asapm Builds Change Agents (this post stays on top)

PM Commentary by Stacy Goff, asapm President.

asapm builds the Change Agents of tomorrow. Why do we say this? Because we have, we can, and we do!

With members ranging from young Project Managers to the experienced thought leaders of PM practice, we cover the gamut in experience. Our thrust is to improve the Performance Competence, and therefore the results, of Program and Project Managers, our initiatives, our stakeholders, and our organizations.

Our Certification Program, based on IPMA’s 4-L-C, Four-Level Certification program, is the envy of those who desire PM Certifications that use advanced assessments to verify Competence as the centerpiece of your PM Practice.

Our Competence Enabler program promotes PM Vendors who demonstrate the ability to contribute to the PM Performance of others. If you want better results, talk to our asapm Competence Enablers! Some even help PM consultants and other PM providers, helping them all to improve PM Performance.

About IPMA: International Project Management Association, the World’s first PM association, is a federation of National Associations, that serve locally, and collaborate globally. Our certifications and other offerings are recognized in over 50 other countries around the World, because asapm is IPMA-USA.

The Importance of Effective Speaking

PM Commentary by Stacy Goff, asapm President, IPMA VP.

Last month we wrote about The Importance of Writing Well. This month, we gently approach the topic of Effective Speaking. This is not to be confused with dialogue between persons–that is yet another topic. Instead, this topic involves speaking in front of groups. Actually, that really makes this multiple topics, because different audience sizes require very different skills. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Effective Speaking has received a lot of recent attention. In part, this is because our USA President is perceived by some to be an excellent orator. In addition to political settings, we have observed many other situations where the ability to speak in a clear and compelling way is an asset to the initiative, whether that initiative is a project, a program, or any other Change Agent venue.

Great Writer = Great Speaker?
You’d think that great writers would find it easy to also be great speakers. After all, being able to clearly explain complex topics in a way that everyone understands, is a gift–one that should easily transfer to speaking. But ‘taint necessarily so. I recall the excitement, when it first came out, around the book, In Search of Excellence. Author Tom Peters (together with Robert Waterman, Jr.) wrote such a compelling book that everyone wanted him to speak to their group or company. As I recall, at that time, his speaking skills did not match his research and writing skills. Some people were disappointed.

But, Tom Peters understood: He worked on his Effective Speaking skills. Soon, he was such a great speaker that he had no need to write another book; his speaking, advisory services, and overall message were all so popular. But the question remains: Great Writer = Great Speaker? A web search turns up many interesting discussions, and the results are mixed. Some say “yes!” Some say, “not necessarily so.”  (more…)

Where Did the Term Stakeholder Come From?

Guest Post by asapm Co-Founder Robert Youker

In September of 2006, Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoelick used the word “stakeholder” when speaking about US/China relations.  The Chinese language does not have a corollary word for “stakeholder” and the use of the word led to quite a fuss. The State Department suggested a Chinese phrase meaning “participants with related interests”.

The term stakeholder had come into common useage by the end of the last century, but where did the word come from?  One possible source is the person who holds the money or stakes in a bet. Another possibility is in mining prospecting where you drive stakes into the fours corners of the property you want to claim.

Stakeholders are people inside and outside an organization who have a vested interest in a problem and its solution.  They can be both positive and negative in their interests.  Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, has a good section on the term. In all current project planning a stakeholder analysis is a vital step. But where did the common modern useage of people in “interest groups” come from?

Mason and Mitroff in their 1981 book, Challenging Strategic Planning Assumptions posited the following source: “The stakeholder concept seems to have emerged initially in the systems analysis work on organizations conducted by researchers at the Tavistock Institute in London. See Rhieman, Eric, Industrial Democracy and Industrial Man (London: Tavistock Institute, 1968) and Fox, Alan, A Sociology of Work in Industry (London: Coller  MacMillan Limited, 1971). Pp. 57-68 of the latter book contains a good discussion of the idea and its application to management.”

There are many ways to classify or categorize stakeholders. One way is by evaluating their Interest, their Attitude, and their Power. Study the following “stakeholder cube” diagram from Lucid Consulting in the UK. It is an excellent categorization of various types of stakeholders.

About Robert Youker

Robert (Bob) Youker is an independent trainer and consultant in Project Management with more than forty years of experience in the field. He is retired from the World Bank where he developed and presented six-week project management training courses for the managers of major projects in many different countries. He served as the technical author for the bank on the Instructors Resource Kit on CD ROM for a five week training course on Managing the Implementation of Development Projects.

Bob has written and presented papers at many Project Management Institute and International Project Management Association (IPMA) conferences over the years, many of which have been reprinted in both organizations’ publications.

Mr. Youker is a graduate of Colgate University and the Harvard Business School, and studied for a doctorate in behavioral science at George Washington University. His project management experience includes new product development at Xerox Corporation and project management consulting for many companies as President of Planalog Management Systems from 1968 to 1975.

The Importance of Writing Well

PM Commentary by Stacy Goff, asapm President, IPMA VP.

For years I’ve used an introductory dialogue for classroom Communication topics. It involves a tee-up, “Based on research done by the US Navy years ago, different people have different preferences in the way they receive information.” And then I write on a flipchart the following, while saying most of these words:

• 45% Readers
• 45% Listeners
• 5% Both
• 5% Fool

The key is this: While I’d write Fool, I’d say Neither. Typical of American humor.

In a room of 20-25 people, around half would laugh, the others would wonder why they are laughing. It is because some were listening, and others were reading.

Improving Communication Effectiveness
But this little vignette brings up a very important point: Statistically, about half of all people prefer to listen to get their information, and about half prefer to read it. Which are you? While the cited statistics say that about 5% do both equally well, the majority of all participants usually think they are part of that 5%. And the majority think their husband/wife/manager/co-worker/customer (pick one) is the last on the list above.

Great communicators seem to intuitively understand the preferences of their audiences. Meanwhile, I resort to using simple models and observation to approximate a similar result. At least, I do when I focus on Conscious Communication, rather than just using my own preferences, and expect that everyone else understands perfectly. Is this Reader/Listener preference why many of us only communicate effectively with half our audiences? And then we wonder what’s wrong with them? Perhaps we can all benefit from a bit more Conscious Communication.

Some readers have already figured out that this might be a two-part article, about Writing and Speaking effectively. Perhaps, and as I recall, it was Epictetus, who said, “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” He understood the importance of listening well in the first Century AD. This series may have more than two parts, if we take the hint and also discuss the lost art of Listening.

The Importance of Writing
Is writing one of your greatest skills? It should be. Many others think that writing is diminishing in importance as we become more technologically connected. I think today’s technology increases the need for effective writing. People have less time than ever to wade through lengthy emails (yes, I am an offender), dense prose (ditto), and unedited papers. Well, at least Rose has cured me of most of that, except when she lets one slip through.

Project Documentation is a good example of important writing. This is the trail you leave (you do, don’t you?), that other people follow, so they can evaluate your results, figure out why you chose a particular solution, or adapt and tune your results for changing business needs. Documentation of your role as a competent and performing Project Manager is essential in any advanced PM certification. And you document your competence not in just one aspect of the project, but in 46-50 different Competence Elements. Clearly, documentation is important.

Why Do We Write?
We write to inform; to persuade; to evoke responses, so we can change from one voice to a team in dialogue. In a project, we write:

• To get more funding, or obtain the right Talent.
• To avoid or prevent a Risk, by successfully recommending a preventative action.
• To transfer understood work efforts from self to others: Writing is key to effective delegation.
• To clearly define the terms of a contract or other type of agreement.
• To resolve an open issue, that must be acted upon within a window of opportunity.
• To explain the consequences of a project delay or budget overage.
• To inform organization stakeholders and leaders of a project’s status.
• To give praise to key team members or stakeholders.

And, for many more reasons–and that is just in the project setting. But if only half of your audience “gets it” when you write, how will you accompany your writing, so the entire message is received? Verification and observation help, but effective project managers also follow up verbally.

Duty Writing Versus Inspired Writing
I know people who write very well. Several are leaders of asapm. For me, it can take weeks to get inspired about an article. Sometimes, just as with some of my favorite people, leaving something to the last minute inspires me a little bit, as the looming deadline juices my adrenalin. But the inspiration is essential. No one wants to read an article that was written just because it is a duty. This article, for example, was started in early November, as a duty. Needed it for a November newsletter. Now, here it is January 6, and I had an Epiphany: the tee-up that this article begins with.

Are your project reports Duty Writing or Inspired Writing? Fear is not quite the same as Inspiration, although there is a slight resemblance. In failing projects, a few hours of reading project communications easily shows the problems, the attempts to CYA (a clever approach to avoiding blame, spelled out, it means Cover Your Anatomy); the early signs of a looming disaster. This is panicked Duty Writing, and over my consulting career, I’ve seen too many examples.

For me, Inspired Writing usually begins with a middle-of-the-night insight. Then I’m off and writing. Inspired Writing is more enjoyable for the writer, and usually more enjoyable to read.

Writing Well
In earlier generations, we all went through the writing classes in grade school, maybe multiple times: Outlining; sentence structure (remember diagramming?); declensions, person, nominative and dative; all the science of writing. But there is a difference between a well-structured sentence, and a compelling one, isn’t there? And how do we learn to write compelling phrases? Look at that list under Why Do We Write; can you afford to be ineffective in any of those communications? This is a Darwinian-style theme: survival of the fittest writer.

You are successful, in part, because of your writing skills! Such learned techniques as placing the “Why” in the first five words of a report that needs Executive action; of Engineers and IT Talent using more adjectives and adverbs when writing for non-technical stakeholders; and many other techniques. Perhaps we should start a wiki of writing tips for project managers. Such sharing could help all of us in writing well.

Back to our introductory dialogue: Effective writers prepare for their audiences to be some combination of reader and listener. They ask for preferences: “Would you rather review my proposal first, or have me explain the key points, and answer your questions?” That is one of the ways effective writers also become effective communicators.

So yes, in some future posting we will also opine about The Importance of Speaking Well; and probably of Listening, too. Perhaps not immediately; there are a lot of interesting things to write about, early in 2012. May your 2012 be prosperous and successful!

Your Comments?

Experiencing Newvember

PM Commentary by Stacy Goff, asapm President, IPMA VP of Marketing

Typically, and especially in the USA, November is a slow month—the calm before the storm of December, with its end-of-year project deadlines, and fiscal close-out for non-governmental organizations. It is a bit of a relief from the intensity of September and October. This effect is accentuated in the USA by the Thanksgiving week late in the month, that disrupts any schedule for a two week period.

But not this year.

I traveled more this month (on behalf of professional organizations) than any period since May-June, with:

• A keynote for a major University, with a discussion about establishing a truly relevant PM curriculum;
• Participating in an excellent PMO Symposium in Orlando; and (finally) meeting Cornelius Fitchner;
• Speaking of which, contributing to The PM Podcast’s celebratory event, celebrating Cornelius’ 200th offering;
• Participating in an IPMA Executive Board meeting in Sarajevo with a very informative Government/Business Roundtable for the Bosnia-Herzegovina IPMA Member Association;
• A keynote at the incredibly successful 2nd Annual Symposium for AMIP, Asociacion Mexicana de Ingenieria de Proyectos, IPMA-Mexico, in Saltillo, Mexico.

Whew! Wore me out just reading it! (more…)

Project Management: Delivering The Promise

PM Commentary by Stacy Goff, asapm President, IPMA VP of Marketing

This posting is inspired by the theme of IPMA’s 25th World Congress, Brisbane, Australia, October 10-12 2011. We originally developed the content for The PM Podcast’s 200th celebratory podcast, then adapted it for IPMA President Roberto Mori’s Welcome and Introduction speech at the Congress. Finally, thanks to the insight and graciousness of the Australians, we are again using the theme one more time at the asapm Congress scheduled for 5 March, 2012, in Washington DC. Nothing like taking a good idea and re-using it multiple times!

First, thank you to IPMA member association AIPM (Australian Institute of Project Management) for a great 2011 IPMA World Congress, and for the inspired theme of the Congress: Project Management—Delivering the Promise.

The promise of project and program management is efficient, effective and beneficial change. We as a profession make that promise to four types of audiences:

• Individual PM Practitioners;
• Project Teams and Stakeholders;
• Enterprise Managers and Executives; and to
• Nations and Society.

Each of these audiences has different needs and different expectations. Let’s explore them.

Our First Audience, Individual PM Practitioners,
expects to improve their project performance, while increasing their job satisfaction and career progression opportunities. To accomplish that, we must move beyond classroom knowledge and testing that brings only short-term results. Why is this important? Based on recent research the half-life of knowledge acquired but not applied is only two weeks. We must follow classroom training with on-the-job application of that knowledge, with four goals: Develop needed skills, improve behavioral competences, gain end-to-end project experience, and achieve measurable project performance results. (more…)

Five Foundations for the Advancement of Project Management

PM Commentary by Stacy Goff, asapm President, IPMA VP of Marketing

On July 4, 2011 we noted asapm’s ten-year anniversary. We reflected on our intentions, progress, and achievements in our first ten years—and then, looked ahead at the next ten years. This article focuses on our intentions; but we cannot help but mention our progress. Not only have we helped to advance the practice of project and program management (an ongoing goal), we have inspired others to follow our lead: They are now also promoting (their own interpretation of) most of our Five Foundations, and many of our innovations.

We founded asapm after having been among the key drivers of success of other professional organizations, including Project Management Institute (Institute in the rest of this article). Many of us remained members of that great organization, and still do to this day. But we felt it was time for change. And what are project managers, if not change agents?

The Need For Change
Factors in 2000-2001 contributing to the need for change were many, a handful of them became our rallying points; they were also ingredients for our business case analysis in deciding whether to found a new organization, or to continue working to improve existing ones.

• PM advancements, innovations and their sharing had significantly slowed;
• Intellectual Property Ownership issues discouraged involvement of the most-talented practitioners;
• Training and learning funds appeared to be shifting from project and program performance improvement to test memorization;
• Association governance moved from member-driven to organization-CEO controlled;
• Emphasis shifted from all pm sectors to favor Information Technology;
• Levels of engagement shifted from advanced interaction of long-time practitioners to mass-training of simple subjects to newcomers.

asapm Founders
asapm was founded by a group of long-time pm practitioners with a variety of backgrounds: Practicing project managers; Managers of project managers; pm consultants and trainers; educators and authors. Founders of chapters and officers of other organizations, the average pm industry experience of the founding group in 2001 was around 20 years, with some going back 35 years and more.

Most had earned the Institute’s certification (Lew Ireland wrote its first exam). And we realized that there was a lot more needed than an exam to accelerate needed organizational benefits from our discipline. Many of us worked internationally, so we had a grasp of the status of pm practice in many other nations of the World. Thus, a dedicated group set out to advance the practice of project and program management in America. (more…)

Stakeholders Benefit From a PM’s Perspective

PM Commentary by Stacy Goff, asapm President, IPMA VP.

Our recent series of IPMA (International Project Management Association) meetings and events in Asia was rich with the opportunity to meet great people, dialogue about the benefits of our chosen practice or profession, and with innumerable sudden insights. Not to mention a wealth of topics for this often-longer-and-deeper-than-normal blog.

In this case, the setting was an early Sunday morning flight over the Himalaya mountains of Nepal. Sponsored by PMAN, Project Management Association of Nepal (thank you again!), it was a beautiful morning, and on takeoff, we saw the city of Kathmandu waking up. Soaring to mountain heights, and rising above the clouds, we were able to track each of the peaks jutting above the clouds. Showing the benefit of a plan, we each had a map of the mountains we would see in our journey from North to South. 

The Stakeholder View
The first mountain we saw barely peeked through the clouds. The next several were progressively higher. From our window seat in the small plane, those on the left side of the plane had a decent view out of the tiny windows. Those on the right had a more obscured view. We all had other obstacles, such as the wing of the plane blocking a portion of the view.

Similarly, in many projects, our key Stakeholders don’t always have the same clear view of the project as does the team. The Stakeholders are often part-time participants. They don’t have time to read all the documents, and may miss important meetings, “because of pressing priorities.” They do not have the clear project vision they deserve.

One quick discovery made a difference in our blocked view. If we looked out-and-back, rather than out-and-ahead, the wing was not in the way. Of course, this was difficult, because it was clear that the route of the plane was taking us to ever-increasingly tall mountains, so in our eagerness, we were still often looking, even straining, to see what was coming. (more…)