Who's in the middle?

A lot is said about:

• Sponsorship on projects and the need to have an invested and impactful sponsor.
• Having people who care being on the project and who truly believe in the purpose and outcomes of the project.
• The project manager and their effectiveness.

Yet, projects continue to drag along. Missed timelines, budget overruns, diluted benefits and poor outcomes continue to remain commonplace.

As a sponsor you are frustrated by poor delivery which hampers realisation of the overall vision.

As a project team member, you are frustrated by the drudgery of going through the motions not knowing whether your work will eventually make the difference you thought it would or not.

As a project manager, you know this is the impending black mark against your name. Poor you!

So what's missing?

In his book, Originals, Adam Grant talks about Carmen Medina, a CIA analyst whose ideas to enable better information sharing across intelligence agencies through a classified internet found no takers, leaving her frustrated and having to take up a staff position of little significance.

Less than a decade later, Carmen was instrumental in the creation of Intellipedia, an internal Wikipedia that would become a key resource that agencies would use for addressing wide ranging and evolving challenges.

When asked about how she found the drive to keep persisting after all this, she mentioned Mike, her immediate boss. Mike, according to her was more of a disagreeable type but he was also willing to consider and challenge view points in order to let the best ideas surface. She could be honest with him. He was right in the middle seeking views, challenging them and supporting them even if some of them didn't align to his school of thought.

What has this got to do with projects?

Quite often on projects, especially large ones, a sponsor cannot be across each and every aspect of delivery. Similarly the team members cannot just rock up to the sponsor for everything. It's the same with the project manager.

This is where the question - "who's in the middle?" becomes relevant.

I am referring to the eventual business owner or middle manager who would end up owning the solution (product or service) that a project delivers.

While the roles of sponsor, project manager and project team members is often discussed at length and forms part of many researches, the role of a business owner is less prominent.

They come with various titles - Operations manager, tribe lead, product owner to name a few. Some of the most busy people within the organisation, often juggling multiple priorities while more balls pop up in the air.

That raises the question - what are the key characteristics of such a role and how do they influence / impact project outcomes?

Here's a starter (ABC??) :

Activation - They are the ones who have a good view of the capabilities and strengths present within their team. They are the ones who can make capacity decisions, while being well aware of other competing demands on the same team members.

Balance - The business owner, typically in the middle management is the link between vision and execution. This person bears operational responsibility to help execute a vision. They understand enough of strategy but more importantly, they have their ears to reality (from the team who will eventually help deliver stuff). They are best placed to ensure reality is aligned to aspirations.

Common Ground - Put simply, they are what I call "backdoor fixers" and I don't mean any disrespect here. They are the ones who play a great role in finding common ground, whether it be between conflicting options, between operations and projects, between leadership and project team or between varied teams who need to collaborate effectively.

Like the spine in our body supports walking, standing, sitting, twisting and bending, they form a vital cog in delivering projects successfully.

If you have a project that is dragging on in spite of an invested sponsor, an awesome project manager and a great team, it might be time to look at "who's in the middle"?

Have an awesome week ahead.

Cheers

Ganapathy