avengers and enablers of project managementdocuments.grenadine.co/pmi bangalore india chapter... ·...
TRANSCRIPT
Avengers and Enablers of Project Management
Strategies to Transform Organizations
Abstract ID: PMIBC-17-1-032
Project Management Practitioners’ Conference 2017
www.pmibanga lorechapter .o rg
Page 2
CONTENTS
Abstract .................................................................................................................................................................. 3
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................ 4
The Avengers and the Enablers ........................................................................................................................ 5
The New Age Stakeholder ..................................................................................................................................... 6
RACI in the new world order .............................................................................................................................. 6
Stakeholder Management: The Way Forward ................................................................................................... 7
Collaboration is the New Competition ................................................................................................................... 7
Collaboration: The Imperative ........................................................................................................................... 7
Collaborative Project Management ................................................................................................................... 8
Gamification ....................................................................................................................................................... 9
Go Social ........................................................................................................................................................... 9
Transformation at the Speed of Change ............................................................................................................. 10
The Key Drivers ............................................................................................................................................... 10
The New Project Management Narrative ........................................................................................................ 11
Dealing with the Disruptions ................................................................................................................................ 12
Readiness ........................................................................................................................................................ 12
Responsiveness .............................................................................................................................................. 12
Two Stage Gap Analysis – Tracking Value in the Making............................................................................... 13
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................... 13
References .......................................................................................................................................................... 15
Project Management Practitioners’ Conference 2017
www.pmibanga lorechapter .o rg
Page 3
ABSTRACT
Exponential evolution of technology, the advent of millennials and rapidly changing geopolitical equations
necessitate a re-evaluation of the project management landscape.
With increasing speeds of business and rise in project complexity, project managers need flexible, adaptive,
self-learning tools suited to current project planning, management and reporting requirements. AI and machine
learning based tools help bring efficacy to the PM's role by automating non-cognitive tasks and better analytics
of project metrics. Increased remote collaboration is possible due to lower cost of telecommuting requiring the
PM to be adept at managing virtual teams.
The advent of millennials as stake holders, both internal and external, has made it imperative to review and
refine traditional (RACI) models of stakeholder management. Millennials have characteristics and preferences
quite distinct from their previous generations. They prefer collaboration over competition, adopt technology to
communicate and collaborate remotely, expect to be rewarded frequently, have slight disdain towards
micromanagement and are conscious of their responsibility towards the environment both as producers and
consumers.
Hence, traditional hierarchical project management practices need to be replaced with flatter organizations that
foster teamwork and cooperation and incorporate strategies for sustainable growth.
Uncertain geopolitical environment with increased supplier constraints, changing entry barriers, stealth
substitutes and regulatory requirements has further increased the need / ability to shift gears from retrospective
to a more proactive risk identification, planning and mitigation.
Therefore, through this paper, we explore the specifics and nuances of project management keeping in mind
the aforesaid drivers and aspects of changing business landscape.
Project Management Practitioners’ Conference 2017
www.pmibanga lorechapter .o rg
Page 4
INTRODUCTION
"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most
responsive to change." —Charles Darwin.
The relevance of Darwin's theory is not lost in context of current day business environment. It would be clichéd
to say that the world has changed more in the past decade than several others preceding it and the success of
any organization depends on its ability to deal with the multitude of parameters of change.
This is an era of constant connectivity. Terms like digitisation, artificial intelligence, cloud and big data are no
longer restricted to technology journals but have become part of the common parlance. Remote connectivity
has blurred workplace boundaries. The modern-day workforce spans four generations with the millennials
making up nearly half of it. With their affinity for collaboration and dissolving workplace boundaries, yearning
for recognition, appetite for taking responsibility and accountability, complete ownership of each endeavour and
at the same time their care and concern for the environment, millennials are a generation set out to redefine
the basic principles on which current day business environment functions. While the world does recognize the
benefits of globalization, recent geopolitical developments indicate a growing sentiment around protectionism
and governments favouring populism. The boundaries of geopolitical influence are no longer limited to state
boundaries but are defined by ideological and economic impact. The traditional distinctions of domestic/
international or physical/virtual have become obsolete.
This paper seeks to understand the implications of these disruptions to the business models and the
Exhibit 1 : Change indicators of past decades. Source: A World of Change (International Monetary Fund, Finance and
Development)
Project Management Practitioners’ Conference 2017
www.pmibanga lorechapter .o rg
Page 5
organizational practices and processes. It further aims to explore the way forward in terms of managing the
stakeholder expectations, adopting a collaborative mindset, transformation strategies to be deployed at
organization level and dealing with these disruptions.
THE AVENGERS AND THE ENABLERS
The conventional models and practices are not adequate to
deal with the ever-mounting disruptions. We need a new
breed of models, methodologies, practices and tools – the
Avengers and Enablers of Project Management:
• Communication Strategies
• Excellence in a Collaborative Environment
• Unification of Cause, Sponsors, Enablers and Players
• Readiness for change
• Responsiveness to change
In order to counter the multitude of business disruptions, it is imperative for these strategies to combine forces.
Precedence must be accorded to value creation for the end consumer over near-term benefits to the
organizations. PM professionals need to don the hat of "Enablers" who shall drive the change in
communication strategies, bring together diverse perspectives through effective collaboration, ensure the
team's willing and seamless adaptation to change.
Research
In course of research for this paper, we
have conducted a survey amongst
professionals with diverse
organizational roles and
functional backgrounds with
the key focus in areas of new age
stakeholder management, collaboration
for driving projects / transformation. The
results of this primary research have been
highlighted in the appropriate sections of
this paper.
In addition, references and exhibits used from secondary research of case studies, research publications have
been leveraged and highlighted with attribution to the source in relevant sections of the paper. All of these
sources have been included in the references section.
Exhibit 2 : The Driving Forces of Change and Strategies for Organizational
Transformation in the New World Order
Project Management Practitioners’ Conference 2017
www.pmibanga lorechapter .o rg
Page 6
THE NEW AGE STAKEHOLDER
Stakeholder Management is at the heart of Project management. With the changing world order, it is important
to revisit the tenets of traditional stakeholder management model.
RACI IN THE NEW WORLD ORDER
Responsibility and Accountability
With the evolution of flatter management structures, responsibility and accountability have come to
complement each other. In the new world order, both responsibility and accountability need to be shared. Each
team member completely owns their piece of work and there is a joint accountability towards the end goal.
Collaboration Partners
The changed project management landscape demands that project sponsors, subject matter experts and other
stakeholders collaborate with the project team and have an effective communication exchange. Every
stakeholder is a contributor as well as a consumer for the project information. Consultation in its new avatar is
more of collaboration through SME Groups, Forums and Crowd Sourcing of information with enterprise /
project management social platforms playing a pivotal role.
Democratization of Information
The appetite and the way of consuming, contributing and leveraging information / data have changed
drastically. The traditional method of disseminating project information through exclusive reporting does not
suit the bill any more for the continually evolving and increasingly complex project and project stakeholder
needs. Therefore,
project information
needs to be current and
available to all
stakeholders at all
times. The “push”
method of
communication needs
to change in favour of
“pull” / On-demand
methods. Interactive
project dashboards,
updated near real time
is the ask of the day.
The responsibility of
updating these Exhibit 3 : Stakeholder Management Existing Vs. in the New World Order
Project Management Practitioners’ Conference 2017
www.pmibanga lorechapter .o rg
Page 7
dashboards should not lie with the project manager alone. Each member of the team should be empowered,
engaged and accountable to ensure that the dashboard reflects the true and most recent status of their unit of
work. (Please refer to Exhibit 3)
There is also a need to eliminate the disparity in access of information about the project for various
stakeholders. All stakeholders need to have uniform and simultaneous access to information.
STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT: THE WAY FORWARD
Typically, project managers spend more than half of their time in
gathering, collating and publishing project information. Increasing
project complexity and the requirement for faster turnaround
times necessitate the adoption of technology for automation of
these “non-cognitive” tasks. The primary function of a project
manager is to bring together the varied elements of the project
landscape and bring about a harmony amongst the same in order
to realise the project objectives. The gathering of project information, updating project metrics and dashboards,
dissemination of information to stakeholders are all tasks that can be automated, leaving the project manager
time to concentrate on the deductions from these dashboards and plan and execute further course of action.
It is essential to transcend the traditional project management
tools and adopt collaborative project management tools that
incorporate intelligent resource allocation and project scheduling,
real time project dashboards. These tools leverage technologies
such as AI for not only automating regular administrative tasks
but also for analysis of project performances and making
decisions and recommendations based on these analyses.
Millennials are fast becoming key decision makers, project leaders and consumers of product/project. They are
no longer just ‘contributors’. This mandates better transparency, increased participation and speedier response
to feedback.
COLLABORATION IS THE NEW COMPETITION
COLLABORATION: THE IMPERATIVE
The current complex and turbulent business environment combined with an increasingly digitized economy,
make it almost compulsory for competitors to collaborate and work towards a defined objective. At times, even
the best of the efforts and resources of individual organizations are not sufficient to satisfy customer
requirements completely. In such situations, it is advantageous for all parties involved to leverage the collective
wisdom of the group and find more holistic solutions to problems, thereby, effectively meeting customer needs.
Exhibit 4 : Research Response – Project
Management Effort
Exhibit 5 : Research Response – Project
Management Tools
Project Management Practitioners’ Conference 2017
www.pmibanga lorechapter .o rg
Page 8
Sustained success in the changing times demands shifting the spotlight from near term and immediate
stakeholder benefits to a “Cause” as the driving force for the business. Businesses that thrive on a sustained
basis seek to solve problems for the end consumer. Often, organizations try to win the race by trying to run
faster than the competition, typically relying on first mover advantage, information asymmetry and market
inefficiencies for their success. This approach generally leads to early, but non-sustainable success and
ofttimes late adopters do better than first movers over time. Realising that the business cycle time for most
industries is nearly 5-7 years, organizations need to work towards increasing profitability via impact. Long
surviving products of the future will be the ones that create long lasting impact on lives. Thus, it is essential to
apply better thought and execution for maximum influence.
COLLABORATIVE PROJECT MANAGEMENT
In times of unprecedented disruption and rapidly emerging opportunities when the fundamental rules of the
game are changing rapidly, the need for swift response to change is escalated. More than just “managing”
these disruptions, the project manager needs to bring together the divergent perspectives and amalgamate
them into a collectively harmonious thought process. The key here is to deploy techniques of collaborative
consumption, blurring the distinction between the consumer and the provider of information. With faster than
ever before advancements in technology, viz. cloud computing, artificial intelligence and with the ever-
expanding use of social media, conventional consumption with no input from the consumer ceases to provide
much benefit. On the other hand, in collaborative consumption, stakeholders are both consumers and
providers of information and services. This need is accentuated with millennials now occupying significant
position across the project stakeholder spectrum – from producers to consumers.
In order to capitalize on what the World Economic Forum terms as the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”,
organizations are getting into strategic alliances to further their businesses. Here again, it is important to
transcend parochialism and take an objective view of the “cause” behind the collaboration. The efforts of each
of the partners must be streamlined in order to ideate, innovate and create solutions to problems that would not
be possible alone deferring the short-term interests of the individual organizations. The commitment to the
“Cause” needs to be
driven from the top levels.
These leaders must act as
visionaries who provide
direction and help to weed
out issues created by self-
interest of individual
organizations. These
collaborations need to be
continuously monitored,
their progress tracked and assessed and course corrections made.
Exhibit 6 : Collaboration - The Imperative
Project Management Practitioners’ Conference 2017
www.pmibanga lorechapter .o rg
Page 9
Collaboration, in both its forms described above,
mandates sharing of the lessons learnt and the
best practices. The ubiquity of internet ensures
that the information, though delayed, does have a
good penetration and sooner or later, and the late
entrants catch up with the first movers.
GAMIFICATION
The question that arises here is as to how then
should a firm protect its own interests? Here, it
must be remembered that even though killing the
competition may look like a lucrative option, in the
long term, competition harbours exclusiveness
while collaboration promotes inclusiveness.
Since, businesses are always in pursuit of
profitability, there is a need to devise
methodologies wherein collaboration does not
compromise the interests of the individual parties. This is where gamification steps in. Gamification opens up
a level playing field for all participants with a reward and
recognition mechanism that ensures that everyone is a
winner. Here the competition is with one’s own self. The
endeavour is to evaluate existing processes and
practices and benchmark the same against the industry
and to improvise upon the same. In a team setting, the
goals of the individuals are aligned with the end project
objective ensure team members work with each other
and not against each other. For collaboration amongst
organizations, the organizational goals are aligned with
the bigger, more significant cause. This ensures an
inclusive environment where the efforts are directed
towards maximizing benefits for all.
GO SOCIAL
Social Platforms are ubiquitous. They are making their
presence felt in the workplace. Most enterprises seek to
engage employees through Enterprise Social Platforms
by encouraging discussions and exchange of work
Exhibit 7 : Integration of social tools into day-to-day work. Source:
McKinsey Global Institute – Survey: How social tools can reshape
the organization
Exhibit 8 : Expectations from Enterprise Social Platforms.
Source: McKinsey Global Institute – Survey: How social
tools can reshape the organization
Project Management Practitioners’ Conference 2017
www.pmibanga lorechapter .o rg
Page 10
related information.
However, there is a great untapped potential here. Research
indicates (refer exhibit 7, 8 and 9) that while a majority of
enterprises do create such platforms for employee
engagement, these are yet not used for pure play project
management activities and not integrated into the day to day
work at large. These platforms present a unique opportunity
for bringing together project personnel, subject matter experts and other stakeholders for finding better
solutions, getting real time feedback on all project activities and for faster resolution of issues.
TRANSFORMATION AT THE SPEED OF CHANGE
The world today is experiencing a technological revolution. The speed of change in current times is
unprecedented. Organizations need to adapt to these changes in a swift manner.
THE KEY DRIVERS
Diversity of Workforce
The workforce today is becoming increasingly diverse with respect to age, gender, religion, nationality,
language, etc. In addition, “acquired diversity” the diversity acquired by people due to their education, work
experience and other behavioural and lifestyle traits must be given due importance. It must be remembered
that true benefits of a diverse workforce are attained only through inclusiveness.
The Impact of Millennials
Millennials occupy a prominent position on the project landscape as not only contributors, but also as key
decision makers, project leaders and consumers of the project /product. They are highly committed individuals
who have great affinity for workplace diversity, appreciate when their efforts and experience are recognised
and rewarded, have great work ethic, seek to be in thick of things and be always informed. Managing
millennials requires project managers to act as enablers and to move from “Hierarchy to Holacracy”.
“Holacracy is a social technology or system of organizational governance in which authority and decision-
making are distributed throughout a holarchy of self-organizing teams rather than being vested in a
management hierarchy.” Responsibility and Accountability need to be shared. Collaboration and complete
democratization of Information, the mantra to keep these new age stakeholders engaged.
Disruption in Technology
The Fourth Industrial Revolution, as the World Economic Forum puts it, is on its way to raise global income
levels and improve quality of lives. Powered by the exponential increase in computing prowess and with the
ability to process petabyte sized data sets, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing are opening up
endless possibilities leading to long term gains in efficiency and productivity. The impact of these technologies
Exhibit 9 : Research Response – Adoption of
Enterprise Social Platforms for Project Management.
Project Management Practitioners’ Conference 2017
www.pmibanga lorechapter .o rg
Page 11
on the Project Management landscape is already being felt with the emergence of AI and Cloud based
Collaborative PM tools. However, only a small fraction of the PM community currently make use of and benefits
from these tools.
Market Dynamics
There are two main areas influencing tectonic
changes in market / supply-chain dynamics i.
Changes in geo-politics / increasing protectionism
and ii. Shorter Business Cycles and Stealth / New
Competitors. Therefore, the project management approach / narrative needs to go through paradigm shift the
new world order.
THE NEW PROJECT MANAGEMENT NARRATIVE
In order to deliver long term value to
the end consumer, a fundamental
focus shift is required from the
traditional success triad of on time, on
budget, on schedule to innovative
solutions and value addition to the
customer. In the networked, flat
organization structure, the PM
practitioner needs to don the role of a facilitator who helps to keep the various nodes of the network connected
and keeps the information flowing through the network.
In the traditional model, the focal point of
any project is the business strategy. The
strategy is devised by the enterprise
leadership and they ensure the goals of the
project are aligned with this strategy. The
project manager oversees the work done
by the project team and ensures that the
project meets its objectives. Going forward,
it is the "cause/ idea" that will drive the
business value delivered. The focus needs
to be on the problems that are being
solved and the sponsors/leaders needs to
provide direction. The project manager must
be a facilitator and enabler and the team needs to be the players, putting their best foot forward, taking
complete ownership of their tasks, end to end.
Exhibit 10 : The New Project Management Narrative
Exhibit 11 : Transformation at the Speed of Change
Project Management Practitioners’ Conference 2017
www.pmibanga lorechapter .o rg
Page 12
DEALING WITH THE DISRUPTIONS
Dealing with the dynamic business equations and managing projects in disruptive times require the PM
practitioner to don a twofold responsibility:
I. to ensure that the team is aware / ready for changes in business environment
II. to ensure that the team is able to respond to the turbulence around them
READINESS
An organization's change readiness is a function of the organization’s
awareness towards changing business dynamics and willingness of its people
at all levels to embrace and implement change. It depends on the collective
and willing commitment of the group towards implementing organizational
change and also on the group's collective ability to execute necessary actions in
event of a change. It is important to highlight here the emphasis on "collective"
commitment ad ability as any large, complex change cannot be dealt without joint actions of interdependent
units or individuals.
Typically, strategy and change related decisions flow down the hierarchy with the project manager and her
team left to fend with the change management. In this case, the project manager acts as a receiver for change
information who decides on the course of action thereafter. A more proactive approach suited to flatter and
networked organizations is where the project manager takes up the role of a satellite that both receives as well
transmits information. While the project team is heads sunk deep down in their work, the project manager stays
with heads up, on the lookout for signs of change, anticipating change and readying her team for the same.
RESPONSIVENESS
Responsiveness is often used interchangeably with adaptability. There is, however, a fine line separating the
two. While adaptability is the ability to adapt to change, responsiveness is about the speed at which one reacts
to the change or the situation at hand. Responsiveness has a direct correlation with readiness for change. It is
a state of mind and must percolate at all organizational levels. It is the critical differentiator that puts the
organization ahead of its competitors.
The project manager's role is to cultivate a culture that is centred around willingness to adapt to change and
inculcate skills that make her team nimble and adept at responding to all new business situations with ease
and speed. This responsiveness has to be ingrained at all levels in the organization. Organization leaders,
project sponsors should be nimble and agile with respect to strategically decisions and providing guidance
around course correction in response to business and market changes. At the same time, project teams must
be able to swiftly manoeuvre there processes and practices in accordance with these directives.
Project Management Practitioners’ Conference 2017
www.pmibanga lorechapter .o rg
Page 13
TWO STAGE GAP ANALYSIS – TRACKING VALUE IN THE MAKING
Therefore, leveraging the benefits of effective readiness and responsiveness, a 2 stage Gap Analysis is
recommended as the key towards ensuring prudent “Tracking of the Value in the Making”. As illustrated in
Exhibit 12, it would be a continual process to benchmark the value in the making throughout the phases of the
project both via comparison with the end objectives and via mark to market exercise. This is all the more
beneficial for large scale, multi-year project / transformation programs where it is equally important to keep
detailed track of the Market / Business as substantial energy is spent inwards to drive transformation through
organization(s) (viz. Inorganic Ventures, Transformation).
CONCLUSION
Forceful disruptions such as advent of millennials, unprecedented advancements in technology and volatile
geo political equations make it necessary to rethink some of the existing project management paradigms and
theories.
In the “always connected” world, response to business disruption needs to be speedier than ever before. With
millennials now occupying key positions as consumer of the project / product, sponsors and decision makers,
the way business is conducted will have to undergo phenomenal change. Flatter, networked organizations that
leverage enterprise social networks for project management would be the norm of the day. Therefore, as
recommended in the paper, i. Stakeholder Management / Communication Approach, ii. Collaborative
Methodologies iii. Transformation Strategy and iv. Agility and Nimbleness towards change have to be the
four key pillars of driving organizational strategy in this new age world order.
Exhibit 12 : Two Stage Gap Analysis
Project Management Practitioners’ Conference 2017
www.pmibanga lorechapter .o rg
Page 14
As mentioned, managing the stakeholder expectations would require adopting a collaborative mindset,
transformation strategies to be deployed at organization level and methodologies to deal with these
disruptions. The new age RACI would have to appreciate a unified approach in driving Responsibility and
Accountability, leverage Collaboration Partners and benefit from Democratization of Information. Collaboration
is becoming the new competition. Organizations must make best use of enterprise social platform for
collaborations and at the same time use gamification principles to ensure core ethos on being competitive
remains utmost priority.
Value is added only via projects and ventures that seek to solve problems for the end consumer. Therefore,
focus has to shift from the project success triad of on time, on budget, on schedule to the value created for the
end consumer and the problems that were solved due to this endeavour. Ability to “Track the Value in the
Making” in terms ‘readiness’ to change and ‘responsiveness’ to change will emerge as the two most important
aspects that will influence the operating culture and differentiator of the best in class organizations.
Project Management Practitioners’ Conference 2017
www.pmibanga lorechapter .o rg
Page 15
REFERENCES
i. Ben Hecht [January 2013]–Collaboration Is the New Competition (Harvard Business Review)
ii. Brian Burke [November 2012] – Gamification2020: What Is the Future of Gamification? (Gartner
Research)
iii. Brooke Boyarsky, Will Enger, and Ron Ritter [March 2016] – Developing a Customer-Experience
Vision (McKinsey Marketing and Sales)
iv. Joanna Barsh, Lauren Brown, and Kayvan Kian [February 2016] – Millennials: Burden, blessing, or
both? (McKinsey Quarterly Report)
v. Karen Butner, Digital Operations Thought Leadership, Institute for Business Value, IBM [December
2015] – Operatingin the fourth industrial revolution
vi. Kathleen B. (Kitty) Hass [2015]– The Future Is Now: The 21st Century Enterprise Project Manager
vii. Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum [January 2016] – TheFourth
Industrial Revolution: what it means, how to respond (World Economic Forum report)
viii. M. Ayhan Kose and Ezgi O. Ozturk, [September 2014] A World of Change (International Monetary
Fund, Finance and Development)
ix. McKinsey Global Institute [May 2016] – Survey: How social tools can reshape the organization
x. Perry Keenan, Jeanne Bickford, Jennifer Bratton, Annabel Doust, and Jennifer Tankersley [February
2016]- Winning Through Project Portfolio Management: The Practitioner’s Perspective (Boston
Consulting Group)
xi. Robert L. Cross, Roger D. Martin, and Leigh M. Weiss [August 2006] –Mapping the value of employee
collaboration (McKinsey Quarterly Report)
xii. World Economic Forum [2012] – Young Global Leaders: Circular Economy Innovation & New Business
Models Dialogue
xiii. World Economic Forum [2017] – The Global Risks Report 2017 (12th Edition)