You are probably as familiar with the statistics of failing projects as I am. According to the PMI only 52 per cent of projects are delivered on time and 69 per cent meet their goals and business intent. The numbers vary by industry and region. In the UK the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, reports that less than half of their projects had a green or amber/green rating upon delivery.
 
Projects fail because of unclear scope and success criteria, lack of strategic alignment, lack of buy-in and engagement from senior stakeholders, lack of change management skills, underestimation, inadequate risk management and poor resourcing. According to the PMI, organisations are losing an average of $97 million for every $1 billion spent on projects due to lack of focus on people, processes and outcomes. And that is in spite of more tools and techniques being available to us that help us keep track of the many moving parts of a project. It also appears that project failure rates continue to be high during periods of economic uncertainty and increased competition.
 
But why do projects continue to fail? An important aspect is the increased complexity of projects and the environments in which they are undertaken. Many factors contribute to this growing complexity – for example, social and technological change, growing global interdependency, increasing numbers of stakeholders and the need to communicate and coordinate cross-culturally. As the ICCPM (International Centre for Complex Project Management) writes in its report Hitting a Moving Target, ‘It is clear that the situation has to be addressed radically and comprehensively. If we do what we’ve always done, we’ll get what we’ve always got – and there are too many examples that prove what we’ve always got isn’t good enough’.
 
Stephen Carver, Senior Lecturer at Cranfield School of Management also has a view on why projects continue to fail. He explains that researchers now distinguish between three types of complexity to help us better manage projects: structural, emergent and socio political. Traditional project management techniques such as breakdown structures, critical path analysis and risk management were designed to deal with projects that are high in structural complexity. I.e. projects that are large, technically complex and that have many moving parts. But modern-day projects are also high in emergent and socio political complexity, which most project managers haven’t been trained to deal with.
 
Emergent complexity relates to how much the project and its surroundings are changing as you are trying to manage it, for example highly innovative projects or a project that is dependent on external world events, such as the price of oil. Socio political complexity is related to soft skills, relationships, personalities and behaviours that arise under stress. It’s this touchy feely stuff, as Stephen Carver calls it, that’s really the hard part, as it isn’t obvious how to manage a large number of stakeholders who behave in infinitely complex ways.
 
The academics at Cranfield asked about 250 project management practitioners which of the three types of complexity caused them most trouble on live projects. 70% of respondents said that it was the socio political factors, 20% answered emergent complexity and only 10% said their issues stemmed from structural complexity. The researches then asked people which of the three categories of complexity had received the most attention during their formal training. It turned out that 80% of their training was focused on structural complexity, 10% on emergent and 10% on socio political complexity.
 
In other words, process is necessary to manage structural complexity, but to master other types of complexity we need to be able to deal with behaviours and large amounts of change in relation to our projects. The best way to deal with emergent complexity is to see change as an opportunity rather than a threat. Change can be good if we open our minds to it and become more agile in our approaches. And to effectively handle socio political complexity project managers need to deepen personal relationships and understand how to listen, build trust, empathise and use different styles of communication.

According to PMI’s research, over 80 per cent of high-performing organisations report that the most important acquired skills for project managers to successfully manage complex projects are leadership skills. Traditional dimensions of project management such as cost, schedule and performance are necessary but insufficient. The world is changing at a rapid pace, and the need for leaders is greater than ever before. We need leaders who can deal with ambiguity, take ownership of the vision, foster collaboration, gain buy-in and motivate the team to achieve the expected outcomes. Thinking and behaving with a traditional project management mindset of control and compliance is not serving us. It is limiting our opportunities and it is contributing to project failure.
 
Given the right environment, the right mindset and the right support, I believe that all project managers have the potential to be great leaders. Being a leader is not something that is limited to CEOs of a large company. Anyone can be a leader within his or her field. Leadership is not a result of the job title you hold but of the attitudes and behaviours you possess. So get ready and embrace a new way of doing projects and get ready to lead. Stand up tall and sharpen your saw.

​

Now in its second edition, The Power of Project Leadership, explains how to generate positive results for projects and clients while growing as a leader and empowering the team to contribute to the fullest extent. It contains new interviews with successful project leaders and outlines capabilities, attitudes and behaviours needed to add real value and deliver outstanding projects. The Power of Project Leadership discusses current topics such as the psychology behind high performing teams, coaching, facilitation and conflict resolution, collaborative planning and risk management. Available on Amazon.

I recently listened to an interview on PM Podcast with Agata Czopek – a speaker at PMI’s global conference on the topic of inclusive leadership. I listened with great interest as many of her observations are reflected in my own book, The Power of project Leadership. And although Agata uses terms that are a bit different to my own, the underlying messages are the same: To build an effective and innovative team you have to bring people together with different kinds of thinking, fully include them in discussions and decision-making and make them feel psychologically safe.  

​Diversity leads to higher performance
In the podcast interview Agata explains that the future lies in diversity and inclusion. As project managers we want our team members to be innovative, to solve problems and to identify risks before they turn into issues. This is much more likely to happen if there is diversity of thinking inside the team. People with different backgrounds, culture and gender, see the world from different angles and solve problems in different ways. In teams where there is diversity of thinking, levels of innovation can be up to 20% higher and 30% more risks can be spotted.
 
These statistics are backed up by McKinsey research which shows that companies in the top-quartile for gender diversity on executive teams are 21% more likely to outperform on profitability and 27% more likely to have superior value creation. But it’s not just gender that’s making a difference. Companies in the top-quartile for ethnic/cultural diversity on executive teams were 33% more likely to have industry-leading profitability. McKinsey’s research also shows that there is a penalty for opting out. Companies in the bottom quartile for both gender and ethnic/ cultural diversity were 29% less likely to achieve above-average profitability than were all other companies in the data set. Not only were they not leading, they were lagging.
 
Although the business case is strong for inclusion and for hiring people who are wired differently, this is not always common practice. The issue is that we tend to surround ourselves with people who think like we do. And that’s a really bad idea if you want your team to excel in the long team. The financial crisis was partly caused by organizations run by similar types of people with a large appetite for risk and monetary results. A much more balanced team would be one were all personality types are represented. You do need someone who is results-oriented in your team, but you also need people who are fun, inspiring and creative, people who value harmony and sustainability and someone who looks after the detail and ensures that work is completed to a high standard.
 
Diversity of thinking is not enough. You also need inclusion.
Diversity of thinking doesn’t automatically create a team that’s good at innovating, solving problems or spotting risks. Diversity without inclusion won’t work. You also have to include people and treat them with fairness and respect. As I have written about previously people have six fundamental human needs that need to be fulfilled. These fundamental needs are related to feeling safe and certain, feeling valued and significant, feeling that we belong in the team, feeling that we have opportunities to grow and develop and that the work we do have meaning and purpose.
 
As a project manager and leader you have to cater for these human needs if you want people to contribute and come forward with their knowledge and ideas. Some of it is pretty simple such as spending time together, going for lunch, collaboratively solving problems, inviting everyone to team meetings and making information readily available. If people feel excluded there’s little chance they are going to contribute. Other aspects require more thought and emotional intelligence, such as making people feel safe and certain. If team members don’t feel safe to contribute with their ideas and openly ask a question or share a concern, they will hold back and withdraw from the debate.
 
To increase your team’s performance, make a conscious effort to include all team members, be interested and curious about their background and what they have to say. No one enjoys working for a diminishing leader who likes to hear himself talk and who believes that he is the smartest person in the room. Instead walk your talk and show that diversity and inclusion can have a real impact on project performance. As an inclusive leader you have to empower the team, foster collaboration and seek to overcome your biases and blind spots. An important aspect is making sure that your way of thinking doesn’t have an adverse effect on decision-making. How can you do that? By asking your team for feedback. Opening yourself up to other people’s views on your leadership style is one of the most powerful things you can do on your road to becoming and inclusive leader. 


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I tend to refer to Project Leadership as the epitome of good project management – or as an extension of traditional project management. Project Leadership is the art and science of leading successful change, and ensuring that we add as much value as possible to our organization, teams and customers. Project leadership is as much about vision, innovation, engagement and people as it is about tasks, plans and resources. It is characterized by a person’s ability to build relationships with customers and end users, understanding their real needs and leading the team to successfully deliver those needs.
 
We can gain further insight into project leadership – and how to get there - by examining The Project Leadership Matrix™.  

People who operate on the left-hand side of the matrix predominantly have a rational and logical mindset and are focused on skills, events and processes. They make use of their logic and authority when assigning work and will often tell their team members what to do. We could say that this approach to managing people is a push approach.
 
On the contrary, people who operate on the right-hand side of the matrix have a natural tendency to focus on people. They don’t rely on their authority, but appeal to people by finding out what motivates each person at an individual level. People-focused leaders involve team members in the decisions that affect them and show them how they fit into the overall vision. They don’t just tell people what to do, but inspire them by painting an appealing picture of the project’s objectives that they would like them to contribute to. We can call this a pull approach. They pull people with them like a magnet instead of pushing, or forcing them.
 
If you are in doubt where on this scale you operate, think about how easy or difficult you find it to approach a person who doesn’t report to you. In matrix organizations, where team members don’t have an organizational reporting line to the project manager, we cannot rely on our authority to allocate work. This is a situation that task-oriented project managers find challenging – not least when the team member they need to interface with is in a senior position and has a lot of experience. In such situations we need to make use of our people and influencing skills and of our understanding of human behaviour rather than relying on authority.
 
Let’s examine the dimensions of the vertical axis, reactive versus proactive. People who operate in a reactive manner – towards the bottom of the matrix – are drawn to immediate issues that crop up. Even if they arrive at work with a clear intention of what they need to achieve, they may not achieve it because something urgent or unexpected comes up and derails them. They spend their time following the flow of events rather than defining it and are constantly on a back foot.
 
At the other end of the scale we find people with a proactive mindset. People who operate towards the top of the matrix are concerned with the project’s strategic vision and they take steps every single day to create a successful future for the project. They set their own agenda to the benefit of the project, the client and the team. They don’t make knee-jerk decisions and only firefight when a true crisis emerges that cannot wait and that no one else can deal with. In that situation they will strive to address the root causes and put in place measures to ensure that the issue doesn’t reoccur.
 
Although most of us operate in all four quadrants depending on the situation, we have a tendency to spend the majority of our time in one of them. Project managers who are not getting the results they want operate predominantly in quadrant number II. They spend too much time firefighting and dealing with events and tasks that urgently need to be resolved. They are good at getting things done but will never be successful at implementing a strategic change initiative as long as they operate from this space. The biggest sign that something is wrong is the lack of clear direction and the number of project issues that crop up – interpersonal or otherwise. Oftentimes projects are kicked off before they are fully defined, roles and responsibilities are unclear, rules of engagement haven’t been agreed, stakeholders are not engaged, requirements are too vague and objectives aren’t aligned to corporate strategy. Ultimately the project fails to deliver the expected benefits – or if it does deliver them, it’s a long and arduous road to getting there.
 
Project managers who get outstanding results tend to operate in the top part of the matrix – in between quadrant III and quadrant IV. They are proactive and focused on the project’s long-term strategy and they are partly oriented towards tasks and partly towards people. This is the domain of Project Leadership. Project leaders continue to be mindful of the task side of the project and will not be effective if they operate exclusively in quadrant IV. People who operate exclusively in quadrant IV have great ideas and are good at inspiring people, but will often have no concrete plans or operational strategies to back up their vision. Project leaders may also spend time in quadrants I and II, but it is not a strategy they rely on to get results.
 
Many project managers find if difficult to break out of the reactive and task-oriented pattern. They don’t see how they can free up time and energy to proactively deal with people and the strategic side of the project. They are caught in the reactive management trap and find it hard to shift their over-reliance on control and rational thinking to a more people-oriented approach of trust and openness. After all, most of us are trained in mastering the detail and in thinking logically rather than building relationships and leading people. In addition, the more-for-less culture isn’t helping. In many cases it may be increasing the workload and pushing people into a reactive and task-oriented mode.
 
But no matter why we find ourselves in these situations, there will always be ways around them by thinking creatively and knowing that we have a choice. We may not be able to change external factors, such as limited budgets, reduced workforces and a reactive company culture, but we can control how we respond to them, what we choose to focus on and how we influence people around us. I was almost at the point of giving up my job as a project manager in financial services because I found it to be too exhausting. Little did I know that my working patterns were self-imposed and not the fault of the industry, the company, the project, the client or my manager. It is easy to feel victimized and look for someone to blame outside of ourselves. But the reality is that we hold the answer and the key to working more effectively, getting better results, feeling more energized and working with people to deliver better projects. Had I left my job at that time I would have found the exact same problems elsewhere. Instead I started examining what I could do to change the situation. I started looking at how I could work smarter rather than harder.

• Look at The Project Leadership Matrix and determine where you operate most of the time. Do you have a natural preference for tasks or people?
• Do you rely on your authority over people, or do you inspire and influence people at an individual level?
• Are you good at attending to important activities that lead to success of your project, or do you often get side-tracked and interrupted?

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If you’ve followed my blog for a while you will know that I’m a big proponent of working with focus and making the most of the time we have available. Project managers and leaders are busy people who have decisions to make, teams to lead, risks to mitigate, reports to write and clients who need to be communicated with. To get it all done to a high standard, and without spending late nights in the office, it’s crucial to master the ability of working on the most important tasks with great focus.

Reduce your involvement with firefighting and time-wasting
In The Power of Project Leadership I talk about three fundamental ways in which we can spend our time: Proactive, Time wasting, or Firefighting. In the proactive category we find important and strategic activities such as understanding the clients business, gathering requirements, planning for the future, improving and innovating, building the team and liaising with stakeholders. The time wasting category comprises activities that add very little or no value at all – for instance unimportant e-mails, drawn-out meetings, unnecessary red tape, interruptions, trivia and web surfing. In the firefighting category we have activities that only add value in the short term, such as urgent issues, putting out fires, interpersonal conflict and crisis. 

Most of us are well aware that in order to get results we must spend our time in the proactive category and reduce our involvement with firefighting and time-wasting activities. But that’s easier said than done! In a fast paced environment, a typical day is filled with e-mails, meetings, and interruptions with only a few quiet moments to get real work done. A study by McKinsey found that the average knowledge worker spends a staggering 60 percent of their workweek engaged in electronic communication and Internet searching, with close to 30 percent of their time dedicated to reading and answering e-mail. In a culture where we are expected to always be online and available our challenge is to put in place habits that enable us to get more work done from the proactive category.

Deep work vs. shallow work
What we need is discipline and focus and the ability to engage in deep work, as described in Cal Newport’s book by the same name. In the book, Newport argues that deep work – which he defines as “the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task” – is one of the most crucial abilities for anyone looking to move ahead.  He even calls it “the superpower of the 21st century.” 

The opposite of deep work is shallow work. Shallow work consists of tasks that aren’t especially important and that don’t require a deep level of concentration. Newport categorises e-mail checking, social media and web surfing as shallow work as well as anything that a college graduate could easily pick it up and that doesn’t leverage the individual’s expertise. 

Our culture of connectivity and interruptions is limiting us
One of the biggest problems with shallow work is that by servicing low-impact activities, we take away time from higher-impact activities. Another problem is that when we work at a shallow level we’re often semi-distracted, switching from one task to another. Every time we do so, for instance when we quickly check our e-mail, our attention remains stuck thinking about the original task for a little while. Context switching and short interruptions delay the total time we take to complete our work. 

Our workplace culture of connectivity is a real inhibitor of deep work. Open plan offices combined with an expectation to quickly read and respond to e-mails create opportunities for collaboration, but they do so at the cost of massive distraction. You might argue that it’s necessary to always be connected, but a study from Boston Consulting Group show that performance doesn’t drop when people switch off e-mail for one entire day a week. On the contrary, by disconnecting, staff experiences more enjoyment in their work, better communication among themselves, more learning and a better product delivered to the client. 

Build up your working day around blocks of deep work
According to Newport, the key to working more effectively isn't to eliminate shallow work completely, but to minimise it while making sure you get the most out of the time that’s freed up. The first step is to put structure and discipline in place so that you take back control of the many diversions that attempt to steal your time. You can do that by quitting social media and build up your days around blocks of deep work, with the shallow activities batched together so that they don’t interrupt your periods of deep focus.
 
To produce at your peak level you need to work for extended periods with full concentration on a single task free from distraction. To get the most from these blocks of concentration identify a small number of ambitious outcomes that would return a tangible and substantial benefit for you and your project. You should also try to practice deep work at the same time every day as that will require much less willpower than working deeply in an ad hoc way whenever you feel like it.

Switch completely off from work at the end of your workday
Newport also advocates completely switching off from work at the end of the workday until the next morning because resting your brain improves the quality of your deep work. Shut down work thinking completely with no after dinner e-mail checks, no mental replay of conversations and no attention to how you’ll handle an upcoming challenge. Trying to squeeze a little more work out of your evenings will likely reduce your effectiveness the next day. When you work, work hard. When you’re done, be done. 

Overcome your desire for distraction
To help you work more deeply it’s important that you train yourself to overcome your desire for distraction. If every moment of potential boredom is relieved with a quick glance at your smartphone or checking your inbox then your brain is not optimised for deep work even if you regularly schedule time for it. The only way to build your deep-work muscle is by deliberately practicing uninterrupted concentration. You can do that by embracing boredom, resisting the temptation to always satisfy your distraction-seeking mind and by scheduling in advance when you will use the phone and the Internet and then avoid it altogether outside of these times. 

​In summary:
To produce at your peak level you must be able to focus intensely without distraction on your most important proactive activities. This doesn’t mean that you should stop communicating with people around you or stop checking your e-mails. It means that you should treat shallow work with suspicion and build up your days around blocks of deep work, with the shallow activities batched together.
 
Imagine getting to a stage were your level of concentration is so intense that you only need 3 to 4 hours of focused time to get your most important work done. The remainder of your time can then easily be spent in meetings and in conversation with the team without jeopardising your productivity.
 
Whilst writing this blog I personally put my phone on flight mode and closed down my e-mail. Whenever my mind wandered, I guided myself back to the blog in front of me. It wasn’t easy and highlighted that I definitely need to build my deep-work muscle and learn to control my need for distraction. Perhaps I should take Cal Newport’s advice on board and embrace boredom :-)


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When people come to me for one-2-one coaching they often want to achieve better results in their work and life, such as building better professional relationships, getting better at managing their time, achieving a promotion, delivering a new big project or improving their work-life balance. What’s interesting is that as we begin to work on these goals a few underlying blockers appear that need to be addressed.
 
One of the blockers that I often see is a lack of self-confidence. I’m not talking about the kind of superficial confidence that people portray to the outside world. I’m talking about a profound belief in one’s own abilities, which many people unfortunately don’t have. 

​When a person lacks self-belief it can show up in many different ways. Some people are cautious and withdrawn, whereas others can be defensive, aggressive or even arrogant. It’s only when we get to know them better that we realise what the underlying reason for their behaviour is. If we don’t recognise that an employee or a team member lacks confidence we may respond in ways that aggravate the situation. You have probably experienced a team member who used arrogance to mask their insecurities. The manager got annoyed, challenged the employee and thereby triggered another defensive reaction. This negative pattern will continue until one of them begins to enquire at a deeper level and use their emotional intelligence to get the relationship back on track.
 
The worst thing you can do is to criticise and be overly challenging
If you work with someone who lacks self-confidence, the worst thing you can do is to criticise, minimise and be overly challenging. The employee will perceive your behaviour as a personal attack, which will trigger a fight/flight or freeze response in them. They will go into survival mode and will lose their ability to think clearly. Some managers may take advantage of the situation and elevate themselves at the expense of the employee. That's very unfortunate. People who lack confidence are easy targets and pushy managers don't realise how much damage they are doing.
 
To get the best out of the situation, and the employee, respond in the following ways:

• Give them support. Let people know that you have their back. It will give them the space and confidence to contribute without fear of being judged. You can do that by taking the time to understand their situation and by showing empathy. When you offer guidance and allow them to make mistakes you remove a large part of the pressure they put on themselves.

• Give sincere praise. Insecure people need to be reminded of their strengths and the things they do well. They doubt their own abilities and don’t feel that they are good at anything. You can help them perform better by pointing out aspects of an assignment that they have completed really well and by explaining why you believe they are the right person to complete the task at hand.

• Build them up step by step. People who don’t have a lot of confidence tend to remember the times in their work and life when they failed at something. Their negative expectations become self-fulfilling prophecies where they go on to fail because they expected it. Through small assignments, which they have the skills to complete well, you can begin to reverse the flow. You gradually build them up and give them the experience of what it feels like to succeed.

• Set clear expectations. When you delegate a task be as clear as possible about what you expect the outcome to look like. Don’t be overly controlling by demanding that it’s done in a certain way. Instead give them time to think about it and check back in with them. Talk through the steps they expect to take and ask what support they need from you. This will help mitigate the risk of something going wrong, which would further undermine their confidence.

• Offer training. If the team member is new in a role they may feel particularly insecure because they don’t feel they have the right skills. Giving them the right kind of training will help them progress as there is a strong link between competence and confidence. After the training, ask them to convey what they learnt and help them make use of the new knowledge. Integrating the learning on the job straight away is essential as they will otherwise see it as another point of failure.

 
Whereas the above tips will help a team member feel more confident about their abilities and increase their performance, it’s unlikely that it will get to the root of their self-esteem issues. The employee will have to take matters in their own hands and decide to work on the underlying problem. This can take a little while, as they will have to revisit their thought patterns and understand where the negative self-talk comes from.
 
If you are the person who lacks self-esteem, try these tips:

• List your talents and successes. Take some time out to review your successes and all the things you are good at. At first you may feel that you are not good at much, but think again. What do you have a natural talent for? What were you good at as a child? What do other people compliment you for? What are you proud of in your life? Write as much down as you can think of. Find at least ten items! Perhaps you are a really good listener. Perhaps you are patient. Perhaps you are creative or analytical. Once you have written them down, take each quality and really feel it. Yes, instead of thinking about it, feel it. Take this talent into your heart and recognise that it has been give to you as a gift.

• Tone down the inner critic. Notice the negative chatter in your mind and start to challenge it. The thoughts you have are just thoughts. And they aren’t true until you decide to believe them. So stop listening to them. If you hear a thought saying I’m not as successful as others, I’m not as fast a thinker as others or I'm not as creative as my peers, challenge it. What would happen if you ignored that thought? What would happen if you replaced it with another thought such as, I’m learning and I’m getting better every day? If your mind chatter continues, engage in a daily mindfulness meditation. This practice will teach you to observe your thoughts and to let go of them without judgement. 

• Be your own cheerleader and best friend. Experiment being the fly on the wall and observe yourself and your behaviours from the outside. Could it be that you are treating yourself worse than you would a friend? How come? What would you say if you were talking to your best friend and in which ways you would build them up? What would it take for you to treat yourself in the same way? How could you show yourself more compassion and self-love? In situations where you are overly critical of yourself, say these words: This is a moment of difficulty. Difficulties are part of everybody’s life. A lot of people probably feel the same way. I will respond with kindness. I will treat myself with compassion.

 
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I recently spoke at Dubai International Project Management Forum (DIPMF) and was struck by the innovative theme of the conference. Perhaps it shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Already when I prepared for my presentation the organisers said, “Innovation is a big thing down here”, and indeed it is. In 2016 the UAE government was named the second-most tech savvy government in the world by the World Economic Forum and the Dubai government has formulated a bold strategy to be the world’s most innovative city by 2021. Not only that, Dubai’s goal is to consistently be ranked amongst the top 5 global centres for trade, logistics, tourism and finance. They are not there yet, but progress is being made. To help achieve their vision the Dubai Future Accelerators Program is investing $275 million over a five-year period in companies spearheading innovative projects in healthcare, transportation, renewable energy, sustainability, education, security and urban planning.

Dubai is also rewarding innovation in project management
At DIPMF I found the panel discussions about renewable energy and logistics the most fascinating (Dubai is investing heavily in solar power) but the awards ceremony for innovation in project management was also noteworthy. The Hamdan Bin Mohammed Award offers 8 awards with the aim of encouraging and promoting an innovative culture in project management. I was pleasantly surprised that a fellow Dane, Christina Sejr Pedersen, landed a $200,000 award for Project Half Double – an innovative project methodology centred around three core elements of Impact, Flow and Leadership. 

Everyone needs to be innovative to stay afloat
The conference made me think about how innovative I have personally been over the last couple of years, or not! When I first started out in my business six years ago I came up with new ideas and concepts that I captured in “The Power of Project Leadership”. And even my first book, “The Project Management Coaching Workbook”, which I wrote in 2012, contained innovative assessments and a unique coaching framework for project manages to reach excellence. But apart from my books, how innovative have I really been? Have I invented new models, new assessments and new ways for project managers to deliver better value, or have I just been very skilled at teaching, coaching and conveying existing knowledge? The intense focus on innovation at Dubai International Project Management Forum was a reminder that we all need to innovate in order stay afloat. The world is developing with such speed that unless we want to fall behind, we have to come up with innovative solutions to meet the needs of our clients and continuously improve the way we execute projects.
 
We need a culture where control and fear is absent
Project professionals have an important role to play in creating a culture of innovation and creativity by empowering team members to come up with new and better ways of doing things. But this may be easier said than done. Many project managers value control and compliance – attributes that are known to kill innovation. True idea generation will flourish in a culture where fear is absent and where there is an abundance of trust, openness and diversity. What this means is that managers and leaders need to make people feel psychologically safe to the extent where they are not holding back good ideas out of fear of being judged. They also have to create the time and space for unstructured thinking as ideas are unlikely to surface if people are constantly under pressure to deliver their other scheduled tasks.
 
Diversity of thought powers innovation
Another good way to create an innovative culture is to bring people together with different backgrounds and to stimulate their curiosity. Diversity of thought powers innovation, so mixing people up and inviting outsiders into the team can work wonders. People from different industries, who have different backgrounds, will bring a new perspective and generate a different set of options. Project professionals should also ask challenging questions in order to encourage team members to step forward and generate innovative solutions. Some of the questions they can experiment with are: What are we not seeing that is new or different? What have we not yet invested in that could make a big difference? What is working well for other teams that we can leverage? What if we had no constraints? What if we only had half the time? What if we could start all over? There needs to be a compelling challenge and a vision to work towards. Otherwise the risk of trying something new will seem too high.
 
Find the courage, energy and clear sight to innovate
As we enter into 2019 I will take time out to ask myself what I need to do to stay ahead of the curve, to innovate and to make a difference. I encourage you to do the same. Take a step back from your daily routine and observe your life and work from different angles. What is working well? What is not working well and what are the opportunities for making improvements and adding more value? It will always be easier to maintain the status quo than to question it and improve it. But as humans we are motivated by the desire to grow and develop so find the courage, energy and clear sight to do so. Who knows, perhaps you will be the next winner of the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Award.
 

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​In a project environment it may happen that you either talk ‘up’ or ‘down’ to someone, or that another person talks ‘up’ or ‘down’ to you. This could happen, for instance, if a senior stakeholder is impatient and finger-pointing and uses critical words towards you. You may experience them as lecturing or patronising, which is an unpleasant feeling because they make you feel small. But it could also be that you are the critical one, and that you talk down to a team member who has made a mistake and not delivered on what they promised.  

​You may also have come across people who minimise themselves and talk up to a stakeholder, for instance by being overly apologetic in a conversation. In project management, these unhealthy communication patters happen quite frequently, and people are often unaware that they are using them. I say unhealthy communication patterns because trust is undermined when we either talk up or down to someone. The best relationships come about when we treat people as equals, no matter the situation and no matter the other person’s hierarchical position.
 
The Parent-Adult-Child model
Eric Berne’s Parent-Adult-Child model helps us shed light on the communication patterns that people use and assists us in building better relationships at work. Berne devised the concept of ego states to help explain how we are made up and how we relate to others. The starting point of his model is that every time two people encounter each other, they will communicate from one of three ego states called Parent, Adult and Child. These labels don’t necessarily correspond to how we use them in common English. When we say Parent ego state, for instance, we don’t mean that you are a parent, but that you act with that psychological mind-set. Each of the three ego states relate to how different parts of our personality think, feel and behave. The more aware we become of our own state, the easier it becomes to choose our responses so that we neither talk up or down to someone. If we are not aware of our state, we could be responding inappropriately, and thereby damage relationships or aggravate a conflict. Let’s look at each of the three ego states in turn.

The Parent ego state represents a set of feelings, thinking patterns and behaviours that we have copied from authority figures in the first five to six years of our life. As we grow up, we take in ideas, beliefs and behaviours from our parents, caretakers and teachers. Anything we have heard or experienced is stored in the form of a code for living, and as a result we say things in the exact same way as our parents and grandparents, even though we don’t want to. If you hear yourself say: ‘It’s unacceptable to be late’, for example, it could be something you have picked up from your parents, which is now stored in your brain as an automatic response to certain situations.
 
When we operate from the Parent state, we are typically lecturing, judging or criticising others and focusing on identifying problems. Directive managers who make extensive use of authority and give little freedom to their teams often act from this state. They might say: ‘What? It takes five days to generate the report?’ and it could be accompanied by folded arms or furrowed brows. But the Parent state can also show itself in someone who is overprotective and takes care of others. They might say, ‘Let me take care of that for you.’ In this case a manager may make plans on behalf of their team and fail to seriously take on board the team’s input. The manager doesn’t fully trust that the team is capable and responsible and therefore acts like a caretaker. In summary, the Parent ego state minimises others and treats them as less capable.
 
The Child ego state is in many ways the opposite of the Parent state in that it’s either submissive and compliant or rebellious and carefree. The Child state represents the emotional part of our beings, which encompasses playfulness and spontaneity, but also anger, despair and depression. When strong emotions such as anger, sadness or fear dominate reason, the Child ego state is in control. It will mostly come to light as a reaction to someone who speaks from the Parent state. For instance, if the manager says: ‘What? It takes 5 days to generate the report?’ the team member might reply in a submissive way saying; ‘Sorry. I’ll try to speed it up. In other words they comply with the Adults’ expectations and see the other person’s needs as being more important than their own. But there is another way in which the Child state can reveal itself, for instance if the team member rebels and responds: ‘Yea – you’ll get it in 5 days if you’re lucky!’ Although the dialogues may be exaggerated, they illustrate that neither the Parent nor the Child ego states are useful for building relationships at work. Instead these communication patterns reinforce deeply dysfunctional ways of responding to each other.
 
To build constructive and enduring relationships you have to treat people as equals and communicate with stakeholders based on analysis and facts rather than preconceived ideas. Put in another way, you shouldn’t let your own filters and emotional reactions hijack a conversation. This is an area where we really need to make use of our emotional intelligence and our ability to self-regulate. The third ego state – the Adult – can helps us do so.
 
The Adult ego state is the independent part of us, which is able to think and determine actions for ourselves and make rational decisions based on facts. It represents our primarily intellectual ego that helps us deal with situations in ways that are not negatively influenced by our past. When we operate from our Adult state we are objective, rational and less emotional. We see people as they are rather than what we project onto them. Instead of making assumptions and reacting in an emotional way, we ask for information and we solve problems based on logic and facts.
 
In the Adult state managers who want to challenge somebody might say, ‘What are the alternatives?’ or ‘What consequences will this action have?’ They engage their team and give them the freedom to participate in problem solving because they trust that they are capable and responsible. The emphasis here is on an environment with free information flow, which is conducive to self-development and where people can utilise their potential.
 
If you’re unhappy with a team member’s contributions, refrain from talking down to them. Instead, challenge them with a logical and data driven approach, where you treat them as equals. Likewise, if someone talks down to you, don't automatically respond from the Child state but use the Adult pattern. How can you do that? By staying calm and rational. If a manager provokes you by saying: ‘What? It takes 5 days to generate the report?’ You could respond. ‘I see that this is not what you expected. What problem does this cause for you? Let me explain the work we have to do on our side and we can see if we can find a solution.’
 
In which project situations would you say that you communicate either from a Parent or Child state? How can encourage Adult-to-Adult communication throughout the team?


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When I consult with organisations, train their staff or help review their processes, I’m often told that they don’t get around to formally review their projects. There seems to be so much pressure on businesses and teams today t​hat many rush from one project to the next without taking the time to learn from the experiences they have just been through.
 
When we omit to review a project, not only do we miss out on the opportunity to improve our processes, our working patterns and our team behaviour. We also fail to assess if the project was an overall success or failure and whether the benefits have been realised. Many organisations are not able to tell me how many of their projects succeed or fail and for what reason. The first step in helping a team or an organisation improve is to understand where they are currently succeeding and where they are going wrong. Project reviews can help us gather this information and do something about the situation – and they are really easy to carry out. 

​One way of carrying out a post implementation review (PIR) is to get the team together after the project has been delivered and to first list everything they feel went really well. Then, as a second step, they list all the areas where they feel they can improve. This is not about laying blame but about identifying more effective ways of working. The post implementation review should also answer the question of whether the project was successful and if it delivered what it set out to – including the benefits. When a review is completed, the project manager will typically write up the findings and circulate it to all stakeholders. So yes, post implementation reviews do have merit, but the problem is that organisations often fail to learn from them, as many of the reports are never read after they are produced. In addition, the team only learns the lessons after the project has been delivered..
 
What would be more effective is to adopt one of the agile methods of reflecting, learning and course correcting as the project is being implemented. Why wait until the end? Why not review the project after each phase or iteration so that the team can learn the lessons, identify actions, adapt and improve straight away? Even if you’re not running an agile project, you can still carry out a retrospective after each major milestone.

I once heard researcher Susan Pritchard speak at ICCPM’s Research and Innovation seminar. She said that we must learn through rapid cycles of action and reflection in the moment and that it’s all about learning in the experience rather than from it. At the same event Tim Banfield, a previous director at the Major Projects Authority, also argued that lessons-learnt papers have limited value. He said that it’s far better to get people to talk and share their experiences across projects by giving them the space and opportunity to learn from each other as the project progresses. He also emphasised the importance of asking people outside the project for input in order to continuously learn and improve.

What is your current situation? Do you review your projects? Do you learn from your mistakes and do you get a chance to course correct in the experience? 


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Personal and professional growth should be one of the highest priorities on anyone’s to-do-list. Progressing, expanding and getting better at what we do is one of the fundamental human needs that we all have. Some of us love to read and others like to attend events or workshops. Podcasts is yet another way to learn which has become increasingly popular over the last ten years – and with good reason! For the most part podcasts don’t cost anything, you only need to invest one hour of your time and you can listen on the go. But best of all, you get the opportunity to learn from the best brains in the industry.

Some podcasters record short lectures and discuss various topics with a co-host. The podcasts I prefer are those where the host interviews different experts each time so that you get to learn from different people. 

The PM Podcast by Cornelius Fichtner
Cornelius’s podcast - which has been around for a loong time - is still one of the leading project management podcasts out there. It has free recordings as well as a premium subscription service. I have only ever listened to the free recordings and they are excellent. Cornelius often attends the big PMI conferences in the US and interviews the keynote speakers just before or after they go on stage. I have had the pleasure of speaking with Cornelius a few times over the years. One of the interviews we recorded is episode 330: Project Coaching makes you a better Project Leader
 
People and Project’s Podcast by Andy Kaufman
This is one of my favourite project management podcasts, hosted by Andy Kaufman. I find the show particularly appealing because Andy’s interviews are focused on people, behaviours and emotional intelligence rather than the tools and techniques of the profession. He interviews some really interesting people - some of whom have a deep knowledge of human behaviour and psychology. I have been a guest on Andy’s podcast a few times and really enjoyed this video-based podcast, which also features Kevin Ciccotti and Kim Wasson.
 
Fix my Project Chaos by Elise Stevens
Elise is one of the only female podcasters I know of in project management.  From her base in Brisbane she continues to connect with industry experts around the world. Like Cornelius Fichtner and Andy Kaufman it’s always a pleasure connecting with Elise. We have spoken several times, not least when she interviewed me about my book in episode 39. What I also like about Elise is that she is good at putting focus on women within project management.
 
PM for the Masses by Cesar Abeid
Cesar is another great podcaster who has a lovely and genuine streak. I haven’t followed his podcast for a while but looking at his line up I'm determined to start tuning in again. His podcasts cover different topics from personal stories to interviews with project management and productivity gurus. The first time I was interviewed by Cesar was in 2014 about how to can stop managing and start leading.
 
Coaching for Leaders by Dave Stachowiak
Although Dave’s podcast isn’t aimed at project managers per se, there is a lot to learn from the hundreds of episodes focused on leadership.  I spoke to Dave years ago about Practical Strategy for Project Management.
 
Project Management Paradise by Johnny Beirne
This podcast has a real project management focus with a good mix of hard and soft topics.  Johnny is a straightforward podcaster who I spoke to in 2017 about relationship building.
 
The Project Management Show by Scotty Bud Melvin
This show doesn’t have that many episodes, but those that are there are varied and well worth listening to. Scott interviewed me in 2016 about the differences between project management and project leadership. You can listen to the recording here.
 
The Sensible Project Manager by Mark Phillipy
Marks’ podcast are split into four categories depending on whether you a) want to learn about the basics of project management b) want to prepare for CAPM c) want to prepare for PMP or d) want to go for PMI-ACP. I spoke to Mark in 2015 about how to motivate your project team. Unfortunately Mark doesn’t appear to have done any podcasts since then!!
 
The Lazy Project Manager by Peter Taylor
Peter’s podcast – although popular – also seems to lack recent episodes. So far there has only been one recording this year. The podcast is still worth checking out however as it has 184 great podcasts in the iTunes library.
 
Manage This By Nick Walker
This is a podcast, which I haven’t come across before, but it looks great with a very diverse set of topics and multiple co-hosts, so I’ll definitely be checking it out.
 
And in case you wonder what my favourite non-PM podcast is - it’s The Tim Ferris Show by the author of the best-selling book The 4-Hour Work Week.  Tim interviews world-famous authors, thought-leaders, athletes and entrepreneurs, and no, I haven't been a guest of his yet ;-) 


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