Everyone has their own version of what a perfect world would be for them. Some people want fame and fortune, others want love and happiness, and many just want it all.
In a marketing project manager’s world, they just want their digital marketing projects to run smoothly, on time and within budget. Well, doesn’t that sound easy enough?
Hardly. As we all know, nothing goes as it’s planned, even in a perfect world!
However, those three key Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which must be monitored and managed effectively by the project manager, will help keep your plan on track.
No Plan Survives Contact With The Enemy– Helmuth von Moltke the Elder,German Field Marshal (1800 – 1891)
There will always be external factors that will create unplanned changes, which every project manager needs to be ready for. For example, there may be changes in the available human resources within your client's team, your team or even among your sub-contractors.
If there is one thing that is true of just about every organization, it is that they are in a state of constant change. Even when the internal organizational structure of your marketing agency changes, you, the marketing project manager, still has contractual obligations that must be met with your existing customers.
While it is claimed that culture eats strategy for breakfast, when it comes to organizational change management, organizational culture definitely affects your odds of successfully navigating changes to your projects. Having an organizational culture that embraces changes rather than pushes against changes, is must have for you to experience success.
Your company's business strategy is a foundational part of creating and maintaining an company culture that embraces change. This is why one a marketing projects managers need to keep abreast of what their company's current Business Strategy is. If you're lucky, and work for a large publicly traded company, the annual report usually contains a clear statement from the CEO that explains where the company is headed. This is a very good primary source that will also affect the management strategy and execution on a day-to-day basis.
Perfecting change management skills is vital, and utilizing these few tips can help any marketing project manager with any changes that may come their way.
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In these situations, you will need to match your leadership style to the situation and the client. Some clients will be very pushy, and unwilling to compromise. Others will take a very, 'I am in your hands' approach. Your ability to practice active listening, mirror and match your client's emotions and perspectives, can go a long ways toward, resolving this often dicey situation.
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If you find that your team is constantly coming in later with their project deliverables, new technology, methodologies and frameworks may need to be acquired and introduced into your environment. Because this can often involve both additional budgets and the use of a change management process, it is crucial that these types of changes are introduced at the right time, by the right change agents, within your organization.
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Customer satisfaction is crucial to any project, but the client also needs to abide by certain guidelines to guarantee that the final product is up to client standards and budget.
It’s easy to daydream about project utopia, but the fact of the matter is, there are things that marketing project managers just can’t control due to unforeseen circumstances especially in terms of change management.
Successful Change Management relies on four core principles:
Part of every project managers repertoire of skills includes designing a structured communication strategy at the beginning of every project, regardless of whether it is a marketing project or any other type of project. A popular communication framework is the 7x7 ways. You need to design and ensure every stakeholder knows and pays attention to your period project change communications and messaging efforts. You really can't overcommunicate, though it may seem like you are at times.
According to a Harvard Business Review article from the Harvard Business School, there are four 'hard factors' you must master to successfully management change:
They, of course, gave it a catchy acronym, DICE.
Project durations, especially the time between project reviews, appears to be especially important to project changes according to the Harvard Business Review article.. We have found this to be very true, whether on marketing projects or on SAP implementations, whose methodology includes a project review at every stage of the project.
This refers to the ability of the team to perform their jobs. One of the toughest aspects of a project manager's job is the selection of competent team members, whether internal or external.
While some might consider this a soft part of the project, nothing could be further from the truth. The executive team provides the strategic vision of the company, sets the agenda, provides the resources and holds the project manager, the client and team accountable for project success. They're typically extremely busy, so accurate, precise, persuasive communication skills are critical when talking to the C-Suite.
Change, by definition, requires additional work to make happen. This can be one of the biggest factors inducing resistance to change. Additional time, coaching and communication must be allocated to change efforts, especially those that fall during a 'live' project.
When it comes to conducting project reviews, the founder of the company has a lot of experience with conducting them. According to him, there are really two key types of project reviews:
He agreed, that conducting these was critical to both keeping a project on track or getting one that was off-track back on track.
Most of the project reviews he led were solution reviews, while some were pure project management focused reviews. The project management reviews were focused on the Project Manager and whether he had established and was following the implementation methodology.
The solution review were usually conducted by much larger teams of solution experts. While some projects got a clean bill-of-health, many got recommendations about different solution approaches. This was because very long term projects often had led to the development of solutions that were now available as part of the standard offering from SAP.
For solution reviews that were being done for environments where SAP or Hubspot was already live, the solution experts would often find that many developments could be replaced with now standard offerings.
When you have the right change management model, that follow proven principles of change management, success is possible. You still need keep both your senior executives and key stakeholders apprised of your change initiatives, but you can succeed.
Project risk management needs to be a key part of your ‘Best Practices'. For more tips on attaining project management success, click on the button below.
Until Next Time...