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This podcast episode focuses on addressing the common challenges of project management, such as burnout, unclear priorities, and excessive stress. The hosts explore practical, human-centered strategies to transform project chaos into successful, low-stress outcomes. James Louttit, a former CIO and project management expert, shares his experiences and techniques for achieving this.
James Louttit describes a period of severe burnout in May 2016, while managing a large, complex financial regulation project for a bank. He was juggling multiple high-pressure roles simultaneously, including managing a large, geographically dispersed team, leading a competency area within the bank, and heading client data protection. This intense workload, combined with the stresses of having three young children at home, led to a rapid decline in his mental and physical health. The situation culminated in a psychotic episode, which was later diagnosed as being caused by severe viral meningitis. This experience prompted him to re-evaluate his approach to project management and develop practical techniques to reduce stress and improve team effectiveness.
According to James Louttit, one significant problem is that organizations often attempt to solve complex project and people-related issues solely through the implementation of processes. He cites the example of PMOs imposing risk logs, plans, and status reports, believing these will inherently make projects more effective. While these tools can be beneficial, the focus often shifts to having the documentation rather than achieving the desired outcomes (e.g., effective risk management and clear stakeholder communication). This emphasis on process over outcome contributes to stress and inefficiency. Additionally, he points to the common, yet ineffective practice of prioritizing tasks using a MoSCoW method, resulting in a large, unprioritized list of "must-do" items. He argues that true success requires empowering teams, providing appropriate training, and fostering creative problem-solving, rather than relying solely on rigid methodologies.
James Louttit's solution centers around several key principles:
Transparency and Proactive Prioritization: Clearly define priorities, making them transparent to the entire team and stakeholders. This requires accurately estimating both the value and effort of tasks to facilitate informed decision-making.
Empowerment and Skill Building: Instead of relying solely on prescribed methodologies, focus on empowering teams to solve problems creatively. This involves providing the team with the necessary training and tools to manage their workload effectively.
Risk-Based Contingency: Move away from arbitrary percentage-based contingency planning. Instead, actively identify and discuss potential risks with stakeholders, quantifying their potential impacts. This approach promotes proactive risk mitigation rather than simply adding a buffer.
The "SAVE" Technique: This technique (Silent Writing, Affinity Clustering, Voting, Execution) leverages collaborative brainstorming to identify and prioritize risks, tasks, and stakeholder concerns. It mitigates the dominance of the "highest-paid person's opinion" and encourages broader team participation.
Holistic Approach: Draw from a variety of methodologies (e.g., Agile, predictive) and tools, selecting the most effective approaches for the specific project and team. The focus is always on building skills, facilitating open communication, and creating a supportive environment.
In essence, his solution emphasizes a human-centered approach that prioritizes clear communication, collaborative problem-solving, and proactive risk management over strict adherence to rigid processes.
James Louttit describes "Sixth Sense" as the ability of experienced project managers to intuitively identify potential problems that could derail a project. He offers a framework to help cultivate this intuition, suggesting that project managers should regularly consider eight key aspects of a project through various lenses: scope, time, cost, quality, team, stakeholders, risk, and prioritization. By consciously reviewing each of these areas, and considering how they interact, project managers can develop a better sense of potential issues and proactively address them. He emphasizes that this isn't about predicting the future perfectly but rather about systematically examining all angles of a project to improve awareness of potential pitfalls.
SAVE is a four-step process for brainstorming and prioritizing project-related items (risks, tasks, etc.). It stands for:
Silent Writing: Team members individually brainstorm and write down their ideas on Post-it notes without discussion. This prevents the dominance of senior members' opinions and encourages diverse perspectives.
Affinity Clustering: The team collectively groups similar ideas together on a whiteboard or similar surface, creating clusters of related items. This helps identify themes and patterns within the brainstormed ideas.
Voting: The team votes on the most important or impactful items within each cluster, using a simple voting system (e.g., each member gets a set number of votes to distribute). This prioritizes the items based on collective judgment.
Execution: The prioritized list is then used to guide action and decision-making. The team focuses on addressing the highest-priority items first.
This technique is designed to encourage broader participation, identify hidden concerns, and promote a more collaborative and data-driven approach to project management.
At the end of the podcast, James Louttit offers two key takeaways:
Transparent and Proactive Prioritization: He stresses the importance of clearly defining and communicating priorities, from individual tasks to high-level organizational goals. This requires transparently estimating both the value and effort of each item and using this information to build a shared understanding of what needs to be done and, crucially, what doesn't.
The Toolbox Approach: He advocates for a flexible approach, emphasizing that project management isn't about rigidly following one methodology but rather about skillfully selecting and applying tools and techniques from various methodologies based on the specific needs of each project and team. The focus is on building and leveraging core skills rather than relying on any single, prescribed method.
