Sponge vs. Trampoline

Recently Mark Langley, the CEO for the Project Management Institute, posted a Harvard Business Review (HBR) article on LinkedIn. The article was about listening. As kids and even many educators and academics tell us that active listening is about being silent while the person talks, giving visual and oral clues that acknowledges we are listening. And finally, paraphrasing what the person heard.

However, the HBR article equates this to being a sponge and really is not active listening and it does not help either party. What is suggested in the article is to be a trampoline vs. a sponge. The trampoline listener asks questions periodically that may include challenges to old concepts, provides a positive experience which includes suggestions (and criticisms), and are not defensive by any party.

Portfolio management is about being a trampoline. As a portfolio manager, your discussions with leadership should be about listening but actively asking questions about what you are hearing, challenging old styles of portfolio thinking and making suggestion. Will the leadership be open to this type of listening. Maybe not, but you don't know until you try.

Also, leadership will slowly come around to this style of active listening. Remember you must couple your trampoline listening with results. There is another part of the portfolio family that also needs trampoline listening, the project and program managers. The project and program managers provide updates to the portfolio manager. Your active listening will help to create and update a more realistic roadmap. You, the portfolio manager, need to understand how to provide the best value to the portfolio and this is done with benefit realization. To do this, the portfolio manager needs to have a keen understanding of the health and the resources for each project and program. This can only be done with trampoline listening.

So, will you continue to be a sponge or will you jump towards being a trampoline?