Stuart Easton: Duck.
Dirk Withake: Hello!
Dirk Withake: Hi there. Do you see me?
Stuart Easton: I can indeed.
Dirk Withake: Okay, because it's at the moment all black here from me on the screen, let me just… Oh, is it? Here we go, here we go.
Stuart Easton: Okay, there we go.
Dirk Withake: All right. Hey there, Stuart!
Stuart Easton: How are you?
Dirk Withake: I'm very good, and lucky what I've got here.
Stuart Easton: Love it, love it. I don't have any Dutch ones today, if you can believe it.
Dirk Withake: Well, I cover for you.
Stuart Easton: Excellent, good stuff.
Dirk Withake: Good. How are you? I'm good, how are you?
Stuart Easton: Good, good. Just literally finished a meeting that went on forever.
Dirk Withake: So, so if it's okay with you, what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna run.
Dirk Withake: Get rid of one drink.
Stuart Easton: And get another one, and then we're good to go.
Dirk Withake: I'm waiting here. All right.
Stuart Easton: I'll just set up the chat first, so that we've got that all sorted.
Dirk Withake: Okay.
Stuart Easton: Plug the other screen in.
Stuart Easton: So we can… So they can… Double do that… Perfect, everyone.
Dirk Withake: So.
Stuart Easton: Do you want to just explain yours? Do you want to just share… are you…
Stuart Easton: Do you have… do you have slides, or do you want to…
Dirk Withake: No, no, I thought… we said, when we talked last time, it would be just us talking, you said.
Stuart Easton: Excellent.
Dirk Withake: So, video and sound quality is good.
Stuart Easton: Yes, sounds good. Am I okay?
Dirk Withake: Yeah. Yeah. Sounds good, yeah.
Stuart Easton: Excellent, right, so let me just put that… Over the… And I will put this… Over the…
Stuart Easton: Okay, and then we're in good.
Stuart Easton: shape, and then I'm gonna go and find… Dick.
Stuart Easton: Hopefully I'll have my notes from our last conversation in here.
Stuart Easton: Is that one of your son's ducks, by the way?
Dirk Withake: Yes, here's the same one, but that is one of the companies I'm working for. This…
Dirk Withake: The little bugger here is called Maurice, and we take him everywhere.
Dirk Withake: So, we have in our quarterly new internal newspaper, essentially, magazine.
Dirk Withake: On the front page is always a picture with Maurice being somewhere in the world where we do installations, and we have the middle, so the centerfold is always Morris around the world.
Dirk Withake: You see him…
Dirk Withake: on the Copacabana, in Japan, wherever, so it's always Maurice. And that is so all our system engineers are taking the ducks, and we give them to, obviously, trusted clients, and so this is an inherent part
Dirk Withake: of our culture, actually, and that is why I can't wait to bring you next year to Austria, and we're gonna have it at Frequente's company, because…
Dirk Withake: That is your place.
Stuart Easton: I just had 100 ducks arrive in my house yesterday, so… ready to… I get them in, like, just loads of a hundred at a time. Right, let me… let me just run and grab a drink, and I'll be back in just a few seconds.
Dirk Withake: True, absolutely.
Dirk Withake: So.
Stuart Easton: There we go. Okay. All right, so you're going for the whole jacket thing, I mean, this is…
Dirk Withake: Well, I can… that adjusts your thought.
Stuart Easton: Whatever, whatever you're comfortable with, Doug, right there.
Dirk Withake: Oh, let's leave it, let's leave it. I, on purpose, put the pin here of the Austria chapter, so let's leave it back to it since I can.
Stuart Easton: There we go.
Dirk Withake: Alright.
Stuart Easton: I should have…
Dirk Withake: I didn't do the Thai thing, I mean, there are limits to what I'm willing to do for.
Stuart Easton: Let me know.
Dirk Withake: it all.
Stuart Easton: I don't remember the last time I wore a tie. Oh, no, I do, I…
Stuart Easton: I wore one in Saudi Arabia last year.
Dirk Withake: No.
Dirk Withake: tell you what, we had yesterday the 25th anniversary party of PMI Austria, so I'm alive again, kind of, you'll see. But we had this video of the 25 years of events and photos, and you could tell
Dirk Withake: The events 2000, 2001, 3, 2, 3, everybody in ties, and they're really ugly ties, oh my god.
Dirk Withake: That was the passion. And then, so gradually, as the time progressed, and the pictures, less and less ties, and basically, since COVID, like, no ties at all.
Dirk Withake: Thank God, thank God.
Stuart Easton: Love it.
Stuart Easton: I just, you know, I just…
Dirk Withake: The world has changed so much.
Stuart Easton: Right? Since you and I started working, right, I'm…
Dirk Withake: Yep.
Stuart Easton: Where you had to have the shirt at the time.
Stuart Easton: Your shirt had to be white or blue, right?
Dirk Withake: Yep.
Stuart Easton: No other code is acceptable.
Dirk Withake: Absolutely not.
Dirk Withake: Absolutely, yeah. Thanks, Scott.
Stuart Easton: You could get away with a stripe, actually, in a white color, right?
Dirk Withake: Yeah, if you're English, yes. Yes. Not as a term. No. That is a purely English thing.
Stuart Easton: No, I hate it, actually. I really, I really hate that style.
Stuart Easton: It's, for me, it's associated with, provincial accountants and lawyers, right?
Dirk Withake: Okay.
Stuart Easton: You know, people who wear big gold watches, and…
Dirk Withake: And the, kind of… what's it called in English?
Stuart Easton: Oh, the leather, the leather patches, and… Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Stuart Easton: I shouldn't say anything, because this is my jacket today, it was a tweed jacket.
Dirk Withake: I can.
Stuart Easton: So, I'll stay quiet.
Dirk Withake: Well, good. So, great to see you, Stuart. Thanks for having me. I really do appreciate it. Looking forward to our session.
Dirk Withake: And when is the next time in person? To give you, actually, Maurice?
Stuart Easton: That would be epic. Just remind me, are you going out to Phoenix?
Dirk Withake: Yeah, Phoenix, then it's gotta be Phoenix.
Stuart Easton: Phoenix. Brilliant. Okay.
Stuart Easton: The big… yeah, Laura's… Laura's trying to convince me to go and hang out on her booth in Phoenix.
Dirk Withake: But I'm not exceeded.
Stuart Easton: It'll be a lot of fun.
Stuart Easton: So, we'll… we'll… hopefully I'll… hopefully I'll make it.
Dirk Withake: Awesome. Looking forward to it. We'll love to see you later.
Stuart Easton: I haven't quite got around to booking my… booking my tickets yet, but we'll get there.
Stuart Easton: Okie doke. So, I'll tell you what, I'm gonna, I'm gonna open it up.
Dirk Withake: I'll show.
Stuart Easton: Couple of minutes before everything's due to start, I will open up now, that…
Stuart Easton: Well, right, everybody… I just want to make sure everybody can chat with everybody.
Stuart Easton: I don't know why you can't pre-configure it in Zoom, but there we go. Okay, that's the…
Stuart Easton: A few people waiting… Cool. Okay, let's… Start.
Dirk Withake: Indeed.
Stuart Easton: Arturo, can you hear me?
Dirk Withake: Hello?
Dirk Withake: I won't speak.
Stuart Easton: Arturo's, in the… in the chat already.
Stuart Easton: Normally, there's a big green button that says, start the… start the webinar.
Stuart Easton: I've got a funny feeling that it's already open.
Stuart Easton: So, can somebody jump into chat?
Stuart Easton: Yes, you can. Brilliant. All right, that's superb. Thank you, Archiro. I appreciate that.
Stuart Easton: So, welcome, folks.
Stuart Easton: Great to see you.
Stuart Easton: We're still a little early, so there should be a few more people joining.
Stuart Easton: Unless there's a… technical challenge.
Stuart Easton: So, as you're coming on in,
Stuart Easton: Kasim's note-taker has joined, so hopefully Kasim will be joining us. Kasim's always good value, he always has something interesting to say.
Stuart Easton: So, as you're coming in, just follow Arturo's example, go find the chat, and say hi. Tell us who you are, where you're from. And, you know, I'm a Brit, so I always want to know what the weather's like.
Stuart Easton: you know, it's, it's… I was, I was speaking to somebody out in, Oman.
Stuart Easton: earlier today.
Stuart Easton: And, you know, it was still, you know, 39 degrees.
Stuart Easton: Brutal. Brutal.
Stuart Easton: So, so come on in, welcome everybody. Jump into the chat, tell me who you are, where you're from.
Stuart Easton: And I'll tell you what we'll also do today, is I'd love to know what your favorite local dish is, because we've got… Dirk is joining us from Austria, and my favorite Austrian dish is Kaiserschm.
Dirk Withake: Mmm! Had it yesterday.
Stuart Easton: Hey, cheers!
Dirk Withake: Yes.
Stuart Easton: Fantastic. I discovered that by accident and fell in love immediately.
Dirk Withake: Lucky exit, yep.
Stuart Easton: Yeah, yeah, very good accident, accident. So, so jump on into the chat.
Stuart Easton: You should all be able to chat. Make sure you set the chat to everyone, not just to the panellists.
Stuart Easton: And introduce yourself, and as I say, tell us where you are.
Stuart Easton: And tell us something about your favorite regional food.
Stuart Easton: That would be great.
Stuart Easton: Come on, Lenora, what's your favorite from South Africa?
Stuart Easton: Actually, I think Lenora would just be happy with a glass of wine.
Dirk Withake: Right? That's a good plan, too.
Stuart Easton: Yeah, not a bad plan, not a bad plan.
Stuart Easton: So, as, as people are still coming in, what I'd love to do… here we go, that's it.
Stuart Easton: Markson from, from, iskander Kebab. Love it!
Stuart Easton: Had some of that last time I was out in Turkey, actually. Very nice.
Stuart Easton: So do jump on into the… into the chat, just introduce yourself.
Stuart Easton: tell us where you're from.
Stuart Easton: And, and tell us about a regional… original food that you… that you like.
Stuart Easton: So my name's Stuart Easton. I'm the CEO and one of the founders here at Transparent Choice.
Stuart Easton: So we're a… we're a software company that does portfolio management software, and every month we run two webinars.
Stuart Easton: We do one that's kind of product-centric, where we do a demo, and we typically get someone in to join us and put it all into context in the real-world environment. And then every month we have,
Stuart Easton: A thought leader come in, you know, a leader from the industry come in, and talk to us about something interesting.
Stuart Easton: And, I was… I was trying to work out, you know, who do I know? Because this month we wanted to talk about, you know, strategic planning. What is it? Why is… why do we care?
Stuart Easton: And I was racking my brains trying to figure out who would be a good person to speak with when… when I suddenly realized we have the perfect person to speak with in Dirk.
Stuart Easton: So if you don't know Dirk, he… he has a bit of a hangover today, because yesterday was the celebration for the 25th anniversary of the PMI Austria chapter.
Dirk Withake: Correct?
Stuart Easton: Of which Merck is the president, I think, yes?
Dirk Withake: Indeed, indeed, indeed. Yeah.
Stuart Easton: So that's a big, you know, yeah, big round of applause.
Dirk Withake: Thank you.
Dirk Withake: Oh, you know.
Stuart Easton: Oh, Lynn, Lynn's saying Cullen Skink. Now, look, I'm from a Scottish family.
Stuart Easton: How do I not know what Cullen's skink is? You're gonna have to explain a little bit more, Lynne.
Stuart Easton: love it. So, why do I think Dirk is the best guy to talk to about this, or a great guy to talk on this topic? Well, first of all, he's got really deep project experience. Project management experience, PMO, you know, leading PMO-type experience.
Stuart Easton: And then, you know, in the latter part of his career, he's been more at the, the executive level, right? So the vice president, you know, business unit director, and, managing director sort of level.
Stuart Easton: So he's lived the life That you will live?
Stuart Easton: But he's also seen it from the top.
Stuart Easton: And one of the biggest challenges that people have is to connect the top.
Stuart Easton: you know, is to connect the strategy to what we actually do, and to make sure we're actually doing what's going to deliver the strategy, right? And that's basically what we're going to talk about today, is how to make that all work.
Stuart Easton: So, Dirk, do you want to just take a few minutes and introduce yourself, and then I'll…
Dirk Withake: Sure, sure. Thanks, first of all, thanks for having me. Looking forward to the conversation here. My name is Dr. Vitaka, yes.
Dirk Withake: Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of the PMI Austria chapter, but it's not the afternoon, so we're all good.
Dirk Withake: Beyond that one, I'm indeed the business unit director at a company called Frequentis, an Austrian company, but with worldwide ties with almost every country, in the world for safety-critical solutions, hardware-software integrated solutions in the areas of air traffic management.
Dirk Withake: public safety, defense, public transport, and maritime. So, control tower solutions,
Dirk Withake: And, for, again, these fields, communication solutions. So, if you board a plane 95 out of 100 times, the equipment or the software we are producing, is involved in your flight, and actually, if you fly, within Europe.
Dirk Withake: Across Europe, into Europe, out of Europe.
Dirk Withake: It is definitely the software that my team builds is involved in planning your flight.
Dirk Withake: So, that means safety-critical solutions is something
Dirk Withake: Where safety, redundancy, thorough project management, thorough strategy is extremely important. We take this very seriously, because compared to other endeavors where you might just… just lose money, what we are doing, the impact might be,
Dirk Withake: very much more severe.
Stuart Easton: History-wise, again, I'm now an executive since 8 years running at a business unit, and.
Dirk Withake: Occasion as well, it's a known legal entity.
Dirk Withake: But before that one, I had a project management career, starting with a sub-project manager, or first, actually, project team member, sub-project manager, project manager, multi-project manager, program manager, portfolio manager, PMO manager, so the whole works. So if you're in there, I envy you, I would love to go back there.
Dirk Withake: So that were really great times. They were really being in the trenches, I have to say. I miss this a lot, so sometimes I do special projects on behalf of the board, as kind of a side gig, if they want to get something done, and…
Dirk Withake: just for the fun of it, I've structured my business in, like, portfolio, so following the classic portfolio management principles, working closely as well in the company I'm working for, with the PMO there. So, noticed as executive, working with the PMO as well during my time.
Dirk Withake: Prior to joining Frequencer was for 14 years with CSE, nowadays called DXC, as a principal consultant in project management and all aspects of project management. And I did implement as well one or the other PMO at the time.
Dirk Withake: Back in the day, that's now 15 years ago, and when I look now at the methodology and tools available.
Dirk Withake: I go, like…
Dirk Withake: they're so much better now than it used to be, so we've come so far, and I really feel a little bit kind of stupid what I've done at that time. It worked, don't get me wrong, but
Dirk Withake: they're so much better quality now than they used to be, so it's come a long way, I really have to say. But I've been all across industries, so during my consulting years.
Dirk Withake: Producing industry, oil and gas in the UK, all across Europe, entertainment, high-tech manufacturing, supply chain.
Dirk Withake: All these kinds have been across most, I wouldn't say all, but most of the different industries available.
Dirk Withake: brought this into my job now with Frequentis, and again, leading a team. Currently, my business unit consists of 70 people located in Austria and Romania. So that is a bit about my background, living here in Austria, though I'm actually German, so I moved, to Austria straight after graduating from university.
Dirk Withake: And that's now more than 25 years ago, and here I am.
Dirk Withake: So, that's just briefly about me, and may I introduce my little pal here? And I think that's very important for…
Stuart Easton: For Stuart, because he's the deck man, as I know, having met him before.
Dirk Withake: This is Maurice, I hope the blur works. So, Maurice is our mascot of frequentis of frequentiser. As I said, we have an export quote of 98%.
Dirk Withake: And where we go, Maurice goes. So our system engineers, wherever they are in the world, they take Maurice to bring it to their clients, and we always get photos where he is at the Copacabana, maybe at Heathrow, or wherever in the world, Narita Airport.
Dirk Withake: Australia, he was in the Antarctic, he was in the Ark in Greenland, he was everywhere. So, this is a far-traveled…
Dirk Withake: Deck, and next time we see each other face-to-face, you'll… you'll get one.
Dirk Withake: Promise.
Stuart Easton: Outstanding, outstanding. Well, so, Dirk, actually, that leads perfectly into how to get this thing started. So, if you've been on any of our webinars in the past, you've probably heard about the ducks. As Dirk says, you know, the people now call me the duck man. I don't know if that's good or bad.
Stuart Easton: It's good. It's good. I'll take that, I'll take that. I'm the duck man.
Stuart Easton: And the reason… the reason that I talk about ducks is… is because, you know, the story goes, a friend of mine
Stuart Easton: a guy called Roberto Camagno, he's a senior consultant down in Brazil. And, he was presenting his project to the CEO of one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies.
Stuart Easton: And, you know, he was telling him about the, you know, here's my Gantt chart, my burndown report, and all this kind of stuff. And the CEO stopped him, and he says, Roberto.
Stuart Easton: I don't care.
Stuart Easton: If you've got a boy duck.
Stuart Easton: Or a girl duck, right? I don't care about the details of your project.
Dirk Withake: I just want eggs.
Stuart Easton: Just give me the eggs.
Stuart Easton: Right? And this is the center of the whole of today's conversation, this idea that the business really doesn't care about projects at all. What they care about is what's the value of those projects.
Stuart Easton: And, so, you know, if you're… if you're doing something, you know, if you're upgrading an air traffic control system or something.
Stuart Easton: Right? You're not doing that because you're going to get a pat on the back because you did a project well. You're doing that because we want to improve reliability, or performance, or something, right? Something meaningful to the business.
Stuart Easton: And so those things, those meaningful things, when you roll them all up.
Stuart Easton: Eventually roll up into something that we might call strategy.
Stuart Easton: Right? Hopefully.
Stuart Easton: So, in my travels, I'm lucky, I get to speak at lots of conferences around the world, and last year, I spoke at an APM conference.
Stuart Easton: And there were about 80 people in the room.
Stuart Easton: ATPMO leaders in the room.
Stuart Easton: And I asked him, you know, asked them to put their hands up.
Stuart Easton: If they… if… if they could… Explain…
Stuart Easton: You know, if they knew what the strategy was for their business, and they could explain their role in executing it.
Stuart Easton: Dirk, how many hams do you think went up?
Dirk Withake: Almost all, if not all.
Dirk Withake: Sorry.
Stuart Easton: The other way around. None. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dirk Withake: Oh, yeah, yeah, no.
Stuart Easton: Two hands went up. Two hands went up, right?
Stuart Easton: So, this is… which is very consistent. You know, there's research that suggests that 95% of people out there do not understand the strategy of their organization.
Stuart Easton: So, why don't we just start… and, and, and…
Stuart Easton: And the key thing is that the PMO is the absolute
Stuart Easton: Pivot around which strategy execution turns.
Stuart Easton: Right?
Dirk Withake: So if the PMO doesn't understand the strategy.
Stuart Easton: then what on earth are we doing here, right? What's the point?
Stuart Easton: So… so… 78 out of 70 people, very unscientifically.
Stuart Easton: couldn't describe their strategy, their company's strategy. So let's start off, Dirk, with a simple thing. What is strategy? What does it mean, right? So as an exact… so with your executive hat on.
Dirk Withake: when…
Stuart Easton: Somebody says to you, what's our strategy? How do you think about answering that? You don't need to tell us about your strategy, but how do you think about that… that… answering that?
Dirk Withake: As I've been through the process multiple times from diff… in different positions, I think, first of all, I think
Dirk Withake: What is it… what we're not…
Dirk Withake: doing. I mean, in terms of… as Steve Jobs says.
Dirk Withake: define what you're not doing. That is the first step to strategy, because it's very easy to say we want… I want this and that and everything.
Dirk Withake: And not saying what you don't want. So to me, basic strategy is, first of all, saying, what is it what we're not gonna do? And then the next step is, of the things we're gonna do.
Dirk Withake: what is it we're going to do first, and what are we gonna focus on? And then what is the next thing, and the next thing? And what we're focusing on is something that brings us to the objectives, to the goals of the organization I'm leading. A commercial organization, NGO, a government organization, whatever that might be.
Dirk Withake: I have to have the objectives defined, and I have to break them down to strategic goals, and I have to sort them by priority.
Dirk Withake: And when I see sort, I mean rank.
Dirk Withake: Okay? Not high, medium, low.
Dirk Withake: been there. So, in the classic situation, 50 goals, or 50 projects.
Dirk Withake: Ranked by high, medium, low, 30 people in the room, 2 days wasted, and at the end, 48.
Dirk Withake: Of the goals of the projects are ranked high, one is medium and one is low, if you're lucky. So, no, real ranking here, and essentially, a strategy is as well something, that sets you apart. That is as well, that basically makes a difference in the way you're working.
Dirk Withake: going forward, once you implement that one. Because if it doesn't make a strategy in what you're actually doing, why have you bothered spending the time on the strategy?
Dirk Withake: then you could just save the time, obviously. So, it's very clearly articulate.
Dirk Withake: This is what we're doing, and we do this first, then this, then this, then this.
Dirk Withake: And it's order of priority, and that's how we allocate, as well, our resources.
Dirk Withake: Money, people, other physical resources, and this is what we're gonna absolutely not do. And this is the really hard part, and this is often the missing part.
Dirk Withake: And, so there's, I see quite often, I've seen that quite often, where there's kind of this wishful thinking. Hey, we have unlimited resources, we just put the wishlist out there, and…
Dirk Withake: Then we cascade this down into the organization, and surprise, surprise.
Dirk Withake: It doesn't happen. Or just parts of it.
Dirk Withake: Anubh…
Dirk Withake: The gap is there. Why? Why didn't it happen? Why? I said, I want this, yeah, but, you know, he basically went through the whole wish list.
Dirk Withake: And didn't limit yourself. I mean, this is a Panelia's story, That kids learn pretty early.
Dirk Withake: with Christmas, I mean, I learned it in 6 years, I mean, the wishlist, you won't get everything from the wishlist.
Dirk Withake: You have to limit yourself.
Dirk Withake: And,
Dirk Withake: That… and the PMO here plays, from my point of view, a crucial role, facilitating the conversation between the executive level and the operational level, having that conversation of what is possible and what not. Translating both downwards, what are the goals, what are the priorities.
Dirk Withake: what is it that the management wants about as well? Then transporting upwards, towards management, hey, this is something…
Dirk Withake: that can be realistically achieved, or maybe as a stretch target, and this is completely not possible. And you need, really, to spell out what the priority is, and not…
Dirk Withake: 17 priorities, because… 17 priorities, meaning no priorities.
Stuart Easton: So let's… let's break that down a bit. That was really brilliant, super comprehensive. Actually, before I jump in and start breaking it down,
Stuart Easton: This is gonna be so much more interesting and so much more fun if you guys get join… if you guys join in.
Stuart Easton: Right, so the chat's open. Arturo's got the idea, he's in there, he's commenting already. Fill the gap between strategy and execution is one
Stuart Easton: one critical competitive advantage. Now, Arturo, I don't know if you mean that for the business or for the PMO, but it could apply to both, actually, that statement.
Stuart Easton: You know, for the… for that person running the PMO,
Stuart Easton: Plugging that gap is going to make you stand out from everybody else in the organization.
Dirk Withake: You're the star. You're the essential piece that everybody wants.
Stuart Easton: Absolutely.
Dirk Withake: If you don't, Not so much.
Stuart Easton: Not so much. Well, and as the business, right, so there was HBR, Harvard Business Review article, where they looked at it, and about 70% of well-formulated strategies fail.
Stuart Easton: Due to weak execution, due to the fact that they don't execute it properly, they don't implement the projects that they should be implementing, and if they do, they don't implement them well and get the benefits.
Stuart Easton: Right? So, you know, the bar is not very high here, in terms of being able to do it well. You've just got to beat 30% of the market.
Stuart Easton: And, the CIO, COO of one of the world's biggest airlines, actually, once said something really interesting to me.
Stuart Easton: What they said is, look, Stuart, if we can, when we launch a new product.
Stuart Easton: you know, Wi-Fi on an airplane or something.
Stuart Easton: Within 6 months, everybody has it.
Stuart Easton: But if we can fix this… if we can bridge this strategy execution gap, right, if we can make that work really well.
Stuart Easton: That's a competitive advantage, and nobody on the outside can see it.
Stuart Easton: So they can't copy it.
Stuart Easton: And that, I thought, was a really, really astute observation.
Stuart Easton: So that means that it's a sustain… it's not just a competitive advantage, it's a sustainable competitive advantage, which is a really, a really big, big statement for most businesses.
Stuart Easton: So, so let's jump in and start breaking it down.
Stuart Easton: So…
Stuart Easton: to the audience, if you can all pull up chat, I'm gonna make you work a little bit, because you're far too quiet, right? I want you guys in the chat, talking away, agreeing, disagreeing, tell us what you like, what you don't like, right? So, get ready in the chat.
Stuart Easton: I would like you to just tell me, yes or no, If you personally understand…
Stuart Easton: The goals of your organization.
Stuart Easton: How are you gonna… what impact… how are you going to measure the impact on those goals?
Stuart Easton: And what the relative importance of those goals is, right? So does anybody know… so just give me a yes, yes, yes, or a yes, no, no, or a yes, no, yes, right? So it's, what are the goals?
Stuart Easton: relative importance to the goals, and what's supporting the goals. So, let's see if anybody jumps into the chat. Do we get any yeses? Oh, we've got a yes. Oh, that's pretty good!
Stuart Easton: Tatiana, that's pretty good. Okay, yes, no, no. Laura, that's pretty good as well, actually. Anyone who says yes to any of these, by the way, is one step ahead of most PMO leaders.
Dirk Withake: Yeah. And unfortunately, I've seen some organizations where it's no, no, no, because there was technically a strategy devised by the executive level, but never really communicated. They thought, somehow, magically, it trickled down into the organization, and even the PMO was aware.
Dirk Withake: And that is what I'm seeing as well, that sometimes, I think the first question is, actually, to a PMO or to any level, have you seen the strategy? No matter how good or bad it is, but actually, have you gotten the slides, or presentation, or what have you?
Dirk Withake: And I'm… That is obviously an absolute no-brainer, but still, organizations struggle even with that super basic step.
Stuart Easton: Do you know what? Even before that, there's a step, right? There has to be another strategy. So, you know, everybody goes off-site for a week with McKinsey, right? We pay them 3 million bucks, and we get a lovely strategy presentation back for them.
Stuart Easton: So my question to you, because you've sat in lots of board meetings, right, and management meetings,
Stuart Easton: To what degree do you think the executives have the same understanding
Stuart Easton: Of what the strategy means in execution.
Stuart Easton: Because what I've seen is that usually they don't, right? So the sales guy takes the strategy, and they… the sales guy thinks.
Stuart Easton: I'm going to interpret that as being all about selling stuff, and the manufacturing guy is going to take it and say, well, I think it's… I'm going to interpret that strategy as being all about manufacturing. So, so, so, do you have any kind of stories or observations about how that… you know, because you've been in those meetings, right? What is it all?
Dirk Withake: So, I think, obviously, everybody has its own set of glasses and looking at things and picking, basically, his favorite aspects of a strategy. But that is so important why, in, that conversation, in these off-sites.
Dirk Withake: There's very specifically kind of a round-robin round, where you go, like, okay.
Dirk Withake: You please repeat in your words your contribution and the strategy itself.
Dirk Withake: to all the others. So, to play this back, in essence, basically, that, kind of there is a feedback mechanism
Dirk Withake: This is a strategy, as I understand that one. This is what I conclude as a head of sales, or a head of COO, or what have you.
Dirk Withake: And that is my contribution here, and that's how I make it work.
Dirk Withake: And that process of carb biasing playing back to this small, usually a relatively small group.
Dirk Withake: What this is about.
Dirk Withake: only works if your strategy fits on a handful of slides. If you have the strategy decks of
Dirk Withake: 30, 40, 50, 100 slides, and beyond. It's okay to have backup slides with a lot of details. That is okay, don't get me wrong. That's all fine, and that's quite often needed, that really thorough detail analysis work is being done. But the core strategy.
Dirk Withake: If you can't fit this on a maximum 5 slides with the core elements.
Dirk Withake: then you have a problem. Because, in my experience, the quality of the strategy is inversely correlated to the number of slides you need to put that on.
Dirk Withake: And so, if you can, within, say, not the elevator pitch, but let's say, 15-20 minutes, or half an hour.
Dirk Withake: Play back this strategy from your point of view, from your role's point of view, and the contribution you bring into that strategy to make their life
Dirk Withake: So that the other people in the room, the executives are like, that is where it's coming from, and no, I've got that one different. Obviously, you need to have an open communication…
Dirk Withake: situation, and basically a power balance that everybody speaks up that obviously needs to be there. It is not always there. I've seen a situation where, basically, this end was kind of discouraged. Actually, not in the company I'm working for now, but as a consultant, I've seen that one.
Dirk Withake: But in essence, that is important that you see the strategy played out and repeated coming through different lenses and, spoken by different people. And then you can adjust and see the blank spaces, or the overlaps, or the misunderstandings.
Dirk Withake: takes time, takes effort, and everybody wants to go to dinner and have the wine, I get that one, but sometimes I have to say.
Dirk Withake: No, only once we've done that one. Then you get to the nice, fancy dinner.
Stuart Easton: Yeah, yeah, there you go. Well, so the… so one of the things that I, that I often see is that, and I think you just described it, is that
Stuart Easton: There's a balance, right? Between… I want something that's nice and short that fits on 5 slides.
Stuart Easton: But by definition, anything that's that concise, Is also rather vague.
Stuart Easton: It's quite high level. Vagues may be the wrong word. It's high level.
Stuart Easton: And one of the challenges that organizations sometimes have is translating that into, what do I do tomorrow?
Stuart Easton: And the… and when I'm personally making decisions, how should I be making those decisions? So, one of the really good tools to… and this is a really good service that PMOs can provide, for example.
Stuart Easton: to executives.
Stuart Easton: is to work with the leadership team to translate the strategy into a set of goals. A good strategy should have clear goals, by the way. Yeah. So, you know, it might be growing revenue, inventing a flying car, and doing something else, right? So I've got some very clear goals.
Stuart Easton: And then… and then, helping the leadership team have a really… it's exactly what you were saying there, Dirk, about taking different perspectives, and having a clear conversation about which of those goals is more important for us to focus on.
Stuart Easton: Because if driving revenue… you know, if inventing the flying car
Stuart Easton: is absolutely the most important thing, then I'm going to make one set of decisions. But if revenue is the absolutely most important thing, I'm going to make a different set of decisions.
Stuart Easton: And if different executives don't agree on the… that relative… on that weighting of those goals, you said it right… it was one of the first things you said was about weighting these things, right? Prioritizing them. If you don't… if you don't agree on the weighting of these goals.
Stuart Easton: Then they're going to be pulling in different directions.
Stuart Easton: And that is… that's disaster for execution, right? That's going to destroy your execution.
Stuart Easton: So there's a methodology called AHP that lets you do this. It's really powerful. It helps executives compare these pairs of criteria as a team.
Stuart Easton: Listening to each other, learning from each other, and really helps build understanding and buy-in and consensus around
Stuart Easton: this vision. It forces them, if you like, to come out of their stovepipes.
Stuart Easton: And into this zone where, okay, we're now executives. We are the board. When I'm no longer the VP of Sales.
Stuart Easton: in this meeting, I'm a board member, figuring out what's best for the organization, right? And that's quite a difficult transition.
Stuart Easton: sometimes dope.
Dirk Withake: Absolutely. But you mentioned the AHP process, and I've used this myself, and I think as well when I was working on the portfolio level or as PMO. So I'm pretty familiar with the process from different angles. So ideally.
Dirk Withake: that process is maybe not explicit, but implicitly already used in the executive level conversations, basically. In that conversation, hey, if this is more important than that.
Dirk Withake: it doesn't mean… we do both. It means…
Dirk Withake: We do the first thing at the expense of the second thing, if push comes to shove, if we're running out of resources.
Dirk Withake: Is it understood, or do you have a problem? Or is it actually, when push comes to shove, you want the second thing more than the first one? That's really talk about that one, and this is all logically consistent, that is what the whole process does. So ideally, that part of the conversation already happens on the executive level. Often it doesn't.
Dirk Withake: Because, kind of, this ranking sometimes is misunderstood as, like, you have to rank 1, 2, 3, 4, because 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. That's not what it means.
Dirk Withake: That is sometimes not fully understood, and that is here, ideally, when a PMO comes in and says, actually, thanks for your four goals.
Dirk Withake: Great.
Dirk Withake: 5 slides.
Dirk Withake: high level, not weight, but high level, get that one. Can we do now… have a little conversation? Does that mean…
Dirk Withake: One actually gets all the resources, and two only gets resources if there's enough resources left, and three gets none, none. Is… do we get this correctly?
Dirk Withake: And having that conversation, if the PMO is well-positioned, and as well at the executive level, understands the value of that conversation, that once they're through that conversation, and this is properly trickled down by the PMO into the organization, that they see the results.
Dirk Withake: Then this is super valuable.
Dirk Withake: If it still doesn't make a difference, then obviously it's a waste of time. But here, the PMO, a well-positioned PMO with the trust of the executive level, can trigger that conversation, if it has not happened yet. And that is one of the key values, basically, kind of guiding
Dirk Withake: The executive level, the executive board.
Dirk Withake: through the maze of possibilities, and saying basic, guys.
Dirk Withake: This is not, Christmas with unlimited, funds for everyone.
Dirk Withake: There's a budget here, there are a number of resources, there's a capacity.
Dirk Withake: And, let's have that conversation. What is the actual trade-off?
Dirk Withake: The trade-off organization is never easy, because it means cutting back on your wish list.
Dirk Withake: And, as everybody knows, nobody loves to cut back on their wishlist. But it's absolutely essential, because if you want it all, you'll probably get none.
Dirk Withake: And that is where the PMO can come in, and via, for example, that process, but as well there are other tools, again, the PMO in good standing can then help as well the trust of the executive level to have that conversation, which is extremely valuable.
Dirk Withake: Nothing.
Stuart Easton: Marvelous. I like that. And I love what you said there. Gosh, there's so much in that piece. So I love what you said there about, you know, if you try and do all of it, you'll probably get none.
Stuart Easton: So, I mean, we're really talking about using…
Stuart Easton: Your strategic direction, turning it into these goals, using them as your weighted criteria or something to evaluate your investment opportunities.
Stuart Easton: And, and very often in the strategic planning process.
Stuart Easton: Having this conversation right now with a global bank, In the strategic planning process, They ignore resources.
Stuart Easton: And that's a big… yeah, you're shaking your head already. Awesome.
Stuart Easton: Yeah, it is, it's, it's.
Dirk Withake: See it too often. Hey, you want to implement a resource planning system and management system? Mmm… no.
Dirk Withake: No, we don't have the funding, maybe next year. The reality is, In that dancer, Probably need one.
Dirk Withake: But we don't like the output.
Dirk Withake: It reminds me very much
Dirk Withake: 10 years ago, I had a scrum team in a different country that was not performing, and I went there, and I said, I mean, just…
Dirk Withake: There's a similar situation, I said.
Dirk Withake: I… don't you look at your burndown shots?
Dirk Withake: They're not good.
Dirk Withake: It's just, we're looking at… Yes, we have access to them. Can you read the burn down trust? Yes, yes, we can read the…
Dirk Withake: But then why are you not looking at these? We don't like what they say. And it's the same thing with resource planning.
Stuart Easton: Right.
Dirk Withake: Not implemented because It probably says something you don't want to hear.
Dirk Withake: So, and that is…
Dirk Withake: Probably when I see an organization that does not have proper resource planning, usually it's not for the lack of tooling or for anything, it's most of the time for the reason that you don't like what it will tell you, once you've properly implemented it.
Stuart Easton: Well, so here's the… here's the interesting thing. Two… two fun stories, right? So we… we just did, we just went through the strategic planning process earlier this year with one of the UK's biggest charities.
Stuart Easton: And, it's the first time we've done it with them, and…
Stuart Easton: one of the things… you know, what you're trying to do, almost, is run lots of what-if scenarios, right? Because you've got this shopping list of things that you want, and you're trying to figure out what combination of those things
Stuart Easton: is going to maximize my value, but is at the same time deliverable, right? That's what you're trying to work out.
Dirk Withake: Yeah.
Stuart Easton: And they'd never had the ability to do that before, to overlay the resources. So it was always…
Stuart Easton: What is it that we want? Which, of course is everything.
Stuart Easton: And… and so they… they struggle.
Dirk Withake: It's by design.
Stuart Easton: I mean, I don't know that the organization specifically, don't get me wrong.
Dirk Withake: But I… I would guess that's by design.
Stuart Easton: It… it… well, it was interesting, because when they… there's a little magic button in our software, a little AI piece.
Dirk Withake: That will then…
Stuart Easton: Optimize and suggest a portfolio and tell you why.
Stuart Easton: You know, where the resource constraint is.
Dirk Withake: And…
Stuart Easton: They were astonished, because they suddenly realized that there were two teams that were absolutely resource-constrained.
Stuart Easton: And everybody else had capacity, right? But it was these two teams.
Dirk Withake: And they, you know, for the first time ever.
Stuart Easton: Right? This is liberating as an executive.
Dirk Withake: Theory of constraints.
Stuart Easton: Absolutely.
Dirk Withake: Very old. Still valid.
Stuart Easton: Absolutely.
Dirk Withake: Gothrut. Classics.
Stuart Easton: And if you know what the constraints are.
Dirk Withake: No.
Stuart Easton: You can do something about it.
Dirk Withake: Yeah, and you should only focus on the constraints, as Mr. Goldrod said, like, 25, 30 years ago. The classic books on that topic, obviously. But, again, that means the message said, you need to invest here.
Dirk Withake: In physical resources, in addition to teams, headcount, whatever you.
Dirk Withake: That is sometimes a message
Dirk Withake: the executive level, these were willing to accept, to hear that constraint, to accept constraints being imposed on them. Not impo… kind of by the organization, but in reality, these are constrained by reality. And that is important as well. I'm an executive, but I challenge my team
Dirk Withake: I challenge my team, I want to be clear. Sometimes very hard. But that… what goes with that one, I expect my team to challenge me back, and tell me.
Dirk Withake: These are the constraints.
Dirk Withake: I'll pick the tires on the constraints that they try to impose on me, in terms of capacity, or timeline, or what have you, or overall change capacity.
Dirk Withake: And I kicked the tires out.
Dirk Withake: But if this sounds…
Dirk Withake: then I expect and accept these constraints, and model my prioritization accordingly. That requires an open communication and safe communication structure.
Dirk Withake: In Austria?
Dirk Withake: That is relatively simple. Okay, it always, depends on individuals, but the power, basic difference between the different levels in Austria is very small compared to other countries.
Dirk Withake: the power base gap on other countries makes this very hard. And I've been around the world, so I know there are cultures, and even as well, company cultures, where something like this is very difficult to have.
Dirk Withake: But, in the, industry where I'm working, safety critical.
Dirk Withake: It is absolutely paramount that all problems, all constraints come on the table, because if they don't.
Dirk Withake: there's a huge risk to live a limp at the end of the day. So things need to come out.
Dirk Withake: And people who tell you, we can't do this because… and it's always to be a big cause, not because I don't like it, or because I'm… I don't want to do this, there needs to be a valid cause. But they need to be able, and they're expected.
Dirk Withake: to voice this.
Dirk Withake: Without fear of being punished for this one. This is absolutely essential.
Dirk Withake: that… The constraints, the reality,
Dirk Withake: Are bubbling upwards, and then are as well accepted, if they make sense.
Dirk Withake: And this is being structured accordingly. And here, the
Dirk Withake: Pmo places rather vital role.
Dirk Withake: when the project, program level, individual level says there is a constraint, that the PMO stands next to that
Dirk Withake: group and says, we have checked this, this concern is valid. This is not just that guy, not one doing this one, this is a valid concern to your executive level. You should take this seriously.
Dirk Withake: This is an important role. Again, there needs to be trust of the executive level.
Dirk Withake: to accept this, and so you have to have a PMR and good setting. But once you're there, this is extremely important and valuable.
Stuart Easton: Absolutely, and I think this is key, is that, historically, traditionally.
Dirk Withake: In many organizations.
Stuart Easton: You have what Laura Barnard would call the strategy execution gap.
Stuart Easton: Right?
Dirk Withake: So you've got the strategy formulation happening here.
Stuart Easton: And they're sort of saying, yeah, you know, if we want to achieve these goals, then we have to do these 50 projects.
Stuart Easton: And then they throw them over the wall, right? Throw them over the gap.
Stuart Easton: to the PMO, and say, execute that!
Stuart Easton: Okay, that doesn't work.
Dirk Withake: No, it doesn't…
Stuart Easton: That doesn't work. You're guaranteed to have too many projects, you're guaranteed to have resource bottlenecks.
Stuart Easton: And by the way, resources really matter.
Stuart Easton: when… when you overload your resources, so the American Psychology Association did a study, and they… they looked at, when people are task-switching.
Stuart Easton: Because we… by the way, when you're doing complex tasks, people don't multitask. You can't multitask. We task switch.
Stuart Easton: Right? We go from project to project. So, when you're task switching.
Stuart Easton: You lose up to 40%, 4-0, 40% of your capacity.
Stuart Easton: You make more mistakes, that means more rework.
Dirk Withake: And so on.
Stuart Easton: So, overloading your people isn't just…
Stuart Easton: You know, I mean, it obviously feels stupid, but it actually cripples your ability to execute. It reduces the capacity that you've got to execute.
Stuart Easton: So, so the PMO, and I'm putting words in your mouth, Dirk, here, but the PMO is, I… I suspect, the only
Stuart Easton: Team in the organization.
Stuart Easton: That could be and should be at the table in that strategy discussion.
Stuart Easton: Who understands the delivery constraints.
Stuart Easton: Right, so when you bring that… Yes, go ahead, go ahead.
Dirk Withake: Absolutely, should be. And spot on, Stuart, I mean, this is so essential, and I mean, in producing industry, the concept of ramp up, ramp down cost, I mean, this is absolute…
Dirk Withake: basis. This is kind of a no-brainer. Everybody in the shop floor knows about that one. And I started my time as a project manager and project team member in shopflow environments, so…
Dirk Withake: I've seen that one. But this concept of, there's a price to be paid for multitasking, for ramping up and down.
Dirk Withake: this is sometimes seen as a very novel concept on some executive level, or as a project, like, really? I'm like, yes, really? Guess what? And that's old news, actually. So,
Dirk Withake: P. Muller has a role in, over and over again.
Dirk Withake: Basically, educating a little bit, honestly speaking, the executive level, of the price to be paid, if you want to have it all at once, and not…
Dirk Withake: one after the other, in a way, or basically with, at least a reduction of multitasking. You seldom can't get to a single task, I mean, that is…
Dirk Withake: That would be very nice. That is maybe, in a lot of settings, absolutely realistic, but you should at least always strive to get as close as possible.
Dirk Withake: So it's kind of a lighthouse, and as someone very smart at the beginning of my career said, the point of a lighthouse is not that you drive the ship into the lighthouse, but towards the lighthouse.
Dirk Withake: So, I'm giving you direction, essentially.
Stuart Easton: So that's what this is…
Dirk Withake: basically, about, and the PMO has a role to play to having that conversation, breaking this out, as well as 5 pages, actually, of slides.
Dirk Withake: So I want to try to sort of… Basically, translating this
Dirk Withake: to the broader community of projects. This is strategy, this is how your project or your program relates, supports this or that strategy, part of the strategy, or whole strategy. That's the role it plays.
Dirk Withake: And, giving them, as well, being the thing of being part of the overall puzzle.
Dirk Withake: And not just a random puzzle piece that's laying around.
Stuart Easton: Yep.
Stuart Easton: Well, so Mark actually just made an interesting comment in the chat. He said that sometimes the PMO is the only group that has true visibility into all verticals.
Stuart Easton: And that's a really interesting… so sometimes they are, but sometimes they're not, by design.
Dirk Withake: They are virtualized, basically.
Stuart Easton: Yes, so they're in their little stovepipes, and very often, that's a sign that, you know, it's been… it's not being driven by your strategy, it's being driven by politics and the stovepipes.
Dirk Withake: I mean, at the end of the day, it depends as well about the size of the organization, obviously. There comes as well a point where sometimes it probably makes sense to break it down, but then you should at least have an enterprise PMO level that kind of consolidates a high-level information on that level, but yeah, I tend to agree, yeah.
Stuart Easton: Yeah. All right, so I'm gonna… I'm gonna change gears a little bit. So I'm gonna do a quick flag wave.
Dirk Withake: Because a lot of what we've talked about here so far is about.
Stuart Easton: You know, defining those goals, you know, the business goals.
Stuart Easton: And then figuring out which projects we can do to support those goals, to maximize the impact on those goals while staying within our resource constraints.
Stuart Easton: So, my little flag wave is, anybody that's interested or wrestling with that.
Stuart Easton: Come on over and book some time with me. You can jump on my LinkedIn, or just go to our website and book a meeting with one of our team.
Stuart Easton: Because we've built some software that does exactly that. We've got some AI that will run… you know, to some degree, a lot of this is about just being able to run scenarios.
Stuart Easton: Right? To look at different scenarios. What if we combine this one and this one? Well, that'd be okay, but then we've… we run out of resources here. Well, what if we combine this one? Well, that's good, but we'd run out of resources here, right? So sometimes this process is quite… or usually this process is quite manual.
Stuart Easton: So we've built some special AI that can run thousands or even hundreds of thousands of scenarios in a few seconds, and find the one that's optimal. So when you're in that meeting with a leadership team.
Stuart Easton: you can give answers quickly, right? And you can run those scenarios and give optimized answers in a couple of seconds, instead of saying, well, I'll come back to you next week when I've played with my spreadsheet.
Stuart Easton: Yeah.
Dirk Withake: No, I say, unfortunately, your… the off-site is now over, we don't have a week for that.
Stuart Easton: That's right, exactly.
Dirk Withake: Poppy dies sometimes.
Stuart Easton: Exactly that. So if you struggle with that, you know, come over to the website, book some time with one of our guys, and we'll, we'll chat it through.
Stuart Easton: So, I just want to change gears slightly for the last, sort of, 10 minutes or so, because you said something really important, which is, you know, I forget the exact phrase, but it was something like, for a well-formed or a well-positioned PMO.
Stuart Easton: Right, so… What we know is that most PMOs are not well-positioned.
Stuart Easton: 72%, according to one study, 72% of PMOs are being called into question by the executive team.
Stuart Easton: And so… what is it…
Stuart Easton: that, oh, thank you, Lenora. Lenora's just dropped
Stuart Easton: a link to my calendar in the chat, so anybody that wants to chat about this stuff one-on-one, just grab some time.
Stuart Easton: So… What is it that… Y-if you could say…
Stuart Easton: one thing to a PMO who…
Stuart Easton: Who isn't at the table, isn't in those planning meetings, who isn't seen as adding value.
Stuart Easton: What would be the one thing… maybe I'll give you two things you can suggest to them to change.
Stuart Easton: To get them to the table, to get executives to pay attention.
Dirk Withake: I think what's… in a lot of organizations, not all, obviously, as missing, and we're,
Dirk Withake: where the PMO can quite easily demonstrate the possibility of value that they can bring to the table. It's basically saying, okay, you have here your strategy, you have your strategy goals, we have here the portfolio of projects and programs.
Dirk Withake: Wouldn't it be nice if we could tie your strategic goals
Dirk Withake: to this, and tell you, for strategic goal A, these 7 projects support this one, and for B, it's these 3, and what have you. Wouldn't it be nice? And I would say almost every executive would say.
Dirk Withake: That would be really nice, yeah. Let's have that one. So if you have that one, you're like, here you have it, you go, great, super PMO, excellent one, and next step is, hey, actually, in terms of, cost and resources.
Dirk Withake: Is this, as well, kind of, grouped according to our priorities? So is priority one getting the most
Dirk Withake: resources and… Capacity or not?
Dirk Withake: So, if you have that one, you can immediately
Dirk Withake: Demonstrate if the allocation of resources in the organization matches the strategy or not.
Dirk Withake: Now, if you don't have that information, you can make the case
Dirk Withake: This is your strategy. This is your portfolio of projects and programs. Now.
Dirk Withake: Wouldn't it be nice? And I go, like, yes, would it be nice. But he's like.
Dirk Withake: We need to do that one. We need to do the work, and this is our job. So, if you work with us, we make it happen. And you don't need to really put in the hours, and the work, and the tools, and the process.
Dirk Withake: to make that happen quickly. But if you can then, with this, if you enable this one, which is not in our organization, but a lot of organizations are actually missing.
Dirk Withake: You provide immediate value.
Dirk Withake: Because you demonstrate if the strategy is in, basically in line, the project portfolio is in line with the strategy, and you can keep on monitoring that one, in terms of action spent and plan spent.
Dirk Withake: That's where I would start. I mean, obviously, for some organizations, you have to start even earlier, first of all, a full list of projects.
Dirk Withake: I mean, that's usually what… back in the days when I started a PMO, actually, we don't have a project list. We don't know, actually, what all the projects are. This is super basic. Let's say we're beyond that step, then I would go there next.
Stuart Easton: And then, next one is the resource constraints.
Stuart Easton: Yeah, I used to be really surprised when I'd ask people, how many projects do you have? And the answer was, I don't know.
Stuart Easton: I'm no longer surprised, because it's so common, and it's so… it's really important, and then start layering on top your resources. Now, I want to pull something out from what you just said, Derek.
Dirk Withake: Because it's really, really, really important, and some people may have missed it.
Stuart Easton: Your answer, as an executive, talking to the PMOs.
Stuart Easton: Your answer for what would you do?
Stuart Easton: Had nothing to do with…
Stuart Easton: Project methodologies, templates, tools, and processes had nothing to do with Agile, or Waterfall, or Wagifall, or any of these things.
Stuart Easton: It was really simple. It was about…
Stuart Easton: Show me how my portfolio's supporting my project and add some value that's solving my problem.
Stuart Easton: Right? It wasn't about ducks, it was about eggs.
Dirk Withake: I couldn't care less about Texas.
Dirk Withake: Though sometimes, as I have a history in project management, sometimes, if I'm just interested, I might ask about the duck.
Dirk Withake: But that's just my…
Dirk Withake: Because I'm curious once in a while. I want to see the ducks, too, in the house. But, obviously, all the processes, methodologies, tools, all of that one, is necessary to produce the eggs. If someone goes, like.
Dirk Withake: I want only the eggs, forget about the decks.
Dirk Withake: Let's not waste time with the decks. Just the X, please.
Dirk Withake: That's not how it works, even in nature.
Dirk Withake: Not… and neither in project management.
Dirk Withake: So, you need to have both, but basically, the, the ducks are behind the curtain.
Stuart Easton: Yep.
Stuart Easton: Couldn't agree more. Couldn't agree more. I mean, the… the… so, so, you know, one of the things that I would… I would always suggest to people in that situation is to actually sit down with your leadership team and just ask the question, what are the things that are driving you mad? What are the things that you wish you were getting that you're not getting from
Stuart Easton: From the strategy execution organization. And let me ask a quick question. So, thumbs up.
Stuart Easton: So everybody knows, hopefully at this stage, how to do thumbs-up reactions on Zoom. There's a little heart-shaped thing down at the bottom, press that. Give me a thumbs up.
Stuart Easton: If you are in project delivery.
Stuart Easton: Gosh, nobody's in project delivery. Is anybody in, you know, involved in project delivery?
Dirk Withake: Oh, true.
Stuart Easton: Not too!
Stuart Easton: I'm astonished. I would expect that everybody would be giving me thumbs up at this point. Maybe they've gone to sleep, I don't know.
Stuart Easton: Okay, I don't know who put the thumbs up.
Stuart Easton: But you're wrong.
Stuart Easton: You're not in project delivery.
Stuart Easton: You're in strategy execution.
Dirk Withake: That's what your job is.
Stuart Easton: Right?
Stuart Easton: Would you agree with that, Dirk?
Dirk Withake: Absolutely, and by the way, if you're not seeing any X,
Dirk Withake: Maybe you should check if there are any ducks behind the curtain.
Dirk Withake: And sometimes you find out no ducks, thus no eggs, and then maybe you should get some ducks.
Stuart Easton: Yeah. Well, so… so this is… that… that… so that's interesting. So, so, given that, you know, we started off by saying, we have a discussion, we agree some goals.
Stuart Easton: One last little point here is, again, just give me a wave or a thumbs up or something,
Stuart Easton: If you… if you've heard of, thought of, if you would like to be better at benefits management.
Stuart Easton: Okay, so we've got… we've got some thumbs going up.
Stuart Easton: Excellent.
Stuart Easton: So, the… this whole thing about strategic planning, right, it sounds terribly important, it sounds…
Stuart Easton: otherworldly, something like what execs do. But actually, strategic planning is just the first step in benefits management.
Stuart Easton: All it is, is we're defining, we're translating the strategy into what are the benefits that we want as a business.
Stuart Easton: And only then should you start thinking about what projects would support those benefits and deliver those benefits.
Stuart Easton: So, so this may sound like it's, you know, like we've been talking about this weird strategy thing, but actually, we're really just talking about benefits management.
Stuart Easton: And, you know, we know what that means, we know what that is.
Stuart Easton: So, so, now… We've got a couple of minutes left. I've asked Dirk a bunch of questions.
Stuart Easton: We haven't had many questions from the audience, so… so is there anybody out there who's got a question or a thought or an observation that they'd like to throw at Dirk and see what his, what his thoughts are? Lynn, I think it was, really amazed me.
Stuart Easton: Because she said that the strategy of the NHS was really clear. That's generally not what I hear from the NHS, from PMOs and the NHS. So I'd love to have a chat.
Stuart Easton: one-on-one about that, and understand how… where you are in the NHS, and why it is so clear there.
Stuart Easton: Okay, so… so, actually, Kevin… Fabulous question.
Stuart Easton: And by the way, Kevin, Dan's… Dan and Alex have been trying to track you down, but separate conversation. What do you say to the leadership teams and the CEO, who wants everything done at once?
Stuart Easton: Even if there are no resources, and by the way, it's not going to cost anything. What do you say to that executive?
Stuart Easton: That's a tough one.
Dirk Withake: That is indeed a tough one. So, what should be said to that team? Let me start this way first, okay? What should be said, hey.
Dirk Withake: You try that one with your children at Christmas, that they go, I want everything.
Dirk Withake: No matter the cost, because, hey, there are no costs, actually. Does that work for you, too? So why do you ex… if that doesn't work for you and your family.
Dirk Withake: With your children, why do you expect this to work, work at work in your office?
Dirk Withake: doesn't work that way. So it is kind of…
Dirk Withake: keeping the reality on the outside. So this is obviously a message that is…
Dirk Withake: very hard to place with the leadership team, which models consciously doesn't want to hear what the constraints, the real constraints are.
Dirk Withake: I would probably take the route, saying, hey, probably you're complaining about the lack of X.
Dirk Withake: Let's take a look why there are so few, or even no eggs.
Dirk Withake: And they're not there at once, so, let's follow that thing, let's take a look behind the curtain.
Dirk Withake: DACs… are they actually ducks? No ducks? Okay, let's talk about how we get ducks. DACs are…
Dirk Withake: starving, no food for the ducks, no water, maybe we should work on that one. So… take them step by step, logically, to the conclusion that there are actually constraints, and they need to accept the constraints. Obviously, depending on the egos of the executives involved, that…
Dirk Withake: might prove sometimes very challenging. I'm… that is not an easy one. So there is no silver bullet I can present to you, but I would basically start with what is missing, and that they really wanted to have the X, and then…
Stuart Easton: From that angle. And one technique, so doing that root cause analysis is really good, right, of why there are no eggs. And you usually end up.
Dirk Withake: I'm correct.
Stuart Easton: Capacity and portfolio management, right?
Dirk Withake: And they got lucky. Yeah.
Stuart Easton: Usually that's why.
Dirk Withake: Yeah, no, I get it.
Stuart Easton: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Another really simple technique, there's a PMO I was chatting to the other week who… we had this conversation maybe 6, 9 months ago, and he was saying, look, you know, we're at capacity, and the execs just keep dumping more and more and more on me.
Dirk Withake: Yeah.
Stuart Easton: what do I do? How do I have that conversation?
Stuart Easton: And so what we… what we suggested he do is just make a list of all the projects they're working on and the resources that they…
Stuart Easton: we're consuming.
Stuart Easton: And just show, you know, that we're already at or above capacity.
Stuart Easton: And when the next project comes along.
Stuart Easton: You just show them that data.
Stuart Easton: And then you just ask, fabulous, yeah, we can do that project.
Stuart Easton: Which of these would you like to stop?
Dirk Withake: By a visualization, for example, the classic backlog with a water line, there's a fixed water line. Now, you put something on top, on the top.
Dirk Withake: drop something below the waterline. That is one way to visualize this, there are different other ways as well. It goes a long way, again, still, and the executive, or the executives, need to have a sufficiently open mind to have that conversation.
Stuart Easton: Yeah. Well, and when you do, so there are better ways and worse ways to do the prioritization, right? So the AHP thing I mentioned earlier is good, you know, we've got really cool software that does this.
Stuart Easton: But the first step is just getting this understanding.
Stuart Easton: that resources are finite. You can't just have everything. And, you know, so, so, you know, the water line, just showing them what the resource utilization is, you know, any of these techniques, just to… just to make it visible. So it's not… it's not you being a pain. It's not you being obnoxious and saying no.
Stuart Easton: Here's the data.
Stuart Easton: You're the executive, you can do whatever you like with this data, right? You make whatever decision you like, but I'm going to give you the data so that you can make the decision.
Stuart Easton: And that's usually when things start coming together. And by the way, showing them that data is exactly that kind of value that Dirk talked about, right, earlier on. So we're at the top of the hour.
Stuart Easton: And, so I want to thank Dirk for joining us today. Really appreciate it. I look forward to seeing you in Phoenix, sir.
Stuart Easton: That'll be fun. Anybody else going to Phoenix? Anyone on here going to the Global Summit in, Phoenix, Arizona in… what is it, about 6 weeks? 12 weeks? Something like that?
Stuart Easton: So that should be fun. That's the PMI Global Summit. Always an interesting event. We did the… we did the one in Barcelona earlier this year. That was… that was a lot of fun as well. So Doug, thank you very much. Really appreciate half of the audience.
Dirk Withake: Thanks for having me, thanks for spending the time.
Stuart Easton: Fantastic, and if you would like some help and support trying to figure out how to get this journey started.
Stuart Easton: You know, we've got a couple of things on our website that can help you. You can either just book a meeting with me or one of the team, to talk through.
Stuart Easton: Or you can go and book a business case session, where we'll help you build the case for change and start to have that conversation with executives. Try and identify those points of value that you can deliver to them.
Stuart Easton: to really start building your reputation and your relationship with the leadership team. So head over to our website and look for either a case for change or the business case.
Stuart Easton: Hit the button, and book some time, and we'll talk to you there.
Stuart Easton: Awesome. Thank you, everybody, and once again, thank you very much.
Dirk Withake: Thanks for having me.
Stuart Easton: And…
Dirk Withake: Have a good day.
Stuart Easton: And keep your eyes open for the next webinars, demo webinar at the end of the month, and then we've got some real fun happening next month as well, with some real firecrackers.
Stuart Easton: It's gonna be a handful next month.
Stuart Easton: So, awesome. Thank you, everybody.
Dirk Withake: Thanks.
Dirk Withake: Alright.