11 Things for Clarity, Pragmatism and just the right amount of Disruption

Do you know what's happening across the organisation and what it means for your area of the business? Or do you rely on your employees to do the right thing for the business as a whole?

These and a raft of other questions are frequently asked by Executives that are connected with what's going on both in their own business unit and wider organisation. Through clarity, pragmatism and just the right amount of disruption, these Executives are connected in a way that increases the level of business benefit they can achieve through their operational and project activities.

We've identified #11Things we believe only a connected Executive could know...

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Assess for Success

If success means tangible business value then projects must deliver something that actually fits what the business needs. Yet over time these two can and do get out of synch.  By stepping away from the mechanics of a project we can assess and decide if it’s really worth continuing.

Practical Project Governance - 4 Traps to Avoid

Governance of projects and initiatives can be a mixed bag. Many see it as a necessary evil; another process and set of meetings that clogs calendars, adds cost, and delays progress. Yet those who understand good governance know it’s an essential part of delivering business value to an organisation. 

Some will be nodding their heads in agreement but it’s what they do next that matters. If all they do is talk and point out others failings, they’re not making any contribution towards improvement. Without action these questions will remain unanswered - Why is governance so time consuming? Why don’t our initiatives line up with our strategy? Where’s all the money going? Why are we really doing this? When will we realise business value from all this investment?

An organisations culture has a large part to do with this cycle of frustration and making changes takes time and and serious commitment. There are however some areas that with a little effort can deliver big benefits. So if you are interested in steps along the road towards good governance, here are 4 traps worth avoiding:

4 Key Takeaways From A London Conference

Those of you who follow me on Twitter will have noticed my tweets last week came from the Business Process Management Europe Conference in London. It was co-located with the Enterprise Architecture Europe Conference and expertly hosted by IRM UK. It’s a long time since I’ve been to a conference and my expectations of both the speakers and content were high.

There were around 250 attendees representing 30 or more countries and many have blogged about their experience. Rather than taking you through the conference, its content and highlights from the various speakers I heard, I thought I’d share my 4 key takeaways. While they won’t surprise you they should confirm you’re either on the right track when it comes to influencing and delivering change or that some course correction is well overdue.

4 Tips from a Sling Shot

We know change projects can be difficult beasts. Yet we often ignore how we, the people involved in delivering or receiving the change, multiply those difficulties through our own learned behaviours. We’ve let what we’ve been told or read in the multitude of business books, blogs and training programmes automate us and what we do. Don’t get me wrong, process has its place. Checks and balances are necessary and process provides them but when the spotlight focuses on following the process rather than on the results it’s there to enable, the reasons behind implementing a process have been lost.

So if we simplify the process we’ll get better results, right? That will definitely help. However too often the process remains centre stage and other difficulties are left unresolved. In order to effect change fully we must apply different thinking and it’s in this area we can find parallels between change projects and Michaelangelo’s David. 

Yes I’m a bit of a Michelangelo fan and am particularly awed by his sculpture of David, which stands majestically in the Accademia di Belle Arte in Florence, Italy.  Every time I see it, in real or on the postcard image stuck to my office notice board, I’m struck by its magnificence. I’m also reminded of how David saw things differently, simplified the approach and through that successfully delivered the change everyone was striving for. Here are 4 tips he can teach us:

Tip 1: Use what makes sense when it makes sense to do so – Those before him had each wielded swords and various other armaments without success. David chose a slingshot and stones. He may have been careful in his stone selection taking enough to do the job with some in reserve for risk mitigation. He didn’t ignore the sword and used it to great effect when it mattered most.

Lesson: Process for process sake adds little value and blindly following a method will not improve either the method or its results. 

Tip 2: Use understanding and insight – David saw and understood what others had done. He took a different view and applied some intelligent thinking. He figured out the exact spot to hit in order to maximise results.

Lesson: Sometimes the ideas, thoughts or perceptions that initially seem crazy, counter-intuitive or sit outside the bounds of the process can deliver the greatest benefits.

Tip 3: Show willingness to do what’s right – The situation David walked into had been created based on fear and intimidation. It wasn’t going to change any time soon using the current process. While there was an incentive at stake he saw something wasn’t right and took action to change it.

Lesson: Only by changing our own behaviour will we change the behaviour of others.

Tip 4: Put things into perspective – David could clearly see his adversary had a big reputation and a lot of power with his army and over others. Putting what he saw into perspective against what needed to be done meant David could figure out a way to deal with the situation and did it.

Lesson: Bigger isn’t always better. 

By breaking out of the ‘process is King’ belief organisations will be able to deliver increased cost reductions for greater shareholder value. Or in other words, stay in business. Instead many punt for more processes, recycling operating models from the past or expounding empty declarations of co-creation and innovation.

They’re missing a huge opportunity because what comes next inevitably compounds difficulty. 

Stop making the process important. Refocus and simplify. Use process to work for you.

The Human Face of Transition

One of the people I’ve connected with through Twitter is Bas de Baar. He’s The Project Shrink and in his own words he makes ‘complex people stuff less complex’. I like the way Bas writes and I particularly like the way he uses hand drawn images to simplify difficult problems without trivialising their importance. In a recent post The Project Story Circle. Talking About Transitions he’s used a simple yet very effective drawing. A circle as the cycle of a project and through the centre of it a horizontal line representing the project itself. The two halves can then be viewed as project and non-project time. Read his post for all the details because here I’m picking up on one particular bullet point he makes:

This will focus attention on the transitions organization-project and project-organization.

What Bas suggests is that the shape can be used when discussing projects and where in the circle people join, become active, and where they expect problems to occur. As a delivery specialist I see companies and their people struggle repeatedly with transition from project to organisation and believe the struggle can be simplified by using this drawing. Let’s take a look at an approach to change management and transition that most will be familiar with then see how this simple drawing could help.

5 Positive Effects to Walking Your Talk

As leaders and managers we’re constantly bombarded with information that needs digesting and disseminating to others. Some of it good and some of it not so great. While there’s no ‘right’ way to do it there are certainly some simple and effective ways to minimise disruption and maintain or increase motivation and buy-in. Here are 5 positive effects of how when you Walk your Talk you can achieve more with ease whether you're delivering good or bad news.