After completing a couple of IT project leader roles early in his career, the Badger’s employer sent him on the company’s 3-day residential Project Management training course. In those days, attendance on the course was seen as a stepping stone to career advancement within the company. The Badger, however, wasn’t convinced about Project Management as a career path. He’d also heard that the course focused mainly on ‘processes’ rather than leadership. His boss, however, was adamant that the Badger attend, and so reluctantly he complied and joined ten others drawn from across the company in a small hotel in the Chilterns. The course’s focus was, indeed, mainly on Project Management processes, but it was quickly apparent that its real value was in providing an environment for attendees to share their experiences and learn from each other.
At the end of one afternoon, a guest speaker – the company’s most senior and experienced Project Manager (PM) – gave a formal talk and then took questions. They stayed for an evening meal with the attendees and subsequently adjourned to the bar to continue conversations. They were impressive, relaxed, and keen to pass on their knowledge. They communicated many insightful nuggets gleaned from their experience, and the Badger’s found many of them to have been valuable reference points throughout every facet of his working life. Process is, of course, important in delivering projects of any kind, but the most significant and memorable learning points from this particular course were not from formal sessions, but from this senior PM’s experience and the experiences of the other delivery people attending.
One insightful nugget from the senior PM was: ‘Expect up to 20% of those on your project to struggle, underperform, or have questionable capability and character. Act to reduce that percentage but recognise it will never be zero.’ From the Badger’s experience since, IT projects operating well will always have ~10% of the project complement that fall into the senior PM’s categories. The reasons why range widely from personal crises, and character, personality, and behavioural flaws, through to poor skills, inadequate management, training, or simply mismatched skills for the specific role. These people can drain management time and impact project morale and so it’s essential to strive to keep this component of a project’s complement at a sensible level.
The senior PM’s insightful nugget embodies an underlying truth, namely that in any group of people there’s always a portion who are ‘problematic.’ This is as true for a project group as it is for a group of business managers, a group of politicians, and even a group of world leaders! The next time you observe, engage with, or simply watch media content of a group of people, have some fun deciding what percentage are in the ‘problematic’ category. It can be fun and therapeutic…but be warned, it can also be depressing if it’s a group of politicians…
