Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence is one of the recent developments and is gaining a lot of importance.

Emotional Intelligence is often referred to as Emotional Quotient (EQ) and today Project managers have recognized their need to have EQ for successful people management.

Emotional intelligence deals with bringing compassion, harmony and humanity to work and measurement of people capability. EQ principles provide a new way to understand and assess people's behaviours, management styles, attitudes, interpersonal skills, and potential. Emotional Intelligence is an important consideration in human resources planning, job profiling, recruitment interviewing and selection, management development, customer relations and customer service, and more. EQ is the ability to manage feelings and handle stress. EQ has as much to do with knowing when and how to express emotion as it does with controlling it.

EQ has two aspects of intelligence:

• Understanding oneself - goals, intentions, responses, behaviour etc
• Understanding others, and their feelings.

EQ has five domains–

• Knowing one’s own emotions,
• Managing the emotions,
• Self Motivation,
• Regonizing and understanding other’s emotions
• Managing the emotions of others.

First three domains deal with self and last two with others emotions.

EQ Assessment tools:

Currently there are three prevailing approaches:

1. Psychologist Bar-On uses EQ (Emotional Quotient): This is one of the oldest tool, which was originally developed for clinical purposes. This is more of a predictive tool and was designed to assess those personal qualities that enabled some people to possess better emotional well-being than others. The Bar-On EQ-i consists of 133 items. It gives an overall EQ score as well as scores for the following 5 composite scales and 15 sub-scales:

a. General Mood Scales: Optimism, Happiness.

b. Interpersonal Scales: Empathy, Social Responsibility, Interpersonal Relationship.

c. Intrapersonal Scales: Self-Regard Emotional Self Awareness, Assertiveness, Independence, Self-actualization.

d. Adaptability Scales: Reality Testing, Flexibility, Problem Solving.

e. Stress Management Scales: Stress Tolerance, Impulse Control.

2. Multifactor Emotional Intelligence (Mayer, Caruso, & Salovey): This is more of a test rather than self-report measure. Here, the test-taker performs a series of tasks that are designed to assess the person’s ability to perceive, identify, understand, and work with emotions.

a. Perceiving Emotions: Ability to perceive emotions in oneself and others, as well as in objects, music, art, stories and other stimuli.

b. Understanding Emotions: Ability to understand emotional information, how emotions combine and progress through emotional transitions, and to appreciate such emotional meanings.

c. Managing Emotions: Ability to be open to feelings, and to modulate them in oneself and others so as to promote personal understanding and growth.

d. Facilitating Thought: Ability to generate, use, and feel emotion as necessary to communicate feelings, or employ them in cognitive processes.

Emotional Competency Inventory: ECI is a 360 degree instrument. People who know the individual rate him or her on 20 competencies. Developed by Richard Boyatzis and Daniel Goleman, this measure is designed to assess competencies from four quadrants.

a. Self-Awareness: includes emotional self-awareness, Accurate self-assessment, Self-confidence.

b. Self-Management: includes Self-control, Adaptability, Conscientiousness Trustworthiness, Initiative, and Achievement Orientation.

c. Social Awareness: includes Empathy, Service orientation, and Organizational awareness.

d. Social Skills: includes Leadership, Influence, Developing others, Change catalyst, Communication, Conflict management, Building bonds, Teamwork & Collaboration

Another measure that has been promoted commercially is the EQ Map, which is the ability to read maps.

Yet another measure which is not very popular was developed by Schutte and team. They developed a 33-item self-report measure based on Salovey and Mayers (1990) early work. There is evidence for convergent and divergent validity.

Since EQ comprises a large set of abilities another way to measure emotional intelligence or competence is by testing specific abilities.

Earned Value Analysis (EVA)

Every project manager needs to evaluate the triple constraints of scope, time and cost by addressing questions like:

• Is the project performing to budget?
  
• Is the project as per the schedule to deliver all the scope agreed upon.

Typically the project health is addressed in green, amber or red colors.

The problem with addressing the project health in this manner is that, it is subjected to interpretation and influence of an individual as there are no objective measurements. The project can turn from green to red or vice versa at an instant. There is no prior indication to problems.

A more objective way of measuring project health and performance is Earned Value Analysis (EVA). Earned Value Analysis is an objective method to measure project performance in terms of scope, time and cost. EVA combines scope, cost and schedule patterns to inform the project management team in determining the true status of the project.

Earned value analysis is an industry standard way to:

• Measure project’s progress (Time spent)
• Forecast the completion date and final cost (Work Accomplished)
• Project schedule and cost variance if any (Money spent)

Earned value analysis compares the Planned amount of work with what has been actually COMPLETED, to determine if

• Cost
• Schedule
• Work Accomplished

are progressing as planned. Work is earned as it is completed. Thus the name Earned Value; as you can actually assign a value to the project at a particular time.

EVA is required because:

• It gives uniform unit of measure
• Helps monitor project’s progress/status
• Defines different measures of progress for different tasks

EVA provides an early warning so that preventive/corrective actions can be taken.

Earned Value calculates three values for every scheduled activity.

The budget, known as the budget cost of work scheduled (BCWS) in earned value calculations, is that element of the approved estimated cost planned to be spent on the project in a given period of time. This is the actual planned budget (PV)

The actual cost, known as the actual cost of work performed (ACWP), is the total of direct and indirect costs incurred in performing work during a given period. This is the actual cost (AC).

The earned value, also known as the budget cost of work performed (BCWP) is a percentage of the total budget equal to the percentage of work actually performed. This is the Earned Value (EV)

These three values are used in combination to provide indications as to whether or not work is being performed as planned.

Formulas

Cost Variance (CV) = BCWP-ACWP
Schedule Variance (SV) = BCWP-BCWS
Cost Performance Index (CPI) = BCWP/ACWP
Schedule Performance Index (SPI) = BCWP/BCWS

Or

Schedule Variance = EV–PV
Schedule Performance Index = EV/PV
Cost Variance = EV-AC
Cost Performance Index = EV/AC

Objective metrics indicate the project is behind schedule and over budget.
On-target projects have an SPI and CPI of 1 or greater.

Once the variances are determined, further metrics can be determined to forecast to see if the project continues at the current performance, what would be the true cost of the project – Estimate At Complete (EAC)

EAC stands for Estimate at Completion and in the case of project will total costs incurred to date and expected costs for incomplete tasks to give a projected final figure for a project. If a task is in progress and is over-budget the calculation assumes that the final cost of the task will exceed the budget cost by the same margin. This assumption implies that things will neither improve nor deteriorate further. EAC is calculated as follows.

Estimate At Complete (EAC) = Budget At Completion (BAC) / CPI
Or
EAC = ACWP+ {BAC-BCWP}/CPI
i.e.,
EAC = AC + (BAC-EC)/CPI

Where,
BAC stands for Budget at Completion, the estimated total cost of the project when it is completed.

Example to demonstrate the calculation of EV metrics

A software project is scheduled for 6 weeks at $18,000. At the end of 4 weeks, the project is 50% complete and actual cost of the project is $8,000.

Calculation:
Planned Value (PV) or BCWS = $12,000 [ @ $3,000 for each week for 4 weeks of work]
Earned Value (EV) or BCWP = $ 9,000 [50% completion of work]
Actual Cost (AC) or ACWP = $ 10,000

SV = EV – PV = $9,000 – $12,000 = -$3,500
SPI = EV/PV = $9,000/$12,000 = 0.75
CV = EV – AC = $9,000 – $8,000 = $1,000
CPI = EV/AC = $9,000/$8,000 = 1.125

Here, since SPI is lesser than 1, the project has schedule over run. Since CPI is greater than 1, there is no cost over run.

EAC = BAC / CPI
EAC = $18,000/1.125
= $16,000

Therefore, at the end of the project, the total project cost if continued at the same stage will be $16,000.

Summary

Using EV metrics, project health and performance can be reported accurately and monitored on continuous basis. It helps in analyzing the over runs and act accordingly to control the over runs.

By assigning SPI and CPI ranges to Green, Amber and Red colors, the project health can be reported objectively.

Project Management Tools - Part I - Fishbone Diagram

I am planning to write a series of tool that is used in Project Management. In this article, I will start with the easiest but very powerful tool of project management and quality called Fishbone diagram. Fishbone diagram is also called as “Ishikawa diagram” and “Cause and Effect diagram”

The name Fish Bone is because of the shape in which the diagram is written, the diagram itself
looks like skeleton of a fish, with the main causal categories drawn as "bones" attached to the spine of the fish and effect on the head.

The advantage of Cause & Effect Diagrams is that it helps one think through causes of a problem
thoroughly, thus making us to think of all possible cause for a problem. This might lead to identification of major problems thus helping to identify remedial actions or at the minimum helps in better understanding of the problem. The most obvious advantage is also the fact that is visual and can be easily understood by anyone. This is a powerful tool for discovering all the possible effects for a particular effect.

Causes in a cause & effect diagram are frequently arranged into following major categories. While these categories can be anything, you will often see:

• Manpower, methods, materials, management,measurement and machinery (recommended for manufacturing)
  
• Equipment, policies, procedures, and people (recommended for administration and service).

Steps in CE Diagram

1. Identify the problem
   Note down the problem and identify how and where it occurred. Write the problem
   on in a box on the Right hand side of the paper. Draw a line across the paper
   horizontally from the box.

2. Identify the major factors involved
   Identify the factors that may be reasons for the problem. Draw lines off the
   spine for each factor, and label it. These may be people involved with the
   problem, systems, equipment, materials, external forces, etc. Try to draw out as
   many possible factors as possible. This enables team building activity if the
   team is involved in the process and hence considered as one the good tools for
   team building. Using the 'Fish bone' analogy, the factors you find can be
   though of as the bones of the fish.

3. Identify the possible causes
   For each of the factors considered, brainstorm possible causes of the problem
   that may be related to the factor. Show these as smaller lines coming off the
   'bones' of the fish. Where a cause is large or complex, then it may be best to
   break it down into sub-causes. Show these as lines coming off each cause line.

The above steps would help identify all the causes associated with the problems, further analysis can be done for complex problems and actions taken accordingly.

Conclusion:

1. The key point to note in C&E Diagram is that it helps identify all causes and effects for
   each problem.


2. It helps as a good team building tool


3. C&E Diagram can be drawn for potential problem (Done during initial stages or during quality planning of the project) or during later stages when problems are identified
   (Quality Control )


4. You can create a C&E Metrics assigning numbers to each cause and effect on a scale of 1 to 10 and thus can prioritize the impact.

Note: Attaching a template which can be used as a as a starting point for creating the fish bone diagram.

Project Management & Conflict Resolution

On a day to-day basis all of us are facing conflicts may it be at work or otherwise. Whether we like it or not, we are surrounded by conflicts externally and internally. Conflict is a natural phenomenon in every relationship - inter and intra personal. Conflicts could be due to any reason ranging from interests, needs to values.

On the offset there is no perfect resolution for any conflicts but one can definitely try to find best possible solution to resolve the conflict that both parties find satisfactory.

I am addressing conflict resolution here more in terms of team conflicts and Project Management.

Conflict is a natural disagreement resulting from individuals or groups that differ in attitudes,
beliefs, values or needs. It can also originate from past rivalries and personality differences. Other causes of conflict include trying to negotiate before the timing is right or before needed information is available.

Most common reasons for conflict –

1. Needs
2. Perceptions
3. Feelings and emotions
4. Power
5. Values

Before one tends to start thinking conflicts are all bad – I would like to emphasize that some conflicts, “constructive conflicts” are good since it aids in developing individuals, innovative and creative thinking, additional management options and in improving the organization.

Conflict resolution is a very important topic under the key knowledge area of Human Resource Management in Project Management.

There are five definitive steps in managing the conflicts –

1. Analyze the conflict
2. Determine the management strategy
3. Pre-negotiation
4. Negotiation
5. Post-Negotiation

There are five modes/approaches of conflict resolution as management strategy. In Project management five modes of conflict resolution is identified and utilized. They are,

Resolution		Concerns For
Mode	Style	Personal Goals	Relationships
Problem Solving / Confronting	Integrative	High	High
Compromising	Compromise	Medium	Medium
Smoothing	Yield - Lose	Low	High
Avoidance/ Withdraw	Lose - Leave	Low	Low
Forcing	Win - Lost	High	Low

The best way to resolve the problem is in the same order as above.

Confronting is also described as problem solving, integrating, collaborating or win-win style. It involves the conflicting parties meeting face-to-face and collaborating to reach an agreement that satifies the concerns of both parties. This style involves open and direct communication which should lead the way to solving the problem. Confronting should be used when:

• Both parties need to win.
• You want to decrease cost.
• You want create a common power base.
• Skills are complementary.
• Time is sufficent.
• Trust is present.
• Learning is the ultimate goal.

Compromising is also described as a "give and take" style. Conflicting parties bargain to reach a mutually acceptable solution. Both parties give up something in order to reach a decision and leave with some degree of satisfaction. Compromising should be used when:

• Both parties need to win.
• You are in a deadlock.
• Time is not sufficient.
• You want to maintain the relationship among the involved parties.
• You will get nothing if you do not compromise.
• Stakes are moderate.

Avoiding or withdrawing is also described as withdrawal style. This approach is viewed as postponing an issue for later or withdrawing from the situation altogether. This approach involves giving up, pulling or retreating as the person refuses to deal with the conflict. It is regarded as a temporary solution because the problem and conflict continue to reoccur over and over again. Avoiding should be used when:

• You can not win.
• Stakes are low.
• Stakes are high, but you are not prepared.
• You want to gain time.
• You want to maintain neutrality or reputation.
• You think problem will go away.
• You win by delaying.

Smoothing is also referred to as accommodating or obliging style. In this approach, the areas of
agreement are emphasized and the areas of disagreement are downplayed. This approach attempts to keep harmony and avoid outwardly conflictive situations. Conflicts are not always resolved in the smoothing mode. A party may sacrifice it's own concerns or goals in order to satisfy the concerns or goals of the other party. Smoothing should be used when:

• Goal to be reached is overarching.
• You want to create obligation for a trade-off at a later time.
• Stakes are low.
• Liability is limited.
• Any solution is adequate.
• You want to be harmonious and create good will.
• You would lose anyway.
• You want to gain time.

Forcing is also known as competing, controlling, or dominating style. Forcing occurs when one
party goes all out to win it's position while ignoring the needs and concerns of the other party. Forcing implies the use of position power to resolve the conflict. The person imposes one viewpoint at the expense of another. This is a win-lose situation.As the intesity of a conflict increases, the tendency for a forced conflict is more likely. This results in a win-lose situation where one party wins at the expense of the other party. Forcing should be used when:

• A "do or die" situation is present.
• Stakes are high.
• Important principles are at stake.
• Relationship among parties is not important.
• A quick decision must be made.

The best approach for conflict resolution is “Confronting” or “Problem Solving”. It is seen that
confronting style can create an environment with lower levels of task conflict as it addresses the problem at the root level. This helps in reducing relationship conflict and stress.

Forcing is considered to be last resort for solving a conflict next to avoidance or withdrawal. Forcing increases further stress on relationships.

Conflicts may arise because of the type of conflict resolution type used itself and the manners in
which problems are addressed.

An awareness of the potential approaches to conflict resolution and the understanding of their consequences can provide project managers with a invaluable set of tools to create an optimal work environment.

A pointer to keep in mind for all the project managers is, whenever any conflict arises don't blame anyone for the existing problem. This is one of the common things all of us tend to do – “To find a scape goat”. But avoid blaming it on anyone. Use negations and find out the root cause of the problem. Use of humor is another good way to release the prevailing stress.

Happy time resolving the conflict J