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Tag: Team

How to Avoid Confrontations at the Office

Written by Christine Sato on . Posted in Articles.

Office politics may be more confusing and confrontational than nationwide politics.

Sure, there may not be as much at stake, but a terrible relationship between two employees can hurt the productivity and morale of an entire company.

So, how do you make sure that you’re not in the midst of one of these feuds and what can you do to ensure that your coworkers aren’t tied up in any negative relationships?

Examples in History

With all of the negative political discourse present in the modern era, it’s difficult to imagine leaders of two parties being good friends. But, Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan, the Democrat speaker of the house and Republican president, respectively, established a great relationship that led to increased productivity in Washington, D.C. How did they reach this point?

Tip and “the Gipper” were able to find common ground and get a lot done in terms of compromising and meeting halfway on legislation. They sought to find commonalities and embrace these similarities instead of focusing on and exploiting differences in their ideologies.

So, how do you use their example in your life at work? The answer is simple: avoid topics that can stir up the emotional pot. There used to be a simple rule for polite conversation: don’t talk about politics or religion.

Stick to the Basics

Until you know the lay of the land with regard to your coworkers’ political and religious views, tread lightly. Eventually, you’ll develop a rapport with certain employees, but don’t push the envelope. And, if anything ever gets contentious, or is heading down that road, ABORT. It’s always better to take the high road when it comes to office disagreements.

Try saying something like: “I get your point of view on this; I just would prefer to not talk about it here at work.” There’s nothing that someone can say to that! It’s easy and smart to hide behind the cover of “being at work.” Also, it’s easy to portray a middle-of-the-road viewpoint, regardless of what you actually think.

No one likes the person at work who thrusts his or her views upon everyone else. The world could use a little more compromising and pleasantry, so try to be positive about everything and don’t take an entrenched position on anything.

Common Ground!

Another tactic is to actively seek out the interests of your coworkers and really stick to those topics of conversation. If they like sports, try to talk about their favorite teams and players. If they have a hobby like gardening or reading, maybe take an interest in what they are doing or reading.

It’s not that hard to be civil and social with people—everyone has things that he or she likes, and it’s easy to at least feign some level of interest in one of these activities. Talk about current events, pop culture, or what is happening in your local area. Trust me; it’s just easier to stick to the safe subjects than to wade into the waters of contention.

Above all else, just try to be kind to one another. That may sound like something that an elementary school teacher tells their students, but it still rings true at the office. There’s no point making enemies in the place in which you work. There’s nothing worse than hating going to work because you are in a major disagreement with a coworker.

Finally, and this may be tough for some people, if all else fails, be the one who meets in the middle, the one who says, you know what, I’ll suck it up and be wrong about this thing. If you concede a point or simply give in when it comes to an unimportant work issue, you won’t notice an hour after the given interaction, and it will score you big points in the long run.

Mindfully Managing Senior Stakeholder Relationships

Written by George Pitagorsky on . Posted in Articles.

Managing relationships with all stakeholders are critical to project success.

Particularly important, and often challenging, is managing the relationship with senior stakeholders – sponsors and clients.

Managing Relationships

Relationships are dynamic. They involve communication on multiple levels – explicit and implied, oral, in writing and implied. Relationships are based on expectations and responses. They are influenced by culture, perceptions, emotional and social intelligence, intentions and hierarchies.

Recognizing your individual power to influence your relationships is the starting point for effective relationship management. Everything you do or say is taken in by those around you. They interpret it based on their perspective and respond. The response may be overtly or subtly observable or not. It is often the non-observable responses that are most important to the long-term health of the relationship.

Senior stakeholders are sponsors and clients in executive or senior management positions. What makes managing relationships with them challenging is a combination of hierarchies and the fear and power issues related to them, limited attention span and limited access, as well as your individual ability to manage these factors.

The Situation

Imagine a situation in which a very senior executive mandates a significant change in the way your organization interacts with its customers and vendors. He expresses a strong desire to get it done within a year. The work required to make it happen involves procurement of facilities, goods and services, software development to change existing systems and/or acquire and integrate new ones, development and implementation of new procedures, hiring and training several hundred people and communicating with all of the stakeholders. You are pretty sure that the procurement process alone could take several months or more.

You are faced with what you may perceive as a command from your project sponsor or senior client, often delivered to you by an intermediary who may be your direct boss or the senior stakeholder’s representative.

If you meekly accept it while exhibiting a subtle doubt that you can fulfill expectations, you may be seen as fearful and untrustworthy. You could be setting yourself up for failure by not saying what you think and giving the senior stakeholder a false confidence in getting the result he or she wants.

At the same time, if you push back by bringing up the risks and uncertainties that would keep you from delivering, you could be seen as a ‘naysayer,’ someone that is not committed to plowing through barriers to make things happen.

The way you read your sponsor and craft your responses makes all the difference.

Managing Senior Stakeholders and Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence – the ability to discern and manage one’s own emotions and to discern and manage the emotional responses of others – is a critical factor. When hierarchies are encountered and the person in the superior position is emotionally intelligent, he or she can make it easier for subordinates to present their case with objectivity by explicitly promoting candid feedback.

As project managers, you are subordinate to senior stakeholders. It is important to identify your feelings when in direct contact with your boss or boss’ boss. As fear arises, you can accept it and find the right way to behave – responding as opposed to reacting. To find the right way it is necessary to read your senior stakeholder’s feelings and style.

As you get a sense of the stakeholder’s openness to hearing what you have to say, you may choose to be completely candid or more diplomatic. You might even choose to say nothing, reconciling yourself to yet another forced march to a dismal end. Of course, avoiding confrontation by not pushing back is a last resort. It is only an option when you have tried over and over again to be rational, objective and candid only to be faced with command and threats like “Get it done or we’ll get someone else who can.”

Cut Through the Hierarchy by Treating the Superior as a Peer

As you become more comfortable with accepting any discomfort that comes with pushing back in the face of power you can begin to play with the idea of leveling the playing field from your side. In other words, treating your senior stakeholder as a peer.

This shift in your perception frees you from unnecessary self-imposed constraints. It does not mean that you should go in and slap him or her on the back or get overly familiar. It means recognizing that the senior stakeholder is just another one of us, who, like everyone else, has strengths, desires, needs, stresses, weakness, biases, mental models and preconceived beliefs that influence what they say and do.

Since you are treating them as peers, you can interpret their commands as questions. For example, “We need the full organizational change to be done by September 2018.” becomes “Do you think it is possible to have the full change done by September 2018?”

With that perspective, you can mindfully and objectively come up with the optimal way to communicate, convince and generally relate.

Attention and Access

In addition to hierarchy and its impact in obstructing effective relationships, the ability to get the time and attention required to build and sustain a healthy relationship gets in the way. You need to be able to state your position and manage the relationship. In our example, setting reasonable expectations requires that you explain the risk and realities that might keep you from delivering a satisfactory outcome. You might find that as you are explaining your position your senior stakeholder abruptly cuts you off to answer a call or text, impatiently dismisses you, or just zones out.

Senior stakeholders are busy. They have many things going on simultaneously and may feel that the issue they have with you is low on their priority list. Their time is limited, as is, in most cases, their interest in details. To manage a healthy relationship with senior stakeholders, you must make sure that your message is delivered succinctly (brief, to the point and clear). if you are trying to get across the message that there is uncertainty about your ability to deliver the desired results in the desired time frame, start with an engaging statement like “I’d love to be able to say that we can absolutely commit to delivering, but in good conscience I can’t.”

Let him ask “Why?” Then he’s hooked. To reel him in, you need to avoid long detailed explanations. Identify from one to five high-level reasons and state them as if they were bullet points in a presentation. Pause and ask whether he wants to go into further detail and carry on from there.

The point is to engage and give your stakeholder choices. Respect her time and need and interest in detail.

When you show someone that you care about them and their needs, are candid and can express yourself clearly and succinctly it is likely that they will be open to an effective professional relationship.

 

Strategy Spotlight: 7 Reminders from an Unlikely Place, What Makes for Great Business Analysis

Written by Richard Lannon on . Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on Strategy Spotlight: 7 Reminders from an Unlikely Place, What Makes for Great Business Analysis

Often when working with clients on a strategic business analysis, planning or roadmap engagement I look to see if they are teaming with success.

I learned the importance of this from my time at PricewaterhouseCoopers and then later working with clients across various industries. This was recently reaffirmed, not by a business engagement, but through working with a group of songwriters and musicians. The engagement was to facilitate (share), document (write), integrate (edit), and present (perform) a song to be video recorded for a major sponsor (influencer). The outcome (song) was a tribute to a lawyer, business leader, and musician, whose struggle with cancer became a catalyst for people engagement and a reminder, we all serve somebody. In some way, I believe we can all relate.

Here are the 7 reminders from an unlikely place that makes for great business analysis:

1. Never be the Lone Ranger

I am guilty of this one. Love my independents and autonomy. As someone who is into senior business analysis type work, it is easy to become the lone ranger, trying to do everything yourself. The interesting thing you learn when hanging out with a group of musicians (who are sincere) is everyone has different talents and a contribution to be made. The best part is you are not alone. So don’t be. There is always someone available to help. All you need to do is belong.

2. It Takes a Community

It takes a community to be successful. That means a team. I learned this when I wrote my first book. You think I would have learned it with all the teams I worked on throughout my career. However, no I did not. You see, in my mind, writing a book meant you went off somewhere, in isolation at some remote cabin and the book was magically created. Pouf! When you write a song or a book, you need a team to succeed. It turns out to be the same way for when you write a requirements document. It should become a team effort to make sure it is great. Within the Business Analysis career, we need to break down the barriers of work competition and work together to create successful communities, teams.

3. ‘Cheers’ Had an Important Message

Now, I do not expect you remember the TV show, Cheers. The opening song, Where Everybody Knows Your Name, by Gary Portnoy (https://youtu.be/h-mi0r0LpXo), serves as a good reminder for something we all secretly desire. Most people will recall Norm, one of the main characters. When he walked into the establishment, everyone would yell, NORM. In our profession, there is an opportunity make like everyone welcome. As a professional leader who facilitates sessions, you can create your own ‘Cheers’ opportunities. I have seen it in other businesses, and I experienced it myself.

4. Acknowledgeable Goes a Long Way

During my experience with the group of musicians, the song written was presented. I was just one person among a larger group of people and was asked for my feedback. As an analyst and writer, I cannot help myself but analyze the written words. I had marked up the paper and reluctantly shared with the group. To my surprise, my remarks were well received. Several days later, at another professional event, the writer sat down beside me, leaned over and said he had incorporated my suggestions and the song was better. I was shocked and humbly thankful. My point is being willing to share your thoughts can be intimidating.

Maybe you are concerned about what people think. In business analysis, we are leaders. It is important to acknowledge people on your team for their contribution. Great communities share and acknowledge one another’s contributions.

5. Know What You are Working Towards

This is something I have learned to be extremely important. In business analysis we generally refer to having a clear definition of the problem or opportunity. Ideally, we get this from leadership. However, that is not always the case. The ability to clearly articulate the challenge/opportunity is 150 words or less is not a gift or a skill most people have developed. My Dad had an expression; I have more years behind me than in front of me. He is 95. He has been saying this for a long time. Something I noticed though everything he did was based on not knowing what tomorrow will bring. So he would work towards something. It was the innate understanding and answer to what ‘what’ and ‘why’ (what is the focus, why is it important). Business analysis needs to be focused the same way. It is important to treat things as if there is no tomorrow, so you need to know what you are working towards, why and get it done. It could be your last chance. So don’t have regrets.

6. Believe in Yourself

This last twelve months I had the opportunity to get to know and work with someone who I am sure their tag line is ‘let’s do it.’ We would be discussing an idea and if it made sense, he would say, let’s do it. When I am wearing my business analysis hat, I can be critical, skeptical and candid. Not because I am a negative person but because I am engaged to ‘question everything,’ be factual and present ideas for decision making. There are times I do wonder though if within business analysis we (you) can hide behind our (your) insecurities. Working with this musical group, I was sometimes reminded you need just to put yourself out there, to believe in yourself and allow others to support you. In management consulting I use to have a sponsor who would say, do first and ask for forgiveness later. Sometimes that is all we need to do. It is great lesson learned.

7. Communications is Key

Recently I was in a meeting with a sponsor of a large financial investment organization regarding a senior business analysis contract opportunity. Like anyone else I have to make a living. They asked me what makes a professional successful in business analysis. I told them the story about the former Australia Business Analysis Association now part of the IIBA. They had this door lock diagram I always liked. I still reference it in my business analysis training programs today. The diagram was of a lockset with all the tumblers around it. Each tumbler represented a skill set; facilitation, modeling, financials, decision making, etc. In the middle, where the key is placed to unlock the business analysis magic kingdom, was one word, communications. Whether verbal or written, formal or informal, the key to success is mastering your communications skills. Something I think we can all do better.

Final Thoughts

No doubt the musicians applied the hard and soft skills of business analysis; the facilitation, documenting, integrating, and presenting requirements with a final outcome, video recorded song. In this case, a tribute to an important sponsor (Pearl River), someone who is a connector of people, a supporter, who influenced the lives of many people professionally and personally, and knows how to get things done. A dream sponsor.

It is easy to talk or write about tools and techniques you can use in business analysis. It is harder to communicate those professional and life experiences that make you a better professionally and personally. I love the business analysis career, people development and diversified initiatives with opportunities to incorporate what you learned in all you do. Working with a group of creative people from all walks of life and professions reminded me of the things that make teams great.

When you know what you are doing and why you are doing it, there is an endless opportunity to build your skills. You just never know when you are going to learn something you can apply to your business, career, and life to serve others. In the end, I think that is what it is all about.
Remember, do you best, invest in the success of others, make your journey count, Richard.

Clear Project Goals = Better Team Relationships

Written by Paul Crosby on . Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on Clear Project Goals = Better Team Relationships

We hear those words regularly: “We need to be more competitive!” Competition is good and competition is bad.

When it’s your company’s product against another companies’ product, it is good. When competition is within your team, it is not so good. Things go wrong, and things become less than productive. Team Members are so busy trying to sabotage and undermine each other they forget the reason they were all brought together in the first place – to make things happen. The best teams work together with common goals and objectives to be productive. It’s sort of a 3 musketeer approach: “One for All and All for One”.

A common goal that is well understood is the best way to start a project. It brings clarity to the project team members at the beginning of the project. In reality we start projects were ideas are not fully developed, there are competing goals and there is outright confusion as to why the project team is even in the room in the first place.

What if a project started with a clear goal in mind? Maybe even the business value was well understood too. How about this example:

We are undertaking the consolidation of the Filbert, Dogbert and Wally CRM systems into a single CRM system because the contact center is having difficulty getting a true picture of where a customer is within the sales cycle. We need to establish a scoring system for potential customers in order to focus our contact center agents on customers who are more likely to purchase our products. This will reduce marketing costs by 50%, reduce call length times by 20% and improve our contact center agent’s ability to service our potential customers in an expedited manner. Additionally, our contact center agents will be able to see all potential and current customers in one system and avoid having to switch between multiple systems to locate a customer.

Does the paragraph above sound like a good goal? It’s pretty good because it does contain the problem statement and the business value in one paragraph. It tells a story about why the team is together. It’s also short enough to ramble off in a hallway conversation with an executive. Focus on getting a common goal that is clear to the entire team. Don’t get caught up on explaining the scope in words – try thinking outside the box and use a context diagram or other type of diagram. Remember a picture is worth a thousand words.

If the goal were stated as, “We are going to consolidate CRM systems.” It would cause more confusion that anything else. It does not answer the question “Why?” because the goal is not clearly understood the team will be confused immediately at the start of the project.

Hold on there cowboy! That goal sounds like a solution. Being specific about a goal can sound like a solution so care needs to be taken to avoid having a goal point to a specific solution. We need to be careful about how these goal statements are crafted to not sound like a solution.

A task list is not a goal. A common goal is more than a list of tasks to complete or items on a checklist. It is about the journey and the destination. How you get there and take your journey as a team is as important as arriving at the destination with the desired results. Productive teams get this and start their journey together by defining the journey. “Guys, HOW are we going to get there? Agile? Waterfall? Scrumban? Combinations of one or more?”.

Think about it a bit. You get assigned to a project and have that first meeting with the project team. Does the team have a conversation about the path the project will take? Does the question “How will we get there?” ever get answered? The conversation typically winds up being, “We will talk about that later when we have more details” or “We just follow the PMO process.” I have shown up to quite a few meetings where the project schedule and tasks were already determined – all without input from the team.

Milestones are not the path to success. They are just points along the journey. Keep in mind that when you reach a milestone successfully that your customers don’t say much about your success. “Wow this new 3 dimensional printer is so fast” or “Look at the stuff I can do with it”. No customer has ever said “Thankfully ABC company completed design on March 30th and moved into development using the waterfall methodology to build that new 3D printer.” Seriously I would break out a cold dead trout and slap them with it if that was said. The success here isn’t the fact there were deadlines – obviously there were deadlines and milestones – but rather the product experience by the customer.

Build the shared goal to start your projects off right. The concepts outlined in this article are a small part of Enterprise Analysis and building solid business cases for projects.

7 Tips for Success as a new lead Business Analyst

Written by Michael Roy on . Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on 7 Tips for Success as a new lead Business Analyst

Congratulations! You have been asked to serve as the lead on a team of Business Analysts assigned to an important project.

It is more than likely someone recognizes the good work that you have done in the past and their hope is that your prior success can be replicated with multiple Business Analysts on this new initiative. Like any new experience, you may have some anxiety regarding this new role. It is important to you that what happens will turn out to be a future success story and not an experience that stays in the closet.

Here are some tips for success as a new lead Business Analyst from someone who has gone through the experience. I have also had the opportunity to observe many colleagues who have succeeded in this role and some who have crashed and burned.

1. Understand the Role

Spend time upfront figuring out the role of the lead Business Analyst in the context of the work effort that you are about to join.

Do not make assumptions on expected tasks or deliverables. While the function is becoming more common, there is no universally accepted definition for the lead Business Analyst role. Some experts view the lead Business Analyst as a formal role inheriting many project management-type responsibilities while others view the lead Business Analyst as an informal way of steering people in a common direction. There is no consensus.

Work with the manager who assigned you to this role (Project Manager or Business Analyst Manager) to understand their expectations and their interpretation of the role. Ask the question “What is your definition of success for this role?”

Provide input about your views on how you can provide value as the lead.

Capture the outcome of the dialogue to provide a reference point that you can subsequently use to ensure you are on track.

What I have observed in practice is that many people accept the lead BA role on a project and skip this step because they feel they are a natural leader, that they inherently understand what is needed, or that the expectations (in their mind) are obvious. They subsequently bump into reality when results do not happen the way they or their manager expected. Combat this possibility by understanding the role upfront.

2. Set Team Expectations Upfront

Spend time upfront with assigned Business Analysis resources on the team to reach a common understanding of roles and responsibilities. Recognize that Business Analysts have an independent streak and often are used to steering their own ship.

Avoid describing a responsibility with the words “participate” or “contribute”; such ambiguity invariably leads to future conversations.

Recognize that team members have different experiences and viewpoints on what tasks and deliverables are necessary to be successful. This is a dialogue, not a monolog.

Capture the shared understanding of a team discussion to provide a reference point for keeping the team in harmony going forward.

Setting team expectations of the relative role of different members of the team is a practice that seems to be very much in its infancy from an adoption perspective. On the positive side, the practice of using Business Analysis plans on large projects seems to be growing, which lends itself to this task.

3. Communicate Openly and Transparently

Take guidance from our Agile brethren by communicating openly and transparently. There is no mystery here; good leaders are good communicators. Motivate and inspire people through clear communication. Build trust through direct and open communication; do not be afraid to share difficult messages. Do not be afraid of the difficult conversation.

Do not treat information as currency, to be controlled and dispensed as it fits your needs. Banish the phrase “need to know.”

Communicate information from top to bottom as well as bottom to top. Communication should be continuous; err on the side of over-communicating; people do not always hear, understand or make a connection when they receive a message the first time.

Remember your actions communicate a message. The message that you communicate verbally and the actions you follow should be in accord.

If you fail to communicate properly, you can poison the atmosphere between you and your colleagues, as well as the morale of the project team. Communication is paramount to your success as a new lead Business Analyst.

4. Lead by Example

Show what you expect by taking the lead by example approach. Taking the role of a lead Business Analyst should not preclude being an active participant in the project.

Make it easier for people to follow you by piloting the approach for Business Analysis that was agreed upon during upfront planning.

Set the standard for excellence with your actions; be the role model and do not dabble in mediocrity.

Build trust by sharing your experiences and how you adjust from the initial gameplan.

Do not be afraid to ask for help; illustrate that no one has all the answers and that we rely on each other for success.

In my experience, successful lead Business Analysts are the ones that engage directly and share in the accountability for the deliverables. The lead Business Analyst who is preoccupied with status reports and attending management meetings is often viewed as too remote to understand the real issues being faced by the Business Analyst in the trenches.

5. Accept When You Are Wrong

Accept that as a lead Business Analyst you will not be perfect. You will not get everything right at first and will make mistakes along the way. Your success on this project is dependent on how you handle mistakes and failures.

Openly acknowledge mistakes in leadership that impact the team and the outcome of the project. Take ownership of the mistake(s).

Keep calm; handle failures with grace and humility. Move forward by reflecting on the challenge and identifying lessons learned. A significant component of leadership is related to your ability to influence. Accepting when you are wrong illustrates your humanity and builds trust within the team.

6. Know When to Keep Silent

As a new leader, avoid the temptation to micromanage contributors on the team. Know when to keep silent. Setting guidelines by communicating the expected outcome is acceptable. Paying excessive attention to how a resource does their job is counterproductive and leads to conflict.

Treat Business Analysts as professionals and give them the benefit of the doubt when you contemplate stepping in to provide direction.

Do not undermine the authority and credibility of a Business Analyst during elicitation sessions by intervening to steer the outcome into what you expect. Use the offline time to guide, coach, and mentor resources.

Talk to your team about how they want you to provide direction and how you would like to be kept apprised of their progress.

Do not overreact when things do not go the way you expected. Instead, reflect on whether your expectations were realistic and how your guidance could be improved.

Remember that individuals will feel disempowered and not trusted to fully complete their work when they encounter excessive involvement by their supervisor or leader.

Knowing when to keep silent and when to intervene is not always straightforward for the new lead Business Analyst. If in doubt, reflect on your desire for control, weighing it against the need to develop and grow the team.

7. Apply Servant Leadership

View your role on the project through the lens of a servant leader. Put your team first and yourself second.

Listen first and practice empathy. Acknowledge the perspectives of others before asserting your viewpoint.

Understand the obstacles faced by the Business Analysts when facing their deadlines.

Distinguish between obstacles they can solve on their own and the ones that need assistance. Provide the support needed by removing those obstacles.

Use persuasion and influence to set direction; resist the temptation to dictate the process.

Champion the success of the contributors; act as a cheerleader by applauding victories and witnessing people doing good things.

Look beyond the delivery of documents as a measurement of success. Look at the professional growth of your team members as an equal victory.

Applying servant leadership is more than knowing when to keep silent and avoiding micromanagement. It means being vocal and active while serving the needs of the team.

In Conclusion

No matter your background, age, or experience, we all share something in common: a desire to be successful. As noted in the beginning, being lead on a team of Business Analysts for the first time can cause some people anxiety. Following the seven tips listed represents an effective start towards addressing the fears and meeting the goal, the outcome of success. These tips are based on the patterns that I have observed in my career as an experienced Business Analyst. However, they are certainly not conclusive. What has your experience been? What advice would you provide? Cheers to your success and future learnings.