Psychological Project Management - US Edition

By Leif Rogell

When it comes to what project managers do, the clue is in their job title - but the role also requires a significant understanding of people. After all, projects are devised and driven forward by employees and teams. It is therefore crucial for project managers and executives to have a firm grasp of the thought and behavioural patterns of projec

• Language: English
• Publisher: bad project e.K.
• Release date: Feb 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9783949294211

Leif Rogell

CV: Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Sciences Master of Science in Project Management Certfied Business Economist Six Sigma Green Belt Memberships: Project Management Institute (PMI) International Project Management Association (IPMA) German Society for Quality (DGQ)

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Preface

Dear Readers,

Anyone who carries out routine work in a traditional organizational structure, e.g., paying salaries in a large company or manufacturing screws in a factory, can in principle work with more or less the same colleagues from training to retirement. During the process, you get to know them well, both the good and the less desirable sides and characteristics. Over the years, an order and team structure are established in the department and you learn how to deal with other colleagues individually.

New tasks are constantly being mastered in projects. Since different tasks require different competencies, the project organization and the project team are newly assembled for each project to meet the upcoming challenges. This way of working together is becoming increasingly popular and can be observed in the form of e.g., matrix organizations. If the working group, the project team, is constantly being reorganized, the probability increases that colleagues who do not know each other so well will have to work together. It is also true, of course, that the risk of misunderstandings and conflicts in such situations increases considerably.

The specifics of these 'superficial relationships' within a project team are the subject of this book. Those who understand the psychology of such situations can better assess the behavior of their colleagues and, if necessary, steer them in the right direction. It is about what happens when people see each other for the first time, how people react differently to unfamiliar situations, how behavioral norms in project teams establish themselves very quickly, how a project team develops from a project group, how corporate culture influences project work, and how personal conflicts can quickly become disruptive factors in project work.

A successful project manager is expected to be able to deal with all these aspects of human behavior, to take them into account in his project management and steer accordingly.

Leif Rogell

Introduction: Projects

The word Project is heard in all kinds of contexts today. In private life, for example, going on holiday with the children is described as a private project. Often, one can also observe that companies classify routine tasks as projects. In science, research groups work on research projects, or young, not yet established music groups call themselves projects, politicians also like to talk about e.g., housing projects or unemployment projects. In companies, there are now many positions called project managers, independent of the actual work performed.

The wide range of possible uses of the word 'project' makes it difficult to define and delimit a project in a business sense. The word 'project' comes from the Latin 'proiectum' and means 'thrown forward'. Although a uniform definition of a project is still missing, in this book, project is described as ‘a temporary business organization in which a person (or group) is given a unique task, in which a certain goal is to be achieved for a certain budget’. This definition is explained in more detail in the following sections. The question is however foremost not whether a task is a project, but rather whether it makes sense to work on the task in the form of a project.

A project in an entrepreneurial context is defined as an operational form of organization and work with the following characteristics:

One-time task

Time limit

Change of state

Value enhancement

Business context of the initiation

Typical routine tasks in a company are, for example, paying wages or cleaning the premises. Routine work usually gives one time to get used to the job, one learns and gains experience, and the result can be maintained at a sufficiently high level without much effort. Here, further optimization can be pushed forward on the basis of a comparison with fixed procedures, experience, and processes (SOPs). Projects, on the other hand, are once-off tasks, whereby the result is handed over to the organization at the end of the project and used there (either as routine work or as the starting point for a new project). However, routine work can also be run as projects, e.g., if a car manufacturer that normally builds 100 cars per month suddenly receives an order for 1,000 cars at the end of the month. Since this order volume is unique in this case, it might be worthwhile to organize the work as a project. The complexity of a task can also contribute to the project character.

Building (developing) a car is a project, building 100 cars per month is repetitive assembly line work. For repetitive work you usually create guidelines and work instructions. It makes little sense to write a new project plan for each car and establish a new project team. However, if you only want to build (or develop) one new car, it makes sense to create a plan before beginning with the development. When building a car, it is easy to see the time limit of a project, because there is a natural point where the project result is handed over to the organization and the project team can devote itself to new tasks.

In a project, something new is always created, regardless of whether it is a new product or a new process. Before a project, there is always the present state. After the project, this state will change into a future target state by fulfilling the project goal.

From a business perspective, operational projects must always generate goodwill. Projects, or at least the project goals, always generate added value for the company. As a result, less spectacular tasks, or even routine tasks, can be run as projects. An example would be a demonstration for a new potential customer, whereby it is hoped to win a larger contract. With the possibility of a new order, one would therefore like to invest additional resources in the customer demonstration.

Such an increase in value can be both concrete and abstract. Examples of a concrete increase in value would be, for example, monetary means, market shares or products. Examples of an abstract value enhancement would be e.g., brand awareness, public interest and reputation.

Companies do not act alone and isolated but are influenced by other actors (stakeholders and shareholders), e.g., competitors, shareholders, employees, authorities or the end customer. Projects are generally initiated primarily in response to internal or external environmental factors. Examples may include meeting (new) regulatory requirements, changing needs of stakeholders or shareholders, adjusting business strategies, or creating or improving products or services.

Figure 1: Project characteristics

When considering the project definition just described, one quickly understands that projects, as a form of organizing work, have existed at least since the beginning of the industrialization. Even at that time, production facilities were established, exceptionally large orders were executed, new products were developed, and operational processes were fundamentally revised. All this fits in with the modern definition of a project.

However, many of the tools that are taken for granted within modern project management, such as stakeholder analysis, the work breakdown structure, and Gantt charts, were not developed (mainly by the US Air Force) until the 1950s. The reason back then, was the development of several new fighter aircrafts. At that time, all companies and especially the army were established as hierarchical and non-flexible organizational structures. The establishment of a Project Management Office (PMO) in the Air Force was a very drastic event for the times, which was viewed with great skepticism in many companies. Well-known evaluation methods such as Earned Value also date from this era.

Anyone who carries out routine work in a traditional organizational structure, e.g., paying salaries in a large company or manufacturing screws in a factory, can in principle work with more or less the same colleagues from training to retirement. In the process, you get to know them very well, their different characteristics, both the good and the less desirable sides. Over the years, an order is established in the department and one learns how to deal with the other colleagues in an optimal way.

New tasks are constantly being mastered within projects. Since different tasks require different competencies, the project organization, and the project team are usually newly composed for each project in order to optimally master the upcoming challenges. This type of teamwork is becoming increasingly popular and can be particularly well observed in matrix organizations.

If the working group or project team is constantly being reassembled, the probability increases that colleagues who do not know each other well, will eventually have to work together. This also increases the risk of misunderstandings and conflicts.

The specifics of these 'superficial relationships' of a project team are the subject of this book. Those who understand the psychology of such situations and constellations are better able to assess the behavior and intentions of colleagues and, if necessary, steer them in the right direction. It is about what happens when people meet for the first time, how people react differently to situations unknown to them, how behavioral norms in project teams establish themselves very quickly, how the emotions of stakeholders can be explained, how the corporate culture influences project work, how conflicts can quickly become disruptive factors in project work, and how a project group finally becomes a project team.

A successful project manager is expected to be able to deal with all these aspects and factors of human behavior and to take them into account in his project management.

A project manager must not only be well versed in project management methods, economic issues, economic goals, and project organization, but also in psychological aspects of human cooperation within the project environment.

Group Roles in Project Teams

There are different roles in a project organization, which all participants take up. First, there are the formal roles. These are the roles that are defined by the project organization, e.g., through official job titles and appointment. For example, a project manager is appointed, a steering committee is appointed, and the project sponsor is commissioned. Later in this chapter we will see that especially at the beginning of the project the formal roles are of high importance and relevance. The formal structure of a project team can be depicted very simply.

Figure 2: Basic structure of a project team

But there are also informal roles in project teams. These are the behavior patterns that project team members spontaneously adopt in group situations. For this reason, they are difficult to recognize and cannot be depicted in a structured way. Such behavioral preferences can weaken the formal structure of the group, for example, if a dominant member tends to give instructions instead of the project leader. Or several project team members with similar behavioral preferences may join together to form a sub-team. These informal roles are generally much more important for the project manager to deal with than the formal roles. This is because the informal roles are subconsciously more important for interaction and communication between the project team members.

This section deals specifically with the formal roles that are normally intended as permanent participants of a project meeting (especially the project managers and the project team). Formal roles that are located outside the internal project organization, for example external resource owners or customers, are deliberately not described in this book, as they have only a minor impact on team building in a project.

Project Manager

The project manager organizes and leads the project team through the daily work and the upcoming work packages. He is responsible for completing the project on time, with the desired quality and within budget. The project manager always works with the project sponsor, the steering committee, the project team, the customer and other stakeholders and participants to coordinate the goal, requirements, work packages, finances, meetings, communication, and outcome. Among other things, the project manager is responsible for the following tasks: documenting the project scope and content, developing a project plan and work breakdown structure, monitoring all project activities, communicating with stakeholders, handling all change requests, documenting project progress and results, creating project documents, and handling all unforeseeable events.

The Project Team

A member of the project team is selected to carry out the work in the project. They are responsible for contributing to the project goal, result, specific work packages and processes through their work. In case of problems, change requests or unforeseen events, this is reported to the (sub-)project manager. The members of the project team often have different professional competencies in order to cover as many aspects of the project scope as possible. Project team members can belong