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The purpose of this post is to discuss what the latest edition of the PMBOK Guide has to say about colocation vs. virtual teams, given the increasing reliance on the latter for project work.

1.  Colocation

For the process 9.3 Develop Project Team, among the seven tools & techniques listed is #5, Colocation.   Now this would have been the status quo before, where the most active members working on the project team are in the same physical location.    The kickoff meeting at the beginning of the project is not explicitly mentioned, but it is an example of how colocation, even if at strategically important times during the project, can facilitate interaction between team members.

2.  Virtual teams

In contrast, the value of virtual teams is mainly for increased convenience, and reduced costs, but the value of face-to-face communication that comes from colocation is noticeably absent in virtual teams.   And that is one of the inherent problems that the PMBOK Guide unfortunately does NOT address.

3.  Problems with virtual teams

There was a Webinar done by the Economist Educational unit back in October 2012 with David Bolchover, international best-selling management author of such books as Pay Check: Are top earners really worth it? and The 90-Minute Manager: Lessons from the Sharp End of Management .

Here are the problems that David Bolchover explained that can be created by virtual teams, and some of the potential solutions he outlined in his conversation with Paul Lewis. These problems range from the practical ones of time zones (red), organizational behavior (blue), language and cultural differences (green), and psychological (purple).

4. Importance of communications management plan

All of these potential problems that a virtual team can create have solutions that can be put together in a communication management plan which sets the ground rules for meetings such as:

• Establish levels of urgency for e-mails and assign max response time for each level
• Establish who will take meeting minutes, what format they will be in, and who gets distributed a copy for informational purposes above and beyond participants
• Establish at least ONE face-to-face meeting between members at the outset of project, and as often as time and budget permit it throughout project.
• In virtual teams, problems tend to fester so conflicts can be more severe when they arise: have strategies on how to confront conflict.

5.  Conclusion

After having participated in many virtual teams, mainly between Japanese and Americans, I can attest to many of the problems that David Holchover discussed in discussion with Paul Davis from the Economist Education unit. But like any aspect of a project, communications can be managed and a good management plan will be structured according to the needs of the company and the particular project involved.

Today’s discussions gives people valuable background into the cultural dimensions of these communication problems, thereby giving them more insight into how to prevent them in such a plan. I thank the Economist Education unit and Paul Davis for putting on such an informative webinar, and of course I thank David Holchover for making such a positive case for a communications management plan to manage virtual international teams.

From the standpoint of PMI, if you are relying on virtual teams, then you probably should consider colocation at strategically important points in the project, particularly at the beginning of the project.    This should decrease the communication risks of virtual teams so that the organization can enjoy the benefits that they provide in today’s increasingly international business world.

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I.  Introduction

The World Economic Forum’s Global Risk Report 2013 was published in November 2012.   Among other things, the report ranks global risks in terms of which have the most likelihood and which have the most potential impact if they do end occurring.    

An interesting feature added in this year’s report was a summary of those global risks which, even if not the most likelihood or most impactful, are those risks which are the fastest growing, and therefore deserve special attention.

The purpose of this post is to list those fastest-growing risks in both categories of likelihood and impact and to discuss them.  

II.   Fastest Growing Risks for 2013 in terms of Likelihood

Just as a reminder, the top five MOST LIKELY global risks for 2013 were the following (on a scale from 1 to 5, the higher the number, the greater the likelihood:

1.  Severe Income Disparity (4.22)—Economic

2.  Chronic Fiscal Imbalances (3.97)—Economic

3.  Rising Greenhouse Gas Emissions (3.94)—Environmental

4.  Water Supply Crisis (3.85)–Societal

5.  Mismanagement of population ageing (3.83)–Societal

In contrast, the top five FASTEST GROWING global risks for 2013 in terms of likelihood were the following.

1.  Unforeseen consequences of new life science technologies (2.68 → 3.11)

Specifically called out are possibilities of of genetic manipulation through synthetic biology leading to unintended consequences or biological weapons.

2.  Unforeseen consequences of climate change mitigation (2.80 → 3.23)

Climate change mitigation includes engineering strategies that, if they were to get out of control, could amplify rather than lessen climate problems.   Furthermore, not all mitigation strategies are readily reversible, and some can be only be fully validated if they are tested on a global scale, which of course increases the impact if the interventions create unforeseen consequences.   

3.  Unsustainable population growth (3.05 → 3.45)

This risk category is what the experts who wrote the Global Risk report call a “Center of Gravity”, meaning that it connects with risks from all of the five categories (economic, environmental, geopolitical, societal and technological).   Some of the earliest effects of climate change which we have already experienced are food and water shortages, which reduce the amount of global population that can be sustained with the given supply of those natural resources.

4.  Hard landing of an emerging economy (3.07 → 3.46)

The surprisingly low GDP reading for China of 7.7% growth in the first quarter of 2013 shows that the risk of a hard landing for the world’s second largest economy is growing.   

5.  Mismanagement of population ageing (3.44 -> 3.83)

The percentage of the population that are seniors will go from 22% at present to 32% by 2050 in the developed world, and in the same time frame the figures for seniors in the developing nations will go from 9% to 20%.   

III.   Fastest Growing Risks for 2013 in terms of Impact

Based on the responses from the experts, the top five MOST SEVERE global risks for 2013 were the following:

1.  Major Systemic Financial Failure (4.04)—Economic

2.  Water Supply Crisis (3.98)—Societal

3.  Chronic Fiscal Imbalances (3.97)—Economic

4.  Diffusion of Weapons of Mass Destruction (3.92)–Geopolitical

5.  Failure of climate change adaptation (3.90)–Environmental

In contrast, the top five FASTEST GROWING global risks for 2013 in terms of likelihood were the following (the scale is the same, from 1 to 5).

1.  Unforeseen negative consequences of regulation (2.77 → 3.18)

A theme emerged at the World Economic Forum that government regulators need to be conversant with the same risk management techniques as risk managers in the private sector.   However, the global financial crisis of 2008 was a result of the unforeseen negative consequences of deregulation, where some of the financial innovations created in its wake that were supposed to reduce risk ended up increasing it, with the public sector being the one that in many countries ended up footing the bill for the risk miscalculations of the private sector.   

2. Unilateral resource nationalization (3.02 → 3.40)

The example that comes to mind is China’s attempt to corner the market on certain rare earth metals that are used in the manufacture of electronics.    

3.  Chronic labour market imbalances (3.38 →  3.73)

In other words, unemployment rates.   The impact of these imbalances on society especially, in Europe, are growing increasingly severe as the global economy continues to face multiple challenges (China’s hard landing, and the protracted recession spurred on by austerity measures first in Europe and now in the United States).  

4.  Hard landing of an emerging economy (3.15 → 3.49)

As mentioned above, China’s GDP growth rate in the first quarter of 2013 was only 7.7%, which caused many to talk increasingly loudly about the possibility of a “hard landing” for what is the world’s second largest economy.    Note that this is also on the list of fastest growing risks in terms of LIKELIHOOD as well.    When a risk grows in both impact AND likelihood, it’s time to pay it a lot more attention.

5.  Mismanagement of population aging (3.36 → 3.67)

Again, this is a risk which also is on the list of fastest growing risks in terms of LIKELIHOOD.   Being a risk that connects all five global risk categories together, a so-called “Center of Gravity” on a map that portrays all the global risks and their interconnections, it is significant that this too is growing in the experts’ minds the fastest both in terms of likelihood AND impact.  

IV.  Conclusion

The five factors mentioned above (two technological, two societal, and one economic in the case of likelihood; three economic, one societal, and one geopolitical in the case of impact) are the factors which need to be paid attention to the most after the top five in either category of likelihood or impact, because they are growing the fastest and could, if left unchecked, be in the top five within the next year or so.

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The process 9.3 Develop Project Team has as one of the key tool & techniques Team-Building Activities, which includes the formal kickoff meeting to launch the project.

One of the models that can help a project manager take a number of disparate individuals and to mold them into working together as a team is Tuckman’s Team Development Model, a model developed by psychologist Bruce Tuckman back in 1965 to describe the stages that a team goes through in working on a project.   (NOTE:   The original model had the first 4 stages only, and the 5th stage was added later in 1977.)

1.  Forming

The team meets and learns about the project and their formal roles and responsibilities.   A project manager needs to set the correct tone at the beginning, preferably at the kickoff meeting.   Which reminds me of a story I told once in our project manager’s Toastmasters Club back in Orange County, CA.   There was a guy who was having coffee with his neighbor who worked in a florist shop.    The florist looked something was bothering him, so the project manager asked him what the problem was.

Florist:  “Our shop is facing heat from some of our customers because some delivery orders got mixed up.”

PM:   “Oh, what happened?”

Florist:  “The regular delivery guy didn’t show up, someone we got somebody to fill in for him who didn’t know the customers as well.   He delivered one set of flowers for a project manager having a meeting to launch a project.   Everybody was dismayed when they entered the room, because the floral arrangement had a sign saying “Our deepest sympathys”–that one was supposed to go to a funeral home!”

PM:  “Gosh, I can see why the project manager was upset!”

Florist:  “Well, that’s not the worst of it.   Meanwhile, the funeral home got a floral arrangement that said, “Have a great kickoff!”

You definitely want to start the kickoff meeting with the sense that people should be receiving a card which says “Congratulations”, rather than “Our Deepest Sympathys”!

2.  Storming

Now that the members know each other and what their roles and responsibilities are supposed to be, the team begins to address the project work itself.    When there are two different approaches that could be used to reach an objective, there will be person A who wants to take approach #1 and person B who wants to take approach #2.   How does this situation get resolved?   Conflict resolution is, in fact, the subject of another post, but the point to remember here is that a project manager needs to be able to do an “ego bypass” operation so that the objectives merits of each approach are being debated, rather than it being a contest of wills between two personalities.   The team needs to start seeing that the team effort is not a zero-sum game of “if I lose, someone else wins.”   What will it take in terms of sacrifice of one’s time, efforts, and in addition to one’s cherished opinions, which will cause the team to win?    If members are able to make that paradigmatic shift from the “I” to the “we” perspective, then they are on their way to the next phase.

3.  Norming

Team members begin to work together and adjust their work habits and behaviors to support the team, and thereby start to trust each other.   In this stage the “we” perspective has been established.

4.  Performing

Now that the “we” perspective has been established, and the group is working well together, meaning that the team is as its peak efficiency, meaning that 100% of its energy is focused on doing the work and striving against problems, rather than each other.

5.  Adjourning

The team completes the work and moves on from the project.    This stage was added by Tuckman in 1977, and it takes particular significance in a project management setting, as it is important to encapsulate the experience of the team on the project in the lessons learned which can be documented and passed on to the organization so that the next project does not have to “reinvent the wheel” when it comes to solving problems.

Just like with the initiation of the project in the kick off, the formal closing of the project should also set the right tone, hopefully a congratulatory one if the project was successful.

In conclusion, there are three important points to remember about these 5 stages of the Tuckman Team Development Model:

a.   Sequential

The main point of Tuckman’s team development model is that the stages must be done in sequence.   The group cannot work together (performing) if it does not see itself as a group (norming) and spends its time fighting each other rather than the problems the group faces (storming).

b.  Stages are earned

As opposed to stages of physical development over which a person has little direct control, the development of a team can be arrested at any stage if the requirements of that stage are not fulfilled.   It is not a given that the team will go on to the next stage; that must be earned by the ability of the team to master those team-building skills that go with each stage.

c.  Stages are reversible

If there is some sort of crisis or other shock to the project team that comes from outside the team (either from within the organization or outside of it), then the team may regress to an earlier stage.    If the team has dealt smoothly with all of the problems that they have encountered so far on the project, the project manager cannot be complacent.   There may be some sort of unanticipated risk or shock that occurs (fire at a supplier or other interruptions to the supply chain, for example) that creates a new problem to be solved of greater magnitude than faced before by the team.   With higher stakes, higher emotions may flare up and differing opinions may threaten to take an organization from the performing  stage right back to the storming stage.

A project manager who is aware of these stages can help move the team through them in an effective manner.

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1.  Introduction

The third out of four human resource-related processes is in the executing process group, and it is used to develop the group of individuals assembled as the team members for your project and to get them to work together as a team.

2.  Inputs

The inputs come from the first process 9.1 in the form of the Human Resource Management Plan and the second process 9.2 in the form of the Project staff assignments and Resource calendars, which tell who is working on the project and for what time period

3.  Tools & Techniques

The tools & techniques are a varied lot, from skills on how to handle team members (interpersonal skills and personnel assessment tools), the guidelines for team member behavior (ground rules) and their physical environment (colocation), to training them individually (training) and as a group (team-building activities).  Also included are ways to encourage team members to work towards the project goals (recognition and rewards).

4.  Outputs

The team performance assessments are not the same as individual performance evaluations, but evaluations of how well the team works together.  Any training that members receive either as individuals or as a group should be recorded in their training records.

The core of this process is tool & technique #3, Team-Building Activities.  The next post will be on the five stages of developing a team called the Tuckman ladder.

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1.  Introduction

The second out of four human resource-related processes is in the executing process group, and is where the project manager acquires his or her project team.

2.  Inputs

The input of this process is the Human Resource Management Plan, the output of the previous process 9.1 Plan Human Resource Management.  The other inputs come from the Enterprise Environmental Factors, the background information from the industry and the governmental regulatory framework within which the project takes place, and the Organizational Process Assets, the cumulative experience the organization itself has with regards to Human Resources in the form of policies, guidelines, and standard processes.   of course.

3.  Tools & Techniques

As far as the tools & techniques are considered, certain team members may be stipulated by pre-assignment in advance as having to work on the project, to the point that they are mentioned in the project charter.  This gives additional “negotiating power” to the project manager in the next technique, that of negotiation.  Especially if the organizational structure is a functional rather than projectized one, where the project manager has no direct authority over his or her potential team members outside of the project, the team members need to be “borrowed” from the functional manager, or perhaps from other ongoing projects.  In some cases, if the organization is working closely on design work, for example, with a vendor or supplier, someone from that vendor or supplier may work temporarily at the organization in order to facilitate on-site coordination of the project between the two companies.

What if there is no one qualified and available to do a particular activity or work package on the project?  Then you can try use the technique of acquisition to hire someone temporarily for the purpose of working on the project.  Nowadays, organizations that have different offices around the world can have team members from different countries work on the same project through virtual teams.  PMI is careful to point the additional risks with regards to communications that can occur with virtual teams.  In the same way that different customer requirements need to be balanced to create the technical requirements of the project, there are different factors that need to be balanced to choose the best team members for the project, and multi-criteria decision analysis can be a useful tool in doing this.

4.  Outputs

Once the team has been chosen, the list of those on the project team are contained in the project staff assignment, and the timing of when they are available is contained in the resource calendars for that project.

There may be some adjustments to the Human Resource Management Plan, which is a common feature of project management, where the plan may have to adjust to reality of the project rather than the other way around.

Once this process is over, the project manager will have a collection of team members that will work on the project.  Taking the team members who are plural and turning them into an entity which is singular called a team is what the next process is about, 9.3 Develop Project Team, and that is the subject of the next post.

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The day before yesterday, I set out the inputs, tools & techniques, and the outputs for process 9.1 Plan Human Resource Management.

The first tool listed for this process is that of Organizational Charts and Position Descriptions.  There are three types of formats that can be used to describe the positions that people hold on the project and what their level of involvement is in various aspects of the project.

1.  Organizational Charts

This is familiar to most people as giving a hierarchical breakdown of the various positions in the organization and their relationships.  However, in a project you can have an organizational chart that states the roles and responsibilities of the project team members, rather than the organization as a whole.

This is particularly helpful if you have a matrix-type organization that is a hybrid between a functional and projectized organizational structure, where the lines of authority within a project need to be clarified if the project team members do not report to the project manager in the organization as a whole, but rather to a separate functional manager.

2.  Responsibility Assignment Matrix

This is a matrix which indicates for the various activities or work packages within a project who is going to be:

• Responsible (who will do the work)
• Accountable (who will make the decisions)
• Consult (who will be asked if there are questions)
• Inform (who will be informed of the results of decisions or of progress)

The letters spell the acronym RACI so sometimes this kind of matrix is referred to as a RACI chart.

3.  Position Descriptions

This is familiar to most people as giving an outline of the duties of the people in various positions within the organization.  In the case of a project, however, the position description indicates what the duties of the person will be as a project team member.

The templates for these organizational charts and position descriptions come from the organization’s process assets or OPAs, an important input into the process.  Among other things, the process fills in these charts, matrices, or lists, and they are then an output as part of the Human Resource Management Plan.

Once the Human Resource Management Plan has been developed, the project manager can then go about obtaining the people he or she needs for the project in the next process, which is 9.2 Acquire Project Team, which is the subject of the next post.

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At the Leadership Conference held last Saturday in the Chicagoland District 30 of Toastmasters International, Lance Miller spoke about how he honed his skills as a speaker in order to become the 2005 World Champion of Public Speaking, and as a leader in order to turn his home club Renaissance Speakers into a champion club.

He became a Distinguished Toastmaster a while back, and after becoming a World Champion speaker, his could one possibly improve? His answer is to set himself the goal of doing one Competent Communicator manual, the basic speech manual that all Toastmasters start out with, every year. He’s on his 22nd or 23rd Competent Communicator award.

He does this to hone his basic skills while he pursues other educational and leadership goals. I have decided to copy his example and work on a Competent Communicator award while pursuing my Advanced Communicator and Advanced Leadership awards as well. I intend to become a world-class speaker as well, and this, I’m convinced, is the way to do it!

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One of the outputs of process 9.1 Plan Human Resource Management is, not surprisingly, the Human Resource Management Plan.  The purpose of this post is to discuss what elements are in the plan, and why they are there.

From the organization’s point of view, the element of the plan that deals the most with the acquisition of the team is the staffing management plan.  This is important for process 9.2 Acquire Project Team.  The reporting relationships and other interactions on the team that are illustrated in the project organizational charts are important for the process 9.3 Develop Project Team.  Finally, the roles and responsibilities that the members will fulfill are important for the process 9.4 Manage Project Team.

These three elements of the human resource management plan assist the project manager and the team to carry out the other three processes.  The next process, 9.2 Acquire Project Team, will be outlined in the next post.

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When you’re on a journey, and the end keeps getting farther and farther away, then you realize that the real end is the journey–Karlfried Graf-Durckheim

On June 15, 2013, Lance Miller, the 2005 World Champion of Public Speaking, gave a presentation on how to become a champion public speaker.

This post summarizes the main points of his talk.

1. Speak from Your Heart
Speak about a subject you are familiar with. You can’t fake sincerity, and the energy that flows from the place where you telling the truth, as you firmly believe it, will fuel you during the entire speech.

2. Listen to the Audience
So you have a sincere message. How do you know if you are using skillful other means so that the message actually connects to the audience? Listen to them, and they will tell you.

3. Strive not to Win, but to Wean
You should be looking at the contest process as a way of weaning yourself from weaknesses, mistakes, or other impediments that keep you from delivering your message.

4. Humility, not Humiliation
You should go in with an attitude of learning, and enjoy the experience. Let go of your desire for the fruits of that experience in the form of winning against someone else. Let your “win” be that you are a better speaker each time you enter a contest. Think of an exercise class: is there any health benefit you gain from being stronger than the person next to you? No, the only health benefit you will experience is if you are better than you were before.

5. Go to the SPA
Your speech should have a Story, a Point, and an Application. The Stroru consists of the set up (who, what, when the conflict occurs), the failed attempts to resolve the conflict, and then the Point where it is resolved. You then give the Application to the audience b y having them experience it through the Story, not by telling it to them. They will process your message far better with their hearts than with their heads.

These points for me showed me that, as the opening quote from Karlfried Graf-Durckheim said, that the end IS the journey.

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Today I went to the Leadership Conference for District 30, the Chicagoland area, which was held all day at the AT&T Institute in Hoffman Estates.    I went there to receive training in my role as Vice President Education for my new Toastmasters Club, the Homewood-Flossmoor Toastmasters Club, which I will be assuming on July 1st.    It has been the second time I have fulfilled this role, and I was looking forward to getting all the information I could in order to make this a successful year for my new club and all its members.

Another compelling reason to go to the conference was the fact that Lance Miller, the 2005 World Champion of Public Speaking, and a tireless champion of the Toastmasters International education and leadership programs, was the keynote speaker.   He gave a total of five presentations throughout the day, and I went to them all.

One of them covered the topic Managing a Successful Toastmasters Club, in which he discussed the ways in which he and the other leaders of his home club, Renaissance Speakers, brought back the club twice from the brink of death to the point where it now has 95+ members.   The purpose of this post is give a summary of his talk for the benefit of those who could not make it to the presentation.   If you find the material compelling, please visit his website, http://www.lancemillerspeaks.com, to find out how to obtain some of his CDs or DVDs giving more in-depth advice on how to help you become a better speaker and your club to become a better club.

The following are the ideas that Lance Miller gave for attracting new members  by generating enthusiasm within the club in a variety of ways …

1.  Website/Social Media

To get better members, you need to get more and better guests.   This is the function of the club’s website and other social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook.  One interesting suggestion is to send a club newsletter out not only to members, but to any guests that have visited the club recently.    This will give them a good idea of what the club is doing on a regular basis, and may encourage them to re-visit the club.

2.  Card or flyer distribution

Businesses in the areas, including the local Starbucks, or other places where customers will visit, are a good place to distribute cards or flyers about the club.   You may not only get their customers to notice your club in this way, but one of the employees of those businesses may be interested in coming to visit as well.

3.  Special meetings/speakers

One of the ways to generate energy in the club and to have this energy be noticed by guests is to have a speaker meeting or special speakers from outside the club once every other month or once every quarter.    The speakers can be members  from other clubs who are trying to complete their speech manuals, or area, division, or district officers who will use the opportunity to visit your club to get to know it better.   This is beneficial for guests, for regular members, and for the visitors to your club from other Toastmasters clubs.

4.  Events/parties

Holidays are good and easy ways to introduce a theme to some of the meetings to give them a special character that keeps the meetings from getting into a rut.   The existing club members will benefit from the variety as well.    Every once and awhile, it is a good idea to have a special meeting out of the club outside the usual club venue, again to lend a little variety to the schedule–and to give additional speech opportunities to the members.

5.  Speechcraft

Speechcraft is a special short-term crash course in how to give a speech that non-members can participate in.   A lot of times this can be used as a way for people, who normally would shy away from the commitment of time and effort of joining a Toastmasters club, to experience the tangible benefits that come from the Toastmasters program.   Running a Speechcraft course is also good experience for the members who organize and run it.

6.  Speakers Bureau/Community Service

The Speakers Bureau gives Toastmasters members who are seeking additional speaking opportunities outside the club to  do a speech at another club, usually one with low membership that is seeking to attract speakers.    There was a club I knew of that had about half a dozen members that let it be known in the area that it was accepting speakers from outside the club.   The area governor hooked them up with the Speakers Bureau, and when guests came in, they were treating to a full menu of interesting speeches about a variety of topics, all provided by speakers who were sent by the Speakers Bureau.    They have doubled their membership in a six-month period, and they are still growing.

Another avenue for gaining members is to have members do speeches at local clubs like the Rotary Club, the Chamber of Commerce, or other local organizations that meet regularly and need speakers for their meetings.   This may generate interest within those clubs in having their members visit the club to gain speaking and leadership skills.

Lance Miller talked about leadership, speech contests, and other topics in his other presentations, but I thought his suggestions on boosting membership were excellent and felt that they in particular deserved a wider hearing, which is why I presented this post today.

I experienced a move from Los Angeles to Chicago which has kept me occupied for the past month or so, but my joining a new Toastmasters Club in the area was the best way I thought of to get re-integrated into this area where I haven’t lived for many years.   And now my election as club officer, my training at the Leadership Conference, and the talk by Lance Miller has made me realize that the opportunities for growth are unlimited–it’s time to seize them!

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