Don’t stress – Just focus on the facts

As a project manager, one of the most difficult balances to maintain is your emotional buy-in to a project. Many project managers become so involved that they end up stressed and burned out.

Sure, to motivate your team, you need to care about the project and want it to be successful.

But the real opportunity to reduce stress is when you’re presenting information to stakeholders so they can make decisions. They’re relying on you to present them with all the facts, good or bad, and have done some analysis so it’s relatively straightforward for them to decide on a course of action – what’s not needed is your emotional involvement in their decision. It’s your job to manage the project, and theirs to steer it.

For example, you might have to inform the project executive that a project is behind schedule. You’ve done everything you could to minimise delays, you’ve informed them in a timely manner and you’ve provided them with fact-based estimates and possible mitigations to support their decisions. You’ve done all you can – stressing about the situation won’t change the facts, and it may reduce your ability to deliver the best possible outcome after the executive makes their decision.

Don’t shoot the messenger

And the better you get at analysing and communicating facts, the better your reputation will become. You will become a facilitator of good and timely decision making – what more could your employer and customers ask for?

So save your emotion for motivating your team, and focus on the facts when it comes to communicating with your project stakeholders and customers.

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Business Cases: Official vs Personal

We all know the rules about business cases:

• A project should not be initiated unless the appropriate stakeholders accept the business case;
• The outcomes of the business case form part of the success criteria for the project, and;
• The project manager is responsible for achieving those outcomes.

The project manager periodically checks that the project is delivering a solution that satisfies the business case and, if it’s not, puts it back on course.

From time to time, the project manager also confirms that the reasons for the business case are still valid. If they aren’t, the project is cancelled so the people involved can move onto work that serves the business.

A project can have a couple of different business cases. It will always have the official business case, created by the business to fulfill their goals. It can also have a vendor’s business case – this is created in response to their customer’s business case and incorporates both the customer’s and the vendor’s reasons for being involved in the project.

But there’s another business case that usually doesn’t get the attention it deserves – your own.

Your personal business case consists of the reasons why you’re involved in the project, such as monetary reward, reputation, job security and/or the intellectual challenge. But like any other business case, if you’re not really clear about your goals up front, and don’t review your progress towards them regularly, you run the real risk of putting in a lot of time and effort to find you haven’t met them in the end.

As for any other business case, your personal business case serves two purposes:

1. It gives you the ‘it’s just not worth it –I’m outta here’ criteria, and, more importantly;
2. It drives you forward – when you’re in the heat of battle, it reminds you why you’re working so hard and putting yourself under pressure.

So know your personal business case before the project starts – be very clear about the reasons you’re involved in the project, and define your exit criteria now, before the going gets tough. Then, with regular reviews, you’ll be able to keep focused on what’s important, stay motivated through those tough times and achieve your goals.

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Project style: Yellow is the new grey

In a thought-provoking post on Ron Rosenhead’s Project Management blog recently, Ron talks about how ‘grey areas’ are areas of risk in a project.

These are areas where details are not well defined, information is incomplete or where no-one is taking responsibility, etc. Warning lights should flash where there are areas like this in a project – ambiguity makes bad things happen.

So should these be grey areas? Grey fades into the background and this is the last thing you want to happen to these risky areas – they should be called yellow areas. Being yellow, they’ll stand out and won’t drop off your radar.

So when you find a grey area, see it as yellow and you’ll deal with it before it starts causing you trouble.

Ron’s blog article is here.

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Doing a lot but not getting ahead?

Greg has a lot to do.

He begins each day with a huge task list, determined to complete as many things as he can. He gets through a lot but at the end of each day there are always a few tasks that don’t get done, usually the ones that take a little longer – so they’re moved onto the next day and become a little more urgent.

Greg is playing the volume game; he’s judging his performance by how many tasks he can do. While he feels like he’s getting a lot done, he’s constantly stressed out by the high number of urgent tasks that interrupt his day.

If Greg approached his task list in a different way, he’d find that while initially he might not get as many tasks done, he’d end up with a smaller number of urgent tasks, more time and less stress.

So how do you approach your tasks differently? Try to identify tasks that have specific benefits – these are the important ones:

•    Identify if a task is something that will save you time in the future. An example is taking the time to work out proper estimates for a project – if you estimate poorly, the impact on your time in the future will be much greater than the time you spend estimating.

•    Identify if a task will increase your understanding of a project – this will help you avoid a crisis in the future, which is always time-consuming. For example, forming a deep understanding of a new project today may result in a question which, if asked now, will allow you to decide a course of action that will avoid a problem in the future.

•    Identify if a task is directly related to generating income, either for your company or for yourself.

•    Identify if a task builds a relationship with a customer – relationships lead to business.

•    Identify if a task builds a personal relationship – personal relationships improve the quality of your life.

•    Identify if the task improves your ability to enjoy life – tasks involving health, personal financial security and stress reduction.

You’ll find the number of important tasks is quite small and on most days, you’ll have time for other tasks. And if you make sure you get the important things done, you’ll have less urgent tasks, you’ll be more in control and ultimately you’ll be more successful.

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What you need to get productive right now

I meet a lot of people who are overworked, stressed out and generally feeling like everything is piling up on top of them. Many of these people work in IT, and for them I think that’s part of the problem.

The peculiar thing about tech-savvy people is that they tend to look for technological solutions to their productivity issues. They look for productivity software, mobile applications, collaboration tools and the like, but usually don’t get long term value from these gadgets. There is an initial flush of productivity when these tools are first adopted, but within a few weeks they’re back to where they were: stressed and overloaded. And their technological solution is languishing on the hard drive, half full of weeks-old actions and tasks. The ’solution’ has just added to their workload.

Solve the issue

If you’re trying to get productive, there are really only 2 things that you need:

1. CLARITY and
2. FOCUS

Clarity

CLARITY is being specific about what the task is that needs to be done next. Define it, quantify it, and describe precisely what you’re going to do about it.

Focus

FOCUS is a decision to get that task done, forsaking all distractions till it’s finished. The phone rings – ignore it and get on with it. An email arrives – ignore it (or better still, close your email). Every time you decide to stay focused is a victory for you and it makes it easier to stay focused for the next task. And the next, and the next.

Productivity tools can help, but only after you’ve got clarity and focus.

So decide NOW to have clarity and focus, and your productivity will start to build. And as your productivity gains momentum, you’ll find your stress and sense of overwork will fall away – no technology required.

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Best productivity habit of 2008

The best productivity habit I established last year was using my Daily Imperatives list – my focus has increased and I’m getting my must-do items done every day.

Here’s how I use it:

• It’s like a to-do list but I only put things on it that must get done today – anything else goes onto the standard to-do list. After double-checking all the items are must-do, the list I end up with is rarely long so I know I’ll get to the less important items as well during the day.
• For every entry on my list, I describe the action and specify the desired outcome. So instead of writing:

  “Fred re documentation”

  I write:

  “Call Fred: Request completion of design document by Friday”

  Then when I get to the item in a few hours time, I can quickly action it instead of having to remember what it was about Fred and documentation I had to do.

• I number the items in order of importance. Occasionally I only number the first few, but I notice that my days are more effective when I number them all at the start of the day.

  I then start at 1 and only move on to 2 when 1 is finished. If I’m blocked on 1, say if I’m waiting for someone to call me back, the worksheet has space to jot down notes like ‘Fred will call back by 3pm’. Then I can easily pick up where I left a blocked task off.

  And if I’m interrupted, I don’t waste time after each interruption deciding what I’ll work on next because it’s on the list.

• There’s a place at the top of the worksheet where I enter important leading indicator tasks that I want to do every day. I also put important administrative tasks here too – those things that work best when they’re updated a little each day.

Once I’ve completed the Daily Imperatives, I move on to my regular to-do list.

The productivity gains from the Daily Imperatives list come from 3 main areas:

1. It’s easy to see the important tasks, and to make sure they get done before the more trivial items.
2. Because I have a clear sequenced plan for the day, interruptions are easier to absorb and I don’t waste time re-prioritising.
3. My stress is removed. I work through the list of imperatives, happy in the fact that I’m getting the most important things done first.

A note about ‘urgent’ tasks – if a task is urgent, it’s usually the result of an important task that wasn’t done early enough. Have a quick review of urgent tasks so you can avoid the same situation in the future, and don’t push important tasks to the bottom of the list in favour of them otherwise you’ll end up with yet more urgent tasks.

You can download my daily imperatives worksheet for free here, or by clicking on the image up there at the top of the post.

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It isn’t fine when everything’s fine

Ever had one of those days when all you’ve done is put out one fire after another? It’s all you can do just to keep up and your productive, interesting work sits on the back burner. It’s stressful and frustrating – it’s a reactive day.

But it doesn’t need to be that way – most emergencies can be prevented, or at least reduced, by identifying them early and taking appropriate action before they escalate to emergency status – this is pro-activity.

To be proactive, you need to start when everything is going fine. As one of your regular tasks, identify potential problems – ask yourself ‘Is it all really fine?’ and ‘What could go wrong?’ Then either prevent the problem or put an action plan in place to deal with it.

You don’t need to focus on the negatives all the time, just make a small effort when the going is smooth to stop problems becoming bigger than they need to be.

The 10:1 law

There’s a law of software development that says it’s 10 times cheaper to incorporate a feature early (i.e. at the design phase) than at the end of the project. This same rule applies to project management – it’s far less work to prevent an emergency than to have to deal with it, and much less stressful too.

The lesson here is to invest your ‘everything’s fine’ time in seeking and destroying future emergencies. This leads to even more ‘everything’s fine’ time, and a much easier life.

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Play the Project Management Game

If you treated your project management like a professional sports person treats their sport, how would your perspectives change?

You take it seriously but you don’t take it to heart

You strive to do your best; to push yourself to do better than you did yesterday. If you hit a setback, you don’t stress about it all night; you dust yourself off and prepare for the next game.

A new day, a new game

Each day is a new game. You know you can’t change the game you played yesterday, but you can play today’s game to the best of your ability.

You work on your game

You continually look for ways to improve your game. You work with your coach to build skills and techniques to make you a champion. Every single day you review what worked for you and what didn’t.

You have fun playing the game

You know it’s a GAME and it’s meant to be fun. You also know this doesn’t mean less work but you put effort in to make it fun because you know you win most often when you’re enjoying yourself.

 

So treat your project management like a game, and yourself as a professional player. It puts you in a great frame of mind and you’ll enjoy the challenges even more.

Play hard and have fun!

How many projects are too many?

Most project managers take on, or are given, too much to do – project after project comes along until it’s obvious they’re struggling. But by that stage, the damage is already done – milestones are in jeopardy, customers are dissatisfied and project teams are stressed.

I was recently asked to get involved in a project that was in trouble. With a little focus in the right areas, I’m pleased to report that the project is back on track, and I’ve considered offering to help on other projects for the organisation. But while I want to work at my optimum level, I don’t want to inadvertently bite off more than I can chew – how do I quantify my level of load?

I’ve identified a number of leading indicators that I can use to check that I’m on top of a project – indicators that help me identify problems before they occur rather than after. For example, I review and update project risks every day rather than having an unforseen risk cause a project delay.

I put the indicators in a daily checklist – if I can tick off the items on the checklist at the end of each day, then I know I’m on top of the project. And if I can do this for each of the projects that I’m managing, I know I’m not overloaded and can take on more work. Note that the indicator checklist isn’t my daily task list – that’s another story.

My daily leading indicator checklist for each project:

1. I’ve sent a summary of actions or minutes for meetings that I chaired that day.
2. I’ve spoken individually with each member of my team.
3. I’ve spoken with my customer(s).
4. I’ve reviewed project risks and updated the register.
5. I’ve updated the progress/completion of tasks.

When I notice that I can’t complete my checklists each day, I have an early warning and I can do something about it – before my project starts to suffer.

So here’s how you can work out how many projects are too many:

1. Work out what your leading indicators are – keep it simple but cover the essentials.
2. Make a ‘leading indicator’ checklist for each project you’re managing.
3. Check off the list every day.

By using a leading indicator checklist daily, you’ll keep on top of your game, and know where to focus to stay there.

Commuting time is YOUR time – use it wisely

Believe it or not, one of my favourite parts of work is commuting – even though I’m on my way to work, I treat it as ‘my time’, and I refuse to waste it doing work-related activity.

Making the most of commuting

Here are some ways you can use your commuting time:

1. Read. It’s easy to read on public transport (don’t try it in the car), so find something educational, motivating or inspiring. Reading non-fiction in the morning will get your brain going for the day – fiction will help you unwind on the trip home.
2. Write. Write some poetry, a letter or a story – this might be the opportunity to start on that novel you’ve always wanted to write.
3. Learn. I’m learning French on the train – and I’ve found if you practice out loud, you’re guaranteed to get a seat by yourself! Just kidding – I’m doing exercises in the lesson book. If you’re commuting by car then language CD’s are great – you can practice pronunciation too.
4. Listen. Audiobooks are ideal for the car and good on public transport when it’s crowded or you’re too tired to read. You can get them from iTunes, Amazon, Audible and many other places. Some MP3 players let you speed up the playback of Audiobooks which makes them even faster to devour.
5. Communicate. Contact people you want to keep in touch with. In the car, you can make calls using your mobile on hands-free. On the train, you can email or SMS.

Commuting activities to avoid!

1. Playing games on your phone or a game device. These are just time burners, and the last thing you need is less time.
2. Newspapers. Most news is not news – it is irrelevant information that is designed to trigger your fear emotion. You can get up to date on relevant news in a few minutes on the ‘Net now, so use the time more constructively.
3. Work. A lot of people catch up on work while commuting – your personal time is valuable and this amounts to giving it away for nothing.

Restore balance to your life by using your commute time for personal pursuits – you’ll feel like you’re stepping off the treadmill and getting your life back.