Influencing People: The Project Manager's Secret Weapon

I recently attended a presentation on self-awareness and influence by Dr. Charles Dwyer, Academic Director of the Aresty Institute’s Leading and Managing People program in the Wharton School. I was so impressed with the presentation that I bought his book, The Shifting Sources of Power and Influence.

This book was a real eye-opener, and a jewel for anyone in project management. In the book, Dwyer states three major challenges we all face:

• Dissonant Value Systems (i.e. people’s conflicting value systems, made even more visible by the advent of the media, internet, etc.)
• Diffused Power (i.e. power being spread around in a matrix fashion, with more and more decentralization and special interest groups, etc.)
• Limited Resources (We all face a limited set of resources, made even more challenging by our lack of a mindset geared towards accepting tradeoffs, or a good mechanism to guide operational priorities)

Sound like any projects you know?

Dwyer goes on to caution that public statements, such as vision, mission, organizational values, etc. may be useful for articulating the values of the leadership or giving people a sense of structure, but do not in themselves change anyone’s value systems. Many leaders assume they can use these statements to change people’s value systems to match organizational values, but this is a myth.

What is needed instead is the ability to influence others by getting them to change their behavior to match your values. To do this, have a clear picture of what you want the unit to look like; set specific, measurable objectives; and insure that people have a way of achieving those objectives.

According to Dwyer, some tried and true methods include asking people for help, offering or implying something in return, or influencing indirectly (i.e. working through someone else who’s in a better position to influence).

Dwyer points out five guidelines for influencing people (I’ve paraphrased them):

1. Insure they have adequate capability (Do they know what to do, have the competence and self-confidence to carry it out?)
2. Address their perception of “Potential Value Satisfaction” (WIIFM or “what’s in it for me”)
3. Address their perception of the probability of value satisfaction (i.e. Do they trust you? You must build trust through visible examples.)
4. Address their perception of cost (Do this by giving them alternatives or a sense of options, and helping them understand the costs and implications.)
5. Address their perception of risk (Try to assume or distribute some of the risk. Don’t ignore it.)

These are the five things everyone weighs in their mind when someone attempts to influence them. In essence, the five elements (four of which are perceptions) make up an equation for behavior. We can influence people’s behavior by addressing this equation (I’ve paraphrased for simplicity):

Behavior=Capability + (Perceived Value * Trust factor) – (Perceived cost and risk)

These are just some of the gems of wisdom in Dwyer's book. He offers reams of memorable examples, often with a humorous style. With 90% of a project manager's job being communication (including influence), I highly recommend Dwyer’s book for project managers, or anyone in a leadership position for that matter.

Leading and Influencing: The Project Manager's Secret Weapon

There's an excellent article by Frank Saladis on allPM about how to lead and influence others. Topics such as boosting your credibility, practicing empathy, and maintaining organizational awareness are discussed, as well as some good tips for engaging team members and obtaining buy-in.

From my experience, these are the things a project manager needs to get right. The rest is just details.

Here's the article. Well worth reading.

Positive Leadership in Project Management – Team Building, Influencing and Leadership By Frank P. Saladis, PMP :: ALLPM Project Management :: Project Manager - Project Management - Information - Forum Manager- PM Tools - Articles -PMI

Project Goals and How to Achieve Them

Sometimes answers come from the strangest of places. I've been reading Jeffrey Gitomer's excellent Little Red Book of Sales Answers, which went to #1 on Amazon.com this week. There are many eye openers, and more than a few tips that project managers can benefit from as well.

For instance, here's what he has to say about the 3.5 reasons why people don't achieve their goals (by the way, he defines a goal as "a dream --- with a plan and a deadline")...

1. Failure to write your goals down and post them in plain view.

2. Failure to make a plan to achieve the goals.

3. Failure to commit, or live up to the commitments they made.

3.5 Failure to make goals that were achievable in the first place

I can say with certainty that every one of these are critical. Many people don't put goals in writing, nor do they develop a plan to achieve their goals. And even if they do, it's not always a realistic plan that considers all the angles.

With projects, like anything we're trying to achieve in life, we must begin with the end in mind. Or, as someone else once said, "If you don't know where you're going, you're probably not going to get there."

The book is chock full of simple formulas like this, that are useful whether in sales, project management, or in life.

PS: See my post from April 8th, Project Managers; Secret of Success Found, for a neat little story about JP Morgan. I think we have a "keep it simple" theme going here.

Project Managers; Secret of Success Found!

I was perusing one of Tom Peters' Powerpoint presentations and came across this gem. For project managers, leaders, or anyone for that matter, this truly is the secret of success. And the real beauty lies in its simplicity.

A man approached JP Morgan, held up an envelope, and said, “Sir, in my hand I hold a guaranteed formula for success, which I will gladly sell you for $25,000.”

“Sir,” JP Morgan replied, “I do not know what is in the envelope, however if you show me, and I like it, I give you my word as a gentleman that I will pay you what you ask.”

The man agreed to the terms, and handed over the envelope. JP Morgan opened it, and extracted a single sheet of paper. He gave it one look, a mere glance, then handed the piece of paper back to the gent.

And paid him the agreed-upon $25,000.

Ready for the answer?

Think it's something profound???

Here's what the paper said...

1. Every morning, write a list of the things that need to be done that day.

2. Do them.

You can't get any simpler that that, but wow, what power in these two simple steps! The pen truly is mightier than the sword.

Outsourcing Project: Lessons Learned

I would like to have been at this project close-out briefing, at the completion of the outsourcing transition. ... Let's see ... what lessons have we learned? ... Update code of business conduct?

... "Indian outsourcer Wipro selected Morgan Stanley as the lead underwriter in its ADR listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Later, Morgan Stanley tapped Wipro for some IT work. " ...

Via InformationWeek Weblog: Morgan Stanley E-Mails Reveal Outsourcing's Dirty Little Secret

Via Wipro Code of Business Conduct (PDF): "A conflict of interest exists where the interests or benefits of one person or entity conflict with the interests or benefits of the Company. ... "

Via Morgan Stanley Code of Ethics: "Employees and officers should promptly report any potential relationships, actions or transactions (including those involving family members) that reasonably could be expected to give rise to a conflict of interest to Law or Compliance. ... "

IT Governance: Centralized or Distributed ...

VA CIO seeks centralized IT governance model to further influence and control software investment performance and operations ...

... "McFarland has oversight and funding powers over development projects, but not direct control. It's no secret, he says, that he favors further centralizing the IT governance structure. " ...

IT Governance: Centralized or Distributed: Via GovExec: Systems Doctor ...

5 Tips to becoming a Great Project Manager

1) Create a sense of urgency
2) Don't under- or overestimate
3) Stay on top of things
4) Keep internal and external dates a secret
5) Be persistent

This is not a job for people with thin skin. (I couldn't agree more!)

For more see: Webgrrls International

Project Resource Planning can benefit from Economy of Force

For organizations trying to achieve enterprise resource planning for projects and other work, there can be no greater place to turn to than the proven military concept of Economy of Force.

Created by Carl Von Clausewitz, and inspired by the methods of Napoleon, Economy of Force consists in using all available resources and giving preference to primary objectives. Of course, too many resources can cause problems too, so the trick is to find the right balance. The secret is to allocate the maximum effective amount of resources on primary strategic objectives (i.e. major projects) and the minimum effective amount of resources on supporting objectives (i.e. enhancements and "run the engine" type work).

To a great degree, Eliyahu Goldratt's Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) supports this model (and indeed may have been inspired by it).

For more info on the use of Economy of Force, read on...

Reader's Companion to Military History - - Economy of Force