SPOKE - Management Theories

A right approach will send you in the right way.

You don't need to reinvent the wheel. Many clever people have come before you. Use their techniques to solve your current problems and take full advantage of your opportunities.

Sources of Power

Some say that there are between five to seven sources of power that are recognized as a basis of influence and the source of authority. You may exert one of more of these. It is worth knowing them so that you can either leverage them to their maximum benefit or seek to increase them where you find them lacking. When working with stakeholders & team members, try to figure out where their power comes from. The sources of power are:

Reward power: A reward can range from anything from a bonus, to a gift to a simple public or private ‘thank you’ for achieving project related tasks.
Coercive power: You yield coercive power when you have influence over another person in the form of a punishment, sanctions or via a threat. Examples of this may be your ability to provide a bad performance review or demote someone from your team. It is the least admirable power.
Legitimate power: This is your title as a Project Manager. This is where the company has empowered you to manage what should be done, when it should be done, defend why it should be done, but not how it should be done - leave that to the project specialists.
Expert power: When you are recognized as having prior successful experience in your field, then you become respected as an expert. How you approach projects, tasks, communications, risks and negotiation will all bolster that perception.
Referent power: When you are sought out to manage specific projects due to your interpersonal skills, integrity and track record then you can claim this source of power.
Connection power. Sometimes called Power brokers, this power is the ability act as a bridge to connect people together.
Information power: This is the ability to influence through facts and data (effectively Logos). As a Project Manager you may find that appealing to ones emotions (Pathos) works best, but you will yield Information Power when those in the room know that you can back up any claim with data, without you having to prove it. At which point you can also claim Ethos.

Reward power: A reward can range from anything from a bonus, to a gift to a simple public or private ‘thank you’ for achieving project related tasks.
Coercive power: You yield coercive power when you have influence over another person in the form of a punishment, sanctions or via a threat. Examples of this may be your ability to provide a bad performance review or demote someone from your team. It is the least admirable power.
Legitimate power: This is your title as a Project Manager. This is where the company has empowered you to manage what should be done, when it should be done, defend why it should be done, but not how it should be done - leave that to the project specialists.
Expert power: When you are recognized as having prior successful experience in your field, then you become respected as an expert. How you approach projects, tasks, communications, risks and negotiation will all bolster that perception.
Referent power: When you are sought out to manage specific projects due to your interpersonal skills, integrity and track record then you can claim this source of power.
Connection power. Sometimes called Power brokers, this power is the ability act as a bridge to connect people together.
Information power: This is the ability to influence through facts and data (effectively Logos). As a Project Manager you may find that appealing to ones emotions (Pathos) works best, but you will yield Information Power when those in the room know that you can back up any claim with data, without you having to prove it. At which point you can also claim Ethos.

Group Formation

When teams are formed, they naturally go through various stages during that formation. Its worth knowing these stages as it is possible for the team to get stuck. If this happens then you can identify this and either directly or indirectly intervene in order to move them to the next stage so that they are performing at their optimal capability.

Stage 1: Forming. The team start to interact and are both excited about the work and fearful of meeting expectations.

Stage 2: Storming. Authority is challenged as members start to assert themselves. Small conflict occur.

Stage 3: Norming. Conflicts are naturally resolved within the team. Cooperation begins to happen.

Stage 4: Preforming. Members work as a team, with growing confidence towards the common goal.

Stage 5: Adjourning. With the goal achieved & the project complete, the team start to disband.

This Group formation theory, or ‘Tuckmans Development Sequence model’ as it is known, is perfect for Project Management as this is exactly what happens when projects happen. On top of this, it worth trying to make the team as diverse as possible in order to maximise impact. Its also important not to bring in more than one ‘Rock Star’ or top performer, as you will be unlikely to make it out of the Storming phase. This is because they will likely keep on competing for the top spot or alpha position. There are many different roles that people play in a team and this is best summed up by Belbin Team roles. These are;

Chair / Coordinator. This should be the Project Manager, but may be a stakeholder or other senior member of the team if the Project Manager is inexperienced.

Shaper. This extrovert aims to influence the teams decisions.

Plant / Innovator. This problem solver generates ideas to move the project forward.

Monitor / Evaluator. This critical person observes and provides analytical insight.

Implementor. This person may be stubborn but they get the job done, their way.

Resource Investigators. This highly sociable person knows whats going on inside & outside the team.

Teamworker. This person bonds the team their their conscientious attitude.

Completer/Finisher. This person is willing to get the job done at almost any cost.

Specialist. This skilled person might only know one area, but they know it completely and can be invaluable.

SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis is a technique that can be used to analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a market, a company, a product or a competitor.

It is an effective tool for evaluating a company’s position in the market and determining what type of strategy it should undertake.

Strengths and Weaknesses are internal factors that affect your ability to succeed, while opportunities and threats are external ones. This format can be used in order to help you focus on what you need to do more of or less of, or where you're lacking in comparison with your competitors.

Decision Trees

A Decision Tree is a way to visualize how decisions are made. It shows the possible outcomes and the probability of each outcome happening.

Decision Trees are used in Game Theory. These models reason out the different outcomes and consequences that could arise based on a decision. This is helpful business negotiations or market product strategies.

When making a decision, you should look forward and reason back. This means that before making your next move, you should consider all the possible likely outcomes that you and your counterpart can make, together with the possible outcomes that these decisions will lead to. Doing this will allow you to take the best decision that offers the best future outcome

Scenario Planning

There are many possible futures and these will be shared by events, technology and trends. The task of scenario planning is to picture a specific time in the future, determine how it will be influenced and then how you can shape it, capitalise on it or best defend the organisation to weather the storm.

Scenario planning is an effective tool that can help organizations to plan for the future. It is a planning practice that graphs the high & low likelihood of events happening (the possible futures) and how you can make the best strategic decisions based on these outcomes. For example, if a company is considering launching a new product, it can use scenario planning to explore the different outcomes of this decision.

Scenario Planning is best completed multiple times, based on multiple scenarios based on their feasibility and plausibility. It is best represented as a quadrant with the with high/low forces contrasted against strong/weak environmental forces.

The benefits of scenario planning are diverse and include:

Helps organizations to plan for the future
Creates better understanding of what might happen in the future
Helps decision makers to think about different possible futures and how they will make decisions based on these outcomes

As you tease out which future forces should be factored in, remember

there are things that you know,
things that you don’t know and
things that you don’t know that you don’t know.

As such, any future could be possible. Scenario Planning is useful for a company to position itself in a market. As a Project Manager, Scenario Planning is a great tool for mitigating risk ahead of time, or preparing well laid out plans to deal with any possible risks.

Strategic Planning (Seven Stages)

This can be a Top Down (CEO states the Mission) or Bottom Up (individual contributors provide useful data) approach to creating a company strategy and the actions to take you there.

The step by step process ensures that the whole organization is aligned and that every action taken contributes to the overall company objectives and mission. This can be later measured through a series of tools such as the Balanced Scorecard, Performance Pyramid and the recently popular OKRs (Objectives & Key Results)

Mission -> Goal -> Objectives -> Strategies -> Actions & Tasks -> Control -> Reward

MOSCOW Prioritzation Technique

Reward power: A reward can range from anything from a bonus, to a gift to a simple public or private ‘thank you’ for achieving project related tasks.
Coercive power: You yield coercive power when you have influence over another person in the form of a punishment, sanctions or via a threat. Examples of this may be your ability to provide a bad performance review or demote someone from your team. It is the least admirable power.
Legitimate power: This is your title as a Project Manager. This is where the company has empowered you to manage what should be done, when it should be done, defend why it should be done, but not how it should be done - leave that to the project specialists.
Expert power: When you are recognized as having prior successful experience in your field, then you become respected as an expert. How you approach projects, tasks, communications, risks and negotiation will all bolster that perception.
Referent power: When you are sought out to manage specific projects due to your interpersonal skills, integrity and track record then you can claim this source of power.
Connection power. Sometimes called Power brokers, this power is the ability act as a bridge to connect people together.
Information power: This is the ability to influence through facts and data (effectively Logos). As a Project Manager you may find that appealing to ones emotions (Pathos) works best, but you will yield Information Power when those in the room know that you can back up any claim with data, without you having to prove it. At which point you can also claim Ethos.

When you are looking to set goals, prioritize lists or determine if tasks/features should be included in a project or even whether defects must be resolved before a project is completed & can Go-Live, the MoSCoW prioritization technique is invaluable.

M. Must-Have. This is an item that MUST be included / completed.
S. Should-Have. This should be included / completed, but this doesn’t have to be initially.
C. Could-Have. This is a nice to have item and won’t kill the project if its left out.
W. Won’t-Have. This is largely irrelevant and can be completed when there is more time.

This versatile prioritization technique can be used to quickly determine an MVP (Minimal Viable Product) of a software project. It can also be used as the first stage or prioritizing an ordered list of items or requirements or goals. By categorizing each item as M, S, C or W, you can then more easily order the smaller subset of items within each category.

SMART and SMARTER Goals

Goals are more likely to be achieved if their are properly defined. You can apply this acronym to every goal to make it more likely to happen;

S. Specific. Ensure that the goal is as clear, concise and specific as possible.
M. Measurable. Ensure that the goals criteria can tracked and measured.
A. Achievable. Ensure that it is possible for the goal to be completed.
R. Realistic. Ensure that the goal aligns to the company's objectives and can be achieved by the company’s resources.
T. Timely. Ensure that the goal can be completed within the stated timeframe.
E. Exciting. Ensure that the goal sparks interest and excitement, as its achievable but challenging.
R. Rewarding. Ensure that everyone’s contribution is rewarded

Eisenhower Matrix

The Eisenhower Matrix, also known as the Urgent-Important Matrix, is a decision-making tool used to determine which tasks are most important. It was created by former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The tool ranks tasks on a scale of importance and urgency, based on the individual's understanding of their responsibilities.

The Eisenhower Matrix is composed of four quadrants that represent the different levels of urgency and importance:

Urgent: Immediate, high impact.
Important: Have potential for significant benefit or loss of opportunity.
Not urgent: Little perceived impact or no quick decisions are required.
Irrelevant: Low relevance to the campaign, with little perceived risk or reward associated.
With a combination of high urgency and high importance, this quadrant is the most difficult for leaders to manage.

Situational Leadership

Each situation may require leaders to adapt the style and approach. Four main leadership styles have been identified. These are non-linear and should be applied when and as needed. These approaches can be mapped based on the Level of Direction required, over the Level of Support. Starting at the highest levels and moving backwards, we can visualize these on a Quadrant and see;

Coaching. Provide high levels of direction and support to someone unfamiliar with the tasks or team or organization.
Directing. Provide high levels of direction to someone who is highly engaged, but unfamiliar with the tasks.
Supporting. Provide high levels of support to someone who is somewhat engaged, but is familiar with the tasks.
Delegating. Provide low levels of both direction and support to someone familiar with the tasks or team or organization.

Inner Game

I believe that everyone turns up to work to do their best. However, sometimes the output can be less than ideal. One way to realize why this is the case is the concept of the Inner Game. It can be summed up by this equation

Performance = Potential - Interference

After noticing the reduction in performance, it is a managers job to help the person to identify & remove the interference through coaching.

When coaching a team member, you should aim to tease out the interference and make them aware of it. Next, work together to choice to remove or minimize that issue, while building up trust along the way. Trust is a two way street, where the team member trusts the manager to support them unconditionally and the manager trusts the team member to fulfil their potential.

C-Suite

Prepare for the next step

So, you have mastered the management theories, now figure out what the other people in the room are thinking.

C-Suite Frameworks >

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Fishbone diagram

The Fishbone diagram is a visual way to examine the possible causes of a problem. It asks the question, "What might be causing this problem?" and then separates the possible causes into nine categories, or "bones". The nine commonly used categories are:

Management
People
Machines
Methods
Materials
Measurements
Environment
Energy
Tools
Change

The goal of the fishbone diagram is to identify the root cause of a problem. This would help a company identify what needs to be fixed and why.

Conflict Resolution

When conflict arises, its good to know that there are only 5 broad ways of dealing with it, within your team, organization or at home.

These approaches can be mapped based on the Level of Assertiveness required, over the Level of Cooperativeness. Starting at the highest levels and moving backwards, we can visualize these on a Quadrant and see;

Collaborating seeks to satisfy everyone, but requires high levels of cooperation and assertiveness from all parties.
Accommodating another‘s requirements over their own, shows engagement but signifies that one party has yielded to the other.
Compromising is the middle ground. This can sometimes work out well, while other times the conflict can resurface later.
Competing is when one person wins at the expense of another (Win-Lose) through high assertiveness and low cooperation.
Avoiding the conflict on purpose satisfies nobody. However, if the project/relationship is set to end soon, this this may be preferable.