Doing More with Less - It's not just a mantra, it's a necessity

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© 2019 KeyedIn Solutions. All Rights Reserved.
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Doing More With Less
It’s not just a mantra,
it’s a necessity!
Andy Jordan | April 17th, 2019

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ANDY JORDAN
TODAY’S PRESENTER
President @ Roffensian Consulting
• Global thought leader on project management related topics
• LinkedIn Learning instructor, author, keynote speaker

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Today’s Agenda
QUESTIONSABOUT KEYEDINCOMMITTING TO CHANGE
4 STEPS TO OPTIMIZE PERFORMANCETHE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT CHALLENGETHE WORLD IS CHANGING

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Resource Management Overview
Measuring resource effectiveness – ensuring you hit the targets
Needs to be continuous – identify potential problems and red flags
Getting more value out of existing resources
Resource Demand
Planning
Resource Capacity
Planning Resource Planning
Work Management
& Execution
Measurement &
Feedback

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• Project teams expected to deliver ‘on benefit’
• Triple constraint no longer driving activities
• Project parameters evolve to maintain benefit
alignment
• Teams must not only embrace change, they must
drive it
• Shorter timelines drive project team autonomy
• Decision making must be as close as possible to
work execution
• Teams ask for ‘forgiveness not permission’
BUSINESS IS
CHANGING

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• Work must be delivered effectively & efficiently
• By the collective team and individual members
• Quality standards must be maintained
• Even when uncertainty is high
• Resource utilization rates must be maintained
and improved
• To ensure margins are maintained
• Project success rates must improve
• Because current performance is never good
enough
BUT TEAMS MUST
STILL PERFORM

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This Creates A Significant Challenge
Traditional resource measurement and management no longer works
Command and control management style is remote and slow
Team members are autonomous knowledge workers
Leader and team relationships are fluid
Success criteria are inconsistent
Expectations are fluid

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"Everybody is a genius! But if you
judge a fish by its ability to climb a
tree, it will live its whole life believing
that it is stupid.”
—Albert Einstein

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To Optimize Performance
Know what ‘good’ looks
like
Recognize anomalies and
variances
Separate symptoms from
causes
Separate problems from
people
Environments must
persist beyond projects
Consistency is essential
Culture drives behavior
Change takes time and
engagement
Encouragement works
better than force
Understanding is the
fuel of performance
Assume the best until
there is evidence to the
contrary
Day 5
Leaders create the
environment
Project managers
provide the context
Individuals own personal
and collective
performance
How we identify problems
How we create the right environment
How we drive improvement
Everybody’s role
We Must Consider…

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Polling Question 1

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• Traditional performance measurement doesn’t
apply
• People are no longer simply assigned to execute
tasks
• We must reinvent expectations and apply new
standards
• Performance will be less consistent because work is
more diverse
• Not every exception is a problem
• Understanding ‘why’ is much more important
than understanding ‘what’
• You can’t change an event, you can address an
underlying issue
HOW WE IDENTIFY
PROBLEMS

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• Changes in behavior
• Quiet people become vocal, outgoing people
become subdued
• Frustrations become more common, stress levels
rise
• Changes in performance
• Productivity levels change (and not always down)
• Quality standards drop
• Focus on trends not data points
• Individual anomalies are just that
SOME ‘RED FLAGS’

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Investigate and assess
Step 2
Consider the implications
Step 4
Identify anomalies
Step 1
Understand the root cause
Step 3
Commit to next steps
Step 5
How We Identify ProblemsThe Role of the Project Manager

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• It starts before any project
• It requires investment of time and effort
• It must align with approaches and principles
• Project management and resource management
must partner
• It requires consistency
• From all business areas
• From all roles and levels
• From the resource allocation approach
• It takes time and commitment
• Change doesn’t happen overnight
• People need to believe and commit
HOW WE CREATE THE
RIGHT ENVIRONMENT
Remember – many problems start by
allocating the wrong people. Learn
allocation best practices in our on
demand webinar – Prioritize Your People

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Define a modern, results
focused environment
Step 2
Provide capability and
confidence to all roles
Step 4
Recognize the need for
change
Step 1
Gain buy in from all
stakeholders
Step 3
Evolve over time as needed
Step 5
How We Create The Right EnvironmentThe Steps Required

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• People cannot be forced to change, they must be
encouraged to
• A positive, collaborative environment supports
improvements
• Team atmosphere creates positive peer pressure
• People want to succeed, but they need to
understand how
• Many performance failings are due to lack of
understanding
• People very rarely fail deliberately
• Always assume the best without evidence
otherwise
HOW WE DRIVE
IMPROVEMENT

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How We Drive ImprovementSustainable growth for individuals and teams
Target
Establish expected future
standards
Action
Execute on plans to bridge
the gap between baseline
and target
Baseline
Understand current
performance levels
Every business area
Every project
Every team
Every stakeholder
Every individual
Every business cycle
Every project phase
Every interaction
Remember – projects are only as
good as the people working on them.
Learn more in our resource focused
on demand webinar – It’s all about
the resources.

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How We Drive ImprovementWhat we measure matters
Target
Establish expected future
standards
Action
Execute on plans to bridge
the gap between baseline
and target
Baseline
Understand current
performance levels
Metrics &
Standards
Time to
Change
Productivity
Source
of
Change
QualityConsistency
Utilization
Business
Outcomes
Multiple data points required to
ensure accuracy. Metrics must be
measured:
• Across individuals in a team
• Across teams
• Over time – trends matter!
Remember, every project is
different, baseline expectations
must be adaptive

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• Consistently optimized performance requires
engagement from everyone
• Change is hard and there has to be visible
commitment to it
• Synergy is a critical element of success
• The sum must be greater than the individual
elements
• That only happens with complete alignment
• Modern optimized performance must connect all
levels
• Effective communication and direct links are
mandatory
• Today’s business must be responsive which
requires strong relationships
EVERYBODY’S ROLE

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Everybody’s RoleSuccess requires everyone
Commit to empowered, autonomous
teams. Invest in building capability
Bridge the gap between leaders and
teams and provide context for every
relationship and interaction.
Lead a collaborative, engaged
environment where individuals feel
competent and confident
Leadership
PMOs
Project Managers
Communicate effectively and completely
and support business outcomes not
project outputs.
Supportive to each other and committed
to the best possible outcome.
Committed to success and colleagues,
honest about ability and understanding.
Stakeholders
Teams
Individuals

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Polling Question 2

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Committing to Change

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• If leaders aren’t committed it won’t work
• Practical investment in capabilities
• Support for empowered autonomous teams
• Leaders must practice what they preach
• Cannot pick and choose when to provide autonomy
• Must understand their own evolving role
• The road won’t always be smooth
• Individual mistakes do not invalidate the process
IT STARTS AT THE TOP

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• Teams must believe they are supported
• Confidence to act is harder to achieve than
competence to act
• PMs must believe in their teams
• Second guessing undermines future performance
• Leadership must believe in the process
• They must focus on the environment
• Their staff must apply directional decisions
IT’S BUILT ON TRUST

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• Today’s standards will be obsolete tomorrow
• Business continues to accelerate
• Expectations are constantly shifting
• Project delivery approaches are changing
• Agile and hybrid at least as common as waterfall
• Concepts like DevOps and continuous delivery
redefining what a project is
• Modern work methods are changing employee
relationships
• Not just when and where, but also who and how
IT NEVER STOPS
EVOLVING

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1. Understand what ‘good’ looks like
• Establish the level of resource performance that optimizes organizational success
2. Commit to a resource driven environment
• Focused on optimized ways for people to work encouraging empowerment, ownership and accountability
3. Invest in continuous improvement
• Data driven technology infrastructure, people focused processes and commitment to excellence
4. Define success in terms of business outcomes
• Everything you do should be geared around ensuring projects deliver the business outcomes that define success
5. Engage everyone from the CEO to the most junior team member
• Any misalignment will result in erosion of performance. The more there is and the longer it lasts, the worse things will get
5 THINGS TO DO TODAY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

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Top Down
•Strategic Alignment
•Prioritization of projects and
requests
Bottom Up
•Usability & Adoption
•Collaboration
The KeyedIn Difference
Making projects work for you
The “Why”
• Portfolio Level Planning
• Centralized Resource Staffing
• What-If Scenario Planning
• Project Workflows
• Task Management and
Execution
• Gantt Charts and Scheduling
• Reporting and Dashboards
The “How”

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?QUESTIONS?
Contact Andy Jordan
E-mail – andy.jordan@roffensian.com
Twitter - @RoffensianPM
www.roffensian.com
Contact KeyedIn
E-mail – info@keyedin.com
Twitter - @KeyedInProjects
www.keyedin.com

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THANK YOU

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