2. 360 Degree Behavioural Skills – The
tool for success in Public Sector
Projects in India
A.Ravi – General Manager, ONGC
3. Contents
1. Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 4
2. Inroduction....................................................................................................................................... 4
3. Characteristics of public sector projects ......................................................................................... 4
4. Role of Human side of PM for project success ............................................................................... 6
5. Risk-Interest Matrix of Sponsors and Key stakeholders ................................................................. 6
6. Impact of 360 degree behavioural skills of Project Manager..........................................................6
7. Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
8. References.....................................................................................................................................11
9. Author’s Profile:..............................................................................................................................12
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4. 1. Abstract
Best practices of Project Management produce good results in well conceived and designed projects.
In case of projects where the actual owner is general public, in other words the government, as in the
case of public sector projects, the success depends on the behavioural skills of the project manager.
The plethora of stakeholders of such projects demonstrates a phenomenon of interest in proportion to
the perceived risk he is ready to take. Even this matrix changes continuously with the progress of the
project due to its impact on perception of risk. The project manager has to understand this matrix
clearly and use his behavioural skills within the domain of acceptable risk to the stakeholder to keep
his interest alive in the project for its successful completion. The experiences of executing a project to
replace pipelines of about 287 kms in a producing hydrocarbon field in Assam, India clearly
demonstrates the significance of various dimensions of behavioural skills of a project manager in
project completion against all odds. The dimensions of human skills of the PM increases manifold
when the external business environment is hostile due to social disturbances as in the case of North
East part of India. He needs to don the roles of an expert negotiator, actor, communicator, mentor,
leader, business environment analyst, business strategist, a psychologist and the individual with a
sole aim of completing the project. The paper tracks the impact of each behavioural dimension on the
success of the project supported by the experiences of a completed project in Assam.
2. Inroduction
The tedious compilation of best practices of project management and the continuous research on the
subject have produced voluminous reading material to guide a project to its successful completion
within the parameters of cost, time and objective. However in practice one can see a number of
projects suffer from numerous problems leading to delays in the form of both cost and time overruns.
The complexity of the project, the geographical location of execution of the project, the hierarchy of
impact and importance of the project within the organisation, the status of industrial relations climate
encompassing the project and finally the nature of the project whether a private or public sector
project warrant specific behavioural skills from the project manager for successfully completing the
project. The text books of project management highlight the general skills of team building,
communication, mentoring and leadership as some of the important human skills required of a
successful project manager. It is seen that the boundaries of human skills of the project manager gets
stretched to its limits in those ones where the risks and uncertainties are higher than normal routine
projects. The human side of his position becomes even more important when the industrial climate in
which the project is executed is disturbed and hostile.
3. Characteristics of public sector projects
The classical definition of a public sector is that the business entity is not only owned by public in
general but is also required to follow all the tenets of conducting business in a manner of public good
and social welfare while remaining commercially profitable. Hence in the case of public sector
companies, both in the domain of undertaking projects for other clients and in executing its own
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5. projects through others, the business case is normally robust and consistent with organisational
business objectives. Therefore the projects are not generally terminated midway despite unfavourable
project execution. In large public sector organisations it is normal to have numerous projects being
executed under the same sponsor resulting in complicated interest – influence structure of the
sponsor on a given project. The hierarchy of pseudo ownership itself comprises of many layers and
some of these are even beyond the organisation itself. Hence the levels of risk each hierarchy of
ownership is ready to take depends on factors well beyond the realms of the project itself.
To highlight the concept of multilayer ownership of a project in public sectors, an ongoing project of
ONGC Limited in Assam is discussed. ONGC commissioned a project to modernise its hydrocarbon
gathering, storing, processing and transportation facilities in its producing fields of Lakwa and
Lakhmoni in the State of Assam in 2009 at a cost of about Rs. 2700 crores. The project has two
distinct parallel streams, one that of integrating the processing facilities spread across 21 installations
into 9 integrated processing complexes and second that of laying about 500 kms of new pipelines
connecting these installations with producing wells along with the transportation of processed crude to
nearby terminals. The project has an immediate sponsor in the form of Executive Director of Assam
operations known as the Asset Manager, Assam Asset. He is in turn responsible to the Board
Director, incharge for the land operations of ONGC. The executive purchase committee (EPC), the
Board, the Petroleum ministry controlling oil sector, the Programme implementation ministry, Standing
Committee on Finance and Central coordination committee for north east projects are the other
‘Sponsors’ in their own right to exert control and influence on the project. Figure 1 depicts the typical
multi layer ownership of the project. The objective of the project is to bring the aging facilities on par
with international standards of safety and environmental protection and to achieve additional
production through increased operational efficiency. As it is to add value to the Assam Asset, the
budget provision and the execution is entrusted to the Asset Manager of Assam and a project
manager is exclusively assigned to this project reporting to the Asset Manager.
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6. 4. Role of Human side of PM for project success
The advancements in information technology and its successful application in all walks of life have
effectively reduced the globe into ‘a global village’. This shrinkage of business boundaries has given
rise to projects being executed in different geographical locations across the globe, in different
industrial climates and cultures. There is no denial of the fact that execution of a project in a country
with a fragile industrial climate like Sudan or in parts of India such as north east, Jammu and Kashmir
requires judicious application of behavioural skills of the project manager for the success of the
project. Even though all the risks of the project are mapped and strategies to handle them are also in
place, as per standard project management practices, the role of the project manager to identify,
analyse and use his human side to tide over the potential risks assumes an important dimension. The
execution of the ONGC project in Assam has revealed existence of a relationship between the
interest of the sponsors and important stakeholders and the perceived limit they set for the ‘risk’ in
terms of their support, opinion and involvement. The boundary of risk perception itself was found to
be dynamic in relationship with the progress of the project. The ability and dexterity of the project
manager in using 360 degree behavioural skills is found to effectively increase the risk boundaries of
the sponsors and keep their interest active and high in the project.
5. Risk-Interest Matrix of Sponsors and Key stakeholders
The best practices of project management dictates that the project manager needs to understand his
responsibility domain clearly and seek the help of sponsor or key stakeholders for issues that are
beyond his domain. In a public sector environment, the interest of a sponsor or key stakeholder and
his immediate response in the form of support or decision to the project manager involves higher
degree of human aspects of the relationship of the project manager. It also depends on the method
and timing of such an intervention.
The example of ‘Assam Renewal Project (ARP)’ of ONGC can be used to explain the risk-interest
matrix in a vivid manner. A typical hierarchy of sponsors have been considered to highlight the point.
Asset Manager: The Asset Manager of Assam Asset of ONGC typically has 20 key
performance indicators to assess his calibre in the sphere of his activities. The production of
oil and gas figure prominently among them and maximum of his focus is on the issues that
affect the final numbers with respect to hydrocarbon production. Even though the progress of
Assam Renewal Project is one of the Key Performance Areas(KRAs) with five distinct KPIs
within it, its impact is only 5% in the overall scale of KPIs. Hence his interest in the project
entirely depends on the manner in which the project manager captures his attention to devote
his time and energy. The support of the Asset Manager depends on his perception of ‘risk’ in
terms of his efforts and the resulting benefit from the project in the short term.
Board Director: The domain of his responsibility in comparison to ARP is quite vast and
varied. Assam Asset is only one of the eight Assets spread across land mass of the country
under his jurisdiction. The corporate function of Health, Safety and Environment is also one of
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7. his responsibilities. Here again the Project Manger needs to use his ingenuity to get the
interest of this key stakeholder within his perception of the attention required for the project.
Similarly as we go higher in hierarchy, say to Chairman, Board, the Petroleum ministry, the
amount of focus on the project that they can afford depends on the leveraging skills of the
project manager with a complete understanding of domain of the responsibilities of each of
this hierarchical positions.
The Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Sivasagar district is the designated ‘Competent Authority
(CA)’ for fixing ‘Right of Use (ROU)’ compensation for the land owners under the PMP
Act for laying the pipelines in ARP. The Risk-Interest matrix for this stakeholder is low on both
counts to start with and the risk perception increases with challenges emanating from the
project in terms of industrial relations environment.
M/s RNT Plantations is one of the land owners of a large tea garden through which a major
portion of pipelines are passing in the project. Their Risk-Interest profile is different in
comparison to other stakeholders discussed above. When the risk to their time and money
was less their interest in stalling the project was high and reduced considerably when
continued trouble making started consuming more of their time and resources.
Hence the project manager needs to use his skills to take advantage of opportunities that come to
him or create such occasions to capture the interest of these stakeholders to assist in the project
progress. Figure 2 explains the relationship between the ability to take risk based on perception and
the connectivity with interest in the project.
Sponsor/Key Readiness of risk level Interest in the project Impact of progress of
Stakeholder project
Asset Manager Medium. Lesser focus Consummate with As the project
due to lower % impact share of KPI in progresses to add
on performance overall performance visibility, interest
matrix increases and
readiness to take
higher risk enhances
Board Director Low. One among many Low. Greater focus Leveraging sense of
important projects on those yielding creating history of
greater results with achievement
less risk exponentially increases
interest and readiness
to higher risk
District Low. Pre occupation Medium. Due to Both parameters
Authority (CA) with immediate media glare on an increase in proportion
challenges in hand major investment to results of
employment generation
and development
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8. RNT Low. Due to High. Due to Both parameters
Plantations unwillingness to deploy opportunity of higher decrease with project
resources financial benefits progress
Fig 2. Risk – Interest Model for Sponsors / Key Stakeholders in ARP
6. Impact of 360 degree behavioural skills of Project
Manager
The project management literature puts lot emphasis on the communication of the project manager
for project success. In a well managed project, the time, mode, method and quantum of
communication with respect each key stakeholder is normally planned in advance and followed
meticulously. In case of complex projects executed in high risk environments of social and industrial
unrest, the skills of the project manager need to encompass the application of psychology and the
creative instincts of an innovator to secure support and assistance from sponsors and key
stakeholders.
i. Reshaping the cloud of opinion: The Project Manager needs to constantly monitor the
general perception and opinion of his project within the organisation. The project that is
perceived as a ‘Dog’ akin to the popular BCG growth matrix with the organisation, the
project manager needs to carefully work to alter this opinion so that the ‘risk’ domain of
the sponsor for the project is elongated in relative terms.
The ‘ARP’ project of ONGC started with a perceived opinion of possible delay due to
earlier experiences of executing projects in Assam. Two independent projects of
modernising single installation each by leading industrial houses ended in time overrun of
150-200% coupled with cost escalations. The ARP scope included building of nine
integrated complexes from existing 21 installations.
Creation of a positive opinion on ARP was taken up as a priority activity by the project
manager. The core project team and the associated team were repeatedly emphasised to
always reaffirm that the project would be completed on time and never to make any loose
statements anywhere on possible project delay. This enthusiasm of self belief over time
created a positive opinion of expectancy within the organisation from ARP Team. Extra
focus was given to independent and parallel activities to complete them ahead of time to
reinforce the faith that things are moving unlike earlier times. ‘Progress walk through’,
similar to safety walk through, were arranged taking advantage of the visit of key
stakeholders and sponsors to Assam for other business purposes. The human skills of
the project manager were put to test to include such site visits to ARP in the already
crowed itinerary of higher management. ONGC Board inaugurated the commencement of
pipeline laying in Lakwa field. Secretary(Petroleum) himself witnessed a long section of
pipeline lowering in a tough terrain. Slowly the cloud of positive opinion was built across
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9. the higher hierarchy increasing their individual ‘slope’ between risk and interest in the
project.
ii. Negotiations guided by long term goals: The project manager is perhaps the only
individual who is update with even the trivial happenings in the project. He is called upon
many times during the project execution to use his negotiation skills with different
stakeholders. The key to successful outcome in negotiations depends on the overall
understanding of the project manager about the business environment and his long term
vision for the project.
In ARP, almost 27% of entire scope of 500 kms of pipelines was to be laid in tea garden
area owned by M/s RNT Plantations Limited. This stakeholder has been in loggerheads
with ONGC since the activities related to oil prospecting have been time and again falling
within the tea garden area and have been raising numerous demands of compensation.
Even though the ‘Right of Use (ROU)’ for laying pipelines have been obtained in legal
way through the PMP Act and the compensation fixed by appropriate agency under the
law, the stakeholder had been resisting the attempts of ONGC and the district authorities
to commence the pipeline laying in their garden under one pretext or other with a view of
demanding higher compensation. In view of the social problems typical to Assam, the
district authorities were also not definitive in their efforts and there was no way to
accommodate higher compensation under the law. The project manager negotiated with
the tea garden to allow a single important line to be laid in their garden pending the
finalisation of compensation. This broke the stalemate and increased the interest-risk
profile of the district authorities to enforce genuine legal demand of ONGC. M/s RNT
challenged the state of affairs in Guwahati High Court and the project manager involved
his key core team member with the legal section of ONGC to successfully defend his
position to prevent stay.
iii. Mentoring the stakeholder: In complicated projects where the factors that decide
success lie beyond the domain of influence of the project manager, he needs to go
beyond the normal communication with key stakeholders and step into proactive
mentoring to steer the project in the direction of his wont. This calls for abilities to
understand the risk- interst profile of the stakeholder vis a vis the status of the project.
The Consortium that has undertaken the ARP execution, during the initial phase of the
project, was fathoming the intent and demands of ONGC in interpreting the clauses of the
contract. Added to this factor was the dimension of their high competitive pricing of
almost 25% lower than the nearest bidder. Hence the momentum of progress was slow
and slippages were becoming periodic. The project manager proactively revisited the
planning package of the contractor and started work on parallel activities to gainfully
utilise the resources while working on removing the bottlenecks on the critical path
activities. Once the project attained critical mass of progress the Consortium developed
higher degree of confidence on ONGC and started responding to the suggestions more
willingly.
The social unrest in the execution area was posing another unique kind of problem.
Organised groups were trying to get mileage out of the investment and were creating a
climate of unsafe working condition. The contract is clear on the responsibility of the
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10. Consortium to sort out such issues. However the project manager utilised the image of
ONGC as a reputed organisation operating in the region for more than five decades to
drive home the point that unsafe working conditions would effectively jeopardise
investments in the region stagnating development activities. Over a period of time
situation started improving and the Consortium was able to carry on its activities without
much problems. The project manager had clear understanding of the risk-interest
perception of these organised groups and played on their psychology. If the investments
dry up the groups knew that their opportunity of taking advantage would diminish and
their ‘risk’ would increase. This phenomenon increased their interest in allowing the
project activities go unhindered.
iv. Aggression of a competitor: There are times when the project manager is forced to put
on the mask of an aggressive competitor to face certain challenges in project execution.
Once again he needs to be aware of the equation of interest and the limit of risk of the
stakeholder.
In ARP about 27% of total scope of pipelines was to be laid in tea gardens belonging to
Ms RNT Plantations Limited. Many of ONGC’s drilling locations happened to be within the
garden area since the 70s and also featured labyrinth of pipelines carrying hydrocarbons
across the tea gardens. M/s RNT has been raising a no of objections on the pollution
caused by ONGC and has been claiming compensations regularly both directly as well as
through the intervention of district authorities. M/s RNT started thwarting the attempts of
ONGC to lay pipelines in their garden despite the acquisition of ‘Right of Use (ROU)’
under PMP Act by ONGC to lay pipelines and return back the ROU portion after
restoration. The main objection was their requirement of higher compensation than fixed
under the Act by the competent authority and it was challenged by them in court of law.
This situation had become so complex that the project manager had to analyse and
understand the Risk-Interest matrix of each stakeholder involved to devise
communication strategies to resolve the issue.
The district authorities, represented by the Deputy Commissioner of Sivasagar district of
Assam who was also designated as the ‘Competent Authority’ under the PMP Act,
showed high interest initially since it was a matter of investment in his district and
augured well for additional employment opportunities. The risk for him was minimal since
it did not demand much of his time,efforts or create any IR issues for him. Once M/s RNT,
one of the big tea gardens of Lakwa area started opposing the work of ONGC, the
interest- risk matrix of the DC underwent a drastic change. He was forced to spend much
time and efforts to keep the industrial climate under control and congenial and hence his
risk perception was high and automatically his interest in taking definitive actions started
diminishing. The project manger had to understand this phenomenon and take suitable
actions to keep the interest of this stakeholder high for getting a resolution. ARP released
brochures highlighting the importance of the project for the State of Assam in the regular
‘Meet the Press’ events arranged by the Asset. The ONGC management proactively
highlighted the project in the interactions with State and Central Governments. These
efforts altered the risk perception of the DC and increased his interest on ARP from a
‘nuisance affair’ to an important challenge to tackle.
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11. The stakeholder, M/s RNT, had a different interest-risk profile. They had to balance
between the risk of spending time and money as a risk to maintain their higher interest in
the project for realising higher compensation. They challenged the decisions of DC in the
High Court of Guwahati. The project manager adopted a strategy of an aggressor by
personally getting involved in the legal proceedings to prevent the stay on the project lest
the legal department may miss critical points or even sag on the enthusiasm to go the full
length. This method was adopted based on his interpretation of the risk-interest matrix of
M/s RNT in ARP.
Even though the court did not dismiss the writ petition but on the other hand did not grant any stay on
the project and allowed ONGC to proceed with the work. This development in turn had altered the
matrix of both the stakeholders. The interest on the part of district authorities increased and were
ready to take higher risks for the project while the M/s RNT reduced their efforts of escalating their
risk and reduced their interest in stalling the project.
7. Conclusion
The best practices of project management suggest that the project manager should work out interest-
influence matrix to decide on the communication strategy for the key stakeholders for successful
outcome of the project. The experience of handling a project in a public sector scenario and in a
disturbed external business environment suggest to use an matrix of risk and interest for the sponsors
and key stakeholders to determine to what extent the particular stakeholder is ready to push the
project towards progress balancing his personal risk perception with other factors such as time, effort,
prestige, relative importance with other performance parameters etc. The project manager needs to
adopt a suitable behavioural skill to reduce the stakeholder’s perception of risk and increase his
interest in the project. The project manger needs to adopt various strategies to manipulate this matrix
to his advantage.
8. References
1. Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)- Fourth Edition
2. Progress Reports of Assam Renewal Project, ONGC, Assam Asset
3. An Integral Approach to Project Management by Brad McManus and Ron Cacioppe –
Feature article published in integralleadershipreview.com in June 2012
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12. 9. Author’s Profile:
A. Ravi
Mr. A. Ravi a mechanical engineering graduate from Regional Engineering College,
Kozhikode and holds Post Graduate Diploma in Management in Information Systems form
AIMA, New Delhi. He served in production and R&D streams in private sector companies in
manufacturing before joining ONGC. He is presently heads the implementation of ONGC’s
Assam Renewal Project as a General Manager. He also holds international diploma in
Safety and Health Management for British Safety Council, London. He is qualified ‘Trainer’
from AIMA and a certified Yoga Instructor from SVYASA, Bangalore. He has also completed
International Executive Programme in Oil and Gas from CIPID, Canada.
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