welcome everybody to our session on
accountability impossible without
prioritization
um my name's David Dunning
and my co-presenter today is is Dan
dewis and we're going to spend an hour
today chatting through some interesting
topics going to have a couple of
um uh pauses to ask you some questions
um hopefully it'll be an interesting
session
um this is in uh Zoom so you you can use
the chat function and we'll try to
answer questions as we go along and
we'll certainly answer questions uh post
the event if we haven't been able to
pick them up in the session itself yeah
so um we'll introduce ourselves uh I'm
David
um I'm chairman and uh CEO of a couple
of companies
only small companies nothing huge
um I'm lead author on this thing called
business integrated governance which is
a framework that helps us to connect
strategy to delivery and I've been
co-opted into the bsi's G1 governance
committee
um to represent that and to support the
the development of governance of
organizations which is ISO 37 000 and
various derivatives of it and I'm an
active member in that
and my colleague colleague today from uh
transparent choice is Dan
hi everyone I feel really ashamed uh
after David that's a great introduction
to to yourself David I'm I'm uh I look
after customer success at transparent
Choice I'll I'll do the Spiel there in a
little bit but basically we provide
prioritization software um but alongside
that um those of us that know us we know
we like to we like to understand
prioritization and think around the
topic and and get to learn about it from
folks like you baby from our clients so
yeah now's a chance just to play back
some of the stuff we've learned and meet
some new people
cool
um
well let's dig in so our agenda there
um I'll present to you
um uh the importance of accountability
and prioritization and I'll frame that
in terms of strategy strategy delivery
we'll talk about the challenges of
balancing business as usual value
generation and change at the macro level
before we start prioritizing any
um bits and pieces beneath that level
we'll ask you guys
um tell us um tell us a little bit about
how prioritization is or is it working
for you how do you spot what are the
signs for you that prioritization isn't
isn't working that will be very useful
for the rest of the session
we'll talk a little bit further about
how we translate objectives and targets
into scores that we can prioritize with
that's a little bit of theory that Dan
will outline for us
and then Dan will offer us an
interesting uh scenario we've tried to
make it a bit realistic we tried to talk
through an example that hopefully will
resonate with with you guys
and um we'd also then like to ask you uh
what have you tried to do to get
prioritization working
um have you had some good attempts are
you getting nowhere is it have you got
something absolutely fine please share
with us
and then we'll talk about some possible
first steps if you want to do something
about where your prioritization is and
how that fits with your business we'll
offer you a life cycle and an approach
to that
I'm just going to check that nobody else
is in the waiting room
no that's all good okay
um just as a a uh a heads up then
so I can find my mouse there it is
um we're going to use slido today so
some of you have used slider before
um slido is very good on your mobile
phone if you can find slido.com on your
mobile phone and we're going to have a
appropriate moment it's going to have a
couple of questions and you'll be able
to tap in the answers on your mobile
phone and it'll ask you for an event
number an event number is there on the
screen but it'll also appear on the
screen at the point in which we we ask
the questions too so just a little
little heads up there we're going to ask
you to try a new slido
right
um let's Dive In
so um topic one the importance of
accountability and prioritization and it
really should read the importance of
accountability and prioritization to
strategy delivery that's that's what
we're interested in
because delivering organizational
strategy
is about
um a couple of things really our
organizations are looking to stay in
business so that to grow they have goals
they're looking to strive to deliver
value today and for tomorrow
that's their organizations are split
between activities that help them run
the organization to deliver that value
to operators in an organization and they
have entities that change the
organization to improve for the future
to add new products and services to our
to our portfolios
and I guess we have limited resources
so we have to find a way to to balance
our business as usual activity the value
generation and change work that we do
and you'd hope that um you'd expect and
perhaps we do
um have a model that's that enables us
to to listen to our outside world to
process what we see in here to turn that
into strategy to get that through our
business and to complete that as some
kind of uh systematic closed loop
control
I'm not entirely sure everyone has it um
that slick but some people really do and
it's very impressive to see
but what basically what we're looking to
do
looking for organizations to do is
listen for opportunities and threats
from the outside world we're looking to
translate that into our reality turn the
business drivers that implies into
realistic strategies
turn the strategy in to break that down
into respective objectives targets and
challenges that we can task people with
clearly communicate those and uh explain
to the business the priorities that
those objectives targets and challenges
have
deliver against it collect a measure
realign and course correct and around
the circle
and to achieve this
um we need a whole bunch of things
um I.T operating models governance
framework support Assurance all that
kind of stuff but the fun the
fundamental component is accountable
people people being accountable make
sure this happens if we haven't got
accountable people it all falls apart so
so let's let's start there
so how do how do we connect then to
prioritization how do I make that that
leap
well um thinking about accountability we
all we'll know what the definition of
that is so at least
um there are several definitions of
accountability out there but uh
accountability
um is is different responsibility I'm
not going to go into that right now but
basically the way inner organizations
that we establish this from from a top
level is um hopefully we uh listen to
our shareholders our owners who give us
the business purpose and in its goals we
have to um listen out for regulatory
imperatives
to see where we have to change what we
do based on legal necessity there are
emergent matters problems that arise
opportunities that emerge that we should
avoid or perhaps even exploit and we
have to take into account our current
state our capability what assets we have
the operating model we work with and so
on and our strategic process I guess is
then to turn that into a vision a
picture of future states that uh
hopefully all of us can can recognize
and move towards and then develop that
into a strategy a sequence to deliver
that and Achieve that with and a
strategic plan
which is uh maybe some kind of timing of
activity and workloads to to to achieve
that and of course we've got the
constraints there's only so much funding
we can get there's only so many people
there's only so much technology we have
constraints and
um it must be obvious then that um we're
even starting to prioritize with our
strategic objectives so
um while we're establishing Pro
establishing accountability we have to
even prioritize in that process
and then what we're looking to do is to
take that strategic plan Cascade those
object Cascade that into objectives and
and
um tie that up Empower people to to take
on those objectives and and to achieve
them on behalf of the organization
so there's some pretty straightforward
motherhood and apple pie up front but
um building on the proposition that the
accountability is is called to what we
do and
um
with it by accountability we need an
owner who has priority in an empowerment
so
um if we um have got an objective
then if I'm if I myself am an
accountable person
um I'd be looking to understand what the
business case for that objective is so
that I can convince others that it's
important I'll be looking for some kind
of uh delegated authority
um within which to tackle that objective
um I've been perhaps seconded and and
made available
um from the organization or whichever
part of that um it's appropriate that I
come from
um but then to build the accountability
I need um to not understand my
stakeholders I need to be able to plan
and control
um what's happening
um against this objective and I need of
course resources and funds to make this
happen
and uh hopefully this will happen with
uh some support to enable me to
um be accountable to run my process
and I'm going to be held to account and
people are going to check that I'm doing
the right things the right way
but the most important part of this is
the bottom bit we need to get some
resources we need to get funding and
um this this is the trick um the the the
proposition I'm putting to you is
there's no point in having Authority or
a business case or having all the plans
and controls and stakeholder engagement
in the world if uh are not getting the
resources and funding I need and I mean
more than just um having these things
appear in a budget I mean actually
getting hold of them
um and the point is that
um to get hold of them I'm making
choices unless we prioritize the
deployment of resources to my point of
accountability can be a bun fight
um for those that are not English that
that's that means um that it can it can
be difficult so so priority
prioritization
um primarily is fundamentally underpins
being able to be empowered which
underpins being accountable which
underpins strategy delivery so for us
prioritization isn't just something we
expedite because we have to do it to
stop squabbling it's a fundamental
necessity to enable us to deliver
um strategy effectively
okie dokie
I will pause
so um one of the challenges then in uh
balancing our business as usual value
generation and change
well wouldn't it be nice if um if it was
that simple
um because I've said earlier that that
um for our organization to achieve our
purpose we're going to have to share our
funds and resources and Leadership time
between keeping the lights on RIT our
Logistics our finance type activity on
value generation our product
developments our product delivery maybe
our value generation is in fact projects
in the case of engineering and
construction colleagues but we have to
deliver change as well we have to take
opportunity we have to respond to
external threats
um we have to do all of these things
the problem is though that we don't um
split our organizations directly into
these simply controllable chunks
um while business as usual is um
typically broken down into dedicated
permanent business units our value
generation typically spans the business
and needs input and involvement from the
whole business and change while it might
well be changed within a single function
strategic change is is temporary and
cross-functional and it's difficult
um to deploy resources between options
is is very hard
and although it might well be pretty
straightforward to deploy resources into
into business units because we have
clear business targets to achieve and
and we may find it reasonably okay to
dedicate resources to strategic product
teams
um working on projects where there are
lots of projects and lots of
possibilities and lots of lots of
options for for spending that resource
it's very difficult
and not everyone is is all that great at
um developing the most perfect business
cases
and just to illustrate the problem a
little bit further
um taking that diagram we talked about
earlier if we work at that very highest
level to to get from our purpose to the
to the vision of our of our future State
uh through a strategy that
um introduces us to some objectives
we're looking to achieve
we have to get that done through our
organization
and how do we get those objectives into
those organizations well
um you'd hope that in in Department
three here we we can respond to that
objective with a departmental business
plan
which shows how I'm going to break those
objectives down into sub-objectives into
teams that deliver those those targets
that business as usual activity that's a
pretty straightforward to achieve
perhaps if we're talking about
um business as usual activity
but our change activity
um is is slightly more difficult
um but I guess most of us may recognize
taking objectives into a portfolio and
making a portfolio business case and
breaking that down into sub-objectives
and starting them to define the projects
and products that comprise that
portfolio which respond to the business
case
and we may have a change activity that's
in this in this strategic portfolio we
might have change activity that's
happening in these teams it's a whole
lot of stuff going on and uh how do we
how do we prioritize all the stuff that
we do
um it's it's not uh not that
straightforward
um most of us
um prioritize by basically allocating uh
festivals of resources and funds to
departments which is pretty
straightforward because these are quite
historical and have clear targets and
performance levels
um to achieve and and and that they have
been achieving periodically but um how
do we um Define what resource allocation
uh in balance with business as usual
resourcing how do we decide what we give
to a portfolio and how do we deal with
um uh the the the lower level
allocations of funds to projects which
might well be
um quite a way down the food chain
so it's um I'm not telling you anything
that you don't know this is just a
difficult scenario
um but maybe it's time to to to face it
and do something and make it more
somatic systematic
just to label the point a little bit
then
get kind of covered this
um in terms of prioritizing we'll we'll
uh allocate resources
um to departments that have taken on
objectives and
um that that should be pretty
straightforward to operationally manage
the Strategic objectives the very big
important expensive valuable
um high level strategic changes that we
need to make as a business they're quite
easy to create to allocate festivals of
cash for two
but the tricky bit is is in how do we um
prioritize funding for for lower level
uh changes how do we how do we fund
projects that sit within department will
maybe affect two departments
um we need to have all this stuff
visible so we can avoid duplication and
and coordinate it
and it would be straightforward wouldn't
it if all the resource was was
um consumed in one department but some
of these projects are cross-functional
and and funding and making choices in
this area is is something that that's
quite difficult
but our goal is to empower people
um in their business to to give them
funds to give them resources to give
them authority to go away and do what
they need to do
but again the the tough bit of this is
is prioritizing projects
so we're not going to talk about today
prioritizing departments or depart
prioritizing objectives
um within a a strategic portfolio we're
going to just tackle this chat challenge
today by looking at
um projects
and and uh take on an example that will
bring this this scenario to life
okay I think that's me done for the
minute
um so that's hopefully set the scene
um so um time for a question guys
um prioritization spotting when it isn't
working
um what's your view of how well
prioritization is working in your
organizations and if you're not happy
with how it's working what what's what
symptoms are you seeing
um that show prioritization isn't um
happening as effectively as it could be
so um please have a go
um at slido
um slido.com there uh is the site to go
and have a look at
um the event number 4064 uh 985 is the
is the thing to uh is the number to type
in
um and uh there's there's one I've
seeded the uh the poll with just in case
anyone uh no one had anything to say
which is unusual
um the first example there is that um
well productization isn't working it
means my objectives keep slipping
I'm not able to uh to dedicate resource
um to the subjective or that uh some
objectives keep slipping
and some more some more let's just go
through them
um
we uh crikey arguments about who gets
resources yeah and projects get delayed
um uh role confusion lack of
accountability timeline slipping
projects unattainable
um
yeah too late there's lots of comments
everything's a priority we'll let
everything has a price but everything is
um yeah not not being able to make a
decision as to what the priorities are
um object is poorly defined yeah if we
can't define the objectives how can we
prioritize them
um
complaints about too much work well
absolutely Dan what are you making of
these that project well I I think we say
nerve David
I was I was thinking they might pop in
one at a time down and would be
comfortably able to just pick off one or
two and and just chat them but um
it's quite entertaining watching you
wrestling with a cold and a deluge of uh
slido things kind of coming out but we
we hear about you know these sort of
things you know all the time and and you
know I don't know if it's reassuring or
or or demoralizing to see that you know
they're still out there and burning
bright
um in terms of things that are are
holding people back
um and and what I say is a lot of what
we've talked about so far is quite
mechanistic in terms of structure
um but actually it's people who end up
on the pointy end of all this so you
know it's it's it's it's the people who
are delivering stuff that get frustrated
because actually you know they haven't
got a clear Direction
um the Gold Coast the Gold Coast movie
it's just just demoralizing
um and frustrating because you know this
stuff can be fixed
well the one I like there um this is a
really good one I like it I don't know
who did it but
um unnecessary escalation
I guess if we're not effectively
prioritizing then we're not giving
people empowerment so every time they
get a little problem they run to the
boss to fix it and and I think that's a
sign of you know for us you know
prioritization isn't working when the
boss has to kind of get involved in a
micromanagement level
um you know because if if if they're
getting stuck into the detail all the
time they haven't got a process that's
that's doing its job
without his voice syndrome we know that
one yeah I don't know if anyone's heard
the phrase hippo the highest important
um pay the highest important highest
paid important person hippo the the
person that that to basically did uh
dictates and drives everything that
everyone
um uh Works around uh like that's the
loudest voice syndrome absolutely
yeah look there's a bunch of decision
science kind of like stuff goes around
that but we all know a different kind of
you know you know being in that meeting
right someone just dominates it and then
suddenly that's setting the direction
for what's talked about and it's it's
if if that person happens to be
incredibly smart and know everything
then you might get away with it but you
know how often does that happen
well I guess the problem is with with
somebody that's really smart they can
only handle so much information and um
if a load of things change at once and
they're thrown a whole lot of
information how can they possibly
um make realistic decisions taking that
information into account and in reality
that the most the more important you get
the less knowledge you're going to have
the detail right so you know you might
be able to see things from on high but
you're gonna you're gonna miss a lot of
the detail that goes with that
so I I don't know you don't but I'm
concluding that if people are um I don't
know how many points that is it's quite
a few
um there's a lot of points here that
have popped up
um of when people have spotted that
prioritization isn't working
um that to me gives some really good
reason perhaps to get on top of
prioritization and make it a bit more
systematic yeah and I assume we'll we
can get we can get this written up and
shared with folks after the babies can't
we so uh I can do that if you want me to
and so it just gives people that little
checklist for knowing when things aren't
quite right
so every event so far when people have
done this I've basically captured this
um create a little response and group
them and and play that back so we'll
definitely write this out
but please keep chipping away folks keep
adding in but uh we've only got a
certain amount of time so so we'll we'll
uh we'll crack on and I think
um you get a rest from my voice and it's
I think it's time for Dan
translating objectives oh no a little
bit more on me sorry I think that's a
little bit more of me oh no I know right
so um for those of you that have been on
webinars with me and Stewart is down
there as well um you know we love to
talk about ahp which is the analytic
hierarchy process so this is a sort of
decision science
um solution it's quite cool um and it's
basically designed to translate
um you know strategic intent into a
quantifiable outcome a zero to 100 score
for all your projects
um
there's decision science in it there's
you know lots of math psychology all
this good stuff
um you'll get these slides after from
David and uh you can even you can read a
little ebook I've pulled together
um which you'll see as part marketing
part training and for the name sort of
part labor of love and much parts of
that because I quite like doing that
sort of thing so um yeah we we're not
going to go into HP and massive amounts
of detail um needless to say we believe
to do this properly you need to be able
to quantify the value of your projects
um because that quantification is going
to give you a way of creating
transparency and if you like an
analytical approach to outcomes
um and the key Point here is if you've
got an analytical approach you can
produce a system and a process which is
fair and start to move away from from
that gun fight that David talked about
bonfires have their place but hopefully
not the workplace
um
so
sensitive there we go
um
so again
um we're going to keep this super basic
in terms of the kind of ahp stuff and we
do webinars on that all the time if you
want to learn more about about this or
you know have a look at our software
that provides it but but the key Point
here is we need three ingredients to do
really good quantification lead ahp
prioritization so the first is we need
to score projects so that sounds really
simple right but this is about coming up
with a list of things that I could or
critically could not do so it's a bunch
of activities that I pick from so if
it's something you have to do we're not
going to include it why why prioritize
something you have to do
um just figure out how to do it but the
point is if I've got a list of things
that I could pick from then I can make a
sensible strategic choice about which
ones to pick
um so first yeah clarify one of my
projects and and then we come up with
what we call criteria which is sort of
framework of that coming and that's how
you score those projects so again we
come up with a a way of quantifying the
value to the organization
the next the Lego brick is uh estimates
so this is really being able to quantify
how much effort a project takes and it's
really important to be able to quantify
effort because if you quantify effort
you can then think about value to the
organization relative to what's going to
cost you and again you know we can't
always put everything into Dollars uh or
pounds um so there's there's important
to be able to kind of quantify in some
way that's appropriate to you
um and finally you put those two things
together you you divide one by the other
and then you get value for money and
then this is kind of obviously like the
north star that that we believe is the
basis for a good analytical
prioritization process so this is how
you quantify the relative worth of the
different projects that you could or
could not do
so this is the bricks let's have a look
at how we build them and I think we've
got another case study a little sort of
worked example coming up
is very sensitive there we go
flip before I do um believe it or not
when David looked at my original slides
he said you need to put something in a
bit more and promote who you are so
normally I'm told I'm too salesy about
this sort of thing so blame him
um but but really just want to say you
know if this is of interest
um check our website out we've got tons
of stuff there
um this I think it's this time
um in two weeks we're doing webinar with
Stuart and I where we'll demo software
you know do our jazz hands um there um
or get in touch with us uh so again
these my details will be in the in the
pack going out so um you can book a call
with me or follow me on LinkedIn
um or or email me or you know just throw
a pigeon out into the air and see if it
finds me
so
okay work scenario so
um what we're gonna do today and David
might have came up with this over a sort
of shared space in Oxford a couple of
months ago we thought it might be kind
of fun to play it out
um we're going to look at a a a an
example with four roles
um now
there's a bit of stereotyping going on
particularly probably the images
um Blaine canva my presentation software
this is what they came up with when I
put in the relevant terms
um
so um but the point is I want to look at
prioritization from different angles
because actually the point is to do good
prioritization you need to understand if
you like that wrap around empathy
because it looks different depending on
where you sit in the organization and
successful prioritization solution needs
to work for everyone
so we're going to have the sales and Ops
people if you like these are teams who
need it support to get their commitments
delivered we've got the IT team who's
got kind of a combination of stuff to do
for sales and Ops but also some internal
projects they need to do in order to
keep the wheels spinning
um and uh thanks Stuart
um and then leadership who's trying to
get all this uh Motley Crew pointing in
the same direction and ultimately kind
of delivering the strategy that she's
built for the organization
uh
I'm sure
there we go is that right
there we are so
we start with a lining measurement
um criteria to strategy so I said the HP
is a key part around
um coming up with a criteria framework
in order to measure value of your
projects a little red brick in the
corner to remind us
um
so you know you come up with your
criteria and these are sort of if you
like the generic criteria buckets that
we see timing again with organizations
all over the place
um and effectively these are the things
we all work for in term whether it's
government or or
commercial or something in between
um and the point is we're going to use
we use a system called pairwise which is
kind of what it says on the tin and
we're going to look at the relative
importance the relative value of these
competing criteria and come up with a
way therefore of quantifying those
relative importance
and against each of those criteria we
start to come up with the top measures
that define success
so you know if Financial return is
important as it often is we might say
look we want to achieve over 50 million
uh of Revenue kind of a strong Roi and
the possibility so the the leader is
starting to Define what success looks
like at the top level and we're going to
start to then see these objectives
Cascade through the relevant teams
working for her
and the point is you know once you have
that framework in place you can start to
identify the gaps and the key Point here
is
to to build and what on What David
talked about at BAU b u will take you so
far
and there's a key kind of analytical
challenge here and understanding okay if
we carry on sort of trundling along as
we are where do we think we'll pitch up
you know spoiler alert in this example
it's not going to be over 50 million
Revenue strong Roi profitability we need
to do stuff in order to actually realize
these Punchy goals that our leader is
kindly set for us
and and actually that's where
accountability kicks in we can have
accountability if we get the resource to
then deliver that stretch so we start by
identifying where that stretch is
and then
what we often find ourselves doing is is
coming up with these kind of
cross-functional projects now these can
Bubble Up these can bubble down
um these can be thrown at you by a nice
consultant who who Who's come in and
come up with some ideas for you
um they can come from anywhere
but the point is and we see this sort of
the time and again with you know more
more modern bigger organizations is that
getting teams to work together is
normally critical to success so it can't
build stuff in isolation because
actually without adoption it's going to
add very little value
um you know the the individual teams if
they refuse to engage with it and not
going to get the benefit of digital
transformation and you know there are
these interactions and and everywhere
and so that the idea is we start to
build
um this kind of this
cross-functional framework using the
same framework as we had at the high
level so we get that consistency in
language and structure and and that
weighting that we develop with the
pairwise
and we start to then come up with goals
for
um that you know what this portfolio of
activity can do so maybe we've
identified a 10 million Revenue Gap we
have a goal therefore of doing that and
what we're going to do then is to
evaluate projects against how
effectively they can deliver against
that goal
and at Key Point here you'll see is that
we are covering different bases
because actually you know what you might
have a spreadsheet somewhere that has
you know a couple Financial metrics in
and that's fine
but actually the challenge here is that
value has to be defined in the round
because actually so almost any
organization of value is more than a
financial metric break that news gently
to your CFO if you see them um because
obviously you know they're much rather
the world was just black and white or
sort of you know green and white in the
spreadsheet
um but actually the reality is you have
to think about strategy and quantifying
strategic goals is difficult slash you
know often quite creative with numbers
um thinking about you know stakeholders
is is very very hard to quantify in our
Roi context whether that's you know
people the environment
um you know more societal kind of
commitments risk reduction you know
these are all things that are critical
but they are very hard to quantify which
is why we're building this framework
kind of put them all
right I'll keep talking for this for too
long so I'm going to move my next slide
hopefully you start to see this picture
building of people working together
there we go
so um we come towards the Squadron right
cascading by team so we started with
that kind of cross-functional portfolio
and then we're looking into some of the
specific areas and saying right we've
got the same core framework that that's
cascaded down from our leader but let's
make it relevant to you the sales guy in
a hard hat
um so the sales guy in the hard hat uh
has been told he's got to support growth
this isn't it's actually the Ops guide
student sorry
um but the um he's got to support growth
um without extra head count he's got to
limit his FTE uh growth to three percent
he's got to you know reduce time and
onboarding and all these Punchy things
that probably make him feel slightly
sick when he sees them kind of thrust to
him um through the review process
and the point is that the challenge to
him is what projects what initiatives
what ideas can you find to fill a gap
between this set of Punchy objectives
and trundling along BAU
because actually identifying stuff to
fill that Gap and then identifying
resource to deliver that stuff it's how
we build an achievable
plan and how we build accountability
then against those goals and you know if
you if you don't have the funding you
then should negotiate on the goals but
to have one without the other is is a
bit pointless and it just it's just sort
of kidding everyone really
um
and reality always kicks in right
so
now there's a particular kind of piece
here um
I think anyone who works kind of on the
I.T side will know it perhaps
particularly poignantly but it's
relevant across all connections and that
is often teams are both resource and
customers
simultaneously so you might find
yourself in a meeting both trying to
avoid avoid Project work and get someone
else to do work for you
and you have to then be able to kind of
coexist in in that context of
understanding in some projects you are
there to support so you're not
responsible necessarily for the business
outcome the value generation but you're
responsible for delivering the work and
that might be the example here in this
first piece where the sales guy needs
stuff for my team I think I'll go and do
it
um similarly you know you might be you
know supporting
um
another team so that again a similar
kind of use case but then as an I.T team
there are things where you are your own
customer and often this is the case
around things at risk reduction
um where it's really important that you
don't let your Tech Deck get out of
control because you're
wholly focused on delivering value to
the organization
the flip side is you won't last too long
as a CTO if you are solely focused on
risk reduction and don't deliver value
to the business and and that balance has
to be something that your leadership
take control of with your support
through a pairwise review so you start
to literally quantify the relative
importance of risk reduction to sales
tops
so that's enough of the red brick now
the blue brick
um so we talked about
having to have um estimates
um
and it's really important to have good
estimates in order to generate in order
to make this system work and it's kind
of garbage in garbage out right
um and again good talk about this for
ages but I promise not to
um so you know we know optimization bias
padding in in multi in in the rest of us
noise from individuals being human uh
challenge of doing the work before
you've done the work or estimated the
work before you've done the detailed
analysis and critically obviously lack
of a crystal ball
um all make it really hard it means your
estimates always will be wrong however
making them less wrong is really
valuable so you know we talk about the
importance of making sure subject matter
experts are involved in an estimate
generation so there's a proper
structured Outreach for data collection
to make that data as accurate as
possible
we see huge value in working as a team
to reduce bias so if you have three
people generating a data point that data
point will have 50 less noise than one
person and that just basically means if
I get up this morning and I'm feeling oh
maybe that if David gets up this morning
feeling like uh you know death warmed up
he's probably not going to make a very
good decision it's probably his
judgment's going to be impaired so you
know thrown together with me and Stuart
and the three of us will come up with a
better score than him on his own
um we've got we talk about templates and
reference class data so being able to
use reference points structure I think
is is a great way to improve our
estimates and and a particular favorite
from another of our collaborators uh
Mike Hannan you like to talk about
Murphy's Law across your portfolio
things go wrong we know that
um and and you know it's silly to
suggest they don't so you know why not
have a buffer a shared buffer in order
to absorb Murphy's Law without having to
have these little pots of of extra
butter hidden everywhere across the
portfolio and we believe that's an
important part of a sort of grown-up
data-led and prioritization process
so
into the green Break
um in the green brick we're going to get
that data we've just built we built it
by doing our scoring across our teams
we've built it by creating good
estimates and we're going to throw it
into a chart so you know the chart is
value the value to the organization
versus cost which is you know how much
does this get how much effort is this
going to take us and we get some really
simple outcomes then you know we see in
the the top left here high value low
cost great green do it uh here low cost
high cost low value red stop it's pair
project get rid of it and and the point
is this is data LED so if you if you are
the the owner of a red project you're
more likely to accept the death sentence
if you know that the process to generate
that data was fair visible rather than
being something you're forced to kind of
acknowledge
um on the health
and then actually you flip the same data
in around make it cumulative and you've
got a ranking and a ranking driven by
value for money so you end up with this
nice kind of Pareto curve
um which is something the economy the
econometrics folk in marketing like to
use and it really just says do all the
projects up until the point where they
kind of stop adding a lot of value and
when it goes a bit flat it just means
your projects don't add that much bang
for your buck and find if you like 80 20
cut off point
inform your plan A
and once you start to form that plan a
in your team or in another team or in
across Department sort of portfolio you
start to build data you start to build
the ability to make decisions without
having to go through huge complicated
political negotiations
and the point is here there's never
enough to go around
never enough so you have to decide what
who who's playing that how many planets
can you afford who needs to who needs to
slip down to plan B and actually if you
are Plan B perhaps you need to then
negotiate those goals again you need to
revisit the the objectives against which
you're going to be held accountable
because if you can't get the resources
to deliver your plan a it's probably
fair that you need to think about what
your goals should be in the organization
and finally I'll whistle through these
so we've got time for our uh the next
bits but um you know the delivery the
delivery we want the delivery guys uh in
it to feel really positive about the
work they're doing to know that frankly
if they do their job they're going to
have 90 delivery and they're not going
to have to boost the team and everyone's
going to feel good about things so they
can actually focus on what they like
doing which is the work not the politics
that go with it
um we want the the Ops guys and sales
guys again to know that they can go and
do their jobs and not have to kind of
spend time maneuvering to try and get
extra resource they they need to know if
it have promised something in Q2 they're
going to get something in Q2 not they're
gonna have to spend q1 worrying about
contingency plan for the IT project that
never turns up on time
and and finally you know the leadership
sort of role um she needs to know that
she's confident that the strategy that
she's you know built is going to be
delivered so she's not going to look
like a numpty when she turns around a
year later to investors and says he
hasn't done anything with that thing I
talked to you about last year she can
show evidence of of the ability to leave
the organization in the direction that
she's stipulated you know she knows she
can hold people to account and she knows
the resource the final resource she's
got control of and go exactly where it's
needed to go and Google there's a really
good article on Forbes um which we can
set up the link to which which basically
shows if you are fair in your allocation
of resources you will not perform as an
organization if you'd identify the
outperforming bits of your portfolio and
over invest in them you will outperform
the market
so
with this model we can hold people to
account so we can pop our okr as the
final brick in my little wall on top of
all this model and and know that
actually what we're asking our people to
do is achievable not necessarily easy of
course but it's achievable it's well
structured and they can focus on doing
it not on chasing each other around the
houses trying to get favors or or head
count or all those good things they know
that that what they've been asked to do
is fully aligned to what it is that
they're going to be given
and on that note I will hand back to
David who I think might have another
slider for us
you're a mute David
will be performing the next part of this
presentation to the meeting of mine
sorry
yes sorry try not to call so um so we've
we've talked about the highest level
prioritization where we're taking those
big objectives and we're we're splitting
funds between big between departments
and functions and and strategic
portfolio and we're prioritizing at that
level we've we've then talked about the
next level down which is okay for that
discretionary money that we've got
um where where can we see Bank where are
the opportunities to see bang for buck
how can we build up an information model
for each opportunity and then how do we
compare those opportunities and decide
which ones to do within particular areas
or across the base and uh dance talks
about ahp as a tool as a method and he's
he's very uh quickly slipped past
um the tool set that he's got but I
don't think it should be swept past that
quickly because without some kind of
Technology capability to make this
simple we're all we get and as we
possibly do get bogged down in a
horrendous nest of incorrect unconnected
configuration disasters which are which
are called Excel spreadsheets thanks
David the limits of gift baskets in the
post yeah so so
um so if if so we've got to prioritize
at a high level we've got a Cascade
we've got to do the big fistful
allocation and then we've got the
captain to prioritize at a lower level
I'm down to talk through the method so
um what have you guys tried in to do in
terms of prioritization what what scope
have you applied prioritization to what
methods have you used what what success
and failures hopefully there should be
another slido waiting and I think it's
the same one actually
um what have you tried to get systematic
prioritization working
um I'm leading the uh a leading uh uh
question perhaps
um and the comment saying why is it
failed or why is it succeeded
um under the the the start of a 10 off
it was uh we have a big scoring sheet
for all projects but compiling
information more than once quarter is a
nightmare so I know there are live
projects which should have been killed
already but maybe I don't
um
what have you tried pairing projects
against each other so some somebody's is
using pairwise comparison to to score
projects
um uh doesn't talk about scoring against
objectives though which is what I think
Dan was presenting
you can you can build the objectives in
but it just gets a bit of a nightmare
when you get too many uh too many
projects
it's a lot of work but we have we have a
Blog on that somewhere uh
there's another good point there um we
need to know understand organization
capacity by Department I mean some
department heads would think that their
capacity is their own to manage but I
guess it's a business
um we need to make a case for deploying
capacity to a department to achieve um
its business targets but also set aside
uh time for to contribute to strategic
initiatives and we want to see how much
of that is is local set aside for local
Innovation so that that visibility of
capacity is a very useful model to have
I'm not sure
um how Emily really have a a good uh
remaining uh capacity picture for the
Departments to be able to prioritize
against
um road maps and backlogs
um I guess that's queuing up what needs
to be done I guess that's that's yeah
that's that's absolutely vital in the
road map for for your strategy to drip
feed into the business that's the box to
put it in just need to figure out you
know how to how to uh how to put that
stuff in the book which box
so yes a a choice
um around whether you do something is
um whether it's got a a high value it's
whether you've got the capacity in that
moment I love that top one David the
conflicting objectives that could be
Cherry Picked by delivery managers this
is the classic if management don't can't
bloody decide someone's going to decide
for them
um which isn't
take a very good way of of delivering
strategic alignment unless you get very
lucky we've got very strategically
minded delivery managers another another
question maybe is too big ones now but
can we prioritize unless we collect time
so so if we don't know what time is
being spent on this initiative or that
can we can we really refocus things if
we haven't got time collecting time
collection isn't prevalent in a lot of
places is it and it yeah I mean we
we'd be stumble on this all the time
it's the challenge of you need an
estimate but it's really hard to get an
estimate
so you don't bother with an estimate
where you just come up with a T-shirt
size there's a sort of you you have to
compromise somewhere but we believe
being able to differentiate easy stuff
from really hard stuff is pretty
critical
I know a CFO wants that uh recently that
spent a lot of money getting their new
Finance system in place and had a very
clear business case for that and they
didn't spend much on external resources
but no one knew how much internal
resource had been spent on it
um so so would that have been
prioritized ahead of other things if if
the true internal cost would have was
actually known so it's okay it's okay
because the CFO controls the head count
though oh there you go
um yeah another point I tried to allude
to earlier on is is giving people
empowering people
um we we want to allow them to
prioritize within their domains
um and let them get on with things but
still have visibility so we can spot
whether we're issues and there's a
really good one there about sort of why
it failed about reacting and shifting
priorities it's um I think any any
prioritization solution has to be agile
if it's brittle it will fail if it's a
big ugly planning process that people
kind of takes months to get through
it doesn't work it has to be something
that has the ability to respond to you
know marketing but most vital down isn't
it because I mean opportunities and
threats arise and Wane and and grow
um so so the drivers that underpin your
prioritization will change over time so
if you can't re-prioritize quickly and
easily and you don't have the
information system to pull that together
um you can have as whatever cherry on
top of the prioritization model you like
but if you can't feed it with good info
it's it's going to be uh how often do
you find yourself doing your your cute
you know your Q4 planning q1 safe in the
knowledge that you know you'll never
deliver this because the it'll just look
different but the time you get to keep
two that are low-key for
that that one confusion between into
program prioritization between program
so again it's
um maybe that's alluding to apples and
pears being having lots of options to
just lots of options for projects and
then not being able to compare them to
to distribute funding between so um and
then the sort of what we call it some
portfolio portfolio stuff but there's a
point at which you need to put your
projects into buckets so you can compare
if not apples and apples at least apples
and pears
um rather than you know apples and
elephants
um so people have tried quite a bit and
um it's there's quite a few things there
that people have picked up on but but uh
I'm not I'm not really seeing anyone who
is talking about
um they've got a framework for
systematic prioritization that's that's
fed by an effective data model that
supports that that helps people
um be accountable
um uh assist with um independent
Assurance that's that's supported by an
effective uh capability to make it work
so there's there's quite a bit there's
quite a bit to getting
um uh systematic prioritization to to to
go and if if all those moons don't align
it it can be difficult
so
um people are still typing and so please
do
um type away folks but we need to sort
of move on for now um as I said as we
said we will respond to all of these
these things
um leadership too busy micromatic
managing the systematic organization
that that's a very actually I'll just
dwell on that for a second uh this this
the prioritization engine that the
ecosystem needs to be set up
um that systematic prioritization is is
a model to build and to operate
um and and it needs leadership to make
it happen so um yeah how do you flip
people out of uh uh puddling as hard as
you can and why not instead just turn on
the motor that's behind you there's a
massive cultural component to all this
but I think at three minutes three
minutes till the top of the hour we
might uh we may not touch it today yeah
okay right so what next okay so um
hopefully then
um we this is this is this is me
assuming things
um I think we can see issues in
prioritization
um the whole process putting a business
case together coming up with a value
estimation estimating effectively
um identifying risk which can control
this to wobblies it's difficult
um the ability to compare business cases
um the the opportunity from for a
project from uh operations versus night
versus sales which one do you choose how
do you take how do you make it uh
objective
um there's two always too much to do you
have to make choices choices are
difficult and it ends up being a bun
fight we've kind of suggested that
um not all of this necessarily have an
effective or clear funding and
resourcing process some people keep it
parochial to retain a bit of influence
and Power
um we're not necessarily always making
choices between business as usual and
change we reserve resources for BAU and
protect them hardly heartily and and
projects are rated for resources
whenever
um there's a Target at risk
and and the symptoms are typically
stress slippage overspend under delivery
so this this is my view anyway so I
forgot uh
um yeah yeah there's a bunch of PMI data
out there as well which sort of backs up
all this David and it's to say you know
basically the stats get get get get
better the more aligned your portfolio
is um
if you if you don't prioritize you don't
perform yeah and and we see people have
tried a scoring system but they find it
hard to make to develop that date and
put an effort in to prioritize for the
start of the year but then don't have an
ecosystem to to prioritize ongoing
um you've tried rational debate on date
data based but people can be parochial
if if there's not a
systematic independent approach people
can't say no because then you're labeled
as you don't have a candle attitude so
people don't like to make choices and
say no to things
um the people don't like the having
thinking about making BAU and change
choices
um although they are clearly there to be
made it's not just choices between
projects
um and we just have to so basically we
just have to cope
which which isn't good so
um I guess folks if you don't want to
just have to cope
there is a way that you could take this
forward and
um our proposition to you is
um before we can offer you what the
solution is although Dan can show you
some technology for that straight away
is is to try and understand what the
problem is to try and shape that
understand who has which problem and is
there a case to do something
um because it might well be that uh you
simply needed a piece of technology to
plug into an existing perfectly working
culture but you might need uh some more
help to build a collaborative
prioritization approach that that also
connects you from strategy to delivery
and works at multiple levels
so um if you did like the idea of taking
on some technology
then you might see a typical life cycle
where we discuss your technology
requirements but understand what your
technology needs are understand
requirements show you some kit getting
to use it get familiar with it adopt it
extend it and support it and that might
will be a perfectly good life cycle
where you can plug some tech in but if
you are not sure that your business is
ready and and will have the ecosystem to
support the tech then we can engage you
help you engage with your organization
on First Steps I.E getting consensus
that there is a problem there is
something to solve to think about how
that might be approached to then
discover
and then fits the technology into that
life cycle
so we can help you on two levels
um if if you need the tech and you're
happy to to do um to to look at a
solution because you have the culture
ready then then Dan can talk to you
about plugging that in and showing you
what that looks like and if you want to
go and avoid your Discovery and help
your business more systematically
um
achieve accountability through
systematic prioritization
um myself and my colleagues we'd love to
speak to you about how that might happen
we work nicely together so uh you know
we're very keen that that you've got
that kind of deployment
um support
um as well as the the nice kit
um in order to make a success for this
so basically what what we do or you can
contact us is is
um we're happy to listen to your
scenario
um here here you're paying and then and
discuss with you if we can help you know
in either capacity with with a technical
solution or to assist in in uh adjusting
how you guys work to to uh to deliver
accountability more effectively
crikey is that it we've only done two
minutes over
um well thanks everyone for for
attending I hope it's been interesting
um today was um you might have seen some
of you is is it is the third
presentation in this series of five that
we're doing in the spring
um the next one we're going to run in a
couple of weeks time talks about the
backbone for strategy delivery so what
what might be the the another aspect of
of the technology solution set that uh
gives us a backbone as opposed to
polarization and then we'll talk on the
12th of April
a strategy delivery and thinking big how
we wrap all this together if you if your
thing is is
um purpose to Vision to strategy to
delivery and back again and we'll
present a pitch that talks about that as
well
um
crikey
um so that's kind of it
um thanks for listening everyone we'll
stay online if anyone has any more
further questions to ask or wants to
speak but um we'll um thank you for your
time thank you to Dan for uh for
whizzing through this stuff
um um yeah please enjoy your day folks
and
um hopefully speak to you soon