The Missing Link to Successful Projects

Projects fail because teams are unprepared for project work. The skillsets and mindsets required to succeed on projects are radically different from running day-to-day operations. The challenge is large-scale projects are generally staffed by "subject matter experts" from the line organization on a temporary assignment. These skills don't translate, and they are unaware what they need to know. The result is "theatre" and Herculean efforts destined to fail! We've set up our teams to fail!

ABC Work and "Doer-Operators" versus "Creator-Improvers"

Computing pioneer, inventor, and organization theorist Douglas Englebart’s ABC framework[1] distinguishes three types of work in a high-performing adaptive organization:

• “A activities” are the organization’s day-to-day “business as usual,” operational activities to serve customers performed by “doer-operators.”
• “B activities” are the organization's initiatives to innovate new activities or improve “A activities,” performed by “improvers-creators.” “B activities” is the work of projects!
• “C activities” define how “improvers-creators” perform "B activities. These efforts to design and improve project work is performed by “meta-improvers-creators."

Ill-defined, undervalued, and misunderstood “B and C” capabilities are the "missing link" facing most projects. “Doer-operators” staffed as project “subject matter experts” have four skillset and mindset gaps:

• Doer-operators lack domain-specific know-how about the latest innovations to inform new possibilities;
• Doer-operators lack design skills to find and creatively problem-solve to discover a new future state;
• Doer-operators lack interpersonal dialogic skills to coordinate, align, and form commitments across organizations;
• Doer-operators lack design attitudes to explore and fight for new knowledge and ideas.

These gaps ensure even the highest potential “doer-operators” are “Project Peter Principled,” promoted to project roles where success is elusive. "Operators" do not naturally become "creators" when they are put on a team. These gaps snowball because many of the staffed "operators" are "A Players" who have not experienced many setbacks in the operations roles. On projects filled with many failures, they are susceptible to not expressing vulnerability when they get confused and stuck. This inability to ask for help or to be aware of issues explains why many project problems emerge late.

It’s not just the newbie “doer-improver” subject matter experts vexed by the challenges of project work. Experienced internal IT business analysts, consultants, and project managers -- whose jobs are as full-time creator-improvers -- are also deficient in “B” and "C" skillsets and mindsets. Furthermore, pricey external resources also lack “improver-creators” capabilities -- primarily hired for solution expertise.

The industry pejoratively mislabels these shortfalls as “soft skill" gaps and little is done. It's why designs are low-quality, and misalignment is endemic. These shortfalls are double trouble because newbie “doer-operators” staffed from the business need the guiding hand of experienced “improver-creators” to lead the way. Instead, the blind are misleading the blind.

It’s no wonder project teams are unprepared to succeed: the skillsets and mindsets needed by successful project teams are MIA. You cannot "project manage" your way forward if your teams lack the right skillsets and mindsets.

The Case for "Creator-Improvers"

What does it mean to be a "creator-improver?" Fundamentally, "creators-improvers" have three capabilities:

1. They have the domain knowledge in the solution area.
2. They have design-and-align skillsets and mindsets to create new solutions.
3. They have design attitudes and design strength to craft and stand for the right solutions.

These needs seem obvious, but are undeveloped on every team I've seen. Most projects staff by "buying" domain knowledge via external experts, and having project managers police the teams. It does not address the fundamental needs of projects -- solving design problems more effectively and driving alignment. These are very different skills. The result is a downward spiral that yields fundamental design flaws:

• “Incomplete designs” that overlooks too many details and dimensions;
• “Suboptimal designs” that are worse than other options;
• “Frankenstein designs” of missing and mismatched parts;
• “Goldplated” add-ons conjured from thin air;
• “Repaved cow paths” that repeat old functionalities in new technology;
• “Black box” designs that hold too many mysteries;
• "Lowest common denominator” compromised designs;
• “Dead-end” designs that foreclose future opportunities;
• "Great, right-sized" designs that are DOA, attacked by anti-bodies.

Sound familiar? Unless the project is a complete catastophe, these flaws are papered over, but everyone knows the solutions are sub-optimal, over budget and time. Opportunity has been lost. Instead, by claiming "success," the lessons are not learned. It's why projects end up in the same cycle time and again.

You Can Develop and Cultivate "Creator-Improvers": The Nike Supply Chain Project

Enlightened, people-centric leaders commit to developing and cultivating "creator-improvers," rethinking how project teams are staffed, developed, and setup. It works on the largest programs!

Shelley, the Nike Supply Chain leader, put her money and time where her mouth was. She agreed to and actively participated in half-day development sessions every week over the program's first four months. It was a conscious effort to build team skillsets and mindsets to diagnose current strategic and operational needs, develop a new strategy and vision, figure out how to operationalize the new capabilities, define project strategies and game plan, and ultimately lead the implementation. Of course, it was fun, insightful, and tied to “real” project work on the plan timelines, too. The approach is outlined in our white paper, "Leading Transformation: Essentials of Great Project Teams." http://bit.ly/3j2dYQg

Compared to competing initiatives and standard industry practices – even to this day – the Nike Supply Chain was a radically different approach. Shelley unleashed her team’s full potential! Cynthia Kersey’s Unstoppable defined seven patterns of “unstoppable people:”

1. Devoted to the program’s purpose
2. Followed their heart’s passion
3. Believed in themselves and their ideas
4. Prepared for challenges
5. Ask for help and build a support team
6. Seek creative solutions
7. Persevere, no matter the challenges.

The Nike Supply Chain project team was given a year to "analyze and vision" a new supply chain; in less than six months they completed the analysis, vision, operating model design, selected software, and mobilized commitment at the board level to a massive investment to transform to a global supply chain and IT infrastructure.

People are the most critical resource to successful projects. Instead of lip service about their importance, there is a mindful way and real work to develop great teams with the right skillsets, mindsets, and support. Transforming your project teams to become master "creator-improvers" is how to accelerate transformation programs.

The role of a leader is not just to get the "right people on the bus." It's a different bus taking a different route: the leader has to develop an entirely different team as the bus is moving.

[1] Computer science visionary Douglas Englebart in his seminar, Bootstrapping Organizations into the 21st Century describes A, B, and C work to distinguish roles in a high-performance organization. “A” work is “doers”; “B” work is “improvers” who improve “doer” work; “C” work is meta-improvers, who improve how improvers improve.