True project management should not be just about task management, it
should also include managing people and their expectations. In my experience,
the latter seems to be somewhat nebulous, as project managers are not able or
empowered to take people management in a matrix to the next level – probably
because in a matrix team, individual reporting relationship preclude such
dynamic. This gap is what I wanted to explore more and share some thoughts on;
as I think the following do not get enough coverage --
First, senior management, across
business entities, needs to constantly reinforce ONE project goal!
Second, team members need to be engaged
towards the common goal!
Sort
of obvious, but worth reminding – senior leaders and project managers will
hardly admit that there is a lack of consensus and/or individual needs are
adequately addressed!
I have seen discussions in project meetings turn to arguments, confusions, delays,
and (even) threats to completely abandon the project. Surely, there is more to it (I thought)! Why are people in the room speaking to themselves? Why
is Operations trying to influence marketing and promotions strategy? Why is
customer service perennially in a complaint mode, that they “didn’t know” about
the product launch? Why is IT feeling unappreciated? Is sales and reporting
even on the radar – no wonder these guys are in scrambling mode during the
final launch phase?
Such
conflicts cause unnecessary delays in a project delivery and project managers
need to acknowledge that,
“these are the possible underlying currents that
take up a lot of meeting time, as and when they surface!”
Based on several exploratory informal chats, I discovered that leadership and people management, more than the stated metrics were to blame. Here's what I found helpful in addressing the aforementioned underlying currents and have a smoother project meetings.
A former colleague once lamented that the leaders were not looking at strategic product road-map in trying to move up the launch date. The long-term costs are too immense for such short-sighted moves. Project managers need to sense that and address it before the matrix teams are forced to change course.
(B) Team members need to attach to the goal and be on-board! By this I mean, when customer service complains about adequate lead time to train their agents, they have not been brought-in on the launch early enough – can be easy to solve, I would say. Or, when IT is concerned about the timing of launch, there may be genuine hurdles to delivery, due to ongoing updates, releases, etc. – not that easy to solve, but a realistic launch estimate could help solve for the bottleneck. Marketing, before setting aggressive targets, should obtain a dose of reality in consultation with operations, sales, field, etc., teams.
At the end of the day, it has to be understood that each participant has a deliverable that has to fit into their own goals/targets for the month/year. Timely participation and addressing individual concerns alleviates some of these surprise elements and in turn helps team members.
These did find some agreement among the leaders, peers and team members. In essence, the key to successful matrix management lies in
proactive leadership and people management –
“matrix leadership success is more about people
management and less about numbers”
