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Anyone who has worked with Echo Consulting knows we like to end each meeting with the question "are there any other risks or issues we have not discussed today and need to be added to our project log?". At Echo Consulting, we are passionate about risk management. We believe wholeheartedly that the best way to mitigate risks is to create a safe space for team members to bring forward risks ahead of time to discuss mitigation strategies. That’s one of the reasons we love the concepts of pre-mortems. It creates an environment for the team to share their personal lessons learned from their individual experiences as well as their concerns for the current project in a "safe" environment where everyone is sharing at the same time. From this setting, our teams are able to gather a much broader risk pool to start planning from early on. Pre-Mortems encourage teams to poke holes in project plans before a project to prevent risks from becoming costly and time-consuming. We love getting to watch the teams we work with getting to utilize the lessons learned to the current project rather than waiting until the end as you would with a post-mortem. Recently, Echo Consulting had the pleasure of hosting a Pre-Mortem for the Digital Medicine Society (DiMe). We were able to utilize Mural to facilitate this exercise virtually. Mural provided us with a digitalized whiteboard environment allowing us to recreate the experience that would typically be in person. DiMe was able to have nearly 50 experts from different sectors of healthcare collaborate & vote throughout the exercise. To prep for this pre-mortem, we worked with the stakeholder groups to establish key theme groups of risks. In this case, the theme groups were study design, data quality, tech/vendor support & operations/maintenance. We used these theme groups to establish breakout groups for each session. Forms were sent out allowing the participants to enter any perceived risks that were then added to the board ahead of time. This anonymity established the foundation for the “safe space” this exercise strives to create. In the first breakout session, each theme group took the risks submitted via the form and grouped them with other similar risks submitted. Once they had the risks grouped, they created summarized risks if needed. From there we encouraged participants to work together to evaluate the likeliness of a risk occurring as well as the likelihood of the risk causing failure and from that information place the risks onto the “Risk to Failure” grid. Back together in the large group we examined each breakout session's findings and took the top 3 risks from the Grid to evaluate further in the second breakout session. In the second breakout session, we facilitated a “5 Why’s” exercise with the top risks that were identified. The “5 Why’s” is an effective exercise for uncovering the root cause of a problem or risk. The simplistic exercise starts with a risk or problem then asks why it is occurring. Repeat the why question four additional times until you identify the root cause. This exercise allows for the root cause of the risk to be identified to determine solutions for the risk. The third and final breakout session was focused on solutions. The group completed a five-minute solution brainstorm where they each completed an individual “brain dump” of solutions. As a group, they then read and summarized the solutions for each risk. We had the group place the solutions into four categories - avoid, mitigate, transfer, and accept. After the solutions were summarized and grouped, the large group had an opportunity to vote on the top solutions from each breakout theme. From there we were able to have them vote via a form and weigh the impact they perceive each proposed solution has on the overarching strategic objectives. Pre-Mortems can be facilitated differently depending upon the organization or project, but the purpose remains the same. It allows you to poke holes in project plans to identify risks and create mitigation strategies prior to the project starting. Pre-mortems create a safe space for team members to express perceived risks which can draw out outliers that would previously be overlooked. If you and your team are interested in having Echo Consulting host a Pre-Mortem workshop – email ContactUs@echoconsultingpm.com for more information and pricing options.

As I finish up my second week with Echo, my excitement continues to grow as I work closely with the team. Prior to coming on board with Echo, I worked for a large SaaS organization focused in the automotive space for 7 years. During this time I had the opportunity to manage large-scale projects, create marketing strategies, lead large and dynamic teams and manage enterprise client relationships. While I had the opportunity to work in an array of positions, each one I held was centered around client relationships and consulting. As I reflect back on my experiences as well as on what I hope to contribute to Echo Consulting, it all centers around that client relationship and how I use a consistent set of values each time I have the opportunity to work with and consult with clients. Transparency: Transparency is a value I hold both in my personal and professional life. From a client perspective, I believe it is critical to be transparent as you work together. Transparency about the status of a project, any risks factors that arise as well as insights into processes for how I am operating so they can have an understanding of the 'behind the scenes' work as well. I have found that transparency is well respected and can often lead to my next two values, collaboration and trust. Collaboration: While working with clients, it is my goal to bring my expertise and experience to help them to solve a business problem. Afterall, this is what my position is designed to do. However, I do find the best way to bring this expertise and to help solve a business problem for the client is through collaboration. When working with a client, I like to dig in deep and really understand their challenges and opportunities as well as background on their company's ecosystem and processes so can I assure I am consulting and providing advice that will truly last and make an impact in their business. Trust: Trust is built over small consistent actions that prove you will (1) keep promises, (2) follow through and (3) deliver results. There is no specific timeline that this takes place on, but I find the more consistently I am able to communicate with the client, provide value and provide what I said I would - the easier and quicker it is to build trust and ultimately help their business thrive. I will continue to bring these values into every client relationship I have the opportunity of working for with Echo Consulting.

March is Women’s History Month – a subject very close to Echo’s hearts. As a woman-owned and lead business, we are aware of the barriers women face in the workforce and the gender gap that still very much exists today that we fight to change daily. Statistics from Adeva IT state that as of 2018 women hold only 25% of tech jobs and data from Property Management Institute (PMI) suggest that women currently make up only 20-30% of project management staff worldwide. We also are aware and grateful for the many women who came before us to break down barriers and pave the way for the opportunities we have today. We want to take a moment this March to recognize the many women who have fought to break down the barriers and the women who continue to shatter the glass ceilings. Ada Lovelace is one of the most renowned women in technology. She was born in 1815 in London, her mother was insistent that she taught science and mathematics. A woman well ahead of her time, she is often referred to as the first programmer based on her theories that a specific engine could transition calculation to computation. A true visionary for what computers and programming could become! Grace Hopper is another pioneer woman in the field of technology. American computing scientist born in 1903, as a child she would often take household appliances apart and put them back together showing a strong passion for engineering. She is credited for inventing one of the first compilers, a program that translates programming code to machine language. She also has been quoted to have predicted that computers would one day be small enough to fit on a desk. Adele Goldberg was essential in the development of Smalltalk-80 as a researcher at the Xero Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC). She was impressively the only woman among the group of men who built the Smalltalk-80 together. This programming language was used to create one of the first modern graphics user interfaces. Adele is credited for inspiring Steve Jobs to make Apple products what they are today when she presented the small talk system to him. Who would have thought that a woman would be behind some of the most well-known and loved graphics in video games? Carol Shaw is well known as the first female video game designer and programmer with well-known games as River Raid and 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe. More recently Megan Smith made history as the first female CTO for the United States. Megan was essential is guiding the Obama administration's IT policies and initiatives. After leaving the White House, she assisted in launching the Tech Jobs Tour whose mission is to promote diversity in the technology sector. Recently, Whitney Wolfe Herd the Founder and CEO of Bumble Inc. made history becoming the youngest self-made billionaire after taking the company public – and with a baby on the hip if that wasn’t impressive enough! She also notably was one of the youngest female CEOs to take a U.S. company public. A true inspiration for any woman and mother to watch. There are too many inspiring women to name in one post – so why do we still see such a gender imbalance in these fields? Is it that there aren’t enough role models, or are women are systematically tracked away from these fields, or does the “bro-culture” so prominent in these fields push them away? These women and countless others have shown that women can have an amazing impact in these fields and history. At Echo Consulting, we hope to make our impact in these gender imbalanced fields to pave the way for future generations of Women.

Ever had a great project opportunity arise, only to have it get lost in the chaos of emails, sticky notes, and chat threads? The problem here isn't team communication, or even a lack of good ideas; it's not having a defined process for tracking and initiating project ideas. Or as we call it, not having an intake process. Without a defined process, there's no way to tell which projects are the highest priority, or to get a clear understanding of project health and status. In this situation, it's easy for projects and initiatives to fall through the cracks, or for teams to focus only on projects with the loudest advocate rather than those that would make the highest impact. This is not an ideal situation for long term strategic growth, and it's a huge hurdle for teams of all sizes. But the good news is that creating an intake process can be a simple process that immediately improves project visibility and follow-through. Start Simple: Creating an Intake Process The first step to any project intake process should be a standardized intake form. The requirements of an intake form will be unique for each organization but should include things like: Contact information of the requestor Requested timeline Project Description Expected Impact Stakeholders (e.g. project approver, lead, etc.) Also, it's important to include the main goal of the project. Often requestors will request a solution before digging into what the overarching problem is. By defining the actual problem, decision-makers are able to determine the solution that will provide the highest value to the organization’s strategic initiatives. We recommend keeping the form as minimal as possible and request more information as the process goes on. This encourages full adoption as the form is easy and clear to fill out. When creating a project intake form, it's helpful to integrate the form into a software that your team already uses, like Smartsheet, Monday.com, Asana, or ClickUp. This opens the door for many automation options to improve consistency and transparency across all levels. Here's a quick tutorial of how to make a form in one of our favorite programs, Smartsheet. Leveling Up: Automating Your Intake Process Once your intake process is in place, consider adding some automations to reduce manual data entry and save important mental bandwidth. We often set up automations to notify correct decision-makers, create conditional actions to request information, send automated status requests to keep everyone informed, or to notify project assignees. When automations take care of some of the management of intake items, there's a lower risk that those initiatives will get lost in the shuffle. Automations have the added benefit of improving consistency across the organization with set date fields and forms. Consistency is Key As if more visibility and less busywork in your workflow wasn't enough, there are even more benefits to standardizing project intake. For example, a project intake process can help you clearly establish priority for new ideas and projects, ensuring your team focuses on the highest impact projects for the organization's strategic goals. Because every project or initiative is considered through the same lens of the intake process, they all have the same standards in terms of setting priority. In addition, using an intake process can help teams get a better sense of project health. Understanding the expectations for budget, deadlines, and cost-effectiveness at the start of a project helps teams stay on track throughout its execution. It's clear that having such a streamlined system goes beyond simply managing new projects; it also allows teams to stay connected and aligned throughout project execution and completion. If you're interested in giving your project intake process an upgrade, reach out to us! We include an intake overhaul in many of our package offerings, and can point out more resources if you're interested in building out your intake on your own.

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” ~ Peter F. Drucker Analysis paralysis is a struggle all decision-makers in organizations can relate to. When so many project requests come in, how do they decide what to say yes to and what to devote an organizations’ limited resources to? In our last post, we went over the concept of prioritization drivers. Prioritization drivers are target outcomes that align with your organizations overarching strategic objectives. However, it's important to understand how these goals relate to one another in value and impact. Defining the weight of your drivers and aligning on priorities is a great place to start. Weigh the drivers based on the short and long-term needs of your organization keeping in mind that these weights may change as your business priorities change to meet the needs of changing markets. Business goals are not all equally important – defining the weight allows you to quantify the differences. After you define the weight of your drivers, you are better able to score your list of projects against your weighted drivers completing an analysis of each potential project to understand the impact on your organization's objectives. Using a simple prioritization matrix is one of our favorite ways at Echo to accomplish this. A prioritization matrix is a tool where you create a set of drivers with assigned weights and use them to score your projects. This provides decision-makers with the data they need to confidently decide what projects provide the highest impact on their organization's strategic goals. Example Prioritization Matrix: Weighing drivers is also a great tool to increase transparency in an organization. By quantifying the strategic value, you are communicating what the priorities are and why certain projects and initiatives align with your goals over others. Everyone wants to know that they are working on projects that are most valuable to an organization's goals. This communication method is great to support strategic alignment and buy-in for new initiatives. What are the drivers that are more heavily weighted in your organization? Are the projects and initiatives that your organization chooses aligned with the strategic goals? Each organization will have its own unique drivers and unique weights for each – weighting drivers will allow you to decide which items hold priority and the value of pursuing a project or initiative allowing better alignment of priorities and timelines.

"The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities" - Stephen Covey Organizations of all sizes are aware of the struggle – too many projects and ideas with not enough time or resources. So how do you decide what the highest value initiative is for your organization & what to spend your limited time & resources on? To start it’s important to understand your organization's overarching goals as well as how these objectives relate in value to one another. Prioritization drivers are the drivers that align with your organizations overarching goals or KPI’s. Most organizations have multiple quarterly and long-term goals, however, it’s important to understand how these goals relate to one another in value and impact. Defining your drivers and aligning on priorities is a great place to start. One of the most challenging problems we come across in organizations is breaking down the barriers of an organization split into silos. It’s very easy for organizations to get trapped into silos where each silo is aware of their own pain points, ideas, and initiatives but not how they relate back to the organizations overarching goals or drivers. In this case, it is very important for transparency of defined drivers across the organization to help understand the impact of ideas and projects on the goals to be able to better align on the value of initiatives in a quantifiable manner. Example Drivers: Increase Sales/Revenue Reduce Costs Improve Profitability Improve Productivity Improve Brand Position Compliance (Legal) Improve Quality Increase Capacity Improve Customer Satisfaction Improve Tech/Readiness/Stability Improve Customer Retention What are the drivers in your organization? Are the projects & initiatives your organization is pursuing the ones that offer the most impact on your overarching goals?

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another voice.” – T.S. Eliot Studies have shown that approximately 80% of New Year resolutions fail – we’ve all experienced this at some point or another. Who hasn’t created a resolution to give up sweets only to find yourself munching on leftover holiday goodies just a few weeks later? Albert Einstein declared, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.” So then why do we make resolutions year after year expecting different results especially when it comes to your business? This year, we encourage you to set SMART goals in place of resolutions. Instead of a broad resolution with very little actionable steps or direction that will fizzle out by the end of January. SMART goals will give you a strategic approach to get the results you’ve been wanting. So, what is a SMART goal? Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant Time-Based For instance, if your resolution for 2021 is to grow your network then a smart goal could be to “Grow your network in VT by 10 quality new professional contacts this quarter by averaging at least 1 lunch or coffee in-person meet up per week and 2 larger networking events per month”. By making your goal specific and measurable as well as setting a timeline will clarify who is accountable for the desired outcome and how they are responsible for meeting that outcome. It’s easy to become idealistic when thinking about new year’s resolutions but ultimately you want your new year’s goals to align with your business dreams with actionable steps to reach them. One of our favorite tools for mapping out SMART goals is using a gap analysis. A gap analysis is essential is determining shortcomings in a quantifiable manner and label steps to take to reach the desired result. This could be applied to projects, website metrics, SEO, and more! Comparing current performance with the desired result provides you with a quantifiable list to determine your strategic SMART goals. Check out our FREE template to complete your own Gap Analysis & SMART Goals – Free Download Once you have your SMART goals for the year – your next step will be planning how you will achieve them. Mapping out the necessary projects and tasks to attain your goal. Our “go-to” method for this is using a project management informational system as a tool. At Echo, we are well versed in systems of all sizes and scaling the correct solution to meet your business's goals ad unique culture. Feel free to review our other material or reach out for assistance choosing and configuring a system to set your team up for success!

"My argument is that the company, the community, the county, the city, the town that most closely mirrors Mother Nature’s strategies for building resilience and propulsion when the climate changes is the one that will thrive in this age of acceleration." Thomas Friedman You’ve heard us say it many times – we believe when looking to solve a problem, you must look far outside the problem at the broader vision of an organization taking all factors into account or as we like to call it the “Echosystem”. In this current climate, where organizations are having to constantly pivot, adapt & problem-solve to sustain & thrive, this concept is more important than ever. Looking far beyond a project’s lifestyle or scope at the entire ecosystem to achieve long term sustainability. When looking at the resilience of natural ecosystems, we can learn a lot when it comes to organizational resilience in business. When we look at resilient ecosystems in nature, you notice that they all have symbiosis interdependencies & are continuously adapting to changes in their environment. Just like when analyzing natural ecosystems and the different harmonious relationships, we believe that you must look outside the problem you are striving to solve at all contributing factors. All these factors link together and impact each other in different ways. In nature, these components could be size, weather, or other species that can all impact what was needed to sustain. This is no different when looking to create organizational resilience in businesses. You must look at the entire ecosystem of an organization to determine a solution that will be most beneficial for the entire organization. If you take a micro approach only analyzing your project's lifecycle and the solution you are looking to gain, you will miss all the other relational components that will lead to long term success. Resilient ecosystems in nature live in a constant state of evolution to adapt to changing elements. The same can be said for resilient businesses. This year businesses have had to adapt and transform like never before due to the impacts of Covid-19. Businesses that when faced with challenges can analyze and strategically adapt will be able to sustain and be successful long term. One of the ways we like to help foster organizational resilience in our clients is by building self-sufficiency, not dependency. By implementing the correct systems & procedures & training on project management practices that best fit their organization giving them the toolset needed to handle any problem that may arise and adapt successfully.

“Quality begins when everybody in the organization commits to never sending rejects or imperfect information to the next process.” - Masaaki Imai Gemba Kaizen is the Japanese concept of continuous improvement with the focus on improving processes and reducing waste. An organization embracing this concept is constantly striving to improve its processes and believes the practices in place for solving problems are more valuable than the solutions themselves. So how does this relate to project management & Echo? Kaizen is a Japanese term meaning "change for the better”, at Echo, nothing excites us more than being able to analyze systems & processes of an organization and make quantitative recommendations for improvement. This includes improving everyday procedures, efficiency, effectiveness, or providing training to develop the skills necessary to problem-solve. The first principle of Gemba Kaizen is problem identification. Once identified, you are able to collectively work to problem solve and implement a solution. At Echo, we ask each member if a team to label the problems they think may arise throughout a project so we can mitigate these risks before they can escalate. One of the concepts that stands out the most is that big results come from many small changes accumulated over time. At Echo, we whole heartily believe this to be true. That we must look at the entire ecosystem of a company and make changes throughout to have the greatest impact. This may be through process improvement, communication, or pieces of training. Often there is a misconception that in order to increase productivity you must layer more systems or steps on to your existing ones. The Gemba Kaizen strategy leads you to greater productivity through elimination. Through asking all members of an organization to analyze current processes and procedures, you are able to identify wasteful elements causing inefficiency to increase your overall productivity. The techniques of Gemba Kaizen can be applied to any type of project and the mindset of Kaizen to any organization to improve processes to reduce waste and maximize value.

Too many IT projects fail. The reasons projects fail are well documented: lack of communication, lack of scope definition, lack of change management, lack of executive buy-in, lack of resources, and the list goes on. There are dozens of project and product management methodologies, hundreds of project management systems, and countless tools, tactics, certifications etc….. and yet projects still fail regularly (~20% according to Gartner in 2019). Traditional/Waterfall and Agile are still the most well-known project management methodologies, but there are many other flavors like Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, LEAN, SixSigma, PRINCE2, XP, DevOps and many (many) more. All are similarly focused on successful delivery of a desirable outcome. Despite their admirable goal, and unique approaches, they are also all similar in that they regularly succeed and fail, so it is unlikely purely a matter of the methodology or tool. (Studies show that Agile fails less than Waterfall, but both fail regularly). There is a better way, and it is not a process or tool, it is a mindset shift. At Echo, we have led many projects with many different project management processes and tools and different sizes of teams and organization size and structure. Our clients love our flexibility and creative approach to tailoring project management solutions to fit their organizational culture and team size & needs, but it is still not enough. A process is great, but what we have discovered teams really need, is dedicated time to practice and learn. We like to use the analogy of basketball teams. The traditional / waterfall project management approach is to focus only on one major championship game, and ignore all competition until that championship game. This poses a major risk in that it typically ends up in a spectacular success (i.e. win), or a major failure (i.e. defeat). These projects are often considered “too big to fail” despite the fact that they do, regularly. Agile project management method aims to minimize the importance of a single game, by adding many games to their season so that any one win or loss has less impact in their over-all standings. Basically they try to minimize risk, and make “it ok to fail”. They anticipate failure, but believe that they are small enough that overall the effort will be a success. – This is closer, but at Echo we think there needs to be time not just for deviation from the plan, but for intentional practice – with the goal of learning and sharing, vs completing a task assignment. At Echo, we believe that that practice is critical to avoid failure and that it should have time allocated, just like basketball teams. Rather than aiming to minimize failure, we strive to maximize practice to achieve success. Our teams build resilience through practice and taking a proactive approach to skill-building so that they are ready to conquer problems that are sure to come their way.

As National Women's Small Business month wraps up, it's a time for us to reflect on what it means to be a small women-owned business and the culture and values we strive to provide at Echo Consulting to contribute to the growth of women in business. At Echo Consulting, we aspire to provide a different model that will create an environment with the flexibility and understanding we believe is necessary to retain and promote female employees particularly working mothers. We've all seen it, women who are experts in their field and provide value to an organization often leave after returning from Maternity leave due to the constraints of childcare. Women are less likely to progress than male colleagues due to this large divergence in the career path following childbirth often leaving women feeling stuck in their employment from taking on childcare responsibilities. The 40-hour workweek with a strict 9-5 schedule is not conducive for working mothers and is a barrier for women achieving economic equality in the workplace. Echo Consulting strives to create high impact jobs that offer flexibility in schedule to be able to maintain and nurture those female employees who are experts in their space. We believe that through creating a flexible and supportive space will allow women to retain and progress in their field continuing to add their value. We want to promote an environment that allows time to focus on their priorities at home which in turn will lead them to be more focused and impactful while at work as well as retain that passion and motivation for their job. We believe that people give their best work when they also give their best at home. We aim to create jobs and a culture that will enable people to succeed at both. Supporting the need to be fully present at home AND bring value to their career is an important step to harnessing the true power of all caregivers in our economy. At Echo we are committed to creating jobs that work for families AND create the highest value for our clients and community. We know that these do not need to be mutually exclusive, but rather complement each other to elevate our economy by keeping talent engaged in the workforce without interruption. We recognize the need for a more flexible work environment for caregivers and the need to also be able to have a challenging fulfilling career. We also know that teams need access to high-quality project management even when they do not have a need for a full-time resource. As we scale, we aim to bridge these gaps.

Step 1. Don’t! ….. That’s right: Don’t ever ask “What is the Priority?” to your Manager. “But wait- how do I know what to work on first?” – “I have too much on my plate!” – “It’s not reasonable request.” “It conflicts with this other work I’m doing”….. etc. Exactly! That is exactly why you do not say "What is the Priority?" to your manager. You may have heard to never pass problems up to your manager, instead provide recommendations - this is a similar concept. There are many more effective ways to proactively establish the priority and position yourself, and your team, for success without using "what is the priority?" as a cop out. When it comes down to it, there are very few good answers to “What is the priority?” and without all the context, your manager is unlikely to be able to address your real underlying questions/concerns. Invest the time to ask a good question and you are much more likely to get an answer that you can run with. Let us consider alternatives to “What’s the priority?” Is {This} a higher priority than {That}? Should I stop working on {This} to work on {That}? Will it work if I deliver {This} on {This Date}, so that I can get {That} done by {That date}? I know that {This} is important, I could use support from {Name} to make sure {That} is complete by {That date}. I’m concerned about the dependency of {This} on {That}. Which do you think should come first? I’ll make sure {manager} is aware of this new request so that we can prioritize it against {this} and {that} and I will get back to you by {date} with an ETA. Does that work? The important component of each of these alternative statements is that you are still driving towards a priority, but you are giving the requester the tools they need to help guide you with the priority. In return you are providing recommendations and articulating potential solutions. Don’t get me wrong, understanding the priority of something is critical to you and your team’s success. Conflicting priorities and lack of alignment between a company’s strategic goals and actual work being focused on is absolutely an issue for many teams! “If it is important to you, you will find a way. If not, you will find an excuse.” Challenge yourself to be part of the solution. Help drive the priority conversations with specific alternatives. Manage up when you can and articulate changes to priorities positively to your team so that they feel their work is valued, even when pivots are required.