Sell The Methodology When Selling Your Internal Project

When the consultants come in to do a project, they always present their methodology, roles, communication methods, change management, the deliverables, and the criteria for sign-off. They include this in their contracts and it guarantees they get paid.

When the internal project management team present a project, many of them treat it as an another executive presentation. They show the problem, the objectives, the costs, the savings and/or sales gains and a delivery date. These are all important and not to be forgotten; however, assuming that all the attendees know the internal project management methodology and processes is a recipe for communication breakdowns.

There will always be someone new to the company or someone who has never dealt with an internal project.

There will be additional meetings during the life of the project.

There will be additional authorizations requested.

There will be presentations showing your progress.

And when you are ready to close the project there will be a request for sign-off.

All this will go more smoothly if everyone understands the steps you will follow to execute your project, their role in the project, how they will be updated on progress, how change will be managed, what deliverables they will get and what the project’s end looks like.

Take a page from the consultant’s book and remember to present how the project will be managed. If everyone has already heard the presentation many times, speed up the presentation but do not leave it out. It’s part of your contract with the organization.

Tell Me More – 4 Ways To Keep Them Talking

A project manager needs to get all the information and make sure they have understood it correctly. This applies to gathering requirements, documenting issues and other project conversations. You will get more when you can keep people talking.

1. Mirror

Repeat what was said in different words. Do not add anything and do not interpret. Sometimes you will get a confirmation, which shows that you have understood what was said. In most cases, the person will add more information.

For example:
What is the problem?
I don’t have all information I need in one place.
The data is in different places?

2. Clarify

Repeat the question and introduce a clarification question. The aim is to confirm that the the right question was answered and to have the person elaborate.

For example:
What is the problem?
I don’t have all information I need in one place.
What is the problem? Do you need to assemble it?

3. Reverse Mirror

State the implied. This will either provoke a correction of your understanding or get the person to elaborate.

For example:
What is the problem?
I don’t have all information I need in one place.
You need to assemble data?

4. Echo

Take the last words said and tag on a confirmation question. The repetition tells the person to elaborate and question is to confirm the understanding.

For example:

What is the problem?
I don’t have all information I need in one place.
In one place? Is the data in different places?

Listen

You have to listen before you can keep people talking. This is more important than any of the techniques described above. You are not listening if you are thinking of what to say or how to get them to say more. One of the simplest listening tricks is to always wait a few seconds before responding. Knowing that you will wait will allow you listen better.

As a bonus, waiting, more than any of the other techniques, will get people to keep on talking. Use it with all of the methods or even by itself. Sometimes the person hasn’t finished speaking, sometimes the person wants to fill the silence. Whatever the reason, a few seconds of silence will often get you more information about the subject at hand.

Time For A Change

Projects bring change. Recognize that the result of the project is change and include change management in your project plan.

Find out who is affected by the project’s results and what is changing for them. People will see losses in the change. Acknowledge the losses openly.

Don’t be surprised at overreactions. Accept the importance to the person of subjective losses.

You need to explain why things are changing, what the change will bring for the people and for the organization. Training is a part of a change management. It is not something you do to train people on a new tool. Think beyond the training plan. Communicate through presentations, workshops, newsletters, etc…

Create a sense of urgency. People have to see and feel the need for a change.

Remember that transition takes time.

A project needs buy-in from all the stakeholders to succeed. Managing the change and the perceived losses is a key step in the success of your project.

Why, why, why, why, why do you need this?

? ? ? ? ?Projects are about delivering solutions to problems and to find the solution to a problem you need to understand the problem. To understand a problem you first have to make sure you have identified the true problem.

Most people will tell you about the symptoms or start with a possible solution when asked “What is the problem?”. The five whys is a technique that will help you find the problem causing the symptoms. It consists of repeatedly asking why until you get to the problem.

For example:

What is the problem?
I think we need a faster server.

Why do you think we need a faster server?
The system is too slow.

Why is it too slow?
It takes forever to prepare management reports.

Why does it take forever?
I need lots of data from different places.

Why do you need lots of data?
I need it to assemble the management reports.

Why do you need to assemble the reports?
I don’t have all information I need in one place.

Five whys later, we have the true problem and we know that the solution is creating the management report in the system.

Project documentation describes the problem being solved and what is needed (the requirements) to solve the problem. This method is very useful when creating the problem statement for the project and for identifying the real requirements for the solution.

Related:
5 Whys – Wikipedia
Determine The Root Cause: 5 Whys – iSixSigma

Get An Active Committment

Jump from Nevis Bungee PlatformOne of the key indicators of project success is bringing it on-time and one of the classic challenges of project managers is that at least some of the people needed to deliver the project on-time do not report to the project manager.

Delia Cioffi and Randy Garner published the results of two studies in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin of February 1996 showing that by getting people to actively commit to an action they were more likely to do it. Analyses of the studies suggested that when people actively commit to something they will reason their commitment and strengthen their resolve to deliver on it. People are also less likely to refuse to commit when they are actively solicited because of social influence.

When you are planning activities for a project, ask the resources to supply the delivery date themselves and to confirm it. Do not rely on implied dates. Avoid suggesting dates. Prefer getting the resource to give the date themselves and confirm. If possible, have them put it in writing. The more active the act of committing to a date is, the more likely the resource will make the effort to deliver on-time.