What Is the Relationship Between Project Success and Organizational Culture?

Understanding that dynamic could lead to a different approach to assessing project risk and managing project success.

First an underlying premise: culture is what people experience when they observe the behavior of their leaders.

If so, the question for Project Managers therefore is not only what culture does it take for their project to succeed, but more pointedly, what role does the Project Manager play in shifting organizational behaviors toward cultures that support project success.

Much has been written about agile projects and agile organizations, and the intersection of culture and project management. In many cases there is a vicious circle: organizations that are trying to become more agile need projects that are executed using agile principles which need organizations to support agile behavior and thinking, but the organizational culture is not yet so aligned.

This relationship between organizational culture and project success, however, transcends the methodology being applied. Culture is a driving factor for project success or failure, whether the approach is based on agile, traditional waterfall, or any other “in vogue” method. Perhaps it is time to reflect not on project management “best practices,” but on project management “best supporting cultures.”

There is a framework for assessing project risk and for managing to project success that is well proven, and is independent of project methodology. It is called The Seven Keys To Success. It was developed as a result of the merger of Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand project management experiences, and has been adopted by IBM, not just in its Global Business Services unit, but by the company-wide PM Center of Excellence.  It has been effectively used to understand “root cause” problems for failures as well as best practices to achieve success, in all manner of projects, all over the world, spanning the last twenty years.

Here is a quick summary:

Success Factor	Biggest Risk	Best Practice
Stakeholders are committed	Inadequate/ineffective project governance	Steering committee actively led by the executive most directly responsible for the business benefits
Business benefits will be realized	Poorly communicated business case	All critical project decisions made in support of realizing the business case
Work and schedule are predictable	No meaningful plan or progress reporting	Schedule and budget tied to critical and measurable milestones
Scope is realistic and managed	First-of-a-kind or “moon shot” ambition	Active issues management process involving project governance
Technical risks are mitigated	“Big bang” approach to implementation	Thorough and appropriate testing at all stages
Team is high performing	Inexperienced staff and low team morale	Team of diverse experiences in which trust levels are high
Delivery organization benefits will be realized	IT organization and/or contractors are viewed as “vendors”	IT organization and/or contractors are treated as business partners

 

Now think about that framework in terms of organizational cultures or behaviors that either threaten or actively support project success. Here is a partial list of cultural aspects that can either negatively affect or actively support a healthy outcome in terms of the framework of the Seven Keys To Success:

Success Factor	Negative Culture Indicators	Positive Culture and Behaviors
Stakeholders are committed	Stovepipe mentality	Effective cross-functional and cross-geography collaboration
Business benefits will be realized	Competitive complacency	C-suite focused on growth and marketplace success
Work and schedule are predictable	“We love fire drills”	Management time devoted to planning and re-planning
Scope is realistic and managed	“Shoot the messenger”	Governance processes that reward early recognition of changes to plan
Technical risks are mitigated	Hero mentality	“Don’t gamble unless we can afford to lose” mentality
Team is high performing	Lack of trust	Project staff are inspired by their management
Delivery organization benefits will be realized	“Who cares, as long as they stay within budget”	“We, the business owners, need them to succeed too”

 

Given the above, the question is not only what culture does it take to support project success, but what role does the Project Manager play in shifting organizational behaviors toward supportive cultures.

Expert level project managers lead with vision, develop trusted advisor relationships, embrace difficult conversations, and create a high-performing team based on mutual trust. They are encouraging senior business leaders to lead and behave in supportive ways, and they are leading their own teams in ways that inspire high levels of trust and performance.

Expert project managers are effectively shifting organizational culture around them in directions that will support success.

In today’s world, the highest calling for Project Managers is to be agents of cultural change, not simply a leader of a successful project outcome.