Don't give up on team morale problems

Takeaway: Project managers should keep their eyes open for morale problems and look for ways to turn things around. Here are some suggestions.

Have you been the project manager for a team that had poor morale? I'm not referring to one malcontent. I'm talking about a team that has a pervasive morale problem. You may see symptoms of poor morale in the way team members respond to you, their lack of enthusiasm, or if they get angry at small matters, etc. The thing about poor morale is that people don't like to keep it to themselves. If one team member has poor morale, he wants to spread that fact so that others will come over to his side. As they say, "Misery loves company."

Morale problems don't happen overnight, and they can't be resolved overnight. Sometimes the morale problems are caused by the project itself. Other times the causes are out of your control. This could be the case when a company has lower revenue or staff cutbacks. However, even if the causes are not in your control (and remember many times they are) you have to take action. Here are some examples of how to address morale problems.

• Be a good listener. You'll find that the simple act of listening will help people's morale. It shows that you at least recognize the problems and are concerned.
• Say "thank you" for good contributions. If team members feel that the project manager recognizes their contributions, it will go a long way toward helping them feel better about their situation.
• Assign more challenging work. This is a tough one because, in most cases, the work is the work and you can't change the basic nature of that work. However, there are some things you can do to introduce new challenges. For instance, you can rotate people into new roles. If two people have done the same job for a long time, switch them. This gives each person an opportunity to learn new skills and new areas of expertise, while also giving you more backup coverage. You can also give people more responsibility. This might include letting new people manage the budget for the team, putting people in charge of subteams, and assigning new people to manage the work of contractors.
• Provide opportunities to learn new technologies. You can try to rotate people into new technologies, switch responsibilities to allow people to learn new skills, and increase the training opportunities.
• Make sure people know what's expected of them. You should make sure people are clear on what their job responsibilities are, what their current work activities are, and how their contributions help the entire project to be successful.
• Offer more flexibility. Allowing people more control over their jobs and lives can help morale. Offer flextime options or some form of telecommuting.
• Get the right equipment. Make sure people have the right hardware and software they need to do their jobs. It's especially frustrating for people to work on slow equipment, especially when hardware is so cheap.
• Look for opportunities to have fun. Let’s not forget this one. Look for an opportunity for a social events, pizza parties, birthday cakes, etc.
• Solicit opinions and ideas from employees. The project manager should encourage team members to become involved and offer their insights on assignments. If team members feel like their opinions and ideas are valuable, they will feel better about their situation.

Project managers should keep their eyes open for morale problems and look for ways to turn things around. Regardless of the limitations of your role, there are always some things that are within your control.

Some thoughts on passing as an extrovert

A lot of professional project management consultants choose to pass rather than reveal their true colors. We choose to pretend to welcome people to our cubes, to speak up during the unending roll of meetings, and to actually leave our space in order to find out what is going on. In other words, we choose to pass as extroverts rather than the introverts we truly are. In some cases this transformation is so extreme that our friends and family would not recognize us inside the business environment.

It gets worse. Almost all of the business advice is written by extroverts for extroverts. The structure of business emphasizes the skills of extroverts (e.g. willingness to communicate trivial details, ability to endure the company of a number of people for hours on end) rather than the talents introverts bring to the table. So, where is the reference for the rest of us?

So, what is a dedicated project manager who also happens to be an introvert to do? I don’t mean in terms of passing. I mean what do we do in terms of genuinely aligning our personal preferences with the needs of our project teams? How do we stop pretending and start really getting involved?

First, we have to accept that an introvert who leads does not do so in the same way that an extrovert does. An extrovert leads by using his charisma and ability to connect to draw others into his circle. It’s kind of like encountering a jamming field inside of which the target’s mind doesn’t work quite right. An introvert leads by understanding and assisting others in understanding what needs to be done.

Second, we have to toss the PMBOK in the circular file. Yes, I know it’s popular with project management wonks and introverts of all descriptions. It gives us a handy reference and the ability to create hundreds of useless documents to hide behind. At it’s worst, we can use the thing as a “cookbook”, a step-by-step guide to miserable failure.

The seductive allure of process, any process, needs to be discarded in favor of honest self-reflection and analysis. Most processes serve to record information for extroverts, who have memories like mayflies anyway. What we need is to focus our attention on understanding what is happening, why it is occurring, and how we can get our teams to act in a way that will restore blessed silence as quickly as possible.

To do this we need data. Lots of data. Fortunately most modern introverts are class-A infovores, and we have access to wellsprings of information exceeding our ancestors’ fondest dreams. While the extroverts go out and glad-hand, we have the ability to figure out what’s really going on. Don’t let your lack of knowledge regarding “accounting” or “technology” or “fruit-juice” stop you either; it’s all data and it all obeys structured rules regarding its analysis. Learn the rules, sort the data into models, and work it out.

Finally, get out of the front lines. We are introverts, not extroverts. It’s not necessary for us to speak with everyone, all the time, everyday. Find an extrovert on the team, appoint him “team leader” or some such nonsense, and let him speak up and field questions. This kind of front-office/back-office approach to project management (whether done with a team leader or two project managers) can produce impressive results.

Good luck, my fellow introverts, and remember: it is no longer considered ok to growl at the person who comes into your cube for the fifteenth time that day to discuss his potted plants.

Project management: Pin down how your client defines quality

A good definition of quality management is “to first understand the expectations of your customer in terms of quality and then put a proactive plan in place to meet that level of quality.” The first part of this definition can be the toughest - understanding what quality means to your customer.

Your customer may only tell you that you should build a “good quality solution” or you should build a solution with an “acceptable level of quality.” Your response to that should be “Great. But what the heck does that mean?”

The customer needs to state that the project solution needs to be:

* Reliable
* Easy to use
* Easy to maintain when completed
* Available when needed
* Flexible for future needs
* Intuitive / easy to understand
* Secure
* Minimally defective (Doesn’t have to be perfect)

Once you’ve gotten that far, you need to help the customer drill down further. Let’s say that the customer thinks that a good quality solution needs to be “secure.” Further probing might reveal that for the customer, this means

* The solution should be place in a secure room with password access
* Only authorized people can login
* The password must change every thirty days
* There will be role-based security so people can only see data that is consistent with their roles.

People sometimes ask where this information gets documented. It’s easy - these end up being detailed quality requirements and they’re captured along with all of the other project requirements.

Most project teams don’t make it a point to capture all of their quality requirements. Most project teams focus requirements on understanding features and functions. If you focus on features and functions, many of the quality requirements may come out as well - usually by accident. But if your team is trying to practice formal quality management, you should have a discussion with your clients that focuses on the broader and more specific set of quality requirements.


courtesy @TechRepublic