By Lou Russell
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Change is inevitable in any project. While we hope for smooth progress from start to finish, project management blockers always arise. The emotions that accompany these challenges – clarity, conflict, consensus, delegation, and recognition – shape the outcome. Quality comes from embracing these phases and collaborating effectively to address them. In this post, I share the blocks that commonly occur throughout the project lifecycle so you can learn to avoid them.
Increase your skills as a project manager with tips from expert Lou Russell as she reveals common stumbling blocks and how to overcome them.
At the start of the committed project, everyone is excited. A committed but not competent team will struggle with extremes. When they start, they’re high on unreasonable expectations for the project. Certainly, everything will go well. Their commitment to success by sheer will locks them into expecting little trouble or variation.
In project reality, stuff happens. Stuff ALWAYS happens; it doesn’t just happen to dumb people. People quickly start blaming each other, and the situation degrades until the team hits rock bottom. There is no way and no amount of commitment that protects you from surprises. Throwing the project over their collective shoulders, the team struggles to finish it, pushing productivity uphill. The team believes that wanting it to be perfect will make it so. Not being perfect creates surprises that lead to rework and delays, resulting in a longer finish time and lower quality than expected. The secret is that there will always be project management blockers.
The Competence Team has the maturity to understand that project management blockers will occur. They are always waiting for the next shoe to drop. If you are a mature project manager, you’re always watching for signs of a surprise. It’s not a problem; it’s expected. Committed and Competence teams start from very different directions but end at the same place. The Competence team knows how to be agile and collaborative.
Another thing that often happens in projects is when they are about two weeks out from finishing. That’s right, when you can see the finish line, and the team is starting to plan what they’ll do next. Suddenly, a stakeholder comes out of the woodwork with a large change. This usually happens because a stakeholder is afraid to ask for a key requirement and ends up having to blurt it out when the project is almost done. Change at this point in the project is always likely to break something else.
When working on projects, seek out the bad news as early as you can. If stakeholders aren’t showing up for the meetings, talk to them 1-on-1. Collaboration is the key to project success.
To learn more about how to successfully manage any project, join me in my webinar, DARE to Be a Successful Project Manager.
Lou Russell is an executive consultant, popular speaker, and respected author whose passion is to create growth in companies by guiding the growth of their people. In her speaking, training, and writing, she draws on 30 years of experience helping organizations to achieve their full potential. Lou is the author of seven popular books, such as Leadership Training, Training Triage, and Managing Projects. She has spoken at more than 300 conferences, including ATD International and the Society of Information Management (SIM). Lou has an “expired” BS in computer science from Purdue and an MS in instructional systems technology from Indiana. Her business is a certified Women’s Business Enterprise and a Project Management Institute partner.
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Increase your skills as a project manager with tips from expert Lou Russell as she reveals common stumbling blocks and how to overcome them.
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Participants will be assigned to project teams and tasked with building a rocket to exact specifications – a difficult task when given limited knowledge and resources. After the activity, the group will discuss their experiences and uncover the DARE model of project management.
