Projects Drive Change | Stephen Wise | Integration Professionals Why you need a Project Guide in One Simple Picture. Projects Drive Change. Moving from Current State to Future state is the selection of priority projects designed to increase business value. January 27, 2021 By SuperUser Account Leadership, Project Management Ideas, Strategy Change, Project, Future-State, Business-Value 0 Comment Read More >>
The most powerful leadership skill an expert Project Manager needs for success No one can be an expert in all fields. A Project Manager is a skilled expert on leading teams to initiate, plan, execute and close projects. These are among the most important skills, but not the most powerful. If you aren’t feeling well you go to see your General Practitioner (GP). Your GP understands the big picture and upon identifying a specific issue or risk with your health may refer you to a specialist. In this analogy the GP is like a Project Manager – they do not need to be an expert in every field and one difference between okay GP’s and excellent GP’s is the speed and quality and follow-up related to the referral. All Project Managers will tell you that the most commonly used skill on a project is communication. However, neither communication nor planning are the most powerful skills in the arsenal. The true multiplier, the most powerful skill, is the ability to learn from others. The ability to learn from others enables the PM to absorb the nuances of the culture, mitigate the hidden risks of the processes, and allow for the complexity of the technology. When a diverse project team gets together it doesn’t matter who is the smartest or most senior in the room. What matters is learning from everyone’s skills and experience and channeling that back to the team so the whole is greater than the sum. The most powerful leadership skill is the ability to apply the greater whole in order to reach the objectives of the project quicker and with less risk of failure. Stephen Wise https://www.IntegrationProfessionals.com February 14, 2014 By Administrator Account Communication, Leadership, Project Management Ideas benefits, business, closing, communication, culture, executing, initiation, leadership, planning, project, success 0 Comment Read More >>
Two themes for Portfolio Agility I have seen the future and it is agile. The agile I am talking about is not a tool, or methodology, or a movement. It is the outcome when Project Managers have discussions with Sponsors on how to go faster, or how to beat competitors, or how to win new business. Portfolio management is listing, prioritizing, selecting, and controlling business ideas/investments in the context of the top success drivers and constraints affecting the business. In my experience, many projects are handed to the Project Manager that have risks or budget or schedule issues that the PM can’t even quantify. Unfortunately, these very items are likely to be the root cause of missed expectations, budget overruns or schedule delays. Our challenge is to enter into an ongoing conversation to ensure the right investments are being made at the right time. We need to develop and design a new way of thinking to respond to the needs of the business. Here are two themes to help support this change: 1. Focus on enhancing the collaboration and communication between the person managing the work (Project Manager) and the person who wants the work done (Sponsor). Create visibility anytime and to any desired level of detail. Speed everything up so that we can see business benefits/failures faster. 2. Gain trust by eliminating multiple sources of data/truth by bringing data integrity into the project and program environment. Ensure culture is conducive to increased reporting. Communicate better about those things that people care about. I first head the following from an industry research analyst, “We need better brakes … so we can go faster”. How true! By investing in portfolio management skills and tools to improve communication and data quality, the organizations we support will have improved agility to amplify successes and reallocate resources from underperforming projects. March 25, 2012 By Administrator Account Methodology, Portfolio Management, Project Management Ideas, Tools agile, benefits, collaboration, communicate, communication, culture, data integrity, drivers, failures, fast, faster, ideas, investments, mehtodology, portfolio, prioritizing, project, selecting, speed, sponsor, success 0 Comment Read More >>