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Effective management strategies for dealing with Tribal Warfare in Projects

Speaker: Keith Henson, PMP Company: Keith Henson, PMP

Welcome to the PMI Houston Conference & Expo and Annual Job Fair 2015

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Speaker Background • 2004 – PMP Certification • 2005 – Masters Science Project Management – University of Alaska • 2012 – University of Manchester – Managing Projects Post-

Graduate Program, Manchester UK Project Specialty: Delivering complex brownfield projects for Oil and Gas clients. Greatest Professional Accomplishment: Developing a Project Operations Team global concept and structure for a large multi-national oil and gas firm.

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2012 Alaskan Iditarod with PM Mentor Bill Thompson

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North Slope Man-camp Skeeters aka Alaska State Bird

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Presentation Overview

• Learn to recognize the presence of tribal warfare in projects

• Communicate the imperative for project leaders to accept ownership of this tribal warfare

• Provide Leadership Strategies for dealing with tribal warfare in projects

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Effective leadership strategies for dealing with Tribal

Warfare in Projects

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Which leader do you think had the best understanding of Tribal Warfare?

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Every Project Manager must learn to deal with Tribal Warfare

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Put me on the project

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Take me to the shoot

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Help me I have a heavy load

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Can your identify the tribes in your project?

Apache

Cherokee

Japanese

Ashanti

Zulu

Pygmy

German

Texan

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Traditional Tribes

Tribal Warfare In Organizations – Peg C. Neuhauser

Can your identify the tribes in your project?

Business Team

Engineers

Clients

Construction

Operations

Procurement

Doc Control

IT Dept.

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Project Tribes

Three Leadership Strategies for dealing with Tribal Warfare in Projects

Communication your vision with

boldness

Seek to understand the different tribes

on your projects

Work relentlessly to integrate the

different tribes on your projects

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Concept 1: Communicate your vision with boldness

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“We choose to go to the moon”

Concept 1: Communicate your vision with boldness

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“We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing-grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender!"

Concept 2: Seek to understand the tribes on your project

“Executives, Engineers, and Operators do not really understand each other very well.” Edgar H. Schein – Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning

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Concept 2: Seek to understand the tribes on your project

Executives

• Financial focus

• Lone Hero • Task and

control focus

Engineers

• Optimistically believe they can master nature

• People free solutions

• World of elegant machines

Operators

• Knowledge and skill are “local”

• Capacity to deal with surprises

• Team work is paramount

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Edgar H. Schein – Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning

Concept 2: Do tribes really understand each other?

• Do engineers truly understand the operations

team’s culture of teamwork? • Does business team really understand the

project team’s constraints? • Do the operators understand the engineering

scope of work?

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Concept 3: Work Relentlessly to Integrate the Tribes in your Projects

Co-location

Interactive Planning

Building Bridges

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Final Note to Project Managers

Accept the ownership of tribal warfare in your projects.

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Questions

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Contact Information • Speaker: Keith Henson, PMP • Company: Keith Henson, PMP • Website: Keith Henson @ Linked-in • Phone: 907-748-7216 • E-mail: Hensonkeith@gci.net

Thank You