the next gen pmo: aligning your organisation to execute its strategy tim wasserman

The Next Gen PMO: Aligning Your

Organisation to Execute Its Strategy

Tim Wasserman

The Next Gen PMO:

Aligning Your Organization

to Execute Its Strategy

Tim WassermanProgramme Director, Stanford Advanced Project ManagementChief Learning Officer, ESI International & IPS Learning

© 2015, IPS Learning/ESI International. All rights reserved.

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


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


Global CEO’s #1 Strategy

Seek better alignment between strategy,

objectives and organizational capabilities

The Conference Board, 2014


PMI’s Pulse of the Profession, February 2014

Why focus on Alignment?


Why do we get less than desirable performance?


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


Bridging the gap…

9


Our Strategic Execution Journey

© 2015, Stanford Advanced Project Management & IPS Learning. All rights reserved.

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


Strategy Making

Strategy Execution

Unpacking the SEF


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?


Organization

Program/project

Team

Individual

What’s your Context?


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?


The Ideation domain

Character, image,brand, and values

What the organization is dedicated to in the long term

The reason the organization exists


Xerox’s Ideation, 1981

“Xerox perceived itself as only in the office copier business.” Malcolm Gladwell


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


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


Misaligned Ideation, Culture and Strategy


Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.

Ideation


Bootcamp


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


Cultivation

Every organization has a predominant culture and may have subordinate cultures.

Four core cultures



Competence


Cultivation

Culture and Today’s Work Approaches

TRADITIONALAGILE

LEAN




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



5

4

3

2

1

1

2

3

4

5

5

43

2

1

1

23

4

5

Control


Collaboration

Your Culture Maps

Draw a culture map for: Your

Organization (red)

Your PMO (green)

© 2014 IPS Learning LLC and contributors


What structure is appropriate?



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?



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


Clear Strategic Vision: SW Airlines

Source: Porter, Michael. "What is Strategy?" Harvard Business Review HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition, Product Number: 4134 (February 1, 2000).


How do they get there?



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?



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


An organization's real strategy is the portfolio of strategic projects in which it invests

Real strategy

Officialstrategy


Strategic goals & portfolio are both moving targets

Strategic Portfolio!

StrategicGoals


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?




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


Critical Skills, Tools and Insights


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


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?




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


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


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


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


I N V E S T

Imperatives of Strategic Execution


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


SEF and Meta Alignment

Alignment between and within the

domains enables strategic execution

Challenges to strategic execution are a reflection of

misalignment


Where are your Strengths and Opportunities?


What Works Well Opportunities for Improvement


Engaging and Aligning Your People


Critical PBW Leadership Competenciesfor Execution Excellence

http://scpd.stanford.edu/leadership/


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


Questionsand

Additional Discussion

the next gen pmo: aligning your organisation to execute its strategy tim wasserman

Documents

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sef slide

successful execution

strategy execution

strategy tim wasserman

applicable tools slide

strategic alignment

organizational functions