so we are um honored today I feel
honored today to welcome my friend can I
call you a friend of course I can call
you a friend of course Do It um
Heber uh hea Al is as you all know
because you've all signed up for the
session the best pmo leader in the world
right it can't be said any better than
that I'm going to embarrass you just
close your ears for a minute hea because
I'm I'm going to embarrass you
horribly already embarrassed yeah I'm
sure so when um when the short list was
announced for the for the Awards this
year did you see what Lee said Lee Lee
Lambert Lee says so many nice things but
he he did say I feel sorry for others
exactly that's exactly he said I feel
sorry for the other
competitors competition's over he was w
I know and I was scared of other
competitors each one of them were really
they had amazing profiles yes they did
yes they did um now I first met hiber in
Saudi Arabia at uh the the pmo
conference down there and hiber was up
on stage and there were there were um
four very senior people including hea on
on the stage in a panel discussion and
the the the host was was sort of asking
questions about you know how do you run
a pmo how do you make it effective and
the three the three guys with beards
were sitting there giving these really
nice textbook answers and then habber
opened her mouth and she started talking
about people and culture and values and
I fell in love at that point right um
and so hea's values are incredible not
only is hea a very very accomplished pmo
leader she's also a very accomplished
artist you got to meet the was it the
the yeah tell us about that of Saudi of
sorry he came to the opening
of Art Festival and I was able to tell
him about my painting it was like
fantastic amazing moment it's a I would
never forget it yeah this is not related
to the pmo no no nothing with the pmo
except except that um what it does is it
it shows the humanity and I think that
human you humanity and values are a core
part of what you do and what you achieve
right and the creativity side as well
absolutely absolutely so hopefully we'll
touch on some of those themes throughout
the session um so what I what I want to
do um just before I start start the
conversation um is just encourage
everybody to ask questions in the chat
um I will try and keep half an eye on
the chat so you don't need to do that
here but keep half an eye I'll try and
keep half an eye on the chat and if I
can incorporate some of your questions I
will absolutely do that today um this is
a session for the community by the
community um delighted to be you know uh
kind of co-sponsored with the the pmo
Global Alliance UAE chapter right so
it's very much by the community for the
community so do ask questions um if they
come to you um but to start off with
what I would love to do is just start
with a definition of pmo right what's
the what is a pmo what's it for what do
you think the pmo exists to
do the simple term it's any any
requirements that's given by the hirer
man management to be fulfilled by a
certain unit it could be anything it
could be only to support project or
control them or to even um direct
projects or create projects even so it
depends on the requirements it's just a
unit that does everything that the
organization needs at that point of time
and achieves
it brilliant so so the so the goal of
the pmo then if I can play that back the
goal of the pmo is to help the
organization achieve its goals exactly
yes so it's and the sponsors as well so
so not only the organizational goals but
what does the higher leaders want for
the organization how do they want to um
manage their projects how do they want
to uh manage their portfolio what kind
of gaps that are there in the
organization at that point of time so um
it depends on the situation of the
organization itself and what's its
maturity in terms of project management
brilliant so so let's go back in time to
when you started at the Dubai M
municipality right what what was the
portfolio like what was the environment
like and and tell us a little about the
journey from there to being conqueror of
the
Universe I like that yeah okay so let me
start by saying that I've been in dubine
municipality for almost 19 years so uh
since 2005 when I was hired probably
from the second day uh we I was in the
IT department in the application
development section and there was a pmo
on the section level and probably was
the very first pmo on the level of all
government entities even though it
started very small for only application
development section not the whole itd
but it started way early when there was
no one talking about pmos at that point
of time right and uh from the second day
they told me we need fresh people coming
in uh joining us as members and the pmo
and I learned so much from that
section uh then afterwards I was
handling the application development uh
section uh and then the it pmo grew
bigger I also o took part in the itpmo
establishment I handled the itpmo for
about two years then I handled the
section application development section
for about two years as well so in Dubai
municipality the very first form of of
pmo was in the IT department since
2005 uh and then um probably until 2018
there was no big um
we tried to convince the higher leaders
to create an Enterprise pmo but they
were not convinced in 2018 there was a
major shift in the organization the
director General
changed and he came with this approach
that there has to be a pmo there has to
be an Enterprise pmo on the level of the
organization and he was at that point um
comparing with other government entities
who created Enterprise pmos and they
were mature and well established
so in August
2018 suddenly there was like an
announcement on the email is going to
handle the the pmo the Enterprise pmo I
was shocked I told them I need budget I
need team I need I kind of panicked and
I
think God chooses the right moment uh I
was going to resign from the B
municipality I had another
offer and it just came in the the right
in the right time and I thought okay
even though the offer had the like a
major difference in salary higher salary
different organization that was really
booming but I thought you know what I've
been in the in that pmo field since the
second day I was hired I don't want to
let it go I understood that project
management and pmo is my passion so I
left that offer and I went for the
Enterprise per
and immediately we started with the
knowing what where are we where are we
in terms of project management what kind
of projects does our director General
want to follow up on or want to see
under his umbrella and it was all of the
project wow let's say I learned so many
things about construction project
infrastructure project seage projects
and it's not my field at all you I came
from a I was a
programmer initially when I was in the
IT department so completely different
field but all of the projects under the
municipality became under that uh pmo so
that we journey that raises a really
really key question which um uh just
everybody knows we we did a little
little bit of preparation so I've got a
list of questions here but I didn't read
it no that's all right no you're you're
fine I've got a list of questions we
won't get through them all but that's
okay but one of the things that you just
said that I think is really interesting
and I think Jonathan was just beginning
to scratch on this with his question in
the chat as well is so you've come from
being a coder and then you did a bit of
project management pmo like coding at
all well but but here's the key thing
right now you're in a business
leadership role yes and more of a
strategic role as well there you go so
so for people who are making the
transition into the pmo is is there any
advice you would give them about
broadening the skill base and learning
about the
business strategy all that kind of good
stuff I mean what did what did you to
what did you do to bridge that Gap
because it's it's a fundamentally
different role right yes exactly but it
had to happen because uh there is this
basics of project management that I
learned as a coder as a programmer as a
member in projects that are related in
uh to the like a mobile app project or
website project or all of that being a
member and and taking my time and being
patient and learning all of these steps
being a a project management uh or part
of the team it's it kind of gave me that
background for me to to move forward and
then progress little by little and I had
I had good bosses I had really people
looking out for me and for all of the
the young members who were joining at
that uh time and for them to to kind of
put me in two places you know being the
pmo also work as a coder at the same
time it it g it gave me like I was I was
one of the lucky ones I don't think this
happens normally in in many
organizations but I did have two
different views at the same time and it
was important for me so if you want to
move to the business side to the
Strategic side there is the basic sides
that needs to be covered and um I think
the young Generations now they are not
very patient they want to be leaders be
um managers immediately without taking
that experience of being in the field uh
working with
projects understanding everything not
just from trainings or certifications
from being on the ground that's really
important it gives them this technical
background that much very much needed in
project management even if it's like a
small
percentage um so so Stuart Taylor just
asked an interesting question which is
when did you realize that you could put
yourself forward as a candidate for
being a pmo leader it sounds like you
didn't I
didn't but because people knew um my
work in the IT department when I was
leading the the it pmo and they knew my
work as application development head of
section in the IT department and I was
managing projects so the director
General I dealt with him uh in a mobile
app project before he became director
General so he knows my my skills and his
office leader also she was a great
support and she recognized that there
are potential there were other other
candidates as well but uh I didn't even
know they selected me until the
announcement came
excellent okay there are a couple of
people asking about project
prioritization that's what we do as a
company transparent choice is Project
prioritization we we will probably touch
on that as part of the conversation
today but um uh but that's not the core
the focus of what we're doing so those
people are typing that in that's
brilliant I'm delighted you're excited
by that um get to we'll get to it we'll
we'll cover a few other things uh cover
a few other things first so so I'm
really interested by something you said
here but which was that um there wasn't
a huge amount of interest in the
Enterprise pmo until Along came a new
DG right yes then what happened how did
because this is one of the key
challenges for any pmo leader is how do
I get the attention and maintain the
attention of the leadership team not
just the director General but the you
know everybody that you need to be
bought in so having the DG bought in
helps but how did you get the rest of
the the team bought
in okay so um I had a change management
strategy set from day one and uh uh I
recognize all of the
stakeholders we had a like a secret plan
of knowing where are they in terms of
their support to the pmo are they um uh
big supporters or are they against the
pmo idea what's their power what's their
impact so the full
stakeholder analysis was done they
didn't know we were doing that we were
just having with them meetings as much
as much as we could trying to find out
where they're coming from what's their
backgrounds what's and I was talking
about the all of the head of departments
that were there at that time in 2000 oh
sorry that's was that was early 2019
when we
started uh and the uh CEOs that were
there So based on that we put
communication plan for each one of them
and even though um it took a lot of
effort from my side because all of these
higher higher management they want to
meet with me only they don't want to
meet with the younger pmo leaders they
want I have to ensure their buying face
to face or buy phone or trying to make
sure that everything they want is is
fulfilled and at the beginning the there
was resistance especially that many of
them were there in Divine mity for a
very long time doing things without that
Enterprise pmo it was only the director
General that changed and these were the
same until he came and he also made a
few changes later on so um for me to
change their minds it's it was
hard uh however I think I do have a
success story one of them who was really
resisting he said why do we need pmo why
do I need to use a system uh we are
managing perfectly fine with the reports
we're sending to the director General
with the ex sheet we don't want anything
and this is the guy I kind of focused on
I tried to show him quick ons from the
system to show him what are the benefits
that could he could be using in his own
reports how he can measure the success
of the project manager or even the head
of department so after uh probably a
year from that
Journey uh he pushed all of his
employees and his departments to use the
system for other aspects so even for
operational work he said the system is
perfect for project I'm happy with it
let me cover other aspects I want
everything to come in the dashboard you
guys created for us so it was it was
amazing to to see that transformation it
took a year and we did jump in maturity
in Project manag agement so we started
in project
management it was probably 1.2 out of
five in
maturity and we reached to um something
2.3 within a year it was a full jump of
maturity in project management portfolio
management jump jumped also one level
the next year we also jumped again and
again so um it is a continuous effort
when it comes to to change management we
didn't stop at that point we kep going
whenever we felt the people are kind of
taking a backseat and resistance is
coming or projects are not being entered
in the system or suddenly um they come
out of nowhere so we we activated that
um methodology again in terms of change
management to try to see what are what's
their actual problems why is it
happening like this so this is like
maybe that's a culture thing also just
to give you an idea uh here some of the
leaders and maybe maybe others don't
agree with me but they do like surprises
so if a head of department has a project
they're working on they just keep it
secret let me work on it put all of the
effort I can and then surprised DJ I
want to show you something that I
created but that's actually wasn't the
the thing that impressed the director
General he wanted things to be arranged
he wanted things to be prioritized
things are clear from the beginning why
are we putting efforts and stuff that
could be not matching to our
requirements not aligned to our strategy
so he wanted everything to be very clear
from the get-go not to be surprised also
towards the end so that kind of culture
is removed from kind of change in the
culture is important well so so I just
want to I just want to summarize some of
that again because um uh you gave the
answer that is just the perfect textbook
answer um you know if you talk to people
like Laura Barnard or um I think I saw
Louise Gardner on here and I think Pedro
Balo is on here and I've had this
conversation with all of them right and
the key thing in getting that that PA
for change is not just building the
business case
understanding person by person what are
the wins and then getting some quick
wins and then making sure everybody
knows you got the quick wins right so
one of the questions people are asking
is what are the what are the what are
the tricks to success what are the
critical success factors and I think
that's one of them right is is getting
those quick wins and getting the exec
sponsorship exactly and it's the courage
to change so not only we have a change
management strategy yes but there is an
element of the human aspect let's say
where we are courageous enough to change
and and that's the thing that um we were
trying to convince people to do um
especially with with a whole new
strategy that was set at that time in in
Dubai municipality a whole new director
General who had his own ambitious ideas
and and people living in Dubai they will
notice how these projects in the P past
five years really affected Dubai how
Dubai became so green in the past five
years in in a rate that was really
really very fast and it's all because of
the project management aspects that were
uh that we were Crees enough to
change that's fantastic um so so one of
the things that you mentioned a minute
ago was was around alignment with the
strategy was around prioritizing a and
making sure you know why you're
investing in things so so let's let's
dig into that a little bit because um
that's something people struggle with
obviously um so I'd love to hear how you
do it and in particular how you deal
with the fact that you have lots of
different departments all of who want
different
things and to make it even more
complicated as a government body right
you can't just use the profit and loss
statement as your guiding Star right
you've got to take account of you know
the services to the people and all those
kind of things so so just talk a little
bit about how you do that process I'm
not really interested in the tools and
things right it's more the people and
the process and the engagement that that
I think is really
key sure uh so in 2019 one of the
Committees that we introduced was the
project approval committee previously it
wasn't there so uh previously the each
department submitted their project ideas
to the Excellence uh to the Excellence
department and it was forwarded to the
finance department if there is budget
related and one list is provided to the
director general for for him to approve
we thought there has to be some
governance body that's that's reviewing
because finance department could their
own project Excellence department they
have their own project that they want
to create and there wer weren't any
prioritization criteria there was
something very minor let's say so we
thought uh let's first create these
prioritization criteria we worked on
nine
criterias and the way we implemented is
through the project approval committee
so the very first step is that business
case is being filled uh through the
system by the requesting Department it's
being reviewed by the implementing
department and it has all of the
information that the project approval
committee needs for them to decide
whether that's that business case or
that project idea is valid to to run
this
year uh and the the prioritization
criteria are also automatically derived
from the business case so once the
project approval committee reviews all
of the business cases we can run a
portfolio analysis report and find out
which project which infrastructure
project is more important for us this
year so that's high level in terms of
the criteria first of
all um as any other government entity we
have our kpis strategic kpis we have
operational kpis if some kpis are being
affected if a kpi is red and we need
immediate interaction uh immediate
action that's being taken for for a
certain kpi to
improve this is one criteria what's
what's the status of our
kpis uh where do we want to reach to so
the greenery kpi was one of the kpis
that
were whenever we introduce a new project
that's related to Greenery it's linked
to that kpi and we keep measuring uh are
we meeting the Target or not so this is
one criteria the other criteria is um
the risks of not undertaking the project
so what will happen to the municipality
if we
didn't uh go through this project what
will happen to the reputation of the
entity what what will happen to to its
services are they going to to stop are
they going to stop partially fully so
each
criteria I have to open a presentation
to to show you but each criteria has
like a uh
scale what's the effect of that that
criteria it could be extreme if it will
affect the the reputation very badly if
stop all of the services if uh um there
will be huge risks then it takes the
level of the extreme there's extreme
High um
medium uh low and no effect of the
criteria so this is the second
criteria um there are criterias related
to financial aspects so if the project
will introduce operational um will
introduce revenue for the municipality
if it's PPP project or um any type of
other project that could be shared
Revenue uh if it will cut the
operational cost so the more value uh it
will cut the more it takes in the scale
of the extreme it takes higher
priority U what else we have nine
criteria the Strategic alignment as well
there are certain um let's say in terms
of strategy there are certain areas in
the strategy that are little bit more
important than others like the ones
related to customer
service
um what's the effect of the project the
effect on on people the more it will
affect the more people it will affect
the if it will affect the whole
Community it takes a higher uh higher
scale so at the end all of these
criterias are set together and then a
score comes out for each project okay
and we review We review it from
different sides of the of the finance
like the ones that are they don't need
any any budget we think about it in
terms of human resource in terms of uh
whether we need it for this year or not
and if they want the budget side we take
the infrastructure budget capital budget
in a separate report uh other type of
budget in a separate report so that's
basically it I hope I understood I
that's really good so so um anyone
that's interested in this I I could
spend the the rest of the time talking
about this because this is what we do
every day well one important thing that
the pmo pmo is a member in the project
approval committee
so that that's something that I noticed
in the past period of time whenever I'm
asking about pmos and other entities
whether here or around the world
sometimes the pumo doesn't have a seat
at the
table and and that's that's really
important for the success of the pmo and
the success of the organization for the
pmo to be weaved in those important
bodies the pmo by the way so great what
do you think the pmo brings to the
table uh if there are repeated projects
so the project approval committee our
role is to first check the sanity of the
of the business cases are they filled
correctly or not and then we check if
whether there are other project that are
very similar that can be merge together
and we do have a kpi that measures uh
the the level of um
um let's say I don't know the name the
word in
English the replicate or or repeated
project to once we find them we have to
resolve them immediately so um that's a
huge part we we do give recommendations
when it comes to merging projects into
programs uh we give
recommendation even the parts related to
uh
um uh the benefits and values of of the
project that's uh being
introduced so
but not on not only that being there
hearing hearing from everyone explaining
their projects in the in the committee
listening to what input is given by the
external Department input given by
finance department they are all members
customer service uh customer happiness
Department are also
members um now Asset Management
Department is also a member so all of
these they have their own views on the
project and the idea of a project and
putting them all together and for the
pmo to listen it kind of broadens the
the span of of the pmo leader for me it
was really a huge experience but not
only project approval committee we are
also a member in the board the the board
of directors of Dubai municipality which
includes the director General and the
CEOs and some limited head of
departments so this is the Strategic
view of how the pmo from my point of
view
it weaves very nicely with the strategy
with the with the higher management uh
expectations and um this polistic view
of the organization and and coming to
back to that critical success factor I
imagine you weren't invited to sit in
those meetings on day one right you had
to earn that place right the project
approval committee was the idea of the
pmo so there was no way they wouldn't
put us in the
as member so it was it was part of the
pmo establishment it was part of our
study so we did a study of what we
needed and what's what are the
weaknesses and strength of uh of the the
project management uh framework
portfolio and program management and
part of that study or the output was to
we have we had to have governance body
for portfolio which was included under
the board of directors
and another governance body body to
approve projects so um because it was
our idea they had no choice so I oh gosh
so many different directions we can go
so I want to come back to that idea of
governance in a second um before we do
just just really quickly a few people
are asking about criteria and things
like that can we get the details so um
if you if you want more information
about criteria and things like that put
a note in the chat and Lenora who's one
of my team who's on the call Lenora if
you can send those people a link to the
criteria ebooks so we we have uh we've
got a couple of ebooks there's kind of
the beginner version and there's the
expert version and um so if you drop a
quick note to Lenora there she will send
you that ebook and you can download it
and it talks you through what are
criteria what what is a Criterion how
should you put them together how should
you build scales right um uh how should
you figure out the weighting of the
criteria all of these things are in
these ebooks and there are some great
examples um you and you you hi by the
way you've hit most of the main
categories you had systemic risk in
there had Financial you had some uh
short-term kpis like cost reduction and
revenue you had longer term strategic
kpis in there right so you you nailed it
right that's absolutely brilliant I
missed a few I'm sure they were nine I
talked about probably five no you did
you did really well you nailed it so so
if you want that book just just ping
Lenora and she will get it to you um uh
so on that I'm going to tear myself away
from my favorite project favorite
subject which is project
prioritization um and come back to this
idea of governance okay so you've
started go you started talking about
governance structures and and again
we're sort of weaving the the critical
success factors into
this would you say that that's one of
the success factors is having clear
governance clear roles and
responsibility across all governance
bodies not only the bodies that we
introduced so we had the seering
Committees on the level of project we
they didn't know whether where do they
fit what's their roles and
responsibility even the project manager
is part of the governance and his role
wasn't very very clear so we clarified
everything in our uh guidelines for
project management and we created a
policy later on and um I think it's it's
the clarity and
transparent let's say how the
communication is Flowing across all of
these governance bodies and the fact
that people were not hiding information
from from each other or from the second
level or the lower level in the in the
government governance played a big role
in the so so I'm going to come back to
the question we had earlier right
because now you're now you're getting
into something really tricky right
because you you're getting into people
and their territory and politics and all
of these things you know I don't want to
tell you I don't want to give you the
information because then I lose power
right so so how did you how did you
build byy into governance and how do you
encourage people to follow those
governance
rules yeah so the director General uh
really he played a huge role in the
board of directors because I remember at
the very early stages he used to
embarrass me by telling people yeah he
is asking me hi do you have that project
do you know that
information uh do you know that the
project is is delayed is it reported to
you so in the board of directors he gave
me the power by asking me questions nice
as people so so starting from top to
bottom he created that culture all of
the CEOs all of the head of departments
they listen to him and and they know
that it's it won't be good for them to
hide information that's a first point
second thing is when when I create any
reports until now the I get the
information from different sources I get
from Finance what's their status finan
financially for the project contractual
status and I get the information from
the implementing department and
requesting Department once everything is
set in one report I don't send directly
to the director General I take the Buy
in first from the CEO from the head of
Department that's implementing and I sit
with them once they see these challenges
written
they kind of they they tell me wait wait
give us three four days let us talk to
the to the team let's try to solve the
challenges or at least put a plan to
solve it very clear plan in the report
director General yes we have challenges
that we are facing we have risks that
could happen in the project but we did
think about them and we have ways to to
resolve them and then I sent the report
to him so they know that the report is
not they're not going to be ambushed
with any of the reports created by by
the pmo the reports help them more than
than any other uh it supports them it
helps them and most of the time the
director General he approves the report
not all of the time he approves them and
he he puts his own recommendations and
comments so um yeah I think I think it
it it does help this is the top bottom
and bottom up so so so so two things
from that then so the first one is that
that executive sponsorship is really
important um and it's not just important
getting set up but it's important to
keep it going right I think is and to
maintain exactly yeah and and the second
thing is just like we said earlier
there's there's a theme emerging here
folks right it's all about people and
it's all about what's in it for me so so
what I don't know if some of you may
have missed this but what hia just said
is that
it's not governance because governance
is good for Hiba it's governance because
governance is good for the executives
right finding ways to make that
governance a win for them is how you're
going to get them to buy into that
governance so listen to them learn what
they want to achieve and help them
achieve it right it's I mean it sounds
stupidly simple doesn't
it well there is another Factor actually
the pmo members themselves and
how they are dealing with people how
they are are they are they fighting with
project managers to get the information
from them or are they supporting them
helping them to understand the projects
and project management aspects and
getting information um in a friendly uh
and and very Cooperative way so it plays
a big role my pmo members I'm very L
lucky to have a team that's first of all
they have a great chemistry among
themselves right they they compliment
each other very very well they are all
qualified and and we we worked on a huge
plan to even upskill so many of them
we're still working
on every year uh and they have um this
great spirit with with other people in
the organization everyone loves them
I'll tell you one thing I learned
recently there was a guy who left in one
from one of the Departments he left the
bu municipality completely and he said
uh he saw me in in the corridor he said
you know when I leave from here I tell
people I used to work in the pmo he
wasn't working in the pmo but he said
because your team is so perfect
because your pmo team everyone knows
what's the reputation of the pmo and
everyone loves the pmo team and it is a
very successful team I tell people I
used to work with and the pmo so it was
it was funny for me that's hysterical
that's brilliant well and actually
you've just you've just sort of pulled
out one of the other themes that that I
was hoping we we'd cover which is that
whenever I talk to you one of the things
that uh
that I always hear is people right when
you were talking to the executives it
was about having a plan for each person
changing them yes having a plan for each
person when you're talking about having
This brilliant team where everybody
compliment each other I don't imagine
that is an accident I think that's
because you think about those people you
think about how to develop them and you
think proactively about how to build a
team that works well so so and and and
having that team working well is such an
important part of strategy execution
right it is it is and and thinking about
the personal development plan of that
team so are they fulfilled are they
doing the things that they love to
do personally thinking about the work
life balance aspect uh you know stor I
don't know whether you know that or not
I have a co-active coach in my team so
almost like a like a life coach in my
team wow and we introduced this
role during Co times because everyone
was so stressed and at home we we
weren't managing at work we weren't
managing so we thought let's introduce
that role that person that can bridge
the gap between these two Realms
of see I don't believe in in this
separation of professional World versus
personal it doesn't work we're not
robots there has to be some kind of
bridge and at work uh the co-active
coach was the one who helped us a lot
during that period of time even when we
had personal
issues a member had issues with her son
not knowing what what he will study in
the university and he was stressed and
she was stressed she was coming to work
stressed and she sat with a coactive
coach and we they talked about the
values what they want to achieve how to
do that balance how to uh deal with the
pressure the pressure can come from all
over we're humans at the end and let me
tell you story since you're talking
about the human side of leadership
uh probably it's the first time I say it
I am writing a book right
now yes okay uh finally I selected the
title it will be a force of leadership
like a force of nature because to me and
I think I think this comes from my
artistic side definitely the elements of
nature the four elements of nature
remind me of leadership aspects so in
the book I kind of tie the fire the the
air the Earth and uh the Water sites in
each one of them in different leadership
elements when it comes to to
pmos hopefully I will launch it in in
May or maybe before me and it is it is
purely focused on the human human
aspects human elements that's fantastic
I'm so excited to get my hands on a on a
copy and uh so if you want me to read
any any drafts or anything like that and
give you feedback love I have one ready
I'll send it to you brilliant love it
love it um well so this is this is
really important folks right so I want
you to think about hiba's body language
for the last five minutes okay now up to
this point it's been quite a rational
logical conversation but in the last
five minutes when we're talking about
the team he's been smiling her body
language is like this the hands are
going going right now I talk to a lot of
very very talented very successful pmo
leaders and every one of them responds
like
that right the ones who are
successful think about the team they
care about the team they care about
leadership and they've really understood
that the pmo lead is a business team
leadership role it's not a I mean yes
there are technical aspects to it right
you know we were talking about criteria
and how do you do prioritization there
are of course there are technical
aspects to it but the stuff that
really matters is the human stuff and
you know again I come back here to what
you said earlier on about you when you
got the pmo role you had another job it
had better money but your passion was
here exactly right and it's paid off
absolutely absolutely so um so you know
I mean everybody's seeing what I fell in
love with now years ago on stage sing me
again yeah yeah I know I know I'm sorry
um but it's it is fantastic and I I hope
that everybody I'm dwelling on it
because I I want everybody to be
inspired by this I want everyone to take
that as a model for where they should go
get to you can't this is why I'm writing
the book I am writing the book basically
because so so many people are LinkedIn
ask what what's the secret why are you
guys successful and from my point of
view it is the people it's not about the
process or the technology or anything on
paper it's it's what's here in and the
people's minds what's in their hearts
how are they feeling are they loving
what they doing or not so it's um I
thought it's important it is my
responsibility to share it excellent um
all right I tell you what let's let's
move on we're gonna have to leave that
particular passion for now can't wait to
see the book and when it come when it
comes out let me know and we will have
you on again so that you can talk about
the book right that I'm so excited by
that I didn't know that was coming so
brilliant um fabulous so one quick
question that's just come in that I
think is interesting we were talking
about prioritization a minute ago and
I'm going to read the the actual
question here because I think it was
worded in an interesting way um it be
good to get your views on aligning
strategic Workforce plan with the
overall strategic and investment
plan is this something you're doing and
and the information is how so talk about
that a little bit so in the project
approval committee one of the members is
the uh head of HR department so when
when there's an idea for a project all
of the roles that are needed for that
project is being set in the business uh
business case so I need two an for
example I need three
developers if if it's also if it's uh
created internally or not through a
vendor so all of these human resource
elements is being set and ID identified
from the beginning and normally when we
do that cycle we do that six months
before the the beginning of the year so
even the HR department know what kind of
vacancies they need to provide and
whether the current needs of the of the
um uh of of the organization or the
current situation of the of the
department is fulfilling their future
need for the for the project or
not brilliant that's super okay I hope
that's given a flavor of that one thank
you that's that's quite a technical area
that that people struggle with a lot and
and they struggle with capacity planning
as well um so I'm just going to take a
second and say if capacity planning is
something that's interesting watch this
space watch watch our feed over the next
month or two there are going to be some
really interesting announcements around
capacity planning advert finished done
dusted that's not what today is about
today's about you so here's the next bit
we talked
about um the in preparation we talked
about the fact that doing prioritization
having a strategic plan it's great but
if you never actually realize the
benefits of those projects then you've
just wasted your time exactly so how do
we make sure this is the biggest
question right how do we make sure that
those benefits actually get
realized yeah so uh through the benefit
realization model let's forget about the
system everything is there in the system
I can set the benefits I can set the
measures that I what's the target what's
the current basis sign when should it be
measured but then if there is no benefit
owner there's no ownership of each
benefit and who will be measuring it and
when are they going to be measuring it
it's not going to work so it will be
just information the system that doesn't
work um so let me tell you recently we
were in the um Dubai excellence awards
and the benefits were measured for all
of the projects so nicely that um it was
like a like a very nice moment for me
like after 5 Years From the pmo all of
these project that were uh run all of
their benefits were achieved and very
clear even we thought about the direct
benefit and indirect benefit like for
example all of the uh Services um uh
service improvement project had indirect
benefits for the customers and
we after the prod were were finished it
was because there is this huge
sponsorship and there's ownership for
the for these benefit from the not only
the implementing Department mainly the
requesting Department that knows the the
issues and the problems that in the
beginning uh were the reason for the
creation of the
project right and the so it comes down
to to humans again
we so let's let's come to that sponsor a
little bit because this is something
people really struggle with um yeah the
the benefit owner I think was the phrase
you used other people talk about
executive sponsors or there's lots of
different words that people use but it's
all all the same thing so um one of the
challenges that organizations often have
is you know you you walk in and you say
Tada we're going to do benefits
realization and this means that you Mr
benefit owner are now responsible for
delivering that and what then happens
often is that the execs go oh that's
scary right I don't want to be the
benefit
owner and then it all falls apart so how
do you how do you stop that
happening uh away from from the titles
so you call it whatever you want to call
it whatever you want to call it yeah
yeah uh there is a gap in the
organization or
there's a problem that needs to be
solved for us to solve it we have to put
targets and we have to go back and
measure did we do that it's all about
where you you're putting your resources
and are you wasting your time in that
project or not so it's the basis basics
of project management basics of
measuring
value and we are all probably this is
also uh kind of in the in the culture of
Dubai government organizations in
general Dubai uh mammad bashid Al mum
and the Govern government of Dubai the
focus is the value
focus focus is to to create uh things
that are really beneficial to the people
who are living in Dubai so the focus on
value it's instilled in everyone one of
us uh if someone if I call someone a
benefit owner you have to make sure it's
being delivered because they know that
this is really important they know the
importance of their project they know
what's their effect immediately on the
customers who are living in Dubai or
visiting Dubai they take that ownership
happily so it's kind of linking their
their work whether they higher
leadership or or
down to the wat that's really
interesting is that something that is
about the Dubai municipality and the DG
or is that just Dubai just Dubai
government Dubai Dubai in general in in
all of its
aspects excellent that's that's really
interesting I wish I wish governments
around the world followed that model
that would be that would make a big
difference right but uh anyway that's
that's a different discussion we won't
go down that path um but that's that
that's that's fantastic so so um so the
benefits
owner um how much Authority do they have
right because if they're responsible for
delivering the project and delivering
the benefit excuse me not delivering the
project delivering the benefit yes
because they're not the same thing folks
if you're if you're listening those are
totally different things delivering the
project exactly and delivering the
benefit completely different things so
so they're responsible for delivering
the
benefit what
what do you need to make sure they you
know do they need special powers or
authorities or something to make sure
they can do
it um they have it under their own roles
and responsibilities so if I give you an
example the projects that are related to
improving the services if if there is a
benefit related to um the customer
happiness of that
service let's say the measurement of the
customer happiness of a certain uh
service is really low and we need to
achieve a benefit of taking it above the
the target benefit owner here will be
the customer happiness Department which
is responsible to maintain all of these
kpis to make sure that the customers are
always happy and that we are meeting
above the the government Target that's
set
by so they they have clear
responsibilities and they know what kind
of project what are the project that are
happening uh right now that are
affecting or touching uh service
improvement they have their own
dashboards as well we created their own
dashboards for them they know what's
happening with all of these projects so
it is the clarity of the roles and
responsibility of of that department and
other departments responsible
for um depending on the benefit
brilliant so there's a there's a really
good book um it's Ross won't mind me
saying this it's not an exciting book
but it's a really good book on R
Garland's book yeah yeah have you seen
it so so so Ross Ross Garland's written
a book on p3g uh so portfolio governance
project governance program governance um
and as I say it's not an exciting book
uh and I have said this to go to Ross
directly by the way but it's a really
good book really beneficial book yes
it's really good it's it it's clear it's
principles based and so if you want to
understand this this thing about
governance and benefit realization it's
an excellent excellent book to go and
read and I could I recommend it to
anybody I agree excellent so so we are
we are more or less out of time which is
which is a shame because we still have
loads of stuff that we we we should be
covering I guess I I've got one big
question for you before we go if you if
you could go back in time and do one
thing
differently what would it be yeah you
didn't know that one was coming didn't
[Laughter]
know there you go folks you're not going
to see this often she hea stumped hea
not
talking uh let's let's SE it
from how how you manage your
leaders um probably something I learned
over time argument doesn't get you
anywhere if you argue with your
superiors or with your leaders or with
whoever director general or anyone else
it won't get you anywhere because you
will probably win the battle lose the
war so talking about your point of view
trying to to impress them with words
won't work you have to go and try it out
give them the career sample you know
what I had an idea I tried it out and
this is the the output what do you think
this is much much stronger and uh I've
done both I've done both and I lost some
battles I won some more but it is
something that I I wished I I learned
long time ago
this is like just it happens it happens
if you're a pmo leader and dealing with
all of these
leadership and and positions you're
bound to to fall into that um to that's
excellent advice and and not just for
pmo leaders that's just excellent advice
right so so thank you for that um
brilliant um he we we've kind of got to
the end of an hour it's flown by um but
on behalf of everybody who's who's still
on the call I just want to thank you for
your
generosity and for your
Humanity um you're an inspiration to me
and to countless others uh every time
I've been speaking to people in the the
last couple of weeks they've been saying
are you interviewing Hiba you interview
oh wow right so so um you really are an
inspiration to people I know it's
embarrassing when I say things like that
but you are see I'm I'm not saying
anything yeah yeah exactly so so we
really appreciate you sharing your
knowledge sharing the wisdom and um and
most of all sharing your Humanity thank
you very much very much uh appreciated
um everybody who's thank you Stuart
thank you for being passionate about
this yeah you have to be right it's it's
it's important stuff you can uh and
you're the perfect example in Dubai
where um you you're actually literally
changing the world you were talking
about Greening the city right you're
changing the world literally so how can
you not be passionate about that that's
exactly exactly it doesn't matter who
you work for when you're in the pmo and
if you're connecting the strategy to
stuff that gets done if you're that
engine you are changing the world right
exactly and that's why I agree so so
everybody thank you for joining us um uh
do Go download that ebook I saw a whole
bunch of you clicking away on there um I
just put the link or a link to a website
that's got Ross Garland's book um that
that I mentioned a minute ago I can see
a bunch of you going after that already
um and uh you know anything else on
prioritization obviously just come to
our website have a look at that and um
uh here about anything else from your
side anything around the the the pmo
Global Alliance that you want to cover
before we go I want to talk just briefly
about pmo uh UAE Hub we are active we're
waiting for you to join us and uh thank
you all for
attending perfect thank you everybody
really appreciate
it farewell
you
bye
thanks