What is the change resource problem? Two items came across my consciousness recently which are not difficult to link. The first is a set of lessons learned from projects in an organisation. An outstanding item of the lessons is the complaint that not enough people resources were available, or the people allocated already had a …
Category archives: Portfolio Management
Keeping change strategic
Strategic focus and effective communication Corporate business consultants are discovering that effective management requires a continuous focus on the strategic objectives of the organisation.
Change Saturation
Too Much Change Many people in organisations are reporting that they are doing “too much change”. Which usually means they feel they are not able to cope with the changes they are being asked to carry out. To understand what this means we need to look at three forces going on in an organisation: The …
Better training outcomes
Aim higher, be better As an experienced trainer I am often frustrated by the poor (or most likely non-existent) post training activity of the candidates which should be consolidating their learning during the course. Why would any manager invest in training their staff if their organisation is not going to benefit from it? Well it …
Where projects end and change begins
Change adds value to projects In a recent Prosci article the author provides useful questions to elicit the value of doing people change on top of a delivery project. I also find that many people in the project world just don’t get the ‘change’ bit. A large multinational company I have talked to wants to …
Does a change capability matter?
Good change is good for business I think the heading answers the question! A recent survey reported by McKinsey entitled ‘Why Implementation Matters‘ reports on the effect that strategy implementation has on a company. Strategy implementation is quite clearly stated as the ability to implement major change programmes. As you would expect with McKinsey they …
Systemic Blunders
Structural failures leading to change failures In the previous blog I described the book, The Blunders of our Governments by Prof. Anthony King and Sir Ivor Crewe which describes a series of major blunders by our governments. The third part of their book covers the systemic failures (as opposed to the human failures) which have …
Quick, effective decision making
Good enough decisions Making decisions in a fast moving change initiative with deadlines and issues is very hard. Making the best decisions is impossible. Yet most managers in a change are hung out to dry for their bad decisions (with hindsight). A re-think about decision making and the culture around it is needed to improve …
Strategic change journey
Internal strategic change for fast growth I have written in the past about the need for change in an organisation being driven by strategic change outside. A recent article in the Harvard Business Review on Transient Advantage by Rita Gunther McGrath (one of my favourite management authors) shows that there are internal drivers for change …
Demonstrating value for a PMO
How can a PMO use qualifications to demonstrate added value? A major problem that every Portfolio, Programme, or Project Office (PMO) has is demonstrating added value that justifies its existence. This note explores the role that professional qualifications can have in addressing this issue.