A series of blogs of lessons learnt or re learnt from a recent project, after all we all have room and need to keep learning!

EXPLANATION

I screwed up. 

I assumed a stakeholder thought and would act the same as me.  After all my ways best isn’t it! 

Oh, how I screwed up, of course it is for me, but now I understand it's not for everyone. Assuming this ended up with walls being built and a communication breakdown as both parties didn’t understand what each other needed. 

This stakeholder’s area of responsibility on the project was the one area that was not as successful as the rest.  Not because they are not good, but because I couldn’t integrate them into the project with a way of communication they could appreciate and work with. 

​The project almost and did risk, losing a lot of money because of it.

SYNOPSIS

Everyone has a fall-back personality; they are described in different ways by people far cleverer than me.  In my simple head they can be summed up as direct, detailed, emotional, and helpful.  We all have these qualities, but we all have a leaning to one more than the other.  

You can’t fully override your main personality, especially when under stress.   You are generally under more stress at work than in any other environment and here your personality types come to the fore more.

LEARNING

Really get to understand the personalities you are working with early on.   Accept that they are different and use them to your advantage.  Work with them and try and communicate in a way that they can appreciate, especially when they are under stress.  You will get the best out of them, they will work better with you, get the best out of them and the project. 

Even if they are really, frustrating!

​Thanks for reading
 
Simon

This is a personal story of fear and failure and how it can hopefully help you succeed.
​
BACKGROUND
There is one thing that makes me angry and sad, one thing I have succumbed to myself, has affected my mental and physical health, that’s been a long journey to understand and is still a challenge today ……  Importance.  Especially in projects and business. 

I’ve seen it have a major influence on success, on happiness, on stress, on culture at work, on profit and have a negative influence on all of these.  I’ve seen it bring down companies and I’ve also seen it grow companies.

Now don’t get me wrong importance is important.  But it depends where it originates and how you acknowledge it.  Importance because its needed works, importance because you feel it’s needed doesn’t.

People get into an important position all the time, we get propelled into areas we haven’t been into before, we feel responsible for things we haven’t had too before.  It is a symptom of ambition, a symptom of progress, a symptom that society tells us we should strive for, its important … its being human and it gives us fear.

There is a brilliant book on Fear and how it affects you called ‘Fear less’ by Dr Pippa Grange, it explains that the main source of fear is the fear of not being good enough and how it holds you back.

This runs true in a project and business.  At my worst and the worst people, I have worked for, feel they must be seen to be important.  At my best and the best people I have worked with, know they don’t have to be important.  It is the difference between a good project and a failed project, a lovely place to work and a horrible one.

But how does this manifest itself. 

At my worst and its worse its being in a position where you feel that you must give a direction, that everything is down to you, that you have to say something, that everything is your responsibility, you must be right, that you are too important to learn.  If you don’t you aren’t good enough, you’re a failure.  That’s fear.

This creates stress, it doesn’t help anyone, at its worse it manifests as bullying, at its best it gets things done quickly, but rarely the best way.

When I reached this point a major red flag appeared … I stopped learning.  Why? Because I had to know it all or I wasn’t good enough.  Why?  Because I was so stressed, I couldn’t find the focus to collaborate and find the best solution.   I was fire fighting, not just projects and people but myself.

This resulted in failure.  Failure of projects, failure of my responsibilities to other people, failure to myself.  The one thing I was trying to avoid ….. happened. 

And it was a big deep hole that I am still getting out of.

IDEA
Now at the time I didn’t recognise my fear, but now I recognise it instantly in people. 

It makes me angry, it makes me sad, for them and for me.  If there wasn’t this fear, you could harness all their amazing qualities and achieve great things.  When the people I work with want to learn, ask why, respect other peoples knowledge and skills, they achieve great things, they have a much more enjoyable time, they are less stressed ….. and there are a lot of those people about, hopefully you’re one of them …. they know that they don’t have to be good enough at everything because there is someone who is and they are allowed to find out. 

But you can’t do this if you feel that you must be important, because you’ll show a weakness that you are not good enough. 

To be important in its fear state is to dictate, is to fire out directives with no solution, is not to be interested what the answer is, is to not collaborate, it’s to alienate people from you and not understand. 
To be important without fear is to collaborate, to understand why and how, to allow everyone to be important and a part …. it’s to find the best way…. And to help and show others what could be done.

SYNOPSIS
Importance is a breaker of projects, of companies, of people.  It also stimulates success, growth, and happiness.  If you can harness the positives of it, you are a success and not a failure.  You can turn importance to your advantage and build success rather than build a wall around yourself.

SOLUTION
But how? ….  Simple, allow everyone else to be important ….. that way you allow yourself to listen, you allow yourself to communicate, allow yourself to be able to find out and learn, allow yourself to not have the instant solution, to be interested.

It’s not a weakness unless you use it not to be interested.  To be so important that if everyone else is important you give up.

Understand that not being important is not a failure it is power. That you have everything to give but everything to learn.  We are not the finished article; we never will be.  That’s the impossible dream.  You don’t have to be.

It will enable collaboration, respect, solutions, decision making ….. success!

Oh and don’t treat your lack of self-imposed importance as an excuse not to make decisions, use it as a way to make decisions.  The best decisions.

As I say often, I just look pretty, that’s not important …. but it gives me a base to help find a way for everyone to succeed and as I know now, that’s the most important thing …..

Power is not being important.
 
Thanks for reading
 
Simon

When was the last time you revisited your job description …. What a load of rubbish that turned out to be … they’re like horoscopes.  Vague enough to capture everything that might happen but not exact enough to direct you in want you are doing.  They are clearer in a business-as-usual environment but put a project into the equation and well you have no chance of being specific about what is required all the time.

And this gives the company and the employees a problem, a big assuming problem.  The thing with projects is that they are all different and that means although the generic actions are the same, the detailed roles and responsibilities are different for everyone.  But being human, we tend to feel more secure with our role and requirements will be constant.

Cue missed actions, finger pointing nonsense or inability to do something the most effective way (I love nonsense, makes me smile, but I get that it’s not a good thing to cultivate!)

So how do you manage what needs to be done on the shiny new project, effectively and especially what needs to be done effectively but isn’t going to be?

IDEA
You could re-invent the wheel at the start of every project… Review everyone’s roles and re explain them to them.  This will soon become laborious and ignored.  Another shiny new procedure that goes by the wayside, consumers people time. 

You could wipe the slate clean, employ a whole new project team, for very large projects this is a way, but not for us.

If you could just nudge and tweak from the previous project, that would be so much less controversial and effort. 

Adjust the roles that need to be adjusted and keep the ones that don’t.  (Your processes should be done simultaneously, but well let’s not get side-tracked)

Simple… phew.

SYNOPSIS
With each project being different they require slightly different processes and actions to manage them.

We don’t want to reinvent the wheel for every project, but we can’t let people assume they will be doing exactly the same thing as the last project.

Oh and we need to get going on with this project fast… we always need to get going fast!

SOLUTION
Let’s start with what’s the best way to do anything efficiently … understand it, don’t make rash decisions, find a solution and communicate it!

Then lets understand the basics, project consists of two areas the doing and the managing.  The doing is the production, it’s the work packages.  It’s the production, it’s the cake.

The managing is getting that work done, it’s the recipe, the mixing and the timing and you need to get the right recipe balance to make the best cake, from the start.
​
What items do you need to make your cake / manage a project? 

Well a project consists of 14 areas:

1. Business case
2. Organisation
3. Quality
4. Plan
5. Risk
6. change
7. progress
8. finance
9. comply
10. procurement
11. develop
12. engage supplier
13. engage user
14. deliver scope

The actions that you will need to perform will all fall into one of these categories.  It seems a lot doesn’t it!  Yes ….  And that’s the reason for assessing them … there are a lot of actions that could be performed but actually very few that need to be … depending on the project.

If you carry on the same as the last project … you’ll be either doing things unnecessarily or won’t be doing ones that are!

There are various assessments and tools on my website download section that may help if you want to understand further.  Or drop me a line, I’d be delighted to explain more.
 
I'd love to hear your views, experiences and comments and if you're interested in finding out more, drop me a line.

Thanks for reading
​Simon

How do you describe your project to people?  What’s the headline reason why you are doing it? Do you look at its value, do you look at its predicted profit, is it how nice the client is, do you look at its prestige?  If you’re lucky all of these. 

But the reality is that none of these affect its outcome, success or viability.

Most people will blurt these headline grabbers. 

“It’s worth £2 million! We’re on for 40% profit! We’ve worked with so and so before and they were great! This is a great opportunity for us to get more work.”

These are easy things to compute, they make life simple and we all want things simple, but they are simply …. noise…. No action.

IDEA

After 20 plus years of projects, I can tell you that none of these affect the outcome .. they are sales blurts .. headlines .. yes they make the project easy to sell, it’s the gift wrap and they soon get discarded when the real project is opened.

Complexity is how you should rate your projects, that dictates if the present is good or bad?

Lets look at a simple example…

A £50,000 project can be the simplest to manage if it’s repeating the same thing a thousand times.

A £50,000 project can be the most complex to manage if there is no design, it needs 5 companies input and there is no one to direct questions to.

The complexity of how you manage the project has the real effect on the outcome and if you understand the complexity of a project, you are set to make the best out of a project for yourself and the client.

Complexity comes in many forms but under 3 broad headings.

1. Social political or ‘the people you interact with to get the project done.’
2. Maturity or ‘what experience the project team have of the subject, technology or project process.’
3. Structural or ‘how big, far, many or developed the scope and project players there are.’

Every project has some element of these and adds complexity that could get out of control if not understood and managed at the start…...  Effecting the ultimate outcome!

The more complexity, the more unpredictable the outcome, which is not all bad because with complexity and variables comes opportunities.

SYNOPSIS

So, if the headlines don’t affect the success of a project but complexity does, how do we keep this simple enough to communicate that potential success?  After all life’s to short to explain the inner workings of a project every time.

SOLUTION
​
First, simple, understand what’s complex in the project.  This isn’t as hard, you do it naturally, those concerns and unanswered questions are always there, they just get swept under the carpet in the rush to get to the end.
 
Second understand what makes things complex in your world and effect how you manage and potential success.  Some examples:

• A design firm can lose countless hours with a client that changes their mind.
• A manufacturer can input unmeasurable time by having to develop the design.
• A developer can go round and round in circles, throwing money out of the window with a designer who doesn’t understand their operational requirements.

 
There countless other examples that will make a project more complex for you.  Ask yourself what can we manage well and what don’t we have the man power, structure or expertise to manage, these are the items that make it less or more complex for you.
 
Once you have these, rate them for that project, then give them a figure, make it tangible, consistent, here’s an example.

​After you have gone through this process once or twice it will be easy and anyone could do it for you, creating some consistency for how you rate your projects. 
 
Develop this further to decide which projects you take on, use it for project handovers.  Don’t just handover the wrapped present!  Open it up! 
 
And as a company, help yourself, don’t take on too many complex projects but don’t take on too few, you won’t grow.  Balance your portfolio!
 
No longer a need to be a turnover bore, no more why did the profit go queries, no more we don’t want to work with them again and no more we don’t want to do that sort of work again.  You’ll go in with your eyes open and be able to manage the risk from complexity and exploit its opportunities.
 
So please, avoid hiding behind a meaningless headline and explain what you are really undertaking.  It will help avoid disappointment, save face and stop me rolling my eyes.

“We just can’t turn away work” …. How many times have I heard this … it’s got to be one of the most costly things a company can believe …. It has bought down companies.  Too much work and the wrong jobs cause mistakes, unfulfilled expectations, stress and frustration leading to a bad culture, blame, finger pointing.  It rushes jobs, fails on scope, forces mistakes and shortcuts, loses them money, upsets clients with poor quality, poor service.

So how often do you say no? 

How often do you say no and then end up doing it?  How often do you wish you’d said no?  How often do you wish someone else had said no to you? 

No seems to be the hardest word, to say and hear, even though it could benefit everyone just as much as a yes can!

IDEA
If you could say no quickly and with reasons, how much time would you save for both yourself and the asker.  Everyone would appreciate it. 

Sure, if it was caveated with an excuse the asker may not ask again because you are being negative, but if it was based on reason and fact, you’ve avoided the negative and the best thing that could happen …… you would be asked again but with those reasons addressed.

SYNOPSIS
So say no ….. everyone’s a winner …. If you can justify it to your client and your company.

But how do you stop giving reasons that sound like excuses and sounding negative …. What is the difference between an excuse and a reason? It’s in the perception of the receiver and it’s the providers responsibility to make sure its perceived as a reason and not an excuse. 

So here’s some examples.

You’ve not got the stock in, it’s easy to say, we have no stock .. clear reason. 

If you’re making something for someone from scratch, “We don’t have enough time” … starts sounding like an excuse and is less tangible.

SOLUTION
To turn those excuses into reasons and make a quick decision you need some facts.  No flaky, I don’t think, I don’t like.. meah …

facts ..

“We only have 2,000 man hours capacity this month, we’re committed to 1,750 and it need 500 hours.”

“I’ve got this job enquiry, it will only produce 5% margin but will raise our profile in a market we need to have 30% of our company work in.”

“We will have to sub contract 12 items, the design is only 20% finalised, the site time is 40% of the project, the risk of this failing to hit our profit target and program creep effecting other projects is 80%.”

It would be nice wouldn’t it!  Facts to help make a decision, to justify a decision and make the potential project a project you could do, if it comes back within the parameters you need.

And all this can be done, it just needs some thought and direction from the people that make decisions for the business. 

With some simple direction, prioritisation, assessing what you can do and need to do, it will give you a clear picture and facts.

No need then to make superheroes of your staff, they won’t appreciate it anyway!  Even if you do send out a LinkedIn post about how great they are for sacrificing their time to bail out a project, that you should have said no to.

And of course, you can’t say no all the time ….

So, rank the current opportunities based on their prioritisation and take on the best ones for that moment in time.  It’s not that scary or hard to make it better for yourself.

Footnote:
There are many types of prioritisation tools and they should be mixed and matched to the direction that your company needs to go in.  To decide this, you may like to brainstorm amongst the business leaders the key ideas and use decision matrix as a start!  ​

How many times have you been faced with quoting on a job when you know the budget?  One of the most ridiculous situations to be in.

You also have a scope, probably vague, you just have to make the two fit and bingo jobs yours everyone’s happy!  Then you cost it and you find you are over budget!  The sales team tear their hair out, the client gets upset and maybe says you are ripping them off, the temptation is to reduce the margin or reduce what you think the scope really is!

Then two things that pop up, shopping list and Value engineering, oh the disappointment those two things reverberate through the client and contractor and a potential starting point for confusion, mistrust or a drain of enthusiasm because the client will still have the original scope in their head and the contractor has a disjointed set of works to sort consuming more time and money to get right before they can start making some money.

IDEA
From a contractors perspective there are 2 things you have to at this point to put into perspective to move forward.
 
1-You are not over budget, you are on budget, the client is under budget!
 
2-Is this a project that your company portfolio needs.
 
Let’s take the second one first. 
 
A company should take on different sorts of projects: Profit, Vanity, Essential and Filling a gap.  and they need a balance of these to move forward and progress as a business. 
 
The key is to know what you need and why.  Loosely: profit projects are done to hit the margins and make the company money, vanity are to get the company to a new level, prestige or develop client relationships, Essential are projects that have to be done to comply with legislation or contracts and filling the gap are projects that you take on to cover the wages and keep the company going.  Balance these and you have a healthy forward-thinking company.  Get the wrong balance and the company is on a road to ruin.
 
The first point then is to understand what project you are taking on, remembering that you know what it takes to do the project so you set the budget and then you can decide how it fits into your portfolio and adjust the budget to fit.
 
SYNOPSIS
With any costing the contractor is always right!  They hold all the cards as to how to move forward.  They are always on budget, for them…..  But how do you say no or yes to a job with confidence, clarity and accountability to the rest of the company, shareholders, sales team, employees, yourself!!
 
SOLUTION
Well firstly, don’t ask for the budget, it shouldn’t matter at this stage.
 
Secondly understand your portfolio and what you need.  There are plenty of techniques to balance a portfolio and rate a project to fit.  Once implemented they give transparency and accountability and stop wasting yours and clients time and more about how in my blogs or if you want to know more just ask!
 
Then you will always be on budget!