Lies and dashboards

Sorry to tell you this, but the majority of management dashboards are far from the truth. This is especially true for project management.

This is how it works. No one wants to hear bad news, and the way it manifests itself is “give me bad news and I give you pain”! Don’t give me problems, give me solutions.

This is fine and I agree in principal, but the implication of this approach is,

many Dashboards are not a real reflection of the situation to avoid drama and escalation.

Things look nice and green, sometimes a little yellow, but overall not a real reflection of either the key activity, Issues or the real status of a project.

What’s the answer I hear you ask ?

It depends where you’re at. If its an existing project, get someone the team trust in the middle as a buffer, go back to the source, the statement of work and build the real truth from there. Make people feel safe to be transparent.

What was committed to the customer. Now look at the key milestones, do they really reflect what was committed at the outset, and honestly review the key milestones and the realistic delivery dates and any potential issues in the real world.

Now you have this baseline review the project plan, and see where you are against it and the real dates.

Now you have an honest appraisal of where you are, what the gaps are and the realistic dates that can be achieved.

If it’s a new project, recognise that the price of pain drives people to give you a massaged outlook.

By the way, this is not only present in project management. I was recently on a plane sitting next to an FD of an organsiation, who explained to me that the CEO he worked for always tells him, “I’ve never missed my targets in last 5 years, not planning on doing so now” What do you think his dashboard looks like ?

By the way this doesn’t mean we should be soft and not deal with the key issues that are present, I’m just suggesting you can create the right culture to be more transparent. It’s a bit like empowerment; people wont take it unless they feel safe to do so.

So the truth is, the rough and tumble of business life drives a certain behavior, but the great news is once you understand this, you can create an environment that gives your team the safety to be honest and realistic, so you can understand and deal with the real issues and be comfortable and confident that you are acting and making business decisions based on the real truth.

5 Tips for Improving your Interview Chances by 50%

The truth is most people dont Interview well.

I've Interviewed thousands of people over the last few years and its amazing how potentially great people screw it up!

I dont know what happens to people, they take leave of their senses and if they were standing back watching themselves they would be amazed.

There are quite a few books on the subject and numerous articles but most of them focus on the basics of getting to the interview or body language.

I want to de-mystify what really goes on in the real world.

Firstly the text books make an assumption that the person Interviewing you Interviews by the book. They dont.

The Interviewer is generally too busy to get prepared. Have you ever been to an Interview where the person Interviewing you has just picked up your CV on the way to the meeting.

Here are 5 tips for Improving your chances by 50%

1. Research like crazy.

Research everything you can, the company their annual report for signs of what the strategy is and where they might be going, and research the person you are going to see and find out what they have done, what they like, using Google, Linkedin or through your Network, then make sure you keep linking back to it in the Interview. If you find someone you know that is linked the the interviewer try and break the ice by mentioning them.

2. Be confident but not arrogant and believe you will get the role

People smell blood, don't be weak at an interview, be confident in what you do, think of the language you use, avoid saying we did this and we did that, sounds like you didn't do anything someone else did.

Dont be arrogant, but hold your own, look someone in the eye, believe you are going to get the role. Look if you're good at doing this job, then they would be mad not to hire you, and if you've done the research upfront this will re-enforce you know what to do and how to do it to yourself

3. Dress the part

I dont care what people say, you don't get a second chance to make a good first impression, its all part of the package. Avoid being too trendy

4. Think through and plan the answers to the questions they will ask you

But Gary, I dont know what they are going to ask. Want a bet, most Interviewers ask the same questions they are sometimes wrapped up differently. Also, the interviewers job is to gain evidence, so make sure you keep the conversation focussed on giving evidence without rambling on

These are some of questions you need an answer to:

What would you do if you got the job in the first 90 days

Whats the most difficult thing you have had to do

Give me examples where your project failed, what did you do how would you handle it differently

Why should they give you the job versus someone else, feel free to blow your trumpet but as you have planned this give them real examples of where you have done it before, or what you would do

At some point in the Interview they are going to ask the question that phases most people. It may be disguissed but its coming and you need to plan an answer

What are your strengths and weaknesses.

The strengths are easy but the weakness question is the one that kills people.

In my experience when I ask this question, people are normally very honest, only the other day someone told me he was unorganised and lacked focus, which was a bit of a challenge for a project management role.

You need to give something away but not the thing thats going to kill you.

I suggested to a sales person recently to say

"Im very driven, thats not everyone's cup of tea"

5. Ask a meaningful question at the beginning and the end

Before you launch into boring people about your life story, ask a well planned question at the beginning that lets the interviewer know that you know what youre about, like

"is this area serious for the whole company, what's the plan for the next 12 months, and how will you know its been successful"

At the end of the Interview finish with another well planned question.

Hope some of these ideas are helpful, wishing you every success

discomfortably comfortable

I speak with a great deal of people who are discontent at the moment for a number of reasons, time rolls on before you know it months and years go by, and we sometimes look back and wonder where time went.
I spoke with someone the other day, he told me he married his wife to spend more time with her and ended up marrying his work instead.
People are working really hard, then the market challenge came and it compacted the problem. People started to fear more, maybe about their jobs, their Boss told them they should be thankful they had a job, and before you know it you end up putting up with the very thing we said we never would.
Then procrastination steps in, we are too busy being busy to stop and sharpen the axe.

Whenever we start a new job or take over a new function we write a 90 day plan and arrange an offsite meeting to strategise on where we should go with the team, but how often do we do the same for ourselves.
We write appraisals for our team and do one on one meetings to talk about their future, but what about ourselves.
I appreciate at a senior level its not cool to think about these things, but business is fragile, its a complex city structure made of paper, and any day someone can walk on your  paper city with little notice.


Take some time out to reflect on what you are doing and what you really want to do, and build a plan to get there, you deserve it !

Escalate or procrastinate, anyway... pass the potato

Picture this... you are in a corporate environment and you are concerned about how something is going or if a project is moving quick enough so you escalate.

What happens next.... well it goes up an organisation until eventually gets to someone who can do something about it.
What goes up must come down right ?

What happens next, you go up the management chain, then someone comes back down like a boomerang and asks the same questions you would have asked and now youre micro managing the people who need to get the thing done, they get bitter and twisted and slow down because they think you don't trust them, then they start drinking, put their tools down and go home.

The very thing you were trying to speed up just slowed down.

Who's fault ? for not managing upwardly ?

Ok, I'm exaggerating a little, but not much.

Is there a better way ?  Absolutely.

Look, I'm not saying if things arn't moving you should leave them, but the height of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

The three things to do to accelerate a project are:

1. Discover

Work out what the real problem is, get buy in from the people you are working with, they know whats going on, they're probably just a bit weiry and too close to the problem

2. Coach & Act

Once youve found out what's going on, brainstorm ways to get the best traction, you will be surprised by the result. The person with the problem knows the answer they are just looking for leadership and support.

3. Inform

This old fashioned method doesn't work and is in-effective.(Tell people your problem for support, then they beat you up with it!)

Definitely the professional way is keep people in the loop, give them feedback on whats going on and what you are doing about it, it makes you look good and stops them driving you mad. By the way, If they are driving you mad, that's your fault!

Interested to hear from your experience the best methods you have seen to mange effective escalations and more importantly getting critical stuff done with a sense or urgency.

Make it happen the right way, you deserve it!

DIY SURGERY - Dont try this at home

When you are managing people remotely there's a temptation to leave people alone to get on with life, and after all people don't want to be micro-managed. But recently I was reminded of the importance of spending quality time with people in a supportive role, so they know you care and they have someone to lean on, with surprising results.
I was travelling to a european country and spending time with one of the leaders where he described his frustration with people who don't follow through.
He described the problem where some issue had been outstanding for 3 months, and not outstanding in the positive sense.
As that person happened to be in the office that day I suggested we got him to come into the room where we were working, we quickly discussed the problem together and came up with a joint solution which he went away and immediately resolved.

We repeated this with 3 other individuals throughout the day with similar success.

Wow, this got me thinking !

We are always so busy being busy that sometimes I missed the obvious.

If you manage people remotely, why not set up a "Surgery Day" where you can spend constructive time with the manager, but also play a supportive role with the larger team, and build a brilliant relationships at the same time, getting to know people better but visually showing your support.
Do it Your Self Surgery!, try it, you will get amazing results (don't try this at home)

3 Reasons transformations fail and 3 ways to get success

Most transformations fail to get traction


Most transformations fail for three key reasons:

No/Low Sponsorship
The change required is understood intellectually but doesn’t really have senior level or stakeholder commitment, mainly because they don’t believe the outcome will meet the goal, and that the activity will de-focus people away from the core business
Failing to balance the short and long term
Organisations try to change too much at once, and not focus on the areas that will give the greatest return, and therefore spread the jam too thin, with little real traction in the right areas, and take too long to get a result. Transformation should be long and short term focused, with a strong focus on short/medium significant results
No/Low Focus
Because people are already busy, the wrong people are assigned normally on a part time basis. Generally having the wrong people doing the wrong things, too much analysis and presumptions about what needs addressed with a lack of experience about what really needs to be done, and the people who have the experience and need to be assigned are busy elsewhere or not put forward by their management, as Transformation sometimes gets seen as something that is done on the side.
So what are the three priority activities I should address ?

1. Maintain your Sweet spot

Your Company core business is key. This is your sweet spot, It makes sense to maintain the integrity of this area and build a wrap around it so you are improving the service but linking it to services which are incremental but complementary to the core. Look for areas of significant Improvement in the core but don’t divert the majority of the people.
2. Build a Parallel Stream

Create focused solutions that are a wrap to the core business. Develop incremental business streams that are the fastest to build and are key up sell services that complement the core and provide customers the opportunity to enhance what they already have. This will be the fastest and most successful way to addresses year 2 onwards of the 5 Year plan and get ahead of the curve in time.
Get a small team of people who are dedicated full-time, use mainly internal people so you can get commitment and bring people with you on the journey, add a few customer advocates and an external subject matter expert who knows the pitfalls, knows what good looks like and has a track record of doing this before.
3. Prove the value quickly
There are 90-120 days to get traction, during your focused work stream make sure you get Incremental and significant results quickly so people see that this is not another programme that doesn’t deliver, and your stakeholders gain confidence quickly. This will also ensure further sponsorship you will require to accelerate. You will need to have a really clear idea about where to focus for the best returns and move aggressively towards your goal. Shock and Awe!

Keep your head when others are losing theirs

It’s an interesting time at the moment, a number of people are recalling similar stories, the current market is bringing out the best and the worst behaviour in people. Pressure and uncertainty does interesting things to people. consequence is you may be working for someone right now that’s acting a little strange and putting you under pressure for non rational reasons. You may even be one of those people, no Gary, not me I hear you say, maybe you dont realise it. Anyway, they can be forgiven, tough market, uncertainty, a little bit nervous.

The truth is the reality is a little different, you get what you expect, and there are a number of people out there who are really moving forward at the moment.They are keeping their heads when others are losing theirs, and I don’t mean jobs. Its not what happens to you right now that matters its how you react to what happens. A close friend once told me, don’t worry about organisational change, keep your head, work hard, be professional, and wait 3 months it will all change anyway, and to be honest, if it doesn’t, you can.

We spend most of our day at work, we may as well make sure we’re having fun.

Here is a tip for changing someones mood, especially the grumpy ones;

You can make 9 out of 10 people like you immediately!

You can make 9 out of 10 people courteous, cooperative and friendly in 1 second (with the same magic)

How I hear you ask, well its very simple are you will probably think a little too simple, but it works.

Remember that the first few seconds of any relationship usually sets the tone and spirit of it. and then by utilising the 2nd basic law of human behaviour, people strongly tend to respond in kind to the behaviour of other people. In every human relations act a dealing between two people there is an atmosphere, a mood, a stage set, the skill is to set the atmosphere, either you set it or the other person will, set it and you own the advantage. Sounds simple but its really works!