Project Management

1. Project Management • Introduction • Course aim • Business Organization development • The “Project”: definitions and characteristics • Project Management • Conditions to manage a good project

2. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION • The Project Management idea is completely opposite to the functional-hierarchic model (Taylor) and needs an organizational environment freer of rules, procedures, hierarchy. • In these conditions, skills and duty of who is involved become effective only if there are good relationship conditions inside the team and in the environment the team works in. These conditions mean mutual relationship of influence and help.

3. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION • So, the manager’s skills are not only specialized, not only leading and controlling, but soft skills like “emotional intelligence” and “social intelligence” that are necessary to understand and manage relationship between people and teams become even more important.

4. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION Social and emotional capabilities: • Ability to establish personal tie; • Ability to fix conflict and to negotiate solutions; • Ability to social analysis (discover interests, motivations, emotions); • Ability to organize teams; • Ability to acknowledge emotions and manage it. (D. Goleman, Emotional Intelligence, 1996)

5. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION – Emotions • Emotions play a huge role in human behaviour. They influence motivation and duty intensity. • The word “emotion” is connected to the Latin verb “moveo”, so emotion recalls movement and energy. • Emotions have been studied starting from the ’80’s, with the study of the structure, function, development, chemistry, physiology and pathology of the nervous system in order to understand the brain and the mindfulness (Damasio, Goleman, Gardner) – neuroscience!

6. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION – Emotions • The human nature, is made up of three aspects: • Cognitive – it is the evaluation aspect, thought this we evaluate, we weight. It is the so-called implicit self. The ability to evaluate (cognitive capability) is located in the frontal lobe of the cortical area of our brain. It is the most recent brain area (45-50.000 of year). It represents about 3% of intellectual energy. • Emotional – it is the aspect identifiable with energy. It is the so-called simplicit self. Emotions are located in the part of the brain called amigdala, that is the most ancient part of the brain, separate from the cortical zone. It represents about the 97% of the intellectual energy! • Motivation – represents the reason-why people act. • These three aspects are the “Brain trilogy” (Bergamaschi, 2004)

7. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION – Emotions • The most primitive part of the brain is the brain trunk that is around the spinal cord end. The trunk – also called reptilian brain – regulates the basic vegetative activities (like breathing) to allow surviving. • The emotional centres (amigdala) derive from this primordial structure. The Emotional centres development, the limbic system, added the knowledge and the emotional memory, and developped a list of emotions (pleasure, desire, anger, terror). • Afterwards, in millions of years, the neobark, a thinking brain area, developed. That allows to elaborate emotive answers to the external stimulus.

8. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION – Emotions • Nevertheless, when emotional emergencies happen, the amigdala-brain connections are faster to react (12 thousandth of second) than the neo-bark to elaborate. So, when something with high emotional value happens, the impulsive emotion prevails over the rational part, triggering non-control behaviours. TALAM Danger!!! NEOBARK AMIGDALA

9. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION – Emotions • Primary emotions: • Fear • Anger • Happiness • Sadness • Social emotions: • Embarrass • Shame • Guilt • If emotions are an energy source, it is really important they are welladdressed by acting over the motivation (ethic choice). These emotions are a strong biochemical aspect and they are implicit, i.e. are trigged without consciousness and influences the thought and the behaviour. Clip Ogni Maledetta Domenica 501 – Indirizzo delle emozioni vs la motivazione

10. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION – Emotions • Therefore, what’s important is to acknowlede emotions, give them a name, elaborate them to understand how some behaviours are influenced by them; • But it is also important to work on the context, on the structure, on the organization and its values: “Do I work for something or against something?” “Am I pushed by.. Or am I attracted to..?”. • So we have two kinds of intelligence: rational and emotional (neobark and limbic system). Without the second, the first cannot run well. Both have to be in harmony. How? • Consciousness of own actions – purpose: don’t be dependant on it • Emotion control – purpose: setting appropriate emotions • Self motivation – manage emotions to achieve a target • Acknowledgement of other people emotions – empathy, acknowledgement of needs • Relationship management – is the art to interpret other people’s emotions (leadership) • All these abilities are called emotional intelligence.

11. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION – Emotions The knowledge of interactions between parts of the brain responsible of our emotions, shows a lot about the way some emotions can jeopardize our best intentions, and teaches us to manage our instincts more destructive and …..(frustrating). This is emotional intelligence. The emotional intelligence is the capacity to motivate ourselves and to carry on achieving targets (even if we are frustrated); to control instincts and postpone (la reward); to modulate emotions in order to avoid suffering from limiting thoughts; empathy and hope.

12. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION – The team • The team is the first and most important resource of the project. • The team is an organizational unit with a low bureaucracy level. Within the team, start-up conditions are very important, but relationship methods that are defined during the team life are even more important. • The team will work only if we are able to create positive relationship dynamics among members, in this way individual differences become a value and not contrast sources. Clip We Were Soldiers 107 – La squadra

13. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION – The team • (Cohesion) – we have (cohesion) when in a team, members create a balance between differences; members accept each others and cooperate. • Leadership – is when one or more members develop the capacity to make the team actioneasier improving the interaction quality among members. Clip Coach Carter 101-102 - Lo spirito di squadra

14. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION – The leadership • A Leader’s main task is to create positive feeling in the people they lead • The leader has to create (resonance): a reserve of positiveness that activates the best resources in every man. The leader must avoid the diffusion of toxic emotions. Toxic emotions create dissonance • So the leader duty is mainly emotional • Neurosciences help to clarify the way leadership inspires (inspiration, passion, enthusiasm, commitment and involvement)

15. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION – The leadership • The leader is someone everyone watch to be reassured and guided in dangerous and unknown situations; the leader knows how orient the team emotions • Everyone’s emotion is strictly connected to each other by a system called open circuit of limbic system • The open circuit is a limbic regulation by what we transmit signals able to modify the hormonal level, cardio functions, sleep rhythms and someone else’s immune functions (i.e..: two people in love who generate oxitocina that gives a sense o wellbeing)

16. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION – The leadership • The open circuit of limbic system makes us open to external stimuli, allowing to modify our emotions (i.e.: after a 15-minute talk, the psychological profiles of two people becomes very similar: mirror effect) • Leaders, being more seen, more dynamic in the team, more participative, (tend to emotionally infect) the team (through praises, critics, sustain, capability to set goals, delegate, etc…). In this, true leaders are some kind of human magnets

17. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION – The leadership • Moods influence outcomes. Positive or negative moods tend to be perpetuated through open circuits and resonance, even though negative moods (stress) tend to secrete hormones which are slower to be reabsorbed by our organism (this is why “we can’t sleep at night after an argument”) • Negative emotions are factors that can cause a great amount of trouble at a professional level because they “confine” the attention taking it off the job you should be performing

18. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION – The leadership • Being in a good mood is particularly important within groups: the leader’s ability to convey enthusiasm and team spirit can be crucial to succeed • The power of laughter that directly connects two or more limbic systems into a sort of positive emotional confinement • On the other hand, possible emotional conflicts that divert the group’s attention and energy from common goals can jeopardize the final performance Clip Ryan 108 – Motivazione all’obiettivo e comunicaz circolare

19. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION – Situational leadership • Leader’s ability to adapt its own behaviour to the situation (maturity) and to his team member’s contingent needs

20. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION – Situational leadership • S1 – Telling / Directing : Follower: Low competence, low commitment / Unable and unwilling or insecure Leader: High task focus, low relationship focus • S2 - Selling / Coaching: Follower: Some competence, variable commitment / Unable but willing or motivated Leader: High task focus, high relationship focus • S3 - Participating / Supporting: Follower: High competence, variable commitment / Able but unwilling or insecure Leader: Low task focus, high relationship focus • S4 - Delegating / Observing: Follower: High competence, high commitment / Able and willing or motivated Leader: Low task focus, low relationship focus

21. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION– The team – Some obstacles: • Do not listen to each other • Do not leave room for others • Not being able to deliver one’s own opinion • Not being open to confrontation • Do not perceive other’s needs • Destructive criticism (angel’s advocate) • Feel defeated if your ideas do not prevail • Individualism • Self-admiration • Individual aggressiveness / intolerance / fatigue • Despotic leader • Trouble in accepting mistakes and temporary failures Clip polar Express - Leadership

22. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION– The team • The main effect when relationship conditions are not fully satisfied is skill and competence underutilization. Therefore, the final result will be probably be attained, but it will easily be beneath the group’s potential. Such condition increases a widespread dissatisfaction among the team’s members .

23. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION– The team Guide-lines to positive evolution of group dynamics Number of the team members – from 4 to…? • Criteria for a team setup –skill heterogeneity, experiences, personality, working habits, values. • Team life cycle control– the group goes through various phases where values, emotions and relations play different roles • Meetings procedure – many or few? To get information or to coordinate? Organized. Brief. To the point.

24. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION– The team Team life cycle • Forming – the group is forming, Individuals are not clear about their contribution (uncertainty) and react in different ways. Some express the wish to “take the centre”, to prevail as for relational and cognitive variables (goals, rules, work methods). • Storming – If the emotional phase is reassuring, individuals start to come out looking for more effective ways to exploit all the skills available in order to understand the group’s potential.

25. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION– The team Team life cycle • Norming – if dynamics in phase 1 and 2 have been positively settled,the group is formed and aware. During this phase there are lots of internal discussions and member are no more afraid to contribute personally. The group is able to come to common decisions. There is a higher interaction and involvement, problems are solved through negotiation and problem solving abilities. Single member’s potential is released and the group becomes able to overcome considerable obstacles. The group is ready to deal with its tasks.

26. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION– The team Team life cycle • Performing – The group is aware of its own team nature that is able to show tested abilities referring to given targets. This boosts a sense o f belonging and a tendency to shift tensions outside. Great importance to attained result recognition. The team starts to operate on higher levels of trust and loyalty and relationships develop.

27. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION– The Project Manager • He is in charge of the project. • He has to guarantee for targets achievement according to costs, timing and initial criteria. • Coordinates and helps integration among resources that take part in the project and towards the rest of the organization. • Controls a context where he has to guarantee the highest effectiveness as for relationships of the team’s members, to functional managers of the organization, to sponsors, to final customers, to other project managers.

28. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION– The Project Manager • He works within high uncertainty. • He has to integrate different resources without having any fixed rule. • Through planning, organization, evaluation, direction, controlling, sustain activities, drive and relationships… • …it is a naturally on edge role compared to traditional roles. • He cannot use hierarchical authority. • It is based on expertise coming from his skills and competences. • It requires a relationship-oriented leadership style

29. Conditions to manage a good project The Project Manager

30. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION– The Project Manager – Roles within the Role According to situations, contexts the PM can play different roles: • Interpersonal Roles • connection & relationship with internal and external actors to negotiate support, inform, get informed; • leadership, central role within the team to solve conflicts, anticipate drifts, address and create a trusting and loyal environment within the team; • delegate, in formal occasions (es: with the final customer). • Information Roles • monitor, receives and dispatches information and signals by being the collector; • disseminator, conveys information to the organization; • spokesman, towards the outside community as well as the institutional one.

31. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION– The Project Manager – Roles within the Role • Decision making roles • change manager – change agent, especially when the project has an important organizational change value; • disturbance handler – handles troubles and conflicts that threaten the project’s success; • resource allocator – connected to resource planning and management; • negotiator – towards internal and external actors (2 dimensions)

32. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION– The Project Manager • PM’s competences and skills • Technical – a PM needs to be able to “read” and manage some corporate and economical key variables; he needs to be able to actively interact with the sector specialists. • Managerial – these competences include the capability to build and manage complex contracts and the knowledge of economical, financial, programming and ICT tools; • Relational – he needs to be able to listen and interpret relational dynamics inside the team and inside the organizational context; negotiation, motivation, conflict management, leadership, communication abilities.

33. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION– the sponsorship • The project sponsor is essential and strongly prejudicial for its success. • The sponsor is usually a top management member, or the CEO (needed when projects involve different departments so as to assure the overcoming of possible inter-functional conflicts). • Yet, there are some organizational projects (i.e.: BPR or Change Project) that require a sponsorship from the workforce, the people who the project’s output will be addressed to.

34. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION– the sponsorship • The sponsor’s support to the project can take place in the following ways: • Goal setting – the sponsor sets the targets, in line with the corporate strategy, or gives directions for the PM to set the targets. Approves the targets. • Resources – the sponsor helps the PM to find internal and external resources. Its influence is often needed within negotiations with other functional managers.

35. Conditions to manage a good project RELATIONSHIP DIMENSION– the sponsorship • Communication – the sponsor makes sure that the project and its essential information are known throughout the organization. In case of organizational project with a high change level, this communication becomes strategic, therefore the choice regarding tools, ways, and timing is really important. • Visibility – the sponsor makes sure that the project, its targets and the progress made are completely visible by the whole organization. Often, the project’s success is strictly related to the sponsor’s status within the organization.

36. Conditions to manage a good project Main rational conditions for a project’s success: • Clear and strong sponsorship • Clear target (objective) • Clear Project plan (who-what-how-when-how much) • Availability of all required competences • Autonomy of the project team • Communication to the organization • Clearness regarding the way to get back into the organization • PM’s competences and reputation • Evaluation and control of middle and final targets