Is there a perfect environment for projects?

By Arthur Shelley

Projects are the core drivers of change in any organisation. But change relies heavily upon integrated process, software, hierarchy and behavioural transformation. The fact that many projects fail to deliver what they were meant to should not be a surprise, since implementation teams are rarely fully equipped to deliver all of these facets in an aligned manner.

One error commonly made is to consider the project team as a separate entity in its own right. The team thus becomes ‘ring-fenced’ in order to get the job done, and, in doing so, often loses touch with the realities of ‘the business’. These two terms in themselves reinforce the sense of separation. They imply the project is a satellite, beaming selected transmissions down, rather than acting as an entity within, working alongside other colleagues towards a common goal.

Another error is for team selection to be carried out solely on a skills basis, or according to whoever is available at the time. The latter can be a real issue in itself: Why are project team members ‘available’, anyway?

In fact, team compatibility, diversity of behaviour and the way the team interacts with, and remains part of, the wider business are critical to success. You need to have some aggressive ‘hyenas’ or ‘lions’ on your team to make change happen, but you also need to have some productive ‘dogs’ and ‘mice’ to get the leg-work completed. The team dynamics with both predator and prey in close contact needs to be well-managed if it is to work.

It is very difficult for a team to influence the business without constant interaction with ALL stakeholders across the business. For this to be effective, the right matching of project team member to ALL affected stakeholders needs to occur throughout the course of the project. The team ‘lion’ is matched to the senior business stakeholders and the team ‘dogs’ and ‘mice’ to more junior, process-orientated employees affected by the project changes to ensure wide acceptance.

This ongoing relationship between the team member and the stakeholder provides the stakeholder with some ‘skin in the game’, generating ownership by people in the wider business. They believe their ‘animal in the team’ (or relationship partner) provides them a voice and keeps them in touch with progress and issues. Too often, good technical solutions are implemented, but fail because relationship building only occurs at handover stage. In other words, stakeholders believe the project is being done to them, rather than done for them.

An environment that generates successful projects is more likely to recruit members to project teams from broad networks across the business. The networks are maintained through the informal personal interactions that ensure the communities remain aligned with the ‘bigger picture’ and overall business goals.

There is a mutual respect across these networks and people assist each other in times of crisis or opportunity assessment. Because the team members assimilate back into the networks after each project, project learnings are shared through stories and other informal exchanges and adapted to new situations to ensure mistakes are not made again. The overall experience and capability of the organisation is enhanced and the solution embedded and owned within ‘the business’ and is therefore sustained, instead of becoming a white elephant.

Arthur Shelley is technical knowledge director, global science and technology, at confectionary and drinks company Cadbury Schweppes. He is also the author of The Organizational Zoo: A Survival Guide to Workplace Behavior. For more information, please visit: www.organizationalzoo.com. To contact Arthur, please e-mail arthur.shelley@ap.csplc.com.

The illustration has been reproduced courtesy of John Szabo, whose work can be seen in The Organizational Zoo. He can be contacted by e-mailing john.szabo@colesmyer.com.au.