See what I mean
Risk is something that could happen and – if it does – it can derail your project, either by costing money, or by increasing the timeline. People are the biggest risk in any project, but this is not spoken about often. When it is vocalised, it’s often couched in other terms, such as change management, communication breakdown, or team dynamics. Very often, project managers do not even refer to people, but rather speak about stakeholders, resources, or collaborators.
People can be a risk to the project for very obvious reasons, such as not performing the tasks they are assigned, or because their manager won’t release them. This could happen because of differing priorities or even because they do not know about the project. Then there other, more insidious, ways people – even those that are not directly involved in the project – can put your project at risk. This could include badmouthing the project or the people involved, resisting change, and even going as far as sabotaging the project.
So how do you manage people? The first step is to identify the risks or, in this case, the people.
Who are these people?
In project management terms, the people involved in your project are referred to as your stakeholders. These stakeholders should have been identified at the beginning of your project. They are generally the people directly involved or affected by the project; it would also include the people that need to work on the project.
Next, you need to identify the people who have influence over your stakeholders. These could be colleagues, managers, subordinates, or watercooler compatriots. This is similar to brainstorming for “normal” risks – you are now just brainstorming people.
As with the normal risk management, after identifying the risks, you need to assess each one. In this case you will assess the people involved, but slightly differently from the way other risks are assessed. You assess people based on:
- Power
- Attitude
- Interest
- Nearness
Power
Let’s start with the different types of power:
- Legitimate power. This is the power superiors have, also referred to as hierarchical power, e.g. the CEO has the highest level of legitimate power.
- Referent power or the power of influence. This is also called charisma. In every organisation there are those few people who are the weathervanes of the business; their attitude will influence others, even if they have less legitimate power.
- The power of information. This is when someone has information that may be needed. It can be as simple as the PA to the CEO having access to the CEO’s diary (never underestimate the power of the PA). It can also be as complex as having the power of adding someone to the IT infrastructure.
- Expert power. This is the power an expert in their field has and is derived from acquired skills and experience. These people are most often technical experts, and their department would be highly reliant on them.
- Power to reward or punish. This is typically the kind of power a parent has over a child, or a boss has over an employee and is often, but not always, linked to the first type of power.
Using the above, you can determine what type of power each person has.
Attitude
Ideally, you would want everybody to have a positive attitude towards the project, but this is hardly ever the case. So, you need to establish what each person’s attitude is – either negative, neutral, or positive. Those with a positive attitude can be used to sway those with a negative attitude. Those with a neutral attitude may be swayed easier.
Interest
Is the person interested in your project? On its own, this is not that impactful, but in conjunction with the criteria above and below, you can determine how much effort each person requires for them to become a potential asset to your project. You could categorise a person’s interest as high, medium, or low – there is no need to overcomplicate this.
Nearness
Finally, we need to know how near this person is to the project. Someone who is very involved, i.e. is directly involved in your project, needs to have a good attitude and be interested, whereas someone who is only in the background of the project, such as the CEO’s PA, would need to only be neutral and can have a low interest in the project.
Once you have determine the PAIN for each person, you can start putting together a plan to improve attitudes and increase interest, prioritising those with the most power that are nearest to your project. And the best part of doing this analysis is, you have a ready list of the resources, i.e. people, who can change or affect the outcome of your project . All the people whom you have identified as having the right type of power, a good attitude, and high interest can work on those who don’t.