A project manager needs to hear the truth from the team and the sponsor. In a project that is making significant changes in an organization, the PM can only be successful if they get the truth. It’s not a case of “you can’t handle the truth” but more of a case of “you can handle anything as long as you get the truth.”
Let’s look at this from the team, then the stakeholders, and finally the sponsor.
The project manager is responsible to ensure the project team has the information they need to successfully deliver on the project objectives. The other side of that coin is that the project team needs to make sure the PM knows everything they need to know to successfully manage the budget, schedule and scope of the project.
What happens when the team starts cranking the sunshine pump? Let’s say there’s a deadline coming up and it’s a key decision point. The PM follows up on the progress half way through the work package. The team states everything is on track, they’ll make the deadline. Well, great news! Except, the team knows that they might be on time but the next task needs to be completed by a person who isn’t dedicated to the project and is known for being late with deliverables.
As the PM, you need to know what issues are coming up so you can handle them. As the team, they may not want to get the other person in trouble, or may have spoken up in the past and been ignored. Your job is to dig a bit deeper. You don’t ask how the team is doing and leave it at that; it’s too easy for them to dodge the hard message. What you do is ask the next question, too; do you see anything coming up that might change the status of the deliverable? Or, you can try to challenge them by asking what could we do to come in early?
The trick is to ask more questions until you are sure there’s nothing hidden, without interrogating your team. Don’t worry; over time you can build a level of trust with your team that will reduce their need to protect you from the truth.
Moving on to stakeholders; you may not get the truth you need from the stakeholders if there is something happening in their functional area that is considered confidential. This can slow down your project, or even put it off track. How does this look? Often stakeholders will lose interest, or suddenly become more interested in your project. Or, they will question the goals of your project all over again. These behaviours should make your spidey senses tingle. I’ve had mixed success in dealing with this type of ‘untruthiness’. The most effective approach I’ve found is to take the helpful route; ask what you can do to help them deal with their concerns.. Unfortunately, I have sometimes found myself plugging ahead with the project knowing something is about to go sideways but not having anything to hang a risk or issue on.
Finally, your sponsor may not give you the information you need. It seems counter intuitive that your sponsor, the person you are doing the project for, would not provide you with what you need to be successful. Believe me, it happens. In my experience, it is usually politics underlying this behaviour. The only effective way I’ve found to deal with this is to accept that the sponsor has information they can’t share, and keep the project as on track as you can. The politics maybe temporary, or it may be the first steps towards closing your project. The important thing to remember is that it is not within your control. Unless you are given other directions from your sponsor, you have to assume nothing has changed. You are still expected to deliver on your project.
One of the underlying causes of sunshine pumping is simply organizational behaviour. No one wants to seem negative, or finger pointing. No one wants to get someone in trouble. I’m sure you’ve all worked with the team member who consistently gets things wrong, or causes problems on the team. Did anyone try to get the problem resolved, or did they just work around it.
Another cause of, is lack of trust. People may have been burned in the past when they raised an issue and don’t want to risk the fall out again.
The important tip this week, handle what you can. You are responsible for ensuring the project is successful. You are not responsible for changing the organizational culture of the company – except if that’s what your project is supposed to accomplish.
This site has some good tips on questioning
Here’s another site with tips on questioning
Good luck out in project management world this week.
