… Primarily because of articles like this one by CIO Magazine. I found this article through Ameel’s website, so hat tip to Ameel for that one.

Every once in a while someone publishes a “nn reasons why your IT project fails” article. Every time it leaves me with some longing for something insightful. In this CIO Magazine article, every one of the 14 tips provided are logical and rational. Each one of them is actionable. Each one of them is also useless.

The only tip which comes close to dealing with the true underlying problem is tip no. 14 on communicating with project sponsors and stakeholders. Even this only addresses it in a very rudimentary way.

What’s wrong with this?

Firstly, the points made in these articles are practical and useful. I believe they have some value. The problem is that they simply don’t go far enough.

As IT people and project managers, we are trained to be operational, logical, planned, rational and ultimately to solve problems. We read material which reinforces this world view of ourselves. In this instance, the article hands us a platter full of 14 problems to solve and some very palatable solutions. In fails in addressing the real hard questions we need to deal with in order to be effective leaders of IT projects.

This article, and others like it, provide us with a convenient scape goat. As long as we do these things (e.g. select the right project team, use repeatable processes, track changes), then we can avoid the real issues.

What about agile?

Agile deals with this partly by making it easier to “go with the flow” and safely absorb the changing nature of projects. Most of the documentation I have read on the subject focuses on creating processes to control and manage. Don’t get me wrong, these are really really important processes to put in place.

Where I fear we trip up is when we implement the processes expecting them to solve or at least help with our people issues. Again, there isn’t much focus on engaging with real people. How do we better relate to them? How do we learn to understand them and their own pressures and needs? How do we “do communication better?”

What should we be adressing instead?

In my mind, the real issue is a lack of dialogue. Not talking. Not listening. Not communicating. But real dialogue. The ability to put your own needs aside and engage on a deeper level with those you are working for. Only when we get to this space will we begin to see significant gains in IT project successes and real positive outcomes.

Often we need to hear things that we don’t want to hear. Often we need to say things others may not want to hear. As leaders of projects, we need to create a space where this can occur. An open, respectful and reflective space.

This is an area that I am only just begining to explore for myself. Because of this, I still find it difficult to explain in words. The area is one studied by Ronald Heifetz and is known as Adaptive Leadership or Adaptive Change. As I find the words and have the experiences, I hope to write and share more about this.

Until then, some of the following articles might help provide some insights for you:

• When Leadership Spells Danger
• Adaptive Change: What’s essential and what’s expendable?
• Adaptive Leadership
• Adaptive vs Technical challenges
• A conversation with Ronal Heifetz - Leadership without easy answers

I’m a tool/model addict. I love them all. Anything which makes my thinking easier is a bonus. I sometimes struggle with forming my thoughts into cohesive structures, so I find models an invaluable additional to my arsenal.

One of the major benefits to an agile development process is the Inspect-Adapt loop. Reflection, or retrospective as it’s usually termed, is an integral part of continually improving what we do. In a Scrum Retrospective, the standard questions to ask are:

1. What did we do well?
2. What could be improved in the next sprint?

I believe these fall short in many ways. These two questions aren’t targetted enough to generate any real actionable outcomes. Instead, I would use the reflection model. We used it today in our Scrum Retrospective and I think the result was quite good for a first shot.

Like all useful models, it is extremely simple…

Spend a few minutes in each quadrant and ask yourself (or your team), what you should do more of, less of, and what you should keep, add and delete. You can work around them one by one or take random suggestions and add them to the appropriate box.

A nice outcome for the visuals amongst us is that you can see right away which areas you haven’t spent enough time on. I find it useful to focus on these for a few extra minutes  little more and force yourself to stretch your thinking.

It is also a way to subtly celebrate the things you’re doing well and come up with practical suggestions for those things which aren’t so great. When reflecting, it is important to phrase your words in actionable terms. “More communication” won’t get you anywhere, but “Update Jane once a week on progress” is much more useful.

The best thing of all about this model is that it is not only useful for work. When it was first presented to me, it was used for personal reflection. What in your life do you want to do more/less/keep/add/delete. You can really use it for anything you need to reflect and improve on. The more specific the topic, the better the results.

Sorry Katherine and Joe. Those the the facts. Can’t argue with that!

Chris at Murtworld has an interesting post on balancing the various aspects of your life.

I’ve identified certain recurring sets of mood, desire, energy levels, etc. that I sort of naturally cycle through, and each one is ideal for a certain type of action, thought or focus. It’s usually pretty obvious which one I’m in, and I’m now trying to play to the strengths of each mode while I’m in it. It’s very similar to the rather obvious advice of “eat when you are hungry and sleep when you are tired.”

Now, I think this sounds like a very natural way to progress through life. Your body tells you when you’re ready to do some creative thinking, so you exploit that time and make the most of it. Reading through Chris’ post, I realised that my body is naturally tuned to what he calls the “pragmatic mode” during my normal work day (9 - 5). I wonder however whether this is because I have trained my body to be pragmatic during the traditional work period?

Covey talks of balancing your life between the spiritual, physical, mental and social aspects. This approach helps introduce an element of discipline to your decision making process. It is a way of forcing yourself to allocate time to each of the areas that are important to your own personal growth and happiness.

Both methods have their own benefits. Chris’ allows you to maximise on what your body is attuned to at any given moment. Covey ensures you don’t miss out on aspects you recognise as important to your life. The issue I have with Chris’ “modes” is that you simply can’t live your life as a protracted whim. With Covey, you aren’t always able to exploit the mood you are feeling at that particular moment.

So, the questions becomes, how do we combine these two approaches effectively? How do we ensure we do not miss out on aspects of our life which we deem important but do not feel like doing (such as exercise!), yet maximise on how we are feeling at a particular moment?

I’m looking forward to hearing how Chris progresses with this way of organising life.