so I'm going to start off a little story
actually so if you don't know Joe um uh
so Joe pmo Joe Joe po um is uh a
wonderful first and foremost a wonderful
human being I've got to know Joe over
the last five years or so he's I'm going
to embarrass him now a wonderful human
being first and foremost uh so you know
Joe's done does lots of community work
uh he was one of the founders and
supports a char that helps um uh service
service men and women transition from
from the military into civilian life
which is a great cause I was lucky to
meet one of his one of his team there uh
down in
Atlanta um and and so first and foremost
tremendous human being but he's also
tremendously knowledgeable about pmos
project management been doing it forever
right you know um the the the Greeks
actually used to call in to help them
with uh with with their big projects
yeah he's got the beard that's it we got
the beard very Aristotle looking I think
today indeed and uh bizarrely Joe and I
met physically for the first time in
Atlanta last year uh at the the PMI um
conference there and then just a couple
of months later we bump into each other
again in Paris at the pmo Global
Alliance and uh and I was sort of
pulling Joe's leg a little bit as you do
right so if you've been on our webinars
before you will know that I have a mouth
and sometimes that mouth gets me into
trouble and writes checks that the rest
of me then has to has to cash so so I'm
pulling Joe's leg and I'm like Hey Joe
Hey Joe Hey Joe y you must be fed up of
this right because you must have had
that your whole life I'm really sorry
but one of these days I'm going to learn
how to play that on the guitar I'm I'm a
terrible guitarist I'm I'm really very
very bad but I'm going to learn how to
play it onit guitar and uh and Joe
turned to me calls a
cucumber and uh just said hey we we've
got a webinar in January so you got to
do
it I set the I set the stage I put the
challenge out right absolutely you did
so Joe
P my friend here we go oh
boy
Hey
Joe where you going where you going with
that plan in your
[Music]
hand Hey
Joe I said where you going with that
project plan in your
[Music]
hand where's
the see my end
users to build a plan if we
[Music]
can yeah going down to see my end
users we're going to build a change
management
[Music]
plan Hey
Joe heard you shot shot your budget
down so Hey
Joe heard you shot your budget down down
to the
[Music]
ground Hey
Joe I heard you crashed your timeline
down all the way down here we go
[Music]
so there you go don't ever challenge me
Joe that is awesome oh hey I saw in that
video maybe we should have done ACDC so
the next one we we come up with an ACDC
RI for you to go in but I love the the
words even better than the guitar is the
words you you did that's awesome thanks
St Hey listen man um when you're when
you are as inspirational a leader in the
in the community as you are it is a
great pleasure to play pay homage and
frankly to pull your leg just a little
bit right I don't know who that one guy
was with the uh the thin face and the
the No Gray in his goatee man that was a
long time ago couldn't believe it when I
found that
one so anyway it's so Joe push everybody
here he is and what we're gonna do today
we're going we're going to be talking
about the power of the power of and
right strategy and execution this this
came out with a conversation we had just
before just before uh the holidays and
we were we were talking about he what
gets in the
way and we we sort of figured out that a
lot of it is about mindset right where
people get locked into a mindset of
either you know either it's about
business strategy or we're executing or
we're doing something else right and and
of course the answer is that the world
isn't like that so Joe has actually put
some work in which I'm delighted to see
Joe and put a few slides together which
we will use to steer the conversation so
Joe over to you my friend and I feel
like I'm I feel like I am now entitled
to say Hey Joe yeah now you you've
earned it now
right that was fantastic and I see in
the comments someone says Dirty Deeds
Done Dirt Cheap oh that's hysterical
we'll see as long as it's not Highway to
Hell I guess right uh well we could we
could do that one as well now I I I have
written a uh a blog post out on the pmo
squad website you can go find it I took
I think it was 50 ACDC songs and
compiled them into a poem of um project
management uh based off of the the
verses of Let There be Rock so
so I do have some some ACDC stuff
already out there so if we have time at
the end I'll get the guitar I'll try and
remember how to play Let There be Rock
and you can sing you can sing your uh
your verses well we don't want to hurt
anybody we don't know if we want to
S yeah actually you know what Alan Allan
says wow a free concert to some people
pay extra for that Allan I think people
were paying to get out mate I think they
were paying to
escape uh it's the Hotel California you
you could check out but you can never
leave okay don't don't take me that
joke so here as Stuart and I were
chatting he mentioned right that the
conversation we were having last year
and I I had said to him you know this
reminds me of one of my favorite quotes
uh from Morris Chang who's the founder
and CEO of Taiwan semiconductor tsmc as
as many people know them right and
they're one of the largest if not the
largest semiconductor company in the
world and and Morris changen is a is a
project portfolio Champion whether he
knows it or not with this quote he had
right strategy without strategy
execution is aimless and without
execution strategy is useless right you
can't you can do one or the
other but they don't have the same power
right the same influence the same
impact uh
separately it it's the coming together
of those two items that really brings
the power to our pmos our organizations
and our
profession but that's not the way we've
approached this right as as an
industry we have groups like PMI and
Prince and ipma and others who have
focused on the
practitioner and getting you certified
to deliver projects better and we
haven't had as much focus on the
organization or the pmo to be able to
bring those two things together and I
think is we want to break through in our
industry and start truly delivering
value we talk about value delivery all
the time
right but talking about it and doing it
become two very different things and you
know the old saying talk is cheap right
we've got to get to the point where we
stop talking about stuff and start
delivering on stuff right and start
actually bringing that here so I'm with
Morris Chang I I'm about let let bring
these two together this is the power of
and in changing our mindset to be able
to get
there but that's not a standalone item
right I can think that Stuart can think
that everybody can think that
independently but what do we see what
does what are we seeing in data and uh
for those of you who know Rachel henches
and and she does uh previously with key
in but sciforma purchased them and each
year they'v been putting together their
pmo Outlook report and and Rachel just
released that for sciforma last
week
and um there's some great data in there
that talks to some of these
things we don't have to read these
verbatim but couple of things that stand
out to
me 81% of the respondents and they don't
have enough resources to meet their
demand so if you don't have the
resources how can you
have good
execution and if you don't have good
execution if we use the moris chain
quote how are you going to be able to
deliver on
strategy right and then from an
alignment perspective 82% of projects
are not very well aligned with strategic
business
priorities so you don't have enough
people we're not aligned to strategy so
we're having challenges with execution
and we're not even delivering on
strategy
anyway so our industry is full of
challenges right how do we as leaders in
that industry figure out how to overcome
the challenges getting more people
certified doesn't matter if we don't
have enough people to work on the
projects to deliver anyway getting more
people certified doesn't matter if we're
not working on strategically aligned
projects how do we know that well number
three 67% of project practitioners had a
project fail in the past
year so we can continue to do the same
thing over and over and over and over
again but I'm the guy with the gray in
his beard you know not that skinny young
guy from before that's what I that's
what the old Joe would have done I would
have kept doing what everybody's been
doing I would follow the
flock line up and just keep repeating
the same mistakes we've been
making but me the older grayer wiser
less energetic Joe says how do we try to
solve this what's causing this if we can
figure out what's causing this perhaps
we can overcome that perhaps we can
actually do something to change
it so then I go into my investigation
mode right what can I find H what's
causing this in the western
world there's a very
deep
integration uh
inauguration uh induction whatever word
you want to use from a very young age of
dualism we're either going to do this or
we're going to do
that right it's black or white it's good
or evil it's Coke or Pepsi right it's
it's a choice that we have to make that
we're going to focus on one thing or the
other and we're missing the bigger
picture of how do we benefit perhaps
when we can do a different mindset
instead of either or
thinking what happens right if we change
that Duality is a limiting
factor right your choices are restricted
to just the things that are presented to
you but does that actually help us
problem solve because what if the
choices are both not accurate both wrong
what if there isn't a right answer
amongst the choices
right is it possible to
be happy and sad at the same
time right I think in today's mindset
it's I'm either happy or I'm
sad so so there was a there was an
equivalent conversation to this you know
it raged for 20 years or something in in
business strategy it was Henry mburg
and see if I can remember who else it
was but anyway these two
kind of titans of of business strategy
um duking out
about does the structure of an
organization Drive its strategy or does
its strategy Drive its its structure
right and uh and eventually Minah kind
of realized that they were falling foul
of this this dualism approach you know
it's one or the other and he realized
that it's it's both so he turned it into
a metaphor that you know it's like
walking right you put one foot you where
you are today your structure today
drives the strategy you know the
strategy options you have so then you
pick your strategy and then you change
your structure to achieve it and then
that limits your strategy so then you
pick your so it's like walking it's both
and you've got to do both and they've
got to reference each other and they'
got to be deliverable um so so you know
it was a really interesting sort of
parallel to you we're talking about this
in the context of projects um they were
talking about it in the context of
strategy and organiz ational you know
organizational structure um but this the
same the same um uh breaking the the
either or Paradigm was the solution to
that took them 20 years to figure that
out it's taken me 55
right to figure out on my side but when
you work like pmo Squad we're out at
clients all the time helping them
improve pmos providing Consultants to
deliver projects better and you start
looking at those client experiences and
where where do we see
commonality what what is broke and then
what do we fix and inevitably what we
find out is they focus on are we either
going to deliver projects better or are
we going to align with
strategy and that got to me thinking
that ultimately leads to this discussion
today of the problem is our mindset
right right we've limited ourselves to
think we have to do one or the other
right the both and mindset allows us to
think yes it's okay to be happy and sad
at the same time if my grandmother who's
been suffering with Dementia or
Alzheimer's for
years is suffering in a in a nursing
home and passes away I'm sad that she's
passed away but I'm also happy that
she's no longer
suffering it's okay to be happy and sad
it's okay to work on strategy in
execution but you have to have the
mindset that's open to do that you have
to get out of that box that we've
painted for ourselves and think that
it's one or the other and start thinking
about how do we do
change that's where I think the mindset
shift allows us to start structuring
things in a way that we can actually do
things
differently because the com what we do
is we don't paint our own box we paint
the box for everybody that we interact
in so the organization if we're a pmo
leader or we're a project manager and
we're delivering projects and we're
focused solely on the
execution then that's what the
organization perceives that we can
do the organization doesn't understand
that there's an and opportunity there
because we're the experts we're supposed
to know if there's an and
opportunity and and if we're not
bringing that change that new thinking
that new technique the experiments to
the organization then it's not just us
we're restricting we're restricting the
capabilities of everyone the whole
company is now impacted by this so for
me if we truly want to be able to try to
drive
value the origin of that has to be
mindset it is a capability question
first and foremost can we do more than
one thing at a time I can walk and chew
gum right I don't have to do one or the
other so this is the mindset shift right
and this is where we start going and
start thinking about change and and I I
first came across this idea I don't know
20 I was at a conference 20 25 years ago
and it was it was a conference about
um uh of all things uh gosh it must be
30 years ago I was I was still a student
anyway uh of all all things it was about
um uh Recycling and waste reduction all
that kind of good stuff and the speaker
got
up as a not quite graduated student
right the the speaker got up and said
yeah I'm a futurologist and I'm going to
tell you all about the future so first
of all I'm sitting there going now
that's a cool job how do you get that
job still haven't figured that one out
but but um but he stood up and he talked
about you know PE people are talking
about the environment as if it is a an
either or decision right is it either
the environment or the economy and he
was preaching 30 years ago both and
right you could and and so it's you know
this isn't just about project management
this is about everything in life right
usually most situations of both and
mindset uh will will get you further
than an either or mindset and you know
Joe as you said earlier in the West in
particular we're really trained right
our political system our legal system
the the the clubs and Societies in
school that you the debating societies
and everything else were trained to
think that it's an either or world and
it's not right and it's so liberating
when when you know when you get this
realization um and and I didn't get it
straight away it was kind of an
interesting I remember the talk very
clearly so obviously it made an
impression but I didn't really
understand what he was telling me until
until years years later well it's hard
to overcome all of that indoctrination
we go through right right and sometimes
you see it but until it's until you're
put in the middle of it sometimes it's
hard to really overcome it um you know
with our children we do the same thing
right you can either do this or do that
right what which chore are you going to
do well you have to either clean your
room or vacuum the house well why can't
you clean your room and vacuum the house
right um academically I'm going toat
either pursue this degree or that degree
well why not a degree and a minor right
you can still pursue both of them but if
we narrow our
thinking then we limit ourselves I don't
want to be limited anymore crazy example
of how wide ranging this philosophy can
be right so my I have 15-year-old twin
boys and they're in the middle of doing
uh a set of exams right now some big big
exams and so a few weeks ago uh what of
my boys really loves badminton so he
wanted to go to Badminton Club but he
knew that by the time he went for a
couple hours of Club half an hour each
Direction it's three three and a half
hours out of his evening right that's
basically means no revision so he had an
either or decision to make rington or
revision and to his credit he said no
it's not an either or decision it's a
both-and decision and he packed his
chemistry books and he took him to the
badminton court and whenever whenever he
was not on court he sat on a chair and
he did revision and do you know what he
discovered one of the people in the club
has has a PHD in chemistry and sat down
with him and started helping him revise
his chemistry right so that's what
happens when you have a both both and
mindset you can get more done and
sometimes happy things like like you
know someone comes across and helps you
with chemistry happen that that mean you
achieve more than you would have done if
you tried to do one or the other but
there's a bit
that which I know you've got later in
your slid so I'll shut up now well I'll
even piggyback that with the example you
mentioned at the beginning how we saw
each other in Atlanta and then we saw
each other in Paris my thinking through
the summer last year was I'm going to
Atlanta or
Paris and I went to Atlanta it was first
so I chose that one but while I was
there having a conversation with Americo
he says come on Joe you got to go to
Paris so I my mindset of being open to
an and
opportunity allowed me to say yes to
that opportunity where we then got to
engage with several others who I had
known for years and years and years
online but never met in person um so
having that and creates so many
different opportunities and you know a
show kid wrote in here what about when
there's conflict right and this isn't
saying you have to have both and all the
time that's right it's having the
opportunity to use both and and not
either or all the time it's utilizing
both in the right scenario when it makes
sense that's right and and to look for
those false dichotomies those times when
people say it's either this or that when
actually there's a third option right
which is some balance between them
sometimes it really is this or that you
know you you've got one resource you got
two projects they both need that person
um so so what are we going to do with
them because they can't do both at least
not efficiently so you're going to pick
one or the other right so sometimes it
really is either or but even in that
situation you can ask questions about
well is there someone else that can do
some of this for the other project or
some piece of it for the other project
and get a start going get the
documentation done get the requirements
written up something like that right so
so even in those those situations where
it really is one or the other if you
have that both and mindset you can often
find a way to at least prepare for the
for the second
phase and it's been used historically as
a source of power as well if I create
the options for you to choose from I win
either way
yeah right I'm giving I I'm giving you
the perception of choice although both
choices were acceptable to me and
neither of them were acceptable to you
but by me giving you Choice I've given
you the false impression now that you
were actually in charge this has
happened throughout history all of the
time we can either go here or we can go
there I didn't want to go to
either but when when the only choices
presented to me were to choose then I'm
again restricted so that's where we're
headed with this right is the mindset
change AB so how do we integrate that
into organizations so that we can do
execution and strategy
and what we've done at the pmo squad
again is analyzed over the past 11 years
we've been in business our client
engagements and what do we find and what
we found is a lot of the pmos that we're
working to improve are actually really
good pmos the problem isn't the pmo the
problem is the organization's messed
up so we built a model that we called
organizational project delivery what is
the capability of the organization to
deliver projects in their approved
portfolio give you an example everyone
knows about this right we go back to the
stats from the C Forma study 81% of
projects didn't have enough
resources right most pmos almost every
pmo we've ever worked with has a
documented process that's been approved
and signed off of how a project manager
requests resources to work on a project
usually it goes along the lines of go
into system make the system request to
the resource manager to get John Doe to
work on the project John Doe approves it
and then Jane Doe is now a member of the
project team right it's documented
everybody knows it the system has been
implemented uh the checks have been cut
that's the way to do it but the resource
manager doesn't acknowledge the requests
that's
made the organization capability has
been limited by the resource manager not
by the pmo the pmo put in a structured
project delivery process to deliver it
so the organization's not capable we
have been focused so long in our
industry inward what do we need to do to
get
better and we haven't been focusing our
attention on the organization what the
organization needs to do to get better
and I'm gonna take that a little that
that example of yours a little bit
further which is that you know in all
likelihood there's no clear
prioritization coming from the
leadership team or from the
prioritization process to help that
resource manager make these decisions so
so what what ends up happening is that
they they make these either or decisions
because those ones are either or
decisions right yeah so they make these
either or decisions which means that
basically your resource manager who
might be a a lower mid-level manager
with maybe you know five direct reports
or something right that person is
effectively making decisions about the
Strategic Direction strategic allocation
of resources for the
corporation that's right can't be right
that's an organizational problem not a
project management problem absolutely
and and don't we think we would actually
execute projects better if they were
strategically
aligned because that sets priority that
gives resource alignment right that
gives sponsor involvement because
they've prioritized their
projects keeping them separate actually
is detrimental to both of them when we
bring them together they influence one
another to actually perform better at
both of them right and both wins in that
type of
example absolutely so what does that
look like right I I mentioned we we pmo
Squad studied this we analyzed it we we
went back through all of our data and we
said um through multiple paths right
another component of this was being a
judge in the pmo global awards and
looking at the best pmos in the world
one of the items that's part of that
judging uh criteria is your pmo's
journey and we so I took that and I said
man that's a really powerful statement
what does that look like in real life I
know people in the contest are telling
us the journey that went on but how
about people who are paying for our
service and we started to see Trends we
started to see data that was there all
organizations we we haven't seen any
exceptions to this [ __ ] are they out
there I'm sure they are but we've not
found any every organization in every
industry regardless of size company goes
through this five-step
journey the first thing they do when
project management gets introduced in
the organization is it's just it's
getting done right it's ad hoc people
who aren't project managers are doing
project managers there's no titles
there's no templates there's no pmo but
guess what every company does projects
so whether or not we call them a project
whether or not we're using Microsoft
Office or or project plan plans or
whatever it's still a
project so it's ad hoc we're just doing
it and then along the way some leader
usually says man um Joe remember that
project you did and you had that status
report that you were using I really like
that status report can we use that same
status report on every project and now
we have the introduction of
standardization so the ad hoc projects
are now being run a little bit more
uniform
right they're starting to say hey if we
actually track risks and issues we have
a better chance of fixing them or
overcoming them or mitigating them than
if we didn't have something to track
them right so standardization is that
Next Step Beyond it so the organization
is evolving this isn't the project
manager this isn't the pmo I'm talking
the Journey of the
organization the organization has
accepted the fact that we're going to
use the same status
reports but the organization hasn't
accepted How We Do Resource Management
so they get stuck between two and three
right the third one is the organization
has now bought into project delivery
this is the way we deliver projects they
Implement a pmo they bring on people and
all of a sudden the pmo Builds an sop A
playbook here's how we're going to
deliver right standardize starts to get
matured this isn't a maturity model this
is a capability
model now all of a sudden that's an
important statement Joe what's the
difference between the
two maturity right is you can
consistently repeatedly do the same
thing over and over again and you know
the result you're going to get from
doing
it right that's your maturity we are
very mature because we've built an
enterprise resource management
process and we're going to follow that
process over over time capability is how
well do you follow the processes that
you've built you may be a mature
10-year-old pmo that is built great
processes but you don't have the
capability to execute on
them maturity is good capability wins
the day I'll go capability all day long
yeah the cmmi right is out there and
there's there's different ways to
measure those as well
absolutely by the way I bet it's cold
where you are Chris goodness gracious
stay stay warm my friend um so so so
there's a there's a piece here right so
you've drawn this
sequentially I'm not convinced it has to
be sequential and I'm not sure these
things always follow on one from another
because you know some of these things
could happen in parallel right but but I
think this is this is a really nice way
of sort of organizing what needs to
happen to get to the Box on the right
and you know I'm so so I'm a big fan of
I'm a big fan of um right to left
thinking when I see things like this
right so starting on the right hand side
and working backwards and actually we've
got a couple of people on from from
Dubai I think I saw earlier on uh and
other other spots out in the the Middle
East so if you were doing this in Arabic
would you draw this chart the same way
around so I'm asking you guys a question
I'm hoping for an answer on on the chat
if you were drawing this chart would you
have number one on the right hand side
because I know you um Arabic you write
right to left but would you swap the
chart round just a silly little question
but anyway so right to left thinking
here um is is where you you know then
you flip it around you say well rather
than what's the journey that people
typically take you can say what are the
capabilities that we need to build to
get here and how can we accelerate that
process absolutely right and and this is
the um the way to look at the 32 you
need acceptance first right you kill
that's
hysterical nicely done here's my view on
this as well projects deliver
benefits portfolios deliver
value so we always a lot of
organizations when we present this to
them they always say you mean I don't
start generating value to the end I
thought every Project's supposed to
create value I'm like well of course it
does but really it's the project is the
benefit right you're getting
individualized benefits but to truly and
there's Rachel H welcome Rachel right to
get the True Value out of a pmo for
project delivery how does an
organization generate that is when the
organization starts making decisions
based on their ability to deliver
projects that's when you know you're
creating value for the
organization right upfront delivering
projects better having a standardized
process that's helpful to your point s
these things overlap right it's not you
hit one and then you get to the next
that's why we call it a journey right
you're achieving and getting benefits
each step along this way this is
organizational thinking not
individual-based
thinking so the organizational
breakthrough on this of how does an
organization get value from delivering
projects because they've gotten to the
point where the one two three and four
are all a yes we've achieved all of
those points at this point the the
organizations that win pmo of the Year
from the pmo Global Alliance they don't
worry about acceptance anymore they
don't worry about strategic alignment
anymore they have multi-billion Dollar
budgets because the organization knows
the organization is capable of
delivering on that and that creates
value so per project you're a different
stages of this journey per person you're
at different stages of this journey but
the organization
cumulatively travels along this journey
and there's overlap along the way
because again there's different people
and different projects at different
parts of it but the organization has one
strategic planning session right or or
cycle that they work within if the pmo
is not there I guarantee you the
organization hasn't accepted the project
delivery process yet so so so Joe it
turns out that Rachel so you were
quoting uh the keyen research that that
Rachel pun out last last week um turns
out Rachel's on the call uh and she
she's chattering away here and she says
projects deliver benefits portfolios
deliver value I think I I would probably
phrase it differently I'm half tempted
to bring her into the conversation and
have an argument but I don't think that
would help us um and and and I think I
think the I think the the you to me
portfolios should be about delivering
your strategy right which which is a
slight slight slightly different thing
to just delivering value um but but set
that aside right the the key thing here
is that um the key thing here is that um
you know this whole process is around
delivering you know a return for in for
a return on investment in projects right
and that return is measured against your
strategy right so it's Roi is not you
know most people think of Roi as being a
purely Financial metric it's not right
you can have a business return a return
on your investment that is not Financial
at all you know if you're a government
agency your return on investment isn't
financial it's about Services delivered
to to Citizens right um so so but but
whatever it is right this is about
building an organizational
model that maximizes the ROI
on your portfolio projects on your
strategy your
strategic and and when you think of it
that way suddenly this this either or
thing
disappears right because everything is
about that Roi right so do we want to
improve our execution model yes we do
because that means we're going to have
fewer cost overruns more projects
hitting their benefits uh their stated
goals and that improves our Roi do we
want to align with our strategy yes we
do because if we can eliminate that 20%
of projects that are just not aligned
then we will improve our Roi do we want
to improve the way we resource projects
yes we do because when people are
multitasking they're less efficient and
we will deliver fewer projects so we
will improve our Roi sometimes the
effect is at the project level right so
so you know when when you have good
templates and processes and all that
kind of good stuff that's at the project
level sometimes it's at the portfolio
level right so so when you're doing your
result resource planning right that's a
portfolio level activity that increases
the velocity of project delivery or it
should do if you're doing it right um so
and then when you do your so that's at
the portfolio level and then when you
when you're doing prioritization
properly in your alignment strategic
alignment properly that value is
occurring at the organizational level at
the Strategic level right so you so you
have this value it's it's operating all
these different levels in the
organization and you know in in a way
you the pmo is a key actor I won't say
the only actor or even the lead actor
but they are one of the key actors in
pulling all of those pieces together to
make sure that they all fit together
nicely right and and that they're all
mutually supporting each other and even
kind of synergistic because when you do
good execution and you do good alignment
for example right those effects multiply
together if you can improve execution by
20% and Alignment by 20% right You'
you've increased Effectiveness by 44%
whoow that's
huge right the challenge we run into I'm
buying all of that right practically
when we go into organizations to consult
with them what we hear is the either or
scenario we need to do either operations
or projects we can't do operations and
projects that's why this is an
organizational change as opposed to a
pmo or a project change we want to
change the mindset within the
organization that projects are
operations it's just a different chapter
in the operating manual on how does the
organization operationally deliver
projects projects are changed therefore
they're counter to what operations is
which is kind of the repeatable
day-to-day work we do but that doesn't
doesn't mean it's not part of the
operating rhythm of a company if the
organization accepts that projects and
change are normal then you should be
baked into the operations of the
organization love it that's the
Breakthrough thought process with all of
this it's not operations or projects
it's operations which includes projects
it's an and thinking it's both right so
the Breakthrough moment for us when we
work with organizations along these
lines is we start to get them involved
at the executive level and we start
asking them the same questions you were
just talking about are your
projects aligned to your
strategy is your execution followed by
everybody in the organization and and
it's always no they're they're not we
know we have examples of that so then I
go back and I say let's look at things
that are repeatable and consistent
accepted
today the accounting department owns the
invoicing process they send out the
invoices and they receive the
payments does somebody in marketing have
the authority to go send invoices and
receive payments is that acceptable in
the
organization no they've reached a
capability of level three organization
has accepted that nobody does that
that's how the company operates so
you're already following this for
probably a thousand different processes
already within your organization where a
specialty organization sets the process
the organization accepts that
strategically the organization operates
that way and you generate value because
there's only one set of people who are
doing
invoicing yet on projects you have
accidental project managers throughout
your organization running projects that
you don't even know are in your
portfolio for managers who are working
on pet projects pulling resources away
from the Strategic initiatives it's not
the project management team that's at
fault it's the organization which is out
of alignment so when we start to work
and have those sorts of discussions with
clients they're like mind blown we never
viewed this this way it's a breakthrough
moment for people in our
industry so Joe bring it let's bring it
down just for a second if I may um
because as we're thinking of both of
both and thinking right so often people
when when they when they're at sort of
that level two level three sort of level
right that that's where there's a real
danger in that zone which is which is
that you become the process
police right and you get so much process
and so many templates and it's all very
rigid that you lose the creativity so
it's process versus flexibility and
creativity because often project
management is about creativity and
problem solving as much as it is about
process and and everything else yeah no
doubt so so do you have any thoughts on
how to find that balance we've talked
about the organizational balance and the
strategy balance but just a minute or to
on how do you find that what you know
how do you discover that balance because
it's going to be different for different
organizations different projects I
imagine you what are your thoughts there
I'm a a giant supporter and customer uh
capturing voice of customer and
understanding what your customers want
they could be internal customers or
external
customers ask them ask the people who
are your sponsors or your project team
members or the people who are involved
in writing business cases and
Charters is is our process overweight
what do you see value where do you not
see value what can we cut back on and
what can we streamline the objective of
the project is the outcome it's not the
process to get to the outcome right so
the people who are involved in that the
external eye sometimes you know we can't
see the forest through the trees because
we're stuck in the middle of it go ask
people be willing to be told your
process
stinks and you're willing to do that
because you're now having a both and
mindset as opposed to an either or it's
not my way or your way it could be your
way and my way for the optimization
process to be able to work for the
company right it's okay to have somebody
tell you something's not working and I
think there's a there's an
acknowledgement in there as well um you
know because I you know I I obviously
have an opinion here uh and um surprise
surprise yeah surprise surprise you know
it's me and that mouth again but um you
know the the you there's a there's
there's an element here where you know
in principle I think it should be as
light the process should be as light as
it can be to provide the support that
the people need that your team needs to
get stuff done yeah that's that's a
general principle but I think you've
nailed it on the head the way to
discover where that is is to engage
those stakeholders to engage those users
of the process and say which bits of the
process are helping you whichit bits are
getting in the way which bits are
missing what do you wish we could we
were doing that we weren't that we're
not doing right and and then just strip
out so part of this this way of thinking
is about flexibility and change and adap
adaptability because as people get used
to working in a particular way um you
know you said it earlier that sometimes
you can actually take some of those
controls away and Trust the organization
to do stuff because it's it's embedded
right so then you can get rid of some of
those processes and templates and just
let the organization get on with it and
find the right balance themselves and be
more efficient that way more flexible so
anyway Carry On We're we're a service
organization right we're a service
entity and guess what a million other
service companies figured this out
decades ago all we have to do is follow
suit with the people that already know
how to do this right um
restaurants right you walk in you sit
down you're greeted you place an order
and you want to be served all within say
30 minutes time and then somebody comes
out afterwards and says how was your
meal how was your experience we're no
different than a
restaurant our menu better not be too
big it better be precise enough that
people can get what they want our
kitchen or PM process or pmo better be
able to produce the food in the budget
and the timeline that the the customer
expected right we're a service industry
let's learn from other folks in the
service industry so how do we do that
how do we get the organization to change
this this either or mindset operations
or um project delivery well we have to
be the Agents of change right they're
not going to change they're already
doing operations they're the ones saying
that we're the outlier so we have to
create direction right we have to let
them know what this looks like we have
to give them the stage to be able to say
here's how we integrate to them and work
to build that alignment so that we're
not working US versus them that's the
way it's always been it's Ops guys hate
to get on the project because it's
pulling them away from their day job
well guess what the project is to
improve your day job that's why you're
on this project you should be happy to
be on that because you're actually an
agent of change for
operations stop thinking that these are
separate
entities we have to align our
organization to all be working towards
the same execution and then give them
the motivation to do that so so one
quick thing there is you this is one of
those areas where um having an explicit
both and both and discussion can be
really useful because often some of that
resistance is isn't really because they
don't want to change or they don't want
to be on the project I think it's
because they they are given the project
to
do and right problem with both and and
they got to do the day job at the same
time and so that's where you know the
both and thinking actually means that
you you know you you need to help them
have that conversation with their boss
to figure out how do we resolve that
both and conflict because yeah we need
to get the day job done but we can't do
that at the same time you can't do that
fully loaded job at the same time is
properly contributing to Landing the
change you know this benefit that we're
looking for from this project so that's
where you start to have the conversation
that says great so you want me to spend
half my time on the project that means
we need to find another way of getting
these tasks done in the business right
in in operations so because they have
either or mindset right I'm either doing
my job or I'm working my project and and
so if you can flip that to a both-and
mindset and both hand discussion then
you you can find solutions to
that the the approach right the
direction is Project
delivery is your day job right it's your
day job and project delivery that makes
up operations right it's this change in
mindset that um you know there's a lot
of talk Antonio nio Rodriguez has out
there about the chief project officer
kind of usurping the Chief Operating
Officer because we're now in the project
economy and more revenue is being
generated from projects than it is from
operations and I don't disagree with any
of that kind of discussion I think it's
Up For Debate but I'd say it's going to
take a long time for organizations to
throw away the COO role and introduce a
chief project role so why are we trying
to fight Upstream on this this process
that's been put in place for thousands
of years now we should be saying we're
actually part of operations right it's
it's not one or the other it's one and
the other and your day job is running
projects or being involved in projects
and doing your day job building the
widgets it's both of them so we have to
drive that change though because we're
the outlier right we're sitting on the
bottom right corner of the org chart the
little pmo on the side and the rest of
it 90% of the organization or 95% of the
organization is
operations so we have to work our way in
and provide a direction and vision for
them that they understand and agree with
and it has to start at the top down
right you're not going to be able to
build a Grassroots effort for that
because we don't have the authority in
the organization to do
that so when you do that you get results
right but you can't do that alone we we'
found that in the industry and and and
way we get there right is partnership
right
uh people on the call I don't know if
they even know this or not right Stuart
but we're Partners right pmo Squad and
transparent Choice are Partners we are
and we're working together to be able to
provide endtoend
solutions for clients out there same way
as when we're in there working within
organizations you can be one and the
other you can be operations and project
delivery it's connected having that and
mindset is powerful and is able to do
that so as we're thinking Direct ction
as we're thinking alignment as we're
thinking motivation think
partnership how can I on the project
delivery team be your partner on your
operating daily widget making and
actually help the company make more
widgets which means we both get raise we
both get increases in our our positions
and our Authority it's that sort of
mindset is we're Partners we need to be
able to move forward to make sure that
happens and and I'm I'm going to be
obnoxious I'm going to start right on
your slide now because I can um so so I
think there's a you the third party
which is which is you guys in here um
where you know this this partnership
looks a bit like this and you know so
this is the voice of experience again um
it's really tough to do the pmo day job
and engineer this change at the same
time right because everything Joe just
said about operations well the pmo has
the you know you have your operations
that you're doing day-to-day and they
don't stop just because you're trying to
change the way that you work within the
organization so um so there's there's
clearly we're seeing your email right
now Joe I don't know if that's what you
wanted oh sorry that's all right that's
all right um uh so so you know there
there's a lot of value in this
partnership in in terms
of being able to share that
transformational load being able to
Leverage The expertise of somebody like
like pmo Squad and and you Joe's team um
and being able to leverage you know
tools that help you on that Journey that
are the scaffolding that help hold the
organization in place a tool will not
solve your problem no tool Rachel if
you're still on plug your ears right no
tool will solve your
problem right it's changing the
organizational behavior that solves any
problem the tool is just scaffolding to
help you do that right so again it's
it's it's this both and mindset right
just jumping in and put buying software
isn't the answer you got to do that and
you got to have the organizational
transformational thinking that goes with
it and the experience that goes with it
so it's it's the combination of those
three that lets you keep the operations
of the pmo running and manage a
transformation to level four level five
in in Joe's Joe's model and there there
was a comment from a show that says Joe
pmos simply don't have the authority to
push such great options and and I'll
push back and Challenge and
say I've seen hundreds of pmos through
the pmo Global Alliance competition and
the organizations that we've helped that
would say you're wrong they do it's it
may not be every pmo it may not be how
you're currently constructed but if you
can bring Roi to Executives they'll
listen and that that's the whole point
of this is how can we as Stuart was
talking just a moment ago right about
how can we utilize execution strategy to
improve Roi for organizations that's
what organizations are in the business
of if we can show them how we can
generate more Roi for the organization
they'll listen the problem is we've
historically said we don't do that we
focus on execution we don't focus on
value creation so you're right
historically we haven't done that we've
positioned ourselves within
organizations as the part of the company
that doesn't get to do that what we need
to do is change that mindset we have to
go to an and mindset we can be what we
are today and we can create value for
the organization if we don't have that
mindset we'll be stuck we'll never be
able to make progress so is is that an
easy lift heck no that's hard work
that's why the pmo squad exists to be
able to go in and help organizations do
that but there are companies around the
world that are delivering on that value
today because their pmo is engaged at
the highest level of the organization
and they've agreed to empower them to go
deliver stop messing with that slide
stre that's me told excellent and and
just a final thought as we wrap up so um
you know Joe and I are really lucky
because we we get to meet all kinds of
really cool people we were both in Paris
for the the pmo Global Alliance Awards
and you know hea who won the global
award you know best pmo award I I I know
Heber and she's she is just lovely um
and uh had the chance to get to know
some of the other winners from this year
as well uh in in Paris and some of them
still having conversations afterwards
and I got to tell you every single one
of
them every single one of them has this
mindset right so there is a direct link
between at least your peers ranking you
and saying yeah you're top dog and and
this kind of both and mindset strategy
and execution you got to do both so
fantastic Joe I I really appreciate as
I'm sorry we've run out of time yeah not
me because now I don't have to sing
right yeah yeah oh yeah well you know we
can we can stay on the line for a few
minutes um but uh you know it's it's
it's been a a really interesting
conversation uh um lot of fun people
seem to have really enjoyed it what I
would encourage you all to do is reach
out to Joe reach out to me on LinkedIn
or directly and um you know share your
experiences ask questions if you're
struggling with some of these ideas you
know just just ask some questions and
you'll you'll find there are people here
to uh to support you it's a little bit
like Harry Potter if there any Harry
Potter fans on here again I've got
teenage boys so I don't have much choice
in the matter but it's you know helpful
will be given at Hogwarts to those who
ask for
it absolutely so uh so do Reach Out Joe
and I love doing this love working with
and supporting the community um so I
look forward to hearing from you I I see
a couple of you have jumped onto
LinkedIn already so that's fantastic um
so uh so thank you all for coming talk
to you very soon awesome thanks
everyone