December 20, 2006	Volume 6, Issue 51
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Managing Pressure: The Unexpected

by Rick Brenner

When projects falter, we expect demands for status and explanations. What's puzzling is how often this happens to projects that aren't in trouble. Here's Part II of a catalog of strategies for managing pressure.

ponsors, customers, and management all expect projects to deliver what they promised, for the price promised, by the date promised. When they perceive that progress isn't in line with expectations, they can apply pressure to the project team, and that pressure can itself become a hindrance.

Here are some insights about the unexpected that can help with managing and preventing pressure. See "Managing Pressure: Communications and Expectations," Point Lookout for December 13, 2006, and "Managing Pressure: Milestones and Deliveries," Point Lookout for December 27, 2006, for more.

Educate everyone about the inevitability of setbacks

When a setback happens, perceptions of progress can change permanently, even if the setback is eventually overcome, and even if time lost is recovered. If customers or sponsors have to report the setback to people who have great organizational power, they are sometimes subject to personal consequences.

Outside the context of any specific project, educate sponsors and managers about setbacks. Explain that because project work has either never been done before, or has never been done by this organization, setbacks are inevitable. When setbacks happen, be open about them. Hiding them or spinning them puts your own credibility at risk.

Be wary of near-delivery setbacks

Setbacks just prior to delivery are especially problematic. Customers might have made preparations for the delivery and those arrangements constitute both financial and psychological commitment. A setback just prior to delivery creates embarrassment, frustration, and irritation, which can lead to distrust and perceived lack of progress that are otherwise unwarranted.

Monitor internal status carefully just prior to any delivery. As soon as you know of problems that put delivery at risk, pass the information along. Help people mitigate the consequences of slips, and commit to all this in the project plan. Setbacks just
prior to delivery
are especially
problematic

Keep loads uniform

Uniform loads create a sense of steady progress. Load variations, especially spikes, degrade assessments of progress. For instance, if a project undergoes a crisis requiring an out-of-plan management decision, management endures a load spike. Afterwards, the incident isn't forgotten - it usually lingers in the form of degraded perceptions of progress. Similar effects occur within the project team.

When trouble looms, inform management early, to give them time to prepare for decision-making. Balance the loads on project team members carefully, making schedule changes as necessary — if you can — to keep loads uniform.

Don't expect breakthroughs to erase anxiety

Breakthroughs usually seem less significant than setbacks of similar magnitude. Hyping breakthroughs to enhance morale, or to correct perceptions about progress, probably won't work — people tend to discount such announcements because they tend to serve the project's leaders' interests.

Use breakthroughs instead to enhance the status of the people who achieve them. Honor them and recognize them. You'll do more for morale that way than you can accomplish by trying to send the all-is-now-well message to skeptical audiences.

Next time we'll look at managing pressure by means of defining milestones, deliveries, and their spacing.  Top    Next Issue

Micromanagement is a common source of pressure. For insights on micromanagers and micromanaging, see "When Your Boss Is a Micromanager," Point Lookout for December 5, 2001; "There Are No Micromanagers," Point Lookout for January 7, 2004; "Are You Micromanaging Yourself?," Point Lookout for November 24, 2004; and "How to Tell If You Work for a Nanomanager," Point Lookout for March 7, 2007.

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Public seminars

Person-to-Person Communication for Project Managers

When we talk, listen, send or read emails, read or write memos, or when we leave or listen to voice mail messages, we're communicating person-to-person. And whenever we communicate person-to-person, we risk being misunderstood, offending others, feeling hurt, and being confused. There are so many ways for things to go wrong that we could never learn how to fix all the problems. A more effective approach avoids problems altogether, or at least minimizes their occurrence. In this very interactive program you'll learn a model of inter-personal communications that can help you stay out of the ditch. In those moments of intense involvement, when we're most likely to slip, you'll have a new tool to use to keep things constructive. Read more about this program. Here are some upcoming dates for this program:

• Download to
  your calendarDes Moines, IA: February 16, Breakfast Meeting, Central Iowa Chapter of The Project Management Institute. Register now.
   
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  your calendarDes Moines, IA: February 16, Lunch Meeting, Central Iowa Chapter of The Project Management Institute. Register now.
   
• Houston, Texas: May 8, Monthly Meeting, Houston Chapter of the Project Management Institute.
   
• Houston, Texas: May 9, Monthly Meeting, Houston Chapter of the Project Management Institute.
   

The Race to the South Pole: The Power of Agile Development

On 14 December 1911, four men led by Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole. Thirty-five days later, Robert F. Scott and four others followed. Amundsen had won the race to the pole. Amundsen's party returned to base on 26 January 1912. Scott's party perished. As historical drama, why this happened is interesting enough. Lessons abound. Among the more important lessons are those that demonstrate the power of the agile approach to project management and product development. Read more about this program. Here's an upcoming date for this program:

• Download to
  your calendarSt. George Banquet Hall, Kitchener, Ontario: March 6, Dinner Meeting, Canada's Technology Triangle Chapter of the Project Management Institute. Register now.
   

Human-Centered Risk Management

Most of us can assess technological risks, but risks related to human behavior tend to resist our best efforts. This session provides a framework for evaluating risks related to the behavior of individuals, teams, organizations and people generally. Human-centered risk differs from technological or market risk, because objective evaluation requires acknowledging personal and organizational limitations and failures. Since some of those limitations and failures might apply to the people assessing the risks, or to their superiors, there's a tendency to deny them or to explain them away. Our approach examines capability, organization, context, risk mitigation, and workplace politics. It has tools for guiding the assessment and management of human-centered risk, and we show how to extend these tools to suit your situation. You'll learn how to identify sources of risk in human behavior; recognize systemic and individual barriers to acknowledging risk; assess the effects of organizational turbulence; determine the risk associated with inappropriate internal risk transfer; estimate the effects of team dysfunction, toxic conflict and turnover; and measure the impact of workplace politics. Read more about this program. Here's an upcoming date for this program:

• Download to
  your calendarMITRE, in Bedford, Massachusetts: March 20, Monthly Meeting, Boston SPIN. Register now.
   

The Race to the South Pole: Ten Lessons for Project Managers

On 14 December 1911, four men led by Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole. Thirty-five days later, Robert F. Scott and four others followed. Amundsen had won the race to the pole. Amundsen's party returned to base on 26 January 1912. Scott's party perished. As historical drama, why this happened is interesting enough, but to project managers, the story is fascinating. Lessons abound. Read more about this program. Here's an upcoming date for this program:

• Columbia, Missouri: May 17, Full-Day Workshop, Mid Missouri Chapter of the Project Management Institute.
   

Project Management in Fluid Environments

Most people now work in environments that can best be characterized as fluid, because they're subject to continual change. We never know what's coming next. In such environments, managing — teams, projects, groups, departments, or the enterprise — often entails moving from surprise to surprise while somehow staying almost on track. It's a nerve-wracking existence. This program provides numerous tools that help project managers who work in fluid environments. Read more about this program. Here's an upcoming date for this program:

• Columbia, Missouri: May 17, Monthly Meeting, Mid Missouri Chapter of the Project Management Institute.
   

The Politics of Meetings for People Who Hate Politics

There's a lot more to running an effective meeting than having the right room, the right equipment, and the right people. With meetings, the whole really is more than the sum of its parts. How the parts interact with each other and with external elements is as important as the parts themselves. And those interactions are the essence of politics for meetings. This program explores techniques for leading meetings that are based on understanding political interactions, and using that knowledge effectively to meet organizational goals. Read more about this program. Here's an upcoming date for this program:

• Rochester, New York: May 24, Professional Development Day, Rochester Chapter of the Project Management Institute.