It’s all about the people

Lets start with psychology

• The most important person in the world is me

• My name is the nicest word in the world

• My written name means a whole lot to me

..and the real kicker

• Everything I do is based on emotion (justified with logic and analysis)

• I’ll work as part of a team – when it makes sense to me

Now lets look at Project and Program Management

• WBS, lists, tasks, timelines all making up ‘the plan’

• We allocate resources (people) to the plan……….

No one knows what to do

People hang out to the side

The good PM

• Good PMs are the ones who run around talking to people, asking questions to elicit actual status – Never rely on the fantasy of 85%

following up, guiding, removing roadblocks and absorbing incoming missiles. Making sure the project is proceeding in spite of onerous reporting and governance structures.

People keep studying failure in an attempt to learn how to succeed.

• And we’ve gotten pretty damn good at failure – In fact so good that we have PMO’s, processes

and reports to insulate us and our sponsors from responsibility WHEN we fail. (There can be no other explanation for the rampant increase in reporting and governance to which we subject ourselves and to which others subject us).

What happens in other industries - endeavours

• Football

• Surgery (House segment)

• Theatre (next slide)

NASA Project Challenge 2008 9

TheatreBLACK LACES - GREEN OLIVES

A play in two acts.Characters:

DENNIS WOOD, a solicitor, about 30 yearsVICTOR WILSON, a solicitor in his fifties

HARRIET WOOD, Dennis' mother, she is a widow, in her fiftiesJULIA, secretary to "Wood and Wilson"

LORENZO, an ItalianGORILLA, a Latin looking young muscle bundle

SETThe solicitors' office. A sofa, two armchairs, a small table, bookcases with gold-printed books, glass-fronted cabinet with glasses and bottles, the secretary's

desk with modern office equipment, two grave paintings on the wall (portraits of Harriet's late husband and his father who founded the firm in the good old days), and a wardrobe cabinet.

Everything, except the office equipment, smells of the times when honesty and decent behavior (in business as well as in private matters) were still at hand. Four doors. One is the main entrance, one opens to Victor's office, one to Dennis' office, the last door leads to the kitchen, the toilet and the files.

ACT ONEJulia is at the computer. The Dictaphone is on. She is listening to Victor's voice. 'VICTOR': 'So we hereby apply for a mortgage loan of 69.000 pounds.' ... Julia

turns off the Dictaphone, repeats and writes and turns it on again. ... 'For which we can offer a first mortgage on the above mentioned Italian estate, comma' ... Julia turns off, repeats and writes and turns on again. ... 'our latest investment, comma' ...

• JULIA: What? She turns off. ... Investment? Must be a mistake. We never invest. ... She rewinds the tape and turns on. ... • 'VICTOR': 'Our latest investment, comma' ... She turns off, shrugs her shoulders, repeats, writes and turns on again. ... 'Including a manor house,

comma, 85 hectares of olive plantation, comma' ... She turns off, repeats and writes. Dennis enters from his office. • DENNIS: Poor little thing, how busy you are. Do you need a little massage? ... He starts giving her neck and her shoulders massage. The telephone

rings. • JULIA: Wood and Wilson, good morning ... Beg your pardon? ... Yes, Mr. Wilson is a solicitor ... Sorry, I don't quite understand. ... No, I'm sorry, Mr.

Wilson hasn't

A playResources

Who does what, when

So what do we have to do?

Don’t bring the people to the task – bring the task to the people.

Flip the thinking and magic happens.

Sample project plan

The change• Leverages psychology

• People know what they have to do and when

• They know who they are depending on and who is depending on them

• They work together – because it matters to them

The best thing

• People succeed – And that means projects are successful

Positive Deviance

There is an emerging school of thought that is studying success rather than failure. It’s led by Kim Cameron who is one of the few people who has published work on the results of studying a successful project as it was happening (the successful bit was coincidental and a really good piece of luck).

Kim can be found at the University of Michigan and his best book (in my opinion) is called making the impossible possible – avail through Amazon