In this video I ask 9 project managers how they deal with a bad day at work.

With thanks to Todd, Samad, Nathaniel, Cindy, Adrienne, Cornelius, Taryn, Dave and Melanie.

Filmed on location at PMI Global Congress North America 2011 in Dallas/Fort Worth.

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Nelson's Ship in a Bottle on the fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square, London, by Yinka Shonibare © Elizabeth Harrin

Students coming to study in London for the new university term will quickly realise that in the capital you generally do not assume positive intent. In fact, Not Assuming Positive Intent is the default.

• You assume that other commuters will fight you for the last tube seat.
• You assume that your pockets will get picked in a crowd.
• You assume that your council will make a large proportion of its money from unfair traffic fines.
• You assume that foxes will rip open your bin bags and spread your rubbish all over the streets.

London natives are hardened by poor public transport, cuts to local authority spending and the expectation of negotiating crowds of tourists watching street entertainers (Edinburgh also suffers from this).

However, in the office, project managers should assume positive intent. People do not come into work to do a bad job. Things go wrong on projects – we know that. But generally this is because the processes fell down, communications failed or the responsibilities were not clear. It is not because people deliberately do stupid things in order to trip you up.

Positive intent means assuming that project team members are genuinely interested in doing a good job. People try to do the right thing within the confines of organisational culture and process. They might not be very good at their job, but that is a different issue.

On a project, assuming positive intent means treating people as adults. Don’t follow up because you think they won’t do the tasks that you have given them. Follow-up because you want an update. Don’t work on the basis that people will do the minimum amount possible therefore you have to be on their backs all the time. Assume they will do their job to the best of their abilities.

Assuming positive intent has helped me create project teams with a mature outlook to their work. How far has assuming positive intent worked on your organisations? Let us know in the comments.

Oh, and I dictated this with the Dragon NaturallySpeaking application for iPad which is another example of why iPads are great for business.

 

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No, this isn't me.

The best thing about going to the hairdressers is having someone wash my hair. The second best thing is being able to sit there for an hour and be lost in my thoughts while someone makes me beautiful. I don’t talk to my hairdresser about holidays or work, and we have fallen into companionable silence. I will, however, ask her advice. After all, she is the expert. A haircut is also an hour with access to hair expertise.

“Do you think it’s worth buying hair straighteners?”

She pauses mid-cut. “Not really. Your hair is already straight.”

“I thought people use them to make their hair curly.”

“Well, yes.” She tugs on the comb. “Straighteners isn’t really the right term. You shouldn’t use them every day.”

“I know someone who does.”

She looks horrified. “You should protect your hair from heat.” We have a discussion about heat protection sprays. She explains how conditioner works and tells me off for not using it regularly.

I learn things.

I am surrounded by experts. I work with lawyers, software developers, SEO experts. In fact, most of my work as a project manager involves knowing which experts to ask. I don’t have much knowledge myself but I know a lot of people who know a lot.

Planning, risk management, issue resolution: all these are tasks the project manager leads that need expert input to. You can’t estimate by yourself sitting at a desk. The people who are doing the work should contribute to the process. This results in better quality estimates and business buy in and therefore it is better for the project.

We should rely on experts. As project managers, our role is to get things done through others and involving the others as much as possible has to be good.

How do you involve experts in your projects? Or are there scenarios where you feel you don’t need to involve anyone else?

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One of the questions I’m often asked is: “How do I get taken seriously at work?” And over my career I have asked myself that question as well. One way to build credibility in the workplace was explained by Dr Lynda Bourne recently at the PMI Global Congress EMEA in Dublin.

Let’s talk about managing up.

Dublin Convention Centre

Managing upwards

Project managers aren’t the ones in charge. We work for the people at the top of the tree: project sponsors and senior executives. Managing upwards means managing sponsors and maintaining organisational commitment. It’s probably more accurate to think of it as advising upwards and it is one of the skills that Bourne says project managers often lack.

Bourne explained that no single stakeholder type should be considered as being more important than the others. Customers are not more important than technical staff. Vendors are not more important than employees. She said that the high priority stakeholders are the most important right now. You’ll have to work out who is the highest priority stakeholder for you.

“The only way to engage senior stakeholders so they help you when you need them is to start early and build credibility,” she said.

Provide the right information

“The only way to build those relationships is communication,” Bourne said. “There is absolutely nothing else.”

Managers are busy people. They do not like surprises. They need information but it must be specific to their needs and help them do their job and help them make their decisions.

Providing relevant information is one way to build credibility, and it helps them look credible to their bosses too. “Steer your ship along and provide them with the information they need to look good,” Bourne said.

Be helpful

Providing information is good, but think through what you are giving them and why. “The concept of ‘I’ll just do a report’ will not persuade people,” Bourne said.

Communication must be:

• Purposeful: why are you giving this report? Is it to change an attitude, to get a decision or something else?
• Targeted: specific to the stakeholder.
• Appropriate in form and content: does the exec want a diagram? A spreadsheet? Have you even asked them?
• Monitored for effectiveness: check in with how the attitude-changing is going. Has the communication had any impact? If not, change it.

Be the person who is helpful. Recognise that your project is only one of a hundred and that you have to help them manage their time as well. This helps you build up what Bourne calls ‘credibility points’ for when things go wrong.

Be intelligently disobedient

Managers are normal people. They might not be able to have all the answers because they may still be learning their job. Be sympathetic and realise they have jobs to do too.

“You do not always have to follow the rules,” Bourne said.  “If your boss is requesting that you do something that you know is not the best thing for the boss, the organisation, the team and yourself, then you must speak up.”

Bourne talked about the concept of intelligent disobedience. Intelligent disobedience is what they teach guide dogs. It helps them know when to ignore the request of the blind person when crossing the road, for example, is not safe.

In the workplace it translates to having the confidence to challenge decisions. Being able to say no to your manager helps you build credibility.

Top tips for advising up

Bourne gave us some tips for helping managers to help us:

• Support the transition to the C-suite
• Recognise that it takes a while for people to change their mindsets
• Know that they need to advise up too
• Remove the idea that risk is bad news
• Build a sponsor culture from above and below
• Understand their drivers and expectations
• Work to build credibility and trust

“Never assume that you know enough about your stakeholders as their views will change,” Bourne said. “You have to constantly review and maintain those relationships. Do not assume that you have ever done enough to engage them.”

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We’ve been doing some thinking at work recently about how to improve the project management processes.  The processes aren’t terrible, but it’s good to review them every so often to see how the rest of the business has changed and how we should keep up.

However, project management outcomes are more important than processes.  Processes should facilitate outcomes, but often we spend so much time looking at process maps that we forget what the processes are even there for.

Managing outcomes

Project teams should be geared around delivering outcomes.  Processes can help you get there in a repeatable way.  Processes add structure, which is good for new starters and for making sure things are done almost automatically.  But don’t design your team around how the processes work: design it around what you want the projects to do.

Project management outcomes are the results – the outputs from any process.  This is what counts.  Processes are how you get there.  That makes processes relevant and important.  But when you design project management processes you should focus on the end result: the outcome.  If the process doesn’t help you get there then it isn’t a very good process.

Do any of your processes hinder, rather than help, you achieve your objectives?  If so, what are you going to do about it?

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