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need that level of detail to manage the work and her team does not need
that level of detail to understand what is needed.
Reyna has allocated 15 percent of the project effort hours toward project
management activities. This is a good rule of thumb and should be plenty of
time. She needs to free up more of her time by simplifying the schedule
dramatically. When she does, she will still be able to control the project, but
she will free herself up from the reactive drudgery caused by micromanag-
ing. As I mentioned earlier, there is a time for very close schedule manage-
ment using very short duration activities. This happens at the end of a pro-
ject, phase, or when you are dealing with problems. This is the time when
micromanaging may be appropriate. But you don t normally need this level
of schedule control and this is not the way that you would typically manage.
If you feel you are spending too much time managing the schedule and as-
signing work, you may be right. Make sure you are managing work at a level
where you and your team members can understand the work assignments,
while at the same time maintaining proactive control so that you can re-
spond appropriately if problems arise.
C H A P T E R
8
Hire a Diverse
Project Team
Without Compromising on the Best Candidates
On February 7, I asked Jerry to stop by my office to discuss the current
status of his project to upgrade the phone mail system. I was also anx-
ious to share with him the news regarding the Morettis house going on
the market. He was wearing a light brown sweater when he walked into
my office, and it looked like he got a haircut recently. It was still shaggy,
but not as shaggy as usual.
 Have a seat, Jerry. I have really been looking forward to meeting with
you today.
 Why is that, Tom? he asked with a puzzled look on his face.
 Tell me, have you guys had any luck finding a house?
Jerry talked for five minutes on the continuing struggle he and his wife
were having. They were only looking at houses every other weekend
now and were fast growing weary of the hunt. I was trying hard to listen
to his concerns, but finally I couldn t hold back any longer.
 Jerry, I might have found the perfect house for you guys!
He could tell I was excited and asked me to tell him the story. I gave
him all the information I could think of on Wayne s house, and I could
T. Mochal et al., Lessons in Project Management
© Tom Mochal and Jeff Mochal 2011
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Hire a Diverse Project Team
see Jerry s expression growing brighter and brighter the more I talked. I
agreed to meet him and his wife for lunch on Sunday and bring them by
the Morettis house so they could have a quick tour. He was so excited
that he almost left my office to call his wife. I convinced him to stay a
few minutes longer to brief me on the status of his project.
 So, how have things been going on your project? Did you put a good
team together? I asked.
 I think I did, Tom, Jerry replied.  I personally interviewed all of the
candidates to make sure we got the best possible workers. In fact, a lot
of the team members remind me a lot of myself! I think it s going to be
easy working with a group like that. We are having a few minor prob-
lems in the early-going, though. I thought it would be a fairly simple task
to gather requirements from the client, but it s not going so well. It s al-
most like they re from another planet!
 What do you mean by that? I asked.  I have managed a lot of pro-
jects and encountered a lot of problems, but working with aliens has
never been one of them!
 Well, Jerry started,  I recall managing similar projects in the past and
I assumed that this client would have similar expectations as previous
ones. But a lot of their needs are completely foreign to me. My sugges-
tions are going unheeded. I just can t seem to understand where they
are coming from.
 But it sounds like you have a great team to help you out, I offered.
 Have you tried including some different team members in the require-
ments-gathering meetings to get some different perspectives? I m sure
someone can identify with your client.
 That s the thing. I can t find anyone else who can help me deal with
this client. Johnny, Jake, Gary, Edward, Billy they re all in the same
boat as I am, feeling confused and frustrated.
 Hmm& it would appear that your hiring didn t go as well as you
thought, I speculated.
 Why do you say that? he asked, genuinely perplexed.  I really feel like
I identified personally with all the people I ended up hiring. They re the
best of the best!
 Yes, but what exactly do you mean by  best ? I replied.
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Lessons in Project Management
LESSON
To many people,  diversity conjures up images of hiring inferior quality for
the sake of meeting quotas. However, the focus on diversity is much more
complicated. No company is going to jump onto the diversity bandwagon if
there are not real business benefits. But companies have found there are, in
fact, long-term business benefits associated with a diverse workforce.
Why is diversity awareness necessary at all? Let s assume your project team
has an opening. You want to hire the best candidate available, right? Of
course, looking for the  best candidate can be a highly subjective matter.
What does it mean to be the  best candidate?
In many cases, there is a clear  best candidate based on experience and
skill level. However, if multiple candidates are equal in the aforementioned
categories, the hiring manager tends to rate a person s qualifications using
his own background as a measuring stick. After all, if a project manager has
a certain background and ends up in the position he is in today, wouldn t it
make sense for him to look for those same traits in another person? How-
ever, typically when the manager makes this type of subconscious decision,
he also tends to pick a person that physically looks like him as well.
Project managers also want to make sure they hire someone that will get
along with the rest of the team. Again, if there are multiple candidates with
close qualifications, the project team may choose a candidate that is more
like themselves.
If teams are left on their own, these natural biases tend to result in a like
group of people hiring a similar candidate. In some organizations and on
some projects, this results in a bias against workers of the opposite sex. In
other businesses, there is a bias based on age, culture, and race.
Companies, especially large ones, have tried to formalize and standardize
the recruiting and hiring process in a way that allows each candidate to be
judged based on the same set of criteria. The goal of a standardized process
is usually not to hire diverse workers. The goal is to remove as many of the
subconscious biases as possible and to ensure that the most qualified candi-
date is hired.
In addition to just being fair to all candidates, diversity has the following
benefits to your company and your project team:
Making better decisions: People from the same types of back-
grounds can have a tendency to think alike and this can affect the
decisions that people make. Project managers need a diverse set of
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Hire a Diverse Project Team
opinions to make the best technical decisions, to communicate [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]