5 Best Practices in PM Leadership:
Models, Frameworks, Tips & Techniques
Facilitator: Priscilla A. Glidden, Ph.D., P.M.P.
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5 Best Practices in PM Leadership
Introduction
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What studies show generically about PM leadership
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Leadership, in general, is visible
Leadership, in projects, represents the potential for organizational
competitive advantage, especially in project-driven organizations, divisions,
agencies….. Why?
Objectives: to provide
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a rapid overview of 5 best practices & the models, frameworks or studies
behind them
a few examples of skills, behavior, templates or areas of expertise that
illustrate some ways to implement them
an overall “picture” at the end that makes sense to you
At least one takeaway that will work for you in your environment
A list of references that you will want to pick from & follow up with
Best Practice #1
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The Annual Standish Group Study on Project Failures
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Description of the Standish Group Study (2011)
 For technology projects, only 37% achieved their initial objectives
 42% were “challenged”; 21% failed outright
Description of the parallel UK Study :10 key reasons why projects fail
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Delayed Scope/Requirements definition/signoff
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Subcontractor delays in delivery
2
Poor/Missing Integration Management Plan
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Customer delays in acceptance
3
Insufficient Test Assets
8
Poor estimating (time)
4
Failed tests, rework
9
Poor Estimating @ proposal/bid stage (cost)
5
Poor Scope Control during Execution
10
Failure to consult/record lessons learned
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Question: Which of the 10 was rated the #1 reason for
project failure? Write down your answer; then we will vote!
Best Practice #1: Reuse Lessons Learned
The #1 cause in these studies of project failure is:
 Missing Lessons Learned Documents in the Archives
 PM Failure to ensure Lessons Learned were consulted, reviewed
with team, communicated to stakeholders & factored into Project
Management Plan (esp Risk Docs)
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 This important Best Practice in PM Leadership includes these
parts:
1. Always take the time to create Lessons Learned
2. Do it as you move through the project lifecycle- include collection
of items as an agenda item
3. Delegate the responsibility to a team member if you can
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Best Practice #2: The PM develops a
High-Performing Project Team
What exactly is a “High Performing” or “Excellent”
Team & how does the PM leader create one?
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Average Teams vs. Excellent Teams
External Locus of Responsibility
•Seek Individual Rewards
•Blame Others for Problems
•Work as Individuals – hoard
information
•May have low morale
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Internal Locus of Responsibility
•Focus on Contributions to Team
•Work to Solve Problems
•Work as a Team – share
information – teach each other
•Do have sustainable high morale
Best Practice #2
• What is the driver for this Best Practice?
Excellent Teams, Productivity and Morale
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Best Practice #2:
Situational Leadership Style Model
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The only application of Leadership Theory that specifically addresses
projects
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Matches Leader’s Style to the Team’s Development Level
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The familiar team development lifecycle
Forming (S1)
Stage 1
Storming (S2)
Stage 2
Norming (S3)
Stage 3
Performing (S4)
Stage 4
IS MESSY & focused in S1 on learning/doing Task, in S2 on becoming
interdependent, in S3 for gaining Task/Relationship Responsibility, in S4 for
self-management as a team
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Best Practice #2:
Situational Leadership Style Model (con’t)
• Today’s Big Barrier: Distributed, not Co-located Teams
•
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Question: Which of these is the Central Office?
Best Practice #2:
PM Leadership Style View
high
Concern for
Relationships
(projected
people-orientation)
How will this
make the boat
go faster?
Q2- HT/HR
Let’s discuss how to…
Q3- LT/HR
These things will make
the boat go faster.
I trust you to make…
low
Q1- HT/LR
Q4- LT/LR
Projected Concern for Tasks
high
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S1
S2
S3
low
S4
Summarizing Best Practice #2:
the Situational Leadership Framework
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PM Leader must diagnose what a team needs, then act in that style
 Each project team evolves through a uniquely paced lifecycle, but goes
through each stage, reversing with changes in team, leadership or fortunes
 Leader interventions can maximize the pace of team development
(subject to EQ and IQ of the assigned team members)
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Question- when is early PM intervention warranted?
 Nay-sayers impacting the team
 “stuck” members
 Issues arising out of matrixed roles or part-time assignments
 unresolved conflict among team members
 Team (or leader) over-focus on product, not process
 “delayed success”
 Failure to develop “interdependence” (the killer)
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Best Practice #2:
Facilitating Team Development – Tips & Tools
PM-Facilitated Team Performance Agreements
1.
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Mobilize Team discussion of items such as
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How do we want to handle Contingencies
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What method shall we use for Decision-making
How should we communicate amongst ourselves, with stakeholders,
etc?
What (concretely) does quality look like here?
What Positive Behaviors do we commit to?
What Negative Behaviors should trigger PM or team action?
How do we get (and give) feedback on our performance?
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 If
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not decided by team, will evolve without commitment
Best Practice #2:
Facilitating Team Development – Tips & Tools
2. Develop self-processing capabilities in the team
Example: use “Fist to Five” for team meeting reviews (HO)
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3. Let the team know that “interdependence” is a requirement
4. Delegate “Best Practice” Team Functions
5. Early-on Reality Testing for Commitment Levels
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Not everyone can give the same amount to a specific project
Team members with inability to fully commit should know how this
will impact them (and the team should know too)
6. Consider encouraging team members to set an individual goal
that aligns with the project (and share them)
7. Use Team-building Activities with regularity
Examples: StrengthsFinder , egg drop
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Best Practice #2:
Facilitating Team Development – Tips & Tools
Observe whether teams are actively developing over time; gauge their
“stage” through observation of actual team behavior
9.
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Example: Thelen et al. (1954), Levels of Team Learning & Knowledge Creation
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Level 1: Individuals focus on personal needs relative to figuring out the task and
relationship aspects of the project/group, and may be in different frameworks entirely;
some (task) information sharing occurs
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Level 2: Individuals jointly begin to focus on task; mainly planning and organization
needed to do the task; information sharing and some knowledge sharing occurs
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Level 3: Group is focused on the task and knowledge transfer; episodes of knowledge
creation may occur, as new methods for attacking scope, schedule or resources problems
are advanced and engaged in; also, may see “new knowledge” arising from reality testing
of ideas or see visualizing and identifying with project goals
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Level 4: Group is highly energized around specific episodes of knowledge creation;
uses increasingly “common” language to “see” an issue or novel idea; context for
discussion is new and extended
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Best Practice #3: Facilitating Creativity &
Innovation
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The Scenario
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You have a project that requires some elements of
creativity and innovation
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You wonder if you and your team can meet the
requirements
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You need a framework for diagnosing your team’s
potential for generating new knowledge, and for
idneitfying what “gaps” may need to be filled
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Best Practice #3: Facilitating Creativity & Innovation
Best Practice #3: Facilitating Team Creativity
& Innovation – Tips & Tools
Some “good practice” ideas:
1. Use this Framework as a diagnostic team tool- understand
your own role and that of the team members (it also works as
a team-builder)
2. When possible, pick your own team with Sit Lead and Team
Creativity models in mind
3. When you can’t, try to find ways to plug any “gaps” with
“experts” who won’t steal the thunder of the team
4. Make Knowledge Creation a value-added deliverable for both
products and processes, and reward the team, not the individual
5. Use boundary objects freely (Best Practice #4)
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Best Practice #3: Facilitating Team Creativity
& Innovation – Tips & Tools
Some “good practice” ideas (con’t):
6. Facilitating is hard-- do an assessment of your facilitation
skills; then teach others in order to expedite their
development (& your ability to delegate)
“I’ve learned that, if nothing else, everyone on the team will be on the same page,
and that can save lots of time and money, & improve customer satisfaction.”
(Agile/Scrum Sponsor)
7. Model “facilitation skills” in other PM arenas, such as in
“reaching agreement” with management & stakeholders
Examples: Tsongas, Kilman study, “if –then”, “valuable for you….cheap
for me”, 5-stages study
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Best Practice #3 (con’t): Framework for
Escalating Team Engagement in Innovation
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8. Shift the Paradigm: PM Control over the Outcome vs. over its
Implementation Process (“Is high control necessary over both or just
one?”)
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low
Manager & Process
High
Low
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Team & Implementation Process
High
Best Practice #3: Facilitating Team Creativity
& Innovation – Tips & Tools (con’t)
9. Use the 4 Stages of Team Engagement in Decision-Making
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“You will pursue this piece of the overall work on your own, and come back to me with
something to demonstrate or decide; then I’ll give direction on how specifically you will
implement; when implemented, come back and we will discuss next phase.” (italicized portion applies
only if appropriate)
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Stage Two
“You will pursue this piece of overall work on your own; come back to me with alternatives –
plus your own recommendation-- for implementation; we’ll decide together which alternative
to pursue, and then I’ll assign the next piece of work.”
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Stage One
Stage Three
“You will pursue the overall work, coming back to me with a detailed plan for the whole
thing; after you inform me what you intend to do, I’ll give my input and we’ll discuss and
decide.”
 Stage Four
(a) “You do the work; just inform me of the final outcome”, or
(b) “You do the work – no need to follow up with me.”
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Best Practice #3: Facilitating Team
Creativity & Innovation – Tips & Tools (con’t)
10. Rules for Team Engagement
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Set the engagement level to the maturity level of the team
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Explain the context and consequences of success or failure
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Give “clues” as to what behaviors you want
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Be specific about resources, including your own time
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Set up a review system to track progress (so your “outcome”
doesn’t go off the tracks) – you may know this is common
sense, but they may not
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Start doing this with a potential “win”
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Best Practice #3: Facilitating Team
Creativity & Innovation – Tips & Tools (con’t)
Also note that:
You and team members should determine:
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A due date for the outcome of the decision-making
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What level of authority (Prior Slide, #9, Stage 1-4) has been delegated
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What priority the issue or result should be assigned
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Who the contact person is, or when you will meet again about
progress
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What “must have’s” you need to have
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What to do if something unexpected happens
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Best Practice #4: Focus on Key Objectives &
Use Boundary Objects to Stay on Course
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Define Key Objectives, then revisit the “boat” and reinforce
them with varied visual and spoken boundary objects that
keep everyone focused on them, and not on other things.
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Definition of Boundary Objects
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Where to use
 in Status Reviews, Customer and Team Meetings
 inTeam-Building Sessions
 on projects with Product or Process creativity &
innovation opportunities or requirements (e.g., R&D,
new product development projects)
 Speeches/Presentations/Interviews
 in day-to-day communications
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Best Practice #4: Focus on Key Objectives &
Use Boundary Objects to Stay on Course
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Generic Contexts for B.O.’s in Meetings/Gatherings
 Agendas
 Project Kickoff/Launch presentations or themed-events
 White Boarding, Parking Lots
 End-of-project team meeting “Fist-2-Five” feedback (HO)
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Purposes- Problem-solving & Decision-Making;
NPD/R&D; Development; Education & Training
 Models, Causal Maps, Root Cause Analysis Diagrams,
Mindmaps, Frameworks, Experiments & DOEs
 Drawings, Prototypes, Photographs
 Exercises, Case Studies, Research & Survey Reports
 Expert Opinions
 “T-Shirts & Mugs”
 Written or Verbalized “Vision Statements”
 Visuals of any kind that can be understood by all
Best Practice #4: Use Boundary Objects to
Stay on Course (con’t)
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Project Management-inspired B.O.’s
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
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Scope/Requirements/Specs
Risk – a framework; Risk-tracking docs
Schedule/SPI; EV/CPI – performance
measurements; “A3’s” – performance
measurement & information format
Checklists
Other Quality Tools for Analysis and
Decision-making
Lessons Learned
Other
Best Practice #5: Align Fact-based & Inner
Voice to Avoid Burnout

Townsend: Leadership Beyond Reason (also Boundaries)
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Brief Exercise on Alignment
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Kahnemann: Thinking, Fast & Slow
 System 1 vs. System 2 Thinking Styles
 The Perils of counting “sunk cost”
 Anchors
 Confirmation Bias in Group Decisions
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Reading List with 45 other Contemporary Articles
(short!) full of useful boundary objects & many more tips,
tools & techniques – access through DropBox
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pglidden@bentley.edu for information/self-testing on
questionnaires for Situational Leadership Style &
Facilitating Creativity & Innovation-type Teams.
Reading List for many more Boundary Objects, Tips, Tools & Techniques
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Brain-Based Behavioral Biases under Risk
Conditions
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System 1 vs. System 2 Thinking
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Prospect Theory
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Confirmation Bias
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Groupthink- False Consensus Effect
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Anchors
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Other
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….and then there are customers
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Customers buy “solutions in a bundle of benefits” (not products); these solutions
carry a certain value
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Value (customer’s perspective) is the net of Benefits minus Costs
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Costs include acquiring and consuming your solution, which means costs are
both monetary and non-monetary
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Value is dynamic, framed on customer expectations of benefits minus costs, and
shaped by experience and messages received along the way
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No matter what marketplace any business is in today, competing on service is
imperative
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Decisions made about the customer’s product/solution must be managed to
demonstrate that the manager is always sensitive to the customer’s experience,
and is making decisions that are value-creating decisions
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Origins of Stress
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Level 1 = Unconscious Incompetence
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Level 2 = Conscious Incompetence
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Level 3 = Conscious Competence
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Level 4 = Unconscious Competence
Balancing Stress to avoid Burnout
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Risk
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Level 1 = Variation
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Level 2 = Foreseen Unknowns
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Level 3 = Unforeseen Unknowns
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Level 4 = Chaos
Balancing Stress to avoid Burnout
Back exercise
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