Overview
Project leaders, rejoice!
This Quick Guide offers comprehensive guidance on managing projects in matrix organizations. The book covers solutions to common challenges, such as delivering a project without formal authority over team members, finding balance among conflicting stakeholder interests, leading effective meetings, and building high-performing teams�virtual or not. Based on the Matrix Management 2.0(TM) framework, this book explains how the role of a project leader has transformed in matrix organizations, as well as how to work collaboratively and share accountability.
Projects are planned and executed in the horizontal dimension.
In a matrix, project team members are recruited from the vertical dimension, which represents an area of expertise or a stakeholder interest, but the project is planned and executed in the horizontal dimension. As a result, the project leader/manager typically has a team composed of people who report to someone else�to a leader in the vertical dimension. This means project managers must lead their teams without having any authority over team members. This is one of the primary challenges that project managers face. The leadership skills required to manage in a matrix are very different from those required in a one-dimensional organization.
The good news, though, is that you don�t need to throw out everything you�ve learned about project management to operate two-dimensionally, but you will need to add new skills and tools to your toolbox if you want to be successful in this non-authority-based environment. Some of the challenges faced by project leaders in a matrix include:
- Leading a project when you don�t have authority over the project team members
- Getting team member and stakeholder buy-in
- Making commitments you can keep and not getting in over your head
- Developing a high-performing team when the people on the team report to someone else in the organization.
In this Quick Guide, we�ll explore how you manage projects in a matrix using the Matrix Management 2.0 operating system (MM 2.0 OS) and a collaborative approach to leading a project.
About the MM 2.0(TM) Compliant Quick Guide Series
The Quick Guide Management Series brings you the latest tools and techniques for leadership and management that are both practical and easy to apply. Read them cover-to-cover or use them as a reference to brush up on a topic or sharpen the knowledge and skills you need to be an effective matrix leader.
