When Steering Committees Don't Steer

[BA Forum Moderator]

Tell me this doesn't sound familiar. :D

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>From Computerworld:

Advice by Michael Patterson and Patricia Pruden

FEBRUARY 07, 2005 (COMPUTERWORLD) - The project team reports positive
progress. Again. But wasn't a major milestone expected about now? There
was no mention of it on today's agenda. Your past project experiences
and your instinct say nothing can go this smoothly, but asking
questions extends the meeting, and you simply don't have the time.
You'll try to remember to ask your project team representative for an
unadulterated project update, but later. The meeting is dismissed with
no tough questions. The steering committee members move on; the project
team concludes that the meeting went well.

Sound like a steering committee meeting that you've attended? We know
that the temptation for disengagement is real. You're overloaded with
high-priority projects and responsibilities. You may feel inadequate to
understand the technical jargon batted about at each meeting. Or maybe
you trust the project team to anticipate and resolve issues themselves.
However, we encourage you to resist the temptation of hands-off
management.

It is the steering committee's responsibility to help the project team
meet its goals -- breaking gridlock, removing obstacles and
anticipating risks. Steering committee members should question major
project decisions, using organizational knowledge and political power
where necessary. In short, a steering committee should help the project
team do the following:

Avoid anecdotal disguises.

Qualitative, anecdotal messages enable project leaders to disguise the
challenges. Encourage concise, quantitative, fact-based reports
supported by specific examples. Require measurements that accurately
gauge project progress.

Avoid segregation.

The project team and steering committee are both responsible for the
completion of a successful project. This unifying goal will level some
traditional boundaries, requiring the project team to assign action
items to the steering committee members. The project team must monitor
the steering committee's progress, keeping each member accountable
through completion. These action items should be unique to the steering
committee member's position and areas of influence.

Avoid turf wars.

The process of developing lucid and objective scope agreements often
exposes the competing, yet natural, agendas of each steering committee
member. Since it is unrealistic to assume that there would be
peer-to-peer discussions in this area, push the project manager's
negotiation and mediation skills to work through these political
issues.

You can build a constructive working relationship between a steering
committee and project team en route, working with the receptive
individuals who will bring the others along. Socialization is very
important, as is proactively addressing the possible reasons for
disengagement: Are updates too technical? Are we hearing the same
excuses? Have we created a culture where the only news is good news?

Reinforce through actions the message that the best presentations to
the steering committee will balance the technical and business project
matters, using clear business language. No acronyms. No buzzwords.
Coach the technical person to give his update by linking the technical
issues back to its impact on business operations.

The steering committee can recharge a stalled project by focusing on
the project facts and respecting the process in play. Be specific about
the information requested. Be specific about what you are asking the
project team to do. And the project team members should be explicit
about what they are asking the steering committee to do. Build a common
understanding about roles and responsibilities, holding individuals to
those expectations. If a deadline is missed, encourage second-guessing,
but make sure the findings are used constructively. Why did this
happen? Was this not planned for? Will we experience this again? But a
word of caution: Watch motives. Are we trying to get someone in
trouble? Or are we asking questions so that we, and the others, are
informed? Keep the personality issues out of the group meetings and
handle those individually.

It may be counterintuitive, but the steering committee and project team
will drift apart when things go well and draw contentiously together
when there are problems. This normal project life cycle welcomes the
teamwork necessary to meet a common goal. The steering committee and
the project team must both do the following:

Get engaged.

The steering committee must be inquisitive, looking for ways to help,
while the project team must be planning contingencies, offering the
best recommendations and requesting assistance from the steering
committee as needed. In an extreme situation, if a steering committee
member doesn't have the time to understand the details, empower a
representative to work with the project team.

Set high standards.

The steering committee must demand milestone performance from the
project team while simultaneously showing where their help will make
that possible. Demand clear information, open dialogue, respect for the
facts, as well as written expectations and responsibilities for both
the steering committee and project team in a standing section of
project reports.

Strike a balance.

A balanced presentation of the facts will help the steering committee
know what decisions need to be made and what interference needs to be
run. The project team members need to know they can come in with facts,
even if it's bad news. Avoid focusing exclusively on one project part,
like budgets or deadlines. Contain the emotional issues within a
specific portion of the agenda. To avoid micromanagement, individual
attention outside group meetings can dramatically reduce deep-sea dives
into specific issues.

A good team and clear direction can overcome the perils of steering
committee and project team relations, while enabling the successful
delivery of your project.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michael Patterson and Patricia Pruden founded Patterson Pruden LLC,
drawing upon years of major project experience to focus exclusively on
the turnaround of challenged projects. You can reach them at
inqu...@pattersonpruden.com.