In my prior three posts I discussed what is needed to help make better, faster project decisions. However, the WHAT you need to make decisions is different from the way a Project Manager and his or her team goes about making the decision. In discussing what seems to work well with many folks over the years, including my own colleagues, here are the 5 things you can do right now to accelerate your decision-making.
1. Put real choices “on the table”
Too often when we have decisions to make, people know which one they want to pitch to their sponsor. However, they also feel they need to offer other alternatives, even if those alternatives are actually very poor choices and, in all likelihood, will never be selected. Yet, to make it seem as if there are real choices to make they include those other alternatives in the discussion. This is a charade and a waste of time. If  you have only one alternative, and that’s the one you think is best, talk about it and nothing else.
2. Focus on decisions not discussions
If you call a meeting make a decision distribute all the relevant information for consideration to the participants BEFORE the meeting and make sure they read it and they come ready to discuss the issues and make a decision. Tell the participants this is a DECISION-MAKING meeting. I’ve seen way too many times where the information is distributed in the meeting which leaves little time for substantive conversation. In such meetings which last an hour, 50 minutes is spent reading and perusing the information with the last 10 minutes spent rushing through a decision. I bet you’ve experienced this as well.
3. Apply risk management through MBWA
We make decisions in the present to affect our future. Everyone wants to know the future, but many are afraid to ask. The way you ask your team members, sponsors, and others about the future is to couch it in the language of risk. As you see various stakeholders always have one or two questions about risk, such as “what do you think the likelihood is that the material won’t be delivered on such and such date?” or “what’s the possibility that Raed will take that job in Dubai and leave the project?” or “what’s the financial impact of missing the end date by 3 weeks?” If you are armed with such questions and ask them repeatedly, your team will, just like you, start focusing on the future. When you’re ready for the future, your decision-making will be ready too.
4. Establish a “lean” governance structure
You may not have much choice about the governance structure that is imposed on you from the top, but you have all the control on earth on the governance structure you establish for your project team. Don’t micro-manage them. All that conveys to your team is you don’t trust them. Take a hint from Steve Coburn co-owner of California Chrome who just won the Kentucky Derby. He told his trainer Art Sherman to do what he thought was right. Art Sherm told the winning jockey Victor Espinoza to ride the horse the way he (Victor) thought was best. And when Victor was asked by a reported what his strategy was? He said something like I just let the horse do what he thought was best. Everyone trusted everyone else, including the horse, to do the right thing. This is definitely pushing decision-making down to the most appropriate level.
Victor Espinoza on California Chrome as they win the world’s greatest horse race the Kentucky Derby
5. Identify your project’s leading indicators
In the U.S. economists use the index of leading economic indicators to try to determine what the future state of the economy is going to be. Reports of the past, such as the ones we receive as Proejct Management, are lagging indicators. Not much we can do about the past. But if we see something “over the horizon” we can make better decisions in teh present to affect our future. What are you projects “leading indicators”? One idea: create a Stakeholder Confidence Index similar to the U.S. Consumer Confidence Index. By surveying your stakeholders on a regular basis you will gain a deep understanding of whether your project is on target to produce success, dissatisfaction, or outright failure. Project success is not exclusively determined by adherence to the triple constraints. In many cases, it’s all about client satisfaction.