I will be speaking at the November meeting of the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) Great Lakes Chapter. The topic is:

How To Achieve Economic Growth and Innovation Through Linchpin Project Management

Attendees receive a 1 PDU continuing education credit from the PMI.

Below is a description of the session. You can register at here.

Project management evangelist Mark Phillips will bring to life the new buzz-phrase “linchpin project management.” He takes the concept explained by author Seth Godin and defines it in everyday terms, recommending steps that project managers and other business leaders can take to create a culture of linchpin project  management.

Attendees of this presentation will learn the critical distinction between the view that project managers lead “operations” and the view that they lead “projects,” with the latter being preferable.

By seeing their roles as true managers of projects, the individuals in these roles maintain creativity by distinguishing themselves as being in charge of something unique, something that is bringing change and has never been done before.

Finally, Phillips will describe the innovation-driven authority that the best project managers can derive from their roles and provide tips for individuals who want to achieve this level of mastery.

Timothy Keirnan’s Design Critique: Products for People podcast published an interview with Mark Phillips from the Internet User Experience 2010 Conference in Ann Arbor.

The podcast discusses how designers, studios and internal art departments can use project management techniques to create better work product.  The podcast gives real-world, non-technical tips. It also goes into some of the political / personality challenges you might encounter.

If you don’t know about Timothy’s podcast, its about encouraging usable products for a better customer experience. It recently celebrated its 5 year anniversary and has included interviews with such note-worthies as Michael Graves and the creators of SnagIt.

Formal project management methodology can be overkill on some projects or a lifesaver on others. In general, it’s clear on when to go through the detailed steps of a methodology and when not to. It depends on the overall size of the project.

1. A short project doesn’t require much in terms of formal project management. The steps you’d go through in putting together all the documents and spreadsheets of a methodology are done automatically as part of getting the project done.
2. A long project should go through formal project management steps to make sure all bases are covered and that nothing is dropped or forgotten. (This is especially true during when gathering requirements for the project.)

The problem comes when you think the project will be short and it turns out to be a long one.

To avoid this, do a quick, 10,000 foot estimate on the project’s size before getting started. In the language of formal project management (like PMI’s Guide to the PMBOK), this is called a top-down estimate. It can be based on experience and past projects you, or other people in your organization, have done. Templates or archives of these past projects can be helpful sources of information for the estimates.

Take the time to actually put together an estimate, as opposed to just eye-balling it or basing your estimate on “gut” alone. It can save you from the headache of underestimating the tools, resources or information you need to get the project done.

My project management presentation from the Adobe Developers Summit UnConference 2009 is now available online.

It covers simple and effective tips to improve your project’s success and manage projects better.

Part Four of Four

I’ll wrap up this series with a discussion of power.

Without authority a project manager is stuck.  A project manager needs to exert some form of authority to implement changes and move the project forward.  This authority can be formally granted in the organization or informally obtained and built up over time.

A linchpin needs to make a difference and exert influence over their individual realm. A linchpin project manager needs to exert influence over a process and other people. They may or may not formally have that power. If they don’t, an organization can unlock a wave of innovation by empowering project managers to make changes. Giving project managers formal authority.

But sometimes, a  project manager needs to build up their own authority.  Somehow. There are many different ways of gaining authority and many different kinds of power or influence that you can wield.  This article focuses on the kind of authority a linchpin project manager can gain: innovation driven authority. Authority you build up by being innovative, creative and delivering results.

INNOVATION DRIVEN AUTHORITY
A linchpin takes advantage of those things they have control over, and makes a difference in that realm.

They may realize they have authority over something small (what some may consider small). But it is specifically in this realm that they can affect change by starting and finishing something that is unique. By doing their part differently, they can invest themselves in the project and make it remarkable.

They may have a different read on what the customer wants or a different feel for how the customer wants to be treated. Then, through their own internal strength and belief that its ok to be different, they let that approach influence how they run the project -and how they ask others to work on the project.  Of course, this is not without risk. Their approach might be “wrong.” They could be heading for disaster.

But a linchpin project manager combines the willingness to take risks with formal project management skills.  This includes having a system in place to monitor projects, see when they’re going off track and do course corrections (or kill the project if need be).  It includes identifying and managing risk.  It means knowing how to report progress to other people in the organization, your clients, so they can have an accurate read on what to expect.

The project might fail. But a linchpin project manager will have distinguished themselves by trying to make a difference, of being more than just a competent project manager. By being an innovator.

By building a track record of trying to do the remarkable, a linchpin project manager can build up their reputation and their authority. This is authority based on results and creativity. Innovation driven authority.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT IS A SOURCE OF THE REMARKABLE
Throughout the series we’ve talked about structural changes you can make in your organization to foster linchpin project management. This article talked about giving people the authority to make changes or how to gain authority through innovation.  This is no small challenge and one that even the largest companies are grappling with (see The End of Management from the Wall Street Journal).  One thing is certain, someone who is inspired to be a linchpin has a tremendous amount of creative energy waiting to be used.  If you don’t give them the room to use that energy, to exercise their abilities, they will push for the authority to do so.  And if, after pushing and pushing, they still can’t get it, they will likely try to take those energies elsewhere (or, you’ll kill that energy and lose a valuable asset).  By not creating a culture of linchpin project management you could be fostering your next competitor right in your own shop. At the very least, by keeping creativity chained up, you’ll dull that source of creativity in exchange for the average and known.

By definition, a project manager is someone who ACTIVELY applies the tools, techniques, knowledge and skills of project management to help projects achieve their requirements. The most important word here is “actively.” A project manager, in the best scenario, is an active participant in achieving results. What’s more, a great project manager really is that linchpin who is particularly focused on delivering the remarkable.

Part Two of Four

In the last article we introduced the concept of  Linchpin Project Management.

• Linchpin Project Management fosters linchpin project managers;
• A linchpin project manager is someone who drives change in an organization.
• A linchpin project manager needs to be willing to be a driver of change, as a person and

A linchpin project management environment

fosters remarkable change and can make

your company indispensable to your customers.

This article focuses on one factor that determines the environment for project management.

Operations or Projects?
Is the project manager working on operations or projects?

This might seem like an academic distinction, but it is fundamentally important in how the project manager sees their role in the organization and the standards to which they are held.

For example, if they manage operations, the fact that the business is still going means they are doing their job.

But if they manage projects, they are doing their job only if the company keeps improving.

Operations are things you do every day to keep the lights on, the company working and customers happy.

Projects are unique undertakings. They have a distinct start and end date. Often they are used to help move operations from status-quo to some new (and hopefully improved) state. A project means change.

A project manager is, therefore, in charge of something unique, something that is bringing change. Something that’s never been done before.

People who run operations are sometimes called project managers. This is because the operations of the company require producing distinct work- product for specific clients.

(I see this a lot in creative groups like marketing or art departments.  In fact,  the next article in this series is dedicated to project management for marketing or art departments.)

Calling an operations manager a project manager leads to confusion, accentuates the project administration role and dilutes the role a project manager can have as an instigator and facilitator of change.

Don’t get me wrong, every company needs project administrators. They are indispensable to the smooth flow of operations. But there is a difference between project managers and administrators.

Project managers are linchpins that get things done. Projects are all about change and project managers are all about making change a reality.

Bringing it back to Godin’s recommendation – to have a linchpin project manager, decide whether the role you have called “project manager” is one to oversee what it takes to keep the lights on, or if it truly is a position of change.

If it is a position of change, let the project manager ask tough questions of the stakeholders and the team, let them question why things are being done a certain way, let them hold people accountable. Then, they can be agents of the remarkable.

Stay tuned to the next article in this series for further guidelines on how to create a culture of linchpin project management.

Part One of Four

Seth Godin has built buzz with his latest book “Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?”

His message is that people need to carve a passionate role for themselves in their work, a role that employers and customers simply can’t live without.

His message resonates loudly in the world of project management.

Project managers should step up and “run” projects, actively,  rather than “administer” them, in a passive sense.  Project managers should be linchpins.

What mistakenly passes for a project manager in many organizations is an interested passenger, a project administrator, rather than a driver.

The linchpin project manager is a driver -and agent of change.

Seth Godin drew this same conclusion and  wrote about it.  In this series, I’ll recommend steps you can take to create a culture of linchpin project management.

Organizational Factors
For an employer or manager, hiring the right person is only part of the equation.

Organizational and corporate culture factors can determine how much of a linchpin a person can be. By understanding these factors employers can implement a linchpin culture for project management. By getting these factors right, an employer can not only make it easier for a linchpin to shine but also create an environment that fosters linchpin project management.

This is a culture that drives remarkable change and can make your company indispensable to your customers.

Stay tuned to the next article in this series for recommendations on how to create a culture of linchpin project management.

Twitter provides a great rule of thumb for what kind of information to share with other people on a project.

Before inviting someone to a meeting or sending them an email ask yourself:

Is this information something they’d choose to “follow” on Twitter.

If yes, send it to them.

If not, or if its something you just think they “should” be following, don’t.

This will help keep meetings in check and emails in check and hopefully more aligned with the specific information each person needs to do their job (and not get bogged down in useless information).

As discussed in my recent article in ComputerWorld, this works because Context Trumps Content (as the growth of Twitter makes abundantly clear).  There is no end to the amount information people can find.  What is valuable is not the quantity of information, but the quality of information. To be high quality and valuable, the information needs to be relevant to the recipient.  (And Twitter makes it easy for people to receive only the information they find relevant to themselves.)

To move your organization forward you have to manage change.

Change can come from outside the organization, like a change in the laws or the economy. It can come from inside the organization, like a quality improvement initiative.  Or, it can come from the market.  Often, you need to proactively make changes to succeed.

These can include changing the way you do things, changing the products or services you provide or changing how you market those products.

Here is a six step guide to managing change successfully. It connects the dots from the previous two posts (with a philosophical p.s. on the importance of change and good project management).

First, a definition. At its core, change is about going from where you are to where you have to be.

1. Create a work-flow. A good work-flow gives you a picture of your current state.  Analyzing the work-flow can help you decide where you want to go. Use data on the effectiveness of the current work-flow as a baseline against which to compare your future work-flow.

2. Create what you want your future work-flow to look like.  This is your target work-flow. It should be driven by your goals. That is, figure out what it is you want to improve (customer satisfaction, profitability, job satisfaction, costs, etc.) and build a target work-flow that should deliver those improvements.

If change is being imposed from outside your organization (e.g. because of the economy) your target work-flow is about figuring out how to do what you currently do in a different, but equally effective, way.

3. Build a project plan that maps out how you are going to get from here to there. It should tell you the road you’re going to take, who’s getting you there and  how to keep moving forward when you hit road-blocks.

4. Once you get there, once the target work-flow is implemented, measure its effectiveness to see if it meets your goals. Did it improve what you wanted it to?

5. If it didn’t meet your goals, figure out what else has to change and go through the process of creating that change.

6. If it did meet your goals, find another area to improve and do it again.

It has been said that change is inevitable. All things change. Having a process in place to manage change makes it more comfortable and increases your chances of have a successful transition.

On a Philosophical Level:

Economic growth depends on change. If that’s the case, a good project manager, one that can manage change and make positive changes a reality, is an engine for economic growth.

What makes a good work flow?
A good work flow accurately captures the way things are done, it spells it out clearly for all stakeholders to see and provides information on where anything is in the process.

Why make a work flow?
To speed up the time it takes to get things done. So people always know what the next step is and what’s the hold up. To find ways to scale up or scale down with knowledge.

On a philosophical level:
A workflow captures reality and makes it easier to study and work with that reality. It expresses our belief in the wisdom of how we’re currently getting things done and a confidence that improvements will be discovered on the job.