It is important for Project Leaders to recognise the gap between project management and business senior executives. This is most evident in terms of typical thought-processes for both groups. I don’t want to paint a negative picture of the business world, seeing as I am a business owner. I am also a practising Project Leader. As a result, I have to see things from the business perspective as well as from the Project Leader’s perspective. There is clearly a gap between both worlds.
I have had instances where my business side has questioned decisions made by my project leadership side and vice versa, depending on what ‘hat’ I had on at the time. However, before I run off to a therapist complaining of a multiple personality disorder, it is best to examine what drives either side.
My project management side is driven by the familiar six tenets of scope, benefit, resources, quality, time and risk. Typically, with project management there is a clear starting point and target. The emphasis is at the departmental level and the execution of set tasks.
On the other hand, my business side is partly driven by that old cliché, the bottom-line. Equally, or of more importance, are the other factors that come into play. For instance, corporate social responsibility, big-picture strategic thinking, risk management, long-term business goals, vision and philanthropy. The emphasis is at the corporate level and is more abstract.
The gap between project management and business can be summed up as follows: the project management side focuses on getting the job done while the business side focuses on ensuring there are jobs to get done (shown on the right-side and left-side respectively in the image below).
Both sets of drivers are not necessarily mutually exclusive. However, they do not always co-exist comfortably. I recall a situation where I was wearing my Project Manager hat in an end-stage meeting with a client’s project board. One of the board members wanted to know why my company had submitted a time-and-resources contract on this occasion, rather than a fixed-cost contract. This situation occurred about a quarter way into the project.
The Project Manager in me was dying to say something like “this particular project relies heavily on your staff being available for business requirements gathering and testing, therefore it is difficult to fix how much of our time will be spent with your people.”
Thankfully, before my project management side took the better of me, I realised I was dealing with business-minded people and needed to wear my business hat very quickly.
After a brief pause, I explained that the contract was written specifically for this project. I explained further that my company was fully committed to achieving the client’s business goals, and we were showing this commitment by making our people available as and when required by their people. In other words, “you only pay for what you use.”
I doubt whether my Project Manager’s answer, while factually correct, would have resonated well with the project board.
As it turned out, my business-focused answer was well received, which came as a shock to me at the time. I was gearing up for what could easily have turned into a moderate, or major, client relationship disaster. Thankfully, that was averted in this case.
I have learnt some things through regularly switching between project management and business focus. Open communication and empathy go a long way towards bridging the gap between both sides.
Empathy, in this case, is not so much sympathy or compassion, as the ability to see things from someone else’s perspective and the ability to present information in a language and style that they prefer. This can be very difficult to achieve, especially where the other person’s perspective is in direct contrast to yours.
It is almost as if you have to mentally separate yourself from the words coming out of your mouth. While all this may sound rather difficult and overwhelming, I will end this article on a happy note. It makes your job as a Project Leader a lot easier when you realise these differences, and can make the mental separation. As a further comfort, it is helpful to realise that you are simply merely packaging information into a different bias to yours. The facts have not changed, what has changed is your inevitable and attendant personal bias around the facts.
People tend to be more receptive when you ‘speak their language’ and you show that you appreciate what they have gone through to get to where they are.
GAICD, M.Comp (Monash)
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