Steve Barron Lancaster University

1. project management leadership Steve BarronLancaster University

2. Projects Deliver What is a project? Products/ Services Deliver Benefits Steve Barron

3. Efficient ‘Doing the job right’ 3 Types of Management? What is a project? Steve Barron

4. A project.... • Has a start and an end • Uses resources, and therefore, money • Must satisfy performance expectations • Balance of time, cost and performance What is a project? • A unique scope of work • Uncertainty What happens to projects?

5. Influence and Cost over the Project Life Cycle Uncertainty in projects Concept Design Realisation Comm Operation Level of influence x1 x10 x100 x1000 Cost to change Cost to change one item for an IT project Time Source: Rory Burke,(1999) Project management, Planning & Control Techniques, Wiley Steve Barron

6. Management effort over the Project Life Cycle Uncertainty in projects Brilliant Whoops! Okay... Management Effort Time (Project Life Cycle) Steve Barron

7. Uncertainty over the Project Life Cycle Uncertainty in projects Uncertainty 2 modes of uncertainty: Predictable and Complex Certainty Sensemaking Start of Project End of Project Steve Barron

8. The technical expert... Uncertainty in projects problem solving in groups - steve barron 2007

9. The real world...? • We are not ‘James Bond’ • “Mission Impossible” does not show their planning • The A-team ‘loves it when a plan comes together’ but we don’t ever see their plan • How good are we at ‘winging it’? • Can we do this with a project? E.g. Going to the moon? Uncertainty in projects problem solving in groups - steve barron 2007

10. Plan this...? Uncertainty in projects problem solving in groups - steve barron 2007

11. Types of Project Types of projects Making Movies Lost in the Fog unfamiliar Task (What to do) Painting by Numbers Quest familiar familiar unfamiliar Setting (How to do it) Obeng, 1996 Steve Barron

12. Selecting options Resourcing Setting limits Definition building commitment Definition building commitment Review assessment & selection Review assessment & selection Implementing Implementing Implementing Implementing Implementing Implementing Implementing Selecting options resourcing setting limits Stages of a Quest project Types of projects Obeng 1996 Steve Barron

13. Explore Goals Modifying goals to match resources Check versus vision & modify Step implementation Step implementation Review with stakeholders Review with stakeholders Review with Stakeholders Resourcing core team Sticky steps planning Setting the vision Create storyboard Redefine goal Agree goals Step review Step review Seeking & Identifing stakeholders Stages of a Movie project Types of projects Obeng 1996 Steve Barron

14. Uncertainty vs. Ambiguity “SOFT” Atkinson, Crawford & Ward, IJPM vol 24 p673 Adapted from Thiry (2002) IJPM vol 20 p221 Uncertainty in projects Ongoing Conversations Sensemaking & Value Analysis “Existence of multiple and conflicting interpretations” Confusion and lack of understanding” High Ambiguity Ongoing Operational Risk Analysis & Problem Solving Low “HARD” Low High “the difference between the data required and the data already processed” Uncertainty

15. Key actors: • Professional Associations – enforce standards? Member driven – who is driving each BoK? • Consultants – convert abstract into applied. Resist investment in updates. • Gurus – translate & legitimise knowledge • Consumers – professionals, practitioners – certificated people resist changes that require re-certification • Academics & researchers – quality control, objectivity/challenge & education process. Appropriate scope & mechanise application Uncertainty in projects

16. Roles of Professional Associations • to establish formal professional progress requirements, • autonomy over the terms and conditions of practice, • a code of ethics, • a commitment to service ideals, • a monopoly over a discrete body of knowledge and related skills. The discipline of Project Management is still emerging The breadth of practice of managing projects is outside the control of professional bodies Standards in Projects

17. PMI BoK structure (USA) • Negative: • Not based on any real research • Missing important content about “front end” topics – project delivery • Positive: • Detailed definitions – constructivist • International acceptance Standards in Projects

18. APM BoK structure (UK) Standards in Projects • Negative: • Aspects include broader management knowledge • UK acceptance? Positive: “Management of Projects”

19. P2M BoK structure (Japan) Standards in Projects

20. Reflecting uncertainty in approaches to leadership (Ambiguity) Uncertainty in projects Far from No possibility of creating direction -frozen by anxiety or lost in chaos Situational Leadership (High Uncertainty) Ambiguity/ Agreement Visionary or Transformational Directive leadership through control, organising, planning, deciding, systems, etc. Leadership as an emergent property - engaged actors Close to Certainty Far from

21. Situational Leadership Uncertainty in projects High Supporting Selling Supportive Behaviour Delegating Directing Low Directive Behaviour High

22. When do you need a real team?- after David Casey (1993) Team-working vs. Uncertainty Uncertainty in projects Team mode Real team needed Co-operative mode Co-operative group can cope No team needed Working with some uncertainties Working with considerable uncertainty Work full of certainty

23. Tanaland – a complex problem… Uncertainty in projects Applied actions (e.g.): Pest control Water pumps Fertilization Medical care Measure:Livestock Crops Population Deitrich Dorner – The Logic of Failure Recognizing and Avoiding Error In Complex Situations, Steve Barron

24. Tanaland – Majority Results – Catastrophic Failure!!! Uncertainty in projects Deitrich Dorner – The Logic of Failure, Recognizing and Avoiding Error In Complex Situations Steve Barron

25. Tanaland – Rare Success Uncertainty in projects Deitrich Dorner – The Logic of Failure, Recognizing and Avoiding Error In Complex Situations Steve Barron

26. “Tanaland” – Activity for failure Uncertainty in projects • Frequency of engagement in: • Making Decisions for action, • Reflecting on overall situation and • possible courses of action • Asking Questions • Assumption that early collected • information was sufficient to • sustain action Deitrich Dorner – The Logic of Failure, Recognizing and Avoiding Error In Complex Situations Steve Barron

27. Tanaland – Activity for failure Poorly performing participants: • Acted without prior analysis of the situation • Failed to anticipate side effects & long term repercussions • Assumed that absence of immediately obvious negative effects meant needed corrective measures • Let over involvement in detail cause blindness to emerging needs & changes in situation • Prone to cynical reactions, blame others & groupthink Uncertainty in projects Deitrich Dorner – The Logic of Failure, Recognizing and Avoiding Error In Complex Situations

28. Preserve view of our own competence • Contributes significantly to shaping the direction and course of our thought processes • Self protection • Redirect thinking about the goal to thinking about preserving the sense of our competence • Only act if we are at least minimally competent to complete the task • Focus only on immediate problems - We don’t think about problems we don’t have Uncertainty in projects Deitrich Dorner – The Logic of Failure, Recognizing and Avoiding Error In Complex Situations, p188

29. Control Uncertainty in projects

30. What makes a good decision? When do we need to know we have made a good decision? Controlling projects Here? Here? Here? Decision Point Time Or some different time? We need to know we have made a good decision when we make it. So, how can we make that happen? problem solving in groups - steve barron 2007

31. A decision making process Data: Identify Collect, Analyse, Present Who is involved? Stakeholders Options and their Consequences Decision Point Time What data do I need? Will we achieve our Measures of Success? Where is it? How can I get it? How can I give it meaning? problem solving in groups - steve barron 2007

32. Project Planning as a System: simplified SoR Deliverables, Milestones, Assumptions Constraints Objectives, Strategy, MoS. Traceability Network WBS Mitigation Id. Risks Schedule & Budgets Estimates Risks Resource Controlling projects Steve Barron DPC

33. Estimates Resource WBS Risks Network Estimates Resource Network Project Planning as a System: simplified Controlling projects SoR Schedule & Budgets Steve Barron DPC

34. Challenges for projects in organisations • Application of project management to a range of project types with characteristics that differ from those for which project management practices were first developed (government funded defence/aerospace and construction). • Extension beyond “execution-focused” project management to a whole-of-life concept of projects – from initiation, through operation to cancellation. • Change of focus from product creation to value creation, from well-defined outputs to less tangible outcomes or benefits. • Extension of the breadth of project management to include program and portfolio management in a broader conceptualisation of management of projects as a strategic corporate capability. • Increasing actual and perceived complexity – for many reasons including changing societal values; increased stakeholder involvement and influence; more complex governance, ownership and delivery structures; and advances in communication technology that enable global and virtual working, and accelerate time pressures. • Integration with the business rather than isolation of projects from the business.

35. “Leadership is constantly changing, and survivors learn to change with it.” “Yesterday, natural resources defined power. Today, knowledge is power. Yesterday, leaders commanded and controlled. Today, leaders empower and coach. Yesterday, leaders were warriors. Today, they are facilitators. Yesterday, managers directed. Today, managers delegate. Yesterday, supervisors flourished. Today, supervisors vanish.” Dr. Denis Waitley, The Toastmaster, December 2000 Uncertainty in projects

36. Alvesson: Organisational Cultural Change as: • A Grand Project – organised and driven • Organic social movement – emergence, spontaneity • Re-framing of everyday life – management of meaning by one or few senior actors, incremental and informal

37. “One cannot manage change, One can only be ahead of it”” Peter F. Drucker • Design the future p92 Ref: Drucker, P – Management Challenges for the 21st Century

38. satisfying one's needs solving a problem, completing a project positive feedback or evaluation realization of achievement reaching one's goals Success is... Koberg & Bagnall, (1991) The Universal Traveller, Crisp Publications , California ISBN 1-56052-045-0 problem solving in groups - steve barron 2007