Practicum: Premature Project Maturity Acceleration

You will encounter problems if you accelerate the development of a margin initiative too quickly.

A common error in the margin is to push forward too quickly. This is typically the result of an attempt to gain resources, recognition, or status before the time is right. For example, a manager may be under pressure to produce documented results or improve his or her status to achieve a promotion or raise. If your best efforts are under-the-radar, it can be challenging to get the recognition needed to progress your career.

One common premature acceleration point appears to be moving from the Idea Stage to the Ramp Up Stage without first doing a smaller scale test in the Test Stage. The Test Stage is a critical step where initial connections and relationships are built, successful practices developed, and the confidence of the team is bolstered. Leapfrogging this step requires either significant positional authority or large expenditures of political capital to secure the resource investments and team commitments needed to expand operations in a completely untested field. Implementing your first test of the business idea across multiple engagements or significant scope increases the risk of failure. Team members must learn their roles in a high pressure situation. If insufficient resources are acquired, everyone will be stretched too thin.

A second common premature acceleration point is between the Test or Ramp Up Stages and Inculcation. In this case, the manager is seeking to legitimize and integrate an initiative into the corporate structure before the participants fully understand what makes it successful. One result may be that the corporate machine incorporates the activity quickly, but without the lessons learned and best practices. The inefficiencies yet to be worked out are codified and effectiveness remains sub-optimal. The entire effort is deemed too costly to maintain.

A steady approach to maturing initiatives in the margin allows essential processes to take place. Skipping steps is costly.

Practicum: Status of My Projects

I compare my current work portfolio against the Margin Maturity Model (M3).

Having loosely defined the Margin Maturity Model (M3), I thought it would be a helpful exercise to place a few of my various projects and initiatives in the margin along that continuium. Here are the results:

• Large NATO Project (5 - Inculcation): Over the past 6 months I have transitioned all my responsibilities to support personnel and now fulfill a project assurance function.
• A NATO Service (3 - Ramp-up): I have reached out across the organization to expand the volume of our activity in this area, build a team, and systematically address new opportunties.
• A NATO IT Market Segment (2 - Test): I've pulled together key internal/external players to address two opportunities in this segment.
• An International Energy Market Segment (1 - Idea): I'm exploring two near-term opportunities while making internal/external connections and conducting research.
• A European Environmental Market Segment (1 - Idea): I've conducted background research, made a few key connections, and tracked opportunities but have not moved to test our ability to compete in the market.

Overall, my portfolio is currently biased toward the early stages of the M3 - we could call that a "high margin" mix. With the most mature initiative moving out of the mix altogether, it is easy to see the vulnerability of this position. There is high risk and few resources in stages 1 and 2. My challenge is to rapidly mature one or two initiatives.

Theory: Group Theory and Margin Project Evolution

The Early Margin Maturity Model (M3) is similar to a theory of group development proposed in the 1960s.

In my previous post, I speculated on the maturation of margin initiatives and identified several key stages. Upon further reflection, I realized I had seen this before as a group development theory. The theory postulated by Tuckman in 1965 and cited extensively has five stages:

1. Forming
2. Storming
3. Norming
4. Performing
5. Adjourning

The constructs are very similar, but the application in the M3 is broader. The Forming/Storming/Norming/Performing concept deals specifically with group orientation, development, and performance whereas the M3 includes elements of business startup/entrepreneur models that focus on activity and objectives. In addition, the group development theory looks at a group evolving with a steady number of participants while within the M3 the team may start with only 1-2 people and grow significantly as the effort matures.

Still, this theory has practical application in managing teams in the margin as you guide them through the M3 process. In the early stages of a new initiative the team you put together may be new contacts within the organization. Traditional managers will chafe against new ad hoc tactics. In the high-risk environment, stakeholders will seek to push their own agendas. Margin managers must expertly address concerns, bring cohesion, resolve conflicts, secure commitments, and manage responses to failure and setbacks.

As the initiative matures, relationships grow stronger. Some benefits are realized and team members share a common bond in creating something new. Stakeholders require less prodding to contribute to the project's objectives. Communication becomes easier. Managers in these later stages of a margin initiative must lead the way in identifying lessons learned and applying them to improve team performance. They must help the team identify and celebrate successes, refine roles and responsibilities, and tighten the group's understanding of the mission.

The following provides a crosswalk between Tuckman's group theory and the M3.

1. Idea - Early Forming
   
2. Test - Forming
   
3. Ramp-up - Storming to Early Norming
   
4. Codify - Norming and Performing
   
5. Inculcation - Performing (and Adjourning via transitioning responsibilities)
   

(For more on Tuckman's group theory see: http://www.infed.org/thinkers/tuckman.htm)

Theory: Early Margin Maturity Model (M3)

Margin initiatives follow a recognizable pattern. Tracking initiatives across this pattern assists in effective planning.

This may be a little premature, but initiatives undertaken in the margins of corporate practice have seem to follow a recognizable pattern. They grow from nothing into semi-recognized efforts and finally become official, corporately-sponsored activities. Below is my initial take on the major stages along this continuum.

1. Idea - Before anything happens, an operation outside the margins of the organization begins as an idea. "Hey, what if we did this?"
2. Test - Initial activities are usually exploratory. "Let's see if this works."
3. Ramp-up - If the test produces some positive results, it is time to invest. Initial activities are expanded, often with little refinement. "Wow, I wonder if we can do that again?"
4. Codify - As activity levels expand, more information is available to refine operations and standardize practices. "How about if we did it this way?"
5. Inculcation - Institutional pressures from heightened activity volumes and a growing track record of success push the effort into standard operational swim lanes. "This should really be part of the XYZ division."

Serial margin managers, such as myself, begin to outsource the effort by stage 5 where traditional management functions are required so that we can focus on other initiatives maturing in stages 1-4.

Essential Skills: Efficiency

Scarcity in the margins forces leaders to maximize efficiency.

The margins are resource scarce work environments. Long term margin managers learn how to do more with less - working efficiently to get essential tasks done quickly. Managers operating within traditional structures, by contrast, grow accustomed to resource availability - utilizing assets ensure quality.

One of the most difficult aspects of working with traditional managers on margin initiatives is their inability to reduce quality to gain speed. Often, they are unable to trade a "top quality" position for a "good enough" solution. Personnel who consistently work in resource intensive environments become so used to holding each project to the highest professional standards that they label anything less than the best simply "not doable".

Leaders in the margins must master the 80% solution. Often it is that remaining 20% that pushes a 2-week task into 4 weeks, the 1 hour meeting into 2 hours, or the $5,000 effort into a $10,000 effort. Client or stakeholder requirements rather than internal/artificial standards or expectations should drive solution development. Margin leaders need to be in tune with client expectations in order to source initiatives efficiently. They must also help translate those expectations for traditional managers/team members when working collaboratively to ensure buy-in for the 80% solution approach.

Practicum: On the Weakness of Coalitions

While necessary, coalitions are inherently weak structures for getting work done. Here are some tips to make them more successful.

Managers in the margin must work collaboratively with other divisions and individuals to achieve desired objectives. Managing coalitions, however, is less straightforward than managing within the organizational hierarchy. You are dependent upon the inputs of others yet largely unable to control how, when, and in what condition those inputs will be delivered. This situation is further exacerbated if those inputs are needed from individuals senior to you.

I have found that, even if it is in their own self interest, margin activities are 2nd-priority activities for traditional managers (or 3rd or 4th or...). They are undertaken in addition to what they are normally required to do. Without a corporate mandate or "borrowed" senior executive authority it is often extremely challenging to get coalition partners to perform at a satisfactory level of quality.

To ensure acceptable participation, the following appears to work:

• Clearly define what is required. Be very specific on what you need and when you need it. Never assume they will do what is required in a timely fashion. Spell out how quality will be measured (e.g. "a 3-page executive summary covering X, Y, and Z", "identify all resources required using a WBS with personnel and hours assigned to each task item", etc.).
• Leverage peer pressure. Everyone in the coalition is dependent on everyone else. Making assignments public and holding people accountable to the group provides peer pressure. Often, publishing a to-do list of action items identified during a meeting can accomplish this. It is somewhat embarrassing to be the only person in the group who didn't get their share of the work done from the previous meeting.
  
• Leverage authority. Secure the buy in of somebody above the person you require inputs from. They can then assign the work - a task that costs them next to nothing and can be accomplished quickly. Your tasks then fall within the traditional lines of authority for the person or people doing the actual work. This is less effective when dealing with high-level managers and directors...or your own boss.
• Check on progress. Your task will likely drop from their minds until the deadline approaches. Check in halfway between the start date and the deadline and then again halfway between the first check in and the final deadline. These are critical periods in the natural life of any project where efforts are renewed with greater earnestness. Expect little to be accomplished by the first check in, but by the second you should see some progress - perhaps 50% completed. If they miss these milestones, it is likely their work will not be done when needed.
• Do their work for them. While this usually isn't optimal and sometimes impossible, it is a good strategy when you need stakeholder buy-in but little actual support. Complete as much of their activity as possible to "get them started" or set their deadline far enough in advance that you have time to rework whatever it is they were supposed to do.
• Build relationships. People are more likely to go the extra mile for you if you have built a longer-term relationship. If you've given them a good effort in the past or have worked together before, they are more likely to step up and do a good job for you now.
  
• Be successful. People are more willing to voluntarily do additional work if the chance of success is high. Having a successful track record encourages others to trust that your current endeavor is likely to succeed and that the personal benefits they are seeking from the initiative will be realized.
  

Essential Skills: Courage

Margin leaders require personal and professional courage.

Leaders in the margin face higher risks than their counterparts in more stable divisions of the corporation. While some risks can be mitigated and others reduced, such as through diversification, they cannot be eliminated. In the extreme, these risks threaten not only business performance but the leader's personal life. Deals gone bad in business can damage careers, income, and family situations.

Coming over to Europe from the US with a company inexperienced in international relocations to take a position in an emerging business practice was a big risk - not only professionally, but personally as well. July 9th will represent our first full year in Europe. We have taken some hits and experienced many highs.

This next year is full of risks professionally and, by extension, personally as well. Will I come to regret this move? Will the price we pay be more than the benefits we receive? I don't know. How does one continue to progress forward in the face of these questions? I guess that's courage.

Here are some quotes on the subject of courage to keep it up this next month:

"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow." - Mary Anne Radmacher

"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point." - C.S. Lewis

"The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy." - John F. Kennedy

"It is easy to be brave from a safe distance." - Aesop

"In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot." - Mark Twain

(from Quote Garden: http://www.quotegarden.com/)