you perform which led to successful completion of some very difficult phase of a project that you could share with your “project community?”

If you are watching, sharing and commenting to the work of others in some fashion, I urge you to consider “Contributing” through your writing, observations and insights about projects and programs.  Your reward in returns of new information, insights and knowledge will be amazing.

As usual, your comments are welcome.  Thank you for your readership.