Mel Bost – PMO Expert

To all my PMO blog readers, I will be facilitating one day Project Closeoout and Lessons Learned Workshops in the following cities in May and June 2012:  St. Louis, Indianapolis, Memphis, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Detroit and Des Moines.  This is a part of a group of workshops sponsored by Gantthead and BOT International with the theme “Redefining the PMO.”  Details concerniing times and sign up information are in the following link.  Gantthead will be handling the registration.

http://www.gantthead.com/workshops/regions.cfm?region=North%20America

Please join me for a one day workshop.  We will be coverinng the Project Lessons Learned Framework I have discussed in my blog.  Thanks for your interest.

Recently I was watching an episode on HGTV–Home and Garden TV–in which a couple was renovating and redecorating a patio area of their home.  They wanted to place some three foot high planters with flowers at different locations on the patio perimeter for privacy and for decoration. 

The HGTV consultant they were using suggested that they fill the planters with empty plastic water bottles to a certain height and then fill the remainder with dirt to adequately cover the plant roots and provide the irrigation needed.  Why?  The explanation was that the planters would be much easier to move around on the patio for different settings since the plastic water bottles, as opposed to soil, would make them not weigh as much. 

Now, this insight on the part of the HGTV consultant was very valuable to the homeowner.  It had been derived from the consultant’s experience gained in other such patio decorating, and made possible from collaborating with other consultants who worked in this field.

Sometimes “finesse” is what is needed in a project–rather than brute-force implementation.  In the case of the patio, the “finesse” of using a proven technique for the planters that would allow the homeowners be able to move them in the future was insightful, productive, and yet easy to implement.

How many times have you, as a project manager, examined your potential actions to decide if “finesse” could be used rather than “brute force?”  How many times have you collaborated with other project managers to describe a situation that you are facing that might be leveraged by “finesse” rather than by your own blind experience?

As Project Managers, we must look for “finesse” in everything we do.  It pays dividends in little ways.

I find it really interesting that people are all clamoring to get copies of Steve Jobs’ biography.  And the press is continually revealing their own interpretation of passages from his book and key events from his life.  Why is this?

Because people are looking for that instant key to “wisdom” that Steve Jobs exhibited which made him a successful entrepreneur and innovator.  People are not content to reflect on their own experiences about successful activities from their own lives, and their key interactions and relationships with others, to find the lessons learned that they desire. 

Instead, they are looking for that instant “wisdom” that Steve Jobs talked about throughout his life.  Interesting that people are studying him now more than when he was alive.

One of my favorite quotes from Steve Jobs was the following:

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. ”

In the past, “Lessons Learned” evoked a connotation of taking time away from “valuable” activities that supported ongoing interests to look back at some activity already completed in order to record someone’s mistakes and provide guidance to them in how to proceed next time.

We need to reframe our thinking about “Lessons Learned.”  We need to see “Lessons Learned” in any situation as an “opportunity” to improve performance, create more successful outcomes for ourselves and for the people affected by our activities, and to improve the overall processes by which we live our daily lives.

In a recent audio CD interview for “Success” magazine, Dr. Oz stated an interesting perspective on getting second opinions for a diagnosis which your physician might have given for an ailment or disease.  Many people refuse to get second opinions because they fear that their physician will take offense at being second guessed.  But he stated a statistic that one of every three second opinions results in a reversal of the original opinion.  So a “reframing” of this situation means that if a second opinion were shared with the original physician with good, sound, medical and scientific evidence that the second opinion should be acted upon, then the original physician stands to benefit as much from the opinion as does the patient.  Think of how many patients the physician will see going forward for which he will have more knowledge and opinions to provide an original opinion.  The “Lessons Learned” from this example are enormous in terms of future diagnoses and resulting treatments.

We must begin to think of “Lessons Learned” in terms of opportunity and the value that they add to all stakeholders including those in the future who could benefit from the capture, documentation and sharing of the “Lessons Learned.”  To connect the dots in the future, as Steve Jobs alluded to in his quote, we need to use all of our backward looks to gain a better appreciation for what is possible in the future.  We need to think of the “value” we can create for the world at large by creatively looking at lessons learned.

In an earlier post to this PMO Blog (“What is the Impact of Project Environment on Project Lessons Learned and Knowledge Management” ), I talked about observations from my experiences working in a PMO setting about project lessons learned (observations which have been confirmed by others using systemic thinking principles). 

Project lessons learned can arise from two sources:

1.  From the individual project in question, usually by the project team’s analysis of their behaviors and actions leading to observed actual results. 

2.  From the project environment, usually by analysis of the “structure” of that environment and its effects on project team behavior.

Obviously, project lessons learned come from post-project completion analysis.  Project lessons learned are intended to inform and impact the future behavior of new and existing project managers in new future projects where similar project environments were considered the “as is” process state.  By using some systemic thinking principles, it is possible to effect the behavior and results of many projects “playing in the same space” by making changes in the project environment.  This is often termed as “leveraging actions” to the project portfolio.

Now what does that really mean? 

The project environment is composed of the external corporate environment and the internally created corporate environment.  Usually, the organizational and governance structures for a PMO group are defined and evolve over time as the organization evolves.  The structure put in place by the organization has a great deal to do with how people act, behave, and make decisions within that project environment.

We have often heard the expression that “structure influences behavior.”  The structure of the project environment is made up of the policies, standards, procedures, defined relationships, reporting linkages, etc, that constitute the working environment within the firm.  We are also aware that, in the dynamic complexity of project environments these days, well-intended actions can lead to unintended consequences.  John Sterman at MIT has studied this type of behavior extensively.  This is because the “cause and effect” are not close in space and time, and some nonlinearity may occur in which an action or decision on the part of a person or group may lead to unintended actions or behavior by others based upon their interpretations in their business context.

 Organizations and groups have the “ability” to anticipate and plan what effects their PMO structures will have on project behaviors.   Accordingly, they can take actions over time to react and adapt to unintended results that are occurring as a result of the structure of the project environment.   The project environment is a dynamic phenomenon–we can adjust structure in order to influence project behavior.  This approach to project management, however, is just in its infancy and requires some art along with the science.

For those of you who may have trouble visualizing how structure might influence behavior, let me offer an example from my experience.  Many years ago I worked as a Product Planner for a major domestic automotive manufacturer in the Detroit area. One of the benefits offered to top executives of the Division and the Company was a company automobile.  Each morning when the executive arrived at the building, he was met by a service technician who asked if the executive had encountered any problems or had any service items that needed attention.  At the end of the day, each executive drove away from the facility with a clean, serviced automobile.  At one time, a certain service problem was identified in the field and reported through the service warranty network to the company.  Reports and metrics summarizing the problem were reported through the ranks and eventually were highlighted to the executives in charge of product quality.  However, none of the executives had encountered the problem–or if they had encountered it, the problem was fixed with “same day service”.  The executives’ personal experiences led them to refuse to believe that the reports accurately identified the extent of the problem in the field.   The reported problems were not taken seriously.  In some cases, only one executive in twenty might have encountered the problem and, if he weren’t assigned to Product Quality, the problem was forgotten as just another ”minor” flaw.  As a result, the Division failed to react to a mounting service problem.  The structure of the executives’ benefits–the company car–had influenced behavior to such an extent that there was actually denial that such a problem existed.

Let’s examine another example a little closer to home in the PMO.  In the early days of defining new Program Management Office (PMO) processes and procedures for ConocoPhillips, we recognized the need to define some “rules” for Project Justification and Approval.  These rules called for the project teams to develop a Business Case to justify the project.  As in similar situations with other PMOs, we attempted to define some structure to answer the question “How extensive does the Business Case analysis need to be and who should be reviewing it for final signoff as an approved project?”  An early attempt to define this standard resulted in a “rule”  that every proposed project over $1 million total cost must have a full Business case with all economics and it must be signed off by the IT Authorization Board.  All projects under $1 million total cost must define a partial business case with limited economics and must be signed off by a subset of the IT Authorization Board.

Now, what happened? You could probably guess that there were many projects proposed at $900,000 or two projects proposed at $800,000 and $850,000 that could easily have been combined into a more strategic and doable project.  Remember:  “Structure influences behavior.”  “Well meant or intended actions can often lead to unintended consequences.”

So, the bottom line for those of you who are designing new PMOs or are working with existing PMOs which have a set of policies, standards, and procedures in place to “guide” the planning and execution of projects is this…..follow some simple evaluation questions I present here to lessen the risk that you will introduce some unintended consequences from your project environment:

1.  Develop some scenarios to test out your policies, standards, processes, and procedures.  Take a typical project and follow it through the Project Management Process to see what the behavior of project managers, team members, sponsors, or other stakeholders might be.

2.  If your policies and processes have been in place for some length of time, test them to see if the thresholds for governance committee reviews are still valid.  In other words, over time your PMO projects may have taken on different characteristics which have increased costs.  The threshold values for review and signoff may no longer adequately cover the portfolio as you had originally planned.

3.  If new technology is introduced rapidly into your process, have a review process in place to determine at the earliest point possible in the process if the new technologies are compatible with current technologies and infrastructure.  Otherwise, you will very likely incur additional costs for these new technologies when they are evaluated.

4.  Check the hurdle rates for your economic/financial analysis in your business cases at intervals to ensure that they are set consistently with the business objectives and the types of projects that you are deploying.

5.  Survey your Project Authorization Governance Groups occasionally to make sure there is consistency in the way each member of the Group is viewing the mission and value proposition which projects present to the organization.

6.  Examine key reporting relationships for the project team within the PMO and understand how the overall structure of the PMO influences where decisions are made and who makes them.

7.  Identify and monitor any cultural or business context issues that might play a major role in the project environment for your organization or industry.  Since these variables are dynamic and change over time, make sure you are evaluating all projects on a consistent basis.  This is, of course, easier said than done.  It involves being a student of the project environment and touching base with others in the PMO to ensure all bases are covered.

8.  Continue to look at project lessons learned and use the information to feed back to the front end evaluation process we are describing at present.

There may always be some project environment variables that are elusive and for which you will not be able to easily identify unintended consequences of actions taken by the project manager, project team, sponsors or other stakeholders.  That does not mean that you should dismiss  this analysis as having no value. 

Remember:  The more you know and undestand about all the variables in the PMO and its organizational setting which can impact project team and stakeholder behavior, the quicker you can identify process improvements and achieve sustained project success.  That is a sign of MATURITY of your project process and is a goal worthy of striving for.

Your comments or feedback on real life situations involving the project environment are welcome.

For those of you new to my blog by way of “Scope Crepe,” I want to thank Rich Maltzmann, PMP, for his link with my PMO Expert Blog.  My blog is intended to provide project managers and PMO leaders an in depth look at some issues and themes from my 15 years of experience in putting together several PMOs as well as an IT Project Office in the early days.  Here we examine PMO execution, how to form a PMO from first principles, project lessons learned and knowledge management and performance management for PMs.

Stay tuned for more exciting interpretation and thanks for tuning in.  Mel Bost

By three methods we may learn wisdom:
– First, by reflection, which is noblest;
– Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and
– Third by experience, which is bitterest.
Confucius

Those of you who have seen the movie “The Ron Clark Story” already know about the remarkable efforts of a dedicated teacher in inner city New York who developed a learning atmosphere for his elementary students which contributed to them excelling in the classroom at the highest level in every subject. Subsequent to Ron Clark’s success in the New York schools, he visited every state to talk with students, teachers and school administrators about what he had learned and how his students performed.

What he found in his journeys were the same characteristics everywhere that he had identified to be success factors in his own classroom experiences. He found dedicated teachers and students and administrators everywhere who displayed some key attributes which, when tapped fully, created a learning experience that resulted in success and a learning environment that could not be denied regardless of the social setting or the prior experiences of the students and teachers.

When he wrote his second book “The Excellent Eleven,” he focused on eleven characteristics of high performing classroom, living and learning environments that contributed to student success. One of those characteristics was “Reflection.” Ron used reflection to instill emotion in the students’ experiences with their present day studies. At the end of every major section of work, he had the students write down their impressions of what they had just experienced and how it affected them. What types of things were going on their lives at the same time, what emotions they felt as they mastered each subject, what relationships they experienced. Many of the students remarked that, after reading their own reflections a significant time later than the actual events, they were amazed at the “images “ the reflections created in their minds and the tendency to revisit those images as they experienced new, more challenging situations and environments.

“Reflection” is something we don’t usually allow ourselves to experience because we are too busy getting on to the next task at hand, too busy hurrying to the next assignment that we don’t pay attention fully to what we have created in the last assignment, too busy grappling with the next hurdle because it is there rather than analyzing why we felt a certain way about our work just completed.

Yet reflection is the very essence of what many of Ron Clark’s students stated as being the most significant experiences they remember and the most often called upon thoughts when they faced really formidable challenges in future years.

If you are a project manager or a project team member, make time to “reflect” in a written form at regular intervals what you feel about your experiences on projects, what observations you experienced when facing new hurdles, what paths of accomplishment you have just taken to reach a successful plateau, what thoughts you would share with another person who might be faced with a similar challenge.

The words of Confucius on Wisdom will resonate in your mind over and over as you attempt new and more challenging tasks. “Reflection” will help you to tackle all things that seem formidable. Sharing those reflections with others will help cement relationships that are so valuable to the maintenance of the community of project managers and team members going forward.

Thanks for your indulgence,

Mel Bost

I have over 15 years’ experience administering Project Management Offices (PMOs).

Now, I am bringing my expertise to you. 

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Mel Bost with the Heisman Trophy