PM Blog: Carl Pritchard

Falling in Love with GREAT Communications

2010-01-19T11:04:16-08:00

by Carl Pritchard, PMP, PMI-RMP, EVP

We all acknowledge that a significant amount of our success or failure is rooted in our abilities to communicate. Great communicators are more likely to have great project success. Poor communicators are more likely to find themselves struggling to get their project messages across. And yet we don't invest a lot of time thinking about how to turn our mundane communications into opportunities for others to fall in love with us and our message.

I raised this specter in a recent class and got an interesting array of responses from my students. They suggested a host of fundamental rules and protocols that would simplify, clarify and render messages more powerful and effective. Rather than simply share my insights, I offer theirs here with a simple suggestion. Pick two. Steel yourself to try them consistently. Make them a personal mission. You'll be surprised by the shift.

E-Mail

E-mail is one of the most dangerous media we can choose for communications, and yet, for many professionals it is now the default setting. We use e-mail almost exclusively in some relationships, and as such, we should seriously consider ways to show the respect we want to offer others through our communications experiences.

Student Suggestions:

Be consistent about the use of the To:, CC:, and BCC: lines. To: people are those who have to take direct action related to the e-mail. CC: folks? They're the ones who are being informed, but we want others to know who they are and that they have visibility on the information. Still, if you're on the CC:, there's no need to make a direct response. And BCC: folks should be those who have a need to be informed, but should not be included on the inevitable parade of responses that may follow.
For the Subject line, if the topic has changed, then change it. If there are multiple RE:s, winnow a few out. But no matter what, ensure it has meaning.
And in the content? Keep it down to a single page, printed. If it looks longer, seriously consider formatting it as a document, memo, or more formal communication and attaching it. That much information generally cries out for more extensive formatting.

Voicemail

Both sides of the voicemail experience are challenging. Whether you are leaving the message or sending it, as a manager, you need to seriously consider what's being said and how.

Student Suggestions:

As the person leaving the message, keep it succinct. If you hit voicemail and don't know what you're going to say, hang up. Think it through. Come back. Then leave the message.
Keep it under 60 seconds.
State your phone number and name twice. Once at the beginning and once at the end.
As the person receiving the messages, keep your message brief. If you must leave a long message, start by explaining how to skip your message.
If you want specific information, ask for it. If time zones matter to you, ask for them.

Conference Calls

Conference calls are little more than small (or not-so-small) meetings in disguise. That means that all of the standard meeting rules and practices have to apply here, as well.

Student Suggestions:

Have an agenda, with times, names and objectives
Have each participant identify him/herself each time they speak
Send a pre-call picture sheet with small head-shot snapshots of each participant
Serve as a facilitator, controlling the discussion throughout, limiting interruptions
Encourage the use of the "mute" function
Find out how to kick someone off the call, if necessary, if they abuse the "hold" function (Nothing like listening to Girl from Ipanema in the background while you're trying to settle on a new technology)
If there are any handouts or materials that were sent out in advance, have them on a website as well, so that latecomers came pick them up

Face-to-Face

While you might not think that "hall chat" requires any specific rules or steps, while it's the richest form of communication, it's also one where we have a great potential to expend, rather than build, political capital.

Student Suggestions:

Schedule interactions. Give the person you just bumped into the opportunity to walk away. If they don't have the time to spend with you, they won't be focused on your message. Give them an "out" in case they aren't ready for the face-to-face experience.
Apprise others how long the interaction will likely take. If you say, "Hey, this will only take a minute..." don't take ten. And if you apprise others that you need about 20 minutes of their time, you're affording them the ability to steel themselves for that experience.
Consider personal hygiene. It's easy to forget that you had the hoagie with garlic dressing for lunch, but others won't. Even if they're down the hall, this may be the perfect situation for a phone call.

While many of these may seem like common sense, the odds are significant that there are at least two of them that you tend to forget, let slip, or hadn't considered. This is a wonderful opportunity to see just how pronounced a change you can make in the efficacy of your communications with a very minor level of effort.

Related Links
Setting some ground rules for meetings can help keep them productive during the most frustrating conversations. If you're going to speak up about something, make the best case you can. When leading a project, make sure you know who to communicate with, and why.

Carl Pritchard welcomes your communications at carl@carlpritchard.com. He can also be found on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. He is the author of The Project Management Communications Tool Kit and was the former speaker's coach at the National Leadership Conference.

Context in Communication

2009-11-18T09:00:36-08:00

by Carl Pritchard

In discussing risk, I often make reference to an episode early in my career when I was driving down the GW Parkway outside Washington, DC in the early morning hours. It was just before dawn as I whipped around the long curve near the CIA. There she was . . . in the middle of the road:

Bambi.

That's right. Morning rush hour in a major metropolitan city, and I'm whacking a deer and becoming the clog in the morning rush hour. This was far from the highlight of my driving career, but it did make a powerful point. When folks ask me about the risks of driving in Washington, I immediately respond: "DEER!"

What's compelling is that I have shared that story so many times, that I begin to believe that everyone has heard it. They haven't. But I often use the term "deer" in my conversations with others about risk to refer to some risk we have "hit" in our careers. I know what I mean. Those who have been in my classes or keynotes know what I mean. But the term "deer" is far from synonymous with "things that you have hit one time in your whole life, but which loom so large that you continually cite them as significant, even though it's a remote chance you will ever hit them again."

Without context, communications among team members is challenging at best. And as we venture through the holiday seasons, we assume that others around us share the same context. Think of the context you have for this time of year. For some, it's snow, sleds, bayberry, and presents. For others, it's church, family, friends, cards, and reverence. For others still, it's a menorah, dreidel, and the history of the Maccabees.

As we manage, we have a habit of invoking terms and terminology, assuming that others share our communications context. We believe they have enough background to know who Yukon Cornelius and the Bumble are. We believe that if we tell someone they're a regular Mr. Potter or Grinch, they'll catch the references. We suspect that if we invite someone over for a steaming bowl of Christmas bishop, they won't think we've gone cannibal on them.

(All of these references are explained at the bottom of this article, by the way).

What's noteworthy is that many of you scrolled down to the bottom of the article to find the one reference that you didn't catch or understand. Context is everything in communications. We squander that little bit of insight far too often. By respecting and appreciating context, we have the ability to build better communications relationships. And we can do it with affirmations that we're members of the same communicating family as those around us. Take this simple holiday test. See how many of these holiday references you recognize:

Jelly-of-the-month-club

God bless us, everyone

I wouldn't touch you with a 39-and-a-half-foot pole

We're the wet bandits!

The Feast of Stephen

My lip's bleedin', Bert!

Brings health to the body and wealth to the pocket

Again, the answers are down at the bottom of the article, but notice how you felt about any of the obscure ones you recognized. There was a moment of self-satisfaction that you knew some arcane reference. And yet, those arcane references can become touchstones for effective communication. For anyone who saw the movie Christmas Vacation, the moment Chevy Chase discovers he's not getting the five-figure bonus he was expected, but instead gets the Jelly-of-the-Month Club, he goes ballistic. He loses it. And his employer is excoriated (and more) for sheer idiocy in thinking that was an appropriate gift. If your whole team has that as a reference, and someone labels an idea as a "jelly-of-the-month-club-class" idea, there's richness to the communication that is captured in that one-line phrase. It's an insider's insight. It's both an inside joke and a clarifying notion.

The ability to use context stems from the natural human proclivity for sharing and accepting information most effectively in stories. We are deeply story-bound. And if we can get others to share their stories, we create a much tighter communications bond. And we can also leverage that bond when we're trying to integrate new parties into our tightly knit communications circles. By letting them in on the lore, stories, and inside jokes of the organization, we make them insiders.

Some communications theorists suggest that the more we can do to expunge context from our communications, the further ahead we are. I believe that's actually counter to effective communications. The real victories are won when we draw others in. And we do that by telling them what we want to share in richer detail . . . not less.

You have a wonderful opportunity at this time of year. With holiday feasting, cousins, and decor, it's a time rich with fresh stories both at work and at home. And if we can get others to share the context that those stories offer, we all win. So try it. Find some analogy that is a perfect fit when someone on your team accomplishes great things unexpectedly. From analogies of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer to George Bailey, context abounds. Give the gift of higher context. It's a gift that keeps on giving.

CONTEXT REFERENCES FOR THIS ARTICLE

Snow, sleds, bayberry and presents are references to the classic secular Christmas.
Church, family, friends, cards and reverence are often associated with the birth of Christ.
The menorah, dreidel and Maccabees are all references to Channukah, the Jewish Festival of Lights.
Yukon Cornelius and the Bumble are characters in the holiday classic TV special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Mr. Potter was the evil banker trying to ruin the lovable but hapless George Bailey in the Christmas movie It's a Wonderful Life.
The Grinch is the creature attempting to ruin Christmas in the classic children's book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss.
Ebenezer Scrooge offers to take Bob Cratchit out to discuss his future over a steaming bowl of Christmas bishop (a special holiday soup) after his reformation in the Dickens holiday tale, A Christmas Carol.

(DON'T GO FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN'T TAKEN THE QUICK QUIZ IN THE ARTICLE YET!)

God bless us, everyone

Tiny Tim's valediction at the end of the holiday classic, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol
I wouldn't touch you with a 39-and-a-half-foot pole

What the narrator sings (in a rich baritone) regarding the Grinch in the TV special, How the Grinch Stole Christmas
We're the wet bandits!

The acclamation of the antagonists in the movie Home Alone, screamed as they're being hauled off by the authorities
The Feast of Stephen

The Christmastime Catholic feast prominently featured in the carol "Good King Wenceslas"
My lip's bleedin', Bert!

The moment of revelation for George Bailey that he's back in his own world in the Frank Capra classic, It's a Wonderful Life
Brings health to the body and wealth to the pocket

The last line of the New Years' tradition regarding the superstition that on New Years' Eve, "A bayberry candle burned to the socket, brings health to the body and wealth to the pocket."

Related Links
Previous holiday articles from Carl have highlighted how to layout a hierarchy of stakeholders and the project management lessons taught by A Baker's Dozen of Holiday Classics. Geof Lory believes that, in addition to context, Goal-Driven Communication is critical to team success. If you're searching for context on your technical projects, try diagramming your way to clarity.

Carl Pritchard is working on his holiday season context from Frederick, MD, where he and his elves run Pritchard Management Associates. He welcomes your insights, comments and stories at carl@carlpritchard.com, and encourages you to visit his website at www.carlpritchard.com. ©2009, Pritchard Management Associates

A Project Manager’s Facebook Feed

2009-09-14T10:31:24-07:00

Karl Richard posted a note: HEY!! I Finally PASSED THE PMP EXAM!!

PDU4P
Congratulations, Hey, you only have three years to rack up those PDU's. Better get started now.

PM Fellow
Excuse me, but you seem to have forgotten that it's PMP®, not PMP. You'll need to correct that.

Loving Wife
Does that mean we finally get you back home to do some chores?

PMI Watchdog
Remember that you cannot divulge ANYTHING about the exam, per the PMI® Code of Ethics. Don't foul this up. Your certification could be the shortest-lived in history.

The group Clients Wanting Real Work Done posted a note: Congratulations, on the pimp. Now, will you come back into the office and get some real work done?

Karl Richard
Sorry I've been neglecting you during the time I've been studying. I'm ready to install that DOS interface you've waited so long for!

TechGuru Dave
Actually, Karl, we've moved on to Version 19.7 since then.

Government Client
There's a 19.7? We're still in 2.4. Maybe we should consider updating. Is the Vaporware Software system on GSA Schedule?

TechGuru Dave
Vaporware is EVERYWHERE!!

Commercial Client
We were promised major updates and improvements in Version 19.8. I think that's supposed to be out next week, according to our sales rep. You might want to wait until it's released to update.

1,000 people have joined the network PMI-RMP® Wannabes

100 people have left the network I Believe in Project Management Authority

PMEinstein found a GREAT database. Just click on "Class" and select "Human Systems Failure" from the drop-down. It's an epic evaluation of the history of things we get blamed for!

Karl's Assistant posted a note on Karl Richard's wall:

  ___  _  ____  _____        __  _____ __  __   _____ _____ ____  
 | \ \| |/ _  |/ _ \ \      / / |____ |  \/  | |_   _|____ |___ \ 
 | |\ ` | (_| | | | \ \ /\ / /    |_  | |\/| |   | |   |_  |_  | |
 |_|/ . |> _  | |_| |\ V  V /    ___| | |  | |   | |  ___| | |_| |
 (_)_/|_/_/ |_|\___/  \_/\_/    |_____|_|  |_|   |_| |_____|____/

Karl Richard posted a note on Karl's Assistant's wall: There are consequences to this kind of comment

Karl's Assistant posted a note on Karl Richard's wall: True, but…

 _  _  _____  __  __     ___    __    _  _  ____ 
( \/ )(  _  )(  )(  )   / __)  /__\  ( \( )(_  _)
 \  /  )(_)(  )(__)(   ( (__  /(__)\  )  (   )(  
 (__) (_____)(______)   \___)(__)(__)(_)\_) (__) 
 ____  ____  ____  ____    __  __  ____ /\/\
( ___)(_  _)(  _ \( ___)  (  \/  )( ___))()(
 )__)  _)(_  )   / )__)    )    (  )__) \/\/
(__)  (____)(_)\_)(____)  (_/\/\_)(____)()()

Karl Richard is going home.

Loving Wife
I'll believe that when I see it.

Impatient Client
I presume this means that all of my deliverables are done and you've sent them in to me for review.

Karl Richard is settling back in behind his desk for an evening of work.

Government Client
Excellent! We were hoping to have a 3-hour teleconference with the Sydney office tonight at 9:00 your time. I'll e-mail the dial-in # and passcode.

Impatient Client
I'm hoping this won't stand in the way of our midnight deadline.

Daughter Richard posted a note on Karl Richard's wall: I was going to tell you when you got home, but since you're not coming home, I thought you should know that mom and I are joining the Motley Crue "Cruefest" tour. They said we'll be highlighted on their in-concert "cams"! We'll be back in July. Enjoy your work!

Impatient Client posted a note on Karl Richard's wall: I just checked my e-mail and there's nothing there.

Native Shaman posted a note on Karl Richard's wall: Your request for admission to our meditative community has been approved. Please dispose of all of your earthly goods, including your Blackberry® before arriving.

Karl Richard posted a note: I'm going on a Vision Quest. I'll be back either when I'm done or when the meds wear off and I'm released from observation, whichever comes last.

Karl Richard is offline.

Handicapping Risk: Multi-Factor Considerations

2009-07-08T08:33:46-07:00

That hardly sounds like a title for one of my light summertime columns, but I'm afraid it's all too appropriate for vacations. For high school graduation, we've taken my son, James, on the trip of his dreams. As I write this, we're heading for Oban, Scotland.

In planning the trip, like any good project, we assessed options, evaluated possibilities, and determined that when we got to Scotland, we would ultimately rent a car and drive into the Highlands. It would be my first time driving on the left side of the road.

When I picked up the car, I quickly realized a few things. For one, the driver's side is on the right-hand side. I had been braced for that and the implications of that risk. Second, it was a manual shift. While I learned to drive on a stick, it had been over twenty years since I had experienced that joy. Third, it was a diesel. That didn't seem like a risk consideration, until we hit the road.

For the first ten minutes, I didn't have any major problems, although the on-board navigation left something to be desired. It had a wee bit of a Scottish accent, which did nothing to make me more comfortable. Then, at a light, I slipped the clutch, stalling the car.

Note to non-diesel stick-shift drivers: You can't just pop the clutch for a restart on a diesel. You have to stop. Shut down the key. Restart. Listen to the cacophony of the honking behind you.

When we set out from Glasgow Airport, I had every confidence that I could do the "drive on the left side" thing. And when a couple of small curves were thrown my way on top of that, I really didn't doubt myself. Sure, I could drive a stick! Who cares if it's diesel? I really hadn't thought through the combined effect of all three at once.

On projects, we need to be realistic about the challenges we're facing. All too often, we are given projects that are daunting to begin with, and the customers introduce just one more set of challenges or one more set of considerations that weren't part of the original planning and/or pricing.

If I had it to do all over again, I'd go back to the rental counter and ask for an automatic, or a petrol-powered vehicle.

The PMBOK Guide 4th Edition makes the distinction from the previous edition that there are a host of constraints, not just the triple constraint of old. And as of this week, I'm a believer. We need to re-examine the prospects of our projects thoroughly before we "hit the road." How?

Document the Reality You Believe You'll Be Dealing With

It gets down to assumptions. These are not the assumptions like I assume the sun will come up tomorrow. These are assumptions like: I believe there will be a customer response within a week when I ask questions.

Obviously, we can't predict each and every one of the assumptions that will impact our projects, but we can recognize them when they come to pass, like my diesel, standard-transmission, right-handed car. Assumptions drive risk. So we need to stop, pause, go back to the customer and explain the implications, and then get affirmation that the environment will be as we thought, OR that we will get some special dispensation to deal with it.

Our problems don't surface when just one of those little things occurs during our projects, but when they're compounded. And if we can simply remember to be willing to acknowledge the "little things" one by one, we can preclude them from collectively turning into big things.

Of course, I still have to drive out of Glasgow today. I'll let you know how THAT goes.

Author's note: Made it to Oban alive and in one piece, despite the narrow roads along Loch Lomond. One more stretch (back to the airport), and all of my paranoia will have been in vain—God willing.

[Editor's note: At the time of publication, we had received word that Carl and family arrived at Heathrow in one piece. We hope they remembered which side of the road to use after landing.]

Related Links
Kent McDonald has some very specific advice on recording and verifying assumptions, and how they can change a project. Make sure you know what various risks will be worth to you, or rather what they'll be worth to your project. When things don't go as expected, it's a good idea to have an escalation process in place.

The Case of the Perfect Project Post

2009-04-28T16:11:47-07:00

Perry Mason – Project Management Hero?

by Carl Pritchard, PMP, EVP

Congratulations! You are living in heroic times. Really! Time and time again, we see project managers, team members, and even entire organizations being asked to do significantly more with significantly less. And (for the most part) we rise to that challenge. We make ourselves capable of what might otherwise seem impossible. And still, management asks for more.

At a time when it might seem like a lesson in frustration and fruitlessness to continue to contribute more and more to the cause, we have the opportunity to genuinely shine with some classic approaches, novel attitudes, and a spirit of thanksgiving. And who should we look to for guidance on attitude and spirit? My partner and I are turning to Perry Mason.

Perry Mason, for those too young to remember, was a Los Angeles lawyer (created by Erle Stanley Gardner and immortalized by CBS) who always came out on top, whose clients were always vindicated, and (this is the part I really hadn't remembered, either) who often pushed the envelope of his professional practice. Perry Mason had the amazing gift of being capable of remembering small factoids and leveraging them into significant elements of his case. While his always-surly opponents would object time and again, Perry would convince the judge to allow him just enough latitude to identify the real problem and point the finger at the true villain.

In project management, we often feel shackled by the constraints that are put on us by customers, management, and the project culture. But if we take a lesson from Perry, we may be able to loosen those bonds just enough to set our projects free. There are three basic lessons that we can take to heart:

Watch the little stuff.
If it's legitimate, do it.
Keep your eyes on the true outcome.

Watching the Little Stuff

Perry Mason was the master of nuance. He was always attuned to what people were saying and how and why they were saying it. His ability to zero in on important elements of a case was uncanny, as was his ability to listen. As project managers, we need to nurture those abilities. One simple way is to adopt one of Perry's cross-examination techniques.

Is that everything that you wanted to tell us, Mr. Wimpole?

Perry would then wait. And so should we. We should leverage the natural cultural inclination for folks to want to fill the void of silence with answers. Listening is overlooked as a critical skill and it's one that affords us the ability to build better understanding of what's going on in our projects, our teams, and our lives.

Keeping track of the details we're given is equally important. Della Street (Perry's administrative assistant) is often his memory in those stories. She documents and captures myriad details. While most of us don't have the luxury of a recording secretary at our sides, we do need to find the means to capture the little stuff that we learn through good listening.

For me, the vehicle is e-mail. I am a network administrator's nightmare. I preserve e-mail. LOTS of e-mail. I'm an e-mail zealot. And when I pick up some new insight or factoid? I send myself an e-mail. That way I can find the nugget that might otherwise be lost.

Your mileage will vary. You might use files, spreadsheets, archives, databases . . . FINE! But find somewhere to document and have access to the information you garner through your new zeal for "the little stuff."

If it's Legitimate, Do IT!

This is the second aspect of Perry Mason I've found amazing. He doesn't take pause to overanalyze things before jumping in. If it pushes the case forward, he takes advantage, and does it. In one episode, he buys a Matisse painting to prove his client's innocence. In another, he purchases an apartment building. In each, the prosecutor accuses him of questionable behavior, to whit Perry pushes back with the point that what he's done is perfectly within the bounds of ethics.

I'm not suggesting we go around buying buildings, but we shouldn't be shackled by small stuff. I have a new client who is planning on a total of 20 days of work a year in a 3-year contract. That's 60 days of fully paid consulting work. Only one problem. They insist on a particular type of insurance that's about $300/year. At first, I started working with them to ask how I could avoid that expenditure and whether it was truly necessary, given the nature of the work we're doing. The more I thought about it, however, the investment was a very small contribution in order to win a much, much larger stream of work. And it would do no harm to any of my other engagements. I could have dragged out the discussions and probably won my point, but do I really want to do that with a major new client? No!! I needed to think like Perry. If I need to spend $300 to make the relationship with the client seamless, I'll do it!

While this can get out of hand, it usually doesn't. We're normally very hesitant to "jump in" on these kinds of moments for fear of making a financial mistake or a business error. But one major win quickly erases two or three mistakes. And the time saved through avoiding indecision is equally invaluable.

Keep Your Eyes on the True Outcome

Do you want to deliver a software system, or a happy customer? One thing I've thoroughly enjoyed about Perry is that he doesn't simply want his client acquitted. He wants his clients proven innocent! That's a huge difference. And it goes to the ultimate outcomes.

Take some time at your next team meeting to ask your team members what they believe the customer truly wants out of the work you're doing. Do they really want a new system, or does the customer want efficiency? Do they want a new box on the second floor, or do they want faster systems? Reaffirming the true goals is a critical part of our success. We need to make sure that we know what our customers truly hope for, and we need to be a party to that aspect of success. At one moment in the series, a judge states that he believes Perry has made a sufficient case for acquittal. Perry thanks him, but asks the court's indulgence to present one more piece of information that may clarify some of the lingering confusion in the case.

Within three minutes, the true killer is confessing from the gallery.

Perry's client walks away with both an acquittal and her innocence.

It's easy to lose sight of the vital importance of the end game when we're tasked with producing a product or service. But we can reaffirm this at every client meeting and at every team meeting by asking the simple question, "How will the world have changed when we're done here?" If we answer with, "A widget will be properly installed and running," we may have seriously missed the point. If we answer with, "The client's operations will be improved and those around us will be more comfortable in their work environment," we're probably acting a little more like Perry.

May we all be found guilty of that!

When not watching the Case of the Perjured PM, Carl Pritchard serves on the board of directors of ProjectConnections.com and served as the lead chapter author for the risk management chapter of the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, 4th Edition. He is a principal with Pritchard Management Associates, author and internationally recognized speaker. He welcomes comments on his articles at carl@carlpritchard.com.

Related Links
Keep track of little things like unexpected action items with one of our list formats. Get your customer's goals and expectations down on paper before you start by capturing the requirements. (Here's how one software exec does it.) If you've spotted a project killer, use these guidelines to speak up before things get out of hand.

A Few Lessons in Blatant Self-Promotion

2009-02-17T14:08:57-08:00

by Carl Pritchard, PMP, EVP

You were great! That was inspired! You’re the best! No one else could have pulled that off! Everyone was impressed!

Those kinds of accolades are hard to come by. And yet, when we receive them, we often take pause and find ourselves saying, sometimes in faux humility, "Oh, no. Really. It was nothing."

Forget THAT! It was something. It was a moment of high accomplishment. It was an achievement. And we need to learn how to leverage those achievements if we’re going to be able to advance our own careers and our goals. A team member at one of my most prized clients recently asked how she might be able to better promote herself and get some of the recognition that she merits in an environment where recognition is hard to come by. This article is largely my response. I told her she needs to invest some time in ensuring that she knows where she notices others and how she can put herself in those positions.

First – Find the Channels

The first step is to ask yourself where others in your field are recognized. Do they appear at international conferences or at the local community college? Do they write blogs or publish formal articles? Do they invest themselves in free public forums or paid symposia? Do they lead meetings or document the minutes? Are they stars or supporting cast? While any of these venues have the possibility of increasing our visibility, we would first identify the channels that are at our disposal for enhancing our professional visibility. If we know what they are, we can then clearly explore how to become part of the circle around them.

Second – Find the Criteria

For the channels identified, it’s important to ensure that we have a common understanding of what the criteria are to exploit the channels. I always find it interesting that folks don’t realize that PMI®’s selection process for their annual SeminarsWorld series begins almost a full nine months prior to the first seminar. Miss that deadline, and you cannot participate. And in order to meet that deadline, it’s essential that you’ve performed certain tasks in preparation. In all, getting a complete entry may begin more than a full year prior to the first offering. For some, that kind of timing is a showstopper. The reality is that it winnows the wheat from the chaff. It ensures that only the serious ultimately participate.

As such, it also creates an opportunity. Knowing the criteria to participate means that there will be individuals not willing to set the schedule and take the time to serve the criteria, and that narrows the field of competition.

Third – Identify “Best Fit” and “Long-Term” Criteria

“Best Fit” criteria are those that most closely align with our capabilities, our goals, and our vision of the outcome. These may be the criteria that are closest to what we’ve already done because we already know how to do them and do them well. These can also be those criteria that engender precisely what we want to do. They may be the criteria that will be the easiest to serve. These are the low-hanging fruit, ripe for quick return.

At the same time, we need to identify those criteria for which there’s a long lead time. If we have that information, we can begin building a case to serve those criteria early enough that we end up among the early adopters.

Fourth – Create the Master List and Master Schedule

Every promotional element or event—from article to coaching session—becomes a critical component of your master list of knowledge, skills, and abilities, and becomes the evidence demonstrating that those skills exist. Where there are gaps, it’s also possible to identify how soon you might be able to fill those gaps and how soon you can construct the evidence that renders you promotable. As for the schedule, remember that it opens the door for you to set loftier goals without making them seem unachievable. Set down the schedule, and even the most challenging promotional aspects of our careers seem more tangible and real.

Fifth – Start Building

The best fit and long term criteria need the first service. If there’s an opportunity to build relationships, articles, presentations or any promotional element, it’s important to start early. This also has the added benefit of creating a sense of forward motion and progress toward one’s personal promotional goals.

Even if the promotional aspects are all internal in nature, we need to pursue these steps. Why? Because no one else will readily step up to be our cheering section. We’re our own best fan club . . . or can be, if we’re willing to act like we merit a fan club. We need to make ourselves proactive and visible if we’re going to be able to have others promote us at some later date.

And oddly enough, the sooner we start promoting ourselves, the sooner we’re able to give others a reason to promote us.

Related Links
Make sure your priorities, goals, and actions are all heading the same direction with this worksheet. If you're uncomfortable with self promotion, try recasting career management as personal marketing. There are many ways to gain skills and experience without spending years living through it.

… and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

2008-12-18T16:08:16-08:00

by Carl Pritchard, PMP, EVP

To: Santa Claus
From: Senior Elf project manager
Subject: Holiday Wish List
Date: ANYTIME

Dear Santa,

I have been a very good project manager this year, so I'd like to ask for the following in the year ahead:

Priorities. I've tried very hard to figure out which toy projects are more important than other toy projects and which come first. Unfortunately, I keep picking the wrong ones, or the ones I pick get superseded by others. Just let me know which one is most important to our success, and I'm on it.
Einstein. (Or the Cabbage Patch Kid, for that matter). I really don't care who I get, as long as I get who I planned for in the first place. I seem to plan for Einstein and get Beavis a lot, and it would be awfully nice to be able to plan to the right resource.
Contingency. I have to admit that I have not been a good project manager on this one. I did tell a lie. I call it "padding." I've been padding only because I don't have a sense that the money or schedule will be there if something goes wrong, and something always seems to go wrong. Even if it's small, I'd love some contingency this year. I promise I'll tell you how I use it.
Transparency. I'd like to be able to see what the contracts elves and the accountants are doing. The more I understand what constitutes "success" in their eyes, the more I'll be able to give of the gifts I'm given!
A Shield for Planning Time. I know asking you to run defense for me is asking a lot. But if you can tell others that "Forget-the-requirements-and-start-working" is not a success strategy, it would help a lot. If you give me more planning time up front, I promise I'll give you the gift of more on-time, on-budget deliveries. It's a fair swap.
A Shiny Red Wagon. Or an Amex Gift Check. Or a box of chocolates. Or a letter of recognition. This one's not for me, it's for my elves. I'd like to be able to give back (in your name) for all they've given through the year.
Some new toys! Microsoft Project is actually in its 2007 edition. Not that I don't like Project98, mind you. Or one of the fancy risk tools like Risk+ or PertMaster. I know they're expensive, but you can hang the neat charts I make on the office refrigerator. Or, I can just use them in my client presentations.
Knowledge. This has always been one of the nicest presents I get from you (even though it always feels like I'm getting underwear or SOX). I just want you to know that training and learning new stuff is still on my wish list, even though it seems like I already must know everything.
Affirmation. Ongoing support is important. Do you remember the time you came into the workshop and told everyone I was on the right track? I milked that for six solid months. A little public affirmation goes a long way.
Honesty. This is what I'm getting you for Christmas, sir. I plan to tell you when projects go awry and when they're on target. You've always been the expert on that "naughty or nice" stuff, so this comes naturally to you. But if you can tolerate a little more news—good or bad—I think it works in everyone's favor.

That's it for this year, Santa. It's all any project manager could want. Unless you want to throw in a GPS like the one you got for the sleigh.

All the best,

Elf Ryschus, EMP (Elf Management Professional)
Senior Elf PM
North Pole Division

Carl Pritchard is the senior elf at Pritchard Management Associates. He is compiling a collection of his ProjectConnections columns to be released next year. He welcomes your holiday well-wishes at carl@carlpritchard.com

PMI® and PMP® are all registered trademarks of the Project Management Institute of Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.

Unraveling the Mystery of the Milestone

2008-12-06T16:09:29-08:00

As I write this article, I’m on final approach into Las Vegas, Nevada. The pilot on this particular flight has served as both driver and tour guide, pausing at four intervals along the way to greet the passengers and to highlight local sites of interest 30,000 feet below.

The city down to the right of our flight is Saint Louis, Missouri, Gateway to the West.

If you look out the left side of the aircraft, that’s Lake Powell.

What’s notable is his effective use of milestones. It’s been textbook, which makes you wonder if it’s by design, or happenstance. In our projects, it definitely should be by design, and we should seriously consider the implications of the decisions we make in that regard.

What makes a “good” milestone?

A good milestone meets some pretty specific criteria:

It acknowledges significant accomplishment.
It can be defined as “done” or “not achieved” without a great deal of investigation.
It occurs after some time has passed since the last milestone.
It’s something that those involved may actually care about.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike is a long, challenging stretch of road. The folks responsible for the turnpike used to have a pretty clear understanding of the nature of milestones. They accomplished the effective application of milestones through the use of rest stops and service areas. Spaced a little more than an hour apart, these highway oases provided a lovely break from the drive, and a sense that genuine progress toward the long-distance driving goal was being achieved.

Fast forward to the 1990’s and 2000’s, however, and you’ll find a number of changes along that highway that have changed the sense of efficacy the road used to have. First, they’ve closed a number of the rest areas. It’s now possible to drive for over two hours without encountering a single, structured break. And secondly, they’ve added mini-markers between the conventional mile markers. A small post with numbers clearly identifies each tenth of a mile travelled. A tenth of a mile isn’t very long.

Significant accomplishment

I’m certain those mile markers were not meant to simply be milestones for the weary traveler, but they do serve that function. They provide the ability to track just how much distance has been covered and how much further there is to go. But they grow wearisome. At 65 miles per hour, it takes less than six seconds to cover that distance. 142.5 . . . . . . 142.4 . . . . . . 142.3 . . . . . . Driving several hundred miles, that’s quite a bit of counting. While the intent may be to clearly identify location and progress to-date, if you’re an exhausted wayfarer they can literally suck the life out of you. The reason is that nothing significant has been accomplished. No real ground has been covered.

This applies in project life as well. We need to avoid giving team members such minutely incremental progress reports that they get the sense they’re never going to accomplish anything dramatic. When life is a series of tiny non-events, there’s the distinct possibility that you’ll lose sight of the big things that really do matter.

By contrast, the rest areas used to have a reasonable span from one to the next. And oddly enough, that mattered. Knowing that you were coming up on those stone-faced buildings gave you a sense that you had arrived, even though you were still hours from your destination. There was an emotional attachment and significance to the locations. Even if you didn’t stop, you found comfort on the road, knowing that you had achieved something significant.

The lessons here are legion. Create a milestone with an emotional tie, and you win. Create a milestone that allows for reasonable breaks, and you win. Create milestones that capture the essence of significance, and you win. Create something recognizable and clear, and you win.

The compelling part about this is that it doesn’t require a deeply held set of beliefs to work well. It just requires an understanding that human beings develop an emotional attachment when they learn what to expect from a situation. We develop attachments when we believe that others have similar expectations. Milestones can develop significance if we find ways to endow them with these characteristics. In some cases, that involves little more than identifying them and letting others know what they mean. In other cases, sheer repetition is the key.

No matter the approach, we need to work toward and consider the next milestone. It’s one of those areas where we can make a concrete step today. This is a wondrous opportunity to improve our lives and our projects with a single, small step forward. One new and well-chosen milestone can give us new targets to shoot for and new perspectives on progress.

Related Links
Cross-functional teams can get a lot of mileage out of tracking to project milestones. The best project status reports are brief and high-level, avoiding the tenth mile markers. Don’t forget to reward your team when they hit a milestone (or even when they don’t).

The Blackberry Maven

2008-10-27T14:22:21-07:00

by Carl Pritchard, PMP, EVP

Once upon a project dreary, at a meeting getting weary
Over many a rehashed mound of data by a crashing bore,
Came a beeping, beeping, gently seeping, seeping through the conference door.
"Tis only from the hall," I muttered. "A passerby it must implore."
"Only hall noise, nothing more."

Nonetheless the noise persisted. Its entreaties I resisted,
Till my boss at last insisted, "Find the source! My ears are sore!"
So through purses we did burrow. Pockets, wallets, all were furrowed
Seeking just to find a cure, OH! Cure, oh for that noise before
We all went mad from more, more, more.

All at once my cheeks turned cherry, for the noise 'twas I did carry,
Carry on my small Blackberry. I hit the switch, it beeped no more . . .
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
"Tis a message worth deleting, just an ad, or little more.
Some bulk e-mail, drug, or store—
This is it and nothing more.

Presently my fear grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
Glancing down, I had to, had to read what was the score.
I cast a look down as if nodding, to avoid my boss's prodding
And the jeers of peers applauding, applauding me—the local boor
So I looked for words of text there, on the screen I can't ignore—
Darkness there, and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;
Was the Blackberry just broken? Would the darkness give no token?
Was this just some evil joke and should I throw it to the floor?
This I wondered, should I throw it to the floor?!
Merely this and nothing more.

Then I noticed each head turning, in the meeting, staring, burning.
Soon again I turned so red, yes, redder than I was before.
"Surely," said I, "surely something live or dead, yes;
Let me see then, what the threat is, and this mystery explore—
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore—
Just blank screen and nothing more!"

Open here I then rebooted, as the crowd sat quiet, muted,
And there flickered on the screen the messages of days of yore.
Not a single one I clicked on; not a clear response would flick on;
But, as if it had been kicked on, turned to gray. "My GOD" I swore;
And on cue my boss let loose and sent me packing out the door—
Still no message; nothing more!

So I called the 1–800, and the phone rang then I blundered,
Pushing "one" instead of getting human help at "four."
Not the slightest slack was given; to the wrong place I was driven;
Like a demon unforgiven, sent me to the sales desk floor—
Where I got no help, no more—
On hold, and sat, and nothing more.

Then my cube-mate came and queried, "What's with you? You don't look cheery?"
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance I wore.
"I just fouled up in my big meeting." The whole story then repeating—
It all felt so self-defeating, hearing the whole thing once more—
"And I'm still on hold to fix it, fix it and find out the score
Of my message. WHAT'S IT FOR??!!"

Was it project change I dreaded? Was some work to Hades headed?
Was my subject matter expert vetted? Vetted as a fraud or MORE?
Was the customer agreeing that no living human being
Ever would be blessed with seeing finished product out the door?
Messages of doom or gloom or worse unseen and yet in store.
Could I read them? Nevermore.

But no message, and no ringing could be heard, no respite bringing
That one text, as if to share it would undo the pain that came before.
Nothing further of that message—no disaster did it presage
Nothing; not a single vestige of the word I waited for.
"On the morrow it will function, function as it has before."
Said my cube-mate, "Nevermore."

"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil!—prophet still, if man or devil!—
Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted—
This cell phone by horror haunted—tell me truly, I implore:
Is there—is there balm in Gilead?—tell me—tell me, I implore!"
Quoth the cube-mate, "Nevermore."

"Come on, man, you've bigger troubles than your cell phone (which is rubble).
You get back downstairs on the double—fixing up that 'meeting war.'
The boss is one unhappy master whom unmerciful disaster
will invoke on you much faster, faster than he's done before—
'Cause you interrupted him with tech toys (better thing if you had snored
or had thrown up on the floor)."

So I went back looking mournful, wishing I had not been born, full
Knowing he would be so scornful, for the cell phone he abhorred.
"Sorry for the interruption, didn't plan on that disruption.
Or the message's corruption, stopping what you had in store."
One cold stare is all he shot me. Shot me—cutting to the core.
"Sit down," he said, and little more.

And then, as if on Satan's cue, the beeping started all anew
With fervency that cut right through the cold chill he was working for
A hundred messages to tag you, flowing forth from this Niagara,
Selling cases of Viagra, timeshares, condos, web sites, MORE.
"Wait! Wait!" I cried, "I'll shut it off, never to be heard from more!"
And still security kept pushing, pushing me out the front door.
Quoth my ex-boss, "Nevermore."

Carl Pritchard is the lead chapter author for the Risk Management chapter of the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Fourth Edition with a release scheduled in late 2008 / early 2009. He teaches risk management and PMP® exam preparation in public session and for organizations around the world. He welcomes comments at carl@carlpritchard.com or www.carlpritchard.com.

PMI® and PMP® are all registered trademarks of the Project Management Institute of Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.

In Defense of the Project Management "Perfect World"

2008-07-23T10:48:42-07:00

by Carl Pritchard, PMP, EVP

One of the most common challenge questions I get when teaching PMP® Exam Preparation courses is "Why doesn't PMI® make the test more real-world? Why do they insist on testing for a world that no-one really lives in?" Over the years, my response to that question has evolved, but the more the question comes along, the more I realize we don't insist on the perfect world often enough.

At different times in history, there must have been push-back on any variety of steps forward in human progress. Some folks found the notion of indoor plumbing repulsive. (You'd actually do that? In your house?) Seat belts were seen as clothes-rumpling traps that might pin us in the car in an accident. Thomas Watson, when president of IBM, said, "I think there's a world market for about five computers."

We look at a different world—a future, perfect world—because it is where the promise is. Science fiction is a popular genre in movies and books because it opens the eyes to what is possible. Since I was in my teens (quite a few years back), I've seen movies featuring flying cars. Do we have them? No. Do I hope we do some day? Sure! Is there some scientist somewhere trying to make it happen? I certainly hope so. We step into the future thanks to people who envision the world as it could be.

On the project management certification exam, many of the questions focus on an understanding of the world as it should be in project management. A few examples:

Senior management writes and signs chartering documents
Procurement departments deliver what we ask for in a timely fashion and help us craft better contracts
Human Resources departments provide skilled resources on demand with the properly qualified skill sets
Management understands that range estimates are more honest and realistic than single-data-point estimates

Is this the world as it is? In most organizations, no. And yet, if you hope to pass the premier certification in project management, this is where you need to be. Does that make the exam wrong? No! In fact, it means that the professional association of project managers recognizes that there is, out there, as Ronald Reagan put it, "a shining city on a hill." There is an ideal. There is a standard to which we should try to hold our organizations. There can be better and more effective project management if we are willing to acknowledge that business as usual is not business as it should be.

Suppose the certification exam's "perfect world" started becoming reality. The changes in the project management environment would be dramatic.

Every project would have a clear business case and a defined priority within the organization.
Resources would be respected when they provide estimates, rather than forced to create padded estimates that hide reality.
Risk contingency budgets would be overt, with clear tracking systems for when they're drawn down upon.
There would be a consistent moment in time when project managers would answer Microsoft Project's "save with a baseline?" question in the affirmative.

In the June 4, 2008 Washington Post, the front page of the newspaper included an article by Dana Hedgpeth about Lockheed Martin and the Project on Government Oversight (POGO). POGO had unearthed a Defense Contract Management Agency report that cited the huge defense contractor for failing to track and manage their projects properly. The article specifically called out failings in earned value management systems.

Lockheed got the attention because of the leviathan proportions of their contracts with the government. But how many smaller, leaner organizations are guilty of the same shortcomings? The argument is made that earned value and other rigid, rigorous processes of project management are too weighty. It's suggested that they're not worth the return. I doubt very much that Lockheed would agree right now. Rework is almost invariably more expensive than doing it right the first time.

Which brings us back around to PMI®, the certification, and the perfect world. What good is a certification that says that every process needs to be followed every time in a consistent fashion? It sounds very good to me. And it also provides a jumping-off point to take steps toward that perfect world. As more and more organizations demand certifications, they afford the perfect response to management seeking to shortcut process.

Management: Stop bothering the client with all of those change orders for little stuff. We're building goodwill here!
Certified manager: It's part of best-practice process.
Management: It's not best practice if it costs us a client!
Certified manager: If everyone is consistent, it won't.
Management: But everyone's not consistent.
Certified manager: You're telling them all to get certified to make them consistent. And the certification exam says we do this consistently, with the paperwork.

Granted, too many conversations like that and you wind up working on your resume, but . . .

The point is that we need to acknowledge that PMI® and the other certifying bodies are working toward an environment where we have consistent best practice. They have to test to the ideal, or else the ideal will never be achieved. In working on the team to generate the fourth edition of the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, I was occasionally surprised to hear arguments about real-world versus perfect-world project management within that group. As an ANSI standard, that book needs to reflect the ideal environment for project success. And that's an environment we should all strive to embrace.

PMI® and PMP® are all registered trademarks of the Project Management Institute of Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.