In the last couple of weeks, I had some long phone conversations with a few of my old buddies. I had not spoken to them in several months. The COVID situation was helping to connect with many through video calls rather than just messages on social media. One of them works for a large engineering services organization. Two others are in R&D organizations. One thing that struck me was everybody was referring to one project or the other they were working on (in their workplace of course). So you might ask “so what is the issue?”
Project approach is most common
Within most IT and R&D organization, people are used to being “assigned” to projects. Once they finish one a project, they move on to another. An engineer typically fills up a resume with major projects completed and contributions made. Strong project management practices have evolved to closely monitor individual tasks and resources (engineers and other materials). Project managers manage risks that could impact project completion and thereby its objectives. Funding is done for projects based on resources (both people and material). But, projects by definition are temporary in nature and this can drive thinking and decision making. Once Projects get closed most of the learnings too get wrapped up. So is there a better way to organize?
Transition from Project thinking to Product Thinking
As part of Lean-Agile transformation, one of the foundation principles we convey is Product Thinking and Long-term Stable Teams. A department and in turn a larger organization should ideally be an aggregation of carefully designed teams each with a manageable size of members having requisite skills. Product thinking is about slices of customer value rather than set of project work packages. Product work gets assigned to teams as opposed to an individual getting assigned work. All work is then accomplished collectively by the members as one team. Product by nature lasts longer till it loses its utility value. So long-term stable teams and product thinking will allow members to be invested in their team identity, evolve team norms and practices and become high performing over a period of time. Customer value gets delivered over a longer period of time.
Continuous Improvement
Once there is a long-term mindset, it enables Continuous Improvement, which is the next foundation element of Lean-Agile thinking. The teams will be able to develop a systematic understanding of the current state of performance indicators. They get time to carefully think of any improvements and can implement the same so that performance remains stable and also can improve. They can set standards and practices to ensure stability. It is difficult to imagine how this can happen in a temporary project setup where the key objective is to finish a project.
Talk to us if you are wondering how Lean-Agile transformation can change Projects based organization?
#ProjectToProduct, #ProductThinking, #OrganizeAroundValue, #ContinuousImprovement, #LongtermStableTeams
4 Responses
Hi Shiv, I can relate to this, it is a real different world.
I was invited a few times to address students appearing for CET exams as an industry person and found it challenging to connect with them. I was able to connect somewhat as one of their concern was what if they do not get into a good college, which I was able to address by sharing real life examples.
Thanks Vasu. College “brand” no doubt helps early on in work life – corporate doors open more easily. But down the line, it is people’s motivation and track record that helps build careers. I am sure we have all seen examples affirming this. I have stressed with the mentees that I work with. An aside, the mentorship program I am involved in spans 4-5 months and so, I have had time to work on the “connect”! Yes – takes time and effort.
Hi Shiv – very well written – thanks for the write-up.
Many years ago I was a volunteer mentor for a couple of youth as part of Dream A Dream’s life skills mentoring program. This was in person mentoring where the mentee and I would meet periodically (usually on a weekend) and discuss general topics. There was no prescribed structure though all mentors did go thru a few hours of in person training. Based on that experience I can corroborate that it takes time for the mentee to open up, especially in that case given their lack of confidence in expressing in English which was the recommended language for communication. Switching to Tamil (in one case where the mentee was from Tamil Nadu) helped.
Can also relate well to your point on swings in mood and engagement level of the mentee and the need for mentor to shift gears accordingly.
I am sure the mentees are benefiting a lot from your vast and varied experience – hope you will come back to mentor more such students after you complete the current mentorships and possibly take a break!
Thank you, Bhasker!