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Welcome to the PMO Strategies Podcast + Blog, where PMO leaders become IMPACT Drivers!

NOTE: For the very best experience, listen to this episode on your favorite podcast provider here.

This episode is sponsored by:
Imagine it, achieve it and make an impact with Clarizen’s enterprise collaborative work management solution.

Clarizen offers the only adaptive solution on the market for enterprise collaborative work management. Their solution enables you to work in whatever manner you want – whether water, agile or a combination of the two. Companies find immense value in the visibility the solution brings across the many workstreams at a company – regardless of where the work is being done.  People quickly turn ideas into strategies, plans and actions to adapt and respond faster to market changes.

Projects leaders can move faster with better data, eliminate work chaos with complete transparency and work smarter with better results.

OK, let’s dive into some tips for both PMO leaders and project managers that must step up to the challenge of managing projects during chaotic times.

No matter where you personally sit on the panic spectrum, we are living in a very chaotic time as the Coronavirus spreads globally.  Schools are closing, trips are being canceled

Last week the U.S. President shut down all travel from Europe as Us citizens scramble to get home as quickly as they can even though US Citizens can still get back into the country next week.  And, you can’t find toilet paper and bottled water to save your life because, people are expecting to never be able to leave the house again.

CDC’s Nancy Messonnier said: “Disruption to everyday life may be severe. These are things that people need to start thinking about now.”

Life might already feel chaotic and this could just be a harbinger of things to come.  And It’s impacting your work, as well. Some of my clients have canceled all business travel for the foreseeable future, which means business meetings aren’t happening, client work is slowing, and companies are starting to slow down their spending to respond to the economic slow down that’s already started happening.

Now, add to that what you might be going through personally. You might not be panicked about catching the virus, but you are going to lose your mind if your child’s school closes for the next month or two. How will you work?  You might be caring for an elderly parent with a weakened immune system or be worrying about aging parents in a different city. You might have your own health issues that make it nerve wracking during the winter months already with an increase in flu cases and now the corona virus has you completely on edge.

Or maybe you’re in a big city and your daily commute requires you to encounter hundreds of other people in close quarters.

No matter where you personally sit on the spectrum of concern the chaos we’re under now, that may be around for a while will certainly have an impact on the projects you are managing or the portfolio of initiatives you oversee with your PMO.  It doesn’t really matter if you think it’s all insane or are worried about how you’re going to stay healthy and sane during this process, you have an important role to play in keeping things moving as smoothly as you can at work. Afterall you are the leader of change in your organization and your people are looking for someone to guide them during the chaos.

In fact, this is our superpower – herding cats. And now, more than ever, the people in your organization need a cat herder, someone to be a calm voice in the storm of the days ahead.

Imagine it, achieve it and make an impact with Clarizen’s enterprise collaborative work management solution.

Clarizen offers the only adaptive solution on the market for enterprise collaborative work management. Their solution enables you to work in whatever manner you want – whether water, agile or a combination of the two. Companies find immense value in the visibility the solution brings across the many workstreams at a company – regardless of where the work is being done.  People quickly turn ideas into strategies, plans and actions to adapt and respond faster to market changes.

Projects leaders can move faster with better data, eliminate work chaos with complete transparency and work smarter with better results.

Now is the time to go to our strengths and find ways to help our organization address the chaos and I’d like to look at both roles, the project manager managing projects and the PMO leader driving change in an organization.

Now, I for one am hoping you don’t end up having to do all of this, however as James Cameron is quoted for saying, “Hope is not a strategy. Luck is not a factor. Fear is not an option.”

So, with that in mind, I offer you some suggestions on ways you can maintain your sanity and the sanity of others during this chaotic time.

Let’s start with project managers. Here are some things you can do to help your project teams and sponsor during this time:

  1. Take stock of where this project is now and gather your team to do a quick assessment.
  2. If you’ve got a risk register, bring that to the table, you might find that you have some risk responses in there that can be useful for this exercise. And depending on what type of work you do, you may have already included some disaster planning into your risk management and just need to put some plans in place.
  3. During the assessment process, talk to your team about the very likely risks that projects will slow, staff will be less available because kids could be out of school, people might start working at home, someone will get sick, the team will need to adjust.
  4. Evaluate the likelihood of things slowing down or your project getting canceled. Even if the project gets postponed or canceled, there’s still a lot of work to be done to figure out how you will put a bow on the project until you can unwrap it again. What will happen to the resources? Are there contracts that need to be evaluated to determine who gets paid what when things are canceled or put on hold? What about items that are in the middle of a sprint or development phase? Can we document where we are leaving off in the event things pick back up?
  5. Now what about the other side of this coin? There are certain businesses that might start booming as a result of this pandemic. Do you work in an online retailer or training business? Do you provide online services such as teleconferencing? Your projects could actually get accelerated as a result of what’s going on right now. How would you prepare for this especially under the circumstances of possible loss of resources due to some of the reasons we mentioned above?
  6. Remember that this is an “all hands on deck” time and people will need to be flexible and color outside the lines a little, step into roles that aren’t normally their responsibility, to make sure your project, your team, and your organization come through this as best as they can.
  7. Another aspect of this might be working from home. If you are like some of my clients that have transitioned to mostly remote work, you already have a ton of protocols in place and a set of norms that work well for effectively communicating and managing work. But if you are not in this boat and your company wants to make this transition, you’ll need to think about how to best make that work. For example, you might have team members that are not used to working at home, some folks that really crave the human interaction they get from their office mates, or others that will be trying to balance working with caring for other family members in their home. What can you, your team, and your organization put in place to support strong communication and collaboration during this time? Consider software and tools that are designed specifically to support this kind of globalized work environment. Consider how you can minimize the impact and keep morale high during this time. Make this a team discussion and work together to develop some working agreements that meet all of your team members needs?

What if you’re one of those project managers working on a project that just won’t get canceled?

GREAT.

You’re still going to get impacted by some of this chaos. Even if you don’t have people calling out sick or you’re already used to working at home, the disruptors going on in our community are enough to cause people to be distracted. You may not get their full focus and attention right now and you need to manage for that and know that you will have to be extra vigilant in staying on top of due dates and deliverables.

Imagine it, achieve it and make an impact with Clarizen’s enterprise collaborative work management solution.

Clarizen offers the only adaptive solution on the market for enterprise collaborative work management. Their solution enables you to work in whatever manner you want – whether water, agile or a combination of the two. Companies find immense value in the visibility the solution brings across the many workstreams at a company – regardless of where the work is being done.  People quickly turn ideas into strategies, plans and actions to adapt and respond faster to market changes.

Projects leaders can move faster with better data, eliminate work chaos with complete transparency and work smarter with better results.

OK, now some ideas for PMO leaders.

If you’re a pmo leader and you’ve been listening to this podcast, you know I talk a lot about building an organization that can respond to the shifting business needs and needing to be nimble or “agile” enough to do that on short notice.

This, my friend, is a perfect example of why I say that.

So, instead of waiting for your business leaders to start asking you to gather information or to perform certain tasks, as they are still sorting out the chaos and trying to figure out how they should respond, I’d recommend you start making a list of ways you and your team can support the organization’s leadership team in making the decisions that are to come, for certain.

This is a great time for you to step up, be proactive, and be that trusted advisor for your business leaders.

  1. You can start by reviewing the portfolio of projects. They will likely need this data to make decisions if resources, especially single point of failure subject matter experts, start getting sick or needing to care for family members. Or they may decide to pull back budgets and do less of the projects to help respond to the uncertainty.
    • Is everything up to date?
    • Do you have information about resources so you can help them respond if resources shift?
    • Are the projects prioritized, so that they could easily see which projects could be put on hold with the least impact?
  2. Once you’ve got the portfolio solid, what can you do to support the inevitable decision-making process that’s to come?
    • Look at how these changes happening could influence how your company does business.
      • Will sales likely go down? Could they go up?
      • Is the company likely to go down and in and put projects on hold or are there key areas that could get accelerated?
  3. What about release or launch dates for certain projects? How will all of this influence them?
  4. You can also look at how you can provide support services to project managers throughout the organization.
    • Is there a quick lunch and learn style training you could put in place that guide them on ways to prepare their projects for the impact of coronavirus?
    • Could you and your team provide advisory services as they are going through some of the tips of suggested here for PMs?
  5. Look at this from change management perspective. Are there big initiatives that are underway or about to be launched that will cause a lot of change in your organization? If so, now might not be the best time to launch them. For all the reasons we mentioned above, people will be distracted, living in fear, and dealing with their own personal chaos. They might start to FEEL like simply commuting to work is like traveling through a war zone so it’s not very likely that big change will be digested well. You may find yourself needing to make the case to your business leaders that now might not be the best time to deliver that big ERP system that changes the way everyone works on a daily basis. And if they still insist on moving forward, you will need to be the one to help them figure out how to make that happen with all of the other additional risks being realized one after the other.
  6. Finally, how can you help the organization stay productive until things settle down? Does your organization have the technology in place to support people working remotely effectively? Are there business processes or procedures that might need updating or changing? Are communication lines clear? Do people know how to keep the trains running? These are all areas you may find that you can at the very least ask questions and at best be responsible for facilitating their answers. Remember, you want to be thought of as the “go to” in your organization when things are tough. People will remember your leadership during this time and that can lead to more credibility and trust when things settle back down.

And finally, for all my consultants and business leaders out there listening, how can you help? That’s it. That’s the question I would ask. Be there for your clients and stakeholders. Regardless of how you feel personally about the virus and whether you think people are overreacting or not taking it seriously enough, know that you will be working with people across the entire spectrum. They key to doing what you do well is putting yourself in the shoes of your clients/stakeholders/employees, etc. and meeting them where they are, not where you want them to be. They must know you hear them, you have their back, and that they aren’t in this alone.

And to all of you listening, this is your moment to shine, to be the hero, and to help your organization navigate the decisions they are about to make or have already started making. Moments like this, when things get tough, are a perfect time for all of you IMPACT Drivers out there to shine and be exactly who they need you to be

Real opportunity to step up and lead in chaos.

With that said, I invite you to share your ideas on ways you are managing the chaos right on our website at https://pmostrategies.com/040.

Thank you so much for taking the time listen to this podcast!

Thanks for taking the time to check out the podcast!

I welcome your feedback and insights! 

I’d love to know what you think and if you love it, please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast player. Please leave a comment below to share your thoughts. See you online!

Warmly,

Laura Barnard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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