CREATING THE PROJECT OFFICE€¦ · PROJECT OFFICE A Manager’s Guide to Leading Organizational Change Randall L. Englund Robert J. Graham Paul C. Dinsmore Y Englund.FM1 12/19/02

CREATING THE PROJECT OFFICE

A Manager’s Guide to LeadingOrganizational Change

Randall L. EnglundRobert J. GrahamPaul C. Dinsmore

Y

Englund.FM1 12/19/02 11:41 AM Page v

Innodata0787966754.jpg

Englund.FM1 12/19/02 11:41 AM Page viii

Englund.FM1 12/19/02 11:41 AM Page i

Englund.FM1 12/19/02 11:41 AM Page ii


Englund.FM1 12/19/02 11:41 AM Page iii

Englund.FM1 12/19/02 11:41 AM Page iv


A Manager’s Guide to LeadingOrganizational Change

Randall L. EnglundRobert J. GrahamPaul C. Dinsmore

Y

Englund.FM1 12/19/02 11:41 AM Page v

Copyright © 2003 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published by Jossey-BassA Wiley Imprint989 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-1741 www.josseybass.com

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any formor by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except aspermitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the priorwritten permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy feeto the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400,fax 978-750-4470, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission shouldbe addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ07030, 201-748-6011, fax 201-748-6008, e-mail: [email protected].

Page 308 is a continuation of the copyright page.

Jossey-Bass books and products are available through most bookstores. To contact Jossey-Bass directlycall our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 800-956-7739, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3986or fax 317-572-4002.

Jossey-Bass also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in printmay not be available in electronic books.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Englund, Randall L.Creating the project office : a manager’s guide to leading

organizational change / by Randall L. Englund, Robert J. Graham, Paul C.Dinsmore.

p. cm.Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-7879-6398-41. Project management—Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Organizational

change—Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Graham, Robert J., 1946- II.Dinsmore, Paul C. III. Title.

HD69.P75 E54 2003658.4'04—dc21

2002152396

Printed in the United States of America

FIRST EDITION

HB Printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Englund.FM1 12/19/02 11:41 AM Page vi

http://www.josseybass.comhttp://www.copyright.com

THE JOSSEY-BASS BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT SERIES

Englund.FM1 12/19/02 11:41 AM Page vii

Englund.FM1 12/19/02 11:41 AM Page viii

Preface xi

The Authors and Contributors xvii

PART ONE: CREATING THE CONDITIONS FOR CHANGE 1

1 Leading Organizational Change 7

2 Clear Danger: Creating a Sense of Urgency and Economic Value 33

3 Powerful Forces: Building a Guiding Coalition 53

4 Focus: Developing and Communicating the Project Office Vision and Strategy 83

5 Tell the Tale: Harnessing Internal Support 109Robert Storeygard, 3M

PART TWO: MAKING CHANGE HAPPEN 125

6 Contact: Managing the Change 129

ix

CONTENTS

Englund.FM1 12/19/02 11:41 AM Page ix

x Contents

7 Implementing the Project Office: Case Study 167Alfonso Bucero, PMP

8 Keep Moving: Getting Your Arms Around Chaos 197Colonel Gary LaGassey, USAF

9 In or Out? Staffing and Operating the Project Office 219

PART THREE: MAKING CHANGE STICK 245

10 Looking Forward: Embedding Project Practices in the Culture of the Organization 249Dennis Cohen, Strategic Management Group

11 The Tale We Tell 277

Appendix: Templates for Project Office Planning 291

References 299

Index 303

Englund.FM1 12/19/02 11:41 AM Page x

xi

PREFACE

Faster, cheaper, better. Accidental project manager. In or out? Are you doneyet? We’re in a mess! Why can’t we . . . ? If these challenges sound familiarwithin your organization, welcome aboard.

This is a book about improving organizational performance by implementinga project office system that develops project management as a core competencyand thus adds value to the organization. A project office consists of a team dedi-cated to improving the practice of project management in the organization. Theimprovement in organizational performance is achieved by obtaining more valuefrom projects, making project management a standard management practice, andthen moving the organization toward the enterprise project management concept.

Enterprise project management is an organization-wide managerial philoso-phy. It is based on the idea that company goals are achievable through a web ofsimultaneous projects supported by a systemic approach that includes corporatestrategy projects, operations improvement, and organizational transformation as well as traditional development projects. This means that companies viewmarketing programs, advertising campaigns, promotional events, new productlaunches, software development, change management, and continuous improve-ment, as well as traditional design and construction of new facilities, as projects,using project management approaches to bring them to completion. Virtuallyeverything can be dealt with as a project under the enterprise project manage-ment concept.

Englund.FM2 12/19/02 11:41 AM Page xi

The project office is the linchpin for implementing and maintaining a projectapproach across the organization. The project office is a gigantic building blockfor making enterprise project management become a reality in an organization.The project office adds value to the organization by ensuring that projects are per-formed within procedures, are in line with organizational strategies, and are com-pleted in a way that adds economic value to the organization.

The audience for this book includes everyone involved in project manage-ment—project managers, team members, and middle and upper managers at-tempting to change their organizations into project-based enterprises. All projectsinvolve change and thus every project manager and team member is involved inan organizational change process. Since the emphasis here is on improving theorganization through better project management practices, this book will helpproject participants and managers at all levels make sense of the change processesthey are experiencing.

Inexperience and ignorance about leading organizational change can becostly to the organization and the individual. We are not wont to disagree with anearly reviewer who said, “This book can save careers.” Another added, “This bookcan save organizations!”

The book began as a result of workshops on the topic of Implementing the ProjectOffice for Organizational Change, sponsored by the Strategic Management Group andR. J. Graham and Associates. These workshops blended consultants and practi-tioners (most writers for this book participated, along with a few of their friends),who worked through the problems and processes of changing organizations toembrace the enterprise project management concept. This book reflects the ma-terial covered during those workshops as well as contributions from a constituencyof consultants and practitioners through lifelong experiences. Contributors to thebook include consultants Graham, Dinsmore, and Cohen, along with practition-ers Storeygard, Bucero, and LaGassey. Englund plays a dual role, currently a con-sultant but drawing on many years as a practitioner and in an HP project office.Many other professionals also graciously shared their learning and worked theirway into the collective knowledge compiled herein.

The design of the book is the result of suggestions from workshop partici-pants. Other books on the project office acknowledge the importance of the of-fice in facilitating change in the organization. Despite this acknowledgment,however, concepts on using a project office as a vehicle for organizational changeare often left to the last chapter, almost an afterthought. Workshop participantswho were currently working on implementing project offices agreed that this em-phasis, although important, came too late. It is difficult to change the perceptionand function of any organizational entity after it has been established. Therefore,

xii Preface

Englund.FM2 12/19/02 11:41 AM Page xii

if the ultimate goal is to change the organization, then that should be the focusfrom the beginning. That is why we wrote this book.

The emphasis in this book is not on the day-to-day operation of the projectoffice, although that topic is covered. Rather, the focus is the process of imple-menting a project office in an organization with the goal of bringing about orga-nizational change that ultimately adds to the economic value of the organization.

Not every reader plans to go all the way to implement the full Monty—a strate-gic project office—and some may even get discouraged by the pitfalls we describe.However, we also include specific skill-building approaches and revised ways tothink about things that offer value to these readers. The implications of power,operating across organizations, and project portfolio management processes areexamples. These have wider applications than just a project office, but are evenmore potent when the PO leads the effort. We draw from a variety of fields andhistorical references in pursuit of our goal to cover the why, what, and how to leadthe organizational change process.

PO of One

The term project office is not without baggage. For some people it means overheadand bureaucracy. They want a lean organization where competencies and actionare dispersed across the organization, not in a central (expensive) unit. These samepeople may ask if they can establish POs of one, meaning that each project man-ager embodies all the traits, skills, and knowledge that we cover in this book.

We believe a PO of one is a worthy concept. We are talking about an orga-nizational culture that supports the essence of a project office but not its struc-ture. Individuals learning to unfreeze, change, and refreeze the people aroundthem offer tremendous value. The steps along the path we describe can be takenby individual project managers. In fact, they may not have that title; they just hap-pen to be doing projects or leading a change effort. They want the results theycreate through a set of activities to be great instead of average, and the outcometo contribute and fit with organizational goals instead of going on the shelf. Themissing pieces that help make this happen are the process, experiences, and knowl-edge of best practices.

A PO of one may not be an established norm or term in usage, but it can livein the hearts and aspirations of devotees. We hope this book provides inspiration.We also hope that success then expands enterprise project management possibil-ities to higher levels of maturity.

Preface xiii

Englund.FM2 12/19/02 11:41 AM Page xiii

Book Organization and Outline

Organizational change comes in three phases, so this book is organized in threeparts to follow those phases. The first outlines ways to create the conditions fororganizational change. The second covers operating the project office to make thechanges themselves, and the third goes through consolidating the changes toembed them in organizational reality.

Part One consists of the first five chapters of the book. Chapter One coversthe problems associated with organizational change processes and gives a step-by-step guide to the process of using a project office as organizational change vehicle.Chapter Two gives more detail on the first important step of that process, creat-ing a sense of urgency for the change and making sure that the result of the changewill ultimately add economic value to the organization. Any change process in-volves power and politics, so Chapter Three is a program manager’s guide to or-ganizational politics with an aim toward using that knowledge for creating apowerful coalition for change. Chapter Four covers many of the details concern-ing the functions and operations of a project office so that organizational changeagents begin to develop a vision, strategy, and communications plan to let peopleknow what the office is and what it does. Chapter Five is a case study showing howmany of the concepts covered in the first four chapters were applied at 3M.

Chapter Six begins the second part of the book, covering the problems andprocesses of managing change when the project office begins to have first contactwith members of the organization. Chapter Seven is a case study from HP Spainthat shows how the manager of that project office managed its interface with therest of the organization. Chapter Eight is another case study, from a U.S. Air ForceBase in Italy, that describes implementing a project office in a very short time,under rapidly changing conditions, and in a highly bureaucratic organization.Chapter Nine calls on information from case studies as it covers the importanttopics of staffing and operating the project office.

Chapters Ten and Eleven cover the final part of the change process, that ofconsolidating the changes to make them an organizational reality. In these chap-ters we acknowledge that most change processes fail because they only developsurface changes and leave the basic assumptions of organization members un-touched. Chapter Ten covers the steps necessary to change basic assumptions oforganization members and thus integrate the new processes into the organiza-tional culture. Chapter Eleven adds a few more important insights into the process,and discusses the action-planning templates in the Appendix, whose use will helpmake the changes stick.

xiv Preface

Englund.FM2 12/19/02 11:41 AM Page xiv

We are aware that organizational change is a messy process and that few po-tential readers for this book will follow the seemingly smooth process outlined here.In fact, readers may find themselves at different points on the continuum ofchange that the book proposes. However, we believe there is potential value forall readers, regardless of where they are in the process.

For those just beginning to think about implementing a project office, the firsttwo parts are most important. The ideas and case studies presented in these sec-tions preview problems you will face, along with suggestions from those who havegone before you. If you have implemented a project office but find that progresshas stalled, you will probably find Part One very helpful. People who experiencedstalled implementations report that they did not spend enough time—or anytime—creating the initial conditions for organizational change. Reviewing the firstfive chapters of this book may highlight important elements that were missed, el-ements that when put in place will move the implementation forward. Those read-ers who have a project office operating successfully will probably want toconcentrate on Parts Two and Three so that they can prepare to consolidate thechanges and finally make an effective and efficient project-based organization anorganizational reality.

The path is arduous but worthy. We offer steps along the pathway and pointout probable hurdles and roadblocks, based on experiences of others. The hero’sjourney includes options to push on, modify your approach, or stop. This book isdesigned to be your partner along the way.

January 2003 Randall L. EnglundBurlingame, California

Robert J. GrahamMendocino, California

Paul C. DinsmoreRio de Janeiro, Brazil

Preface xv

Englund.FM2 12/19/02 11:41 AM Page xv

To all the executives, project managers, and professionals who contributed directly or indirectly to this work by providing

their experiences to be shared with the reading public.

Englund.FM2 12/19/02 11:41 AM Page xvi

xvii

THE AUTHORS AND CONTRIBUTORS

Authors

Randall L. Englund is an independent executive consultant, author, trainer, andspeaker, serving to guide management and project teams through an organic ap-proach to project management. His background was as a senior project managerat Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) in the Project Management Initiative, whosepurpose, as a corporate project office, was to lead the continuous improvement ofproject management across the company.

During twenty-two years at HP, Englund consulted with product developerson cross-organizational projects, developed workshops, documented best prac-tices, and assisted teams to conduct project start-up meetings, implement projectmanagement practices, and prioritize project portfolios. He was a program man-ager in computer system product development and a major account marketingengineer. He also worked in field service for General Electric Medical Systems.

He holds a B.S.E.E. from the University of California, Santa Barbara, anM.B.A. in management from San Francisco State University, and an honorary en-gineering and management degree from Cal Poly State University, San LuisObispo, and attended Stanford University’s Mastering the Project Portfolio Pro-gram. He is certified by the Product Development and Management Association

Englund.FM3 12/19/02 11:42 AM Page xvii

as a New Product Development Professional and as a Certified Business Managerby the Association of Professionals in Business Management.

Englund and Graham joined forces, leveraging their practitioner, consult-ing, and executive education skills, to coauthor the book Creating an Environmentfor Successful Projects: The Quest to Manage Project Management. Both are frequent con-tributors to the Project Management Institute (PMI), as presenters, workshopfacilitators, and authors.

You can reach Randall Englund at [email protected].

Robert J. Graham is an independent management consultant in project manage-ment and organizational change. Previously he was a senior staff member of TheManagement and Behavioral Sciences Center at The Wharton School, Univer-sity of Pennsylvania. While at Wharton he taught in the MBA and Ph.D. pro-grams and was a part of the Wharton Effective Executive program teachingproject management to practicing executives.

Graham held visiting professor positions at the University of Bath and the Uni-versity of the German Armed Forces. He was adjunct professor at the Universityof Pennsylvania and the Project Management Unit at Henley Management Col-lege in England. His first book was Project Management as if People Mattered, followedby Creating an Environment for Successful Projects, and then, with Dennis Cohen, TheProject Manager’s MBA: How to Translate Project Decisions into Business Success.

He developed a simulation, The Complete Project Manager, where participantsmake decisions and receive feedback around a number of behavioral issues inproject management. The Strategic Management Group delivers a full multime-dia version as a computer simulation called Project Leadership.

Graham has a B.S. in systems analysis from Miami University, as well as anM.B.A. and Ph.D. in operations research from the University of Cincinnati. He wasa postdoctoral fellow at The Wharton School. In addition, he has an M.S. in cul-tural anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. He earned Project Man-agement Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute.

You can reach Robert Graham at [email protected].

Paul C. Dinsmore is president of Dinsmore Associates and a highly respected spe-cialist in project management and organizational change. He received the Dis-tinguished Contributions Award and Fellow from the Project ManagementInstitute. He regularly consults and speaks in North America, South America, Eu-rope, and Africa. He is the author or editor of numerous articles and severalbooks, including Winning in Business with Enterprise Project Management and the AMAHandbook of Project Management. Dinsmore, a certified project management profes-

xviii The Authors and Contributors

Englund.FM3 12/19/02 11:42 AM Page xviii

sional (PMP), writes the “Up & Down the Organization” column for the ProjectManagement Institute’s PM Network magazine.

Dinsmore has a B.S. in electrical engineering from Texas Tech University, apostgraduate degree in business administration from Getulio Vargas Foundationin São Paulo, Brazil, and attended the Advanced Management Program at Har-vard Business School.

You can reach Paul Dinsmore at [email protected].

Contributors

Alfonso Bucero, PMP, is now an independent project management consultantand speaker. He is operations manager of the International Institute for Learn-ing (IIL) for Spain and Portugal. His background was as a project manager atHewlett-Packard Consulting, where he developed and managed the PMO im-plementation whose purpose was the continuous improvement of project man-agement discipline across the organization. He assisted in rolling out the PMOpractices to a global project office.

During his thirteen years at HP he managed various customer, infrastructure,development, and change management projects. He spent the last two years atHP selling and implementing the project office; his case, presented in this book,explains the problems he had, the things he learned, and the way he contributedto organizational change through a PMO implementation. Bucero has a B.S. de-gree in computer science engineering, and he is a frequent contributor to inter-national project management conferences and project office workshops.

Dennis J. Cohen is vice president and executive of the Project Management Prac-tice area for the Strategic Management Group in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Heworks with clients to maximize project performance. He coauthored, with RobertGraham, the book The Project Manager’s MBA: How to Translate Project Decisions intoBusiness Results. He served the Wharton School as a research associate, senior fel-low, and adjunct assistant professor of management, teaching courses in man-agement and entrepreneurship and leading seminars in executive educationprograms. Cohen holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Califor-nia, Berkeley, and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Penn-sylvania, as well as M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin.

Colonel Gary C. LaGassey is program manager of Aviano 2000, the largest air baseconstruction program in NATO and the U.S. Air Force. His Program Management

The Authors and Contributors xix

Englund.FM3 12/19/02 11:42 AM Page xix

Office manages and integrates all aspects of the 264-project, $530 million upgradeof Aviano Air Base, Italy. He has been a deputy base commander and supportgroup commander. Operational assignments include duty as a Minuteman launchofficer. Staff assignments include duty as a major command inspector generalteam member, as a missile operations staff officer, and as a political military plan-ner at the Pentagon.

He earned a B.A. degree in political science from the University of Marylandand an M.A. degree in public administration from the University of NorthernColorado. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Air War College and theNATO Defense College. Among his numerous military awards are the Legion ofMerit and the NATO Medal for his role in the air combat campaigns in Bosnia(1995) and Kosovo (1999). LaGassey frequently presents at PMI Symposiumsabout his project office experiences.

Robert L. Storeygard, PMP, is an advanced project management specialist and isthe 3M Traffic Control Materials Division (TCM) Project Office. He authoredthe extensive 3M Project Leadership Curriculum and teaches a number of projectmanagement-related classes at 3M. He is also the past chair and current interna-tional outreach chair of the 3M PMSIG, representing three thousand projectmanagers and leaders throughout 3M worldwide. Storeygard works extensivelyin 3M’s International environment, helping to deploy PM best practices through-out 3M’s Latin American and Asian subsidiaries. In addition, he works with nu-merous St. Paul, Austin, and other plant sites, departments, and divisions to teach,consult, and help deploy PM in their business and technology areas.

He is a member of the Project Management Institute and a PMP Certifica-tion Instructor, served as the Minnesota vice president of professional develop-ment and the National PMI Education Specific Interest Group (SIG) co-chair.Storeygard speaks at many U.S. and international conferences on project andportfolio management, as well as the project office, and his work and writingshave been published in numerous articles, presentations, and several books.Storeygard has B.A. degrees in education and attended postgraduate courses inproject management.

He suggests, “If you need internal support for your PM efforts and projectoffices, you need to read Chapter Five, because without it you will be pushing ropeuphill!”

xx The Authors and Contributors

Englund.FM3 12/19/02 11:42 AM Page xx


Englund.FM3 12/19/02 11:42 AM Page xxi

Englund.FM3 12/19/02 11:42 AM Page xxii

PART ONE

CREATING THE CONDITIONSFOR CHANGE

We write this book from the point of view of advising a small group of people,call them change agents, who are attempting to implement a project office tomake the organization more project-friendly. Not all readers will be directly chargedwith implementing organizational change. However, since most readers are involvedwith project management, they will be involved with assisting in that change. Peo-ple involved in change processes often find them chaotic and seemingly without logic.Understanding the entire change process from the point of view of the change agentsdirecting it helps all participants better understand what is happening and why.Understanding the motives and logic of the leaders helps create better partici-pants and followers. Each individual can also apply these steps to personal projects.

To move along the path of organizational change, we break the journey intothree segments, comprising creating the conditions for change, making the changehappen, and making change stick. The first one, creating the conditions forchange, is covered in the next five chapters. Figure I.1 illustrates the completejourney.

Figure I.1 depicts a small group of people, the team of change agents, be-ginning a trek from the lower left corner. They are in a storm. Visions of a sunnyparadise (upper right corner) feel like fantasy but still capture their imaginationas something they want to achieve, something much better than their current re-ality. Not quite revealed to them yet is the complex journey they face. Each stepalong the twisted path is a chapter in this book.

Y

Englund.Part1 12/19/02 11:43 AM Page 1

Since the mission is to implement a project office as a vehicle for organiza-tional change, the first step on the journey is to discover the processes necessaryto lead an organization to change. Following the process outlined in Chapter One,the team identifies many clear dangers. Some of these dangers may lead to side-tracks or discontinuing the journey. To go onward the change agents need to cre-ate or identify a sense of urgency for the change among other members of theorganization as well as determine how their efforts will add value to the organi-zation. Once they figure this out, the team realizes it has little chance of successwithout developing some clout to deal with powerful political forces. The change

2 Creating the Project Office

FIGURE I.1. THE PATHWAY TO CHANGE.

1.Leading organizational change

3.Powerful forces

4.Focus

5.Tell

the tale

6.Contact

7.Implementing

8.Keep moving

9.In or out?

10.Looking forward 11.

The tale we tellRefreeze

Change

Unfreeze

2.Clear danger

Pathway to Organizational Change


agents understand that few people will listen to them just because they have a goodidea. So the next step on the journey is to develop political acumen, a powerfulsponsor, and a coalition of organization members that help guide them on theirjourney. With backing from that group, they proceed to focus on what functionsthe project office will perform, how those functions will add value to the organi-zation, and how they expect those functions to expand and grow. This vision andstrategy is put into a succinct plan and a language that others in the organizationunderstand so that the team of change agents can tell their tale—harness inter-nal support—to enlist the help of the entire organization.

This period spent creating the conditions that will enable change is critical tothe success of the entire endeavor. Project managers recognize this time as akinto the preparation of a project plan, which indeed it is. It is also the honeymoonperiod for the project team, for during this time—while the project office is beingdiscussed—it will not yet affect people’s lives. That being the case, the project teamcan expect that serious opposition will not yet be formed. This is analogous to the“hundred days” that new U.S. presidents typically have before serious oppositionmounts to their policies and programs. The change agent team can expect seri-ous opposition to arise after this part of the journey is completed. Not known yetis what awaits them in the middle section of Figure I.1. Implementation usuallyrequires invading new territories or jungles—other functional areas or businesses.Sensing invaders, the lions, tigers, and bears emerge from hiding places in the for-est, ready to attack. For the change agent team to be ready for this opposition,they need to develop political acumen while time is available.

Since the first part of the journey is a planning period, the team can expectthe usual problems associated with project planning. Some will say the planningis a waste of time. Some may press for quick results and eschew the entire idea ofplanning. Others may agitate to quicken the process and get into action sooner.But project and program managers know better. They know that planning is es-sential for success and can easily take 40 percent of the entire time allotted to aproject. For those who insist on skipping this first phase and taking a shortcut, weoffer two cautionary tales.

Cautionary Tales

Lands beyond the bounds of the known world tantalized the imaginations of an-cient scholars, inspiring visions of a lush empire far to the south. Maps, drawnfrom supposition and mysticism, identified this area as Terra Incognita, the unknownland, newly discovered but not yet fully known. Only centuries later when bravesailors traveled south did they discover the world was much different. As we now

Part One: Creating the Conditions for Change 3


know, the maps were incorrect, and their assumptions were false. However, whatlies beyond boundaries is always mysterious and awaits discovery. The emptinesstantalizes us to explore and conquer this space.

Organizational change agents exploring the future of project managementface similar challenges as the earlier explorers. Misconceptions abound about whatis possible. Newly discovered fads drive managers to launch ill-conceived projectsor initiatives. Modern explorers also face unknowns, resistance, and chaos.

More recently, in the spring of 1846, a group of immigrants set out from Illi-nois to make the two-thousand-mile journey to California. They planned to usethe well-known Oregon Trail. One part of this group, the Donner party, was de-termined to reach California quickly and so decided to take a shortcut. They trav-eled with a larger group until reaching the Little Sandy River. At this point thelarger party turned north, taking the longer route up through Oregon and thento California. The Donner party headed south, taking an untried route known asHasting’s Cutoff. Since no one, including Hastings himself, had ever tried this cut-off, they had little idea of what to expect. Their first barrier was the Great SaltLake Desert, where they encountered conditions that they never imagined—sear-ing heat by day and frigid winds at night. A more formidable barrier was en-countered in the Sierras. After a severe snowstorm on October 31 blocked thetrail, the party was forced to camp in makeshift cabins or tents just to the east ofthe pass that today bears their name. The majority of these unfortunates spent astarving, frozen winter—the worst ever recorded in the Sierras—trapped in themountains. The few survivors of that camp, who wound up resorting to canni-balism to make it through the winter, reached California long after the other mem-bers of the original Illinois group—and in far worse spirits.

The first conclusion that can be drawn for the project office team is that manyhave gone before you with a journey of organizational change. Their collectiveexperience forms the equivalent of the Oregon Trail, a process showing a knownway to reach the desired goal. Although this path may seem long, ignore it at yourown peril. Second, although the Oregon Trail was well known and well traveled,it was not necessarily easy. There were many difficulties along that trail and nodoubt some people died even though they were on the known route. So taking theOregon Trail is no guarantee of success—but it seems to greatly increase thechances. Finally, taking a shortcut leads into unknown territory like the Great SaltLake Desert or Terra Incognita—the unknown land—as illustrated in Figure I.1.The route may look good on the map, but the map is not the territory. The bestadvice we give those considering a shortcut is from Virginia Reed, a Donnerparty survivor, who said, “Remember, never take no cutoffs and hurry along asfast as you can.”

4 Creating the Project Office


This chapter begins by describing the project office concept and introducing the idea that the mem-bers of the project office need to think and act as organizational change agents. This is followedby a discussion of the idea of planned organizational change and the role of the change agentsin that process. The change theme is then further developed by detailing the steps involved in im-plementing a project office aimed at leading the change process. The steps include establishing asense of urgency, developing political acumen, creating a guiding coalition, developing a visionand strategy, communicating the change vision, developing short-term wins, developing broad-based action, consolidating the successes, and making the change stick. These steps will allowyou to develop a project office that can lead the change to a project-based organization.

1.Leading organizationalchange

3. 4.

5.

6.

7.8.

9.

10.11.

Refreeze

Change

Unfreeze

2.

Pathway to Organizational Change

Englund.Chap1 12/19/02 11:37 AM Page 6

CREATING THE PROJECT OFFICE€¦ · PROJECT OFFICE A Manager’s Guide to Leading Organizational Change Randall L. Englund Robert J. Graham Paul C. Dinsmore Y Englund.FM1 12/19/02

Documents