{"id":5139,"date":"2023-08-29T16:43:36","date_gmt":"2023-08-29T16:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/resourceguruapp.com\/blog\/?p=5139"},"modified":"2024-08-29T10:58:49","modified_gmt":"2024-08-29T10:58:49","slug":"human-centered-mindset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/resourceguruapp.com\/blog\/project-management\/human-centered-mindset","title":{"rendered":"A human-centered mindset to project kick-offs (+ 10 techniques to try)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When projects are won, there\u2019s often a sense of urgency to get going and we end up skipping some of the activities which can prevent a project from being successful.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As Delivery Managers, our focus should be on helping teams\u2014particularly new teams\u2014 navigate the early stages of projects to ensure we\u2019re building inclusive, high-performing, and happy teams.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is what I call adopting a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">human-centered mindset<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After 13\u00a0 years in project management, I\u2019ve learned a number of tools and techniques that will help project and delivery managers get the most out of their teams from the start.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But first, let\u2019s talk more about what I mean when I say human-centered mindset, and why it\u2019s so important.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_82_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">In this article \ud83d\udcd6<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/resourceguruapp.com\/blog\/project-management\/human-centered-mindset\/#What-does-a-human-centered-mindset-mean\" >What does a human-centered mindset mean?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/resourceguruapp.com\/blog\/project-management\/human-centered-mindset\/#10-human-centered-techniques-to-master-project-kick-offs\" >10 human-centered techniques to master project kick-offs<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/resourceguruapp.com\/blog\/project-management\/human-centered-mindset\/#A-human-centered-mindset-means-better-outcomes\" >A human-centered mindset means better outcomes<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What-does-a-human-centered-mindset-mean\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What does a human-centered mindset mean?<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To be human-centered means to genuinely focus on the humans who are at the heart of designing and building products. It\u2019s been <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/halopsychology.com\/2018\/02\/26\/team-communication-and-the-link-with-performance\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">proven<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to improve both communication and team performance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, I helped kick off a multi-agency project with an hour-long session focusing entirely on building relationships and how to build a team charter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019m keen to share some of those tools and techniques that I\u2019ve tried and some that have been recommended to me. Even if you incorporate a few of these during <a href=\"https:\/\/resourceguruapp.com\/blog\/project-initiation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the project initiation phase<\/a>, you\u2019ll start to see results.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s dive in!<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"10-human-centered-techniques-to-master-project-kick-offs\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">10 human-centered techniques to master project kick-offs<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are a wealth of activities that can help establish ways of working, roles, and responsibilities and you don\u2019t need to invest lots of time or money for them to be effective.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Here, I&#8217;m going to show you 10 different techniques.<\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color: #fcf2fe; padding: 30px 40px; margin-top: 40px;\">\n<p>\ud83d\udca1<strong> Pro tip:<\/strong> C<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">all out when you\u2019re trying something for the first time and that it may not work but you\u2019re open to feedback as it\u2019ll take some of the pressure off you as the facilitator.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1. Team Onion &#8211; A more human-centered mindset to stakeholder mapping<\/span><\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_5166\" style=\"width: 372px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5166\" class=\"wp-image-5166 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/resourceguruapp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/teamonionlabels-362x258.webp\" alt=\"The Team Onion is a three-layer model that helps to visualise the wider team as core, collaborators and supporters.\" width=\"362\" height=\"258\" srcset=\"https:\/\/resourceguruapp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/teamonionlabels-362x258.webp 362w, https:\/\/resourceguruapp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/teamonionlabels-943x671.webp 943w, https:\/\/resourceguruapp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/teamonionlabels-362x258@2x.webp 724w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 362px) 100vw, 362px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-5166\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Visualizing the wider team as core, collaborators, and supporters.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Team Onion is a three-layer model created by Emily Webber to help visualize the wider team as core, collaborators, and supporters. Understanding these layers helps to break down silos, surface assumptions, build empathy, and have meaningful conversations about the team<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/teamonion.works\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Learn more about the Team Onion model<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2. Capability Comb &#8211; Help focus people less on job roles and titles and more on capabilities and roles<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Capability Comb is a brilliant way for people to think about how they describe their unique capability profile, where capability encompasses knowledge, skills, and experience. It helps people break out of the box that a job description puts them in, then talks about what they excel in and how they want to portray themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/emilywebber.co.uk\/team-exercise-building-empathy-and-understanding-with-the-capability-comb\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Learn more about the Capability Comb<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3. Energizers &#8211; Set the right tone<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/darren-mccormac\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Darren McCormac<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Delivery Manager) shared at the <a href=\"https:\/\/agilemanchester.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Agile Manchester Conference<\/a> how he asked everyone attending the kick-off to, in advance, send him \u201cOne fact that someone on your team doesn\u2019t know about you.\u201d Then, people were asked to guess the face behind the fact.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I tried this and it worked really well. You don\u2019t need everyone to respond to participate but try to get one fact from each agency represented. We had everything from \u201cI own a puffin\u201d to \u201cI auditioned on Bargain Hunt.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another alternative to a (cringy) ice-breaker is asking people to google a meme to describe how they\u2019re feeling or a response to a prompt \u201cWhat\u2019s your image of a dream team?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4. Slido word clouds &#8211; Use real-time visualizations to engage and spark conversation<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Having been in a recent training session where the facilitator used <a href=\"https:\/\/www.slido.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Slido<\/a>, I tried it as an alternative to <a href=\"https:\/\/miro.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Miro<\/a> for some of the activities and to make it feel a bit more engaging than a whole session of post-its. With the free account you can set up three polls or word clouds for up to 100 people and in real time it shows what people are adding and groups the same item and makes it visualizing more prominent which helps the facilitator to quickly see popular themes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I set up two word clouds to get the team thinking about these two questions:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What have you valued and enjoyed most when working with blended teams?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What have you disliked about working in blended teams? Or run an anti-problem e.g. \u201cWhat ways of working would we have if we actively wanted to sabotage the project?\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We only spent a couple of minutes on each but it helped get people into the focus of the meeting and made the follow-up activities easier.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5. Team charters &#8211; Get everyone reading off the same hymn sheet<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Team charters, working agreements, norms, or team principles\u2014regardless of what you call them\u2014this activity is excellent for getting people to think about what behaviors, attitudes, and values they want to share as a team.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Start with a quiet brainstorming session, and then group, discuss, prioritize. Next, re-write some of these in the format of statements or clearly articulated principles for the team.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>A couple of tips:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Give an example of one so people can understand what we\u2019re aiming to achieve\/end up with at the end\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Give people a license to be creative with the wording so it\u2019s engaging<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Think about setting principles that will help guide and speed up decision making e.g. we prioritise x over y\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Think about what values and behaviors you want to encourage &#8211; you may want to incorporate some of the \u201cIt\u2019s okay to\u201d into this too\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Try and think beyond the project to how you want people to interact too e.g. \u201cshare tea, coffee, and food\u201d, \u201cgive each other quiet time when we need it\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Think about worst-case scenarios, e.g. how will we manage and resolve conflict?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">6. Roles and responsibilities and expectation setting &#8211; Avoid misaligned expectations and provide crystal clear clarity<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A format I\u2019ve had success with is getting everyone to share what the rest of the team can expect from them and then getting the rest of the group to take some time to add what they expect from that team members or ask questions about things they feel might be missing or where there might be misaligned expectations.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This template is very similar to one I\u2019ve tailored for my own purposes: <a href=\"https:\/\/miro.com\/app\/board\/uXjVMGOzJ_Y=\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">find it here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I often find that not enough time is spent talking about the &#8220;what&#8221; and the &#8220;why.&#8221; Although I haven\u2019t tried it myself <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hyperisland.com\/blog\/the-hyper-island-way-and-its-core-skills-the-content-process-model\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this activity<\/a> shared by Sean Gabriel, Director at Red Badger, looks like a good place to start.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Inspired by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.manualof.me\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Manual of Me<\/a> and Cassie Robinson&#8217;s original work. Think about incorporating \u201cWhat\u2019s one thing you need to know about how I work?\u201d Trust me, it\u2019s interesting to see what people share!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Also, try and get people to think beyond their job title. I love this quote from Emily Webber and these activities often allow for a great opportunity to move the narrative from \u201cjob titles\u201d to \u201cjobs to be done\u201d or \u201ccapabilities.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color: #fcf2fe; padding: 30px 40px; margin-top: 40px;\">\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Teams are most successful when they have a shared responsibility for success. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They blur the lines of rigid roles so that they can collectively get to the value as quickly as possible.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That means people stepping outside of their expected specialisms to support the goal.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And the great thing is that most of us have specialisms and interests outside of our job titles, so why not embrace that?&#8221;<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Emily Webber, Author of <a href=\"https:\/\/teamonion.works\/buy-the-book\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Team Onion<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lastly, try to capture:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What days and hours do people work?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What amount of time are people allocated to this work?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How much do they foresee wanting to be involved?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Does anyone have any leave coming up?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Think about which of these might be better captured async before or after the session.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">7. Team canvas &#8211; Kickstart these conversations with a ready-made Miro canvas<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For Miro lovers or for people who are either short on time or like a more structured format then <a href=\"https:\/\/miro.com\/miroverse\/product-team-canvas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this\u00a0 \u201cone-pager\u201d template<\/a> to clarify goals and help teams be more aligned and productive is a good option. There\u2019s a short and long version of the activity depending on how much time you\u2019ve got.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This might be more fitting for in-house product teams but there\u2019s value in there for most people. I particularly like the section for team values and a focus on assets and weaknesses within the team to help mitigate against risks within the team. It also provides a good opportunity to explore opportunities within the project for capability building, learning and development, mentoring, and pairing to increase confidence and collaboration.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/theteamcanvas.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Learn more about the Team Canvas model<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">8. Tribes team building activity &#8211; Great for uncovering differences in norms and behaviors when working with blended teams<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On some projects, you might be working with a different agency or supplier with a very different set of norms, culture, behaviors, and customs to the one you have. So many of these norms and behaviors are unconscious.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is an activity that starts to uncover where there might be big differences in terms of approach or openness to certain ideas. It\u2019s great if you\u2019ve got team members with different backgrounds, for example, distributed teams working globally in different languages. It builds empathy and understanding and helps people find a way that doesn\u2019t favor one set of norms over the other but finds a compromise based on what the teams agree they can subscribe to.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/agileretrospectives.org\/en\/blog\/tribes-team-building-activities\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Learn more about tribes team building<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">9. Futurespectives &#8211; A tool for risk scanning<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019ve never really loved the term \u201cpremortem,\u201d but I\u2019m a big fan of doing them as they\u2019re great for aligning teams on risks, concerns as well as hopes and aspirations for a project. For example, if this was the best project we\u2019ve ever worked on, what would it be like?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Metro Retro is a free tool that has plenty of Futurespective templates to use, and a personal favorite of mine is <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/metroretro.io\/templates\/the-sailboat-retrospective\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the Sailboat<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Thinking about risks collaboratively before they\u2019re a real threat helps build awareness and creates a culture where everyone is responsible for identifying and mitigating the risks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/metroretro.io\/blog\/what-is-a-futurespective\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Learn more about Futurespectives<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">10. Checkout &#8211; Read the room<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Make sure you always leave time for a quick checkout at the end of any activity\u2014use a visual aid and get people to put their name against an illustration or a scale that indicates how they\u2019re feeling.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This way you can get a read of the room and offer the space for people to say what worked well and what they might not have found beneficial. By avoiding that last step, you\u2019re missing out on some key insights and learnings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5160\" style=\"width: 953px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5160\" class=\"wp-image-5160 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/resourceguruapp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Screenshot-2023-08-29-at-15.43.10-943x319.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"943\" height=\"319\" srcset=\"https:\/\/resourceguruapp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Screenshot-2023-08-29-at-15.43.10-943x319.png.webp 943w, https:\/\/resourceguruapp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Screenshot-2023-08-29-at-15.43.10-1042x352.png.webp 1042w, https:\/\/resourceguruapp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Screenshot-2023-08-29-at-15.43.10.png 1480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 943px) 100vw, 943px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-5160\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>An example of a simple feeling scale, using a storm cloud on one side and a sun on the other.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"A-human-centered-mindset-means-better-outcomes\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A human-centered mindset means better outcomes<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Delivery management is more than just budgets, timelines, and completing tasks. A truly <a href=\"https:\/\/resourceguruapp.com\/blog\/qualities-of-a-project-manager\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">effective project manager<\/a> adopts a human-centered mindset that prioritizes collaboration, empathy, and open communication.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adopting a &#8220;people first, project second&#8221; mentality requires relinquishing some top-down control but pays off hugely in delivering better outcomes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The next time you kick off a new project, consider how you can integrate some of these strategies to cultivate a more human-centered mindset.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When projects are won, there\u2019s often a sense of urgency to get going and we end up skipping some of the activities which can prevent a project from being successful. As Delivery Managers, our focus should&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":5140,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-project-management"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A human-centered mindset to project kick-offs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Seasoned delivery leader Holly Davis shares 10 techniques to help you approach project kick-offs with a human-centered mindset.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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