The workshop attendees will be presented “best practices” tips and techniques that address common challenges faced by small business owners.  In addition, workshop attendees’ interests prioritize “depth” of topics covered.  Topics covered consist of:

• Getting your project off to a quick start
• Achieving project deadlines and commitments
• Establishing good project team communications
• Securing and managing resources that have other jobs and/or responsibilities
• Tips and techniques to stay focused and transparent
• Managing project intellectual property/capital
• Helping your team help you make timely decisions
• Keeping your initiative running at a strong pace
• Ensuring “organizational learning” from completed work-efforts.

With 34 plus years of experience leading numerous business development and implementation projects, as a certified Project Management Institute (PMI) Project Management Professional (PMP^®) and the former Director of Programs and mentor program mentor for the PMI Chicagoland Chapter, Ira Hendon looks forward to sharing his leadership expertise and experiences to assist business’ in growing their customer base and/or implementing cost reduction initiatives. “I believe sharing my own professional experiences and strategies is a beneficial way to give back and contribute to the growth and future successes of business professionals,” comments Hendon.

To learn more about the Illinois Small Business Development Center at the College of Lake County, visit http://wpdi.clcillinois.edu/sbdc/

To learn more about the workshop, or to register visit http://wpdi.clcillinois.edu/sbdc/courses.asp?task=getcourse&id=26529&subj=TBSM

To learn more about the Project Management Institute (PMI) visit http://www.pmi.org.

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Hendon Group, Inc., is a minority owned Program / Project Leadership and Business Development Professional Services organization, headquartered in Lindenhurst, IL.  Incorporated in 2006, Hendon Group has led numerous programs and projects for a variety of clients including Fortune 500 organizations, Mid-range and small businesses across numerous industries. Hendon Group is a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) certified with the Chicago Minority Business Development Council (CMBDC), Midwest Minority Supplier Development Council (MMSDC), Cook County Illinois, City of Chicago, State of Illinois Business Enterprise Program (BEP) and the State of Wisconsin Bureau of Minority Business Development.  Hendon Group is also a member of the Lake County Chamber of Commerce, GMLV Chambe of Commerce, and the National Black Chamber of Commerce.  For more information on Hendon Group visit www.hendon-group.com or email info@hendon-group.com.

PMP^® is a certification mark of the Project Management Institute registered in the United States and other nations.

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Hendon Group, Inc., a Portfolio, Program and Project Leadership professional services, consulting and training organization, is headquartered in Lindenhurst, IL.  Incorporated in 2006, Hendon Group has led numerous strategic (and confidential) programs and projects for a variety of Fortune 500 clients across numerous industries.

Hendon Group is a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) certified with the Chicago Minority Business Development Council (CMBDC), Midwest Minority Supplier Development Council (MMSDC), State of Illinois Business Enterprise Program (BEP) and the State of Wisconsin Department of Commerce Bureau of Minority Business Development.  Hendon Group is also a member of the Lake County Chamber of Commerce, GLMV Chamber of Commerce and National Black Chamber of Commerce.  For more information on the Hendon Group visit hendon-group.com or email info@hendon-group.com.

PMP® is a certification mark of the Project Management Institute registered in the United States and other nations

So, this month’s leadership tip is an attempt to heighten awareness and raise consciousness about the importance of returning phone calls and emails.  In my case, I do not call or email someone to waste my time or theirs.  I call someone to make them aware of an issue, to gather their perspective to determine the best approach to resolve an issue or to communicate something I think should be known by the recipient.

If you receive a phone call and are tied up in meetings all day, call the individual back on a break and tell them you are tied up in an all-day meeting and ask if the topic can be discussed at a later time.  Another approach is to ask the individual if they can send you an email summarizing the issue and if you can respond back that evening.

In my thirty-five (35) years of managing a number of large initiatives, I have found that the greatest leaders are responsive; they return phone calls (even if it is at 9 or 10 pm at night, or 6 or 7 am in the morning).  The most ineffective leaders do not respond sometimes for days or even weeks.  Those leaders end up receiving the “golden turtle” award (slow on execution) and are dismissed from their role, or employment, within a few months.

Another observation is that some managers will be very responsive to their leadership team with phone calls and email, but are non-responsive to their peers and team members.  These managers sometimes get short-term promotional gains, but eventually fail because their peers do not trust them and their team members don’t want to work for them.

Not responding to emails and phone calls makes you irrelevant, because the individual trying to contact you will find another source to resolve issues. By making the effort to be responsive to your colleagues, you will find yourself to be considered more valuable in the eyes of your peers, leadership team, and program/project teams.

Email messages usually start that way, but often a back and forth reply stream follows, and the content of the email often changes from what is in the subject line.  This is a problem when you remember the content from an email message but the subject line does not reflect the content.  The result is time wasted trying to find the specific email message.  In order to keep your frustration low and keep the frustration low of those you correspond with, make sure the email subject line accurately reflects the content of the email.  The solution is to change the email subject line if the content changes.

Email messages should not be used as a substitute for a phone conversation, or a meeting.  If you are like me, I receive over 100 email messages a day.  A vast number of them could be eliminated if a short 10-15 minute meeting was scheduled and a single email was sent out summarizing agreements and action items.

If you take these simple steps, you will save yourself time, and the time of the individuals you communicate with.  Remember, the time you save may be your own.

Starting Point

I have seen a number of program metrics being shared, via status reports, without the audience really understanding, or asking probing questions about, the information being shared.  Let’s use the current U.S. unemployment issue as a sample program.  If you were the program executive responsible for fixing the U.S. unemployment issue, you would probably want to know the answer to a few questions:

1. What is the unemployment rate today?  What is the current trend?

2. What are the drivers for calculating the unemployment rate?  What are the trends of those drivers?

3. As you introduce changes, what impact do they have on the metrics of interest?

The answer to the first question is illustrated in Figure 1 “U.S. Unemployment Rate.”

U.S. Unemployment rate - unadjusted - chart

Figure 1 “U.S. Unemployment Rate (Unadjusted).

As we can see, the U.S. Unemployment rate (unadjusted) remains on an upward trend.  This is bad.  Since the November 2008 election, the unemployment rate has been on an accelerated upward path and is hovering in the 9+ percentage range.  To really call the unemployment issue fixed, one would expect to see a rate somewhere  around 4 – 5 percent.

Calculations and Trends

The second set of questions you would want to know the answer to are related to calculation of the unemployment rate and related trends.  The unemployment rate is calculated by dividing the unemployment level by the civilian labor force level.  Let’s look at those two numbers and their trends.  The unemployment levels are illustrated in Figure 2 “Unemployment Levels (Unadjusted).”  The civilian labor force levels are illustrated in Figure 3 “Civilian Labor Force Levels (Unadjusted).”

U.S. unemployment level - 2001 - 2011 - unadjusted

Figure 2 “U.S. Unemployment Level (Unadjusted)

U.S. Civilian labor force levels - 2001 - 2011 (unadjusted)

Figure 3 “U.S. Civilian Labor Force level (Unadjusted).

So let’s test a calculation and confirm we can calculate the reported unemployment rate.  The unemployment rate equals “Unemployment Level (Unadj)”/”Civilian Labor Force Level (Unadj).”  Calculating this number for January 2011 yields the following: 14.9 Million/152.5 Million or 9.8%.  This matches the January 2011 reported number of 9.8%.

The calculation also tells us two things about the unemployment rate.  If the civilian labor force remains constant, an increase in the unemployment level will increase the unemployment rate.  The second thing this calculation tells us is if the unemployment levels remain unchanged and the civilian labor force level decreases (as a result of people giving up on finding work), the employment rate will decrease.  For example, if people are no longer looking for work, these individuals will not be reported in the unemployment levels and, at the same time, reduce the civilian workforce number.  This phenomenon would show a false sense that the unemployment rate is declining when in fact the unemployment rate may have a slight increase or remain unchanged.

Closing Remarks

The program manager must understand what data is needed to communicate accurately the current and future state of a program.  The consumer of the information must make sure the information being shared answers their questions about the program/project and not necessarily accept the data at face value.  The consumer must ask probing questions and assess the information for reasonableness.

Know what program data you need to understand how the program is really doing.  The next time you receive program data on one of your programs, do not simply glance at the information.  Take some time to understand what the data is telling you.  If you are only looking at point-in-time data, ask the program manager to put the data in chart form so you can examine trends.  If key data is calculated, also look at the data used in the calculations and examine their trends.  You may be surprised  what you learn about your program.

If you are a sports fan, you have probably heard of Wayne Gretzky and Michael Jordon.  Both of these superstar athletes had one thing in common.  They would move to where the puck (or basketball) was going to be.  Program/project leadership teams need to do the same thing.  They need to know where the program/project is going to be and recommend and/or take action early enough to fix the issues so they do not stall the program and face cost or schedule over-runs.

I have seen instances where a program manager either blindly reports program data because that is what they think the leadership team wants to review, but the data does not tell the real story about the program.  I have also seen program manager’s report a program is on track because they are looking at the wrong data.  When, in fact, just the opposite is true (the program is about to go over the cliff within the next 60 – 90 days.)  Without having a good understanding of metrics and their trends, a false sense of confidence (short lived) could be realized.

So, determine what metrics are required to tell the true story about a program.  Establish these program metrics early and integrate them into the program status reporting process.  As preparation for reporting on these metrics, understand the drivers of the metrics and their trends.  Provide driver and trend information at least as backup material for your status reporting.  You will gain great insight from the program/project metrics, which will help you manage risks and issues earlier.   You will be glad you did.

If you do not have a formal process for publishing program communication plans, seek out someone who has done them before and ask if they would be willing to provide you some assistance.

This phenomenon has many early warning symptoms.  For example,

1.       Early on in the program, each member of the project team cannot articulate the intended program outcome, why it is important to the organization or the value they will contribute to the program’s and/or project’s success.

2.       Team members cannot articulate what needs to be done.  Team view is, “We will figure it out as we go along.”

3.       New technology has never been implemented in a large complex environment and, therefore, technology vendor assists with defining WBS/WBS Dictionary definition or risk event identification – often this definition is what the vendor can (or wants to) do and not what is needed by the program

You may have observed other symptoms, but I think you get the picture.

So the question becomes, why is this important?  It is important because when program/project teams are not clear on the outcomes and their roles, projects stall.  When programs/projects stall, the budget is over-run and key milestones are missed.  Very often the program/project scope is narrowed to deliver the project with some benefit earlier than the newly projected delayed end date.  In all cases, the program/project does not meet the approved business case.

As the program and/or project leader, you need to be clear and you MUST make sure the program/project team is clear on all aspects of the work effort.  Specifically, you need to be clear on the outcome(s) and expected results, the purpose of the outcome, the skills required to achieve the outcome, and how the outcome/results are going to be achieved.

With respect to your team(s), you need to make sure your team is clear on the outcome and why the outcome is important.  Each team member also needs to be clear on the deliverables expected from them and their due dates.  You also need to ask each team member what dependencies they have on other team members’ deliverables and/or intermediate work products.

Short of your program/project team(s) having this clear picture, you are putting your program/project at risk (e.g., cost, schedule, quality, etc.) of not achieving the approved business case.  This communication should be communicated to the team during the initial kick-off meeting and reinforced at least monthly during regularly scheduled team meetings.

Two recommendations:

First, to address existing stalled projects, take the time to make sure your team has a clear vision of the intended outcome and its role in achieving that outcome.  Your team should be refocused on the intended outcome and will offer up ideas on how to get “unstuck.”

Second, to help prevent stalls on new programs/projects, communicate the desired outcomes, program/project purpose, and expectations during the kick-off meeting.  In addition, as you bring aboard new team members, make sure  each team member is clear on the program/project intended outcome(s) and their role in the achievement of those outcomes.  You will be glad you did.

Needless to say, this manager and I disagree, but the client is the client.  You must adapt to the client’s culture.  I believe as a program and/or project leader you need to ask many good and probing questions.  If you do not ask questions, I find that you often find out too late about an issue (or the root cause of an issue) to “fix it,” so the issue does not negatively impact your program (i.e., cost, schedule, or quality).

If you find yourself in a similar situation, sit down with the manager and try to understand his or her rationale for taking a particular position.  In some cases, it may be valid.  In other cases, the manager may understand your perspective or offer another approach to get the information needed to address the issue(s).

You need to be a leader.  You need to lead your program to a successful outcome.  You need to understand the issues and get the issues solved quickly.  You need to solve the issues so your programs can be successful.  Good probing questions will simplify your life as a program/project leader.  I know it has for me.

The new Illinois tax bill is concerning.  Our clients are Fortune 500 organizations.  Raising the corporate tax rate is expected to drive our clients to cut costs and defer revenue to lower their tax liability.  We believe this deferred spend will result in reduced short term revenues for small businesses (including ours), deferred hiring and investment.  These lower corporate revenues will most likely yield lower tax revenues for the U.S. Treasury and the Illinois Department of Revenue.  If this was a Merger and Acquisition (M&A) deal, you would think the Illinois law makers were writing a “poison pen” letter to the U.S. Treasury and Illinois Department of Revenue.

As the old saying goes “very few ‘for-profit’ organizations have saved their way to prosperity.”  Our contingency plan is to seek clients outside of the State of Illinois.

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Hendon Group, Inc., a Portfolio, Program and Project Leadership professional services, consulting and training organization, is headquartered in Lindenhurst, IL.  Incorporated in 2006, Hendon Group has led numerous strategic (and confidential) programs and projects for a variety of Fortune 500 clients across numerous industries.

Hendon Group is a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) certified with the Chicago Minority Business Development Council (CMBDC), Midwest Minority Supplier Development Council (MMSDC) and the State of Illinois Business Enterprise Program (BEP).  Hendon Group is also a member of the Lake County Chamber of Commerce, GLMV Chamber of Commerce and National Black Chamber of Commerce.  For more information on the Hendon Group visit hendon-group.com or email info@hendon-group.com.

PMP® is a certification mark of the Project Management Institute registered in the United States and other nations

The next time you catch yourself caught up in negative energy while working on a project, ask yourself, “What needs to happen in order for this work effort to be successful?” Be empowered. Do what needs to get done for success to occur. If you need help from the leadership team, explain the problem and the specifics you believe need to happen to fix the issue. Your leadership team will thank you, your project team members will thank you and you will be viewed as a “go-to” team member.