Entering the Matrix

This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember, all I'm offering is the truth—nothing more.

As a Project Manager or a Project Resource, we all live in the Matrix.  How deep the rabbit hole goes depends on where you work, what your role is, what the project is, when it needs to get done, and innumerable other factors. 

For those keeping score at home, there are three different types of project environments as defined in the PMBOK:

Strong Matrix- the Project Manager is in charge of the resources assigned to the project, and the resources are typically dedicated to the project.  They say jump and you better believe those resources jump.  A strong matrix environment is usually indicated by a PM that dresses up Neo-style, frequent bouts of maniacal laughter and the sound of the Imperial Death March preceding their entrance into the conference room.  (Seriously, try the latter sometime, it’s a blast)

Balanced Matrix- the project management equivalent of the porridge that’s just right.  Here we have a normal looking Project Manager with normal human attributes and the beauty of having enough power to get things done along with someone to turn to if things go south on them. 

Weak Matrix- the Project Manager has no direct control over the resources assigned to the project, and the resources are typically given project tasks in addition to their “day jobs”.  If the Project Manager says jump and the resources don’t jump, its tattle tale time.  Signs of a weak matrix are a PM with sunken eyes, permanent 5 o’clock shadow, torn and wrinkled clothing, and the sound of 10 middle fingers popping up every time they leave the conference room followed by gentle sobbing trailing away down the hallway.

A Weak Matrix project can occur in any size organization, but the condition can be exacerbated by two specific conditions:

1.      The Project Manager is also not dedicated to the Project and indeed not even to Project Management itself.  These unfortunate souls are also known as Accidental Project Managers

2.      The organization is small and there is no formal change management process

I was recently approached for consultation by an end user, let’s call him Alex, whose organization is currently undergoing a significant change.  Briefly, his company is switching from one operational software to a new operational software.  There are approximately 10 people on staff.  After several days of running both systems in parallel, it had become evident to him that there were significant issues with the changeover and he was frustrated, angry, and quite concerned that his clients would be impacted by the change.

I started out by explaining to him that what his company was going through was in no way unique.  They were certainly not going to be the best at making this changeover, nor were they going to be the worst when the dust finally settled.  Change is difficult, and it is impactful.  It’s about managing the change to mitigate that impact.  Our conversation continued.

“You and I have been through this type of thing before, Alex”, I reminded him.  “Remember when we made that switch from one system to another ten years ago?  You were on the front line for that one, in a customer facing role.  That had to have been really difficult and you made it through”.

“But we knew that you were there to help us, Chris, and we had a lot of support from the organization.   When things got bad we at least knew that we had some support behind us and that it was organized,” he responded forcefully.

“Ah, but we were a dedicated team.  It was our only job to support you.  It sounds like right now your Project Manager is still working with customers too, isn’t he?  This isn’t his sole focus, right?’

“That’s true,” he replied thoughtfully, “I hadn’t thought of that.  He is trying to do everything he was doing before and now this as well.” 

Here I knew that Alex had gone from feeling like a victim to thinking about how he could begin to support his Accidental Project Manager.  This is a crucial point of the conversation, because Alex can significantly impact this project negatively if he doesn’t help in the “right way”.

I began to dispense my unsolicited advice.  “The best thing that you can do is document your issues, and make sure that you describe why they are issues and how big of an issue it is.  Give him a list.  If you tell him things as you pass him in the hallway, he will not remember what you told him.  Help him to make informed decisions by giving him the information that he needs in a way that he can digest on his own time.”

Alex was nodding throughout.  “What really bugs me is that this is impacting my customers. That’s the biggest deal for me.  I think that I will just figure out how to make things work for now so that I can continue to service my customers while we get this working right.  But the Project Manager doesn’t seem to want me to help them.  My customer was waiting for 15 minutes for someone to help him and when I stepped in to get him squared away, the PM grabbed me and asked me to give the staff that were supposed to help my customer some space.  I was just trying to help!”

“You are better off learning this new system the right way.  Workarounds today are just going to lead bad habits tomorrow”, I replied.  “That goes for everybody, not just you.  Remember, everyone else is learning this at the same time as you are.  And sometimes it’s better to just let folks figure things out without a bunch of other people standing over them.  Hopefully, your Project Manager is looking at the bigger picture, and you have to trust the decisions that he makes even if you don’t necessarily understand them at the time”.

“Here’s the other thing that you have to understand”, I continued.  “Your customers are going to be impacted.  You’re not going to avoid it, so don’t run away from it.  Again, the best thing that you can do is document your issues and assign a severity to each issue and to be an advocate or proponent for the change that is occurring.  That’s going to allow your Project Manager to focus on the things that are impacting his business and your customers.”

Alex was silent for a few minutes.  “You know”, he began, “I really resented the way that they were handling this at first.  I never really thought about how this was impacting them.  I’ll try to work with them to get this working the way that it needs to.”

Change is never easy.  Operating in a weak matrix can make change all the more difficult.  Being an Accidental Project Manager in this environment can be seemingly impossible.  All companies are concerned about the bottom line; they make purchases that they believe will have a positive ROI for them, and unfortunately when they look to see where they can make cuts to the implementation of their purchase, dedicated Project or Organizational Change Management is usually the first to go and an Accidental Project Manager is born. 

The thing that I simply cannot stress enough to folks like Alex and his Accidental PM, and really to anyone that is part of is project is the importance of structured communication.  Give your end users a mechanism to submit their issues and insist that they use it.  Don’t allow yourself to be subjected to drive bys!  Tell your team what is going on, and what the plan is.  Set up touch points throughout the project to ensure that you keep the avenues of communication open- proactive communication will reduce tension and better still keep the rumor mill to a mild roar.  

I’ll post a follow up to share how Alex’s story ends.  I’m confident though that he will be successful, as will his organization.  I’m glad in the end he took the red pill and we took the journey into his rabbit hole.  It wasn’t nearly as deep as he thought it was initially.