Point Lookout: a free weekly publication of Chaco Canyon Consulting
Volume 6, Issue 51;   December 20, 2006: Managing Pressure: The Unexpected

Managing Pressure: The Unexpected

by

When projects falter, we expect demands for status and explanations. What's puzzling is how often this happens to projects that aren't in trouble. Here's Part II of a catalog of strategies for managing pressure.

Sponsors, customers, and management all expect projects to deliver what they promised, for the price promised, by the date promised. When they perceive that progress isn't in line with expectations, they can apply pressure to the project team, and that pressure can itself become a hindrance.

Freeway damage in the 1989 Loma Prieta, California, Earthquake

Freeway damage in the 1989 Loma Prieta, California, earthquake. Unexpected events often have unexpected consequences.

Photo by U.S. Geological Survey courtesy Wikipedia.

Here are some insights about the unexpected that can help with managing and preventing pressure. See "Managing Pressure: Communications and Expectations," Point Lookout for December 13, 2006, and "Managing Pressure: Milestones and Deliveries," Point Lookout for December 27, 2006, for more.

Educate everyone about the inevitability of setbacks
When a setback happens, perceptions of progress can change permanently, even if the setback is eventually overcome, and even if time lost is recovered. If customers or sponsors have to report the setback to people who have great organizational power, they are sometimes subject to personal consequences.
Outside the context of any specific project, educate sponsors and managers about setbacks. Explain that because project work has either never been done before, or has never been done by this organization, setbacks are inevitable. When setbacks happen, be open about them. Hiding them or spinning them puts your own credibility at risk.
Be wary of near-delivery setbacks
Setbacks just prior to delivery are especially problematic. Customers might have made preparations for the delivery and those arrangements constitute both financial and psychological commitment. A setback just prior to delivery creates embarrassment, frustration, and irritation, which can lead to distrust and perceived lack of progress that are otherwise unwarranted.
Monitor internal status carefully just prior to any delivery. As soon as you know of problems that put delivery at risk, pass the information along. Help people mitigate the consequences of slips, and commit to all this in the project plan.
Keep loads uniform
Setbacks just
prior to delivery
are especially
problematic
Uniform loads create a sense of steady progress. Load variations, especially spikes, degrade assessments of progress. For instance, if a project undergoes a crisis requiring an out-of-plan management decision, management endures a load spike. Afterwards, the incident isn't forgotten - it usually lingers in the form of degraded perceptions of progress. Similar effects occur within the project team.
When trouble looms, inform management early, to give them time to prepare for decision making. Balance the loads on project team members carefully, making schedule changes as necessary — if you can — to keep loads uniform.
Don't expect breakthroughs to erase anxiety
Breakthroughs usually seem less significant than setbacks of similar magnitude. Hyping breakthroughs to enhance morale, or to correct perceptions about progress, probably won't work — people tend to discount such announcements because they tend to serve the project's leaders' interests.
Use breakthroughs instead to enhance the status of the people who achieve them. Honor them and recognize them. You'll do more for morale that way than you can accomplish by trying to send the all-is-now-well message to skeptical audiences.

Next time we'll look at managing pressure by means of defining milestones, deliveries, and their spacing. Go to top Top  Next issue: Managing Pressure: Milestones and Deliveries  Next Issue

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More about micromanagement

I'm glad he isn't my bossThere Are No Micromanagers  [January 7, 2004]
If you're a manager who micromanages, you're probably trying as best you can to help your organization meet its responsibilities. Still, you might feel that people are unhappy — that whatever you're doing isn't working. There is another way.

A sleeping dogAre You Micromanaging Yourself?  [November 24, 2004]
Feeling distrusted and undervalued, we often attribute the problem to the behavior of others — to the micromanager who might be mistreating us. We tend not to examine our own contributions to the difficulty. Are you micromanaging yourself?

The 1991 eruption of Mount PinatuboManaging Pressure: Communications and Expectations  [December 13, 2006]
Pressed repeatedly for "status" reports, you might guess that they don't want status — they want progress. Things can get so nutty that responding to the status requests gets in the way of doing the job. How does this happen and what can you do about it? Here's Part I of a little catalog of tactics and strategies for dealing with pressure.

Freeway damage in the 1989 Loma Prieta, California, EarthquakeManaging Pressure: The Unexpected  [December 20, 2006]
When projects falter, we expect demands for status and explanations. What's puzzling is how often this happens to projects that aren't in trouble. Here's Part II of a catalog of strategies for managing pressure.

One of the Franklin Milestones on the Boston Post RoadManaging Pressure: Milestones and Deliveries  [December 27, 2006]
Pressed repeatedly for "status" reports, you might guess that they don't want status — they want progress. Things can get so nutty that responding to the status requests gets in the way of doing the job. How does this happen and what can you do about it? Here's Part III of a set of tactics and strategies for dealing with pressure.

Captain William BlighHow to Tell If You Work for a Nanomanager  [March 7, 2007]
By now, we've all heard of micromanagers, and some have experienced micromanagement firsthand. Some of us have even micromanaged others. But there's a breed of micromanagers whose behavior is so outlandish that they need a category of their own.

The USS Doyle as DMS-34, when she played The CaineReverse Micromanagement  [July 18, 2007]
Micromanagement is too familiar to too many of us. Less familiar is inappropriate interference in the reverse direction — in the work of our supervisors or even higher in the chain. Disciplinary action isn't always helpful, especially when some of the causes of reverse micromanagement are organizational.

Damage to Purple Loosestrife due to feeding by the galerucella beetleLateral Micromanagement  [September 10, 2008]
Lateral micromanagement is the unwelcome intrusion by one co-worker into the responsibilities of another. Far more than run-of-the-mill bossiness, it's often a concerted attempt to gain organizational power and rank, and it is toxic to teams.

The Niagara River and cantilever bridgeBottlenecks: I  [February 4, 2015]
Some people take on so much work that they become "bottlenecks." The people around them repeatedly find themselves stuck, awaiting responses or decisions. Why does this happen and what are the costs?

A schematic representation of a MOSFETBottlenecks: II  [February 11, 2015]
When some people take on so much work that they become "bottlenecks," they expose the organization to risks. Managing those risks is a first step to ending the bottlenecking pattern.

A demanding managerWhat Micromanaging Is and Isn't  [April 14, 2021]
Micromanaging is a dysfunctional pattern of management behavior, involving interference in the work others are supposedly doing. Confusion about what it is and what it isn't makes effective response difficult.

Eurasian cranes migrating to Meyghan Salt Lake, Markazi Province of IranOn Schedule Conflicts  [May 10, 2023]
Schedule conflicts happen from time to time, even when the organization is healthy and all is well. But when schedule conflicts are common, they might indicate that the organization is trying to do too much with too few people.

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Most workplace bullying tactics have analogs in the schoolyard — isolation, physical attacks, name-calling, and extortion are common examples. Subject matter bullying might be an exception, because it requires expertise in a sophisticated knowledge domain. And that's where trouble begins. Available here and by RSS on May 7.
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