Turning Estimates into Commitments

Guest Blog by Timm J. Esque

The Language of Planning

Think for a moment about the types of statements that get made during the planning of an upcoming project:

-        This project will need more resources than the last one

-        That task will probably take 4 people about 5 weeks to complete

-        We should be able to get that done by the end of the month

-        Meeting that goal is going to be a stretch

These are all examples of a certain type of statement called an assertion.  Assertions extrapolate from our past experience.  We make assertions because we learn from the past, and those learnings are valuable for planning the future.  But those learnings can also hold us back. 

Assertions are an important part of the planning process, but they are only the beginning.  If the conversation of assertions and estimates becomes our schedule, we remain chained to the past throughout the project.  In our modern project environment, full of uncertainty, lots of things don’t go as planned.  And when they don’t we want to revisit and rationalize our assertions - “We said we could do it in 5 weeks because based on what happened last time we expected…”  So our progress reviews tend to get mired in “what ifs” and “shoulda’s” and blame. 

What we really should be talking about in our regular project meetings is the future we are going to create.  This requires a different type of statement called commitments.  At a certain point in the planning process, we need to shift the conversation from assertions to commitments.  Commitments are not tied to the past; they are only and always a declaration about what is going to happen in the future.  When we use commitment language on projects, we are not basing our statements on possibilities, we are declaring that something will get done by a certain time.   Further, when we make commitments, we are putting our personal reputation on the line.  These language distinctions derive from “Speech Act Theory” as posited by John Austin, his student John Searle and his student Fernando Flores.

Commitment, Trust and Reputation

Putting our reputations on the line (operating from commitments) greatly increases the chances that we will create the future we have declared.  It brings the whole issue of trust to the fore.  But it is not as scary as it sounds.  Trust is not black and white, all or nothing.  You can miss a commitment and still build trust with your team mates.  This is a concept we call “early warning”.  When someone realizes a commitment they made is in jeopardy, they need to speak up immediately.  Often times another teammate can help, or the commitment can be re-negotiated so that the team remains on track (maybe the whole committed outcome wasn’t needed to stay on track and the key parts of the deliverables get clarified).  On teams, personal commitments are made in the context of a shared goal, so the issue at hand is not did someone miss a commitment, but what commitments will keep us on track now.  There is no faster or more effective way for teams to build trust than to make , manage and meet commitments to each other on a regular basis.

Where Do We Start?

When my company Ensemble works with teams, we begin the whole planning process with a technique called map day that sets the stage for managing the network of commitments between team members.  But a great place to begin experimenting is with your most immediate team.  Follow these steps:

1.     Using your existing plan/schedule pull off the tasks representing roughly next 6-8 weeks of work

2.     With your small team, identify the outcomes (deliverables) from those schedule items.

3.     Have some discussion about how you’d know each deliverable was complete and done well.

4.     Now have each team member identify their individual deliverables for the next several weeks (we often have team members write their items on post notes and put them on a timeline).

5.     Scrub this plan for dependencies and take into account vacations, etc.

6.     Now moving from left to right on the plan, for each deliverable, ask the owner if they can commit to deliver that deliverable on that day. (Making this a deliberate step is key)

For Agile teams operating from a backlog of stories, simply identify the personal commitments required to support each story.  It is important to remind people at step 6 that these are not estimates, you are asking for their personal commitment.  Most likely, before you get through the 6-8 week horizon, people will start balking – there is too much uncertainty.  That is no problem.  Start tracking the commitments you have together as a team each week.  Every week, you can see if team members can turn some of those future deliverables into commitments.  Over time, when done right, teams will build “commitment muscle”, meaning individuals will be willing to commit further into the future, in spite of uncertainty. 

For 17 years now we’ve been helping teams large and small operate from commitments.  We recommend teams track team performance against commitment with a simple tool we call a PAC chart.  Not only does the chart predict which teams will meet their commits in the future, but productivity measurably increases almost immediately. What is stopping your team from operating from commitments?

 

Timm Esque is author of No Surprises Project Management (1999, ACT Publishing) and Co-founder of Ensemble Management Consulting.  He has been cited in the Wall Street Journal as an expert on performance under pressure.  If you’d like some help turn estimates into commitments (and maybe to learn the map day technique), consider coming to an Ensemble Commitment-Based PM Workshop.  All workshops include follow-up coaching.  We also offer a performance-based CBPM Certification.  The next workshop is in Silicon Valley on November 7&8.  Click here for more information. For an additional 10% off the Early Registration price for The Complete CBPM Workshop enter promo code "fromzenpm" at the workshop registration page.

Agile - not just for technology any more

A fellow volunteer of the PMI Agile Community of Practice pointed me to this article on non-software uses of Scrum. As someone that has been using agile for some time, I'm not surprised at some of the uses. Think about how much we do in our day to day life that is really projects and how any project can benefit from the right amount of structure. If I can save 1 additional trip to the hardware store with a little planning, it's worth it.

I even have my wife doing Kanban. I set up a board on Trello and she is adding tasks for me; things to do around the house. We haven't started doing daily stand-ups, but I can look at what she put on the "to-do" column and discuss with her what is next on the list that needs to be done in the upcoming weekend. 

I didn't tell her she was doing Kanban. I think I'll let her get used to the idea first, then maybe introduce her to the book Personal Kanban. I know with some of my clients, they became apprehensive when I started using terms they weren't familiar with so I didn't want to get hung up in terminology now.

Building Community

A portion of the leadership team from the PMI Agile Community of Practice participated in a Leadership Institute Meeting (LIM) with members of the other PMI Communities. The meeting was organized by PMI for the purpose of planning activities for 2013.

The meeting was held following the principals of "World Cafe," which includes;

• Speaking with your mind and heart
• Slow down and take time to think
• Listening together for patterns, insights, and connections
• Focusing on what matters
• Having fun

As part of the process, we had a graphic facilitator. This person's role was to capture our conversations on paper; in this case on 4 foot by 8 foot posters. Each day we had a colorful set of pictures and words that captured the discussions. According to the World Cafe website, this technique is for;

Enabling people to see their contribution to the whole increases participation and fosters trust and connection and the large displays of themes and insights naturally weave together diverse perspectives into a composite "picture" that reflects the collective intelligence in the room.

This was the first time I had seen a graphic facilitator, but it was interesting to watch. She was in a front corner of the room capturing her impressions of the meeting. At the end of each day, we had a summary of the key points of the day, and at the end of the 3-day meeting, the main facilitators walked through each drawing and commented on the points that resonated with them. You can read more about graphic facilitation here.

3 Ways to Use Technology to Build A Servant Leadership Culture

The following is a guest post from Ginni Chen, Chief Happiness Officer at iDoneThis

The Chinese philosopher Lao-Tsu said, “To lead people, walk beside them … As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence … When the best leader’s work is done the people say, ‘We did it ourselves!”  

This is now more important than ever as businesses gain a competitive advantage by nurturing the productivity, creativity and talent of their workers.

Today, innovative founders and CEOs at tech startups are engineering ways to build servant leadership directly into the fiber of everyday life at their companies through the use of technology.  In doing so, they’re becoming some of the most sought-after places to work for top talent.  

1.  Walking beside your team -- use technology to make your company culture open and transparent.

Open and transparent communication channels without hierarchy reinforces that servant leaders walk beside their team, not in front of them.  In a transparent company, the CEO is just as accountable for getting stuff done as any other employee, and the only way to lead is by example.

Facebook founder Dustin Moskovitz created Asana, a task management application. Unlike traditional task management applications, Asana not only makes it easy to divide and assign tasks and deadlines, it makes the process transparent so that everyone can see the tasks and objectives of everyone else.

It’s a radical change that has the potential to upend corporate hierarchical structure -- individual employees now can see what the CEO is working on.  Moreover, they can assign tasks to the CEO!  

2. Get out of the way -- software provides channels for constant feedback without micromanagement

In The Progress Principle, Harvard Business School professor Teresa Amabile and psychologist Steven Kramer found a surprising result: 95% of managers were wrong in thinking that the #1 motivator for employees at work was bonuses and financial incentive.  Rather, employees are most motivated by daily progress towards a meaningful goal.  A manager’s job then, is to lead with a compelling vision, remove causes of setbacks and impediments to progress, and then stay out of the way.

At Google, they use an internal software program called Snippets to embody this idea.  Every week, employees receive a weekly email asking them to write down what they did last week and what they plan to do in the upcoming week.  Replies get compiled in a public space and distributed automatically the following day by email.

The Snippets process encourages reflecting on progress made and giving thought to making the most of the upcoming week.  The power of reflection to recognize progress and focus on the company’s most important objectives has made Google one of the world’s most productive companies.

As Google diaspora spread throughout Silicon Valley, so did the process of Snippets.  Many hot startups, such as Foursquare, use iDoneThis as a simple way to bring the process of Google snippets to their company.

3.      Celebrate accomplishments as a team -- encourage feedback and gratitude every day.

Rather than traditional performance reviews, bonuses, and company parties, innovative tech startups have come up with ingenious ways to celebrate accomplishments as a team on an ongoing basis instead of once a year.

At Shopify, an e-commerce software startup that’s doubled in size in the past year, they’ve built an internal system called Unicorn that makes it fun and profitable to recognize the accomplishments of others.

When a colleague does an awesome job, it’s easy to go into Unicorn, log her accomplishment, and give her one, two or three unicorns by way of thanks.  At the end of each month, a proportion of the company’s profits are set aside for Unicorn bonuses.  Every employee gets a bonus that comes straight from the coworkers who sent her unicorns in appreciation for her hard work.

Conclusion

This is how the most innovative companies are engineering servant leadership into their work culture.  How have you been successful in building a culture of servant leadership?  Let me know your thoughts on what helps you encourage service in your company’s leaders.

Ginni Chen is the Chief Happiness Officer at iDoneThis, status reports at your company with the lightest possible touch.

Vacation

I was out on vacation last week. My son and I traveled to Utah for a week of climbing and hiking. It was a week away from email, conference calls, and status reports…very refreshing. The picture is from Lake Blanche in the Wasatch range.

I'm continuing to read The Five Keys to Mindful Communication. I came across the idea that in order to be open to listening to others, we first have to be able to listen to our self through meditation. "Relaxation is the key to mindfulness practice…" 

When someone comes to you, are you ready to listen to them? Can you stop what you're doing and focus on them? One practice I developed back when I worked in an office was if someone came into my office, I would stop what I was doing and focus on them. I wouldn't continue to type on the computer. I'd put my magazine or report down. I'd listen.

Listening is an active process. By taking time to meditate, we learn to quiet our own mind and listen to ourself. That gives us the ability to quiet our mind and listen to someone else when they come to us. A good vacation can do the same thing, bring you back to the office ready to listen. Have you meditated or taken vacation lately? Maybe you're overdue.

A Dog and a Polar Bear

I recently started reading the book the five keys to mindful communication by Susan Gillis Chapman. In the beginning, she tells the story that goes with the pictures that you can find here. As she tells it, Churchill the dog was tied to a stake outside a cabin somewhere in the Arctic. The owner (National Geographic photographer Norbert Rosing) spotted a polar bear coming towards his dog. The owner knew he was already to late to do anything, so he grabbed his camera. What came next surprised him. Churchill didn't get defensive; he started wagging his tail playfully as the bear approached. The bear didn't act aggressively either, he responded to Churchill's behavior and started playing with him. As the story goes, the bear came back on several occasions to play with Churchill. 

This story is a great lesson for how we communicate. If we get defensive, putting up a wall, our conversation will be different than if we are open and engaging when someone approaches us. Early in the book, Chapman talks about how we need to pay attention to how we respond and have an open mind. She talks about moving away from "Me-First" to "We-First" in our relationships.

This last idea started me thinking about Servant-Leadership. A project manager that practices Servant-Leadership thinks in terms of how they can help the team before they think about themselves. They are aware of their team's needs and they listen.

So next time you are in a conversation, stop and be aware of how you are communicating. Are you really paying attention to what the other person is saying or are you going on the defensive and preparing your next response? 

Mobility and the Project Manager

I read a blog post today about mobile BPM (business process management) written by a colleague of mine, Scott Francis. Scott and I have worked together on BPM projects over the past few years. Having recently purchased the latest iPad, his post got me thinking about how mobile technology is changing the world of project management, or is it?

I am taking over a program after the first release went to production. The user stories are all in a cloud-based PM tool, organized in iterations and releases. So when I created a card board and put the user stories on post-it notes and stuck them up there, my developers made fun of me…but they have been keeping it updated without any prompting. So the question is, how much technology do we need? Can a project be successfully run with just a white board and a stack of post-it notes?

I will always take the simplest solution. When it comes to managing a co-located team, a cardboard is very effective. You can take a quick look and know exactly the status of the iteration. If you have 2 days left in the iteration and a bunch of cards in the column for waiting user acceptance, you know where you need to focus you time. One of the principals of Kanban is to make your process visible, and a cardboard does this very effectively, even if you're not using Kanban.

However, in a program like I'm running, with multiple iterations and releases, you need something more comprehensive to keep track of everything. We planned our next iteration this week. We were using our on-line tool to have a view into all of the stories. As we whittled down the stories for the next iteration, it let us know how many points we had selected, so we knew when we were within our velocity.

Going back to Scott's article, from a mobility standpoint, I carry my iPad around with me all day. I use it to capture notes in meetings, rather than using pen/paper. With Evernote, my notes are available on my laptop when I get back; or even my iPhone if necessary. I can also access our PM tool thru the iPad, so I have our plan at my fingertips, regardless of where I am. It's this instant access to information that makes the mobile tool valuable.

So, what's your favorite approach/application for managing projects?