Tools: how to hire / how to interview well

We are always assessing potential team members, or we are being assessed ourselves..... in relation to the work-world and personal-world.

Interviews are done formally and informally all the time.  If you have a key set of questions to ask, or a key set of responses to provide, then you will have a higher probability of a strong "fit" (always go for a win-win).

Often we think that when we have an internal work related project, we are forced to take the resources available. However based on the project priority, do not be afraid to fight for the top resources and select the best team for the project.

When hiring or interviewing or putting teams together, at a minimum, two basic categories must be addressed:
1) Technical Strengths
2) Personal Strengths

The first part is generally quite easy, and ideally you have a very knowledgeable person or have a set of process-workflow/mind-map questions.  Examples include:
1) what methodologies do you follow
2) what templates and tools have you created since you first started to work, how has it evolved
3) what systems do you follow for project work vs operational work
4) what framework have you worked with or support when integrating people, process and technology
5) what organizational design concepts have you worked with and which do you like most
6) what resources do you leverage for support in project work
7) what type of project offices have you worked with and explain a typical project approach 
8) describe the product/technology from your perspective


The second part is much more difficult and will have a much higher level of variance based on the culture and environment.  This is becoming more important for managing work and/or projects and essentially must have a formal approach in order to ensure success.

Below is a sample of key questions related to an article by Dr. Vicki Holmes.  These are items that you may want to talk to and emphasize how they are managed: 
1) Resilience
2) Rational Thinking
3) Seeking Support (personal & work)
4) Cultivate Diversity
5) Personal Fitness
6) Continual Development of Gratitude
7) Identification and Communication of Feelings
8) Practicing Mindfulness

The 8 points above were discussed in a different context for the article that Dr. Homes discussed.  However, these 8 points can also be an invaluable road map for interviewers, interviewees or basically for a personal professional career/development plan (how can you track growth and what areas can you conduct a personal "check-point" on in order to a) map, b) track, c) analyze, d) optimize/adapt and e) trend/forecast.

PS:  A growing movement of project management is to learn how to take more "subjective tools" and put them into a structured approach with more formality, whereby you can treat them with as more "tangible" items.




Tools: Good engineering = education & project management

Do detailed engineered requirements = satisfied stakeholders? 

No, not always :( 

Our culture tends to be “too busy” and generally people want to stick with what they know, avoid change and be open to new learnings only if their capacity allows for it and it involves a day off at some off-site location. 

People generally want education in a perfect world, but there is never a perfect time when all is calm, you are caught up and stress-free from changes.

Real world is that education must be integrated into the project and generally at the project/work site.

Stakeholders can be illogical based on their lack of understanding and the justifications they create. Thus best laid plans will not be applicable and this is part of project risk - especially when working with advanced technologies or innovations.

You may have a proven, best practice, optimized approach and technology, however, without buy-in, understanding and proper tracking of education provided, you will not have success.

This is why a good project management plan includes formal tasks that focus on buy-in through education.  

These tasks are identified early on based on risks and inserted into the project management plan.  Based on life cycle stages of a project, it must be reminded that education comes in a multitude of forms.

Examples tools to be inserted into the PM plan include:
1) Concept Stage - education includes: coffee, lunch, phone calls, emails, electronic presentations (generally in a slide based/ppt type of software), signage, bulletin boards, announcements, feedback tools, forums, social events (promote trust & engagement), checklists, questionnaires, minutes

2) Planning Stage – education includes: reports, presentations with multiple types of software (spreadsheets, graphs, mind-maps, diagrams, videos, etc), referenced independent documents, webinars, video conference calls, meetings with white board (open) themed agendas, workshops, conferences, trade shows, tours, alliance formation of alliances (with other businesses, academics, governments, associations), timeline/milestone charts, signature tracking (sign-offs to promote focus, priority, attendance and
 attention), minutes

3) Executing – education includes: formal class room training, online training, mentorship, coaching, customized professional development program (aligned with operations), revisiting of education that was provided in Planning stage (when possible, reuse and repeat based on complexity/uniqueness of the project and level of capability/capacity of the stakeholders), education packages (customized/structured levels of information, high level, medium level, details and ability to drill down or scale up rapidly), certifications, minutes

4) Closing – lessons learned (customized to the type of project and the plans of how the project learnings become integrated into future projects/operations), minutes


Couple good links on stakeholder buy-in (and the focus on communication) include:



Tools: Project Teams Need 3 Things

3 things that greatly impact how well your team performs include:
1. Belonging
2. Significance
3. Boundaries

Then have a formal plan (include within the project plan and manage it like a deliverable) to help integrate those three things to form the basis of your Project Culture. Finally, overlay that culture to continuously be Goal Oriented.

1. Belonging 
Can be described as knowing where they fit within the team and also organization.  Both are critical and will overlap, so one easy way to understand if there is an issue is to ask the question out-right…. “how are you feeling in terms of comfort and security with your overall position within the project and the company”.  If this is not positive, you also need to have a strategy to address it as best you can (since likely you will not have the time or the resources available – so be creative and let them know you will do your best)

Other aspects of belonging include understanding how each team member is connected to others, every person wants to fit in and have positive interactions and attention and this leads to trust, which leads to strong communication/interaction and thus productivity & performance.

2. Significance 
Can be described as the ability to have each stakeholder understand how their capabilities are aligned with the project demands.  How can the project leadership team enable all team members to make a difference in the project through meaningful contributions – providing a sense of personal power.  All humans are hard-wired with a need for personal power and growth of their internal confidence that leads to independence and essentially self-acutalization.  No person wants to be micro-managed and far too often a manager falls into the trap of:
- Tell a person what to do
- Tell then show a person how to do it
- Monitor the person while they are doing it and constantly get involved
- Approve/Reject/Criticize then take over near the end

3. Boundaries 
Every project has a plan. Although we want each team member to have self-independence and empowerment, they must be working together and following the same path.  We must allow small mistakes to occur and learn from and things will never be perfect and must have paths and culture for optimization. Too often companies establish high levels rules, policies and excessive administration – which turns employees into robots. Creativity and innovation are depleted, self pride and accountability become minimized and true value from the employee is lost. It is a fine balance as to when do you micro-manage and when do you provide freedom to achieve work that you can see was your own and take ownership, pride and self-learnings from. 


Tools to enable the 3 parameters include:

Belonging – org chart (diagrams for multiple levels), roles and responsibilities (customized for each project), RAM (Responsibility and Assignment Matrix), Communication Plan (swim lanes as to who to go to for what and when), team building events

Significance  Transparency on Role Accountability and the assigned person’s Capability (this is key and can leverage concepts fro Requisite Organizational Design or Elliott Jaques methodologies), check point reviews (what has been completed – celebrate milestones), recognition culture (do not need to have tangible awards/gifts we all have a job to do and positive recognition culture can be instilled into a team without a physical cost to the project), alignment of project achievements with personal learning or growth plans

Boundaries – Sponsor’s Vision charter, guidelines, codes of conduct, plans, objectives, Constraints (money, time, scope, quality, HR), plans, scope statements, requisite organizational design models, work capability models, trust, measurement and monitoring systems, stop or red/yellow/green or go/no-go systems, informal reporting systems (simple/fast social media style updates), trust


Goal Oriented
All of this then must be combined under a project culture that is Goal Oriented, tools that can help with that include:  org design clarity (charts/structure), communication and accountability swim lanes, milestone visuals, bar charts (gannt charts), graphs, spreadsheets, KPIs, CSFs, objectives, deliverables (ideally you can have both tangible, concrete goals but do not forget to include the intangible, subjective goals) and also the excerpts from specific documents such as:  Concept, Proposal, Charter, Scope Statement, Project Plan, etc.

Tools: Project Teams - Robots vs Innovative Problem Solvers

Every team needs a strong, strategic platform (foundation) to stand on.

Three things to establish within your team environment in order to make collaboration and risk management faster, easier and more successful, includes:

  1. Belonging
  2. Significance
  3. Boundaries


1) Belonging 
This can be described as knowing where they fit within the team and also the organization.  Both are critical and will overlap, so one easy way to understand if there is an issue is to stop and ask the simple question …. “how are you feeling in terms of comfort for your position within the company”.  If that is not addressed you must have a strategy to address it as best you can (likely there is a shortage of resources – so be creative J)
Other aspects of belonging include understanding how everyone is connected to others, every person wants to fit and have positive interactions and trust, which leads to strong communication, productivity and performance.  A great mentor once told me, do you understand how you "fit the click".  


2) Significance 
This can be described as the ability to have every single person understand how their capabilities are aligned with work demands.  How can leadership enable all team members to make a difference in the project through meaningful contributions – delivering a sense of personal power.  All humans are hard-wired with a need for personal power which leads to growth of confidence that leads to independence and self-actualization.  No person wants to be micro-managed.

However, do not get caught int he trap, since far too often a manager will create robots within the project team, and the team also starts to want to act this way, and thus an approach starts to form such as:

  1. Manager tells the employee what to do
  2. Manager tells how to do it
  3. Manager monitors the work and checks and gets involved
  4. Manager has to approve continuously

3) Boundaries
A plan must exist that sets the boundaries of the work to be completed. Every project must have a plan, Although we want each team member to have self-independence and empowerment, they must be working together and be on the same journey. Multiple paths could be taken but they are all climbing the same mountain. Too often companies establish high levels rules, policies and excessive administration – which turns employees into robots.  Thus, it is a fine balance as to when do you micro-manage and when do you provide freedom to achieve the work and put your own mark on it. This is more of an art than a science and must align with the corporate values, vision and culture. 


Tools
To help enable the three parameters listed above, tools that can be utilized include:
  • Belonging – org chart (diagrams for multiple levels), roles and responsibilities (customized for each project), RAM (Responsibility and Assignment Matrix), Communication Plan (swim lanes as to who to go to for what and when), team building events
  • Significance –  Transparency on Role Accountability and the assigned person’s Capability (this is key and can leverage concepts fro Requisite Organizational Design or Elliott Jaques methodologies), check point reviews (what has been completed – celebrate milestones), recognition culture (do not need to have tangible awards/gifts we all have a job to do and positive recognition culture can be instilled into a team without a physical cost to the project), alignment of project achievements with personal learning or growth plans
  • Boundaries – Sponsor’s Vision charter, guidelines, codes of conduct, plans, objectives, Constraints (money, time, scope, quality, HR)
  • Priorities - always know AND understand the expecations and the level of importance (priorities) for your work and then also the work that is to be done by your organization
  • Hiring - don't hire by the resume only, know and understand the personality, they need to fit, it will be a great benefit and win-win for both the person and the company
  • Overall: ensure the Project Team has established a Goal Oriented Culture (environment, theme, feel) that works collaboratively towards achieving measurable goals. Tools to help with goal management include:  strategies, KPIs/CSFs, objectives, deliverables, schedules, bar charts (gannt charts), graphs, spreadsheets, milestones, (ideally you can have both tangible, concrete goals but do not forget to include the intangible, subjective goals) and also the excerpts from specific documents such as:  Proposal, Charter, Scope Statement and Project Plan