…then the executive thought, “Why can’t I find Project Managers that think like me?”

Executives look for Project Managers that can run a project like a mini-company that is in strategic alignment with the existing organization. That mini-company must adopt and remain aligned with the larger business purpose of the organization, while simultaneously deploying a set a “project strategies” that get the work done successfully, also while minimizing as much risk as possible. There are always two levels of “strategy” within any project – the strategy of accomplishing the business purpose and the strategy of accomplishing the project. 

To meet both goals, this mini-company needs leadership that is entrepreneurial in nature. For great project managers, a new project is an entrepreneurial endeavor. Executives know that Project Managers who are most prone to succeed use a different kind of thinking, called effectual reasoning (see callout below).  

The case could be made that your company's project managers are, at least some of the time, called to be “effectual reasoners.” At other times, they are called to be executive style leaders who use causal reasoning skills.  And yet, at other times, they must be project controllers who are highly operationally focused. 

These three different roles map to two that we use in Bare Knuckled Project Management (BKPM); the strategic and the tactical. The difficultly is that most executives want all of that in one person, regardless of the level of training and experience they possess. They are often disappointed that they have difficulty finding project managers that think like them to manage their future projects. 

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From “How Great Entrepreneurs Think,” by Leigh Buchanan, published in Inc.com, writing on the work of Saras Sarasvathy, a professor at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business:

“Sarasvathy concluded that master entrepreneurs rely on what she calls effectual reasoning. Brilliant improvisers, the entrepreneurs don't start out with concrete goals. Instead, they constantly assess how to use their personal strengths and whatever resources they have at hand to develop goals on the fly, while creatively reacting to contingencies. By contrast, corporate executives—those in the study group were also enormously successful in their chosen field—use causal reasoning. They set a goal and diligently seek the best ways to achieve it. Early indications suggest the rookie company founders are spread all across the effectual-to-causal scale.” Click here for the full article.

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We’ve noticed that entrepreneurial project leaders and executives displaying some range of effectual to causal reasoning aren’t best equipped to be the operationally focused project managers, in the same way that in a play the director is usually not the stage manager. The project as a whole needs all three roles filled in order for processes to be effective and the project to be successful. Seldom do most projects received their needed share of each role and many times both types of strategic needs are unfulfilled. 

This dilemma transcends traditional project management and the development or implementation method chosen. In Agile development for instance, it is argued that the person responsible for all of these roles is the Product Owner. Most Product Owners, operating in an Agile environment or otherwise, have too few hours in the day to lead projects effectively, especially if they lead more than one or two. And, most don’t switch dynamically between the three types of effectual, causal, or operationally focused reasoning well enough to address the organizational strategic, project strategic, and tactical elements of nearly every project.  

This complexity makes the demands of project management too much for most project managers to succeed consistently (sometimes, if ever). How is it that even when some projects are completed, they fail to achieve the value envisioned when they began. Or, the project fails in some major way, and yet it is viewed as a success.  Or, even when the project fails and no value is achieved, the project manager is allowed to simply move on to the next project. It’s no wonder that project managers have difficulty keeping our mini-companies performing properly. And, realizing this at some fundamental level, executives relieve project manager of their responsibility for the totality of the role.

The answer is more complex than can be addressed completely here. But let’s start at the versatility required by any single project manager to fulfill the needs of all of the roles, and spending time focusing the organizational strategic, project strategic, and tactical elements of each project. Can one person, a single PM, do it all?

Distinguishing the Roles in BKPM

Beyond strategic leadership, the administration and control of a large, complex project needs someone to focus on the tracking and operations — a COO to the project manager’s CEO.  That’s two distinct roles. The CEO in this analogy is the more Strategic of the two, perhaps even the more entrepreneurial of the two. In the practice of Bare Knuckled Project Management (BKPM), we call this role the “Strategic Project Manager.” The “Tactical Project Manager” in BKPM would be the COO, responsible for blocking and tackling. 

Like any executive, the strategic-oriented, bare knuckled project manager, who we call the Strategic BKPM, views the project from a multifunctional perspective: operations, sales and marketing, finance, human resources, procurement, and the rest, as well as from the perspective of aligning the project to overall purpose of the business. The broader the frame of reference, the more effective the Strategic BKPM tends to be. Former executives often make great BKPMs because of that broad perspective, although this isn’t universally true. Entrepreneurs tend to do well too, although are often less structured.

If the strategic level of the project is the domain of Strategic BKPM, the operational part of the project is focus of the Tactical BKPM. In BKPM, a key to project management is balance between the strategic and the tactical, properly addressing the needs of each of these roles, and making sure that time is spent performing the job from both perspectives.

Sometimes, those tactical and strategic roles are separate. Sometimes they are the same PM, but that often makes the PM role more difficult.  More versatility is required. Most project managers spent their time tactically focused on their projects. If both roles are expected from the same person, the Tactical Project Manager must intentionally spend time wearing a differ hat that changes her perspective to one that is strategically focused. This is not an easy task and the industry doesn’t train for it. We call this “BKPM Role Shifting” and we train our team to do it effectively. You can too. 

In our BKPM practice, we us a simple, direct, and effective Rapid Control Process (summary at right) which incorporates both the Strategic and Tactical roles into the structure of the project right up front.  The Rapid Control Process serves to remind us of the need to both "get control fast" and simultaneously focus on the strategic and the tactical elements of the project. Typically, we divide and conquer each project to get control faster, and keep it under control by considering both the strategic and the tactical. And our deliverables at each stage forces the correct level of strategic and tactical participation for each particular project. 

Strategic BKPMs are often broadly experienced, having served and grown from many years as a tactical project manager, and are capable of creating and articulating clear vision about the process of achieving the desired outcome, considering the strategic components of the project and organization.  They lead the Discovery and Immersion meetings to uncover the success criteria and objectives, use the success criteria and objectives to develop strategic options that will help drive the project from inception through immersion and planning, leverage strategic options to design an appropriate approach with the project sponsors, and work with the Tactical BKPM to create the “Strawman” (early draft) project plans, validate the plans, mitigate risks, and achieve active control of the project. 

Tactical BKPMs are quick learners who are driven, astute, nimble, highly detailed and analytical. They use a Bare Knuckled approach and partner with their Strategic BKPM to mitigate risk and manage the three-sided table to drive projects to completion (see BKPM or a prior post). They quickly plug-in and drive the project tactically, document and reflect back the project goals and priorities with management and project sponsors. They effectively integrate into an existing client team but remain highly tactical and operate at arm’s length.

Strategic BKPMs actively facilitate and aggressively control project discovery meetings with key stakeholders while tactical BKPMs synthesize that information to develop comprehensive project plans, determine other project artifacts that may be needed, vet the project plan with the project team and key stakeholders to gain commitment and make the project plan “antifragile.” Control of the project transfers to the Tactical BKPM at the kick off meeting, and going forward, the Tactical BKPM manages the schedule via the project plan, weekly meetings, and weekly status reports. This is a true partnership between the two roles with clear delineation between the roles. 

When the roles are separated, the Strategic Project Manager and the Tactical Project Manager must work together to achieve proper control of the project quickly. While there are times when the Strategic and Tactical PM role is filled by one resource, the approach used more often is split to capitalize on the thinking of two distinct resources and make plans less fragile in response to risk. Distinguishing the two allows us to substantially mitigate known risks and keep the proper perspective on the project by maintaining the three-sided-table. 

Our early thinking around this was first published in Bare Knuckled Project Management; how to succeed at every project (Gruebl, Welch & Dobson, Gameplan Press, 2013), Smashwords or Amazon. Call us at 443.313.3348 to learn more.