A while back I was teaching an introductory PM class for some high-achieving tech folks.  My overall goal was to begin to convert these perfectionists into project managers.  Mid-way through the first morning, I divided the class into several small groups of 4 or 5 people and assigned a series of planning exercises.  They had brought their own real world project ideas to class and the object of the game was to take a few of these from rough concept to full-blown, high-resolution project plans.  Each team had been given large Post-It notes, blank flip charts, and markers. There were also a couple of white boards available.

As the teams were working through the guided planning exercises, I could hear the familiar jumble of voices as ideas were bounced around, discussed, discarded, and revised.  One team, however, was strangely silent. Unlike the others who were up and moving about, they were seated around a table and looking at the back of one guy’s computer screen. I walked over to see what was going on.

One member of this group had brought his laptop and was running MS Project. As I approached, he looked up from the keyboard and said, “I figured it would save a us lot of work later if we capture our ideas right now in Project. That way we won’t have to transfer our notes from flip charts after we get back to the office. Okay?”

I paused and regarded him and his earnest fellow team members. They all seemed to be on board with this idea. So I said, “Sure. Go ahead and see how that works for you.” I smiled encouragingly, left them to their work and went on to observe the other teams.

Watch Out for the Quiet Ones

As the day unfolded the teams worked their way through the assigned planning exercises. First they created deliverables (WBS) lists, then task/activity lists, then time estimates and finally schedules.  At the end of each exercise a spokesperson for each team would present their team’s results for evaluation by the rest of the class.  Overall, it was a typical class.  Or was it?

Something was weird about the laptop-driven team. During the debriefings, the guy who had been inputting data into MS Project was always the spokesperson. In fact, he did all the talking! In contrast, the other teams would rotate spokespersons and almost all the members would chime in at random during the debriefings.
I also noticed that during the assignments, while the other teams were moving around, taking turns at the flip chart or white board, sharing the chore of writing the Post Its, etc., the laptop-driven team was far more quiet and inactive. The guy at the keyboard, however, was intensely focused on his work. His fellow team members would add a thought here and there and he would type something in response and read it back to them. Most of them couldn’t see the computer screen. They seemed to trust that he was capturing their ideas accurately.

As the day wore on, it became clear that the laptop-driven team really had only one person in charge — one owner —  one person who was in control of both the big picture and how all the pieces fit together!  And in sharp contrast to the flip chart, Post-It driven teams, who were often noisy and contentious, these folks were quite subdued.  It was clear to me that they simply didn’t care as much about this project.  And, to be honest, their project solution was ultimately less creative than the others’.

It’s Gotta Be “Our Project,” Not “My Project!”

So what’s the lesson here? Simply this. While technology like MS Project can contribute powerfully to the ongoing monitoring and management of a project, it can be like a straight-jacket during project conceptualization. When team members engage an old-fashioned flip chart or wall full of Post It notes, they’re free to quickly scribble ideas, underline some and cross out others.  It’s messy, nonthreatening and, above all, democratic. And when a team studies a wall full of hand-drawn notes, it’s clear they’re working with an unfinished, unpolished product. So it feels okay to jump in with additions and changes. The result: everyone feels equally empowered to step up, grab a marker, post a note, and engage the project concepts.

At the same time, because you’re dealing with tangible, physical objects, the process is active and kinesthetically engaging. The between-the-lines message of all this activity is:  We’re a team… this is OUR project.  And if they are all going to stay motivated once the project is up and running, they must feel this empowerment and ownership right from the start.

Contrast this with how the laptop-driven team must have felt after leaving those planning sessions. Those folks who were simply contributing voices could walk away with far less commitment to the project. After all, Keyboard Guy had captured it all anyway.  It was his problem now, right?

So Step Away from the Computer…

So the next time you find yourself cranking up the latest PM software in the presence of your core team, stakeholders, or contributors — and especially if you’re in the early days of the project — ask yourself these questions:

• Can everyone in this group see what’s on my screen?
• Is everyone equally empowered to act on this software and see their input become part of the project concept?
• By using this tool, am I really inviting group participation? If not, why am I using it in a group setting?

It’s not just about manipulating the situation and getting “buy in.”  It’s about inviting all team members to authentically engage, reach out and embrace the project by ensuring their voices are heard and their concepts are fairly processed.

In short, it’s about making sure it’s Our Project and not simply My Project! And the best way to do this during project conceptualization is to step away from the computer and get out your Post It notes and flip charts.

Strategies for Project Sponsorship is a unique blend of practical, step-by-step tools; hard-won wisdom from the PM trenches; and solid, research-based recommendations. As a PM author reading this book, I found myself in awe of how nimbly the authors weaved together seemingly disparate elements: here citing research findings, there providing war stories or case study examples, and finally pivoting to morph these into powerful, ready-to-use tools.

As someone who’s both managed projects and trained project managers for more than three decades, I know this for certain: This book should be in every project manager’s tool kit and in every project sponsor’s briefcase.

Here are six reasons I believe this book will become an instant PM classic:

1. It shares powerful PM wisdom, based on real-world experience, regarding the subtle and nuanced process of sponsoring a project. A few sample topics:

• What is Project Sponsorship?
• The Sponsor’s Role
• What Do the Professionals Say?
• Who Does What and When?
• Who Should Sponsor Your Project?

2. It provides insights that are typically unavailable to project managers without spending years gaining experience and acquiring scar tissue!  Some sample topics:

• The types of power that are needed to manage a project and a framework for evaluating whether this power is available via the sponsor or project manager
• A series of case study interviews in which “candidate sponsors” reveal their potential value to the project by the way they answer key questions
• Pros and cons of various ways to influence your sponsor (e.g., through appeals to logic, friendship, deal-making, values, allegiance, etc.)
• How to give your sponsor feedback (including a sample back & forth dialogue) and how to handle bad news)
• How to deal with several types of “challenging” sponsors , including the symptoms, prognosis, and prescriptions for dealing with sponsors who are absent, busy, uninterested, inexperienced, untrained, and more.
• How to deal with influential stakeholders (senior managers, others) who can be uniquely engaged via sponsor involvement with them.

3. It provides practical, easy-to-use tools for project managers.  Examples:

• The Sponsor Responsibilities Evaluation Tool (Helps you evaluate your sponsor)
• The Project Manager Evaluation Tool (Helps you evaluate your ability to work you’re your sponsor)
• An agenda for the first meeting with the sponsor (along with tips on how to position and use this)
• Stakeholder matrix (describing roles, risks, impact on project, how to manage the stakeholder
• Step-by-step guide to creating  an influence map (showing organizational power related to your project and how it flows among key stakeholders and how your sponsor can work with this)
• The Definitive Project Manager Checklist

4.  It does what every project manager has always wanted to do: It gently, but firmly, educates project sponsors about their crucial role. Sample topics relating to sponsor responsibilities and best practices include:

• Providing Direction and Guidance
• Helping Develop the Project Charter
• Identifying and Quantifying Business Benefits to Be Achieved
• Making Go/No-Go Decisions
• Negotiating Funding for the Project
• Chairing the Project Steering Committee
• Assisting with the Resolution of Interproject Boundary Issues
• Supporting the Project Manager in Conflict Resolution
• Making the Project Visible Within the Organization
• Advising the Project Manager About Protocols, Political Issues, and Potential Sensitivities
• Evaluating the Project’s Success Upon Completion

5. It provides practical, easy-to-use tools for project sponsors.  For example:

• Sponsor Responsibility Improvement Needs Assessment (a self-check)
• The Definitive Project Sponsor Checklist
• The 50 Secrets to Being A Good Executive Sponsor

6. It is firmly grounded in research.  Specifically, 

• An extensive original survey: The Strategies for Project Sponsorship Survey
• The Standish Group’s CHAOS Manifesto 2012: The Year of the Executive Sponsor

Conclusion

Reading this book, I had two voices in my head repeatedly proclaiming enthusiastically: 

• “Yes!  That’s right! I know exactly what they’re saying. I learned that same lesson myself via the School of Hard Knocks on the [XYZ] project a few years ago.”
• “Wow! What a great resource! This is the tool I’ve always needed, but didn’t realize I was missing!”

My recommendation: If you manage projects, get a copy of Strategies for Project Sponsorship for yourself. And then get one for all your project sponsors.

(Prediction: Within one year of the publication of this book, PMI will form a committee to create a certification for project sponsors. Within two years that certification will be officially unleashed. Soon thereafter a hoard of consultants and trainers will create a cottage industry devoted to the training of sponsors so they may attain the certification.  [Sound far fetched? Remember the home-qrown Agile movement? Hmmm...]  I take some comfort in the knowledge that these consultants and trainers will likely be using this text as their primary source! )

========= Other Articles You Might Like ==========

• 5 Actions That Will Help You Sell That Complicated Project
• The Project Management Change Agent: How to Lead Your PM Revolution
• What’s Project Portfolio Management (PPM) and Why Should Project Managers Care About It?
• Too Many Projects? Prioritize Them!
• Beyond PM Certification: Achieving PM Performance Improvement
• Do-It-Yourself PM Certification: How to Document Your Skills & Get the Credibility You’ve Earned without Jumping Through Someone Else’s Hoops
• Seven Benefits of Local PM Certification: Why Pursuing Locally-Relevant PM Skills Makes More Sense Than Buying Generic, External PM Certifications
• Summary of (20) Key Project Manager Actions and Results
• Ten Guaranteed Ways to Screw Up Any Project
• 14 Key Principles for Project Success

Is your organization ready for a project management (PM) revolution? 

More specifically:

• Are your projects always running late, over budget, and plagued by “do overs?”
• Do people hate working on your project teams and try to avoid being assigned to projects?
• Are you continually reworking and reworking deliverables because you just can’t seem to get it right in the first place?

And if it is time for a PM revolution, then where should you begin?

This video is for everyone who wants to be the change agent who brings about a PM revolution in their organization. Whether you are a middle manager, HR professional, supervisor, or simply a task specialist who wants to conduct some “below the radar” guerrilla PM warfare, you can benefit from this video & the accompanying 25-page PDF (click here to download the PDF).  (Scroll down below the video image to see a complete outline of the topics covered.)

The Project Management Change Agent: How to Lead Your PM Revolution from the PM Minimalist

Specifically, the video covers these topics:

• 5 Signs You’re Ready for a Project Management Revolution
• 5 levels of PM Sophistication for an Organization
• 5 Levels of PM Sophistication for Project Managers
• 5 Levels of Sophistication Re: PM Training & Performance Support
• The Arguments Against PM Change
• The PM Revolution: Exploding Bombs and Growing Bougainvilleas
  • Some Powerful “PM Change” Bombs
  • 8 Change-Inducing PM Tools
  • 10 Stealthy, “Vining” PM Practices
• What Absolutely Won’t Work
• Bomb or Bougainvillea: Criteria for Success
• The Role of PM Training and Certification (& Why Certification May Not Matter)
• Start Your PM Revolution: 10 Steps
• Resources That Can Help

DOWNLOAD THE 25-page PDF of key visuals from this video:
http://michaelgreer.biz/M-Greers-The-Project-Management-Change-Agent-Selected-Visuals-2-25-2013.pdf

Enjoy!

Let’s face it. You wouldn’t be a project manager if you fancied yourself a sales person. Indeed most project managers — particularly those who came up through the ranks of top project contributors and technical experts — hate all the “dog and pony show” stuff that’s involved in selling their projects.

But the truth is there is simply no one who is in a better position to draw clear connecting lines between your team’s amazing technical abilities and the value these bring to your organization through your project. What’s more, as your project unfolds, you are going to need the enthusiastic support of senior management to help you get the money, people, facilities, equipment, and engaged participation of SMEs that will bring success. So it’s up to you and the specific actions you take to build the sale and generate that much-needed senior management enthusiasm.

So where do you begin? Here are 5 actions that can help you sell your project to senior management:

1. Prove that you understand the business problem that is solved by your project.

Specifically, you need to explain (or better yet, demonstrate with evidence, ROI figures, etc.) how your deliverables will reduce your organization’s pain, increase efficiency, save money, and have a tangible impact on making things better.

2. Show how each deliverable will add value.  

Specifically, you need to make the connection between each item you will be creating and how it contributes to the value of the finished solution. (And no… you can’t assume they can see these connections, just because they are obvious to you!)  So you should quickly walk through your deliverables list and help the sponsor see how each is essential to the quality of the overall solution. This should include interim or draft deliverables like flow charts, scripts, first drafts, and so on. If possible, show models, mock-ups, demos, or anything that can make it real and generate that spark of enthusiasm that will keep your sponsor working on your behalf in the potentially difficult days ahead.

3. Connect the entire work process (including review/approval cycles) to quality.

In plain language, show how the work process is as lean as it can be, yet provides essential checks & balances (expert and managerial review, collaborative participation, etc.) that ensure quality. If appropriate, show how your work process is in sync with industry or competitors’ “best practices.”

4. Show how each member of your project team provides unique value.

Shine a light on the amazing expertise you’ve assembled and how each member of your team will make a unique contribution to the quality of the finished product. This is particularly important for team members who will eventually be asking the sponsor for access to key resources and other support as the project unfolds. It will really help if, when the team member knocks on that door to ask for help or feedback, that she will be doing so as a valuable “pre-sold” part of the project team.

5. Distinguish your project from apparently similar, but less complex or less valuable projects.

What’s this mean? Simply this: Sponsors see and approve lots of projects. And before long they begin to see patterns in the ways that different kinds of projects unfold. Eventually they develop expectations about work processes and schedules that lead to similar types of deliverables.

Given these expectations, the more experienced and hard-nosed senior managers will almost always want to know your answer to this challenge: “I’ve seen similar project teams create similar outcomes using processes that were far less complicated.  So why are you guys taking so long and going through so many cycles to achieve the same sorts of outcomes as Project XYZ?”

If you want to win the sale (and your sponsor’s enthusiastic support) while hanging onto your best practices, you will need to have a good answer to this challenge!

Pulling It All Together: An Ancient Video Example

The video presentation below, though it admittedly includes some ancient clip art, is a still-relevant example of how my team frequently answered sponsor challenges in order to sell our instructional development projects.

A little background: Most of our potential sponsors had substantial experience working with writers who created sales brochures, press releases, reports, etc.  So many of these sponsors expected the process of developing training to be equivalent to the process of developing any written document. So, inevitably, such sponsors asked us these questions: “Why is your work process so complicated?… Why do you guys take so long?” This video shows how we answered these questions — and how I tried to implement the 5 actions outlined above.

Instructional Design Versus Message Design from PM Minimalist at Vimeo.

Mike Greer

Below are my “top 10″ favorite items drawn from all the PM articles, blog posts, podcasts, and videos that I published on this website during 2012.  

Some of these items I believe are important and worth a second look. Others were merely fun or gratifying to create and I want to share them again before they disappear beneath 2013′s articles.

I hope you like these or find something here that is thought-provoking. Click the Read More link to see the whole list. Enjoy!”   – Mike G. 

From: Proj. Mgt. is a Broad Human Practice, not Merely a Profession

• PM Minimalism, Agile, Scrum, & Waterfall: Who’s On First?
  This quick video answers the cosmic question: “How do the Agile, Scrum, and Waterfall approaches to PM fit within the framework of PM Minimalism?”
• The Origins of My PM Minimalism: It’s Not Merely Simple-Minded… It’s About PM Essences
  How the PM Minimalism concept evolved from the “split personality” of my professional background.
• Project Management is a Broad Human Practice, not Merely a Profession
  Why calling project management a “profession” is really just the tip of the iceberg. It’s actually something practiced by all humans, everywhere!
• Are You Causing Suffering for Your Project Team? 
  Are you radiating panic or peace toward your project team members? If you’re the source of their angst, here’s how you might change that.
• Free E-Book: One Simple Thing to Improve Projects or PM (An Anthology)
  Many smart people with lots of different PM experiences responded to this question: “What’s one simple thing that could improve projects and/or project management (PM)?” This free e-book is a collection of their shared wisdom. 
  
• August – November Issue of PM Minimalist Update Is Now Available
  The most recent issue of my update/newsletter.
• worth-sharing.net — Pulling It All Together
  My new website designed to help readers locate everything from all four of my websites in one spot.
• Project Management FREEBIES Website Marks Its First Anniversary! 
  99 PM FREEBIES were listed in its first year! Check ‘em out!
• 20th Anniversary PDF Editions of My ID Project Management Book
  Caving in to the requests I keep getting for this out-of-print book, I’ve re-released it in PDF form.
• Get the Entire Project Management Minimalist Collection “To Go” on Your Kindle, NOOK, iPad, or Other Mobile Device! 
  Lots of PM Minimalist goodies are ready to load on your mobile device. (Many are FREE!) Here’s the entire collection.

===== Related Posts & Pages =====

• All Blog Posts

• My 10 Favorite PM Articles, Posts, or Videos from 2011
• 2010 Highlights: The Articles I Most Enjoyed Sharing

“This course covers the elements that are essential to assuring the success of learning and performance projects including principles for managing relationships as well as project management tools and techniques. Students will study the principles of managing complex projects and teams to achieve results within project parameters in various organizational settings.”

As you can tell from the description, the course is customized to meet the PM needs of instructional designers/developers, as well as performance analysts. It’s part of Franklin’s M.S. in Instructional Design & Performance Technology (IDPT). The course will use a customized, logo-branded version of my book, The Project Management Minimalist, 2nd ed.

Franklin’s unique IDPT master’s program is made up of 11 courses that blend theory and practical application in order to help students apply cutting-edge knowledge to real-world problems in instructional design and performance technology. What’s more, the program is designed for busy professionals. Students can attend online or one-night-a-week classes and earn the degree in 24 months. Specifically, graduates of the program will be able to:

• Conduct analyses to identify needs or opportunities for performance and learning improvement
• Design and develop methods to solve performance and learning problems
• Evaluate and manage performance and learning solutions and projects
• Apply ethical standards and industry best practices
• Integrate technologies into the learning process and performance environment to enhance learning, performance, and collaboration

As I’ve mentioned before, I began my professional life as an instructional designer/performance technologist and spent many years managing teams of contractors as we developed performance-based training and job aids to support new products that were rolled out by Xerox and other major corporations. My first PM book, ID Project Management: Tools & Techniques for Instructional Designers & Developers, was inspired by my years managing teams in this field.

A key value for ID/PT people is this: Provide “just enough” tools & training to enable success. In other words, these folks know the value of good, lean tools to support effective on-the-job performance. That’s why I’m particularly proud that Franklin’s team gave my PM Minimalist book their “thumbs up” as a collection of tools for this course and that they’ve given me the opportunity to both design and teach it! This oughta be fun!

This online course will run for 12 weeks starting January 7.

References

• Franklin’s M.S. in Instructional Design & Performance Technology (IDPT)
• PM Minimalist Support System & Freebies
• 20th Anniversary PDF Editions of My ID Project Management Book
• The Origins of My PM Minimalism: It’s Not Merely Simple-Minded… It’s About PM Essences

I just received the latest HRD Press catalog. (HRD Press is the premier publisher of training tools and references for human resources and development people.) I’m pleased — and pleasantly surprised — that more than a decade after its publication my book of PM tools, The Project Manager’s Partner, remains a bestseller in their extensive catalog. How cool is that?

For many years, I used the performance-based PM Partner to teach customized, on-site PM workshops in all sorts of organizations. In fact, it was in these workshops that my views on PM Minimalism began to take shape — mostly sparked by helping PM newbies apply PM tools and practices to their real-world projects.  So it’s great to see that the The Partner continues to live on and inspire others!

Related Posts

• The Origins of My PM Minimalism: It’s Not Merely Simple-Minded… It’s About PM Essences
• The Project Manager’s Partner, Second Edition
• My Incredible Shrinking PM Recommendations
• The Project Management Minimalist Collection
• Applying PM Minimalism: Manage Your Project with a One-Page Checklist!

Subscribe today & get a Bonus zip file containing 15 PM articles or tools in PDF format (88-pages total!) plus a 37-minute PM podcast!

• March 22, 2011
• April 13, 2011
• May 17, 2011
• June 21, 2011
• July 26, 2011
• August 12, 2011
• September 14, 2011
• October 25, 2011
• November 29, 2011
• December 31, 2011
• January 31, 2012
• February 29, 2012
• March 30, 2012
• April 30, 2012
• May 31, 2012
• June/July, 2012

This Thanksgiving Week I’ve decided to join in all the “Black Friday” and “Pre-Black Friday” fun to offer you The Project Management Minimalist: Just Enough PM To Rock Your Projects e-book (password-protected PDF version) for JUST $5! 

This PM reference book has everything you need to organize your project, your team, and yourself. (Scroll down for video overview!)

•   Watch the video overview (7:30).
• Download the Table of Contents & Sample Pages.
• Read more about it.

Buy It Now! 

This 5-day-only 50% Discount on the PDF e-book Version is available only through the special “Buy Now” button below. (Normally $9.95, this special, 5-day-only deal: $5!!!)

• Click on “Buy Now” below to
  buy the Password-Protected PDF Version (ebook) for only $5!!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Prefer a No-Password-Required Version?

It’s just $19.95. Click the link below to purchase:

• Where does PM Minimalism fit with Agile, Scrum, Waterfall or other PM approaches “de jour“?

The short answer: They fit together nicely!  This video explains:

A PM Minimalist’s Perspective on Agile, Scrum, & Waterfall from PM Minimalist.

Related Articles…

• Applying PM Minimalism: Manage Your Project with a One-Page Checklist!
• Trust Your Judgment (Inspired Project Teams Blog Post)
• Do-It-Yourself PM Certification: How to Document Your Skills & Get the Credibility You’ve Earned without Jumping Through Someone Else’s Hoops