While digital tools and techniques go some way to making life easier for project managers they'll never be the answer to a project's success. 
Steven Marshall

If it weren’t for people, projects would be easy. Have you ever heard a project manager say that? You may well have done. But isn't digital making life easier for these hard done by PM's? 

It's true that the tools and techniques in a project manager's arsenal are becoming more refined and sophisticated. Digital developments continue to provide ever-improving tools for planning, budgeting, monitoring and controlling. All things that are close to project managers’ hearts, who use these tools to calculate variances, smooth out resources, define the critical path, forecast cash flows – all at the click of a mouse. They can automate plans, track budgets and produce detailed reports, all of which can be shared around the world in an instant. Certainly, a project manager's job should be much easier than it was back in the days when you used to go to a computer room if you ever wanted to use a computer. Can anyone remember that?

Despite all of the assistance these digital tools can offer, projects still continue to get into difficulty. Many run out of money, some run out of time, and others fail to deliver what the end-customer either wanted or expected. On the other hand, many projects are completed ahead of schedule, well within budget and easily deliver what the customer wanted. We should not be surprised by any of this. If project management relied only on tools and techniques, then they would neither fail nor be too successful.

So, what's behind a project's success or failure?

Projects don’t fail because the planning hardware or software broke down. It is people that make projects succeed or fail. They make the decisions. They predict and plan. They control the progress. Every project is unique and people contribute to that uniqueness significantly more than anything else. How they are motivated. How clearly they understand their role. How they understand the importance of their contribution. These are all things that determine how people relate to the project environment and are a major factor in the success of any project.

Except for the simplest of projects, delivery of most projects is done by teams. As a result, project managers have to operate both as team members and as team leaders. As team members, they contribute to the effective operation of the team and as team leaders, they have to provide the clarity and direction needed to reach the endpoint successfully. From the outset, balancing these two roles requires great skill to harness the human element of building a strong, cohesive team and then maintain this as they control and coordinate the team as it evolves and develops with the project. A project team may exist for a significant period of time and during this, people will join, and people will leave as the needs of the project change. As a result, the project manager has to deal with the knock-on effects that such transitions have on the team.

However, arguably the single most important aspect of team effectiveness is motivation. Leadership and team building are important, but if a team is not motivated, both collectively and in terms of each individual, then the team won't perform well. The project manager needs to understand that most people are motivated by a combination of different factors and that the leadership style they adopt needs to change to reflect the particular situation and person (or people) that they are dealing with.

After motivation, communication is perhaps the next most important element in project team effectiveness. To ensure good working relationships, to monitor and control and to take swift corrective actions, project managers require good flows of information both inwards, to them from the project team and the customer, and outwards, from them to the project team and the customer. To achieve this, they need to make good use not only of formal channels but also informal channels as they can often highlight problems sooner and allow them to respond and take corrective action quicker.

So there you have it. A successful project manager will be a team builder, a team member and a team leader who can motivate the team and communicate effectively, both formally and informally with them and their customer. However, even with all this, things are unlikely to go smoothly at all times. Workload pressures, real or perceived inequities, team member transition and a whole host of other things can bring about stress and conflict within the project team. So, above all else, a project manager needs to be a people manager who helps their team through times of stress and conflict.

No wonder then, some may say that if it wasn’t for people, projects would be easy!

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In this 'On the Horizon' blog post, a series of posts focused on future trends, we look at blockchain technology and its potential impact on commerce and society
​Denis Yordanov

As technology permeates through everything that businesses do, little is left the same. In some cases it's only the tools that are different, but sometimes new technology serves to disrupt and transform underlying processes and entrenched ideas. This is certainly what's happening to the financial sector. 'FinTech' is helping financial transactions become more efficient and customer-friendly and no more so than in the case of the blockchain.

If you've paid for anything using Bitcoin your transaction will be recorded in the blockchain and it is the technology that allows for the digital exchange of value without an intermediary.

At its core the blockchain can be described as a database that records transactions and that database is copied and distributed to every participant in the network. As the number of participants in the network increases it becomes more difficult to override or tamper with the database since it is distributed, making the network secure.  

​The transactions are automatically verified by members of the network through solving complex cryptographic computations. Each actor and transaction carries unique identification number, reference, and creation date which can make transactions transparent and easy to verify. The features of the blockchain make this technology appealing for adoption since they offer the potential for increased efficiency, transparency, and reliability.

How will the blockchain impact our society?

The blockchain most obviously impacts finance and banking. Banks have been excited about the blockchain since it was introduced in 2008 but it's no longer purely blue-sky thinking. The decentralised blockchain network means that banks will not need a centralised third party like a clearing house. The perceived benefits of increased speed and efficiency and reduced costs have led banks to transition from words to action and 11 major banks, including HSBC, Barclays, RBS, UniCredit, and Wells Fargo, have already been involved in mock trials of the technology trading toy money and shares in a sandbox environment.

​What's more interesting is how blockchain could potentially impact other aspects of society. If the blockchain can record financial transactions then it can record other structured information, for example land ownership or changes in citizenship and marital status. Central governments and public sector institutions could utilise blockchain to keep a consistent and distributed database across various locations and all changes will automatically be reflected at each computer that is part of the network.

Blockchain technology could also be pivotal to the implementation and tracking of transactions in the Internet of Things. Banks won't be able to use traditional methods to process the volume of real-time transactions between 'things' such as a street lamps buying electricity from a power station. Furthermore, the security provided by the blockchain could be used for storing sensitive data from power stations and other critical infrastructures.

Lastly, blockchain can be used to address challenges in the creation and distribution of digital content such as entertainment and media. Historically there have been challenges enforcing the fair compensation of artists when their content has been bought and consumed through legitimate channels. Blockchain could cut out the middle men, connecting content creators directly with the consumers of their content. Through blockchain artists can create smart contracts that specify how their content can be used and how much should be charged (or not charged) depending on who the user is and how their content is used.

As with all new technology, there are several challenges to blockchain adoption, such as the lack of awareness and understanding of the technology, privacy, cost/benefit and scalability. However, arguably the biggest challenge is governance and regulation. The technology and community is still quite young and there is no clear leadership or regulatory ecosystem. With that being said, I'm positive we've only just scratched the surface of what blockchain will do for modern commerce. Watch this space...

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Storytelling has been a popular business buzzword in recent years and with companies clambering to find new and exciting ways to stick in their customer’s subconscious, are they at risk of forgetting what people really want to hear and how they want to listen to it?
Nicky Logue

Humans have been storytelling for as long as they can speak. We love to listen to stories, to be able to relate to a clear, relevant and linear narrative with a beginning, a middle and an end - that hasn’t changed and likely never will. But the way we consume and process information has, so how we share and deliver our stories should too.
 
You know yourself, you sit down after a long day, comatose in front of the TV, half paying attention, half flicking through the notifications on your phone, WhatsApping here, Facebook surfing there, checking for nearby Pokemon?! Your mind is weary, but you can’t stop jumping from one half-assed task to the next. Frankly, it’s exhausting.
 
You feel guilty for the sheer inability you have to focus on just one thing, and then guilty when you do manage some semblance of tunnel vision focus!
 
As a business you are privileged for every iota of time that someone chooses to spend with you amongst the maelstrom of everything else. With the average human’s attention span currently sitting at just 8.25 seconds, you’ve got about 3 seconds to entice them to stop and spend the remaining 5.25 seconds!  People care about their time and don't take kindly to spending it in any way other than how they want to spend it. Your customer’s attention is your most valuable resource.
 
You don’t have a captive audience, you just don’t, there’s no such thing - short of kidnapping people and forcing them to sit in a room with you – and even then there’s no guarantee they’ll listen! You’ve got to know what they want to hear and how they want to hear it and do it well.  

1. Know who you’re talking to and what they care about 

​Storytelling is a long-term strategy, a commitment to provide valuable content consistently which is highly relevant to your audience. Taking time to delve deep into who your audiences are, what keeps them up at night and what you can offer that will make their lives easier is time extremely well spent. Telling your brand story isn’t about explaining who you are, where you came from and why everyone should love you. It's pulling out the pieces of your story that your audience can relate to, and that will help them see where you fit into their lives and the value you can offer them now and in the future.
 
Think about how you feel when you’re stuck in a conversation with someone who is talking at you on a subject that has absolutely no relevance to you. You feel a bit useless, bored, trapped and plotting your quickest exit route. A successful conversation is a two-way transaction with each person working to find a common interest. And let’s face it, when that conversation is online there’s no airs and graces involved – if you don’t prove that common ground fast, you’re last!  

2. Create stories that are relevant to their journey  

Know that your audience won't be willing to spend a lot of time with you until they trust that you’ll have something they want to hear. You need to earn that trust by giving them value and starting bitesize. Don’t dangle a 40-page whitepaper in front of someone who doesn’t know or care about you and expect them to be grateful. That’s like approaching a stranger and asking them to come on a date with you.
 
Think about where they are when they first hear about you, is it through a paid social ad, at an event, word of mouth? What are they looking for in that environment, and what’s going to make them listen while they’re there? Here’s a clue, probably not something about how fabulous your products are! They’ll want to understand the connection between you and them, what do you offer that can help improve their situation? Why should they come to you to solve their problem? Maybe you can demonstrate a bit of that upfront and give them some value for free, quickly.
 
A quick video that talks directly to something they’re looking for, something that takes minimal commitment on their part. Don’t ask them to give up lots of time or money when they don’t even know who you are. Showing that you understand your customers don’t owe you anything in the beginning, counts for a lot.
 
Let’s break it down using a basic, linear customer journey for a personal training company whose audience is busy mums of under 5s as an example:

1. First engagement - you publish a series of short 30 second videos on YouTube and Instagram with easy-to-follow exercises for mums to do at home. Busy mum comes across your video searching for ways to shape up after baby, tries them out and starts to engage with you, liking your videos and following your profile.
   
   
2. Get acquainted – she wants to learn more about who you are and what else you have to offer. Looking further than your Insta profile, perhaps to your website to see where you’ve come from, why you care about helping busy working mums, and some success stories. Later that week you re-target her with some Facebook ads offering a nutrition plan to supplement the workouts in exchange for an email address. At this point she feels more willing to trust you with her details as you’ve provided her with some free, valuable resources.
   
   
3. Building trust – you keep in touch, emailing her with useful blog posts, quick tips and recipes that will supplement her fitness journey. At this point you start to share more of yourself too, with vlogs that tell her how you manage your own fitness routine – the good and bad times to help her see she’s not on her own! If she chats to you on your social channels or by email, you reply and help her out if she needs it.
   
   
4. Making friends – you tell her about your upgraded fitness plan that gives her workouts to follow for a month to target her abs, which she told you she has trouble with, and you give her a discounted rate because she has shared her valuable details with you. She buys from you and you give her the chance to have a Skype consultation with you so you can help her stay motivated.
   
   
5. Mutual Loyalty – you stay in touch, ask for her feedback on your products and continue to offer her free value in exchange. She’ll be the first to know when you have new products to share and you’ll give her the best rates because she’s your friend. She tells her friends about you, shares your content and sticks up for you against your competitors.

 
Journeys are rarely as clear-cut as that but my point is to respect the stage your customers are at with you and don’t expect their loyalty at the start, you have to earn it.  Just like any human interaction, because they’re human and so are you!

3. Respect how people consume content today 

One company that has really taken the psychology of storytelling and modern content consumption to heart is Snapchat. The micro-messaging app has about 150 million daily active users worldwide and still rising. Users can’t get enough of their 24-hour story feature that lets you share a series of moments throughout your day with imagery, video, text, emoticons – you name it. It’s so popular that Instagram has just launched its own, almost identical version, in recent weeks.
 
It lets you be creative and have fun, while giving people the chance to see what you’re all about – quickly! They get to exercise their natural voyeur, with very little time and effort on their part and with your complete consent. It’s instant gratification.
 
And people expect no less from the businesses they choose to engage with. Your future customers feel they have the right to know everything about you. They want to know the faces behind the computer screens, the values of the companies they’re considering spending their hard earned cash on. They Google you, they expect an answer within minutes on Twitter and it’s the companies that embrace this that will win. They are transparent, giving their customers full access passes behind the scenes, publishing content and moments that will entertain, inform or educate them.
 
I’m not saying you need to start publishing everything your company does on Snapchat, but just to consider the psychology behind why its popularity has exploded. Even if your audience don’t use Snapchat (yet) it’s a great way to force yourself to condense your stories into micro-moments that may just spark enough interest to make them want to spend more than 8.25 seconds of their precious time with you in the future. 

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