What does it mean to be a project sponsor?

A little while back I blogged about where one leaves one's footprints. By that I mean what marks you leave on the world as you pass. Just the other day I was reminded of another trail I left.

This one relates to something I wrote a few years back to try and raise the level of sponsor engagement and performance - a topic that is frequently raised when looking at factors affecting project success. The incident was a change agent I respect telling me that he frequently pulled out a copy of this tri-fold pamphlet I had written.

The intention was to layout in a different way the relative roles of sponsor and project manager with the idea that it could be used to encourage discussion by those parties leading to better understanding and increase the chances of success. Of course the two parties to could decide to work differently, but the key is that they would have discussed and agreed this.

The alternative is that both parties make assumptions and leave gaps and confusion. Alternatively the sponsor operates on a "Fire and Forget" basis and expects the project manager to do everything.

Below I cover the five sections of the pamplet. I do have a PDF version that looks better and can be distributed if anyone wants one - just mail me at pamphlet@ianjsutherland.com and I will send one by return.

What does it mean to be a sponsor?

Project sponsorship is about leading the delivery of benefit to the organisation. Change alone is not enough!

The sponsor “owns” the business case and champions it amongst their peers, the business and the project team

To achieve this, a sponsor will:

• Set the high level objectives, scope, anticipated benefits, budget constraints, and timing; approving the project Terms of Reference
• Lead/Chair the Stakeholder group/Steering Group
• Ensure the necessary business resources are made available
• Monitor project progress, meeting regularly with the project manager
• Resolve escalated issues
• Make necessary decisions
• Report to the Executive when required
• Liaise with other key managers ensuring ongoing support from the business
• Formally close the project and ensure effective handover into Business As Usual (BAU)
• Lead the rightful celebrations!

What does it mean to be a project manager?

Project management is the application of a broad set of skills to properly initiate, plan, execute, control and close a project.

The primary skills are:

• scoping (i.e. describing and agreeing on project objectives and requirements),
• scheduling the work required to deliver the agreed change(s),
• estimating all the resources (time, materials and people) required by the project,
• managing risk and uncertainty to help the project deliver to stakeholder expectations
• managing quality to ensure that the deliverables are fit for purpose,
• communicating and collaborating with others, including suppliers of goods and services and everyone else who works on or is affected by the project.

Please note: this does not mention the “doing” of projects. Project management is not be confused with business analysis. In practice, for smaller projects, the same individual may provide both project services, but the sponsor must ensure that enough attention is given to project management.


What can a sponsor expect from a project manager?

A project manager should provide the sponsor with:

• Advice and guidance on the management of change in line with prevailing best practice
• High quality information and documentation to support the approval, planning and execution of the project
• Management of the project resources in executing the plan
• Honest and effective communication on progress and the risks and issues relating to the project
• Assurance that deliverables are of the appropriate quality
• Forecasting of future costs and dates, based on experience and evidence
• Escalation of issues/items outside the control of the project manager and recommendations on appropriate actions
• Support in communicating to stakeholders including the Steering Committee

What is expected from a sponsor?

The project manager expects the sponsor to:

• Give enough of your time - This means time to review documents, chair key meetings, consider and address escalated issues and to actively champion the project
• Be an effective champion - Believe in the project and inspire those whose commitment is required. It is likely to involve formal and informal communication and must work in concert with the project manager
• Make the necessary decisions - When issues are escalated it is for a reason, usually that the project manager cannot resolve them and needs help
• Delegate clear authority - The Project Manager needs to understand what s/he can do and what should be escalated
• Protect the project from politics - The team needs stability if they are to work well. This starts at the top.
• NOT micromanage - Let the project manager do their job.
• NOT undermine the Project Manager by word or deed

Some tips on being a good sponsor

Projects are by definition original activities and outcomes are never certain. Here are some tips that will make success more likely:

• Make sure you are engaged from start to finish
• Do not rely on untested assumptions
• Understand the sensitivities in the project; ie what presents the greatest risk to success
• Use your project manager and the best practices
• Don’t set unreasonable timetables
• Make any required decisions in a timely manner, undue delay usually adds to the project difficulty.
• Communicate, communicate, communicate and listen
• Believe and be seen to believe in the project and the solution; if you don’t why should anyone else?
• Support the project team

Please do let me know what you think?

Are Bold Curves and Demi Curves new mobile devices?

So today the buying started in earnest. That said there are some crazy silly prices. After applying something like the following, "50% off sale, add a further 60% discount, then lose the sales tax (around 6%) and apply a coupon discount of say 10% if you spend over $100" and they are virtually paying you to take away items. For example, a pair of chinos priced at $68 plus tax, sold for an all-in price of just $11!

The bit that amused me was in Levis where they were offering ladies a service to find their ideally shaped jeans. After asking what sort of leg they wanted, eg skinny or boot leg or straight, they then asked three banker questions.

#1 Does the waist of your jeans feel tight (with a picture of a muffin top)?

#2 Do your jeans fit, but you still feel they are unflattering?

#3 Is there slack at the back of your waist?

They then asked where you wanted the waist, suggesting that lower waists were for younger girls.

In the end ladies were given an assessment that included that they should have a slight curve, a Demi curve or a bold curve. I wonder if it makes any difference or is just a clever sales technique?

Either way I wonder what Blackberry make of the names?

Location:Orlando, Florida

"In change we thrive"

I have had an interesting journey recently. In looking at personal branding and trying to position myself (and my company) in the change space I had the idea of creating coat of arms or similar motif. The idea being to create something distinctive, that conveyed an impression of quality and substance.

I looked at similar companies and many have taken their names from recognisable City locations or have linked themselve by association with academic centres or the like. I had the idea of Turl Street Associates, as this was the road in Oxford containing mine and two other colleges. There were just two problems, they were that a) this would probably only resonate with ex-Oxford people and b) I already had a name, Kellian, for the company.

Kellian was one I used before and is in fact a sythesis from K(im), ELL(en) and IAN, ie my family's names. It also has the advantage that there is no other venture using the name so no risk of association, good or bad. It also has, I think, a sllightly Scottish connotation and this seems to convey something good around the world.

Going back, the one thing I did take from my Oxford deliberations was to make use of the Oxford blue in my colour scheme hoping that that would resonate at least subliminally with people who saw it.

So with the motif I decided I need to have a purpose for it, ie a message I wanted to convey. The one I came up with was "in change we thrive". The idea being that I enjoy and make my best contribution when I am involved in change. It also had a more general message that we as a world need to to change if we are to improve.

With this I set out on two paths. The first was to get that motto put into Latin and the second was to design a heraldic-type design. For the first I recognised my limitations. I did not study Latin at school, having been judged not to have the language acuen to do more than English and French so I appealed through the Oxford Alumni group on Linkedin for help/suggestions.

Naively I thought this would be easy, but in fact it generated considerable debate about both the latin and indeed why I would want a motto in a language I did not understand. One issue is that it appears latin does not have a word for change and indeed in anglicising latin some words have taken on different connotations.

The favourite and the one I currently am using comes from a scholar and is "Mutatione Vigemus" ie we, by changing, thrive. Of course the English word mutation does not always have poistive connotations

Interestingly a later suggestion is appealing to me more and it is "Transitu floremus", which is something like fourishing through transition. I am liking this latter one more and more and may swap, but for now I have stuck with the scholar's (a professor) version.

In lookin into heraldic designs I decided to take elements of the traditional, but try and make it a little more modern. The shield above is the result where by I have just split the field and not bothered with detailed emblems or symbols. That said I hope the image conveys a road/path (grey) to the horizon/future; the horizon being between the land (green) and sky (blue) with the dawn sun (yellow) showing our target or vision.

I am sure it can be improved, but for now I like it and am using it at http://www.kellian.com/ as I develop other aspects.

I will be happy for suggestions, feedback, other ideas, even if you think I am barking!

An interesting week

As I travel home this Friday evening I muse on an interesting week.

The first item that comes to mind is something I find beyond my understanding. I learnt at the start of the week that a man(?) I know - no names,no pack drill - who has been party to a painful divorce, yet claims he wants a relationship with his three daughters, chose the end of Father's Day lunch with them to announce he had got married abroad two weeks earlier and they had not been invited.

Now I have struggled to understand his behaviour during the drawn out divorce process, but this takes his behaviour and my incredulity to new depths. There is a risk in judging when you are not in the shoes, but as a father/parent there must be responsibilities and behaviours that are the minimum if one wants to be thought of as a (hu)man!

Enough of that and onto a more positive item. I have blogged a few times about the Judgement Index. I do so not because I have any beneficial connection, but rather that I believe it really has a successful future that has not been realised yet. As a result I and some very intelligent, experienced and successful people are acting as an advisory team to the UK business founder. We met this week and two things struck me.

The first was the goodwill and generosity in the room; generosity in time and advice. It is rewarding and energising to be part of that sort of group.

The second was that we identified what I think is an exciting opportunity. Until now the Judgement Index (JI) has felt a little like a solution looking for a problem. This has both diluted the message/proposition and led it into a crowded market place for recruitment and development tools.

Instead when we came back after a breakout session there was a clear identification that RISK and the management of risk offers a compelling target. What business does not want to manage its risks and if one offered a way to identify team members who handle risk less well, would not want to know? The JI can do so much, but it can identify a propensity to follow or not follow rules, how strong an individual's moral compass is, and how well they are aware of and consider peripheral events and information.

If we can help the JI navigate this route then I see an exciting future.

The last two items of my week's reflection were honest, heart on the sleeve blogs from two friends. The first was about how hard his first year building a new business was and how he made mistakes and almost gave up ( http://stopdoingdumbthingstocustomers.com/learning/hard_lessons/ ). For me the point was that I had no idea that he was finding it that hard - he hid it well! I truly hope and indeed think that I did nothing to make life more difficult for him and indeed did unlock a little business for him, but I do wish I had been more aware.

The second was a lady who has onviously struggled this last year and realised at last that one does not have to live at 110 miles an hour, that ones health is more important than almost anything else ( http://redspringsmedia.wordpress.com/2011/06/17/were-just-so-busy-except-for-me-thankfully/ ). It seems she almost drove herself into the ground with her whirlwind lifestyle. Fortunately she has realised and seems to have a great partner to help her find a better balance and pace of life. I wish her well.

Ah well onto another weekend and then a new week. I wonder what it will bring?

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What can we learn from Rory McIlroy's US Open Victory?

Yesterday Rory McIroy completed an emphatic win at the US Open, having led from Day One and breaking records all over the place. All this at the grand old age of 22 and one month. Most remarkable to me was the difference a couple of months has made.

Not long ago at The Masters in Augusta, he led by 4 strokes going into the final day and he lost it - his game went to pieces. Hearing him talk he admits that he changed his game plan for that day. He played more defensively, he took longer to prepare his shots, and when it all started unravelling he did not know (or maybe recognise) how to change things.

Now undoubtedly he has had a lot of help in the interim, but in the end it was up to him to deliver and deliver he did. It wasn't perfection, but it almost was and possibly as close as many of us will witness. He undoubtedly has a huge future ahead of him and I wish him well.

Back to the question of change. The lessons I would take are that one can learn from failure and come back stronger. That knowing when to keep to a winning approach is as important as having the courage to change, albeit one needs the judgement to decide between the two. He also stuck with his caddy and friend, JP, and the two looked good yesterday, so maybe another lesson is not to throw away good people when the fault was within yourself?

I know that not everyone is a golf fan, but any more thoughts on what we can learn? Rory has grown up much more than the two months or so that has elapsed, why can't we do that along with our teams?


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Letting the organisation run! More rowing analogies.

[This space was reserved for a picture of a surging bow. The one above is the best I can find]

More than once on team building / performance courses the facilitators have used the analogy of a rowing eight, making the point that the best performance is gained when all the members are "in time". In each case this is as far as the analogy has been taken. As a sometime oarsmen it strikes me that there is more to be made of the analogy and I want to cover three aspects here. aspects that I do believe are relevant but rarely mentioned.

They are:-

> Balance

> Letting the boat run

> The value of the cox

Dealing with balance first (and hoping that the reader has at sometime either rowed or seen it on the television) this is at least as crucial to attaining good performance as is timing. In a boat a lack of balance is blatant and evidenced by the juddering of blades across the water surface and the haphazard spray of water into the air and over team mates, wasting energy and damaging morale. This is a case where a poor oarsman can impact and impede the better oarsmen around him - it only takes one! In the worst case this can lead to the dreaded "catching a crab" or worse losing n oar as it is ripped from an oarsman's grip.

The analogy is even more apt in choppy waters when balance is even more important if one is to achieve best performance.

The relevance of this to teams is to build them with an understanding of balance and of the importance of everyone's contribution/behaviour. Once balanced any tinkering may have a detrimental effect.

The second point I best illustrated if you watch rowing on television where without doubt the camera will focus at some point on the bow (front) of the boat as it rhythmically rises from the water and surges forward before falling again. What is often lost is that this surge is when the boat is moving fastest and is also when the oars are no longer in the water, as the crew's seats slide back and they catch a breath before the next stroke of delivered exertion.

The physicist knows that this is due to the conservation of momentum as the crew move backwards relative to the boat, the boat moves forward to compensate. No matter it is an interesting point for teams and certainly gels with driving change.

The point is that there are times to let go, to catch one's breath and let the organisation "run". Surprisingly it may run faster at this time if you have done the right preparatory work and can let it run cleanly - with balance.

It is similar to not trying too hard, knowing when to push and when to let off, at least a little. This may seem counter intuitive, but is also seen in team sports like tug-of-war.

The last is the value of a cox. Now if you look at rowing crews can be coxed or uncoxed, but where a cox is present they play an important part. They may not be big or strong physically, indeed it suits that they re not, but the are the ones who face into the direction of progress, provide feedback and encouragement to the crew who can then focus on what they are there to do, and they decide how and more importantly when to steer. If the cox is out of tune with the crew and the crew's timing the contribution is limited and possibly destructive. For example if the cox steers when the blades are out of the water they can badly fact both the balance of the boat AND the run, by adding drag to one side.

The best coxes I have rowed with, trained just as hard and often as the oarsmen, gaining respect and earning their right to be in the boat and part of a winning crew.

The point here is that you don't have to have a cox for the team, but where you do they can add real value as long as they do what they need to do....well!


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Good advice to school students as they prepare for the real world

Recently my father shared what was reported to be advice from Bill Gates when he addressed High School students - a little late for me you might say, but still relevant for my daughter.

I am sure that the reported association with Bill Gates will have done the promotion of this piece no hard at all, but i fear that a quick check of the internet - well i would, wouldn't I - reports this to be an urban legend with no basis in truth. Instead the text came from an op-ed piece in the San Diego Union-Tribune on September 19th, 1996, written by Charles J. Sykes.

That is no matter the advice is still good and as another academic year reaches an end I will do my bit to spread it further. I hope it resonates and at least someone will find it useful.


Rule 1
Life is not fair — get used to it!

Rule 2
The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3
You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4
If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5
Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping — they called it opportunity.

Rule 6
If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7
Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8
Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9
Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10
Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11
Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.



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Using the Judgement Index (JI) when recruiting.

In my current role I am recruiting a relatively senior team from scratch, one I will hand over when the permanent occupier of my seat returns. This has made some important changes to my approach and I have found the JI has helped enormously.

I tend to recruit the person rather than the CV, taking a personal view on whether the individual has what is needed to do the role and if I can coach the required performance from them. This of course is easier and more relevant when I, the recruiter, am permanent and will be accountable in 12/18/24 months for the delivery of the person I recruited.

As an interim the team I leave behind is more of a legacy and I need to take extra care to ensure that my colleagues are comfortable with the hires and won't look back and say, "if only he hadn't hired him/her". This creates added caution with marginal candidates missing out on the benefit of the doubt.

In this case I am looking for people who can engage and carry strategic relationships with senior colleagues and for this I turned to the JI.

The concept and indeed the execution was to do a personal first round of interviews looking for the most capable and likely candidates. From this a short list for second interview was drawn up and asked to take the JI assessment. This was something that had been explained at first interview so was not surprise.

Keeping it to second round only reduced the effort (and cost), but also risked the fact that the JI might not yield useful distinguishing information. For the assessment I had already sat down with the consultant and pulled out what I expected to be the key values, behaviours and skills for the role. I also asked, and apparently this was the first time it had been done this way, that the consultant not only feed back and assessment on each candidate to me, but the also gave the individual half an hour of feedback. That way both parties entered the second interview with a sense of what the JI had identified and allowed a more meaningful second round, rather than a repeat of the first that could only focus on the CV.

As the client we received a written assessment on each candidate, identifying relative strengths and weaknesses, and suggested areas for questioning/exploration. I also received a summary of the group that allowed relative positioning.

Interestingly the JI reported each candidate as strong ( good first interviews?), but did show differences with some clear gaps between candidates.

In the second interview, I/we checked to see what the candidates thought of the JI. All were happy with it, if somewhat bemused about how it provided so much insight. That said no-one disagreed with the output/analysis and all thought it worthwhile. While not everything came out in second interviews, subsequent information has further ratified some if the insights.

On reflection the people we have hired were the strongest in the JI. We could argue chicken and egg, but I would saythe JI was a useful aid in an effective process.

As a further plus, even the candidates who were not successful left with a positive impression of the recruitment/interview process and of the company - surely the next best result to finding the right people!

I would certainly use the JI again, using it intelligently in support of our personal judgement and not mechanically as a yes/no filter.


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