Project Management:
School for Learning, Catalyst for Change

For organizations to compete effectively in today's rapidly changing business climate, "management by project" has become a critical business requirement. Today's companies must respond to changing business needs with speed, precision, and far fewer resources. The margin for error has become uncomfortably slim.

No wonder, then, that the number of projects springing up among companies across all industries has grown so dramatically. With the speed of product innovation increasing exponentially, the rapid achievement of project objectives is more critical than ever.

In addition to being used in traditional ways, projects have also become the key mechanism by which change is both designed and implemented throughout organizations.

Yet despite the increasingly important role that projects play, few organizations have re-examined their overall approach to project management. Traditional tools, techniques and measurements are widely regarded as ineffective for managing even "traditional projects." To manage today's more complex projects, whether to develop a new system, product, or organizational structure, a whole new range of skills and organizational learning style will be required.

In the issue of Innovations, we'll look at a new approach to project management, where team members are viewed as alchemists of change, and where organizational learning is both the cause and effect of a successful project. We'll examine the qualities, characteristics and overall environment that organizations must cultivate for projects to consistently achieve -- or exceed -- their desired business goals.

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In response to mounting competitive pressures bearing down from all corners of the globe, many of today's organizations are being forced to re-think and change some of the fundamental ways they do business.

Companies response to the need to change varies widely. Some may pursue new strategic alliances with other companies once considered competitors. Others may see the creation of new relationships and outsourcing agreements with key suppliers and vendors as their salvation. Still others may attempt to "flatten" their organizations; cutting layers of management, streamlining business processes, and implementing information systems where manual processes once existed. The risks? Uncertainty, stress, fear, resistance, and high up-front expenditures that may fail to acheive productivity or profitability goals.

Today, more business challenges than ever before are addressed by the creation of "project teams." The attraction of this approach lies in its potential speed and comparably lower risk of investment. Organizations can respond quickly and effectively by bringing together a collection of individuals charged with solving a particular problem at a specific point in time, with clearly-articulated milestones and metrics. The project team focuses entirely on resolving the issue at hand, and remains intact only until the last milestone is complete.

Never has the urgency for the rapid and successful achievement of project goals been greater, and never have the challenges to project managers been more complex.

The globalization of companies and industries may mean that a project's scope extends across previously uncoordinated geographic and cultural boundaries. The result? A project's success, whether it be to design a new product, implement a new technology or redesign a business process, may depend on the project manager's ability to drive for results while involving and accommodating diverse perspectives and interests.

Adding yet another layer of complexity to the challenge of effective project management is the widespread use of information technology as both an enabler and catalyst for change.

Why Does the Traditional Approach often Fall Short?

Projects have been traditionally managed as linear activities, made up of a series of sequential steps which rarely overlap. If milestones and due dates are met, and the project proceeds at a pace consistent with neatly-drawn GANTT charts, the project is considered well managed and successful.

Traditional project coordination often consists of separating the project into discreet tasks or steps and assigning them to participants for completion, The challenge for participants is to complete individual assignments on time, and to meet the stated goals for their piece of the project. Project managers typically coax, cheerlead, badger, prod and/or cross their fingers, hoping that all of the pieces will eventually fall into place by the project's end.

Typically this approach results in autonomous project teams congratulating themselves for finishing before the other participants. They often celebrate their successes prematurely, with little regard for the overall success of the project.

Unfortunately, many of these celebrations are short-lived. Often, the project never quite fits together as an integrated whole. Because each task is treated as an isolated activity, and none of the participants want to risk missing a due date by testing concepts up front, extensive and expensive rework are inevitable.

By measuring success primarily on how efficiently and effectively each piece of the project is executed, rather than on how well the results of the project meet shared business goals, the traditional approach rewards competitive behavior, and discourages collaboration.

Problems can also arise from the traditional approach to the sponsorship and staffing of projects. Projects whose scope extends across departmental or divisional boundaries are traditionally sponsored by a single member of the senior management team, say the chief financial officer, chief operating officer, or chief information officer.

Project participants are traditionally selected based on their content knowledge or ability to use sophisticated project management tools. At times, projects are staffed purely on the basis of availibility. The staffing decision too often ignores the extent to which participants hold an actual stake in the project's final outcome, except at times when people who are likely to prevent the project from running smoothly are "conveniently" omitted.

The people who are left to live with the results of a project may often bristle against any changes to their daily routines, and at the first opportunity revert back to "business as usual." And why not? Too often, senior management has demonstrated little active sponsorship or commitment to the project from the beginning. Only broken lines of authority and accountability can be traced between the project's senior-level sponsor and those upon whom successful implementation depends. Finally, there is seldom any indication or communication of the benefits or consequences of either adopting or rejecting a project's end results.

The risks of the traditioinal approach to sponsorship and staffing are those of implementation and "buy-in," and often do not arise until after the project teams are dissolved and participants have returned to their "real" jobs.

Viewing Effective Project Management as a "Spiral"

As rapidly shifting competitive landscapes demand organizations to become ever more agile and responsive, the ability to successfully manage complex projects becomes vital to the livelihood of any organization.

"Organizations whose members cannot manage projects with consistently optimal results will go out of business, sooner rather than later," says organizational consultant Robert St. Germain, co-leader of Kendall Consulting Group's seminar, Project Management for Complex Projects. "There is no longer any margin for making the same project management errors time and time again."

Rather than approaching projects as linear activities, St. Germain urges clients to view projects more as "spirals," or as an evolving bodies of knowledge that deliver real business value through successive iterations. This "spiral" approach provides participants with a series of iterations and connections to the project, which encourages participation, shared understanding and sponsorship, and eases implementation. Each connection affords project participants the opportunity to share ideas and test concepts as the project progresses, rather than waiting until the end of a more linear project life cycle, when changes and rework can become extremely costly. Figure 1 shows the Spiral Model in graphic form.

Figure 1 - The Spiral Model in Graphic Form

To successfully employ this approach, it is important that project goals and scopes be flexible enough to accommodate revisions that will enhance the ultimate outcome. "The new objective of projects is to learn, and if we do that right, the deliverables get produced as a natural by-product of the process," says St. Germain.

Building a Culture for Success

Shifting from the traditional approach of project management to a new approach cannot happen overnight. Nor can it happen after spending a few days in a classroom. The change in mindset will evolve slowly, as organizations grasp how they can make cultural changes actionable given their own unique situations.

• For effective project management skills and behaviors to be accepted and embedded into the culture, organizational changes must occur at all levels.

• Collaboration and team learning must be rewarded and encouraged. The competitive, counter-productive "us versus them" mentality should be actively discouraged.

• All project participants and affected stakeholders should take part in crafting the vision supported by the project's intended objectives, whether the job at hand is the creation of a new product or service, or the creation of a new organizational structure. Commitment comes only when each participant feels ownership of the shared vision and understanding of their role in the context of the "bigger picture." The level of involvement among various participants should align with their stake in the project's results.

• Encourage creative experimentation. While striving to achieve project objectives, team members must learn to accept mistakes as a natural and necessary part of the learning process. It is only by trying out new ideas and concepts all along the way that the learning process is enriched,and collective success is achieved.

• "Spot improvements" or quick fixes are never enough. The longer-term cultural changes that both support and reflect this new approach should be encouraged, even when such changes cause temporary pain.

• Don't try to create such changes by yourself. An outside facilitator can provide valuable insight regarding what works and what doesn't. Changing the project culture comes most easily when participants are shown how to apply important concepts and principles in their day-to-day situations.

Developing a New Project Culture by Applying the Five Disciplines of a Learning Organization

By applying the "five disciplines" of learning organizations pioneered by MIT's Peter Senge, author of the best-selling The Fifth Discipline (1990), organizations and individuals can develop the intellectual rigor and personal competencies that will ensure successful projects. The "five disciplines" include:

Mental Models. Reflecting upon, continually clarifying, and improving our internal pictures of the world, and seeing how they shape our actions and decisions, and help or hinder our ability to collaborate.

Systems Thinking. Developing a shared language for understanding and describing the forces and interrelationships that shape the behavior of systems. Understanding the "big picture" of casual relationships. Identifying unintended consequences that may occur even when we've apparently taken all the "right" steps.

Shared Vision. Building a sense of deep personal commitment among group members by sharing images of what we hope to create, and articulating the principles and governing practices by which we hope to get there. Creating a framework for decision-making.

Personal Mastery. Learning to expand personal capacity; creating an organization environment that encourages all members to develop themselves toward the goals and purposes they choose. Developing confidence to take risks. Fostering active pursuit of learning, versus avoidance of failure.

Team Learning. Developing the conversation and behavior that leads to group intelligence and ability greater than the sum of the talents of each individual member. Learning how to learn as a team, versus becoming only individually smarter.

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