9

Environment Skills

In this chapter, we address the environment in which complete project managers operate. We refer here not to the physical environment but to the relationships between people that define what happens in an organization. These are the manmade artifacts that overlay the physical environment. Focusing attention on creating a project-friendly environment perhaps allows for the most systemic and widespread progress more than any other change.

The same approaches applied by equally talented managers may have quite different outcomes depending upon the culture, operating principles, structure, customs, procedures, and values in place in an organization.

Complete project managers embrace chaos as a natural operating force. A firm grasp of purpose is the means to prospering in any environment. It is also important to take social responsibility by being a good citizen in the larger context of the surrounding environment.

Multicultural and virtual project teams are becoming the norm in many organizations. The complete project manager needs to be sensitive to the impact of culture on every project—and able to create a project culture that is effective for working with people from diverse backgrounds.

To create a project environment that works for everyone involved, it is necessary to assess the current environment, describe a more ideal environment, and understand the forces driving all behaviors. The assessment allows a PM to make changes that are centered on reality-based knowledge of how people operate in a specific environment. Turning this data into knowledge makes it possible to approach project-based work with a higher probability of success. This knowledge is put to work in the preparation and execution of action plans.

Research data reinforces our focus on creating an effective organizational climate. Consider this multiplying effect:

•  In one study, climate alone accurately sorted companies into high versus low profits and growth in 75 percent of cases.

×

•  Climate—how people feel about working at a company—can account for 20 to 30 percent of business performance.

×

•  The actions of the leader account for 50 to 70 percent of how employees perceive their organization’s climate (Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee 2013, 17−18).

= 16 percent

It is also important to note that organizations go through cycles of revitalization. Englund and Graham (2019) cover this topic in chapter 1 of Creating an Environment for Successful Projects. Essentially, organizations operate in a steady state until environmental conditions change. These changes may create individual stress where options are to exit, voice, or loyalty. If loyalty is chosen, conditions may deteriorate to cultural distortion. With radical change or new leadership, revitalization occurs, followed by a new steady state. The point is to understand these cycles and the fact that they are accelerating. Be patient during distortions and prepare for revitalization. Develop and increase integration of all skills comprising a complete project manager to ensure a sustainable career.

Managing Multicultural Teams

Project managers are all different, and when we listen to team members and project stakeholders from different cultures, we hear these differences expressed in many different ways. We, as project managers, are different as well, and we listen to what is being said in many different ways.

I (Bucero) had the opportunity to work with European, American, and Middle Eastern colleagues in a multinational program. The program manager was American, and he managed a group of multicultural project managers coming from the U.K., the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Hungary, and Russia. The first thing he did was organize a meeting to share the program mission, objectives, and scope with the team. One key purpose of the meeting was to meet each other face to face. It was a fantastic opportunity for me to observe the different understandings, reactions, and behaviors of colleagues who came from other countries. I heard people say things like: “I am from the Midwest, and this guy from the coast just drives me up the wall with his aggressiveness,” or “We cannot follow that approach. We are Spanish, and Spain is different.”

Some of those statements made us smile, which helped us all relax. Because we understood that our perceptions varied, we were better able to listen to each other. That program turned out to be a positive example of managing a multicultural team. We as project professionals have different motivators. We also bring differences to the communication process because of our gender and regional or cultural backgrounds. Obviously, we need to deal with people in projects and organizations, so we, as complete project managers, need to be sensitive to these differences in a world of globalization.

These differences underlie all communications. They influence the meaning of project communications at all levels—words, tone, inflection, and body language—and influence both how we send and how we receive messages. They affect what we say and how we say it, and they also affect the filters we apply when listening. Professionals from diverse cultures have different filters.

Good project managers extend empathetic listening to gender and regional or cultural differences. Good project managers need to be good listeners, able to recognize the basic problems of communicating across language barriers, when one person may be using English as a second language, or when they themselves are using a second language.

What can we do to deal with these problems? Here are recommendations for improving as an empathetic listener. First, remember that listening with an ear for regional or cultural differences is a mindset. It is a decision to take yourself and what you are hearing out of your personal context and put it into a different context.

Second, think of the other person as different, and honor these differences (keeping in mind that everybody has a heart). Effective communication comes from celebrating differences rather than ignoring them or being in conflict over them. This is a specific way of respecting people as human beings. Be happy that your team members are different!

Third, recognize that there are significant differences between cultures within cultures (such as Italian-American, German-American, and British-American) and the culture you will encounter in another country. If you are dealing with international projects, find information about the specific cultural differences that apply and educate yourself and your people. Americans tend to be known around the world as culturally self-centered, Germans tend to be known as highly disciplined, and Spanish and Italians tend to be thought of as less disciplined but creative. To be successful as a complete project manager, it is important to make an honest attempt to understand cultural differences. Note also that cultural differences exist even within functional organizations, such as across engineering, marketing, and manufacturing.

Fourth, consider reading a book on relationships between men and women. Remember that generalizations are always wrong. Men are not always from Mars, and women are not always from Venus. Our culture may establish perceptual stereotypes, but what motivates people and builds their self-worth—action orientation, helping others, being logical, being part of a group, and building consensus—is not determined by gender. Stereotypes are helpful as baselines to know what to expect when dealing in new environments; validate or notice variations from the baselines instead of accepting them totally.

Being sensitive to these issues does not mean losing your sense of self. The objective is not to become a member of another culture. It is more a matter of recognizing the differences as you listen to others, as a matter of respect. If you respect people from other cultures and how they communicate, they will respect you. Empathetic listening across gender as well as regional and cultural boundaries requires more of an effort to get out of ourselves, and that effort adds real value and additional insight into other people’s communications and broadens our own perceptions and ways of thinking.

Working with Virtual Teams

As virtual teams—meaning team members are separated by time and distance—become more common, complete project manager competencies need to include coaching and managing performance without traditional forms of feedback, selecting and appropriately using electronic communication and collaboration technologies, leading in a cross-cultural environment, helping to develop and transition team members, and especially building and maintaining trust.

Here is a summary of challenges and steps to address them:

How to Create a Project Culture

When it comes to implementing project management in organizations, there are three common but often dangerous words: “Just do it.” Many companies are trying to be first to market, and it seems as if it does not matter if the final product or service achieves an expected level of quality. As a result, organizations are spending copious amounts of money “just doing it” for the wrong reasons at the wrong time and in the wrong way.

These organizations have project managers, but they do not support them. They simply do not believe project definition and project planning need to be done before implementing and executing a project. In Spain, I (Bucero) helped three big companies implement project management across their organizations. All three knew they could improve their project management methods, but they could not find the right time to do it. “Too busy” and “too stressed” were the management team’s usual excuses. Despite this, they continued sending people to be trained in project management and spending a lot of money on project management training and consulting.

When I delivered project management training for these organizations, all attendees seemed to be interested, but most of them told me, “Although my manager has sent many project leaders to this training course before, we rarely, if ever, have time to put best practices into action.”

With a clearly defined mission, vision, and strategy acting as the primary filter for project decision making, organizations can change their project approach. Better communication between project managers and executive decision makers is a necessary step on the path to improvement. Often, project managers concentrate on individual projects, whereas executives look at the big picture.

One way to overcome obstacles is to better understand the company and how projects are linked to the company’s strategy. Executives and project managers have a huge opportunity to create a culture of working together.

In speaking with upper managers at a telecommunications company, I (Bucero) learned that rapid time to market was the project’s most important goal. Taking this principle into account, I proposed drastic process changes, such as retrospective analysis (learning from past experiences), training executives in filtering information and project-focused decision making, and maintaining strategic focus using project management.

A project management culture first and foremost requires the right project managers—leaders who actually want the job. Implementing project management in organizations supports true leaders who are able to think holistically, not only for one particular project. Everyone in the organization needs to look after the same interests.

Companies striving to maintain and improve their competitiveness and expand their market will inevitably be faced with implementing project management as a practice. Some organizations aspire to set up effective project management offices or simply choose to appoint project leaders/managers to manage cross-functional projects in addition to their existing responsibilities. Whatever the approach or the goal an organization may have, establishing an effective culture has proven to be a very hard task, very akin to the expression about separating the wheat from the chaff—choosing what is high quality from what is mixed or lower quality.

For example, I (Bucero) was subcontracted as a project management consultant by a logistics company in Spain. Although their organization’s focus is on operations (they store chemical products and prepare them for customer distribution), they do projects. They have been managing their projects by accident because they did not have many experienced and trained project managers or any project management process in place. They lacked discipline in implementing and managing their projects.

When I started to work for them as a consultant, I did an organizational environment assessment, interviewing around twenty people from different positions from that organization. I ran the EASI (from Englund PMC) and also reviewed twenty projects randomly with their project managers. The results indicated a lack of discipline, poor communications, lack of leadership, too many projects, and lack of trained project managers. I then presented a management report to the executive board of directors; I met them and explained the need for a cultural change toward managing projects in a disciplined and structured way in order to obtain better business results. At the beginning they told me, “Our business is doing very well; we don’t need to change.” However, as soon as I told them more about their critical projects and the lack of good data and accuracy about their status, they started to listen.

I started a change management project within the company. During the first three months, I encountered opposition and obstacles thrown up by a multitude of project stakeholders in the organization. As soon as I got buy-in from the project sponsor (the managing director), I could train the executive team, the project managers, and the rest of the organization. I developed a very simple PM methodology for them, and now they are starting to use it.

The keys to success with this particular customer were achieving results through people, gathering tangible data, and showing that information to the management team. It has been difficult to change this customer’s culture, but it is not impossible so far. I have many pending tasks to be done with the customer team, and it takes time and persistence.

Global markets rapidly change, and customers become more demanding. Organizations that can respond more effectively will achieve greater financial success. When we use the words “change” or “customer demands,” we need to remember that project management can respond to unique customer needs better than traditional management techniques. Project leaders who are able to use an executive lexicon that is understood by upper managers will be able to sell them the advantages of taking time to develop a project-friendly environment. Ten years from now, successful organizations will be defined by those who have implemented project management effectively and have established a project management culture.

Social Responsibility: Obligation or Devotion?

Social responsibility means eliminating irresponsible or unethical behavior that might bring harm to the project management community, its people, or the environment—before the behavior happens. Complete project managers consistently transmit positive and ethical behavior to their teams and to customers. Business is a high priority, but people come first. Why? Because people do the work. If you take care of people, people will take care of their project work. A project manager needs to lead by example, and that includes acting with social responsibility.

Project managers need to answer questions regarding professional and social responsibility when taking the PMP exam. However, the real challenge comes when dealing with global projects—how to deal with varying project environments, politics, executives, and customers. Globalization has obliged us to deal with diverse cultures and different points of view on doing business, and we need to behave ethically in every situation in which we find ourselves.

Businesses can use ethical decision making to strengthen their businesses in various ways. One way is to use ethical decision making to increase productivity—the measure of output from a process. This can be done by improving employee benefits, perhaps offering better health insurance or a better pension program. One thing that I (Bucero) always keep in mind is that my employees are my business stakeholders. They have a vested interest in what the company does and how it is run. When employees believe that they are a valuable asset and are treated as such, productivity increases.

But not all organizations take care of their people; some focus only on numbers and results. These organizations are not project-oriented organizations, and they do not contribute to the expansion of the project management profession. They unintentionally create obstacles to professional development.

Over a period of years, I (Bucero) have observed a curious phenomenon regarding project management associations in Spain. There are three PMI chapters in Spain (Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia), plus two project management associations (AEDIP, AEIPRO). All have a big social responsibility. Although the chapters have a common approach and try to cooperate among themselves, the other two associations do not act the same way. My short-term vision is to achieve cooperation among them. We must do it, and we can do it.

For instance, I am a member of AEIPRO, and I often attend and present papers at their congresses. However, I am not seeing the same attitude of cooperation on their part. Why? Perhaps they are not conscious of the big social impact and business advantages that cooperation would have on our project management community.

A positive attitude helps project professionals be more aware of social responsibility. We project managers have a social mission: To expand the knowledge and best practices of project management in benefit of our social communities, not only for business benefit (Wenger and Snyder 2000). We are concerned about the irresponsibility and unethical behavior of some project professionals who belong to professional associations. Unfortunately, there are examples worldwide of individuals who have harmed our society, diminishing the profession’s credibility and negatively affecting business communities and future project professionals.

We also are sad to see that in some countries, public-sector executives are not involved in project management nor do they participate in PMI activities. This is curious because there are many public-sector projects and unfortunate because this noninvolvement dramatically affects the results of social projects.

Nevertheless, we still say that “today is a good day.” We need to look at the glass as half full. We need to be positive and transmit positivity about the significant impact that professionals have in building better societies. Project managers can be great contributors, mentors, coaches, and better believers. We can display enthusiasm, persistence, and patience when working with stakeholders. We can reflect on our actions and be more careful about what we do.

More and more people worldwide are becoming interested in the project management profession. Master’s degree programs in project management are becoming more popular. We have a massive responsibility to create better and better project professionals. We must lead by example.

We also see more and more immigration to Europe from South America and Africa. In this increasingly globalized world, we need to reduce communication barriers—not only language barriers but cultural ones. The project management community can help society by creating a sense of purpose around social responsibility. Voluntarism within project management associations is often quite poor, but volunteer activities keep people alive and engaged, and serving others creates good feelings. Volunteers can collaborate on activities at schools to help young students understand what projects are and that every project needs to be planned, and they can also help government and nonprofit organizations work through program implementations.

As professional project managers, we are privileged people. One of our many missions is to help educate people on project management patterns and behaviors, but we also should strive to better the world in general. In the film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the queen says, “Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.” The wizard adds, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” We do not have unlimited time available to us. Project managers can help change our society by making a commitment to social responsibility. We understand social responsibility as readiness to give without expecting anything in exchange. This seems to be difficult but is not impossible.

How many of you are practicing project management only by obligation and never by devotion? There are no projects without problems. Take into account that we work with a variety of project stakeholders, some of whom we do not know or cannot see but who will be the people who will have significant effects on projects long-term. We have a social responsibility in all projects we manage, in all businesses we manage. Please do not think only about yourself and your business; think also about how your behaviors can affect our society. It is our collective responsibility.

Managing Chaos with Purpose

A key challenge in managing projects is dealing with chaos. We can learn tremendous lessons from that fabulous practice field where chaos flourishes—nature—and embrace a natural, organic living-systems approach to working with people on projects. A strong sense of purpose will sustain us in all endeavors, however chaotic, and help us achieve better, more harmonious outcomes from our projects.

Chaos theory is an extremely useful guide to behaviors in an organization that depends upon project-based work for its vitality. Here is the essence of chaos theory:

•  Nature is unpredictable and disorderly.

•  Chaos is an essential process for renewal and revitalization.

•  Small changes in initial conditions create enormous consequences.

•  Similar patterns take place across layers (fractal geometry).

As this theory is applied in organizations, it is known as complexity science, with the following principles:

•  Information is the primary organizing force—share it widely.

•  Develop diverse relationships.

•  Embrace vision as an invisible field.

•  People have similar needs and corresponding responses.

•  Look for patterns in behaviors.

•  Working together is a source of meaning and purpose.

•  Establish a shared sense of purpose.

Each of these points provides guidance for organizational behavior. Create conditions for people to make connections, because those initial conditions provide the idea or practice that could lead to resolving a major issue or inventing a new product or service. Push back in these challenging times when in-person meetings are hard to schedule, because people need to get together to form connections. A project startup meeting enables people to learn more about each other’s talents and aspirations; they can then begin the forming, storming, norming, and performing stages of team development. Value diversity, because it provides more opportunities for the next big idea to flourish.

HARNESS THE CHAOS

Rather than viewing chaos as undesirable, harness the natural forces operating in organizations. Tap people’s need for purpose by clarifying, in a purpose statement, an enduring reason for that group of people to work together, such as leading the continuous improvement of project management across the company. Craft a vision statement about a desired future state—for example, one in which the practices for project success are:

•  Identified

•  Concisely documented

•  Widely understood

•  Willingly adopted

•  Appropriately adapted

•  Enthusiastically applied

so that people managing projects continuously improve how they do their work and lead others to quickly achieve excellent results.

The purpose and vision statements above both came from the corporate HP Project Management Initiative, of which I (Englund) was a member. They derived from deliberations among ourselves and served extremely well to remind each of us every day why we were there and what we were doing. We developed a mission statement for specific objectives we needed to achieve and then goals for each member that tapped our interests and talents and clarified how and when each of us would contribute to overall objectives.

IMPLEMENTING CHAOS THEORY IN A PBO

When I (Englund) presented “Applying Chaos Theory in a Project-Based Organization” at a PMI Congress in Amsterdam (2009), a distinguished gentleman asked the question, “Such a massive change in thinking and behavior may be measurable on an individual level, but how do you get upper managers to operate in the manner you describe?”

Some of the points I covered in my talk were to imagine an organization where:

•  We believed the system was dynamic, complex, and ultimately unknowable.

•  We believed organic systems have their own internal momentum and integrity.

•  We assumed those in the system already had the wisdom to find the best solutions.

•  We understood that people’s models of their situation are the most important part of their situation.

I also encouraged managers to operate in “bounded instability” (Stacey 2008) where you allow what appears to be chaotic project team activity to flourish unabated, up to the point where boundary crossings—such as excessive conflict, delayed schedules, or escalating costs—appear imminent. The benefits of this free-rein behavior include increased creativity, innovation, and enthusiasm in the workplace. Achieving these benefits means we need to expand and embrace a broad range of organic principles, conceptual frameworks, theories, and models to guide the selection and execution of more natural, human-friendly practices. Applying these practices contributes to increased productivity and our ability to achieve more from project-based work.

My answer to the question asked was essentially, “Show them the value.” Believe in and practice these behaviors yourself, be successful, and be an evangelist—speak up and encourage more natural, sane behaviors. Ask lots of “why” questions. Make suggestions and point the way to innovative approaches, applying metaphoric lessons from nature, such as how redwood tree root structures interconnect, how the V-formations in which geese fly require less work and provide greater benefit to individual members of a flock, and how bees in hives model behaviors for task-oriented work.

Know that changing people’s behavior is not a trivial task. Believe also that creating improved working environments is a worthwhile quest. Studies of chaos theory and complexity science say that we can and need to apply these organic principles more strenuously in project environments. Constant dialogue, experimentation, and achieving successful outcomes will encourage people to embrace these practices. Of course, a culture that accepts innovative approaches is essential.

How to get stakeholders to focus on these issues? We always seem to find time to do important things that we care about. Help others see the importance of creating environments that support successful projects.

Each person needs to assess the culture and environment in which he or she is currently operating. Then pick a time and place when key people appear amenable to applying different approaches. Constantly plant seeds and embrace learning moments. Model desired behaviors, especially those that counter current toxic behaviors. Your example may be the best motivator for others to change, first their thinking, and then their behaviors.

Are You Ready to DANCE?

Colleague Jack Duggal (2010) provides helpful insights and suggestions for dealing with project complexities:

Identify an Ideal Environment

As stated in Chapter 6, creating excellence involves forming a picture of an ideal environment—in terms of people, processes, and the environment—for implementing projects, starting with an honest assessment of the current reality. What would a future desired state look and feel like? What stimulates people to want to work in this organization and on specific projects?

A worthy discussion is to share and brainstorm ideas, resulting in output statements, something like:

Would you be excited to work in this organization? Get inputs and feedback from a cross-section of people in an organization, then share examples, actions, and improved practices that will help bridge the gap between reality and ideal. Use that gap to create energy and momentum toward change. Prepare yourself and others to transform your approach to project management, no matter where you work.

Achieving Management Commitment for Project Success

Ask, are you getting the support you need on your projects? The answer most likely is probably not!

Projects need upper manager/sponsor support to be successful. This point seems to surface everywhere we turn—project manager testimonials, PMI Pulse of the Profession reports, Chaos reports, personal experiences, and so on. Is it true, or is it anecdotal?

We decided to conduct experiments to prove or disprove the research hypothesis that upper management support is crucial to project success. Bucero had already accumulated much data from literature searches in his PhD studies. All seemed to support that correlation exists between upper management support and project success.

Our experiments were conducted in multiple seminars during Project Management Institute SeminarsWorld. We asked participants coming from multiple industries and geographies to pick a topic of concern to them, a current state that could be subjected to force field analysis. Each table was free to select their own topic. We asked them to craft a description of a current state, then identify forces that drove movement toward a better state or restrained that movement. Likewise, identify forces that would make for, or prevent moving toward, a worse state.

The concept being employed is that a steady state equilibrium exists—forces in positive and negative directions balance each other. A next step in developing action plans is to increase positive and decrease negative forces, thereby improving the situation. Even small changes make a difference. Multiple small changes in force vectors (vectors are arrows with magnitude and direction), combined with a few large changes, become the basis for a solid change management plan.

Results: Repeatedly, almost every group picked a deficiency relating to upper management support! Figure 9-1 shows a sample of flip chart results. This pattern repeats itself worldwide during these exercises. Upper managers do not recognize, understand, appreciate, and/or support the project management process.

Frustration is rampant among project managers trying to execute projects where management support is nonexistent or less than desired. Suitable resources are not allocated in a timely manner, people are pulled off projects for other work, changes to requirements appear randomly, decisions and conflicts take forever to get resolved, project prioritization and selection are mysterious processes, with minimal linkage to any strategy, whether that strategy is directed or evolves. Negative politics prevail. These are just a few areas plaguing project, program, and portfolio management professionals trying to do their best work.

Figure 9-1: Force Field Exercise Examples

Force Field Analysis

Here is the exercise that assesses the forces that affect the environment within an organization (see Figure 9-2). It provides impetus to develop a set of action steps to change the status quo.

1.  Discuss ways to get compelling action on forces that create equilibrium (status quo).

2.  Create a force field diagram:

—  Select a statement that describes a problem in the current environment.

—  Describe the current state, ideal state, and worse state.

—  Identify driving and restraining forces (see the list below) and their direction and magnitude.

The sample analysis shown in Figure 9-3 shows four driving and four restraining forces.

Figure 9-2: Drivers and Restrainers

Figure 9-3: Force Field Diagram

SAMPLE DEFINITIONS OF STATES AND FORCES FOR DEVELOPING A FORCE FIELD DIAGRAM

•  Ideal state (10). Clear guidelines and focused work provide superior results and the means to accomplish every mission.

•  Current state (0). Inconsistent project support creates confusion and conflict.

•  Worse state (–10). Project failures threaten our ability to continue the work we are doing.

•  Sponsorship. A single sponsor is assigned and actively supports each project.

•  Enthusiasm. The sponsor believes in and is passionately interested in the project.

•  Availability. Management time and resources can be obtained when needed.

•  Consistency. Each project benefits from management attention.

•  Commitment. A management team has expressed each project’s priority and fully funds in-plan projects.

•  Teamwork. Management collaborates as a team and models desired behaviors.

•  Focus. Strategic goals are implemented through a clearly defined portfolio of projects.

•  Vision. A shared vision for the organization and each project are clear, convincing, and compelling.

The good news is that any change in any force causes the status quo (equilibrium) point to shift. By knowing key operative forces, you can put together a comprehensive plan that includes nudges as well as large changes in force vectors across the chart. Just as nature abhors a vacuum and seeks to fill it, changes in any force cause a movement in the equilibrium point, as long as counterbalancing forces do not arise. A first step is to unfreeze the forces that hold the organization in the status quo, perhaps by sharing this assessment with key stakeholders, focusing on one or a variety of the forces, and demonstrating its impact on projects through a clever story. Then an imbalance needs to be introduced to enable positive change. This can be achieved by increasing the drivers, reducing the restraints, or both. Engage managers in dialogue to discover specific behaviors and actions that better support project work. For example, leverage the sponsor’s enthusiasm and commitment and get pledges to be present at start-up events, make decisions promptly, and be more consistent in setting and adhering to priorities. Set dates for follow-up reviews.

Use the force field process, preferably as a team of change agents, to assess all forces operating in an organization. Then prepare action plans that increase or decrease each force, either slightly or massively. Get owners to implement the plans and take pride in seeing changes happen!

CASE STUDY

This case study describes an environmental assessment process and subsequent action plans to improve project management in an organization called Grupo Eroski. The organization had eight formal project managers and about 150 employees. The company manages internal IT infrastructure projects. They were conscious that projects were delayed, they had many unexpected changes during project life cycles, and there was a lack of project sponsorship. They realized that they needed to improve project management in the organization. They outsourced a consulting company (BUCERO PM Consulting) to start up that improvement initiative.

I (Bucero), as the project management consultant, acted as a guide for the project managers and executives of the organization, helping them understand how to create the right environment for successful projects and build project managers’ credibility. At the beginning of this initiative, we ran an assessment to identify the organization’s maturity level in project management. We also did a review of all projects. The findings were very meaningful for the executives, helping them understand where they were in terms of project maturity. They came to understand the company could make many improvements that would have a very big business impact.

Participants in the maturity assessment survey included professionals with distinct roles: project managers, functional managers, and the IT director of the organization. After we ran that survey, an action plan was developed, and it was implemented over a period of two years. Now the functions of the project manager are better understood and recognized by everyone in the organization. Customers, executives, and team members in the organization see project managers as more credible. They have been able to create a better environment for project success, and they learned how that effort affects the entire organization.

THE ASSESSMENT

To evaluate the maturity of the organization, we used the Environmental Assessment Survey Instrument (EASI), which is very effective and focuses on the ten component areas of organizational maturity identified by Englund and Graham in Creating an Environment for Successful Projects (2019). The component areas on which organizations are evaluated include changing to a project-based organization, developing a strategic emphasis for projects, upper management influence, core team processes, organizational support for project management, developing a project management information system, developing a plan for project manager selection and development, developing a learning organization, developing a project management initiative, and developing a project management culture. There are ten questions for each area, and the survey takes no more than twenty minutes to complete. Before running the survey, I (Bucero) asked all participants to be honest and speak the truth, explaining to them that nobody would be punished for providing candid, truthful answers. This approach worked very well. It helped participants reflect about what was actually happening within their projects. I sat down with selected people while they filled in the survey. Afterward, we spent time talking about the projects they managed and their perceptions and feelings.

All people interviewed showed a positive attitude in answering the survey questions. The questions were scored from 1 to 7. The results were as shown in Figure 9-4. Different answers and point of views from senior and junior project managers turned out to be very interesting. Some executives interviewed also had varying responses to the same questions. For example, upper executives scored high in the project-based organization (PBO) questions, but functional managers did not. This was an unexpected result. When I went into depth in the PBO area, I discovered that functional managers dealt with project managers on a daily basis, and they cared about their projects—they talked to their stakeholders and tried to dialogue with them—but upper executives did not seem to care about projects. They had an attitude that there was nothing in it for them; at the same time, they wore the proverbial rose-colored glasses and believed that everything was going just fine.

In the PM information system questions, a similar thing happened. When I explained to the managing director that the organization lacked data for most projects in the organization and that this could have a significant impact on the business, they began to understand the value of applying project management discipline. Their behaviors changed, and they started listening to me.

RESULTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Eroski’s average scores are the lighter bars in Figure 9-4. The darker bars on top are the comparative or benchmark cumulative average scores from the many thousands of respondents worldwide who have completed the survey. The group average across all areas was never higher than 4.5. The highest individual average was 4.9, and the lowest was 2.8. The data showed that the organization’s project management culture was weak.

•  The change to a project-based organization. The project manager position was not recognized in the organization as a formal job but as a temporary assignment. Project managers perceived projects to be important for the organization, but project managers did not feel supported by the organization. There was also a lack of communication among project team members. One of the reasons was that many of them were working on multiple projects.

•  Strategic emphasis. The strategic emphasis was low. Most of the people interviewed said that project objectives were not linked to strategic objectives. There was no formal project selection process in place.

•  Management support. The general perception was that management did not give the necessary support to project teams, and they did not recognize the efforts put into projects. People felt they were working on too many projects. Project priorities were not consistent, there was no project management methodology, and project managers did not have enough authority in the organization. Management was focused on control rather than results. Most project team members lacked commitment.

Figure 9-4: Survey Results

•  Project team support. Most team members did not work only on one project. Everybody felt they worked on too many projects. Team members thought that teamwork was not recognized by the organization, leading to the lack of commitment noted above.

•  Organizational support. Project priorities were not consistent for all departments in the organization. There was no common methodology. Organizational focus was on operations, not on projects. The project manager did not have enough authority in the organization. Sometimes the organizational structure created obstacles for projects.

•  Project management information system (PMIS). There was no PMIS. The organization had some tools that were used to control project resources and project cost.

•  Project management selection and development. There was no formal process for assigning project managers to projects. There was no professional development plan for project managers; they did not have a defined project management career path.

•  Organizational learning. The general opinion was that the organization was not promoting creativity. Organizational decisions were not made based on previous documented experiences. The organization did not do project reviews.

•  Project office. There was only one person, working part time, to push project management into the organization. The organization did have a project inventory and a common repository for project documentation.

•  Project management culture. Not all project stakeholders knew project status. There was no homogeneous project management discipline across the entire organization. The organization did not run project reviews and project snapshots. The overall opinion among people interviewed was that not everyone spoke the truth about project work.

I made recommendations for each area. My goal was to improve the culture and build credibility. I made suggestions in each of the ten areas investigated, but the main issue was how to start. What would be first?

Although there is a common tendency in many organizations to put the focus on weak areas identified in a maturity survey, we focused on the highest scores. We had eight project managers who did a few things well; we needed to believe in and give them the benefit of the doubt. We needed to demonstrate to the organization that role models were present and that there was room for improvement; they already had potentially skilled professionals to manage their projects.

FOLLOW-UP AND IMPLEMENTATION

My recommendation was to start working in all the areas in which the scores were the highest. These were project manager development, project management information system, and the change to a project-based organization. Then we prepared an implementation plan. Figure 9-5 shows some of the activities we did. We started by reviewing running projects and delivering foundational training on project management.

We used colors to show progress—red (light): pending; yellow (dark): in progress; green (medium): completed. We updated this matrix on a monthly basis. The charting process was very helpful not only for showing progress but also to learn about failures and to apply corrective actions.

I visited the customer three days per month, and one day out of the three I was available for everybody, answering questions or solving problems. On the evening of the second day every month, I organized a two-hour seminar focused on soft skills (effective presentations, communications, teamwork, building relationships, and leadership). The content of those seminars was reinforced by PM newsletters (two-page documents explaining project management concepts and practices) and forums where people shared stories about what they were doing that worked well (or didn’t). It was crucial to get upper managers into the classroom, so they fully understood what project management is and what project managers do, not just intellectually but in practice. They also learned how their decisions and actions affected progress on projects. In addition to PMs and upper managers, I invited team members and other managers to attend some seminar sessions. At the beginning, people interacted with difficulty, but after two months people felt more and more comfortable, sensing that they were all in the same boat together.

The focus of the follow-up activities was on reinforcing the importance of the project manager role in the organization, because project managers are essential to project and organizational success. The basic PM training for managers/executives, project managers, and team members and the mentoring process we put in place were an effective combination.

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS

We believe there are a number of critical factors that helped to create an environment more conducive to project success and to build project managers’ credibility in Grupo Eroski. We suggest:

•  Assessing the environment for doing project-based work, then leveraging areas of strength and addressing areas for improvement.

Figure 9-5: Schedule of Activities

•  Asking questions of project stakeholders and holding face-to-face meetings.

•  Speaking the truth to power. Say what you believe and act consistently with what you say. One example was the generation and distribution of a PM newsletter; executives became more and more familiar with project management jargon, messages, and discipline.

•  Speaking the language management understands. Talk about results, tangible things, and ROI. This ensures a higher probability of management support.

•  Spending time talking with team members and managers, sharing project mission and objectives, difficulties and successes.

•  Using your passion.

•  Being positive and inspiring a similar attitude in your people and upper managers.

In general, all results so far on EASI could be better. Literature research conducted by Bucero for PhD candidacy found that top management support is the number-one factor that contributes to project success. Using 750 surveys from 1,900 collected from PM seminars worldwide, a correlation study demonstrated that all variables used in the EASI model contribute to project success. However, the variable which contributes more statistically is upper management support.

RESULTS AND LESSONS LEARNED

Creating an environment for project success and building project manager credibility takes a lot of time, but it is possible. It took almost two years to change the attitude of project managers, managers, and team members at Grupo Eroski. Upper managers perceive value when they see tangible results. Achieving small wins was a first key. For example, I (Bucero) asked for upper management’s support in requiring project managers to prepare a project charter when a project started. I spent time with all project managers and executives explaining the value to them and the why, the what, and the who of creating a project charter. That effort took me more than six months of passion, persistence, and patience, but it worked. Also, at the beginning of this endeavor, most project managers were very focused on planning activities for their projects and did not take care of their team members. The result was demotivation. We changed this with persistence and patience.

I then invited team members to attend project management seminars on a monthly basis. More and more, team members became conscious of the activities and obligations of a project manager. They came to better understand the role of the project manager and saw project managers as necessary for every project in the organization. The same thing happened between project managers and upper managers. The process of running project reviews provided managers and project managers with the opportunity to share project status, issues, problems, and achievements. It was great. They learned together about their projects. They learned from successes and also from failures.

If you create the right environment for successful projects, your project managers will have more formal authority, more management support, and more recognition. Everybody in the organization will see project managers as vital for project success.

We learned that leadership credibility is based on how a leader deals with people’s attitudes, behaviors, and patterns—in other words, how strong his or her soft skills are. Here is some key advice for project managers to put into practice:

•  Be passionate.

•  Be persistent; building credibility is a lengthy process, but it is not impossible.

•  Talk to your managers frequently. Do not wait to be asked about your project.

•  Say what you believe and act consistently on what you say. If you promise to do something, do it.

•  Be honest.

•  Team members believe in their leaders when they believe the leaders have their best interests at heart.

•  Provide service to your people.

Action Planning

A most notable experience was when James Lee, president of Shive-Hattery, an architectural and engineering firm, engaged Englund to facilitate his complete management staff on contents of Creating an Environment for Successful Projects. All fifty-five managers were required to read the book. In his closing comments to the workshop they all attended, the president read excerpts from the book. Managers at this company also participated in regular book club meetings, discussing business, leadership, and management books.

The EASI had been tailored to this professional services organization and sent separately to upper managers and project managers. Summary differences were noted, specific priorities were identified, and action plans were created during a working session. They continue with a standing agenda for their Creating an Environment for Successful Projects Initiative at their company operations group meetings that occur every other month.

The Environmental Assessment Survey Instrument is available at www.englundpmc.com (click on the “Offerings” tab) and in the companion book The Complete Project Manager’s Toolkit.

You can review your answers to the Environmental Assessment Survey Instrument to see how you scored your specific project environment relative to how other project leaders scored theirs. The percentile table that comes with the benchmark report allows you to determine in what specific percentile you fall based on your average score in each of the ten components. Use this data as a guide for preparing EASI action plans, following the ActionPlan template file that is available at www.englundpmc.com. The sample filled-in template provides examples of action steps that may increase your competitive advantage.

Figure 9-6 depicts a sample template. Enter your personal scores from EASI, then look at the benchmark score, which comes from a report with the cumulative worldwide average. Use you score compared to the benchmark as guidance on what action steps to propose.

For areas in EASI where you scored high, what action steps can you take to reinforce and expand the practices that led to that high score? Remember to identify meaningful action-oriented steps within your purview, not just state what you think others ought to do or what the organization needs. For areas where you scored low, what can you propose to do differently? What practices can you implement that will improve your score? Seek out best practices from other practitioners to aid in this process. The goal of this exercise is to assess your environment and then identify practices that can be adopted, adapted, and applied in any organization. Use the Englund and Graham (2019) book Creating an Environment for Successful Projects, Third Edition as a guide.

Use the data you gathered, and the action plans you developed, to communicate with others about the need and means to improve your project environment. As many managers are data-driven, capturing data from a wide variety of sources and presenting comparison data are excellent means to get management’s attention about the need to focus on improving the project environment. Upper managers will be particularly interested in your plans to reinforce or leverage strong areas and to identify development opportunities or competitive disadvantages.

Based on your EASI scores, comparison of your averages with the benchmarking data provided, the action plan template, and other material in this book, what is the essence of your plan to create an environment for more successful projects in your organization? What specific steps do you intend to take in order to make a difference in how people implement project-based work?

Figure 9-6: Sample Action Plan Template

Reactions to Assessment: Online course participants completing this assessment had these reactions to the following questions:

•  Did it prompt you to think about areas that you had not considered before? What were they?

The most thought-provoking area for me was project management office. It also explained why we are having so many problems getting the ball rolling, and I think that is because there is a disconnect between the organizations goals to be more project based, and the actual teams completing project work. Projects are initiated and planned by each department, and each department does things differently. There are no common practices, recommendations, reporting, achieving or anything that allows us to really see how others are operating and being successful, and no standards for confirming successful projects. I think if we had a project management office it would help standardize things, and educate the organization about successfully executing projects.

•  How might such an assessment prove valuable (or not) in your organization?

I really thought this was a meaningful assessment because it took a look at project work for all areas of the organization, not just the project team as you would possibly expect. It can show what our overall areas of strength and weakness are, and then even further into the details and characteristics making up each of the ten categories. I think this assessment is rather subjective, so I think it would add more value to have a larger number of people within the organization fill it out, and then find the patterns and averages to provide a more complete picture. I think this assessment would be an “eye opener” for those who may be over-confident about our abilities as a project-focused organization but could also provide direction to where to begin to improve.

Role of Sponsors

Project success or failure often depends on how well the project sponsor communicates and establishes a relationship with the project manager, the customer, and other project stakeholders during project life cycles—the environment in which they operate. Project sponsors often do not understand their roles and responsibilities for the project. In some situations, this occurs because nobody explains their responsibilities to them. Those circumstances generate many communication and execution problems.

Most organizations try to improve project success rates through developing project practitioner’s skills, project methodologies, project procedures, thus transforming organizations into project-based organizations. Since project success or failure is not entirely within the control of the project manager or the project team, executives need to be involved too.

Organizations have environmental issues, such as organizational changes, resource constraints, strategic changes or regulations, and they may influence the progress and outcomes of projects. This is why executive support needs to be built for project success.

Empirical evidence shows that there is a relationship between how well the sponsor supports project management in an organization and project success. Bucero’s doctoral research identifies that the variables beliefs, goals, public, and support are the most significant variables that affect project success. These results provide insights into senior managers regarding the role of the sponsor in organizations to contribute to project success. Project sponsors should especially focus on project awareness, and the context in which work is happening, by demonstrating beliefs in projects, establishing clear goals, being public, and being supportive. Even when several project sponsor role definitions exist, this research has demonstrated that good understanding and personal commitment to project management, effective procedures, and knowing how their behaviors affect project work are also key factors that contribute to project success (see Figure 9-7). This outcome adds to knowledge about desired behaviors from sponsors in organizations.

Theoretically, the findings contribute to the growing body of executive sponsorship and organizational project management literature. In the field of strategic management, the findings provide material to stimulate discussion on the advantages of executive project sponsorship oversight for strategic initiatives and the investment in project management in terms of long-range organizational strategy. The findings also open the door to explore the question as to whether or not the project sponsor role is a strategic competency that deserves continued investment.

An implication for executives desiring environmental changes is to explore the role of excellence in project sponsorship, moving from poor sponsor performance to higher levels of maturity. Where project managers contribute to better performance on project-based work, achieving additional higher levels of support from sponsors for project, program, and portfolio teams can vastly improve project success rates.

Figure 9-7: Sponsorship Model for Project Success

Given the generally poor results from many current projects, significant improvement may occur when sponsors up their involvement. This can happen by demonstrating increased commitment to each project selected via a project portfolio management process, participating in project start-up events, and active sustained involvement throughout project life cycles. More verbal gestures, such as thank you, good job, well done, and keep up the good work, help to share their beliefs about why projects are important and how they contribute to strategic goals. Setting up rewards and recognition for work accomplished may range from simple thank-yous to more elaborate bonuses. Large-scale initiatives are not required to apply these insights. Many changes may occur by modification of behaviors, driven by increased awareness about how they impact the environment that creates project success.

Summary

A complete project manager realizes the transformational effects of paying attention to and creating an effective operating environment. An environment that supports project work is probably the single most important factor that affects the probability of success of every project. Furthermore, having executive sponsors who are actively engaged is a leading factor in project success.

•  Be sensitive to cultural factors, knowing the variability of values that exist in diverse cultures.

•  Seek to create a culture of productivity.

•  Embrace chaos as a natural operating state.

•  Understand the patterns that exist in nature and how people behave.

•  Put more time, effort, and attention into environmental factors affecting project-based work.

•  Describe an ideal environment that can drive changes to make it happen.

•  Identify ways to make virtual teams operate effectively.

•  Create opportunities for conditions that expose project personnel to a variety of best practices. These initial conditions, such as assessments, training sessions, dialogue with others, or consulting, may lead to enormous changes in the operating environment.

•  Use survey instruments to assess the environment, conduct force field exercises, create action plans that honor people and the culture, and create a high probability of success in your organization. Then take action and reap the benefits.

•  Know the key role that sponsors bring to creating environments that vastly improve project success rates. Take action to cultivate increased sponsor support.