The Adaptive Project Manager Skills Series: Working iteratively – Part 2

12 August

In Part 1 of “Working Iteratively” we established that “iteration” when used as a verb means the act of repeating, and when used as a noun, it means version. We also explored the premise that adaptive leaders understand achieving solutions or change is rarely a “one shot” activity. And that iterating is often an essential ingredient for success. In this part, we’ll see some practical examples of what using different iteration techniques actually look like.

Let’s start with the common adage “Practice makes perfect”. The inference here is that if you repeat something enough times, noting the things that went right and correcting the things that went wrong, you will eventually land on the optimum solution. If you have ever learned to play a musical instrument or master a sport, you’re familiar with this form of iteration.

For the adaptive project manager (APM), this is a continuing process, with each project serving as a single iteration. The critical activity is diagnosing and understanding the good and the bad (which will happen on multiple dimensions and at different times during the arc of a project), and then taking steps to improve. The “secret” to mastering this technique is to keep a contemporaneous record of observations and then, using those observations, formulate a strategy for the next project; what to keep, what to change, what to discard.

Another iteration technique familiar to all project managers is the standing meeting. Not to be confused with a “stand-up” meeting where everyone is literally standing, standing meetings are probably the most prevalent form of iteration used in organizational management. And frequently they are also the most abused and ineffective form of iteration. Useless or unnecessary meetings (frequently of the standing variety) always top the list of things that annoy people and degrade performance.

In today’s world, APMs proactively use standing meetings to accomplish two primary goals: 1) to provide individual stakeholders pre-determined and consistent times for providing feedback or asking questions in a private and safe setting, and 2) to elicit collective intelligence and feedback in group environments where a pre-set cadence is in place and input from all participants is germane; think Sprint Reviews under a Scrum development method.

Under no circumstances should an APM hold standing status or informational meetings when email or other group messaging tools are available. Note that the prototypical, 3 question “Daily Stand-up” is not a preferred adaptive approach. Why? Because two of the three questions (yesterday and tomorrow’s work) are purely focused on status, and the third question (I need help) can, and should, be asked on a case-by-case basis.

Iteration is a powerful tool if used purposely. APMs think deeply about the benefits and consequences iterative behavior can bring to their projects, to their work and their personal lives.

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