3. People and behaviours Flashcards
- What is stakeholder engagement?
○ Working with stakeholders - people who are affected by the project
○ Depends on how interested and how much control they have over a project
PM needs to stress importance of this as key in getting acceptance and buy in
- What is stakeholder analysis and why is it important?
○ Identifiying stakeholders who have the largest power over the project and identifiying what they need
○ It’s important to do this so the PM can:
§ Identify key stakeholders and what their level of interest is
§ Helps identify best way to influence stakeholders - what are their priorities
§ Identify appropriate levels of communication for each stakeholder - develop an engagement strategy
- What is the power/ interest grid?
○ After identifiying stakeholders, can use grid to categorise stakeholders by power and interest- both for and against the project
○ The grid helps the PM decide how to best engage each stakeholder - not too much or too little
- What are the different types of stakeholders according to the grid?
○ High power, high interest, against the project - intensive management and engagement to make sure on side and avoid risk -
○ High power, high interest, for the project - regular engagement to keep on side and provide support and champion the project - remove obstacles
○ Low power, high interest, for the project - need to keep informed with enough information. Miscommunication can lead to negative views towards the project, creating issues
○ High power, low interest, neutral attitude - regular engagement to keep satisfied to keep providing funding etc eg. Regulatory requirements met
○ Low power, low interest, neutral attitude - little engagement, just monitor with some information through things like newsletters but could focus on other stakeholders
- What is a stakeholder communication plan/ engagement strategy?
○ Both determine how and when to use different types of media and approach to engage stakeholders, what type and detail of information should be included for each group
○ What should they include
§ Message to be communicated
§ Person best placed to do them
§ Appropriate form of message
§ Frequency of comms
§ Levels of feedback from stakeholders
§ Barriers
§ Stakeholders who should communicate with each other
- What are the benefits of using a comms plan or strategy?
○ Better and more appropriate stakeholder enagement - tailoring comms to audience using relevant information
○ Recording best method of comms for different preferences
○ Ensuring consistsnt approach by assigning responsibilities - no overlap in comms, clear plan etc.
What are communication methods?
○ Written eg. Emails, newsletters, eforms
○ Face-to-face - think about impact of body language
○ Depend on type of audiences, intended impact, risks, cultural influences, comms norms, accesability and inclusion
- What are some positive and negative factors which can affect comms?
○ Physical location and time zones - remote meetings and organised for time zones
○ Cultural diversity and language
○ Skill and technical capabilities - support mechanisms may be needed to help understand technical jargon eg. Glossaries or guides
○ Physical environment - suitable, safe and comfortable environment key. No distractions
○ Body language - manage non-verbal cues with messages
○ Personal circumstance and personalities - interest and attitude can affect comms. Can be affected by things like workload and stress. Some people may prefer written comms for example
- Why are some sources of conflict at different phases of the project?
○ Concept - securing funding, BC approval and support, balancing stakeholder influences and agreeing high level scope
○ Definition - alignment of scope to budget and priorities, agreeing resource plan, establishing different components
○ Deployment - maintaining resource availability, deadlines not being met or not enough progress, agree process not being followed
○ Transition - acceptance criteria not being met, end users not happy
○ Adoption - outputs not adopted as intended
○ Benefits realisation - agreement measurement and realisation
- What are some examples of positive conflict?
○ Facilitation of conversations to allow for depate and discussion
○ Allows people to express feelings which can help
Helps clarify and test direction
- What is the Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKCMI) ?
○ Way of classifying and addressing conflict
Encourages people to think about conflict in two dimensions: desire to achieve one’s own objectives, and desire to help others achieve their objectives
Avoiding
Competing
Collaborating
Accommodating
- What are the five conflict modes?
○ Compete: I win, you lose
§ Quick decision needed due to emergencies
§ Unpopular decision needs to be made - issues with a right and wrong decision
○ Avoid, I lose, you lost
§ More important issues are pressing - not a priority
§ Disruption to action outweights benefits of action
§ Want to avoid disagreement
○ Comprimise: We both half win and half lose
§ When goals important but solutions required quickly - can’t be perfect
§ Negotiation required to meet mutually agreeable solutions
§ No wins or loses - concessions needed
○ Collaborate: I win, you win
§ Time needed to make sure outcomes best for everyone
§ Need to build strong relationships
§ Improves sharing of ideas and information
○ Accomodate: I lost, you win
§ When maintaining a relationship is more important than winning
§ Improves later stability and cooperation
§ Shows reasonablness and willingness to learn and let others try something different
- What should you consider when trying to resolve conflict?
○ Anticipate conflicts - will always be different opinions
○ Don’t ignore them- need to be addressed as won’t go away
○ Think about routes to resolution - Don’t lay the blame - instead see which routes will benefit the most or have the best outcome for the project
○ Encourage discussions - need for open and honest dialogue to help other people see different perspectives
○ Be a facilitator to reach preferred outcomes - have people talk through their concerns and ask questions - coaching
○ Conversations should be neutral - neutral tone and body language
- What are three examples of leadership models
○ Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
○ Herzberg’s two factor theory
○ McGregors theory x and theory x
- What is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?
○ Different levels of needs to identify what will motivation an individual - psychological -> safety -> social -> self esteem -> self actualisation
- What is Herzberg’s two factor theory
○ Leaders should address tangible hygiene factors (reasons for disatisfaction eg. Salary, benefits) before looking to motivating factors including recognition, meaning positive culture etc.
- What is McGregor’s theory x and theory y?
○ Are team members x workers ie. Dislike work and are naturally unmotivated, or are they theory y workers ie selv motivated, creative, take pride in what they do
- What are some different leadership styles?
○ Autocratic - strong one dimensional leadership where leader has full authority. May be appropriate for urgent issue or one where team members not motivated
○ Democratic - Leaders involve team members in decision making. Suitable when time to focus on development on team, building relationships, when collaboration value - decision making passed onto suitably skilled team members
○ Delegative - employees empowered to make own decisions. Suitable if team very well skilled and established - required knwoeldge to work without direction
- What is coaching and mentoring and what are the key factors in the style used?
○ Way to improve staff performance- either on specific issue (coaching) or for long time on nothing specific (mentoring)
○ Understanding strengths and weaknesses - adapting style to individual needs. Greater direction to those that need it and those with more appetite. Coaching after team members get more embedded. Delegating responsibilities when high skill and motivation
○ Understanding the situation - where critical or urgent decisions needed, maybe be more authoritative. Where new situation, leader might need to make deicsions and lead. When change embedded leader can then move to be more supportive and coaching, rather than authorative
○ Dealing with uncertainty - team may need leader to step in when high uncertainty. Needs to be safe and supportive environment thgouh coaching in order to feel safe when working. By being supportive and less directive, leader demonstrates they trust team- makes team feel empowered
- What is emotional intelligence?
○ About demonstrating skills in three areas:
§ Behavioural - practice of managing personality and directing behaviour to be personally and interpersonally effective
§ Feelings - thinking about feeling or feeling about thinking
§ Attitude - how we do something delends a lot on mindset - both in relation to ourselves and towards others
- What are some models which show factors to consider when developing a team?
○ Beblin - outlines roles optimal for effective team - individuals have preferences for which roles
○ Margerison McCann - similar to Belbin but goes into detail of relationships between team members - leadership needs to understand different aspects and relationship to have correct mix of skills etc.
○ Myers-Briggs - recognises how individuals pecieve sutuations and how they react to it. Allow team members to be itnegrated more easily into project environment. Can align with project environment, aligning values
- What are three theories stages of team development?
○ Hackman - in order to be effective:
§ Team must be real, not just in name
§ Direction of work must be clear
§ Structure must support team working
§ Organisation must be supportive
§ Coaching should be available
○ Tuckman - levels of maturity for new project team
§ Forming - people get aquainted with each other
§ Storming - conflicts might arise
§ Norming - establishing ways of working and cultural norms
§ Performing - fully productive
○ Katzenbach and Smith - teams more effective, better performance. Specific goals needs to be in place and that there’s a right mix of skills - leader can support this by developing level of commitment, accountability and skills in team
- What makes a team effective?
○ Clear responsibilities aligned to skills and experience
○ Open clear and honest communications
○ Common goal and sense of community - good morale
- What are the benefits of an effective team?
○ Improved motivation through sense of belonging and agency
○ Better problem solving through sharing ideas, knowledge etc.
○ Confidence to try new things
○ Producivity through sharing workload to skills etc.
