Tired of the Feeling You're Herding Cats? Problem Solved!

Have you ever heard the saying "it's like herding cats"? When you did, or if this was the first time you've heard it, did it resonate with you? Did you smile and nod your head? Well then at some point in your life, maybe even currently, you are a leader. 

Project managers aren't just admins. They aren't just coordinators. They aren't just planners or schedulers. Project managers are leaders. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes reluctantly, sometimes in complete denial but they are leaders. They see the forest and the trees. 

But leaders can't lead if they don't communicate. The people that you lead may be very skilled at what they do but it's your job to ensure that none of their talent is wasted on frivolous things because you did not communicate a direction to them. Having a team of the best football players on earth is pointless without a coach. Mediocre teams with coaches will beat all-stars with no coach. 

But it's like herding cats!! Yes it is. We are all busy with competing priorities daily.  That won't change. So how do I gets the cats to herd so we can get things done on schedule, with the level of quality we need and on budget ?  

Cats may be very independent minded, divas who don't really put much stock in others. The sun don't shine till they wake!  But no matter how high the pedestal they're perched on, cats still need to eat. They've got to come down to feed. 

The independent minded, divas on your team, and all of the other team members for that matter, desire more than just showing up for a paycheck each week. We all do. Spend the time as a PM formulating your plan, coordinating resources, and scheduling WEEKLY progress tracking meetings with your team. Then feed them with communication / direction for the upcoming week. Give them specifics (their favorite dish) and deadlines (or the food will get cold). Here's a translation of the metaphor for the non-metaphor types ;)

Herding Cats	Translation	Practical Application
Get the Cats to come prepared to eat	Prepare the team to provide the right updates on the right tasks at the right time	Detailed Tracking Meeting Agendas
Show them what they ate and whats on the next menu	Motivate the team to continue to perform by advertising their progress (good or not so good)	Detailed Progress Reports
Tell the top Cats only what they need to know to help keep the other cats in line	Remove blockers by synthesizing them and providing clear decisions for the Execs / Sponsor to make to unblock progress	Executive Briefing Decks
Keep them from straying too far	Manage scope by focusing only on those actions that will help the project, whittling out those that do not, and focusing the action item owners only on those action items that are current (right actions, at right time, for right deliverables)	Action Item Logs

The challenge is that producing the 'meal' to maximize your results take time. Lots of time and analysis. This is the reason why most project managers DON'T do it. They either don't understand the value / benefit, don't know how to do it or they simply just don't have enough hours in the week to do it. Even with all of the software tools we have at our disposal today, this is still a highly manual, labor intensive administrative effort that most PM's  avoid. 

'There are too many other things that need my attention and I just don't have the time'. 

At www.exorion.net we've solved this problem! 

Just like the microwave oven turned hours of meal preparation into minutes (or in some cases just seconds) we have turned the analysis and prep time of communication to project team members into one that is done automatically in seconds! 

So now you're asking yourself 'how is that even possible?' Go to www.exorion.net and click on the BETA test tab and watch the product presentation video for more information.

This is the most powerful way for project managers to herd the cats. You have to be consistent. If you communicate frequently; providing the information they need in a highly digestible and consistent format, at the right time to the right people, your team will understand what needs to be done, how when and why. 

If your project was floundering, it will turn around and sail. If you were doing well, you will supercharge it towards success! Using our solution consistently on all of your projects will 'train the cats' to adopt successful behavior that will carry over from project to project for success on a consistent basis. 

Need to herd the cats to get your project done? Feed them good food. They'll show up on time and leave happy. 

The next time you catch yourself thinking "my project feels like it's rudderless at sea" or its "out of my control and I'm always playing catch up instead of leading it", you'll know that today you heard of a solution that will put you back in the drivers seat and steered towards success. www.exorion.net 

Weekly Progress Tracking Meetings: Your Project’s Life Blood!

Creating and maintaining momentum on your projects is a tough battle; especially when your team members have other responsibilities including other projects to work on. How do you keep your project lively and moving forward? Well-organized and run Project Progress Tracking Meetings are the key!

Notice I didn’t just say project progress tracking meetings? I said ‘well-organized and run..’. What’s the difference? Lack of planning or poor planning will have the exact opposite effect. Lack of planning will drain the life out of your project and allow the focus of your key team members to shift away. Once they’re lost, it’s very hard to get them back. 

For project managers who hate planning, they experience the same effects project after project; no one shows, and when they do they are not prepared to provide updates, or they take notes and tell you that they will get back to you. This leaves the PM with a meeting that produced no real value and wasted everyone’s time including theirs. 

Eventually your number of attendees dwindles each week until you find yourself cancelling these meetings. 

Your project is flat-lining. It’s easy to blame the guy that didn’t provide the info or support the PM needed. But ultimately it isn’t their job to make this project a success…it’s the PM’s job.

A well run progress tracking meeting produces the follow for its participants:

• ·   Team members arrive fully aware of what is expected of them, and what updates specifically they are expected to provide.
• ·    Team members have an open floor to demonstrate their prowess (incentive to attend)
• ·    They have an open forum to raise an issue and ask for support from others in the room
• ·   They leave the meeting knowing exactly what is expected of them for the next meeting, giving them ample time to plan their work load and execute for next week.
• ·   They arrive NEXT week with the answers to the questions or issues that were raised LAST week
• ·    A habit of performance excellence develops and encourages other team members to do the same.
• ·   The PMs establishes a sense of leadership and confidence that there is someone looking further down the road for obstacles than the current deliverables everyone else is focused on. The team can more confidently focus on their more immediate work knowing that the PM is looking ahead and HAS A PLAN
• ·    The PM’s leave the room with the information that they intended to get from the meeting
• ·    The PM gets floor time to provide clear expectations to the team
•     The PM gets more and more people to attend without having to chase them down. If a person gets to shine in your meeting, they are more likely to show then if they are constantly being made to appear incompetent. 

The energy that everyone leaves the room with carries over into the focus and quality of the work your team needs to produce. Planning gives people time to think about the best way to perform a task instead of the tired approach of just giving you what they can in the time they’ve got left. It may feel like you won, but the shoddy end result will really be a loss for you and the team. No one wants to work on a project that is clearly going to fail.

This result means that the PM needs to invest the time to prepare for the meeting. It can mean spending 3 hours preparing the details so that your 1 hour meeting continues to breathe life into your project. Remember you don’t always see the work that everyone does when they leave the room. A well planned & executed meeting may require 4 hours of your time each week BUT it produces the momentum to get dozens or even hundreds of hours of work done this week for you!

It is the best and most immediate investment you can make to your own project success and towards building your professional brand. The good news is that it's never too late to start. You can start next week!

Also, this meeting can’t be monthly, or as needed. You and your team both need a regular energy boost. Just like needing to eat regularly to be able to function, this recurring, well-planned and executed meeting provides sustenance to your whole team on a regular basis. If you want to encourage a habit of excellence, you need to start with you. Once a week will give you and your team the momentum you need and allow you to provide your team with manageable, bite-sized chunks of work to do weekly. If you dump it all on them at once (too busy to plan & prepare) your project will stagnate, and you will find that you’re working inhuman hours to try to compensate.

If you’d rather DO than PLAN, you may need to consider whether project management is where your strengths lay. Planning and running progress tracking meetings isn’t a nice to have – it is the most vital regular interaction you will have with your team. Leaders must plan in order to lead. Doer’s follow plans and focus on doing. Trying to do both is not leadership.

The old adage: ‘if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got’ is the truth not just in project management, its true in life. If you are looking for a way to make a clear difference in your career, and set yourself up for the big promotion, don’t be afraid to lead.

Weekly progress tracking meetings is a PM’s opportunity to grow beyond the boundaries of their past performance and stand out amongst their peers, with their team and impress their executive stakeholders.

I'd love to hear your opinions and feedback. Have a different point of view? Please share it!! And thank you for reading my blog!

This process is a powerful tool to add to your PM tool kit for improving your brand and your reputation for execution excellence in project management.

For more information on tools & techniques that you can use to improve your project performance in increase the value of your brand join us on Twitter @exOrionLLC.

by Sean Best, PMP. Owner of exOrion LLC. His 20+ years of project management experience includes work in the banking, payment processing, telecommunications and software development industries. He can be reached at sbest@exorion.net