The Next Gen PMO: Aligning Your Organisation to Execute Its Strategy Tim Wasserman
Dec 26, 2015
The Next Gen PMO:
Aligning Your Organization
to Execute Its Strategy
Tim WassermanProgramme Director, Stanford Advanced Project ManagementChief Learning Officer, ESI International & IPS Learning
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Objectives for Today
Share framework for improving strategic alignment of project-based work
Explore organizational, leadership and individual dynamics that enable improved performance
Provide actionable, applicable tools
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Why Good Strategies Fail
Only 56% of strategic initiatives
have been successful
…lessons for the C-suite
61% of firms often struggle to bridge strategy-
execution gapThe Economist Intelligence Unit, March 2013
9% rate themselves as excellent on successful execution
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Global CEO’s #1 Strategy
Seek better alignment between strategy,
objectives and organizational capabilities
The Conference Board, 2014
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PMI’s Pulse of the Profession, February 2014
Why focus on Alignment?
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Why do we get less than desirable performance?
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Why Good Strategies Fail Alignment between
strategy and execution unclear
Impact of organizational dynamics are misunderstood or ignored
Lack of aligned performance metrics
Programs/projects extremely complex
Inconsistent processes on how to manage projects and programs
Lack of clear agreements around interfaces and interdependencies
Failure to accurately predict results in scope creep
Risks not well understood
Lack of resources, people spread too thin
Required skill sets don’t match required needs
Other organizational functions and members not on board
Difficult to manage without authority over people who are on multiple projects, not functional reports
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Who are you?
Where are you going?
How will you operate?
What needs creating?
What is the context?
How will we build it?
The Strategic Execution Framework
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Strategy Making
Strategy Execution
Unpacking the SEF
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Energy• Price of crude oil• Global competition• Energy consumption
Financial Services• Hyper competitive market• New emerging technologies• Faster time to market
What’s Your External Environment?
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Organization
Program/project
Team
Individual
What’s your Context?
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Questions to Ask &Actions to Consider
How aware are team members of the current organizational context?
How often is this discussed? How much is enough information? Who helps you decide what to
share?
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The Ideation domain
Character, image,brand, and values
What the organization is dedicated to in the long term
The reason the organization exists
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Xerox’s Ideation, 1981
“Xerox perceived itself as only in the office copier business.” Malcolm Gladwell
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Questions to Ask & Actions to Consider
• What is your PMO’s Ideation?• Is it compelling to the point of being a
“magnet?”• How is your PMO perceived by it’s
customers? By senior management? By the project and program community?
• Can your people connect what they are doing to the organization’s Ideation?
Retaining Top PMO Talent When You Have No Authority
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The Nature domain
How an organization designs relationships
between areas or functions
The artifacts, core values, and behaviors of the organization
The path an organization designs to achieve its purpose and goals
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Misaligned Ideation, Culture and Strategy
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Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.
Ideation
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CompetenceCultivation
Source: Schneider, William E. The Reengineering Alternative: A Plan for Making Your Current Culture Work. Burr Ridge, IL: Irwin Professional Pub., 1994.
Collaboration Control
Competence
Collaboration Control
Cultivation
Every organization has a predominant culture and may have subordinate cultures.
Four core cultures
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Collaboration Control
Competence
Collaboration Control
Cultivation
Culture and Today’s Work Approaches
TRADITIONALAGILE
LEAN
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CompetenceCultivation
Collaboration Control
Competence(achievement)
Collaboration (affiliation)
Control(order & security)
Cultivation(self-actualization)
Aligning PMO Structure and Culture
Project SupportPMO
CoE PMO
Enterprise/Org Unit PMO
Project-Specific PMO
Retaining Top PMO Talent When You Have No Authority
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5
4
3
2
1
1
2
3
4
5
5
43
2
1
1
23
4
5
Control
CompetenceCultivation
Collaboration
Your Culture Maps
Draw a culture map for: Your
Organization (red)
Your PMO (green)
© 2014 IPS Learning LLC and contributors
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Questions to Ask & Actions to Consider
What is your PMO’s culture “egg”? Are you culture and structure aligned
within the PMO? How does this compare/align to your
business unit? The overall organization?
What do you need to adjust?
Retaining Top PMO Talent When You Have No Authority
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The Vision domain
The path an organization designs to achieve its
purpose and goals
The determination of specific desired results
The vehicle to evaluateprogress to the achievement
of strategic goals
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Clear Strategic Vision: SW Airlines
Source: Porter, Michael. "What is Strategy?" Harvard Business Review HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition, Product Number: 4134 (February 1, 2000).
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Questions to Ask & Actions to Consider
Are your required reporting metrics meaningful, aligned and adding value to the organization?
Do project/program metrics link to the strategic goals?
Do your team members know what these metrics are?
To what extent can they impact these? Are individual and team metrics
aligned?
Retaining Top PMO Talent When You Have No Authority
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The Engagement domain
Strategy based, prioritized set of projects and programs, reconciled to the resources required to accomplish them
The path an organization designs to achieve its purpose and goals
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An organization's real strategy is the portfolio of strategic projects in which it invests
Real strategy
Officialstrategy
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Strategic goals & portfolio are both moving targets
Strategic Portfolio!
StrategicGoals
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Can you map the portfolio of project investments with the organization strategies?
How aligned is the portfolio process with the espoused ideation and culture of the organization?
Are portfolio criteria understood and agreed upon at all levels of the organization?
How effective are those responsible for providing portfolio inputs at influencing the portfolio?
Questions to Ask & Actions to Consider
Retaining Top PMO Talent When You Have No Authority
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The Synthesis domain
Multiple interdependent projects managed as a single unit
Unique, temporary efforts defined by deliverables, schedule, and resources
Strategy-based, prioritized set of projects and programs, reconciled to the resources
required to accomplish them
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Predictability vs. Uncertainty:Complex Program Attributes
Predictable Uncertain
Authority Centralized Decentralized
Process Plan-Execute-Track-Control Iterate through Try-Fail-Learn
Reward System “Failure” to achieve goals is punished
Learning through small partial “failures” is rewarded
Information Flow
Partition information and share it top-down on “need to know” basis Create many-to-many communication
Locus of Big Picture
Global awareness exists only at top via status reports
Global awareness exists around edges of the organization
How Program Manager Leads
Clearly specify project outputs - “Tell What to Do”
Clarify ideation and desired strategic outcomes - “Teach How to Decide”
Management Style Top-down command & control Adaptive, collaborative
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What is the PMO’s role and/or charter in driving project and program execution?
How is this communicated to and understood by the organization?
Are the PMOs offerings/services aligned?
Questions to Ask & Actions to Consider
Retaining Top PMO Talent When You Have No Authority
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The Transition domainMultiple interdependent projects managed as a
single unit
Unique, temporary efforts defined by deliverables, schedule, and resources
The ongoing processes of the enterprise that deliver value
to the customer
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What barriers do you see to successful transition?
Resistance to change Lack of acceptance/not invented
here End user success criteria/metrics
not aligned with developer metrics
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Rapid Transformation
Phase 1: DiagnosisPre-Transformation
Phase 2: Envisioning the Future
Transformation Implementation
30-90 Days
Phase 3: Paving the
Road
30 Days 30 Days 30 Days 6-12 Months
Carlos Ghosn: Renault-Nissan
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When do you involve those who own the Operations experience?
How do you integrate them early and often?
Are your operational success metrics aligned with project metrics?
When does work begin on addressing the organizational change component?
Questions to Ask &Actions to Consider
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I N V E S T
Imperatives of Strategic Execution
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I
N
V
deationature
ision
Know who you are, why you exist and where you are going
Align your strategy, structure and culture
Continually rearticulate and quantify your desired outcomes
Imperatives of Strategic Execution
Engagement
Continually reinvest in the right portfolio of strategic projects to achieve current strategic outcomes
ST
ynthesis
ransition
Execute your strategic projects balancing appropriate levels of PM 1.0 (discipline) vs. PM 2.0 (agility)Transition your projects’ benefits into operations, and reinvest the project resources
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SEF and Meta Alignment
Alignment between and within the
domains enables strategic execution
Challenges to strategic execution are a reflection of
misalignment
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Where are your Strengths and Opportunities?
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What Works Well Opportunities for Improvement
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Critical PBW Leadership Competenciesfor Execution Excellence
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Some parting thoughts…
1. It’s all about ALIGNMENT
2. Do the RIGHT PROJECTS and do the PROJECTS RIGHT
3. Leading project-based work requires DISCIPLINE and AGILITY