Written by 
BY Eric Sanders, Ph.D. |
6 MIN READ
“Plan the work, and work the plan.”
That is the historical mantra of project management. Let’s start by assessing what project managers do, as well as understand the purpose behind project management. Project management is a great way to organize tasks and get things done. At the initiation phase, system requirements are determined through careful analysis. In the planning phase, options for meeting those requirements are considered, and one or more are chosen. In the execution phase they are implemented, perhaps with multiple stages of deployment, with monitoring and control to ensure success as the work gets completed. At closure of the project, an after-action review should be held to capture lessons learned and end the work. Then the process is repeated on the next project. Throughout this process, it is project managers who keep things moving along.
People-Centered Project Management
It sounds simple and straight-forward, and sometimes it is. However, Murphy’s law often prevails and things can go wrong. When they do, it’s important to adapt the plan and keep going. Like a show, the work must go on. Unfortunately, that assumes a mechanistic mindset which encourages your project team and those they are serving to just continue working like robots, no matter what. Since they are not robots, how do projects ever get done? Enter project managers.
The key to successful project management is to prioritize people at the center of the plan, rather than the work being delivered. Before, during and after the project work is done, the project manager must communicate with all the stakeholders of the project, working with their employees and all the other partners to get the work done “on time and under budget.” This is both an art and a science that when accomplished, shows a sign of successful project managers. This concept can be seen through some experiences I’ve had in the field, both related to a project implementing a new unified communications system within the customer service call centers of a large financial service company.
Cause and Effect: Project Managers Identify Issues to Find Solutions
I was in charge of change management for the project, collaborating with a team of technicians, business analysts and project managers. As a project team, we worked with the leaders of the call centers to implement the new communications system. For the first meeting with the leaders of one call center, we were set up in a very large conference room (more like a dance hall) with tables and chairs placed in a U-shape. Each leg of the U was about 20 feet long. When people arrived, the call center leaders sat on one side of the room, and the project team on the other side, with the central part of the table left mostly empty. After nearly shouting to each other for the first few minutes, I asked if we could rearrange the furniture. All parties agreed, eliminating the tables that weren’t being used, and moving the others so there were two rows of tables facing each other about six feet apart. Even though each team sat on their respective side of the table, the dynamic changed immediately. People were able to talk in normal voices and connect with each other to begin the task at hand.
Collecting Feedback and Changing Dynamics through Project Management
The story continues when we completed the implementation in the call centers. The goal of the system was to make information more easily accessible for sales, support staff and the call center representatives, so they would be able to help customers faster. This was generally understood by the senior leadership of each of the call centers, but not necessarily by middle managers, and definitely not by the call center representatives and their immediate supervisors. All the latter knew was that their work was being disrupted by the use of a new system, and that it was slower and harder to use. As a result, call center representative satisfaction with the new system, as measured by survey a few weeks after implementation, was only about 70%.
At the post-implementation debriefing with the leaders of one call center, we realized there was a gap in what the customer-facing representatives understood, and that needed to be resolved. One of the project managers and I developed a set of talking points for front-line managers to use with their teams in weekly team meetings for several weeks before the new system was installed. In these meeting notes, we told the managers (and through them the teams) what the IT team was doing to prepare for the implementation at that time, and how that work might affect them. Each week, we added some additional information about the upcoming new system, and some of the benefits it would provide them. Thus, by the time the system was installed, the team was prepared for it, understood why it was being installed and how it would help them and their customers. Unsurprisingly, the call center satisfaction with the new system when surveyed under this implementation method rose to over 90%. The system itself did not change; only the way we presented it to the call center representatives who would use it. We just needed to focus on the people who would actually use the system, and show them how it met their needs.
Coming Full Circle
In summary, project managers plan the work, work the plan and prioritize the people who are doing the work in that plan. They keep the project on task and bring project management into a process that otherwise could be riddled with chaos and confusion. Taking this approach will lead your projects to an ultimately successful end.
To learn more about the Project Management Master’s Degree at Elmhurst University and what it can do for you and your career goals, visit our website.