Who's and why's of Feedback?
There is a saying - 'No Man is an Island', which means no one, absolutely no one can survive without others (On second thought, i take that back, i know a few people who do!!!).
We interact with people, we work, play, argue, fight etc.
So overall, in the personal and professional conundrum of life, people 'interact' with each other.
In our personal and professional dealings, there are times when we act or react in a certain way that is unacceptable to others - Alas, 'We cannot please everyone all the time'.
Always remember, every person follows some thought process and the golden rule is 'Everyone of us does what he/she thinks is right, in that situation'. Be he/she the CEO of a Corporation or Super villian in a comic book.
So when we observe this sort of behavior in our Project Team, what do we do, how do we react as Project Managers? and most importantly, if we are ones on the receiving end, how do we take the feedback that others give us.
Let us take a real life situation that happened with me many years back. I was a rookie in a IT Large Firm and was working on a big multi million dollar Project. It was my first project right out of college. A large size manufacturing Company had hired our IT Vendor services to Automate one of their new plants. I was part of the development and installation team onsite with other 40 resources (Client and Vendors included) working dedicatedly on various aspects.
Then just a week before go live, my Project Manager had to go on a Personal leave for a Family emegency. I was the only available backup on that short notice. I was representing our Develpoment and Testing Groups now. Things were going fine with the dry runs, system tests etc till the day of go live.
On the night of go live, we started our deployment, things were going by the book for the first few hours then suddenly all hell broke lose, hardware starting failing, drives, switches, programs were not working, networking issues developed. This being a commercial Manufacturing plant which was being controlled by our PLC (Programmable Logic controller) programs, all the Silos, drives and Switches started malfunctioning. It was also a continuous process plant and a break in the process would have meant raw materials losses worth millions and indirect impacts in terms of Go Live date delays, commited dates and other dependencies.
Everyone in the plant started to panic, right from the half asleep Janitor to the Top C-level executives. Since we were the service providers and i was the only highest sitting mark representing our corporation's totem pole, guess who received the flak for all this....me!!!...Yes, and that too in no soft words or even in private...you get the rough idea.....
Finally, the situation was salvaged and we started resolving the issues one by one and things started running fine again.
After nearly 20 years that incident still gives me cold sweats, not so much the things that failed or the soup we were in, but the verbal lashings i got...
What went wrong here? Absolutely everything....How could it have been handled...definitely in a more professional manner...
Even in our Day to day IT Projects, we come across similar situations about our Team members, colleagues etc who needs to be repriminded or think annual appraisal sessions of your team members.
Feedback Process handling
So coming to - How to handle this situation>
Approach 1>
Plain and simple - Speak your mind.
Approach 2>
Provide feedback with a little preparation and technique. I call it the 'AGES' approach.
It needs a little Homework. Follow the below 4 steps -
1> A - Assess
Assess the Situation. Understand the problem
2> G - Good
Quantify other positive contributions of the person in focus. Think what value he provides to the Team, project and the corporation in general.
3> E - Empathize
Empathize with the person and elaborate the negative impacts of his/her actions, understanding that he/she was not doing it on purpose.
4> S - Solution
Think about ways to help the person.
Now let's analyze a Situation with the help of above 2 approaches
e.g. Situation is - We are in midst of an Agile project for which there are daily 9 AM Sprint meetings and all Team members are present except Mark. Mark is consistently late for the sprint stand-ups past few days.
Approach 1>
I approach Mark and reprimind him (Openly or in private).
'Mark, your behavior is unacceptable. You are always late for the stand ups. Make sure this does not happen again'
What happens during/after this? Mark immediately shuts off. He thinks of me as a rude, negative and inconsiderate person. This impacts his work, interactions with the Team and finally his work deliverable or the project as a whole.
Now this is not a very Leader like behavior. A Leader has to motivate and lead by guiding his team on the journey. Help them in their issues, understanding and Guiding them when and wherever possible.
So now let's try approach 2>
A - Assess
I analyze the situation and prepare my response. I focus on Mark's contributions and the current 'glitch' that is being observed for past few days. I also work out a few practical ways this can be resolved. Then i talk to Mark one on one.
G - Good
'Listen Mark, I know the project is in full flow and i see you are working very hard - day and night and especially your work on the ISO webservice solution was extremely well received by the client and it had zero defects too'
E - Empathize
'To continue the same trend of success, we as a Team have to focus on the project. That is why the daily sprint attendance is important, so everyone can understand the current Project progress, work dependencies, issues, project announcements, if any'
'Now i understand everyone has a personal life and sometimes there are some things that have to take a priority'
S - Solution
'So if there is anything there i can do to help you here, like changing your Office timings for a while or there is something you want to share, let's talk about it'
Which conversion do you think will have more impact.
So to summarize, to provide feeback, Keep your mind open, unbiased and clear, understand the situation or focus on the problem at hand not the person, understand the circumstances and behavior of the other person and help him/her resolve it positively. When you leave your feedback meeting, make sure neither one of you leaves with a bitter taste in his mouth, leave with a positie mark. After all, projects are a Team work.
Friday, July 27, 2012
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
IT Negotiations
There are a very few natural born negotiators, the rest have to practice.....
Negotiations happen everyday and everywhere, in various forms all around us. Our day starts reasoning with the kids to make them drink a glass of Milk, negotiating the price of an antique showpiece you want, from a mom & pop Thrift shop.
Even Professional negotiations follow the same rules as these day to day negotiations, maybe on a more detailed level.
Not everyone is an expert negotiator, but someone who has the skills and has been doing it with the right attitude & panache, actually does a lot of winning.
Nowadays IT projects consume a major chunk of an organization's revenue, sometimes upto 20-25 percent according to a recent study. Many companies are utilizing their hard earned revenues to solidify and streamline their IT Process and systems, so that they can reap the business benefits in times to come. For this reason it makes sense for both parties in an IT deal to be Negotiations savvy. Due to the fear of an unknown outcome, Negotiations are very much dreaded by IT and business folks alike. It is kept as a last minute activity and attacked head on when time comes - Something like a Deer staring at a racing car's Headlights and then you know how it goes.
If proper time is spent on planning and executing negotiations, you will reap the benefits in times to come - in form of increased profits and revenues and successfully executed projects.
IT Negotiations occur at various levels - Marketing, Pre-Sales, Sales, Project Scoping, Resourcing, Contractual agreements in terms of Contract types, SLAs, Milestones and Commit dates etc
Negotiations occur between various parties - IT Firms, Servicing companies, Clients (Insurance companies in my case), at various levels - project level between Team members, leads and resources, clients and vendors, suppliers and end users etc
Negotiation skills help,
Achieve project goals and objectives
Avoid unnecessary conflicts and arguments later in the project lifetime
Build trust and priorities amongst the project teams
How to be a good negotiator?
Practice, practice and some more practice.
Good negotiation skills should be imbibed in your senses. Organizations usually have a cut out approach towards negotiation, something that defines their org culture, e.g. having negotiation planning meetings, specific negotiation templates and proceses etc. Overall, the negotiation Team's objectives and motives have to be aligned with the organizational agenda. The corporate direction could either be a Win All-Lose none (Aggressive), Win some-Lose Some (Moderate) or Win-win for both (Practical). It all depends on what strategic importance the deal has for the corporation.
On a personal level, an important skillset for a successful negotiator is soft skills - i.e. ability to have meaningful and engaging conversations. Conversations that lead the other party to reveal or atleast point to their interests and areas that will help you build focus and leverage. Something that will help develop relationships between with all parties involved. Remember here from a psychological perspective, everyone wants to win in life, be it negotiations or a free 5 day cruise to the Caribbean.
To cite an example - On one of the projects i was managing, we responsible for an Insurance Installation for a mid size P&C Carrier, the contract was signed based on initial high level estimation, but during the actual scoping and definition phase, the client wanted the everything under the sun to be included.
After much efforts and involvement of many a c-level executives and a heavy level setting exercise, the client finally agreed on the scope which could be delivered in the duration of the project. The way the client agreed to the option was, if the client wanted 100 things to be done in the project duration and cost, the quality of the product would suffer, but to have the best quality installation within the project cost and timeline which will help the client achieve set their business goals, it was beneficial to both parties to cut scope and go live with 70 items which would have the best quality.
Negotiation Steps
Every negotiation is a logical process, it has a beginning, the actual process and the end or specifically "Pre-Negotiation", "Negotiation" and "Closing".
Pre-Negotiation involves
Establishing an objective, background preparation or doing your homework, (Always start with a 10000 ft view of what you want out of the negotiation and why you want it - i.e. laying the objectives, ground rules and favorable expected outcome and finally how you wil get there).
This includes establishing a steering commitee, involving all related stakeholders, end users, everyone who will be impacted by the project or contract negotiation. Because doing this later in th`e game will not give you much wiggle room to try and resolve issues, incase an impacted party gets left out or finds something that may de-rail the whole deal. Preparing the RACI chart for all involved parties also helps as it clearly defines what is expected of each involved party. Laying down the negotiation rules and guidelines on rules of conduct during the negotiation path.
Negotiation includes
Meeting on the set dates and having discussions per agenda and guidelines decided. This helps to have focused discussions and helps achieve the desired positions effectively. Also make sure the Teams meet internally on a regular basis afterwards, while negotiations are in progress so if team member needs to be aligned or steered or some points need to be given in or held against, can be avaluated and then comes
Negotiation Planning should include contract break clauses, long term contract pricing policies and sharing the Total cost of ownership for a contract.
The total breakdown of all fees sould be enforced in a contract, SLAs and other KPIs to evaluate the levels of service provided.
Closure and Lessson learned (This is the most important step in every negotiation and is also the most missed one). If this is followed as a regular process, rather than a 1 time post negotiation activity or if done only for certain high profile negotiations it will miss its actual impact and utility.
Lessons learned will actually help you learn and do course correction which may help save many a future negotiations. This may also help you lay foundations for setting an organization culture in terms of process and templates setup
Essentially for any negotiation to be successful you have to have the right set of people, tools and strategies, past experiences, thoughtful planning and documentation.
Negotiations happen everyday and everywhere, in various forms all around us. Our day starts reasoning with the kids to make them drink a glass of Milk, negotiating the price of an antique showpiece you want, from a mom & pop Thrift shop.
Even Professional negotiations follow the same rules as these day to day negotiations, maybe on a more detailed level.
Not everyone is an expert negotiator, but someone who has the skills and has been doing it with the right attitude & panache, actually does a lot of winning.
Nowadays IT projects consume a major chunk of an organization's revenue, sometimes upto 20-25 percent according to a recent study. Many companies are utilizing their hard earned revenues to solidify and streamline their IT Process and systems, so that they can reap the business benefits in times to come. For this reason it makes sense for both parties in an IT deal to be Negotiations savvy. Due to the fear of an unknown outcome, Negotiations are very much dreaded by IT and business folks alike. It is kept as a last minute activity and attacked head on when time comes - Something like a Deer staring at a racing car's Headlights and then you know how it goes.
If proper time is spent on planning and executing negotiations, you will reap the benefits in times to come - in form of increased profits and revenues and successfully executed projects.
IT Negotiations occur at various levels - Marketing, Pre-Sales, Sales, Project Scoping, Resourcing, Contractual agreements in terms of Contract types, SLAs, Milestones and Commit dates etc
Negotiations occur between various parties - IT Firms, Servicing companies, Clients (Insurance companies in my case), at various levels - project level between Team members, leads and resources, clients and vendors, suppliers and end users etc
Negotiation skills help,
Achieve project goals and objectives
Avoid unnecessary conflicts and arguments later in the project lifetime
Build trust and priorities amongst the project teams
How to be a good negotiator?
Practice, practice and some more practice.
Good negotiation skills should be imbibed in your senses. Organizations usually have a cut out approach towards negotiation, something that defines their org culture, e.g. having negotiation planning meetings, specific negotiation templates and proceses etc. Overall, the negotiation Team's objectives and motives have to be aligned with the organizational agenda. The corporate direction could either be a Win All-Lose none (Aggressive), Win some-Lose Some (Moderate) or Win-win for both (Practical). It all depends on what strategic importance the deal has for the corporation.
On a personal level, an important skillset for a successful negotiator is soft skills - i.e. ability to have meaningful and engaging conversations. Conversations that lead the other party to reveal or atleast point to their interests and areas that will help you build focus and leverage. Something that will help develop relationships between with all parties involved. Remember here from a psychological perspective, everyone wants to win in life, be it negotiations or a free 5 day cruise to the Caribbean.
To cite an example - On one of the projects i was managing, we responsible for an Insurance Installation for a mid size P&C Carrier, the contract was signed based on initial high level estimation, but during the actual scoping and definition phase, the client wanted the everything under the sun to be included.
After much efforts and involvement of many a c-level executives and a heavy level setting exercise, the client finally agreed on the scope which could be delivered in the duration of the project. The way the client agreed to the option was, if the client wanted 100 things to be done in the project duration and cost, the quality of the product would suffer, but to have the best quality installation within the project cost and timeline which will help the client achieve set their business goals, it was beneficial to both parties to cut scope and go live with 70 items which would have the best quality.
Negotiation Steps
Every negotiation is a logical process, it has a beginning, the actual process and the end or specifically "Pre-Negotiation", "Negotiation" and "Closing".
Pre-Negotiation involves
Establishing an objective, background preparation or doing your homework, (Always start with a 10000 ft view of what you want out of the negotiation and why you want it - i.e. laying the objectives, ground rules and favorable expected outcome and finally how you wil get there).
This includes establishing a steering commitee, involving all related stakeholders, end users, everyone who will be impacted by the project or contract negotiation. Because doing this later in th`e game will not give you much wiggle room to try and resolve issues, incase an impacted party gets left out or finds something that may de-rail the whole deal. Preparing the RACI chart for all involved parties also helps as it clearly defines what is expected of each involved party. Laying down the negotiation rules and guidelines on rules of conduct during the negotiation path.
Negotiation includes
Meeting on the set dates and having discussions per agenda and guidelines decided. This helps to have focused discussions and helps achieve the desired positions effectively. Also make sure the Teams meet internally on a regular basis afterwards, while negotiations are in progress so if team member needs to be aligned or steered or some points need to be given in or held against, can be avaluated and then comes
Negotiation Planning should include contract break clauses, long term contract pricing policies and sharing the Total cost of ownership for a contract.
The total breakdown of all fees sould be enforced in a contract, SLAs and other KPIs to evaluate the levels of service provided.
Closure and Lessson learned (This is the most important step in every negotiation and is also the most missed one). If this is followed as a regular process, rather than a 1 time post negotiation activity or if done only for certain high profile negotiations it will miss its actual impact and utility.
Lessons learned will actually help you learn and do course correction which may help save many a future negotiations. This may also help you lay foundations for setting an organization culture in terms of process and templates setup
Essentially for any negotiation to be successful you have to have the right set of people, tools and strategies, past experiences, thoughtful planning and documentation.
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