Perception and project management processes value

Perception is a funny thing; this, if nothing, I have learned in my life.

It has never happened to you, to involuntary hurt someone else’s feelings, just by sending him/her one e-mail, which you thought was neutral? On the other hand, have you ever been upset by a friend’s humorous comment, that, in the author’s intentions, was meant to be no more than a joke?

If this is the case, as I guess it is, you know well, what I am talking about.

Different people perceive the same things in different ways. We have talked about that in an older post.

Sometimes this attitude has to do with one’s culture, sometimes with his/her educations, some other times, simply, with temporary circumstances. You just can say.

Therefore, there is no such a thing as an objectively perceived reality, but rather, we have to cope with many different recognized ones. Luckily, this bunch of perceived realities often overlap enough, to grant a sufficient interoperability margin. The only things that cannot be misinterpreted or disguised are objective data.

The same pattern applies also to project management processes.

The dichotomy, here, is about the value that project management processes ensure and the value that the project’s stakeholders perceive. Please, take a look at Figure 1.

Figure 1.

On the y-axis, there is the value that the project’s stakeholders perceive as granted by the project management processes. On the x-axis, we can find the value that the project management processes deliver.

The 45 degrees line is the place where the perceived value matches the delivered one. The line is the project manager’s Shangri-La, the place where he/she will have to place. 

Criticism zone

The criticism zone is the region under the 45 degrees line. In this zone, the value delivered by project management processes is greater than the perceived one.

The stakeholders see the project manager’s efforts as wastes, as expenses to be cut as soon as possible and, therefore, no effective project management is possible.

The project manager has to get out from this zone as quickly as possible, trying to reposition the stakeholders’ perceptions on the equity line. Such an objective is not an easy one. There are no ‘tricks of the trade’. 

The only possible way to reconcile the provided value with the stakeholders’ expectations, is a constant and well-crafted communication, based on sound and objective data.

Esteem zone

The esteem zone is the region above the 45 degrees line. In this zone, the value delivered by project management processes is less than the perceived one. The stakeholders tend to see the project manager as a kind of wizard, an almighty presence with the ability to fix almost everything. 

Even if the permanence in this zone is far more pleasant, than being stuck in the criticism zone, still, the project manager has the due to reposition the stakeholders’ perceptions on the equity line. 

Why? Well, because taking more credit than you deserve is not fair, in the first place; and because, in the long run, it is a dangerous game. 

My grandfather used to say, “A donkey can dress up like a horse but, sooner or later, it will bray”. 

If you regularly fool your stakeholders’ perceptions, what will you do when you will have to rely on those perceptions, and you will find them spoiled by your management style? 

Again, the only possible way out, is a constant and well-crafted communication, based on sound and objective data.

The line

As we have already suggested, the 45 degrees line is the place where the project manager should stay.

Here, the perceived and the delivered value match. 

As we can see in Figure 1, three different zones can be identified on the line.

The minimum zone

The project management processes in place do not deliver great value, but this is crystal clear to all the stakeholders. They know what the project manager is up to, and if they feel like, they can ask for processes that are more valuable. 

Remember that you do not have always to be number one. Maybe, the value you are providing is good enough, for the project at hand. 

The minimum zone is adequate for small projects, characterized by short schedule, low budget, few people and few uncertainties.

The standard zone

The project manager is providing a standard level of value, with the management processes in place. Everyone knows it. No one can argue that the project manager is wasting money or is underestimating the effort required.

The premium zone

The project manager is providing great value, using complex and articulated processes. Still, everyone knows it. If the stakeholders require less effort, they will do it on a real data basis, and not just relying on perceptions. They will know that they are going to trade money with control.

The premium zone is right for big projects, characterized by long schedule, very high budget, many people and many uncertainties.

If you want to be considered a "project management superstar", this is the place where you want to be, not the esteem zone.
Even if, sincerely, my advice is always to provide the value that is required for a good management style, without artificially raising the stake.

Bottom line

Do not pretend to be a horse if you are a donkey and do not pretend to be a sheep if you are a lion. Play fair. Align the stakeholders’ perceptions to the value you are providing. Let the stakeholders decide if you are providing the value they expect from you, on real data basis and not on perceptions. In the long run, this will pay, no doubt about it.

Maybe they will not clap their hands at you, but sure enough, they will remember you when the next project is in sight.

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Project Management and Locus of Control - Part 02

Introduction

In the first post of this series we have introduced the Locus of Control, and we have examined some of its applications to project management.

We have seen that Locus of Control  describes the vision we have on our capability to influence outcomes. 

• External Locus of Control An individual that has an outside Locus of Control believes that every event in his/her life derives from factors outside his/her control. These factors can be summarized mainly as other people actions, luck, destiny… This kind of individuals tend to blame or to praise other people or circumstances for whatever success or failure they experiment in life.
• Internal Locus of Control An individual that has an inside Locus of Control believes that every event in his/her life derives from factors under his/her control. This kind of individuals tend to blame or to praise themselves for whatever success or failure they experiment in life.

The Locus of Control interacts with the way we perceive ourselves in relation with the external environment. It changes the perspective under which we interpret successes and failures. It biases our judgements on personal and other people’s performances and achievements. 

Locus of Control and project management processes

The Locus of Control is accountable for another insidious pitfall, since it can change and distort the focus on our project management processes. 

Please, take a look at Figure 1. The arrow depicts the position of the locus of control. The far right of the arrow indicates an extremely external position of the Locus of Control, while the far left indicates an extremely internal position. As we have seen in the previous post, these are both undesirable locations and are marked in red on the chart. The central part of the arrow represents the best possible location for the Locus of Control. The green zone represents a Locus of Control positioning that allows the project manager to achieve a well-balanced interpretation and assessment of successes, failures and performances. The Orange zones represent intermediate situations. Here I want to suggest a correlation between the Locus of Control position and the way in which we interpret events. As we can see from the graph, the more we move toward the right (external Locus of Control) the more we feel that our actions do not determine outcomes and, as a consequence, randomness governs projects. On the contrary, the more we move towards the left (internal Locus of Control) the more we feel that everything is almost under our control and, all of a sudden, everything can be considered deterministic.

Locus of Control - Extreme Right Positions

If the Locus of Control is on the far right side of the graph, the project manager will be inclined to blame or to praise other people or circumstances for projects’ success or failure. This could generate a sense of fatalism and the feeling that projects’ performance are completely random. That is extremely dangerous because if we believe that projects’ performance are completely random, or completely out of our control, there is no point in maintaining and enforce project management best practices. 

Locus of Control - Extreme Left Positions

If the Locus of Control is on the far left side of the graph, the project manager will be inclined to blame or to praise just himself for projects’ success or failure. This could generate a sense of almightiness (success) or dismay (failure) and the feeling that projects’ performance are completely deterministic. That is extremely dangerous too, because if we believe that projects’ performance are completely deterministic, or completely under our control, there is not a firm effort in maintaining and enforcing project management best practices.

Locus of Control and risk management

The biases toward processes triggered by Locus of Control position could manifest itself more powerfully in risk management processes, than in other areas. Not an unexpected consideration, since Locus of Control position constantly jams with what we perceive we can monitor and control.

Therefore, an external Locus of Control could lead toward enormous expenses in risk management related processes, since almost every aspect of a project become all of a sudden an aleatory event, or something whose impact can be estimated, but not entirely, controlled.

On the contrary, an internal Locus of Control could lead toward severe underestimation of risk management contingencies since almost every aspect of a project is considered completely deterministic or manageable.

Quest' opera è distribuita con licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 3.0 Unported.

Project Management and Locus of Control - Part 01

Introduction

Last week I paid a visit to a couple of friends. They recently gave birth to a beautiful daughter and, with the help of some friends, I organized a small surprise party to welcome the newborn. During the evening, the newbie father told me, with a touch of bitterness, that any of his present project team members had organized something like that, nor congratulated with him for the birth nor even asked news about the baby. My friend was clearly upset by his colleagues’ behavior. He felt he didn’t deserve this attitude after months of close collaboration and blamed his team members for that. They simply had not been fair in his regards, since that particular team was used to organize recreational activities for occasions like this one. 

While I was going back home, I kept thinking about what my friend told me, and I felt a little sad about that. I do not know anyone of his colleagues personally, and I assume (yes I know...assumptions are tricky...) that he was right to be disappointed. After a little, I realized that I was watching just one side of the coin, and I tried to change the perspective.

Following this line of thought, I started to consider the extent in which we can actually influence outcomes and the extent in which outcomes are instead influenced by the environment we operate in.

Suddenly I started to think about the reason why some people are more prone to blame or praise others for their success or failure while other people tend to blame mainly themselves. Where is the balance? Are these behaviors always positive or negative?

The Locus Of Control
The  Locus of Control describes the vision we have on our capability to influence outcomes. 

• External Locus of Control An individual that has an outside Locus of Control believes that every event in his/her life derives from factors outside his/her control. These factors can be summarized mainly as other people actions, luck, destiny… This kind of individuals tend to blame or to praise other people or circumstances for whatever success or failure they experiment in life.
• Internal Locus of Control An individual that has an inside Locus of Control believes that every event in his/her life derives from factors under his/her control. This kind of individuals tend to blame or to praise themselves for whatever success or failure they experiment in life.

In Figure 1,  we can see an image that depicts a possible interpretation of the Locus of Control applied to project management. On the x-axis, there is the position of the Locus of Control for a given project manager. On the y-axis, there is a measure of the success or failure of a given project. The four quadrants represent how the project manager will explain success or failure as a function of his/her Locus of Control position.

Figure 1.  Interpretation of the Locus of Control applied to project management.

Locus of Control - Extreme Positions

If the Locus of Control is on the far left or far right side of the graph in Figure 1, the project manager will tend to read success and failure in an extreme way. He/She will build a distorted perception of himself and will experience feelings that could seriously impede the execution of a project or could get in the way during team management activities. The project manager could consider himself

• Almighty - Strongly internal Locus of Control and success - I have everything under my control. I am solely responsible for the outcome of all project’s activities and accountable for the outcome of the project as a whole. I can manage any project respecting any given constraint. The project team is pretty much irrelevant.
• Incompetent - Strongly internal Locus of Control and failure - I have everything under my control. I am solely responsible for the outcome of all project’s activities and accountable for the outcome of the project as a whole. I am obviously a poor excuse for a project manager. I can virtually doom any project that I put my hands on.
• Opportunist - Strongly external Locus of Control and success - There is nothing I can control. I cannot be liable for the outcome of any project’s activity and for the outcome of the project as a whole. I take credits that I do not deserve. Other people should be praised for this.
• Frustrated - Strongly external Locus of Control and failure - There is nothing I can control. I cannot be liable for the outcome of any project’s activity and the outcome of the project as a whole and yet I am wrongly accountable for success or failure.

Locus of Control - Mild Positions

If the Locus of Control is on the near left or near right side of the graph in Figure 1, the project manager will tend to interpret success and failure in a proper way. He/She will build a balanced perception of himself and he will experience feelings that could aid the execution of a project and team management activities. Furthermore, since feelings in this part of the graph are far less extreme than those experienced in the extremities, they are not mutually exclusive. Chances are that the project manager could experience a full range of feelings and could consider himself as a balanced set of the four categories below. Project execution will be largely and positively affected.

• Proud - Internal Locus of Control and success - I have many things under my control. I am partially responsible for the outcome of all project’s activities and accountable for the outcome of the project as a whole. I can manage projects respecting and balancing reasonable constraints. The project team is fundamental.
• Motivated - Internal Locus of Control and failure - I have many things under my control. I am partially responsible for the outcome of all project’s activities and accountable for the outcome of the project as a whole. I am not infallible. There is room for improvement, and I want to allocate time to professional development.
• Grateful - External Locus of Control and success - I have not many things under my control. I cannot affect the outcome of all project’s activities, but I am accountable for the outcome of the project as a whole. Other people in the team greatly contribute to the project’s success, and I have to praise them for their efforts.
• Helpful- External Locus of Control and failure - I have not many things under my control. I cannot affect the outcome of all project’s activities but I am accountable for the outcome of the project as a whole. Other people in the team can contribute to the project’s failure, and I have to help them to realize their true potential. I have to contribute to their professional development in as many ways as I can.

Where is our Locus of Control?

I do not know if it is possible to measure the exact position of our Locus of Control and I am not sure that we can change it in some way. What I am certain about is that a too extreme position of the Locus of Control can severely impact the ability of a project manager to effectively and  efficiently manage projects and teams. So I believe that is of the greatest importance that every project manager try to estimate his/her Locus of Control position each time he/she is bound to evaluate project’s performance, to avoid polarization in his/her judgement. 

Every time I have to evaluate my performances regarding success or failure of some activity, I always try to localize my Locus of Control, asking myself “Are you sure to be absolutely not polarized? Are you objectively evaluating the chances you got to influence this outcome? Have you done everything that you could have done?”.

Feedbacks from our peers and our project management team can be of the greatest help in this kind of activity. As a matter of fact, the localization of the Locus of Control is a very difficult activity, since this is something that is at the very core of our way to perceive reality.

In the next post, we will examine another hidden trap, related to the Locus of Control that could threaten proper management of projects.

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Stakeholders management - Join them in their cognitive space

Have you ever been stuck in what seemed a never-ending meeting, with a bunch of stakeholders on the war footing, stubbornly defending their positions and not seeming to get your point? If you had, I guess that the thought

Why these people seem not to understand...it’s so easy, so obvious...

must have passed through your mind at least once.

Well, Are you sure that it was so simple and obvious for them, to share your point of view?

Let me play a little game with you

Look at the image below for a couple of seconds. What do you see?

Figure 1.

Probably you have seen a belle epoque Parisian dancer or a grumpy old lady. Now, please, take a look at the picture again, and try to visualize the character you have not seen before. Have you seen it this time?

The chances are that you have not. Please, pay attention to the figure below.

Figure 2

Now look again at the image in the first figure.

Can you see now both the characters? Can you see both the belle epoque Parisian dancer and the grumpy old lady?

The cognitive space

Well, this is what sometimes happens to people during discussions.

Someone immediately sees the dancer, and someone else sees the old lady; that is because different people look at the same things from different point of views, from different perspectives, and with different sensibilities.

So it is not that your stakeholders are strenuously and stubbornly defending their positions against your assaults, it is not that they do not want to get your point. Simply enough, your stakeholders see things in a different light, and probably, they cannot see through the curtains where your point of view lays; in the same way, as you could not see one of the two characters in the first figure, when I asked you to try.

Join people in their cognitive space

It is often useless attempting to persuade people, repeating the same line of thought many times.

Instead, try to explain your point starting from something your stakeholders know, from something they see. You have to step into their cognitive space, understand it and map it in yours. This is more or less how I explained to you how to visualize both images. I started from something you saw and mapped it into the other picture.

Managing discussions, meetings, stakeholders, and relationships with the presented approach, requires a good deal of time and effort. Nonetheless, it also explicitly states that you do care about other people's point of views.

Indulge me a little more, and please take another quick look at the image in Figure 1.

What have you seen this time?

Bias of the cognitive space

The chances are that now you have immediately identified the image you saw for second, the one that I mapped in your cognitive space. Why?

Because we tend to retain more easily concepts we have worked upon, than those we have spontaneously elaborated on a whim. The phenomenon you have just experienced explains why, in the long term, working in the cognitive space of the other people is a very effective approach.

Well...I am going to ask you a little more of your time.

Please, take a look at the images in the first figure and try to identify alternatively both the characters.

Get Skilled

The more you get used to identify the different characters in the first figure, the more you find it easy, and the more you are able to do it quickly.

In the same way, the more you get used in joining people in their cognitive space and mapping it in yours, the more you will be able to explain your point of view to other people and understand their.

Bacchus or two lovers kissing?

High society or a donkey?

A skull or two little girls with a puppy?

Quest' opera è distribuita con licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 3.0 Unported.