Slide 1 PMI Great Lakes Chapter Spring Symposium 04/27/2011Training Your Sponsor Using The Conscious Competence Learning Model PMI Great Lakes Chapter

PMI Great Lakes Chapter Spring Symposium 04/27/2011

Training Your Sponsor Slide 1

Training Your SponsorUsing The Conscious Competence Learning Model

PMI Great Lakes Chapter Spring Symposium

“Innovate or Adapt? The Challenge of the New Decade ”

April 27, 2011

Kathy GisterBusiness Process Analyst

CMMI and ITIL Foundations Certifications, Six Sigma Green Belt,PM Certification from Bryant College, RI



First, some questions…

Why are you attending this session?

• What are your Sponsor-related project problems?

• Is your project Sponsor a good manager?

• Is your project Sponsor a leader, a good leader?

• How many projects is your Sponsor sponsoring right now?



More Questions…

• Do you expect your Sponsor will know the project management approach you need to use?

• Do you expect the Sponsor to know:– What is the role of the Sponsor in a project?– What leadership qualities are needed from the Sponsor?

• OOPS! Are you the problem?

• Do you feel all this is just common sense?

• How can you help your Sponsor, team, and stakeholders improve the whole project’s success?



What is the

“Conscious Competence” Learning Model?

Why Should I Care?

What’s in it for My Project?

What’s in it for My Sponsor?

Conclusion

Session Overview



A Staged Representation of Learning

• Everyone starts at the first level and proceeds sequentially

• Can’t skip levels• Applies to all teaching and learning, e.g.:

– Dance, Tae Kwon Do, other physical activities

– Process improvement

– Quality management

– Project management

What is the “Conscious Competence” Learning Model?



Origin of model really not known (or claimed) but cited by many, for example, references include:

• 1940’s …

• Human Relations in Administration, P. Dubin, 1962

• A Practical Guide for Supervisory Training and Development, D.L. Kirkpatrick, 1971

• Gordon Training International, Teacher Effectiveness Training Instructor Guide, early 1970’s

• The KM Journey, Judy Payne, Hemdean Consulting, 2004

• The Conscious Competence Ladder: Making learning a happier experience – MindToolsTM at: http://www.mindtools.com/




• He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool – shun him,

• He who knows not, and knows that he knows not, is ignorant – teach him,

• He who knows, and knows not that he knows, is asleep – wake him,

• But he who knows, and knows that he knows, is a wise man – follow him.

Very early reference, an ancient Oriental proverb:

Not quite the sequence or advice of the

Conscious Competence Model, but close!




• Level of awareness, ability to perform • Degree of self-esteem of the learner• Approach for teaching, coaching, consulting

Please be thinking about your SponsorsPlease be thinking about your Sponsors

# Consciousness Competence

1-4





• Blissfully unaware (don’t know that they don’t know)

• Self-esteem is high (confidence exceeds ability)• Teach concepts, high-level, to get them to want to

learn more:• The process of the project, and related roles and responsibilities

• The importance of a project’s sponsor

• The criticality of sponsor leadership and visibility

Consciousness Competence

1 Unconscious Incompetent




• Know that they don’t know and are motivated to get more knowledge and skill

• Confidence drops as they realize their ability is limited so their self-esteem drops below level 1

• Provide examples, more information, safe practice, early collaboration, well planned events…


2 Conscious Incompetent




• Know what they know; consciously apply knowledge and skill

• Confidence increases• Coach, mentor, advise, measure success and

provide positive feedback to improve performance


3 Conscious Competent




• Skills and knowledge become habits; don’t know “how” anymore; just do it; assume it’s just “common sense”

• Confidence and ability peak, can take on more • Collaborate with peers for continuous improvement


4 Unconscious Competent

The Sponsor / Project Manager relationship of your dreams -- !The Sponsor / Project Manager relationship of your dreams -- !




Perspectives on the 4th level:

• “Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things,” Edward Degas.

• “Educators have identified four stages of learning any physical skill: unconscious incompetence, … unconscious competence ”

Stephen Brown, “Toward an Effortless Mastery of [the] Argentine Tango”




What is the


Why Should I Care?



Conclusion

Session Overview



Concerning certain areas

I expect you can describe yourself as follows:

• Really highly skilled at what you do• Your self esteem is high• Can lead by example (unconscious competence)

What if you continue as you are?

Why Should I Care?



• How can you help get your team members up to speed? • What level are they?

• What level is your Sponsor?

• What if you want to help/teach others something you do instinctively, you don’t remember how you do it?

• Is it REALLY just “common sense?”

Why Should I Care?



You need to step back:

• Become re-conscious of your own competencies

• Articulate what you are doing; consciously dissect your process, your thought pattern, your actions into their parts

“… he who knows, and knows that he knows,

is a wise man – follow him.”

Consciousness Competence4 Unconscious Competent

5 Reflective, Re-conscious

Competent

Why Should I Care?





1 Complacent Out of date?

Make silly mistakes.

Another possibility for us on a personal level

– More like the 1st level than the 4th? Blissfully unaware.

“He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool –…”

- We must not become complacent!

Why Should I Care?



Questions?

Why Should I Care?



What is the


Why Should I Care?



Conclusion

Session Overview



• Helps you understand your sponsor’s, stakeholders’, even your customers’ levels of awareness

• Can be used to help you gauge their level of self esteem and their sensitivity to their lack of knowledge

• Can help you understand what kind of “training” is needed for your team, during solution implementation, and for your own personal development




A staged representation of learning.






Where would you place your sponsor, your stakeholders, your team?




• Asking them to challenge “the way they’ve always done it” with new ideas and new approaches.

• Asking them to reassess their competence. Have to start over again… (level 1, however briefly)?

• Asking them to search for “continuous improvement.”• These requests may mean that they may see that they

are “blissfully unaware” --- a very uncomfortable zone.



Don’t forget what you might be asking.




Assumptions About Sponsor’s Knowledge

• Good manager, therefore good leader? Hmmm? • Has a stake in the project’s outcome?• Understands:

– The project process?

– The Sponsor’s role?

– The PM’s role?

– The Sponsor’s connection to key deliverables?

– The criticality of Sponsor leadership to project success?

• Do you assume the sponsor’s understanding is CC level 4?









Need to gently help your sponsor get through levels

1 and 2 without realizing what happened (?) !

Teaching Styles

Teach new concepts and reasons to care, create desire to learn more

Provide examples, more information, (safe) guided practice

Coach, mentor, advise, measure success, provide feedback

Collaborate with peers, continuous improvement




Back to Basics: Don’t Assume…

Plan the initial meeting(s) with your Sponsor

1. “Start with Why” … Discuss the business case objectives, project scope, any known constraints, risks. Ensure common understanding, ensure you understand the Sponsor’s vision and “Why” and commitment to the project. (Are you UI? Listen!)

2. Identify key measures and success factors with the Sponsor. – Find the What that’s connected to the Why.

3. Discuss/define and understand how the Sponsor views and values the “triple* constraints” in relation to the Why.

* or the six constraints?




Plan the initial meeting(s) with your Sponsor, continued:

4. Define initial communications plan between Sponsor and the PM including level of information and frequency; identify the best presentation format of information for the Sponsor’s ease of understanding

5. Plan to outline what’s needed in a Project Charter; why it’s key to making a project progress more efficiently and effectively




Project Charter – Sponsor Input Needed, e.g.

1. Project purpose or justification

2. Measurable project objectives and related success criteria

3. High level requirements, product characteristics

4. Known constraints and business risks

5. Stakeholders

6. Project Manager Authority Level

7. Project approval requirements

8. Project Charter approvers

9. Project Sponsor’s approval of the completed Charter




Don’t Assume… Plan the initial meeting(s), continued:

6. Outline your project management process to get the Sponsor interested, adaptable, and ready to innovate when needed. Plan to present, for example:

– The project management phases including Project Monitoring and Controlling• High-level purpose of each phase

• Key Sponsor characteristics and activities, where the Sponsor’s involvement is critical for project success




Rita Mulcahy, PMP: PMP Exam Prep Fifth Edition(for PMBOK® Guide – Third Edition), 2005, pp. 267-268


7. Role and characteristics of the Sponsor

• A project needs the Sponsor to be visible to the team to help ensure success, delivery against the project’s objectives

• “Without having the Sponsor or someone in management performing the following functions, the project will suffer, wasting time and resources.

Management must serve as a protector of the project.”




Through Project Initiation – The Sponsor, e.g.

• Has Requirements that must be met• Is a project stakeholder• Provides funding• Provides statement of work• Provides information for preliminary project scope statement• May dictate milestones• Issues the Project Charter• Gives the project manager authority as outlined in the Project Charter• Helps organize work into appropriate projects• Sets priority between projects• Determines the priorities between the “constraint” components• Encourages the finalization of requirements and scope by stakeholders

• High-level Sponsor activities:– Ensures project has clearly understood and agreed upon scope– Ensures key stakeholders, support, and advisory personnel are identified and engaged




Planning the initial meeting(s), cont.

• Most likely, you will want to skip the details of next phases for a meeting later on when you are planning the Planning Phase with your Sponsor.

• Consider just focusing on the High-level Sponsor activities




During Project Planning - The Sponsor, e.g.

• Provides the team with time to plan• May review the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)• Supplies lists of risks• Determines the reports needed by management to oversee the project• Provides expert judgment• Helps evaluate tradeoffs during crashing, fast tracking and re-estimating• Approves the final project management plan

• High-level Sponsor activities:– Ensures project has realistic and complete Integrated Project Plan– Ensures communications, procurement, change, and risk are well managed– Contributes to and supports the Business Case


Can you two draft an “elevator speech” for the project yet?



During Project Execution and Project Monitoring andControlling – The Sponsor, e.g.

• Approves changes to the Project Charter• Protects the project from outside influences and changes• Enforces quality policies• Provides expert judgment• Helps evaluate tradeoffs during crashing, fast tracking and re-estimating• Resolves conflicts that extend beyond the project manager’s control• Approves or rejects changes or authorizes someone representing him/her to do

so (change control board)• May direct that a quality assurance review be performed• Clarifies scope questions

• High-level Sponsor activities:– Monitors project performance– Ensures issues, change requests, and risks receive timely and appropriate response




During Project Closing – The Sponsor, e.g.

• Provides formal acceptance of the deliverables (if he is the customer)

• Supports the collection of historical records from past projects

• High-level Sponsor activity:– Ensures project makes a smooth transition and changes are

institutionalized





8. Review and gain agreement on roles and responsibilities to be sure you have buy-in on the PM’s role:

= to organize and manage a team of disparate players

= to deliver the solution to the business “Why”

= to ensure that the Sponsor’s initiative is a success

9. Last agenda item: Next steps

• Plan when to meet again

• Tentative agenda (e.g. review a draft Project Charter)




At the initial meeting with your Sponsor: Listen; Set Expectations; Collaborate for Project Success

Is this the right person to be Sponsor?

Identify how you can influence these factors if necessary.

• Can enough of the Sponsor’s time be dedicated to the project? (If not, who will have the delegated authority to act for the Sponsor.)

• Does this person have a personal stake in the project?

• Can this person deliver the “WHY” throughout the project?




At the meeting: Listen; Set Expectations; Collaborate for Project Success

When sharing project process and Sponsor roles and responsibilities:

– Assess your Sponsor’s Conscious Competency level about a project’s Critical Success Factors

– Don’t assume your Sponsor is a “quick study” - slow down, plan in enough time to elaborate - remember the 4 CC levels and (gently) “teach”

– Develop a collaborative atmosphere to begin a shared mind set on what success means; • “Why” this project is important for the business;

• “Why” the Sponsor’s involvement is so important to project success




At the meeting, continued … Set Expectations

Meeting Wrap-up - Summarize with your Sponsor:

• Did you cover all the points that you planned? – Did you start at Level 1? Inform: now review key points show what’s

in the Project Charter and roles and responsibilities, quickly move Sponsor’s understanding through Level 2…

– Do you need a follow-up meeting to cover the project process?

• Did you collaborate and establish agreement on (parts of) the Project Charter and any constraints, etc.?

– Levels 1? -2? -3?: Educate, teach, collaborate, or just set the stage for later?

• Did you establish on-going communication approach?




A Quick Overview

For Fun !




Vision – The Big (Business) Picture

YourSponsor

What’s in it for Me?



Sponsor bored? Not engaged?

What’s wrong with this?

Project not a

performance goal?

No personal consequences?


Your presentation style is BORING your Sponsor?



Training Models + Consider the Whole Team

• Successful leadership occurs when the team actually adopts and adapts what they’ve learned into their daily activities. (The team has a shared vision – CC level 3 or 4.)

• Sponsors need to create and deliver a message that will allow the team to understand what needs to happen. (Clark Swain, Sr. V.P., Nimbus Partners, a technology consulting company in New York as noted in The Charlotte Observer, 10/17/04)

The ultimate responsibility for the success of the project is the Sponsor’s. It is a responsibility which cannot be delegated!




Team – Shared Vision


Each team member has the same

“elevator speech”

Can function independently because the vision is internalized.



Sponsor => Big Picture Enabler

Helps maintain commitment of others.

Helps mitigate, manage high-level risks.

Helps enable critical issue resolution.

Approves funding, scope, and

scope changes.

Knows the destination

and the route.

Clears the road

ahead.




Promotes – Leads – Shares the “Why”




A Shared Vision / “Why” Unifies

Different Project Responsibilities!




Sponsor Manages? Micro-Manages?




Celebrates – Leads




Team – Shared Vision• Project Manager keeps teams coordinated with the plan

• With more confidence that each piece is created with the same end in mind!

• A shared vision helps minimize surprises when pieces are integrated.

• A shared vision is engendered through good Sponsor leadership!




PM Plans and Manages the Pieces




The Sponsor trusts the PM to share at the level s/he needs to know.


The Sponsor “helps” when help is needed.



Achieve – Big Picture, Business Goals


Achieve

personal goals!



Celebrate!




What is the


Why Should I Care?



Conclusion

Session Overview




• Achieves business goals• Achieves personal goals• Doesn’t need to manage / micro manage• Data provided at the right level for review• Focuses on providing help when and where needed.• Brings celebration to achievements.

• Helps ensure lessons learned are passed on



• Need to challenge what is “done effortlessly” with new ideas and new approaches

• Reassess competence. Start over again… • “…search for continuous improvement.” • However, this means:

move back to an uncomfortable zone…



(I repeat…) Why Should I Care? Consider what might happen to your Sponsor.






What other models have you seen that look like this?

Level of self-

Esteem

Time

Unconscious/Incompetent Conscious/Incompetent Conscious/Competent Unconscious/Competent




Change Models

• Psychological reorientation people have to experience when significant change occurs (William Bridges, 1991):– Composing endings

– Neutral Zone

– New Beginnings

• Transition is often the loss: this is what people fight, not necessarily the change itself

• Bereavement





- initial - learning, strategy - construction, implementation

business case - communication, data - measurement, continuous

collection, process improvement

Performance

Unconscious/Incompetent Conscious/Incompetent Conscious/Competent Unconscious/Competent

Time



Visions of continuous monitoring and improvement at organizational or team levels

Act Plan

Check Do

2

C/Inc

3

C/C

Unc/Inc

1

Unc/C

4


Deming’s Cycle



Other questions you and your Sponsor could consider:

• What can we do to improve our team?

• What should we do if we get a new team member?

• What should we expect if we experience organizational change?

• How can we use the “Conscious Competence” model to improve training for our project’s team members, stakeholders, customers, end users?




What is the


Why Should I Care?



Conclusion

Session Overview“Innovate or Adapt? The Challenge of the New Decade ”



In Conclusion

The “Conscious Competence” Learning Model is another tool we can adapt as we plan involvement:• With our sponsors • With our co-workers and stakeholders

It can help us understand people and organizations in another way:• To help us succeed with our projects

• To help them succeed in acquiring new skills and knowledge as efficiently as possible



Conscious Competence Learning Model“Innovate or Adapt? The Challenge of the New Decade ”

• People learn differently. In spite of that there is a progression to learning that is common to us all.

• If you don’t look at where others are in the four levels you may design learning events in a way that won’t help at all, perhaps resulting in disastrous consequences.

• Communicate at the right level to be sure recipients can move forward with the information. Be consciously competent!

In Conclusion



“Innovate or Adapt? The Challenge of the New Decade ”

More Questions? Comments?

What is the Conscious Competence Learning Model?

Why Should I Care?










Thank you, and my best wishes for your success.

Contact Information

Kathy Gister

[email protected]

Documents

Slide 1 PMI Great Lakes Chapter Spring Symposium 04/27/2011Training Your Sponsor Using The Conscious Competence Learning Model PMI Great Lakes Chapter