So, hi everybody.
I, I'm Stuart, uh, Stuart Easton.
I'm the CEO and one of the founders of Transparent Choice.
Um, and we're, we're a software company.
Uh, but every month we host one of these webinars
where it's not about us, it's not about the software,
it's just, you know, finding somebody really interesting to,
uh, to invite along to talk to us.
Now, I couldn't find anyone interesting this month.
So we've got Helio Costa to speak with us.
Hey, I'm going. Yeah, exactly. Okay. No, no, no, no.
Seriously. Um,
Can't tell you some people.
So, Helio
and I, um, uh, so recently I was out in, uh,
in Riyadh at the, the Global Project Management Forum.
I was speaking there, and while I was there, this,
this crazy guy suddenly started waving a camera in my face
and saying, you gotta tell me about the ducks.
Tell, what, what are these ducks, right?
Um, so we got chatting and, and it, it's Helio and,
and it turns out that, um,
Helio is a really fascinating guy, right?
So he is, uh, uh, he's been doing project
and portfolio management, organization
and system design, all kinds of things
for quite a long time.
Has a PhD in this stuff, in fact, yeah, lots,
lots of gray hair there.
Um, he's, he is a lot of fun to hang out with
that I can absolutely guarantee that,
but really, really knowledgeable.
And so, a few weeks ago, we were talking about, um, uh,
how sometimes PMOs, we, you know,
as a community, we sometimes look inwards so much, right?
We're looking at projects and templates and tools
and process and all these things.
And gosh, they're so important,
and we forget that those things exist to support
the organization's goals.
And so, today what I want to do is I want
to open all our minds a little bit further,
broaden those horizons
and talk about the whole organization
and how this thing that we think of as a PMO might
continue to exist, or might even morph into something else
that, that Helio calls a VMO Value Management office.
That's more of a, a more of an enterprisey thing, right?
So, I'm not gonna steal Helio's
Thunder, I'm gonna let him go.
But what my, my challenge to all of you is, is twofold.
First of all, open your mind, right?
And really think about, you know, look at this
as an opportunity to expand the way that you think about
what A PMO is or could be,
and what its role in an organization actually is.
My second challenge to you is to get involved in this,
in this webinar, right?
So, jump into the chat.
I'm sure that asok will lead the way
because he usually does, right?
But get into the chat
and give me, you know, give us your comments,
give us your reaction questions, right?
Share your experience.
And I will try and incorporate that into the conversation.
I usually interrupt my guests far too much.
So Helio has been warned.
Um, uh, but if you jump into the chat,
then I'll be interrupting him
with your questions, not with mine.
And that'll be so much more fun for you
and probably for us as well.
Alright, so I've got those two challenges for you.
Um, Hiro, why don't you just start off
with just a little bit of your background
and why anybody should listen to you.
Yeah. Well, originally,
I don't know if you know the story in my background.
Originally, I'm a fighter pilot of the Brazilian Air Force.
I flew there for 20. I didn't know that. Yeah. Wow.
I, I, I'm a retired colonel of the Brazilian Air Force.
I flew for 25 years at divorce.
I flew almost everything that you can imagine except rockets
to the moon, but almost everything that goes out of this,
the ground and comes down from the ground.
I already flown it. And,
but in the middle of my career at the Air Force, I went
to university through the computer science, and,
and then I started working with it, okay.
Developing softwares, networks and things like this.
And I started managing projects. It was 25, 26 years ago.
And then I realized that,
that my projects are not going well, what's happening?
I studied a lot. I went to university.
I know how to do a project, how to develop softwares,
and I decided to do an MBA in project management.
Okay? And then I realized
that I didn't know anything about projects.
I had to do something else. And then I started working
with projects and learning
and doing something, getting more experience.
I, and then I started, oh, I had to go deeper.
And then I did my master degree in project management
and then my PhD in project management,
then postdoc and things like this.
And I start teaching this and consulting this
after quitting the Air Force.
Uh, and this is my background.
I studied a lot about this, I practice a lot about this.
I started creating a lot of just testing things,
implementing things just like project management,
process improvement portfolios.
I was a portfolio manager for years.
And well implemented PMOs
and consulting all over the country.
Many countries, just like 21 different countries,
and around 30,000 people training and consulting.
And so it's, that's my life for past 25 years.
They're involved in revis, revising,
reviewing guides like pm b, risk management,
and PMI, being a volunteer, creating standards,
creating guides, creating tools, creating models.
And I'm very engaged on this process
of not only managing projects that my career started,
but only trying to improve
how organizations manage things better.
That's it. Not only projects, the projects might pour,
but I think we can create value in many different
ways in our organization.
Projects is one of them.
And this is when I realized that, that my mind blew up
and said, oh, there are many ways that we can manage, can,
can create value in that.
So why only focus on projects?
Projects is great,
but what about integrating many ways
to create value for the organization?
And this is why I'm trying to change everything in my life.
Not to focus on, only on projects, only on PMOs,
but only to BMOs.
'cause you're trying to deliver value.
And there are many ways
to deliver value, not only in projects. That's it.
So let's jump into the slides
because the chats, the chats taken off.
People are starting to talk about experiences trying
to set up vmo.
And I, I think the way
that you frame A VMO is a little different
to what most people do.
So why don't we jump in and,
because frankly you could call it anything, right?
You, so America occasionally bangs on about
XM OS or whatever, right?
What, so the, the name's not
so important. It's, it's kind of what it
Does. No, definitely's not,
definitely not.
It does. So, so you have a very specific thing
that you are calling A VMO.
So why don't we jump in and,
and see what that, uh, see what that is.
So, uh, some years ago, around five years ago,
I created a, a model.
It's not a framework, it's not a method, it's a model
to explain how organization works in terms of
how can we create value in organization.
And I'm gonna present to you right now. Okay?
So this is, uh, this line here. Well, you pull,
So this, this matters.
'cause if you understand where value's created
and how value's created,
That's it. And start
to figure out what your VMO should be.
So this is, this is the flex model, okay?
It's completely free model.
You can download it anywhere you want,
uh, in the website here.
And this is the framework.
This is the model here, you see, can you see it right now?
Yep. Okay.
In the middle of this stuff here, you can see,
oh, no, no, no, no.
Not here, here, here. Okay.
Now I can do it in the middle here.
On the upper part of the model here,
you have the organization this, in this block here,
in this block here, okay?
You see the organization itself.
And here you have the transformation side,
the business transformation projects,
portfolios, programs, whatever.
And on pink side here, on the right side here,
you have the operations.
All organizations have transformation and operations side.
And when I created this model, I was A PMO, okay?
And I decided that I have to create something different,
because I don't want only to manage the projects here.
'cause PMOs usually deals with projects,
but who deals with the operations?
Is it A-P-M-O-E-M-O manages the human resources logistics?
No, they don't. So I have to create something different.
But it's not a transition between the PMO to VMO.
It's not a rebranding. I have to create a new name for that.
It was six years ago.
And I created this name here in my model, the VMO here.
Because the goal of the VMO is not only to manage
and help projects in the blue side, I want also
to manage this pink side is operation.
This is why I couldn't call it PMO.
This is why I call it VMO. It's not a rebranding of the PMO.
I had to do this
because I was not dealing only with projects.
I'm trying to create value from the whole
sources of organization.
And the goal of this VMO in the flex model is
to take the strategy that is defined here
and define a set of initiatives in the blue side
and on the pink side, and integrate them.
That's the goal here. And that's the difference between
my VMO and traditional PMOs
that turn into vmo.
It's not a rebranding.
It's not something, oh, now I'm going to focus on value.
I'm a pmo. What I'm going to focus on value deliver.
Well, just like America said, if you're not delivering value
before what you are doing, so any PMO,
whatever name you want, uh, should always deliver value.
What I couldn't use the PMO name
'cause I was, I am managing not only projects
and many, any initiative in the organization
that helps the organization to reach the goals
and implement the strategy.
This is why I make the difference between
my VMO in the flex model and traditional PMOs.
And, and this is, this is something that, that I think is,
is tremendously, um, tremendously interesting.
Because very often, um, you know, if, if you,
if you look at some of the PMI definitions, for example,
what a project is, yes, right?
They, they talk about these temporary structures
that are brought together to enable, to facilitate change,
cross-departmental, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right?
Blah, blah, blah. And really, they're,
they're talking about this, right?
They're mostly talking about this.
Yes. Actually, most of the resources
of your organization, most of the change, most of the people
Pay for, Right?
And so, uh, so, you know, sometimes we get a little bit,
in my view, we get a little bit caught up in, um,
in what, what A PMO is
for, right?
And, and so, you know,
very often this is where the PMO lives.
And I think really when, uh,
and a lot of people when they talk about VMO
are talking about, um, uh, upgrading the PMO
to do extra things, but they're very often still think,
lemme see if I can change the color here.
'cause that blue is not very visible. Yeah,
Blue. It's visible,
but it's quite,
But very often they're still thinking about it in here.
And there's nothing wrong with that, right?
No, nothing wrong with that. That's a great thing to do.
But I think what, what, uh, the, the, the, um, the thing
that I really love in, in Helio's model is
this entity up here.
This VMO is actually about coordinating the value
here and here.
And guess what? A lot of the resources that you need
to deliver this are coming.
Oh, you see, I've got 'em picked a color that, that is, uh,
is over there, are over here.
And, uh, and a lot of the projects, a lot of the change
that's happening in the organization may not
be big transformational change.
But, you know, within a department, there's a lot
of change going on.
Is that's happening here, would benefit.
And most of the money, and most
of the money comes from the pink side.
That's right. Um, but,
but a lot of the expertise on how
to manage change lives over here.
So, so this, this sort of, uh, this,
this is quite natural, right?
There's the, in most organizations,
you start off with strategy.
So this is McKinsey dragging your executives off
for a two week strategy session, right?
So they come and they say, oh, we're gonna go and do this.
And so somehow you translate that into a set of projects
in order to implement the, the, the strategy.
So this is, this is the project management universe.
Uh, and this is where transparent choice lives, by the way,
we we're the bridge that connects these two.
Yeah. Um, and then the output of that lands in,
in, uh, in operations on BAU.
Um, and then
that flows back into the strategy cycle then, right?
That improves, improves results, whether it's dollars
or health outcomes or whatever it is that you care about.
And that feeds back into the cycle.
So you go round and round and round this cycle.
And so only looking at this side of the cycle
is really only looking at half the picture. And
Less than half Stuart.
Sometimes less than half.
Yeah. Less than half. You're absolutely right.
Yeah, Absolutely Right.
So, so, um, so the question is, uh, you know, the, the,
the title of the talk was from, from, from, from PMO to VMO,
um, right?
With without the bs.
So let's start off,
I know you've got a whole presentation here,
but I've just, I'm, I'm gonna
completely derail you, I'm afraid.
Um, so, so what do you think is the fundamental difference
between what A PMO traditionally does
and what A VMO here is doing?
Uh, the basic difference is, uh, uh,
as I was already explaining and explain also.
And so I don't focus only on the blue side. That's it.
That's the point. Because you have
to think about the whole process.
You have to think systematically
about the whole organization.
Not only the beast, the blue side.
If you don't have the broad view,
and this is why the picture here is in this way,
overing everything
and make the transition between the strategy and both sides.
I think the real VMO, just like I propose here,
you must have a broad view of any source of resources
or initiatives that have to do
and integrate them to reach
your strategy, to reach your goal.
So this is, this is main difference.
Not only think about the blue side
and think about the both sides.
I think, uh, uh, A VMO here, in my point of view,
it is created to support you.
Some people say some, I, I have seen some PMOs also.
You have seen also, uh, A PMO defining the rules,
defining the governance, defining the
models, defining what they have to do.
And I really, sometimes it's necessary.
But my point of view here, these guys, these guys here,
okay, they're working here on BAU and projects portfolio.
These guys are the means to create value.
And you here as a VMO, in my point of view, you are the guys
that help them to create this value.
Well, you are the means of the means.
You should be here to support them to do
what they need to do.
They want you to do, to do their jobs.
Don't tell them what they have to do. They have the jobs.
You are here to support them.
You are here just to grab around a, um,
let's say a facilitator of the process.
Some PMO do it, some of them do it very well.
But I think in most of the organizations, I, when I see is
that, oh, I'm the PMO here, I'm going to define the roles.
I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, I'm going
to do this, I'm going to do that.
And you have to do this. Don't do that.
'cause they are your clients
and you adhere to serve them,
to help them do their jobs.
I created something some years ago, Stuart,
but call it DJ syndrome.
Do you know the DJ syndrome?
No. The D the dj, the, yeah. Yeah.
Have you ever been in a party
or a disco or something like this?
And the DJ ask you, what? Do you wanna listen?
No. You see, you are Brazilian. So you go to parties.
I'm a Brit. We sit, we go out to the pub and sit there
and just drink cup warm beer.
Yeah. Yeah. Some beer. Yeah, you been there.
So, uh, some people say, okay, uh, uh, they usually,
the DJs in parties, they play what they want.
They think you're gonna like it.
And here you don't have to do it.
You have to ask them what's going
to be your functions as a VMO.
'cause you are the means of the means. You got it.
That's the point. And this is called the J syndrome.
So you don't have to define things.
They have to define,
and you have to implement what they need to create values
that we're supposed to do.
So, so we've got some interesting stuff going on in the
chat, which I'm, I'm going to,
we may never get past this slide Helio, uh, which I'm sure,
I'm sure you'll be absolutely fine with.
But, uh, um,
but the, so the, the, the,
there was some really interesting comment here
about from Richard.
Um, so Richard, I'm loving these comments.
Keep them coming, my friend.
Um, so he was talking about, you know, A-A-A-V-M-O
is about making sure that you're, you're maximizing the ROI,
I mean, this is the kind of stuff I would write, right?
That, that you maximum, the, the r oi of the organization
and the industry, uh,
and that that can be clearly prioritized and,
and the maximum benefit and value delivered, right?
Um, uh,
and so, so I think the point
here is that why would you only do that
for the change programs?
Why wouldn't you do that for the whole organization?
Why wouldn't you try and maximize that investment?
And I think that's the big picture message
that we're cha you know, I said we're gonna challenge
the assumption of what the PMO is, right? Hmm.
Yeah. So, uh, I don't think the, the, the function
of the PMO is to maximize the ro Okay?
I do, if you read, But
if you read the guide, if you read the guide in the,
the VMO section of the guide, uh, the goal here of
my view all is to maximize the value
of the organization with
and minimizing the risks of this process.
This is why I have value governance here,
and I have risk management here.
They're together. The goal here is not to maximize the ROI,
but the value, sometimes you have some return on investment,
but who are your clients?
Not only the organization.
You see that sometimes the clients of organization,
sometimes the clients of the VMO is not only the
organization, sometimes it's in society,
sometimes it's your partner, sometimes your supplier.
So it's maximized the value delivered
with minimizing the risks for the whole ecosystem.
Not only the organization.
I'm thinking about a whole ecosystem on which the
organization is included.
It's a little bit different. So,
So, so I, I want to, I wanna jump on,
'cause we've got some really great comments
coming in here, right?
The, the, they're really great.
Um, and, uh, and moham, I, I do want to come to yours.
It's not a simple question, it's a really good question.
But before we get to that one, um, uh,
guy, while I, while I outline the question, guy, I'd love
to know, uh, the model you just described, did it work?
Um, right.
So, so asking, do you have any examples
where you've overcome the traditional division of labor
between PMO change and operations?
Because very often there's kind of this brick wall
and, you know, you finish the project,
you throw it over the wall to operations
and sometimes they pick it up, sometimes they don't.
And so the benefits sometimes get realized
and sometimes they don't.
Um, but it's, it's kind of a disjointed thing.
So, do you have, do you have any examples where you,
you've seen organizations do
that successfully integrate that process?
So it's not Yes. Not disjointed.
And what happened for, how did they get there?
And then what was the result of that?
Okay. Uh, I was working with a company in Portugal,
I can say the name of course, and it's a big company, okay?
And they are trying, they have some products
that they sell in rent for clients.
Okay? So,
and this is operations of the, of the company, okay?
This is the pink side. They sell
and rent some products for a company.
And they decided to create a credit card, okay?
A credit card with a chip inside app, the software.
And they make a connection with many partners
and everything related to the products
that they sell in rent for the clients.
They could buy things
with this credit card, with the partners.
They have discounts. It was good for everyone, okay?
The partners, we get more
clients, the clients of the company.
We have discounts. And you have more clients coming
for this company because they have a lot of promotions.
Okay? It was a great idea. Okay? It was great idea.
They created a, a car credit card, marketized this,
created a software there.
And this was a project, okay?
They had a project here, here,
and they created a product here.
What happened next? They,
the credit cards for everyone, thousands of clients.
Thousands and thousands and thousands
of clients in the country.
What happened after one month?
This guy, isn't it guy, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah.
Guy after one month, they realize it, that
the software inside the, the, the credit card didn't talk
with the commercial guides, the finance system
of the company, 120 million
problems in their pockets.
'cause there was no integration
between these guys and these guys here.
Lack of integration, completely lack of integration.
120 million euros of problems in their pockets.
So when they realized that, that in this project,
I was called there, what's going on here?
How can we solve this? And we implemented kind
of a VMO there.
They don't call it VMO, okay? They call it integration unit.
And they do exactly this.
Every initiative that they're doing right now,
and there are hundreds of them, okay?
Not hundreds, dozens of them.
They have to pass through this barrier of
is this thing integrated?
We really have an ecosystem that create this value properly.
So I have done this, okay, another example of this,
you know, there's a, a net, a social network.
Some years ago, I think it's club,
social club or something like this.
I remember it was, it was social network only for Apple.
Do you remember the names to it? Only for Apple. Oh,
Yeah, apple. I don't do Apple.
Yeah, I don't, I don't do, but,
but it was only work only for Apple. Oh, I know
The one you mean. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah. Okay.
Yeah. It was only for, yeah.
Uh, and only for Apple only people talking,
no image, nothing there.
And they created the product here.
It was a project creator product. It was a startup.
And start launching it. Okay? Launching it.
What happened next
Didn't go well.
What they couldn't afford the operations.
It was too expensive.
And they broke up complete disintegration between projects
and operations of the, of the company.
They couldn't afford that. It's too, too,
too expensive to support broker.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You create a product
and you can't support it.
Lack of integration. This product could never be created.
There is no value on that.
And this is the goal of the value management office.
You understand the whole ecosystem that the products
and service operations will work on the company.
Is it good for us? No. Is it good for the whole ecosystem?
Can we support this? So let's go it,
you see there are two examples. I have lived this,
So, so, so we're gonna get to sort of,
how do you get started in a second
and come to Mohammed's question.
Um, but just super, super briefly.
So this is, this is really just another way.
No, it's, it's more than that.
But one way to think about this is that, um, you know,
VMO is about making sure that you're delivering
the right value.
You're maximizing the ROI at the right time in
the right part of the business.
And that that value is actually landing.
Now, if you were to pick up Steve Jenner's book on benefits
management, that's exactly
what it says, right?
So this is not, this is not alien technology folks,
no invading from outside the PMO world.
No, of course not. This is, this is the stuff
that we all know we should be doing.
And what Helio's done is really just kind of remind us all
that, you know, business operations exists
and that we need to integrate
and that, that we need to work together.
And we need to do that because partly
because they are generators of demand for, for projects
and things like that, but also
because they're, for the most part,
the consumers of the output, right?
They are the guys who actually projects
do not deliver value.
Business operations. BAU delivers the value, right?
And the projects are enabling them to deliver the value.
So this, this story shouldn't be scary to people.
This shouldn't be alien, this shouldn't be unusual.
Um, but it's just, it's an interesting way
to visualize it all in one it one canvas.
Um, so there's a big question about, you know,
how do you get started on this journey from being whatever,
however you define A PMO, right?
And, and, um, uh, Frederick Casagrande,
I love Fred Casagrande out in Dubai.
Um, uh, Fred
talks about there being only two types of PMO, my PMO,
Every PMO, right?
There's my PMO and not my PMO. That's it.
'cause every PMO is different, right? Yeah.
So however you define, however you define PMO today, right?
If, if you wanna take a journey towards this VMO idea,
whether it's this exact idea
or something that's more about delivering benefits
and focusing on the left side.
One thing, one thing that it's,
Well, sorry, go ahead. Go ahead.
No, no. One thing that you're talking is, is, is the core
of flex model Stuart, there is no one flex model.
There is your flex model, right? Okay.
I have implemented flex model in many organizations.
For example, some, a a friend of mine,
they're just using this, this, and this.
This is their flex model.
Some other organizations just want to take advantage
of flex using the blue side.
This company here, I told you they just implemented the vmo.
Similar organizations want to improve processes using this.
So there is no one VMO, this is a Lego.
This is a Lego, it's a small Lego.
Each icon of this, in the flex model, you have some tool
to support is an AI,
is A GPT is a Excel worksheet, is a canvas.
There are many tools that support you.
And there is no one flex. There is your flex, okay?
Even in your organization,
you can have many different flexes.
Okay? But responding to your question is, how do I
configure my VMO according to your needs?
I created something that is called the VMO star. Okay?
What's the VMO start? Uh, it's a step.
So eight step process is a framework here that
you are gonna define what your VMO is.
Okay? I have defined some basic functions for the VMO here,
but if you want to change this, you are free to change.
And if you wanna configure your VMO
or even your PMO, if you wanna work on A PMO,
I'm going to tell you something.
Okay? This start.
First thing, my context, my rules, Stewart,
I don't care what's written on the guides on,
don't even on my guides, I don't care for the ducks.
Okay? Hey, what the value that I want to create, okay?
So my context, my rules. So what are your rules?
First, define the strategic goals.
What are the goals that your organization wants to reach?
Okay? Because depending on the goals, your functions
for your VMO is going to be different
because you have to support the
people in your different ways.
So what are the goals now that you want to reach? Okay?
Everything taught by this, this is intrinsically linked
with your strategy.
But what are the goals that we have to reach?
Understand these goals. Goals.
And then you define the VMO clients.
Who are you going to serve?
It can be your C-suite, it can be your project managers,
it can be the human resource department,
it can be the logistic department,
it can be the lawyer department.
Who are you going to serve?
These guys are your clients.
'cause remember, you are means of the means
that create value and who are going to be your clients.
And then you have to understand the jobs
to be done by these guys.
The theory of Christensen job to be done, okay?
This comes from there, job to be done.
And these guys, for example, 1, 2, 3 guys,
project managers, process managers, C-suites, whatever,
and they have their jobs, okay?
For example, project managers must create reports,
process managers must improve the process.
And then the CEO must define a strategy, whatever.
These are their jobs. They have to do something, okay?
Based on that, you have to study the pains
and the gains in these things that they have to do.
For example, every time a project manager,
every month they have to create a report.
What are the pains in creating this reports?
Or all the data is spread over the organization.
I can connect them. It's a mess. It's a lot of jobs to do.
It's crazy for creating, uh, report.
So what are the gains that they want
to improve the process, the jobs to be done?
And what are the pains in their jobs?
And then using, you identify this pain in these gains.
And then you, you create relievers
and boosters, relievers to minimize the pain
and boosters to improve the gains on their job.
If you do this, I can tell you, you don't need to prove
the return on investment of your PMO
'cause you're doing their job.
You're facilitating their life.
You don't have to calculate this.
Usually some people try to prove, oh, my PMO must prove
the investment on PMO is good.
No, don't do that. You don't need to do that.
Just serve them. And if you deliver this,
they're going to see value on you.
You don't have to prove on that.
Because most of the time these values, these relievers
and these boosters are qualitative.
Not only quantitative, it is very,
very tough to quantify this.
But they feel that,
because when I, when I,
when I define value on the guide value,
I have a small formula here.
Value is the difference between the perception
minus expectation.
Because these clients here expect some help from you,
expect you improve their lives,
minimize their ga, their pains.
And when you do this, they perceive some value.
And they will don't ask you for that.
They don't want to prove you that.
'cause most of the time they're qualitative.
But you have to define the expectation
because these are the job to be done.
And these are the gains, the pains.
And when you relieve the pains they perceive,
they realize that these pains are minimized
and the gains are maximize it.
You meet the expectation.
Your goal here is to at least equal the perception
of your job with the expectation of your clients.
But what they need, not you think they should do.
But if the perception at the end of the process is negative,
you don't deliver value as A VMO.
But if the perception at the end of the process is positive,
higher than the expectation, they will love you.
And that's the goal here.
And when you have, uh, relievers
and boosters here, you have to prioritize them
and define with the organization what's going
to be the priority, what's going
to be the service that we provide.
Because probably you don't have resource enough to do that.
And you have to prioritize
and create your value proposition, okay?
According to these objectives, according to these goals,
in this moment with these clients,
when this process, I have to do this.
'cause this is the set of tasks that I have to do now to
maximize the value of ization and minimize the risk for,
and then you have to plan how you're going to do this.
And you have to create some indicators, some indicators
to measure your performance as a VMO.
And while you're doing this, while you're doing this,
you have to check if the goals has changed.
'cause if the goals has changed, it, maybe you have
to run the whole process again.
And if you do this, I don't have,
I don't care what you have to do.
If they want you to peel oranges, if you want you
to carry bananas somewhere, I don't care.
Because this is what they need.
And you are there to serve that. Okay?
This is, this is the way I configure A PMO
or A VMO in my case.
This is how I configure the VMO in the flex model.
And we have, uh, GPT for that.
And we have, uh, dynamics of physical
or process that you in a workshop that how we do it, okay?
So this is the way I configure the VMO is is
where you're expecting from a start, from this, from that.
So he, I, I, it may I interrupt.
I've, I've been very good.
I've, I've been quiet for about five minutes now.
That's killing me. Um,
so Mohamed asked a question about, mm-hmm.
Um, you know, the, the, the, the blue
and the pink, they come together.
There's executives above there,
and executives, you know, the, they're,
they're the decision makers.
And, and so how are we gonna convince them to give up some
of their decision making power?
That's not what's going on here.
But Mohamed, first of all,
they're not giving up the decision making power.
We No, no. We're supporting them.
We're giving them what they need to be able
to make those decisions and to achieve their strategy.
So, so the first thing is that we're not giving up goals.
But if you go back to the, go back to the cycle,
if you would, brilliant.
So I read this as being, this is, this is how
you get executives to buy in.
This is how you iterate your way to VMO greatness, right?
So you, first of all, you know, you,
you've absolutely gotta understand the strategic goals.
Mm-hmm. And, and,
and then I I, I love this bit where you understand
the pains and the gains, right?
So this is, you've got your stakeholders, the, the guys
that Helio had up here,
and you understand what is their pain
For the CEOs, for the CFOs, for the project managers
or process leaders, for everyone that interested,
that create value for organization, I don't care.
I just serve them. Absolutely.
And, and, and then you figure out what could you do
to improve things based on, based on that pain?
And Then you figure out which one you can do first,
or you should do first, then you do it.
That's it. Find a way to do it. Find a way to do it.
That's it. And then you tell everyone about it,
and you wave the flag, and then you do it again,
and then you do it again.
Now, this is great. This is a really nice, clear image.
Um, and,
and I gotta tell you that this is essentially the idea
behind the PMO global alliances valuing,
this is essentially the idea behind Laura Barnard's, uh,
impact engine system.
This is, you know, right?
So, so this is this idea of a, a cyclical process
where you focus on pain, you fix the pain,
and you do it in cycles.
This is not new, right? No.
And, and again, like, like I said earlier,
this is not alien technology
landing from a different planet.
No, no, no. This is, this is, this is really pragmatic.
Do these things and, and good things happen, right?
So if you go through these process,
make sure you understand the strategic goals,
understand your stakeholders and what they do.
Identify their pain, figure out how to relieve their pain,
and then do it right?
Pick one thing and fix it.
Don't try and pick 10 things, right?
I think you said that when you,
you talked about prioritizing helio, right?
Yeah. Don't, don't pick 10 things.
Pick one thing, maybe two, and fix them.
But do it in 30 days, 60 days, 90 days.
That's a do, do it. Fix it, right?
Just do it. And then
You don't, you don't have necessarily
to have a function, right?
You have to fix the things. That's it. That's the point.
And, and find things that you can do.
You know, if you're in a place where as many PMOs are,
if you're in a place where you don't feel like you're
empowered to do anything,
and nobody's interested in BMOs,
nobody's interested in any of this stuff, right?
Yeah. Then just pick something that's paying
for someone that you reckon you can get away with
and fix it, right?
Just one, one person. 'cause
'cause then that person will go, Hey, that was cool.
And they'll tell other people.
Yeah. And that makes it easier. And you do it again,
My, my, my, my means
of this prioritization on step number six,
what I'm going to do right now.
Yep. Okay. Yep. That's that fine.
Absolutely. Um, so,
so Antonio asked an interesting question, uh, which is,
you know, I believe it should be measured.
Uh, I had a new process implemented
where the actual process owner team was not happy
with the new value, just simplified
because it's different, right?
So, and then she says, I love this.
So, so the, the, the key thing with this is
that it's living and breathing.
And, and, and again, it's a very similar concept
to Laura Barnard's, um, impact engine system to, to the,
Well, can I make some comments about it?
Can I comment? Make some comment? Yeah, yeah, of course.
Please do. Yeah. Uh, the first person I presented this
in my life, it was Americo.
Yeah. Yeah. Because he was a long friend of mine.
20, almost 20. Yeah.
And before launching this it over, I presented it
to Americo Americo.
I am A-A-P-M-O, certified cp. Okay?
I have PMO before, before launching the PMI version,
it was just the PMO value rate, okay?
From Americo. And I, the first person I live Americo,
I created this Why?
'cause I didn't know about the PMO guide. The PMI guide.
I didn't know it was a, it wasn't released yet on
that time, some years ago.
Okay? It was, they released in December. Okay?
The recent December. It was created some years ago,
so it before that.
Yep. And the difference there on the PMO value ring is
that in the PMO value ring, you have 26 different functions
that were possible to pick up.
And here there's no 26, there can be any,
not these 26 functions that were defined.
You can pick anything even in process, not only in projects,
in the value ring, okay, from America,
there's a great friend of mine.
They have only 26, 26 possible functions
related to projects.
'cause they'll focus on projects.
And here you can have 26,000
possible functions of the, which,
Which could be a problem, right?
You need to, you need to need to focus, right? Which is,
This is organization, this is your organization.
Remember my contact, my rules? Yeah, yeah.
I'm not on 26 3 determined functions.
Because you are dealing with both sides
of the world, not only projects.
You see that, that's the point.
So absolutely, it, it brings a flexibility,
it brings a lot of possibilities.
Way bigger than projects.
Um, so, so the, so the, the, the big thing, uh,
what I would, what I'd love to do, love you
to spend a couple of minutes on,
because I, I get asked again and again
and again at conferences and things.
This question, how do I get started?
What is my first
step on this journey?
Which one? To implement a vmo.
Yeah. Well, so if you're a PMO, right?
And, and, and you want to be okay, and,
and you want, you want to start this journey of being, yeah.
A VMO being value oriented. And, and I, I'm
Done. I'm going tell
You at the top of the box,
or you may end up a bigger thing on the blue side,
or you may end up as something else, right?
But, but how do you start?
What's the first step that you would recommend?
First, can you define the indicators on your
organization that will measure the value
that you are delivering?
So, so these are not the indicators,
like on time, on budget, right?
Oh, this is, these guys here
measure the organization process.
'cause we are organizing the whole organization here.
The projects here, the projects here have the KPIs,
the process here have the KPIs.
I'm talking about the indicators
that measure the value delivered by the organization.
'cause we are here, here in this box here
looking for the goals, the indicators,
the strategy, and collecting data from these guys
to measure the indicators
that these guys here wants to measure.
And we, as a VMO here, we are delivering their indicators
that what they want to measure.
And I have to collect data from operations and from blue
and pink side to deliver indicators
that they make decisions.
This is why I have indicators here. See that?
So I predefining something that I think is useful,
but you can change anything you want.
This is why it's flex comes from flexibility. Okay? Base it.
Oh, Helio seems to have frozen.
So, so I'll, uh, so,
so I'll give a a a similar answer, but slightly d different.
That's my, oh, he is back again. He's back again.
Okay. Yeah, there you go. You see that?
Base it on these indicators here.
And in their proposed mission, values
and futures, whatever you want, you have something here
that's called change management,
organizational change management.
We have to create a change in the organization
and to implement, to transform,
to change this PMO culture to A VMO culture.
Just like a proposed here, it's a project
to implement a change in the whole organization.
And this is the first two steps.
Change is going to be a project
to implement a change management.
Okay? And we have support.
We have A GPT, we have a canvas, we have a readiness
for change management in the, in the, in the model here.
And because when you're doing this, it's going
to support this transition.
'cause this is a project, this is going
to be a changing process.
Sometimes you have to change the culture, sometimes you have
to change the architecture of the organization.
Sometimes you have to change many things,
sometimes even in strategy.
I've seen this before. So the first step for me is
how my indicators are
and what's going to be the change that I want to create.
And you as A VMO can conduct this process.
You as A PMO can conduct this process.
You are A CEO can conduct this process
because depending on indicator that you have here,
you can't reach your goals.
You can't fulfill your mission.
And what do I have to change in my culture,
in my architecture, in my process?
Do I have to create a new department?
And this is a change management process.
And base it on this change management process.
I'm going to show you some picture here. Here.
Remember, you are trying to change something,
the big picture and base it on this change that we want
to create in the middle of this circle.
You are the value that you want to create.
And in this here, you have people
or stakeholders, you, your partners, whatever you want.
People here, people need something
and they have requirements to be fulfilled
and they have context.
So we have to think about this change
that we want to create.
This is change management here.
'cause we want to create a change in our organization here,
but we want to deliver values in the
center of the model here.
But we have to listen to the people, the stakeholders,
what are the needs, what are the requirements
and what's our context right now
with this picture in your mind, you can change anything.
Even this how it changed from the PMO to the VMO
as I am proposing.
Okay? These are the two steps.
And caters and change management create these
as a change management process
because it is, it is, you have to consider many things.
And, and I think the,
so Antonio just made an interesting thing.
So basically if quality management and PMO go hand in hand
and implement a great continuous improvement process, right?
That, that's kind of what's one way of looking at this.
And you know, in some organizations it'll
be quality management.
In other other situations it'll be somebody
else in the organization.
But it's, it's that idea of, of the PMO teaming up
with something that's kind of operational
and creating this cycle.
And, and the VMO is really just, it may not exist
as an organization, it's really just, it's,
it's the facilitating entity that's,
that's allowing that to happen.
And it could sit in the blue area,
it could sit in the pink area,
it could sit up above, doesn't matter.
Doesn't matter. It's more, you know, what it's doing.
It's facilitating
and allowing these things to happen. And so
I I had to, I had to represent the vehicle.
Well, it'll be outside the picture.
It could be outside the picture. Yeah.
Or it can be represented in the base of the picture.
And, and the key is, um, actually, if you go back
to the cycle again, if you wouldn't, if mind Julio,
sorry, I'm, I'm kind of
No Jumping in.
Um, so, so this whole I thing,
and again, I I come back to this
because I get asked this question so much at conferences is,
is, is how do we get started?
And it really is, uh, this loop is this, this,
this cycle is, is spot on.
It's, it's, you know, understand the business goals,
understand the pain, and then fix it.
And so one of the things that we do, uh, that we offer
as an organization is something
that we call the case for change.
So this is where we help you, support you in that process
of identifying who are the stakeholders, what's the pain,
understand the root cause of that pain.
So you can work out what the relievers
and boosters are using Helio's terminology.
And then, uh, and then, you know, and then prioritize
and present that back to the executives
and help them understand
what the future might look like.
If you could fix these things,
then these pains go away, right?
And, um, and
Is the gains are maximized
And the gain, absolutely the gains are maximized.
So, so if you, if you are, if you are in that position,
you're trying to figure out how do we get support?
Um, there you go. Lenore has just dropped the,
the link in the chat, uh, to our case for change.
Um, feel free to book a, a session.
And, um, and it, it's a, it's a free session.
Um, it's not about our software, it's about
starting this cycle, helping you start the cycle.
Um, so that's a really good way to get
to a really good first step, uh, to, so we're, we're more
or less at the, the top of the hour.
Helio one, one of the things I'd love to do, um, you know,
we're not gonna get through all your slides.
I think we've got through three, which
is, I think that's a record.
Um, but, uh, but,
but what I would love to do is, um, just give you a minute
to tell people how they could engage with you.
If, if they are interested
and would like to learn more, how, what would you,
what would you recommend as a way
that they might engage with you?
Yeah, there is, there is a website here at the end.
You can see the, uh, flex model com.
You can download the guides there, there for free.
There is a model, there's guide, there's 120 page guide.
And we have the email there.
You have, uh, how you get in touch with it.
We can link LinkedIn and you can download the canvas guide.
And if you go to chatt PT
and you look for flex, just like flex here,
you're gonna see a lot of GPTs there.
They're all for free. But basically you can get in touch
by LinkedIn or even my website, flex model.com.
Stuart, can I tell you something else?
Of course, This is not a cycle,
this is not a complete cycle.
Why? Because these events represent eight steps.
But let's suppose you are here, you are starting the cycle
by 1, 2, 3, 4,
and there is a new department on your organization.
You have to go back, see that, you have to go back
and return the process, the events.
For example, you have the same clients and the same clients.
One of these days they find, now I have to do this.
So they have different jobs
and you have to return that and check it again.
How you can help them see, these eight steps are
available for you to do it whenever you want,
whenever the organization needs.
There are just eight steps.
You can do that in a cycle,
but you can use each number whenever you need it.
They are available for you if your job, for example,
the PMO, the organization now defines
that you have to do something different.
You have to go there and check it.
You see that you don't have to complete the cycle.
You, the, the, the events can be like this and this and this
and this and this and this and that.
It doesn't matter. It's not a complete cycle.
The eight steps here are here
for you to use them.
Maybe the CEO
or the process manager define, I need to measure this now.
So we have to define this in the middle of a process.
You see that you don't have exactly a a
to follow the whole process.
You can follow the process,
but be aware that somehow, somewhere, somewhere
you have to go to another step.
Seth, you are free to use it whenever you want.
Awesome. So I, I, I have one more little thing I'd love
to comment on.
And then we're, we're gonna have to wrap it up
'cause we are at the top of the hour.
So maybe jump back to the, to the the square model. Yeah.
To the square. There we go. Okay.
Um, so I have one piece of advice that I always give to
project managers,
PMO leaders, uh mm-hmm.
Who say, how can we, you know,
how can we start this journey?
Um, I I think, uh, Helio, you were pretty, pretty right on
focusing on the indicators and on and,
and understanding the business right,
is absolutely key.
You cannot do any of this
if you do not understand the business.
What are the key drivers of the business?
What's the strategy of the business?
What are the pain points in the business? So
What we, what, what kind of information we need
to make decisions.
Yep, exactly.
So my advice is,
before you do anything else, just reach out
to people across the organization
who are maybe at a similar level to you, maybe slightly,
slightly higher level than you.
It doesn't really matter. And just say,
Hey, can we have a coffee?
That's it, Right? Take them
Through. In your case, in
your case, a cup of tea.
It is a cup of tea. I don't do coffee either.
I'm ter I'm terribly boring, you know, ilio,
um, I do do ducks, right?
We we have a nice little collection.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but,
but the point is, if you, if you go and engage people
and just say, Hey, listen, I I wanna be able
to serve the organization better.
Can you tell me what you do?
Can you tell me what the problems are?
Why do you do it like that? Right?
What are the opportunities for improvement, right?
And just learn as much as you can about your business.
And then, and then everything
that Helio's talked about today becomes so much easier.
So that's absolutely, uh, that's, that's the,
the advice that I give everyone.
Just get out there and learn about the business.
So Helio, I, I really go on, let's get round
of applause for Helio.
'cause um, I don't know about you,
but I think this was a challenging idea.
It was sort of stretching what we're comfortable thinking,
uh, about when it comes to PMOs and what A PMO could be.
I'm not worried about the VM o name
or anything like that, right?
That's not what's important here.
What's important, what's important is this idea
of connecting together the both side, both sides
of the business, Listening
and connecting it to the goals of the organization.
And my personal view is that, you know,
the P-M-O-V-M-O call it whatever you like,
there's this entity that lives there.
That is the, the job.
The job is to help maximize
the return on investment in the, in the organization.
However you measure return.
If you're a, if you're, if you're a health,
if you're a hospital, you're
gonna measure it in health outcomes.
If you're, if you're a tax office,
you're gonna measure it in terms of tax receipts
and cost per billion dollars collected
or something, right? So it doesn't matter.
This is, this is why Stuart,
this is why I'm sorry for interrupting.
This is why I don't use the return on
investment of the organization.
Because sometimes the organization, it's not measured
by its return by, but by the value they deliver.
It's the value that's right.
And, and so it, it's a very tricky,
this is why we do the ducks and the eggs, right?
Because it's, that's
It. It's how much egg
do you get for the money you spend?
That's that fundamentally what it comes back to.
So, um, so awesome.
Uh, I, Julio, thank you very much for, for doing this.
Um, my pleasure. It's been really interesting.
I hope people will reach out to you
and, um, look for support, uh, download the documentation,
have a good look through it, um, and, uh, reach out
and connect to you directly.
Um, please watch out for the next webinars, uh,
and our monthly newsletter.
Uh, the next webinar is a demo webinar.
Um, we're gonna have a special guest on the demo webinar.
I'm not gonna tell you who it is,
but we're gonna have a special guest on the webinar.
Uh, so come along and see, uh, see who we've got.
And um, uh,
and then next month we'll be doing another session,
which I think Lenora, keep me honest,
is on strategy.
And what is strategy for PMOs?
If I've, if I've got it right, I've probably got that wrong.
So watch out for the newsletter
and we'll tell you what it really is.
But come along, have some fun.
Uh, if you come every month, then you know,
in a year's time you'll be smarter than you are today.
Thank you very much everyone.
Bye. Thank you everyone. Thank you.