One of the most common topics that we discuss in our Agile Project Management workshops and during our consults is the topic of sponsors and their behaviour.
The typical comments include:
“My sponsor is too busy. She keeps cancelling our meetings.”
“My sponsor just says JFDI (for those readers who do not know this acronym, it has something to do with Just F*****g Do It).”
“If I tell my sponsor the truth, he just yells at me.”
A couple of years ago, my partner Camille gave me a present which was a book Why men can’t ask for help and Why women can’t read maps by Alan Pease. I clearly have some “improvement opportunities”.
To be honest, I read the book with a totally defensive attitude. “I did this. Once .. in 1982!” I would exclaim pointing at some accusation such as men not changing the toilet rolls which was contained in the book.
Reluctantly, I had to admit that asking for help was something that I wasn’t very good at and, according to the book (and many discussions I have had on my workshops) so it is for most men (and project managers).
It has also become clear to me that many project managers suffer from the same psychological flaw.
I was talking with some very senior managers in one of my clients recently. I asked them how the new Agile model was working for them and one of them replied that it was going well and then asked me “What can we (sponsors) do to help?”
This offer of help really raised an interesting problem for me.
I had just had a mentoring session with one of the project managers who had the generous executive as a sponsor on a very difficult project.
The project manager had been complaining about the difficulty he was having getting access and attention from the executive.
I went back to talk with the project manager and he was very confused. “Look he said. Here is the meeting request in Outlook that he didn’t accept! See!”
I suggested the following and it has worked on a number of occasions.
You see a Meeting Request in Outlook is a Meeting Request. Plain and simple.
A Request for Help is a Request for Help. Plain and simple.
So we changed the Meeting Request in Outlook to a Request for Help and almost immediately the project manager’s mobile rang … it was his sponsor asking what he could do to help.
Perhaps all project managers should read Alan Pease’s book.