Project Acceleration through “Relationship Engineering”

In this article examine the field of “relationship engineering”. We could describe this by the more commonly known term of relationship development. The term “engineering” emphasises the progression of relationships by design and by deliberate intent. We then outline how mindful relationship development can be implemented in tactical and strategic ways.

Relationship development is an essential prelude to effective and efficient communication. Then communication is the life blood of running successful projects and successful operations. Relationship development is therefore an investment of time and energy, which pays great dividends.

Note that business development professionals and sales people are invariably excellent at relationship development, both from a strategic and tactical perspective. They even use sophisticated CRM systems to manage the tactical side. Their success depends on it. For the rest of us, we generally do not operate in the same way … but should we? We need to sell ideas, insights and perspectives.

Why do high-tech project managers need relationship engineering?

For decades it has been recognised that when effective communication is not prevalent, then projects faulter. Communications is the life blood of successful projects. In high-tech companies, the issues are complex, the challenges huge and situations are very dynamic. The environment is also information intense. When communication needs to cut through so much noise, the speed of connection and clarity of messages is important.

Any project manager or any business manager needs to form an effective network, both inside and outside the organisation. This is especially important if you parachute into a new organisation and you have to develop your network quickly and strategically.

But a network is not just an organisational diagram. A network consists of people, and it’s your relationship with those people that really counts. The challenge here is that all people are different.

• Personality types

• Disciplinary areas

• Beliefs

• Mindsets, attitudes and biases

• Experience level and knowledge of the organisation’s way-of-working

Creating a relationship with an individual is often a specially, unique challenge. It is through skilful communication that relationships are created. In particular, we need empathy and emotional intelligence. We need to see the world from the other person’s perspective.

Relationships need to be initiated, and then they need to be nurtured. What we are seeking primarily is the ability to collaborate. We can take a lesson from marketing and social media here. Who do we pay attention to is a noisy, stressful environment? It is people we know, like and trust (often depicted by the acronym, KLT). I might add to that, to understand (or KLT-U), which is particularly true in a knowledge-based organisation.

The key issue is that the KLT-U criteria should really be achieved before effective communication on real can take place. If you are approaching a key person in an organisation to negotiate, persuade or to solve a complex problem, then having established an effective working relationship first, helps enormously.

This means that super project managers or super business leaders need to think about relationship development strategically, and to work on it systematically. We can think of this endeavour as “relationship engineering” – success by design and skilful implementation.

Strategic and tactical approaches to relationship building

The strategic approach:

Strategic relationship design requires big-picture thinking, and a long-term perspective. Having said that, the faster you can develop meaningful relationships with colleagues you can collaborate with, the faster you can realise positive change, and the more problems you can solve together.

At any one time, it is worth re-examining the network of relationships that you currently have. Which new relationships should be established, and which existing relationships could be enhanced?

It is wise to think of relationship development as an investment. Part of the benefit of getting to really know a colleague is to find out what their knowledge and expertise are. Additionally, you can find out who they know. They might propose other individuals you should connect with, or they may even make an introduction. Thereby, your networking efforts are amplified. In the last 4 decades this has happened to me on countless occasions.

Business leaders and effective project managers in complex, high-tech environments are invariably well connected. Your first mission then is to either design your ideal relationship network, or to reset and upgrade its definition. This can be referred to relationship engineering, or at least the first part to it – strategic design. The next step is to implement the design tactically.

The tactical approach:

Tactical relationship development should be mainly driven by the strategic definition of what relationships are needed in order to give you maximum leverage. Actual relationships are normally created by a one-to-one interaction. This, as we know, requires both communication skills and emotional intelligence. These interactions can be deliberately planned, but they can also be presented to you opportunistically.

We can discuss, the classical skills recognised for establishing connections and especially deeper connections. Instead, I would like to outline what I have found works in practice:

• Develop a deep curiosity about what the colleague values, believes and knows

• Be friendly – check your mindset before engagement

• Ask meaningful questions and respond with active listening skills

• Use humour – I really find this dismantles most barriers

• Express needs mainly from a business perspective

• Pre-empt the most effective communication style based on the person’s role

• Be structured, concise and to the point

• Be positive and use positive language

• Use metaphors and analogies to describe complex situations

• Follow-up on the agreements you make

• Be organised – prepare in advance

• Explore ideas together

• Create a feeling of co-ownership of business challenges

• Give them value whenever possible – sometimes when the don’t expect it

• Genuinely asking for help

• Help them with their challenges

• Think about synergy and creating win-win outcomes

You may have already developed your own approaches, but I would encourage you to use these tactical approaches.

Why is “relationship engineering” so beneficial?

The challenges within a high-tech company involved in leading-edge product development are both difficult and complex. The source of competitive advantage is primarily know-how. Additionally, the manner in which organisations both address and fix problems is crucial. Effective collaboration between colleagues at different parts of the organisation is essential.

The establishment of relationships is a prelude to effective communication. People are very open to colleagues they already know, like, trust and understand. One of the key outcomes is speed. In particular, the following aspects of speed can be enhanced:

• Speed of attention in a noisy environment

• Speed of understanding

• Speed of using synergy in problem-solving

• Speed of prioritisation

• Speed of collaboration and coordination

• Speed of resolution

Practically all high-tech companies lack the resources they need to undertake all the challenges they are faced with. To deal with this they need a combination of resource, know-how, capability and ingenuity. Collaboration based on positive and healthy relationships helps enormously. What effective collaboration does is give you tremendous speed at producing results and positive change.

From a high-tech project manager’s perspective, up-front investment in relationship development, can enable you to accelerate project execution. High-tech projects are littered with problems and challenge, including:

• Effective team working

• Risk mitigation

• Impediment removal

• Technical problems

• Supranormal problems – organisational problems relating to the context of the project

Collaboration can solve all those problems, but a network founded on effective relationships is first needed.

Conclusion

In complex high-tech environments “relationship engineering” can pay substantial dividends. Armed with strong and appropriate relationships a project manager or a business leader has tremendous leverage when addressing the key aspects of the project or indeed the organisation, in general.

Relationships foster effective collaboration, which creates synergy and subsequently, sheer speed. Cultivate your relationships strategically and systematically, and you are destined to win. Meaningful relationships can give you huge leverage.