15. Logical Levels Well Formed Outcomes Time-line Leadership Representation Systems Rapport Questioning Anchors Feedback Motivating & Delegating Milton & Meta Models Metaphor
16. Logical Levels Well Formed Outcomes Time-line Leadership Representation Systems Rapport Questioning Anchors Feedback Motivating & Delegating Milton & Meta Models Metaphor
17. Time-line Leadership Representation Systems Rapport Questioning Anchors Feedback Motivating & Delegating Milton & Meta Models Logical Levels Well Formed Outcomes Metaphor
18. Time-line Leadership Representation Systems Rapport Questioning Anchors Feedback Motivating & Delegating Milton & Meta Models Logical Levels Well Formed Outcomes Metaphor
19. Time-line Leadership Rapport Questioning Feedback Motivating & Delegating Milton & Meta Models Logical Levels Well Formed Outcomes Anchors Representation Systems Metaphor
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21. DESIGN DISCOVER DELIVER Evaluate Review Plan Refine Plan Details Allocate Roles Define Plan Well Formed Outcomes Logical Levels Parameter Change? YES NO
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Editor's Notes
Thanks Martin, Hello and good afternoon everyone. So, no more gantt charts? You may be wondering how that's possible? I've been involved with projects for 20 years. Big ones (multi-site) through to small quick and fun ones. For most of them, there's been a heavy focus on creating the gantt chart and it ruling the lives of the team thereafter. I'm going to shrink it down to being just one thing in the project team's tooolbox. And to do this, I'll share my experiences of NLP tools and techniques.
Some of these may look familiar to you, they may strike a chord. Worked with a company which had a strong project culture. Our team had a plan, meeting to plan, meeting to plan the planning meeting, meeting to review progress twice each week. Ended up with 3 plans; High level plan, department plan, individual daily plan. Planning was everything. My wife can top that. Worked in a place where Dept representative on 5 projects. Each had meetings to plan activities for the depts. It got to stage that too many planning meetings, no time to do the work as too busy saying how it would be done. No surprise progress was slow. This approach, focusing on nuts and bolts of tasks, fine in past. Now context of work changing. Several famous people quoted saying “if you do what you've always done, you get what you've always got.” Perhaps, in this changing workplace, you'll actually get less than you used to. With these rapid changes, we need a less complex way, a way that takes people into account, increasing flexibility.
. Reality of project management: Mature discipline – books, seminars, conferences, webinars - so why are people struggling World we live in, pressure to be faster, cheaper, use less. doing more, with less, in shorter time Many projects involve several organisations colleague only person from sponsor company in a virtual team with suppliers and consultants from across the world. Losing way inside a project – document purpose lost Seldom are endpoints shared and the same AMS example – 18m project, R&D and Marketing different views of endpoint. Project management - lots of complex methodologies, majority rigidly applied, certifications, organisations. They're about c ommand and control, policing and measuring, beating people up . A co I worked with had developed complex methodology, lost of steps throughout, lots of documents in each step – rigidly applied Then spent ages devising paths through the methodology for different types of project, to shoehorn them into the “one size fits all”
Here's an extreme example of command and control. Picture yourself as a PM – project review every month. At allotted time, go in front of inquisition (head + slt either side). Present project plan & justify what had gone wrong Hauled over coals Focus on gantt and milestones (arbitrary) Brian – saw how to play this system to reduce pain. If moved milestone 2+ months before, didn't get grief. Could keep doing this. Did it benefit the project? For a while, reduced pain. But did slow project down. No sight of delays. No opportunity to get resources when needed. Some PM went to great lengths to avoid inquisition. Holiday, training, visits to suppliers, even off sick.
What makes these experiences more common? Belbin described our working landscape as having 3 phases Pre-industrial --> Industrial --> Post-industrial - Belbin Crofting Ark : Noah according to bible, given specification and very clear purpose Industrial: rise of factories and standardised ways of doing things. Increase complexity. Management moved away from specifics of what. Focus on how and processes. Most projects we're all familiar with fit here Post Industrial: smaller, more focused and agile organisations high tech cottage or croft. Several working together on projects. Example – writing a book across 330 miles using tech, in 6 months We've got methods and processes for projects yet....
83% of them over-run, 83% of them cost more, 83% of them take longer, 83% of them deliver less And they cost at best £50,000 and 3 months to fix, At worst £1,000,000s and years And mine were no different. Even as a professional of 20y experience, knowing the processes, tools and methods, yet my projects still failed. Listened to more than 20 companies and their projects over course of a year They revealed the highs and lows of project life Why do projects fail? 83% of projects fail, not because of documents, not because of methodologies, not because of processes. Fail because of people, how they behave, how they communicate, the relationships they build.
Working environment is changing around us. We're clearly in a post-industrial world. I believe we can't sustain this level of failure. I know there is another way to look at this.
3 keys to successful projects It's about, as Stephen Covey says “beginning with the end in mind” Its about moving from a PM to a leader – people focused, provide direction, align to common goals, involving everyone, communicating to understand perspectives and issues. It's about keeping it simple and flexible. Using NLP tools where they have huge potential to benefit. That's across all 3 steps of a project.
Common thread throughout all projects, all methodologies. Simply; Discover, Design, Deliver
Discover This is the bit that usually is skimmed over, in hast to create a plan, get on with doing something, even if it's not the right something. It's about knowing who has some influence over your success It's about thinking about the risks you face It's about creating a clear and commonly understood end point Lets say we have a project to deliver an elephant. Think of an elephant. What does an elephant look like? We all know what one looks like – so its a simple goal. So the team don't really need to discuss their goal/
You may have been thinking of an; African elephant, A cartoon elephant, A fluffy toy A pink elephant. Which of these project teams was yours? Is it any wonder that the company I talked about earlier got it so wrong?
Design - Creating a realistic, achievable plan Heed lessons from previous experiences Get concrete commitment, Check it makes sense to continue (milestones, reviews) i.e. planning
I was involved with a company embarking on their first project. 3 partners, UK, US and sub contractor at other end of UK Not worked together before. We got the key people together for 3 days Talk about, discuss what the project was trying to do. What it looked like, how it would feel when they reached their endpoint. Then drew up a simple plan, on a sheet of paper. Tasks down one side, people along the other. Simply put dates they would commit to in the boxes. Left the 3 days understanding what was needed and committed to delivering their bit.
Deliver - Executing your plan Build it Deal with parameter changes Well known saying “Plan never survives first contact with the enemy” Well known for a reason, it's true. Usually only get 100% attendance at project meetings when there's an issue. Command and Control comes to the fore. What's much better, team comes together, talk about what's happening. Have shared understanding of why project is going well. Talk about issues and problems and how to resolve them early. Evaluate – about looking back at the project, what worked well, what could be done differently, how the team worked together. So, the what is simple, it's 3 steps. How you go about it is key. Simple but not easy.
Range of NLP tools & other techniques, Here are some that have worked on my projects [Step to one side]
HAM IT UP Logical Levels – Really helped unstick a big problem for a Leadership Team in France Pms said felt unsupported, LT weren't interested. Lacked direction Projects failing Went through Logical Levels with LT – re-framed their purpose 2 months later – talked with some Pms Marked difference – felt supported. LT taking interest & directing, helping find solutions.
HAM IT UP Well Formed Outcomes – used as an effective way of goal setting, getting clear shared endpoint
HAM IT UP I very simple, yet powerful tool is Anchoring. Meetings with one company were always the same. Everyone sat in same places Confrontational, tense One time, sat in place where “awkward person” sits. They had to sit somewhere else, so did others. Difference in meeting tone, not confrontational More productive
HAM IT UP Rep systems – e-bulletin – re-wrote using more conversational language. Check for balance of kinaesthetic, auditory and visual descriptors Introduction re-written to build rapport with the reader. Open rate similar to previous issues, but click through increased Feedback from readers increased.
I was in YET ANOTHER project planning meeting. As usual, firefighitng issues and problems from the previous week. Doing what we always did, getting what we always had. During break in discussion, I jokingly remarked the “even wood lice learn” Meeting picked up again. One of the people, who never spoke up in these meetings, proposed a simple rolling 2 week plan on the wall to see what is going on and spot/address issues and clashes.
You may be wondering how these NLP tools and project steps fit together? Here's how. Sadly, Don't have time to go into how each one is used today. We do use NLP tools and techniques in these stages. In Discover, Logical Levels and Well formed outcomes speak for themselves. To define the plan, Timeline, rapport building, anchors play a key part to reach a shared view quickly and effectively. Milton and Meta Models are used in Defining roles, to clarify and define what everyone's doing. Parameter changes make particular use of rapport and communication to ensure that the changes are well understood and explored. Writing the book "How to Build an Ark", Martin and I followed this process throughout. Meant we could write the book, clarify ideas, test process and make sure worked over distance And HERE IT IS
This is what I've done and how it has changed what I do. Having developed this process and applied the tools and techniques, 100% of my projects have succeeded! What would happen if you applied this process to your project and had 100% success, what would that feel like. Maybe you have questions right now Lets discuss them, TODAY
