Project Management PHẦN 3 pptx

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Project Management

by Joan Knudson and Ira Bitz

AMACOM Books

ISBN: 0814450431 Pub Date: 01/01/91

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Negotiating is a useful fallback strategy when you’re dealing with a tough customer and feel there’s a high

risk of not getting what you need. Some people make an entire life-style of negotiating and become very good

at it.

If you feel you are facing a situation that is too critical to risk negotiating or if you have negotiated and the

other party isn’t honoring his or her side of the bargain, you may decide to move on to the next strategy.

Using Coercion

Coercion uses a strategy of power imposition. It assumes that the other person has something you want but

will yield it only under force. It turns to formal organizational lines of authority to issue orders and get

compliance and requires that you know (or find out) answers to the following questions:

• Who “owns” the project? Usually it is the client. If the original client is no longer there and no owner

is apparent, who is answerable to the organization for business results that this project supports?

• Is there anyone else at a high enough level who is championing the project or has become visibly

connected with it? This person’s authority is the lever you will use to get compliance.

• Who has formal authority over the person whose compliance you need?

Your job is easiest if the person whose compliance you need is under the client’s lines of authority. If not, the

client will have to solve the same set of problems you have just been trying to solve: how to get his peer to

exert authority over the person whose compliance you need. It is worth noting that the client will have the

same set of strategies to choose from: influencing, negotiating, and using coercion. An important political

consideration is how far up the owner’s line of authority you want to go to make your request. A general rule

is to go to the lowest level you can and still be reasonably sure of success.

Once you have identified the lever of authority, you still need to persuade him or her to act. In some cases, a

word may be enough, but generally you will need negotiating skills. It is also wise to have standard project

status report documentation, showing where the project is now and the likely consequences if no action is

taken.

Using coercion is generally the least practical and most politically expensive strategy to use. Sometimes it is

necessary to use, but it should be your last resort, not your first move.

Each of the three strategies has been presented in a pure form in order to give a clear explanation. In reality,