“It feels I am repeating myself. I think I brought my ideas as far as I can, on my own.” I said.
“Well. That is because you’re not supposed to do this on your own.” Someone replied.

I know this to be true.

Fish Pond.

At the beginning of this blog I was struggling to grasp the concepts around complexity. And leadership. And especially the combination. I felt the connections, but not quite clearly. And I was surely unable to express my own thoughts about the topic.

Then I wrote a series of blog posts together with my fantastic friend Ali Anani.

We called the series “The Fish Pond Metaphor: Complexity In Management“. The numerous email exchanges and the resulting ebook shaped my understanding of social networks, how groups are formed and dissolved and the role of leadership and management.

I consider the free ebook one of our best writings.

Social Media.

In 2009 I started creating a video podcast. Somehow along my journey I got an interest in virtual team work. I thought going through the steps of making a podcast would allow me to experiment with online communication. It did. But I couldn’t quite connect my experiences.

Early 2009 I felt the similarity between blogging, co-writing, podcasting and virtual team work. But I was lacking the words.

Somehow I got an invitation to speak on the topic of Social Media and Project Management at a major conference. I sensed the connections, but was lacking the depth and insight to put it in a coherent story. I had no clue about what to say.

I asked on this blog: “How can people use Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, LinkedIn, Flickr, Youtube, etc.) in their projects?” The larger community was able to tell me what I was looking for. And this resulted in “Everything A Project Manager Should Know About Social Media.”

What Is There Left To Say?

“It feels I am repeating myself. I think I brought my ideas as far as I can, on my own.” I said.

So. Here I am.

What is there left to tell?

I know this is a pattern. There is a point where I get stuck. Where I cannot see the next step. I start to create more maps. Maps always help. Well. Apparently not always.

This is the point where I normally switch from individual writer to collective writer. This is not something that is planned. It just is. These opportunities pop up at the right moment. I wasn’t aware of this. Until I got this reply.

“Well. That is because you’re not supposed to do this on your own.” Lori replied.

Well then.

I’m about to start co-writing an eBook series on “different work.” Yes. Together with my awesome friend Lori, the resident self-organizing group researcher from Collective Self.

I am looking for an introduction to a group that you think I should interview. “Different work” means a group that:

• deeply loves their work,
• together are working differently from the way they once believed they should work as individuals, and
• are significantly redefining what successful work looks and feels like for themselves and/or their organizations.

Please leave a comment or email bas -AT projectshrink.com if you can swing me an introduction to a group like this.

Thanks!

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - The Collective And The Individual. What Happens When I Get Stuck. is a post from: Project Shrink.

I focus on the view that projects, sorry, Big Adventures, are nothing more than social interactions. At the end of the day it is just a bunch of people interacting together to achieve a certain goal.

I emphasize therefor two social levels: interactions and collaboration. The dynamics of interactions change in a group with a purpose.

The levels are in the center of the map.

Click on the image or this link for full size of the map.

Earlier I wrote about the Three Balances For Resilient Groups. In order to have a group that is able to cope with disturbances while still being able to perform its function, three balances must be taken care of. The three balances are at the left of the map.

At the right side are the themes I talk about on this site for each level.

The themes on the “collaboration” level are covered by the five exercises to bootstrap culture.

Here are links to key postings about some other themes:

• Communication
• Trust
• Rules of engagement
• Understanding
• Culture
• Context
• Social cues

What do you think?

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - The Big Concept Overview Map. How Stuff Fits Together. is a post from: Project Shrink.

Click here if you want to subscribe to this podcast with iTunes.

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Potion 19 – The Year Of The iPad. 2010 or 2011? is a post from: Project Shrink.

Churn: (verb): to stir or agitate violently, to produce, proceed with, or experience violent motion or agitation.

Fest: (noun): a gathering, event, or show having a specified focus.

Sometimes word definitions provide all that we need to label something clearly, and other times “slang” terms are all we need to understand the specific meaning. When considering all the terminology in the Project Management world, all of the phrases, colloquialisms, adjectives, and buzz words, 2 words come to mind that make me squeamish and anxious like no other: Churn-Fest.

So what is Churn-Fest exactly?

We’ve all attending meetings, been part of email exchanges, or witness a churn-fest real time on a project. You probably are participating in a churn-fest as you read this. The simple fact is when the wrong people come together unprepared, unorganized, or simply lacking the discipline to make decisions, a churn-fest can occur. These dreaded churn-fests start simply with a question, a comment, or maybe a request. Further clarity is needed, more questions are asked, more lines of communication are opened, more people chime in, so forth and so on. Soon, a simple question has exploded into a million fragmented sections and you are getting input from 20 people on topics they may not even have expertise in.

Why does a Churn-Fest occur?

These churn-fests happen when Project Managers or Project Leaders don’t help control the flow of information and work to involve the right people to aid in making the right decisions. The key factor is you need the right people present to make the right decisions. You need to present the right information at the right time to speed up the decision. You need to filter out the noise and provide clarity in what you are asking for.

People can also inherently feel they are experts in areas that they are not. Just because you work in Marketing doesn’t make you an expert in copy writing. Just because you are a Quality Assurance Analyst, this doesn’t make you an expert in developing code. Just because you can dress yourself in cool clothing, doesn’t make you an expert in design. Being self aware, and knowing your role is in a project is critical to preventing churn-fests.

Balancing creativity with churn

But what about collaboration you ask? Don’t we want an environment that breeds ideas, creativity, and participation? – Of course. But it doesn’t mean ever person on the team need to be part of every project decision. It is critical to understand team strengths and weaknesses, and as individuals be ok without adding input. Strong team members who are self aware should be comfortable adding input, or simply not saying anything at all.

A project leader has to know when churn is happening and work to prevent it from spreading like smooth butter on hot toasted bread. It’s delicate and the ability to know when a decision has veered of course requires practice. Focus on listening to the direction a conversation is going. If the conversation is circular, starting to address non-issues, spinning into other topics, or simply getting off track, jump in and bring it back on course in a constructive way. Get to the root of the question, and bring it back to the surface. Ask: Why are we here? What are the goals of this discussion? What is our purpose or objective?

So how do you prevent churn?

1. Be prepared and set a clear goal and objective. This can be defined by requirements, stories, agendas, problem statements, scope statements, etc.

2. Get the right people involved in the discussion, and kick the wrong people out. If you need a VP to weigh in, bring the VP into the discussion. If someone is there and they aren’t adding value, don’t include them in the discussion.

3. Be organized. Keep all your reference material in a shared collaborative environment for easy access. Use online tools that foster organization and collaboration.

4. Know your roles and responsibilities. Define what everyone’s primary job is on the project. Understand what their strengths and weaknesses are on the project. Be prepared for the team to adapt and change as the project goes on. Your strong silent developer may be leading the team by the end, and that is ok.

5. Foster a creative and productive problem solving environment. Make people comfortable with the idea of solution based thinking. Allow people to express their ideas in constructive ways. Differentiate between brainstorming and decision making. Always help to drive to a resolution when needed.

6. Practice solution based thinking, not problem based thinking. It’s easy to say why something won’t work, but make people say how it can work.

7. Control the spread of information. Don’t CC your message to death. Provide the information to people that need it, don’t blast the world with “noise”.

8. Don’t waste people’s time. Your job is to maximize efficiencies, remove roadblocks, help the team connect and collaborate. If people are churning they cannot execute.

9. Figure out what people need, and get them it! Whether it’s expert judgment from an organizational lead, a sign off to move forward on a project, or to get the Business off the developers’ backs, give the team what they need to be successful.

10. Talk! Yes, actually talk on the phone or face to face to prevent churning. 5 minutes of “face-time” can save you 5 days of churn.

Churn can and will happen, but if you practice these techniques you can eliminate confusion, avoid conflicts, and move your project along to success.

About the author: John P Vajda PMP, CSM: works as a Project Manager at Oracle Corporation*, and doesn’t even like butter.

Follow John on Twitter: http://twitter.com/genexerjv

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - A Project Churn-Fest: when project team members spin wheels, burn time, or simply can’t make a decision is a post from: Project Shrink.

In this presentation, recorded at the PMI Global Congress in Orlando, she discusses the following topics:

• New Media Never Sleeps
• Without Business Value, New Media is Just More Noise
• Suddenly, Everyone’s an Expert
• We Hate Being Vulnerable
• Not Everyone Wants to Participate

You can click here if the episode isn’t displayed below.

This recording is part of a session “Why Should You Care About Social Media?” at PMI Global Congress 2009 by the PMI New Media Council. Other parts of this session can be found here:

Collaboration With Skype, Vyew and Google Docs
Using Yammer For Frictionless Communication

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Be Careful With Social Media: Words Of Caution is a post from: Project Shrink.

You can click here if the episode isn’t displayed below.

This recording is part of a session “Why Should You Care About Social Media?” at PMI Global Congress 2009 by the PMI New Media Council. Other parts of this session can be found here:

Collaboration With Skype, Vyew and Google Docs

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Using Yammer For Frictionless Communication is a post from: Project Shrink.

You can watch our presentation in episode 31 of The Project Shrink Podcast.

You can click here if the episode isn’t displayed below.

This presentation was the first part of a larger session called “Why Should You Care About Social Media?” This session was presented by members of the PMI New Media Council. In the next weeks I will be posting presentations about Yammer, Personal Branding and cautionary tales using social media.

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Why Should You Care About Social Media? is a post from: Project Shrink.

Significant changes are taking place in management and especially project management today. We hear that organizations, like the New York Times, Tribune Co., Ernst & Young switched from the so-called top-down management style to bottom-up management. Others, including some of the world’s biggest corporations, such as Toyota and IBM, implemented bottom-up management style elements in some of their departments. The popularity of the bottom-up approach to management is growing. In spite of this fact, the discussions about the two major approaches are still hot. Why have organizations become so anxious about changing their management style? If we compare the two management approaches, the answer to this question will be clear.

Managing projects top-down

The top-down approach remains extremely popular in contemporary project management. The phrase “top-down” means that all the directions come from the top. Project objectives are established by the top management. Top managers provide guidelines, information, plans and fund processes. All of the project manager’s expectations are clearly communicated to each project participant. Following this approach, ambiguity opens the door for potential failure, and the managers should be as specific as possible when communicating their expectations. Process formality is very important for this approach.

Examples of the top-down approach applications can be found in many organizations. One of such example is the New York Times, a leader in the newspaper industry. Several years ago, American Journalism Review (www.ajr.com) reported that The Times’ executive management felt that they were far from what was necessary for creation of a vibrant workplace and a successful organization. Power was centralized and masthead editors experienced overall control. Editors introduced the same management pattern in the projects for which they were responsible. One person’s emotions and opinions influenced all the project decisions, and this person was the project manager. What was the result? Team members felt that they weren’t listened to, that their voices didn’t count. There was no effective collaboration between the journalists. They were not morally motivated to do their jobs. The managing executives then realized that they needed to give more freedom to the teams and change their management style. It took quite a while to introduce bottom-up management to the organization. But, obviously, it was worth the time and effort, as New York Times employees say that collaboration became much more efficient, and team members now work together more productively.

Similar problems caused by utilizing the top-down approach can be observed in many organizations with a traditional management style. Experience shows that this top-down management often results in reduced productivity and causes bottlenecks or so-called lockdowns. A lockdown gives the project manager total control over his team. Such lockdowns can lead to unnecessary pain and significantly slow down a project’s completion.

Bottom-up project management options

The factors mentioned above may play a vital role in a project’s failure, and this is the reason why numerous organizations have turned to a bottom-up management style or at least some of its elements. The New York Times is one of the good examples. The bottom-up approach implies proactive team input in the project executing process. Team members are invited to participate in every step of the management process. The decision on a course of action is taken by the whole team. Bottom-up style allows managers to communicate goals and value, e.g. through milestone planning. Then team members are encouraged to develop personal to-do lists with the steps necessary to reach the milestones on their own. The choice of methods and ways to perform their tasks is up to the team. The advantage of this approach is that it empowers team members to think more creatively. They feel involved into the project development and know that their initiatives are appreciated. The team members’ motivation to work and make the project a success is doubled. Individual members of the team get an opportunity to come up with project solutions that are focused more on practical requirements than on abstract notions. The planning process is facilitated by a number of people, which makes it flow significantly faster. The to-do lists of all the team members are collected into the detailed general project plan. Schedules, budgets and results are transparent. Issues are made clear by the project manager to avoid as many surprises as possible. Bottom-up project management can also be viewed as a way of coping with the increasing gap between the information necessary to manage knowledge workers and the ability of managers to acquire and apply this information.

However, despite all its the advantages, the bottom-up style alone will not make your projects flourish.  According to many experts, the bottom-up approach is not the perfect solution, as sometimes it lacks clarity and control. The best way is to find a balance between the two opposite approaches and take the best practices from both of them.

Perfect balance

If you have tried introducing the best bottom-up practices to your organization, you have probably found it difficult to do that while utilizing traditional tools for project management. Traditional project management software, like Microsoft Project, was mostly designed to fit the use of the top-down approach and is not meant for the bottom-up management style. This software is focused on the project manager and places him or her in the center of the project communications. Team members very often have read-only access to the project plan and cannot make any contributions or changes. The employees send their updates to the project manager in disconnected files via e-mail. The project manager then has to collect all the data and put the information manually into the project plan. After that, he or she has to communicate the changes to the corporate executives. All these routine procedures lead to a situation where the project manager’s talents often are buried by the routine work. The huge amount of mechanical control/synchronization work often leaves little very time for leadership from the project manager.

The good news is the situation is changing thanks to the transformations going on in how people share and receive information. More methods for the successful implementation of the bottom-up management best practices have emerged. These methods include are Enterprise 2.0 technologies – wikis, blogs, social networks, collaboration tools, etc. They come into organizations and change the original way of executing projects. They turn traditional project management into Project Management 2.0 and bring new patterns of collaboration, which are based on collective intelligence. Collective intelligence is a collection of valuable knowledge from different fields that each project team member is an expert in. This knowledge is now successfully collected and shared shared in a flexible, collaborative environment brought by second-generation project management software. The project manager is the one to conduct the work of his team and choose the right direction for the project development, based on the information received from the individual employees.

Thus, the role the project manager plays in the project changes. Project Management 2.0 software facilitates delegation. It means that people become less dependent on the manager as a to-do generator. The project manager turns from a taskmaster into a project leader. His role is to facilitate the team communications, provide a creative working environment and guide the team. He or she becomes a visionary able to leverage the team strengths and weaknesses and adjust the project development, based on various external changes. Individual team members still have the freedom and responsibility to find their way to the next milestone.

With the help of the second-generation project management tools, managers can merge the advantages of the two management approaches. These tools help them to combine control and collaboration, clarity of project goals and visibility of internal organizational processes. 

Thousands of companies, such as Bell Canada, Sun and Yahoo now confirm that bottom-up project management, implemented with the help of Enterprise 2.0 tools, improved their business performance. Some companies created corporate blogs to streamline project communications; others introduced wikis to get their customers’ feedback. Even giants, such as  IBM,  realize the benefits of allowing contributors to have a more active hand in how collaborative work is organized.

My conclusion will be that democratizing project management is never an end in itself. The primary goal is always to find ways to make project management and project collaboration more efficient. New technologies applied to projects offer us the ability to make projects more successful and teams more productive. At the end of the day, projects are delivered faster, and this is to  everyone’s benefit.

About the author: Andrew Filev has been managing software teams since 2001 with the help of new-generation collaboration and management applications. His best practices are based on implementation of Enterprise 2.0 software in project management. Now Andrew is an expert in project management, a successful software entrepreneur and the CEO at Wrike.com, online project management software. Andrew is the author of some influential project management articles, including works for Cutter IT Journal, Web 2.0 Journal and Agile Journal. Andrew is often invited to speak at conferences, symposiums and seminars. Andrew has given speeches on new trends in project management and on implementing Enterprise 2.0 strategies. He spoke at such events as the PMI Silicon Valley Tools and Techniques Forum, Office 2.0 Conference, Enterprise 2.0 Conference, Project Management Symposium and others. Andrew’s ideas about improving traditional project management are reflected in his popular Project Management 2.0 blog.

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Top-down and Bottom-up Project Management: Leveraging the Advantages of the Two Approaches is a post from: Project Shrink.

Skype and other video conferencing solutions are great for the little time per day when the team members are available. But with teams for instance in India and the US, this overlapping time period is often limited at best to a couple hours per day. Email and written forms of communication are fine for handling the offline communication, but it is lacking the human touch of audio/video communication, not conveying emotions.

TimZon aims to solve this problem.

You can watch the episode below or follow this link.

Subscribe with iTunes to “The Project Shrink Podcast”
Full Video Version of Project Shrink videocast

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - TimZon: Effective Team Discussions In A Global And Virtual World is a post from: Project Shrink.

In this final post I will discuss rule number three.

Hold The Team Together

Rule number three is concerned with the Project Manager or team leader. It is about your job. It is about your task.

Image by CarbonNYC.

Make it work!

It’s your job to communicate with the team to make it work.

You have to identify commonalities between the group members that strengthen the group. Use this to emphasize a group identity. Adopt common language that sets the team apart from other teams. Turn your project into a Pirate Ship so your diverse group of people has a sense of oneness.

It’s important to have the rules of engagement established at the beginning of the project. How do we interact? How are our meetings structured? As a group leader you are working your butt off to stimulate the use of these rules. Not by punishing people. But by looking after them. If someone is falling silent, reach out. Make sure people communicate.

And how do you do all this?

Communicate!

It’s event management!

This sounds like a job for a junior secretary.

Funny you mention this. I always thought working with Excel, MS Project and typing documents is better left doing by junior secretaries. They are cheaper and better at it.

(This is actually not in the HBR article)

Anyway, rule number 3 says that YOU, dear PM, have to make it work!

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Great Virtual Teams: Rule 3: Hold The Team Together is a post from: Project Shrink.