good thanks hey so um
I thought I'd actually start off with
some promises and even before that
I want to make a somewhat controversial
assertion
I think the whole notion that there's
some sort of Sweet Spot between chaos
and bureaucracy is is fundamentally
false I don't think we have to trade off
or compromise or you know go go habsies
if you will I think we can have our cake
and eat it too
okay I think we can have just the right
amount of governance and control and
just the right amount of autonomy and
freedom of movement that you don't have
to somehow you know trade one off for
the other
uh so I'll explain in more detail what I
mean by this
uh so I'll start uh I think we
absolutely tend to over complicate
governance there's no I don't I I don't
think anyone on this call would would
dispute that if you do dispute it uh
well that's fair uh some people may have
already
figured out how not to over complicate
governance and maybe maybe you feel
you've got a good handle on it or maybe
you're in a startup and you're kind of
keeping it really small and lean
or starting to scale up without a whole
lot of bureaucracy and that's great but
I do think in general uh you go into any
large organization it doesn't matter if
it's government private sector
you know non-profit you know higher
education whatever it is you'll tend to
find over complicated governance and
I'll explain why I think that is and and
then what we can do about it
uh there is a single technique that I
think dramatically simplifies governance
so that if you're not aware of it or um
haven't tried it uh I'll give you a
little bit of a taste of that
and let's not stop there let's go for
for the trifecta here
I think you can uh I'll call it flipping
the org chart
so if you're used to governance you know
controls residing in some box at the top
of an org chart or some senior executive
somewhere
I argue that that's that's one of the
fundamental misconceptions that we don't
need bosses
let that sink in for a sec
I don't think we need bosses I think we
can flip the York chart of course if you
already have bosses and you have good
bosses and good governance and good you
know all that stuff I'm not saying throw
it all out and risk it but I think
you'll see what I mean in in a few
minutes by this this this concept of
flipping the org chart all right so
let's let's dive right into it first
uh at least until 2022 when PMI did not
put this report out for I think about 20
years or so it's offered this great
service to the public and the PM Geeks
in the world like me and many many of
you uh in fact side note I'm such a geek
that PMI did not generate this chart I
had to pull the data from Individual
reports and build it in Excel myself
just so I could could take one view of
it over you know a 10-year period here
and bottom line is even though
Improvement looks to be ticking up a bit
the last few years
I think overall you know we're stuck in
the 60s or low 70s on the easiest metric
right we don't have to come in on budget
on schedule on scope as long as we sort
of stayed true to the original intent of
the project and got some benefit you
know in in the right direction
uh so in my mind that's you know a d
Plus or a c minus and it's just not uh
something we should be proud of and it's
a strong indicator we're doing something
wrong
uh by the way if any of your aircraft
um enthusiasts you can see in the early
days of Aviation uh the the rate at
which airplanes would would avoid
crashing was a similar curve as this and
of course we fixed that over time right
we realized it wasn't just pilot skill
there was a lot of uh system level
things we had to do to make sure the
aircraft themselves were easier to
control more reliable easier to maintain
um as well as making sure we had
well-trained pilots and so forth so I
argue we're still in the early days of
project management
and I think there's a lot of improvement
to be made so so Mike just just a button
for a second perfect excellent thank you
um so sometimes when I talk to people
about this because because Lots yeah we
all have similar chants to this and
sometimes people say actually it's not
too bad 70 that's all right
okay let me be very clear PMI did some
nice research a couple of years ago
where they looked at the best
project delivery organizations and the
best project delivering organizations
all of those metrics are about 90 okay
maybe a little over 90 now so if you if
you take 90 right take 90 divide by 70
right that means they are outperforming
the average by 30 percent
okay so that means everybody else is
missing 30 of the value you could be
delivering so let's not Pat ourselves on
the back that we've gone for you know if
you if you follow this back 30 years
right these numbers were 30 right so
let's not pack ourselves on the back and
say oh look we've got 65.70 right we
need to everybody needs to be at 90.
that's where we should be
it can be done and and America the guys
that have that have won uh the awards I
I suspect they're all doing this at 90
consistently and that's how it should be
all right so 70 is not good enough sorry
Mike yeah that's right on and I'd go
further and say this is what our
governance approaches have been designed
to give us
yeah and so that's why I think the topic
today is is particularly on point
so let's get to what I'll call it the
core assertion here I think we've
allowed ourselves as PMS to believe
things that are not very ambitious
okay so our definitions aren't wrong
the definitions of people like PMI uh
give us they're not wrong but they're
not complete and they're not very
aspirational either so I'll tell you
what I I'll show you what I mean so many
of us are familiar with this definition
from PMI it's changed very very little
in the past 40 years
I think once uh maybe 20 years ago we
added the word result at the end
um you know and uh this remain
remarkably stable over time and again by
itself it's not wrong I just argue it's
incomplete and not very aspirational
it also fails to take into account that
these are investments we're talking
about
and Investments aren't just made to
produce things that are quote unique
they're made to give us more value than
we just sacrificed
now it doesn't always work out that way
like with any Investment Portfolio
there's risk
which is why a hundred percent you know
due date performance and 100 hitting
your your planned targets is probably a
pipe dream you're probably not being you
know you're not taking enough risk if
you have such a safe uh portfolio there
right
uh so this notion of Investments and
that we want it to be better than what
we just sacrificed often a lot better
I think is far more aspirational and
important to how we think about uh
governing our our portfolios right so I
think it's it keeps going right this uh
lack of aspiration if you will
also appears in the project management
definition
to say we're only doing it to meet
requirements uh I think it's pretty
boring it's certainly not why I'm a
project manager I'm not just here to
meet requirements right I'm here to
improve our world and there's no upward
limit to how much we could improve
things right which is part of the fun uh
so to say we're just here to meet
project requirements is I take I I'm
insulted by that as a project manager
right that's certainly not why I'm doing
it at the moment it's not so much that
there's no no limit to the upside but
the minute it doesn't feel like there's
any downside right everything's
everything's a mess so let's get out
make it better
and if the best I can do is hitting
requirements then I miss one little
thing and I'm falling short you know I'm
99 and I'm already I've already missed
it
um so you know why not aim higher
so a lot of people don't like my
definition here on project management
because to maximize the return on
Project investment sounds very Financial
it sounds like what your accounting
department is talking about
um a lot of projects upside is hard to
measure in dollar terms uh we don't all
just do it for Pure financial reasons
that's all true but the the fundamental
concept that we would like it to be
better than what we just sacrificed
right otherwise why do it right nobody
would invest in your retirement funds
hoping that they end up less than what
you just sacrificed when it's when it's
time to retire right otherwise no one
would bother
uh so I think again there's an
aspirational aspect uh if you're a
public sector or an environment where
it's really hard to measure and it's
it's it's a different kind of goodness
than just Financial goodness the the
concept still holds right we're trying
to maximize our bang for the buck our
impact right and and not even the sky is
the limit
now when we get to governance I think
the definition of pmo is though the most
insulting and the most the least
aspirational let's say
so there's I won't even read it because
it's just a gobbledygook of you know
management standards governance uh in my
mind when I when I see standards and
governance I think compliance I think
audits I think you know somebody's
trying to exercise power over me that
might not deserve it right and uh and
maybe not even trusting me to act in the
best interest of my organization
so it's all about uh somebody needs to
tell me what to do otherwise I'll never
figure it out on my own
uh oh and then there's sharing so
ideally we'll all share stuff and
that'll be good too
um nothing against sharing but I don't
find it all that aspirational to limit
the definition there and I think if we
just think of it as the you know the the
generator of goodness right ever higher
impact uh I think that's again far more
aspirational and you get rid of all The
Gobbledy book of words and if we if we
start off thinking of governance this
way
we avoid the temptation to to you know
beat our chest and feel like we're in
charge we're in control and we're going
to tell a whole bunch of people what to
do and we're gonna check for compliance
about all our rules and standards and
and that's all we can ever aspire to do
I think we can Aspire for much more
so
let me uh
give you just one building block it's
not the only one but the key here is
uh if we are going to self-govern or
we're going to do it with light
governance right not heavy-handed uh
oversight we do need some sort of signal
to tell us whether what we're doing is
having the intended result
right if we don't have that we're just
Flying Blind we're just hoping and
guessing
and and then the temptation to say well
if only there was some Supreme wise
leader that could see things that we
don't and magically tell us what to do
then then we'd all be better off I think
no let's get let's get the right signal
so I'm gonna give one example of this
this happens to be really valuable and
useful for portfolios that really need
to deliver on their due dates in order
to drive value of course there's other
ways to drive value but this is just one
and so I would ask you to to read this
first statement and just think to
yourself whether you agree or disagree
um I've yet to come across an audience
that disagrees with this but it's always
possible I'll find the first one
so if this is true
then that means I would be foolish to
commit to an aggressive date like five
days even if that's about the average of
how long my task takes
uh if I'm responsible I'm gonna protect
myself a bit maybe add another five days
and now it's a 10-day commitment as we
all know things vary we don't always
control how well things go even if it's
a task that's very familiar we've done
it 100 times
um Murphy's Law will strike and if I
care about delivering on my commitments
I'm going to
uh to buffer my my commitment
and everyone else will too
if they're responsible
but think about this if you're the one
paying for all this you're the chief
investor of this portfolio
you just paid for a 40-day schedule when
there's really only 20 days of work
happening
now it's variable work it's not
guaranteed to be 20 days it's just sort
of an average right
so 20 days would also be foolish but 40
days sounds excessive
again ask yourself if you agree or
disagree with this statement
um I kind of cushioned it with that word
often so it's like it's hard to disagree
with
um but a lot of people tell me yeah I
don't dare deliver early when I'm early
because then they'll hold me to that
same deadline in the future that would
be dumb
um but boy if there were no negative
repercussions to delivering early then I
could run things like a relay race
Runner does uh that feels great when we
hit personal records and deliver you
know in record time and enjoy the sort
of Team success when things go perfect
or just things go great not necessarily
perfect
so I'm asserting that we could have this
thing called a buffer signal
which protects our 20 days of variable
work but not in such a fat way as the
traditional method that gives us a
40-day schedule and it gives we it gives
us project managers portfolio leaders a
tool now to govern
and I'll get into how the governance
works on this buffer signal in just a
sec
but bottom line is if I don't even see
these five days hiding inside of
people's commitments I can't manage them
if I if I control this as a project
manager or even just a team that's
self-managed I could do a lot
uh and so here's just a made-up example
of how a project might look with their
buffer signal throughout their you know
from start to finish
and again it shows sometimes we burn
buffer faster than we actually make
progress and that's what pushes it into
the red
us and then that's a signal that we the
team can use to try and recover and push
it back into the yellow or even the
green if we're lucky
and again Murphy will strike we don't
always know where but we know that
Murphy strikes and we better be ready
for him and we better have a way to
govern our response to it
in this case self-govern we don't need a
senior leader or pmo director to tell us
hey you just slipped into the red uh
let's figure out how to recover we know
how to do that ourselves in fact those
of us closer to the work almost always
will know better
to recover right
so that's just project level let's take
it to the portfolio level because that's
really what pmos are supposed to be
concerned about
and so the question here uh that every
pmo will face
is I've got two different projects or
more uh but only one resource perhaps
somebody called in sick today we thought
we had a you know the right resource
lined up for all the projects that
needed that skill and maybe we find out
today somebody resigned or got sick or
or something wasn't synchronized well
and now we have a problem
we can't
help both projects if we only have one
resource that they need to keep schedule
so we will typically prioritize if we're
if we're effective
again if we know how to prioritize
without a big boss doing it for us we
can do that
but even there if I prioritize A over B
or B over a then half of my portfolio is
going to suffer
so I argue that's not good enough that's
that's what leads us to the to the Chart
I showed up front right 50 due date
performance
but if we happen to have a buffer status
that we're managing that can inform the
decision and give us some resource some
cushion to get both projects to achieve
their due dates and so as you can see
here let's imagine that through no fault
of their own the project team under
Project B uh doesn't have as much buffer
left as we get close to the end as
project a does
again just imagine that's dumb luck not
bad management
um if it is bad management we know how
to solve that one but um you know we can
coach people up or out or whatever we've
got to do there but uh well-intended
teams and PMs will find themselves with
not so much buffer left therefore if we
don't give them the resource we will
guarantee almost that they will come in
late
we don't like to punish these guys for
having so much buffer and being so good
with their buffer but again we're all in
this together we're all trying to govern
this as a group
and again if you don't want a boss to
tell us what the right signal is and
what decision to make we can just talk
amongst ourselves that hey project a has
the additional cushion
and if they have a resource that can
help Project B good over the Finish Line
we should do it
so again we don't need a
heavy-handedness uh what we're doing
here is basically pushing project a into
the red
we don't like having two projects in the
red but at least they're not off the top
of the chart they still have a chance
they're very close to the end maybe
we'll get them both over the finish line
and if we did this for the whole
portfolio it gets much easier
right it's rare that your portfolio
would be just two projects unless you're
a startup or something
and so now I've got a bunch of options
uh if I'm a pmo leader I can focus just
on the red
and if I'm a scale up and I haven't yet
decided whether I want to create a pmo
because I heard it's heavy on
bureaucracy and I don't want that
um and then it's a bad way to scale
well maybe I can just look at this as a
as a group of PMS a group of key team
leaders
and make the obvious choice like hey one
of these projects in the green has a
resource that could really help Project
B great let's just make that decision
and move forward we don't need to do a
bunch of horse trading and you know
demanding a bunch of overtime from the
poor guy that found himself as the only
guy with the right skill right now or
whatever we'd be much smarter about
getting all these things across
so again that's just one signal but it's
in my mind a good one an effective one
it's a proven one
especially if your portfolio your
projects are sensitive to due dates and
really have to deliver on due dates to
drive the value
but there are some questions of course
that come with this especially if you've
never seen this
some people will say well in order to
know how much buffer I've burned versus
how much progress I've made I'd have to
have really good plans everywhere and
that's not that we're not there yet
um or maybe we don't want to go there
yet that's that sounds like we'd have to
spend a lot of time planning we don't
like doing that
um well I can tell you that even if all
you do is generate a high level flow
that'll that'll that'll solve it
um I've had teams figure out their high
level flow in an agile environment where
they still don't know the exact product
um you know configuration and details
but just sort of have a general solution
Direction and just having a high level
flow that captures that solution
direction is plenty and uh sometimes
they can get that done in like an hour
or two so not a lot of planning
necessary
I mentioned I do this a lot with agile
environments
so we just we just do high-level road
maps and stuff
um we don't worry about planning until
we get to the Sprint level
um I would say that's great as long as
your high level road maps are what I
just described under the first bullet
they are genuine high level flow that
captures Your solution Direction in a
way that everyone can nod their head and
understand
if it's a cartoon on a PowerPoint that's
not enough
okay
um something that actually shows what
the high level flow looks like without
just cartoons
a lot of my clients use safe for
Enterprise project or product management
for their portfolios or pmos
um and they have these practices like
quarterly Pi planning sessions Etc again
most release trained Engineers I've met
tend to be engineers
uh safe and in general the agile world
doesn't like to use the word manager
uh and I understand why the part I'm in
fact I'm right there with them with the
theme of this that this this whole
webinar that we don't need heavy-handed
governance uh we don't need a bunch of
managers telling us what to do
but unfortunately the release train
engineer typically is a technical
engineer that doesn't understand
how to actually drive flow
right how to actually drive the Cadence
of value delivery for our portfolios or
what signals to follow
so often I'll introduce buffering and
that solves it and then the team can
manage it or will measure the throughput
of completions on a monthly quarterly
annual basis and and challenge ourselves
to drive that up
and the release train engineer becomes
really I call it a flow leader right or
a flow driver
the safe environments that that take on
that mindset do far far better than than
the others
uh this is my favorite one because I
consider governance a dirty word too and
wow I can hardly believe I'm attending a
webinar that includes that in the topic
right
um some of you may be in that camp again
I would say it's not governance that's
bad it's how we've done it in the past
using bad definitions in our heads
that's bad
mm-hmm
and then of course you know I would be I
wouldn't be I wouldn't be true and
honest if I didn't include some
self-reflection here like I don't want
to have an expensive consultant like you
right we don't like external Consultants
they always run up the meter too high
and we never really get the bang for the
buck we want we prefer to do this
ourselves great you actually can do this
yourselves it's not that hard that's why
I love doing webinars like this and um
you know Stuart doesn't pay me for them
of course right nor would I take money
if he offered
um it's my genuine hope that you can do
this yourselves I don't think uh a
consultant is needed
by the way this little logo in the
bottom right there is an interesting
initiative that a colleague of mine and
a co-author actually a gentleman named
Wolfram Mueller in Germany who developed
this this very light touch like
self-governed approach called Blue
Dolphin and uh he asked me for what
their hashtag should be on on Twitter
and I said no Consultants
um and so that's sort of his marketing
tagline right no Consultants you can do
this yourself it is uh it is a it's not
free it costs it costs something but
it's a very light touch approach the
sort of guiding you know it helps people
take their take control their own
Journeys for their pmos and portfolios
um and apply things like the right
signal whether it's a buffer signal or a
throughput signal or whatever the signal
should be that tells us what decisions
to make without waiting for the boss to
tell us
um
so I would argue if you're still not
convinced that's fine but do consider
these benefits
uh people talk a lot about self-managed
teams at scale but the reality is every
organization every scale up I've ever
seen whether it's in the in the tech
world you know Silicon Valley whatever
uh the moment you find 10 people without
a boss you go find a boss and stick a
boss on top of them
right and then when those 10 bosses uh
when you have more than 10 of those
bosses then you better find another boss
to manage the bosses and on and on we go
with uh the usual hierarchical org chart
and again if you really and by the way
that doesn't scale profits very well
right if you're a scale up that's also
trying to scale profits that's that's
typically a heavy overhead way to do it
so if you want self-manitunes at scale
give everyone the right signal and the
right autonomy the right definitions in
their heads to go to go after it
here's where the flipping New York chart
stuff comes in
what if a lowly project or product team
will have just a bunch of techies or you
know product experts
suddenly uh are told well all right true
self-management means you better
understand finance and r d and marketing
and everything else if you really want
this to be a commercial success
and none of us on the team have any
interest in being marketing or Finance
or any any of those sorts of skills
so we got to go to the chief marketing
officer the Chief Financial Officer or
whoever is at the top of those domains
or functions the org chart and see if
they might help us
I would say what if instead of having
those people at the top of the earth
chart they're just subject matter
experts we might pay them just as much
as a chief marketing officer a Chief
Financial Officer if their knowledge and
wisdom really is that valuable
but they're there to serve us
right not the other way around they are
a pool of smes that we pull in when we
need to guide us on these things that we
don't care to develop expertise in
ourselves okay so we're starting to flip
the art chart right here Mike I I love
this because you know you have the
traditional governance meeting
right which which isn't a governance
meeting it's a governance beating right
right you come in and you've got your
rag report and people start banging the
table and why is this and why is that
and why is that right
and actually what they should be the
question they should be asking is what
do you need me to do to fix it
right that's yeah what you're saying
here is that you know I'm picking one
strand of it right the governor's
meeting but the you know right now it's
you are reporting to me and and that's
the wrong way around yes what should I
be doing to help you guys deliver what
you need to deliver
and you know
the traditional org chart type you know
hierarchies understand this they
understand what servant leadership means
being in service to what actually drives
value but I find them a very rare breed
too often they get uh pretty proud of
themselves and all the control and power
they have and it becomes more of a who
you know who's more powerful in the room
you know is the marketing guy gonna
gonna get their way or will the finance
guy get their way or you know gal
whoever it is and that's that's the
opposite of servant leadership and again
I think that's by Design we don't we
don't always understand that when we
create big hierarchies like this we are
doing the opposite of servant leadership
right we're asking people to be servant
leaders in spite of every incentive we
just gave them
so so Mike in the comments there's this
this is getting a lot of love
but also a lot of skepticism right how
Howie this is a huge cultural change
how do you trigger how do you capitalize
that change so I will say I have seen
many attempts to do this in organisms
like big Banks you know big government
agencies big organizations and it almost
always fails because it requires you it
requires all the people that already
have these big titles and big jobs and
everything else to give them up
or it requires a top leader CEO or
somebody to just completely fire
everyone and start over or completely
rework their entire position
descriptions to be in service to these
teams
and so it is too big of a change usually
uh I've I've only seen it work
partially a couple of times for very
large established you know bureaucracies
so it is asking a lot of a bureaucracy
to suddenly not be a bureaucracy right
but if you're us and if you're a startup
then you don't have this problem in the
first place right because you're small
but uh I would argue that scale-ups are
where this is really the key decision
before I hire that boss to stick on top
of the 10 people that don't have a boss
I need to make this decision but before
I start uh building the bureaucracy uh I
need to make this deliberate decision
that's where I've seen it really be
successful I mean especially when
scallops are already feeling the pain of
getting away from their roots of of
having the teams closer to the value
delivery Define their future right
that's that's what successful startups
all started as right
uh the five of us started this company
together none of us knew much about
marketing but we figured it out when we
finally could hire a marketing person
they were in service to what we needed
that there was nobody under them right
there's there was no they might have had
the title of Chief marketing officer but
they were one man or one woman team
right
um and then they all say I wish we could
get back to those days what where did we
go wrong how did we become this heavy
bureaucracy with all these rules and
this this pmo that we hate and all this
stuff right
um and I think it's this notion of uh
true building building areas of
expertise and specialization that are
truly in service to where the value is
driven
uh so yeah some other benefits here that
um I think this gives you again any
startup will tell you we didn't know
anything about marketing when we started
but boy do we know we all five of us
know a lot about it now
and it was because we learned uh through
trial and error we made a bunch of
mistakes
right I don't think we give our teams
freedom to make those mistakes in a
typical bureaucracy
I think the only way to really learn is
to actually make the decisions and see
what happens
and if it worked great we just learned
something if it doesn't work well maybe
we still learn something even more
valuable
right
so I see this with teams all the time
when teams get into this accelerated
learning through through the freedom of
making mistakes right and sometimes we
can avoid The Mistakes by bringing in
the smes that are in service to us that
that so I don't have to become a
marketing expert I've got you yeah
you're in service to us so perfect
uh and of course everyone says well it's
too hard to keep that alignment right uh
the high level you know objectives and
then the lower level key results for
like an okr framework uh it's it takes a
lot of effort and work and clear
communication and constant reminding and
all that kind of stuff
but what if again the high level signal
of like like the buffer signal for due
date performance that's simple
I could do that down at the team level I
don't need a hierarchy of okrs to tell
me
uh Hey when I'm red I might want to try
and recover that right get it back into
the green
so um so I think the clear line of sight
again you can design it right in and
keep it simple
and so I like to say this this this is a
possibility you can have self-directed
portfolios of self-managed teams driving
self-organized value streams
it's actually possible and not just not
just for startups
now the way that Mike the way that you
and I met was was actually in this area
right because you you contacted us and
we we had a big argument actually about
some of these ideas
uh because because to do that actually
what you need is a one of the
critical enablers is having clear
a clear understanding of how your
business goals are prioritized so that
you can then start to organize the
portfolio around delivering those goals
right which is what what good project
prioritization is right that's what we
do day in day out around the world right
and so it's really interesting that you
know this doesn't self-organize doesn't
mean chaos do whatever you want
it it means have clarity about what
you're trying to achieve and then go and
do it right it's so it's it's a it's all
about that that Clarity and then once
you've empowered people so as a leader
if I don't know if there are any uh
notices if there are any sort of c-suite
guys on the call today but if you're a
leader right your job is to provide that
Clarity first of all where are we going
and then to flip into this sort of
servant mode that everybody's been
chatting about in the in the chat here
um to to allow the team together to
support the team in that journey and and
by the way if if I turned anyone off
when I said this this is uh it's a very
high failure rate for existing
bureaucracies hopefully you didn't dive
off the webinar yet because I there is
hope
um it's not that this isn't for you and
therefore you shouldn't pay any
attention to it it's there are things
you can do as a pmo leader inside a big
bureaucracy to get this kind of feel and
flavor to make it so that you don't
going forward you don't need as as you
grow and scale further you don't need to
constantly build the bureaucracy at the
same Cadence
right you can take the burex you have
now and kind of freeze it in place and
allow it to scale Beyond where you are
um in a healthy thriving way with with
these sort of light touch approaches so
that we as pmo Leaders don't have to sit
in three day long status meetings
reviewing 30 different projects right
we can have a lot more Reliance on our
teams to do some of the self-management
lift
and and one of the key things here Mike
so so I had a meeting yesterday with a
very large Financial Services
institution and one of the things that
they pushed back I think was on your
previous slide which is well we're not
mature enough we can't do this we're not
ready for that
and you know the conversation that that
I I kind of
jumped on them possibly harder than I
should have done I said look do you want
the benefit yes okay so then you need to
begin a journey to get to the benefit
you know right there's no such thing as
a Teleport machine that gets you from
where you are today to where you want to
be you have to go one one you have to
put one foot in front of the other and
walk right and it's the same thing here
right don't don't worry about the fact
that you can't achieve all of this just
start in the first six months right
that's okay
pick pick three of them show them some
success
help the leadership team understand that
wow you know this is this is now
different this is this is this is a the
world has changed and then you'll get
support to take the next couple of steps
right so don't yeah a refrain I like to
use is is similar to the the old
question well when's the best time to
plant a tree and the answer is 30 years
ago
um but absent a time machine how about
today
all right there's no benefit in Waiting
let's just get it started right there
you go there you go and by the way so
Tony made a comment
um that that you know seen this working
right and it really does lead to high
performance teams so this is this is
good hey awesome I need to get to know
you Tony
um hey and a little plug for transparent
choice and all this Stuart because
you've alluded to a disagreement we had
early on
and part of that disagreement was around
hey if you spend all this time focused
on what projects to prioritize for
selection even with your great analytic
hierarchy process tools uh that's time
you could have spent just executing and
flowing things to completion and getting
results
and you won that argument you won me
over anyway by saying yes but it's not
just the the process of going through
the prioritization and selection it's
the healthy conversations we're having
about what's really important around
here right and we may have a dis we may
have multiple disagreements even if
you're a five-person company you're
gonna have five different opinions on
what's important and you need to you
need to go through the process of
harmonizing that so that we all can go
in the same direction so I'm a huge
believer in that I always was I think I
just think we were we didn't know what
we were arguing about
um but regardless yeah you won me over
with that yeah no and and it's yeah and
any time it doesn't matter if you're
running a business you're running a club
you're throwing a boat I used to row at
University
and you know the when when we started
being competitive was when we got on the
same page on how to row right so how
tedious is that right just you know when
you put the ore in the water would you
take it out right it's to say if you if
you get people aligned then you can
Empower them to go and do amazing things
but if they're not aligned up from then
you're going to do a lot of activity but
you're going to find yourself pulling in
different directions and all that kind
of good stuff yeah and even and even if
some people say you know what due date
performance is important so that buffer
signal might be helpful but there's
other things that might be more
important we should talk about those
before we set any signal that's gonna
that's gonna give people a way to
self-govern let's make sure it's the
right signal or the right
and actually one of the things that you
that you flagged up for me actually Mike
a couple of months ago we we showed Mike
a very early take of the product that's
going to be coming out this this quarter
which is absolutely rocking guys watch
for that
um but um and part of what it is is uh
there's a magic button you press the
magic button and it it it it it sets out
your roadmap for you in in a minute
right so instead of spending hours
dragging and dropping dragging and
dropping trying to find a a sequence of
delivery that that doesn't kill your
team you could just press a button and
and the AI does it in a minute
and the thing that I loved about that
was that um I was really worried about
things like
um you know how are we going to get good
enough estimates to feed that engine and
Mike you you really opened my eyes to
this and it's right here in this slide
that actually what you need is is that
high level flow and the ability to
iterate and sometimes you know when you
when you stray into the red that doesn't
necessarily mean
the the world's about to end maybe it
means that you need to shift the
parameters right you need to shift
it's just a signal it's a signal that
says you're not doing what you thought
was going to be yeah the world isn't
working the way you thought it was going
to work that doesn't mean that you have
to you know stress yourselves out to get
back into the yellow maybe it means you
have you have to have a grown-up
conversation about is it more important
to us to be on time or
to actually achieve the business goal in
which case we need more time
right so yeah use the signals to have
good quality conversations and that's
that's where you can use your your
senior stakeholder subject matter
experts to answer that question
yeah in fact I I Envision and I've
coached clients to to create this and
it's worked well when you when you get
to the point where you feel you need a
pmo and you want to make sure it's not a
heavy-handed one
I'll call it more of an enabling versus
a controlling type of type of model
um just make sure you do exactly what
you just said Stuart right just make
sure that they're in they're in service
to the teams not lording over the teams
just make sure that they're advising the
teams on what the right signals might be
right and if and if the buffer signal is
not quite the right one then find it
find a different one that is
so so am I just just a little time watch
you and I have done what we always do we
got into debate and we're shooting off
in all directions how would we've got
about 10 minutes left yeah let me let me
move to a quick wrap and we'll and then
we'll hit the Q a okay uh this is just
sort of you know you can post these
slides or you know I guess watch this
video but there's um there's other
things self-managed teams can do with
these other techniques and I'm gonna go
through all of them but this leadership
as a service is a super interesting one
um so I can kind of let you review that
uh again the bigger you get the more
complex your environment is you might
need communities of interest that meet
like like my all my Architects should
probably get together once in a while
and talk architect stuff and things that
affect all of us we should probably
figure out how to take back to our teams
and Implement
um so we need some sort of rotating
membership so we don't number one we
don't get a bunch of bosses lording over
our org charts and number two we're not
in meetings all week that have nothing
to do with actually delivering value
right so let's send a member to rotate
through
um uh and like in the agile World they
they have this thing called working
agreements among teams when we do decide
that multiple teams need to go do
something jointly together
um some other organizations call these
treaties
um some might think that's like between
warring factions so we don't like that
maybe working agreements is better
that's fine I love those uh I think
those are great so um so the point is
there are ways to handle all the
self-management stuff uh Beyond even
these three tactics or techniques that
I'm suggesting but uh these are great
ones that I've that that I typically
introduced first for organizations that
are serious about this so maybe you
could too
um by the way I didn't make this up
right there's lots of bodies of
knowledge I've pulled all this from
um again I'll just sort of flash them on
the screen here right
um because I'm not smart enough to make
these things up I'm just smart enough to
figure out where to go find them and
pull them in right at least I like to
think I'm smart enough
uh and then last just a quick review
change our change the way we think about
it with definitions find a signal I've
offered you one with buffer management
and then there is this uh interesting
community that I'm a member of called X
scale where I learned this leadership as
a service and community of Interest
rotations and treaties or working
agreements
um there serves of course other ways you
can go
uh learn about other tactics and
techniques and then I mentioned Blue
Dolphin as a way to just sort of do a
DIY light touch kind of get get a little
bit of Consulting help and maybe you can
get uh you know get off the ground
faster
so with that we can open it up