Hello.
Welcome everybody. Uh,
whether it's first thing in the morning
or late in the evening, you're very welcome to join us.
Um, we do these webinars, the, these sort
of thought leadership type webinars, uh, once a month.
And we've had some great speakers on.
We've had some real experts.
We've had Laura Barnard and Joe Puzz, good friends of yours.
I think Al uh, we've had, uh,
all kinds of people joining in.
Some people planned, other people not so planned.
We had Lee Lambert swung in one time.
He just turned up to listen.
And heck, you don't have Lee Lambert on a session
and not invite him to join in, right?
So, so we've had all sorts of really fantastic people,
but I'm particularly excited
and interested to see what's gonna happen over the next
hour, because we have with us, um,
for the first time, I think, as the headline Act,
A PMI fellow.
Now, if you don't know what PMI fellows are,
this is a very rarefied cla crowd.
Um, the, these are the brains of the PMI profession.
Uh, the al's gonna be grumbling at me in a minute.
But these are the brains of the, the p, the PMI, uh, world.
Uh, these are the guys that have contributed so much to the,
to the community, uh, so much to the knowledge, the body
of knowledge of the community through research, um,
and, you know, writing papers and books
and all the rest of it that their,
that their contributions are, are recognized
with a fellowship of the PMI.
And so, you know, it's guys like Ricardo Vargas and,
and, you know, already mentioned Lee Lee Lambert.
You know, there, there, there aren't very how many other,
something like 50 or a hundred somewhere in that, uh, a
A a lot. So we,
we, we lost some fellows, um,
since this has been going, you know,
having fellows has been, uh, some time now.
So I think we were above 75 fellows worldwide,
but now the, the ones who are alive, I think
around the 67 maybe, right?
Uh, so it's, uh, it's definitely an honor.
You're right. Yeah. Yeah. There
We go.
Well, so I, I first met Al in Riyadh, I think.
Um, and we were at the Global Project Management Forum,
the GPMF out there, uh, a couple of years ago.
And it was one of those, you, you know, when you,
you meet someone and you sit down
and you just
like them, right?
And, and al's kind of like that.
'cause you, you'll,
you'll hear it's clearly a brain on legs,
but it's mixed with incredible humility
and humor, um, uh, uh, that, that you just,
you just can't help but fall in love.
Uh, and I hope you'll fall in love with Al today.
Um, and Al's gonna be talking about, um, uh,
his latest book, which is out now.
It's available now, Al We'll, we'll do that bit later on.
Um, and it, it's sort of all, it's, it's about culture and,
and, you know, delivering transformation, uh,
and the importance of culture.
There's chunk in there about portfolio management
and all this kind of good stuff.
Um, so I'm not gonna do a whole load of background on Al,
but suffice it to say, you know, he, he mixes this sort of
academic rigor with real world experience.
You know, he's run PMOs, you know, he's, he ran the EPMO
for one of the world, uh, for one of the biggest, um,
utility companies in the,
the United Arab Emirates, for example.
Uh, he ran a big PMO at, at Siemens.
Uh, he ran a big p and l line for Booz Allen Hamilton.
He's, you know, so he's got that mix of, you know,
academic rigor with, um, uh, with the real world.
So I'm not, I'm not gonna spend a load of time.
Al's got some slides he's gonna walk through.
Um, if you've been on our webinars
before, you know that there is not a snowballs chance
that Al is gonna get through his slides without being
interrupted, right?
And that's how we want it.
So, um, I will certainly be interrupting al with comments,
questions, but I would love it if you also interrupt him
with your comments, your questions, your observations.
If, if Al says something you think is particularly relevant
and you wanna share a story, share a story, that'd be great.
If you want to disagree with him, disagree
with him, that'll be great.
Uh, let's make it a conversation. We'll get more out of it.
You'll get more out of it. I will all have more fun.
So I'm delighted to see loads of people
introducing themselves, which means, you know,
where the chat is, and you're, um, uh, ready
to, to participate.
So, Al would you like to start, my friend?
I can start. Uh, I just wanna make sure
that everyone also, uh, you know, pings the friend
or a colleague, whoever is hiding under the, um,
under some kind of a blanket right now,
because it's called where you are.
Make sure you ping them and have them join us.
I'd love to have, uh, the opportunity
for others to join this dialogue.
This guy Stewart, is, uh, is phenomenal.
I've, uh, you know, it's not a long time since we've known
each other, but it definitely has been quite an impressive
journey and, uh, really excited to be with him.
Uh, I'm looking at the chat first and,
and really love, uh, the comments.
And, and, and I just responded also to, uh,
I think Kelly, right?
Kelly is the new president, or the current president of PMI
and Deanna Central Indiana chapter.
And I just wrote her back in the chat.
That's the first PI chapter that was actually a president
of, uh, I used to live in the Midwest and the us Really?
Oh, yeah. I mean, my, my, my fun story
to start is I was in the papers in Wichita, Kansas.
I don't know how many around the room
really know Wichita, Kansas.
Hopefully it's a global audience,
and many of us don't know it's the Kansas,
but, uh, I started, I was one of the folks starting the, uh,
the chapter there in, uh, Wichita, Kansas.
Um, and also, uh, was the first PNP in, in Kansas, right?
So I was in the paper for that reason.
And again, that's does not take, um, Kansas City in the mix
because it's kind of broken into Missouri and Kansas.
Long story short, uh, I would say Indiana was really a key,
uh, impressive point in my career journey.
Um, it's basically the time
when I have the opportunity also.
So you, you're speaking about PMOs a lot, uh, Stuart in
that intro and, uh, in, in Indianapolis, uh, I,
I couldn't believe that I was, uh, there's a guy
by the name Scott Gill who introduced me
to the community there.
And Scott and I, uh, went
to a place called ITD Technical Institutes,
and they were keen on the project management discipline,
and they asked the two of us to develop a master's in, uh,
in project management for, for that institute.
And, uh, it was, it was really fascinating working with him
and, and working with many organizations around that part
of the country, like Eli Lilly,
and, uh, try to have a very good example
of engaging stakeholders in creating
and shaping a curricula, uh, for an institute like that,
that's more practical in nature, not classic academia,
and make it, uh, quite effective for PMs.
But anyhow, great fond memories for Indianapolis.
And, and the reason I mentioned that
and spent a minute on it, is you never know where
you'll actually have the experience that shapes your views.
You know, if, if anyone asked me what shaped my,
my journey the most, I would say Indianapolis.
So why I also met Kerner, Harold Ner Stuart just mentioned,
uh, uh, books.
And Harold, I still remember, we invited him
as a guest speaker in, uh, Indianapolis, uh,
for, for the chapter.
And he said, Ali, I want you to meet this woman in New York.
You gotta go work with her.
And, you know, okay, great, thank you.
And, uh, six months later, he checks on me, Hey, how was it?
Did you manage to meet her?
So that was, uh, my time with IL at the time,
and joining, uh, Laverne Johnson
and expanding her business globally at the time.
Uh, but, but also Kirzner was the one behind the writing.
So, message here to start, don't underestimate
where things might come to you in terms
of really taking on those experiences
that have a big impact.
Uh, definitely has had a big impact on my journey today.
Uh, yes, I'll use, I wanna change things on you a little
bit, Stuart, so I will use some slides, et cetera,
but I wanna use a lot less slides,
and I'm much more keen on, uh, the interactions,
not only hearing what resonates with us,
but also what's rubbish, right?
If, if we make some comments that are really rubbish
and don't make any sense,
and you, you don't agree with, uh,
this is the only way anyone would of, of us would learn,
including ourselves, you know, we,
we definitely don't wanna listen to ourselves speaking.
We don't learn much that way.
Um, but we do learn a ton also from, uh,
the joint experiences around the room as well.
The topic I, I'll, I'm just gonna interrupt at this point.
Yeah, love it. So, so Peter Hunters just introduced himself.
Yeah. Thank you, Peter. Uh, Peter, I've gotta say what I,
I read, I read your,
Your, your credentials, and I got to the feel free,
and I thought free is Peter offering us all free coffee?
Really? Yeah. So coffee's on Peter, folks.
Excellent. Excellent. So, very good.
So yeah, you, you, you'll help me catch up with, uh,
anything in the chat, et cetera.
You bet, you bet.
I've got half an eye on that.
Perfect. So, yeah.
Um, why, why are you, um, you know,
why would you really care about, um, uh, listening to Stuart
and I, I mean, especially I as a guest here, Stuart,
of course, you know him from previous
webinars, but he's right.
I mean, really co continuous commitment to this discipline
of project management, to the value of PMOs,
to the shifts in PMOs to the, uh,
portfolio management muscle and its importance.
But for me, if I had to pick one thing
that I'm passionate the most about, would be the culture,
really, the organizational cultures,
and the true creation of mindsets
that really matter in driving change in the organization.
I'm trying to adjust, I think the camera's off a little bit,
but, um, but definitely excited to, uh,
to share the topic, the topic today.
And I can maybe share a slide for a minute
and then really get into more of the dialogues and so forth.
Um, but the topic is truly around,
let me see if I share the right screen.
Hopefully I do, yes. Perfect. And then, good.
Yeah, thank you. And it's really about driving
that transformative change.
And Stu is right, I've been in those cases
where transformation is, uh, where I spend the majority
of my time, including the example you mentioned briefly
that I'll try to share some stories from it as well.
And the nuclear space
and the UAE, which was obviously something I learned
tremendous amount from.
If, just to set the context a little bit, let's get some,
some potential theory on the, on the, on the table here,
when, in fact, I don't believe
that's really anyone's particular definition.
It's really a combination of my views
and what, uh, uh, what Stu mentioned, uh, was
behind the passion for that, uh, recent book.
And I'll tell you more about it,
obviously as we go through it.
But if you think about there are key
words here, intentional, right?
So it's really intentionality in the approach
organization state Yeah.
And how they design.
It's funny, the other day, and I, I was reflecting on this
with two, with two at some point,
and also with Laura Bernard, uh, he mentioned as well.
Uh, when I, when I look at what I've done over the years,
I would say the majority of which was more in the OD space.
OD means organizational design.
I never knew what that meant. It was accidental.
It was one of those things kind
of like being an accidental pm, which I hope many of us
around the room can relate to that I never,
never thought I would dedicate my entire career to pm.
But when I really was creating change, driving change,
it was all od thinking about the design of the organization
or the development of the organization.
Either, either DU is typically the case, but try
and find a way that all of us, obviously,
and I hope that's the case for many of you, uh,
that you have the same hat on.
You wanna be working in initiatives in organizations
that inspire you, that are effective.
There's a lot of, uh, natural waste and politics
and, uh, organizational silos
and all those experiences, many of us around the room dealt
with, that really does not lend itself to the,
the ultimate motivation and inspiration of teams.
So the assumption is that these cultures
that you can see here really know
and get what it takes to, uh, run the business in a very,
uh, clear way.
And clear is a key word here, excuse me.
So that there is clarity of strategy
and clarity for how that strategy cascades
and drives change in the organization.
And the way I started thinking about this, I thought
of four blocks potentially, which again, it's
where are these thoughts coming from?
A lot of it is experience.
A lot of it has to do with learning over the years.
Uh, but at the end of the day,
especially in my recent work in Siemens, um,
it has been really heavily focused on innovation.
Everyone, Siemens, I worked in the software space
and did a lot, excuse me, around the digital, uh, you know,
innovation aspects and so forth.
And the beauty of it is working directly with communities
of excellence that are so keen on what does it take
to develop an innovation culture.
And I can tell you, for big organizations
especially, it's very hard to do.
And I would imagine you would agree with that.
And if you don't, would love to hear more
of your thoughts on that, because I was part of a team
that was across the entire bus and,
and divisions of Siemens trying to really focus on how
to get into what's called the deep blue ocean.
You know, what does it take? What kind of muscles, what kind
of operational, uh, changes you need to have, what kind of,
uh, uh, changes in the culture and the mindset and so forth.
We work with a very small, uh, consultancy, uh, in Germany.
We even decided not to go with, uh, big names
and like the McKinseys and so on.
We wanted to have a fresh thought process.
And at the end of the day, unfortunately, it was still hard
for us to implement those recommendations.
They were great, they were recommendations that are great,
but they do require that we have a high risk appetite.
And that's not so easy for larger organizations
that are not really experience driven.
Experience driven means truly at the heart
that you are willing to just, you know, many of us
around the room, of course, have been
around the agile practices and the agile movements
and our certified agileists and all that fun stuff.
The reality is, many
of those principles support this experience driven,
but at the core of it, it requires courageous muscles.
It requires high degree of empathy, not only around data
and around people, but it truly has to do with making sure
that I'm, I'm loving the experimenting.
I see the value. I can really have a clock speed, uh,
driving the, the kind of initiatives that I take on
and, and experiment with.
Adapting ways of working, of course, uh,
are a must not only in this last, uh, recent book,
but also in multiple of the previous ones.
I emphasize this a lot
because at the end of the day, I'm a fan and a big believer,
and I would love to hear reviews on that,
uh, of the word fit.
FIT you gotta make sure we get the right fit
when it comes to ways of working.
It's not about this dialogue
and nonsense about waterfall and agile.
It's not about, you know, it has to be this kind
of a roadmap or this kind of an approach,
or yes, let's make sure we follow one way of building A PMO,
or what, what is the latest standard, for example,
from Piedmont, which are, are great,
they're all guiding principles,
but we, I've gotta only take them as guiding principles.
If one thing I learned throughout my journey,
there's a big difference between guiding principles
and really, you know, what has to happen and,
and being real and being on the ground.
And that's very important. And I, I can't believe it's 2025.
And still today, practitioners, including some
of us may be even dealing with that.
We forget this word guide, even in the pmba,
which is really at the core of what we do when it comes
to the, even the level of projects, not even programs,
and not even portfolio.
So you gotta be very careful of that.
And, and that's a great point that I try to expand on.
And then block three is really where, uh, the interaction
with AI discussion has to take place.
The reality is, in my views and, and, and the research
and the case studies, et cetera, in the book, for example,
it's all about the human to human component.
AI and all the richness and the beauty of ai
and the risk with AI is about truly getting us
to a very much of a, uh, human equation, a human
to human model that increases the effectiveness of B2C, B2B,
how we work internally, et cetera.
All of that hinges on how smart we are in implementing ai.
So we'll share some stories and examples there.
And finally, of course, what's really important,
and something also Stu is very passionate about.
So when we get to dialogue here shortly, we want
to really tackle this enterprise,
you know, portfolio muscle.
What does it take? Do organizations truly understand it?
You know, I can tell you in recent experience, uh,
even in the work in Siemens, for example,
it is very interesting that portfolios are almost always
looked at in terms of product mix, almost looked at in terms
of r and d, almost always looked at in terms
of pure investment, regardless really, of the linkages
to strategy or where the north star is taking us, et cetera.
That's not acceptable.
And that's something very critical for our organizations
to make sure it's an enterprise function.
It's a way of thinking, it's a way of strategizing,
it's a way of executing.
And something that is core in this experience driven
culture, uh, uh, idea that is, uh, central to hopefully some
of our exchanges today,
and the work I've been involved
with in the last couple of years.
Okay, so, so the best way to start, yeah. So,
So Al, just before you plow on, so yeah, a lot of people
who come to our webinars are in, in the PMO space, right?
And, and there's, you know, some
of them might be sitting there wondering,
why do I care about culture?
Yeah, I've got no control over that. What do you think?
Do they, do they have control?
Why should they care about culture?
And, and, and I'll tell you what, uh, let's see.
So I know as soon as we start talking about culture,
somebody is gonna bring up Peter Drucker.
So let's see who can be the first one.
So Al you're not allowed to, you know,
the quote where I'm going, right?
Who's gonna be the first one
to get the Peter Drucker quote about culture
into the chat, right? I'm waiting, I'm
Waiting. So,
You know, it's gonna hit there any second there, right?
Okay. Okay. But uh, there
We go. Oh, no, no,
not yet. That's not,
No, no, that's, that's close.
Not, not quite it. So why should we care?
Why should your PMO leaders in particular,
why should they care about culture? Al
These are good comments so far in the chat,
and we're still waiting on that.
Uh, that, uh, one you mentioned, um, r there it is.
There it is. AIF scenario. There we go. Here we go. It
Eats something for breakfast.
It eats strategy for breakfast.
Yeah, yeah. So, so, so a couple of things.
You asked a very, uh, mult,
multilayered question in a way, right?
Which is a very important question.
So, first of all, should we care about culture?
Well, think about it. Uh, when you make choices to join, if,
if you have a choice, right, to join, to have your kids,
if you have kids go to certain school
or to join a certain organization, or to marry
or partner with someone,
or whatever it is that's really important to you,
wouldn't you care about what that person
or that entity, et cetera, stands for?
How do they think about what matters in the world?
How do they believe, uh, is necessary?
You know, what are the things that are necessary for us
to work well together to collaborate, et cetera?
So it's really goes back to almost pure common sense.
However, um, the reason it's so important,
and can we do something about it?
So two parts. The reason it's very important is, is this is
where, uh, interact where you work with your team.
It's where you can accomplish something of value.
It is where you, uh, find the right support
or lack thereof when people, when you've seen PMI
and others over the years do research about sponsorship
and, and those kind of things.
So what is all of that? Why, why is that important?
It's really because it shapes the culture
and your ability to go around getting your initiatives
and projects done within the realm of what is there for you
to support your work, to support your
outcomes, and support your success.
Can I do something about creating culture?
So the, we're talking about a culture that is inspiring,
motivating allows you to experiment, you know, assuming
that's an example of a culture we all wanna be in.
Obviously there are cultures that are very bureaucratic
or my way or the highway, and that continues to be the case,
but it's 2025,
and we've really passed the days, uh, where team members
and others don't have a say
or a view in terms of what's really important.
So what I'm talking about when it comes to shaping, yes,
of course you can, this is the whole idea
of our discussion today.
How do we have a, a leadership model
where you own the change, change.
So culture and transformation and change, and strategy
and leadership, those words are not buzzwords.
They're all linked to each other,
because at the end of the day, we have an ownership
of what can I do about it?
What can I do about it? Just, okay,
Say that again. Say that again,
Al. 'cause
that is really important. Say that again?
Definitely. So the point about those elements, strategy,
culture, leadership, uh, the, the, the ways
by which we work, they're all connected in an ownership
model that we have to really tackle ourselves
because we have this ability to shape
and communicate, not only upwards and educate the leaders
and the rest of the organization, but we have the ability.
Um, and I probably we're gonna have to listen
to the recordings later because I said it differently
the first time, but it's okay.
It's really about making sure we have the ownership
of connecting those elements together.
Because at the end of the day, that's where we operate
and create the change.
Impact change is really what connects all of that.
And this day and age, and into the future, into 2030
and beyond, it's all about change.
You can see it, you can see the disruptions on a daily,
sometimes hourly, sometimes literally by the minute.
And this only requires us to, A,
be very conscientious of it.
B, to take the role of being the kind of inspiring leaders.
No one is gonna wait for us to be the leaders
that we need to be, right?
So we've gotta take, grab that.
And third, we have a massive educating opportunity.
Stuart talked about PMOs, for example.
That's why I love the PMOs being the learning
engines of the future.
Learning engine means it's the engine that's in charge
of making sure the right hand and the left hand
and the organization entire ecosystem basically
are speaking the same language.
So one of the biggest takeaways in this first part,
language matters, right?
Language matters really means at the end of the day,
we have the ability
and ownership to drive what kind of a value system,
what kind of a supporting mechanism, what kind
of a leadership model, what kind of a, a way of working,
how all those connect for us to continuously be in a place
where we pursue that excellence.
Every one of us are around the room.
Every organization is
after this inner excellence, we call it, right?
So the inner excellence is really the ability
of the organization and us individually and as teams
and as PMOs to have that continuous excellence as a way
of, uh, driving change.
So again, we'll, we'll tackle that in more examples.
I think examples are gonna help, uh, break this down.
Can you share the first poll?
I'm very keen on seeing, we're gonna have four
or five key polls for you to A,
to make sure you stay with us.
And B, we want to hear how your results match some
of the things we've done in research
and found about, uh, in terms of outcomes.
And most importantly, we really want to make sure, uh, that,
uh, you, you think about this also as you go back, as a,
as a takeaway from our work together today.
Fab. So the question is, where do leaders in the future,
in future organization increasingly spend their time?
So have a quick, have a quick look
and, uh, put your thoughts in there.
Are there answers there? I I only see there,
There are, there are four answers. So
there's, okay, great. And
people are changing their minds.
This is fan, this is fascinating. I
Love it. I love it. Okay,
There we go. This is,
this is interesting.
It's, it's going, it's going, it's going we'll.
Give it just a few more seconds. Jump on in there.
All right. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Here we go.
Do you want me to share the results,
Please? Absolutely.
I'm curious because I
wanna see how different it is.
So I'm seeing the results. Perfect.
And, um, thinking again for a change.
And, and those things were, were,
were not picked randomly, those answered, right?
So w uh, uh, there was some bias
for me going into designing those, uh, uh, those,
um, questions of those polls.
I thought the thinking, again,
for a change is gonna have a higher score,
but it didn't, not just from you.
So the wider group on LinkedIn that I actually researched
for this, I think the result was about 27%, right?
For the first one. The second one, second one,
even some people, so speaking of culture, the second one,
some people don't even understand what that means, right?
So galvanizing is not something usually used
for stakeholders, right?
You're talking about maybe material
metals or something like that.
But it's really, so if I, if I look at
what those cultures are like,
and look at the leaders
who have seen really great inspiring examples,
they have two qualities.
One, they are enablers, and two, they are galvanizes, right?
Enablers, which many of us, I would say 90% of us
around the room should be really great enablers.
Enablers means what if you are playing a role of a PM
or a PMO person, et cetera.
You are enabling change,
you're enabling building capabilities,
you're enabling those kinds of things.
Galvanizing though has to do with all the political
and the, the, the negotiations
and the breaking of the barriers
and getting that mixed, et cetera, right?
So that's why, but no surprise, you got 4%.
The research showed zero.
So I didn't know if it's more of the understanding of it
or more really the appreciation of it.
So I did not really go below this here.
And then aligning across organization
balance, that's very good.
I've got 18% of the research. You got 42. And then I'll
Give, gimme one second. Uh,
could somebody in the chat just let me know
that you can see the results?
I, I think I'm sharing them in zoom, but uh, yes, you can.
Brilliant. Thank you guys. Fabulous. Carry on.
Perfect. And then adapting to customers demands.
Again, 46% versus the research had sold 55%. Great.
Very close and no surprise.
And in a day and age
where we've been talking about customer centricity
for a long time, and PMI releasing the new, uh, you know,
definition of success, uh, project, uh, research
that they've done, uh, you know, towards the end of 24,
if you look below and behind
and everything else, the work that was done,
it's really about getting that closeness to the customer.
I can tell you, I mean, Stu always tells me, Al,
can you share a bad example?
Well, my worst example was right there,
the adapting to customers.
I cannot tell you how embarrassing it was.
And it was a situation, a consulting engagement, uh, in
with a large, massive, uh, European organization that, uh,
my team, you know, even before I took the helm.
So I'm not trying to get, uh, out of, of taking ownership,
but the team has completed the work already.
I took the hell in charge of
that particular team or organization.
And then as a follow up with customers, all of us who work
with customers, whether you work for an organization
and have your internal customers
or external need to follow up, need to really get the pulse
of the customer, need to sense
and respond to changing needs
to the customer of the customer.
So I go there, I say, Hey, I'm in Europe.
Anyhow, uh, would love to come and check on you
and see how well you've taken on our recommendations
with this analysis of their portfolio, by the way, too.
So portfolio, uh, assessment, uh,
it was also about building one IT
system for that organization.
So a lot of collaboration across the organizations.
We had great recommendations, we presented things,
they paid the invoice, they seemed happy, et cetera.
And I said, oh, let's do a follow up.
It was like six months after the completion, uh,
they gave me the whole morning,
the executives were in the room.
They said, we're gonna have lunch. It was one
of the toughest meetings of my entire life.
It was a terrible meeting.
It was really, they were super unhappy.
The customer, uh, you know, you can summarize into
that bullet, the adapting to customer's needs.
We focus on the statement of work,
and I think in 2025, statement of work really need
to be thrown out of the window, in my opinion.
I mean, there are guiding back to guide, use them
as a guide, but really since we're truly, the customer is at
where their mindset is at,
what truly they wanna accomplish from having you there,
they, they have the capability.
They don't need you as a consultant
or another organization to come in and,
and just get a job done.
They want to create a change.
And what they truly said, we messed up,
is they wanted one thing done
outside all the statement work.
They wanted to really minimize the resistance
that they were having from critical change hold stakeholders
and executives in the organization towards
that one IT system and the, you know,
aligned portfolio capability that they were trying
to put in the organization.
And we did not do that. We didn't even touch it.
We didn't even bother asking the question along the journey
with them, if that's really a
developing need of the organization.
So we can stop the, the poll sharing.
But the reality is, if you look across those elements there
and the kind of a feature organization we want to create,
whether it's a PMO, whether you're part of it,
whether you're running a, a whole organization
or part of a massive global organization, doesn't matter.
It's really about high degree of sensitivity
and intentional interest in the changing demands
and not assuming, I mean, we learned that lesson day one
and involvement in project and portfolio management is
assumptions are fatal.
And we got to make sure we have the ability
to really adapt to that change.
Alright, lemme, this is, yeah,
And this is, and this is, uh, you know, so those of you
who know me well know that I I, this, this is one
of my favorite topics, right?
Yeah. It's, it's all about, it's,
it's not about the duck, right?
Projects, methodologies and all that stuff. Yeah.
The statement work. They're the ducks. Silly ducks, right?
Nobody cares if you've got a boy duck or a girl duck.
We don't care what methodology you use,
we don't care about any of that stuff as a business.
All we care about is the egg. Yeah.
The value of the project.
And, and I think what Al was saying there is
that they forgot what the egg was.
Yeah. And they delivered a brilliant duck,
but nobody wanted a duck.
They just wanted the egg. So, absolutely. Absolutely.
And by and by the way, so again, those of you are regulars.
Um, it was my birthday recently,
and my team bought me for me, this, it says, warning,
I may start talking about ducks at any time.
Hey, and, and, and the reason I
love that example for this too.
So I've, I've heard about it once
and then source to an action in the PMI summit
in LA recently also.
Uh, you know, and he, he does a brilliant job with that.
And the beauty of it is,
and the message you should take from
that is simplicity matters.
Just like I said, language matters. Simplicity matters.
The only way we're gonna connect,
just like this example here.
So in the book, and I even had to ask John Wiley
before I, I go there, I said, Hey, Wiley guys,
can I really use, um, examples of, uh, movies in the book
to illustrate this experience during culture?
They said, go to town, right?
So I had several, some
of you maybe even know the movie Tommy Boy.
Tommy Boy is one
of those hilarious movies I watched maybe five,
six times, et cetera.
And it's later in the book as well, someplace.
But earlier in the book, I started with this one.
So this is Denzel Washington, right?
This is, remember the Titan.
Some of you who are into movies
or follow some of these movies probably know that.
And, and by the way, football movies, whether this
or Jerry Maguire
and others, they all are full of really
powerful stories in terms of what it takes to create change,
change, mindset, attitudes, uh, you know,
strategic moves, et cetera.
I love Denzel though,
and his ability there as Coach Boone to, uh, to,
to create a massive shift in, in that Virginia school.
It's a true story, Virginia, to American football, uh, kind
of a school complete disaster in a time
where there's no integration, white and black
and all kinds of trouble troubles.
No trust, no common community,
no belief in the extended community of stakeholders.
He nailed all of that. So if, if I can think
of an experience driven culture,
he experimented like there is no tomorrow and the camps
and getting people uncomfortable.
I love the uncomfortable component, by the way.
That's why I said, please challenge us.
Also, as we get into more dialogue here in a mo in few
moments, this is really challenge us.
Because at the end of the day, uh,
if I don't create those uncomfortable moments,
there's no growth, there's no learning, there's no ability
to build that kind of a culture I'm pursuing here.
And, and the, and the research and this work.
And, and really in, in my, my journey and career.
I mean, if I have one thing left,
what do I want to change in my career?
I wanna change the mindset of executives so they understand
that portfolio, program,
project management principles are really critical to driving
how we execute our work, our strategy, links
to operations, you name it.
And Denzel Washington nails it.
He had the, the style, the stamina, the resilience, the,
the ability to experiment and test
and create competition within the teams,
and ultimately create the motivation necessary
for that change to happen.
So you haven't seen the movie, checked the movie, uh,
but really it's about,
just like Stu mentioned, where is the value?
The value is not just the results in winning a football team
and changing that around the value is really
energizing community.
The value is having a new form of respect, a new brand
for the org, for the, for the city, the town, the school.
The value is, is, you know, it's one
of those hardest things we have in projects and portfolios.
And that's why a portfolio management muscle,
when it's done right, this whole idea of trade-offs
and where we put our investment and resources
and how quickly we shift, how quickly we enable AI
and themes and analytics
and so forth to get us back into what matters the most.
That's where the future is. This is, there's no time.
Time is not our friend.
Time is absolutely not our friend when it comes to the kind
of shifts we need to have organization towards value.
Because just like the example I mentioned to you in
that European organization, I missed the ball.
My very first example
of A-P-M-O-I should have known better back to Indianapolis.
That's why I took few moments in Indianapolis.
That's where I learned the hard way.
It was the most disastrous PMO
I've ever ran in my entire life.
It was the first PMO
and the worst PMOI was asked to head a PMO,
put processes in place, et cetera.
And by the way, at the end of the day, it was a disaster.
Why no excuses.
I should have known better to not just follow a boss,
not just because I'm still new
and I just follow whatever was was sold to me.
The guy was a VP came from Procter and Gamble top notch.
He knew exactly what he wanted to do,
but what we did not do, we never asked a question about
what truly value might mean to
that manufacturing organization
and the paper industry that really needed, uh,
a very different model for what the PMO can do
for them than just, you know, processes and templates and,
and ways of running meeting and so on.
Yep. So you,
You wanna, you got it. So, so
I'm gonna jump in just for a second, Al before you,
before you move on to the, the, the framework.
Yeah. So, um, so, so this is such an important message, uh,
about value, uh, that, uh,
but, uh, actually Kevin asked a question in the q
and a, which, which boils down to, okay,
this all sounds wonderful, right?
Yeah. We all get it. But
how on earth do you get this C-suite to buy in?
Yeah. And so, uh, Lenora, if you're still with us,
if you could drop into the chat the link
to our case for change.
Yeah. So we've, we've actually created a mini workshop thing
that we do with people for free,
because this is such a common question where we will go
through how to start having that conversation
with the C-suite and help you
actually identify some of their pain.
'cause it has to be solving their pain. That's the egg.
Yeah. Right? It's, it's their pain. It's not your pain.
It's not, it's not your certification
and feeling good about, well, we,
we followed all the process.
You know, that's, that really doesn't matter at all. Yeah.
That's, that's the duck, right?
The thing that matters to the leadership team is the eggs.
So you've gotta go and talk to them about eggs
and you've gotta help 'em understand how, um,
your situation today is damaging the eggs.
And yeah. And if you want to get more eggs,
if you wanna get bigger eggs, more eggs,
break fewer eggs, right?
If you wanna do that, something's gotta change.
And so we, so we've put together a little framework
that we can walk you through, um, to,
to do that case for change.
So I, I encourage anybody who's wrestling with this
to click on the link that Lenora's just put in the chat,
thank you, Lenora, and book a session with us.
It'll probably be either me or Dan that would take it.
And we'll, we'll walk you through,
we'll do a lot of listening.
Uh, we've got little checklists that we can run through
that, you know, us e every organization is different.
Uh, I think it was, it was Churchill who said
that history doesn't repeat itself,
but it does rhyme, right?
Yeah. And it's, it's the same thing
with company challenges, right?
There, there are no two that are exactly
the same, but they do rhyme.
So we've got some nice little templates that'll,
that'll help you get off to a flying start.
So go book that meeting, do it now before you forget, right?
Go book that meeting and uh,
we'll, we'll help you with that.
Hopefully, Kevin, that helps
ties in with what Al was saying.
I'm gonna keep quiet again 'cause I know
that we're only about 5% the way through the slides,
Al No, no, absolutely.
And, and you know, again,
we don't wanna really focus on the slides so much,
and we may, so what I might like
to do is maybe have two more polls at some point,
but I really wanna have more
and exchange with you on a couple of key points
and also, uh, listen to and have more questions.
So, Kevin, first of all, thanks for your question.
Uh, it's the mission of the journey,
and yes, we all have that belief that we need
to change the mindset of the executives,
and yes, do take on, uh, Steve's recommendation
and have time with him and the team, et cetera.
That's all important.
Now, the, there are, in my opinion, you know,
and Ashok, thank you, by the way, for the points about value
that he put in the chat, they're excellent.
Um, the reality though, uh, what I look for change,
the people change for two reasons.
They change because they want to
and really are inspired to change, or they have to.
Yeah. One of the reasons I joined Siemen, it was very clear
that they were under pressure, for example,
from the mothership, right?
From the larger organization, to really prove
that they have a, a, a wave governing that's structured
that the Germans can believe in, right?
That has, uh, a master plan, which is really a way
of running the portfolio of initiatives, et cetera, right?
So they were, they were the second group
because they had to, yeah, the, the, the terrible aspect
of you have to, it's either a, it's coming too late, like,
uh, an alarm musk talking about the US with being bankrupt,
or it is, uh, basically, uh, you know, it's not gonna stick.
The stickiness is very important when it comes to executives
who really, uh, believing in this and applying it.
So I'm a much bigger fan of the first one.
Now, by the way, for the second one,
you can do it in multiple number of ways.
You have to, I've seen Kirzner, Kirzner is no joke.
Ner actually used to get the executives on the biggest,
largest organizations on the planet, especially, you know,
the big threes in the US
and the automotive industry, et cetera.
And, and literally take them hostage in the room
for six hours and say, you're not actually going
to go home today until you commit to leading as such,
or doing as such, or understanding X, Y, Z, et cetera.
I mean, I, you know, that's one way of doing it, you know,
just getting up back basically and smack on the head.
If you have the ability to do that as a,
as a person within an organization
or an external consultant.
However, a lack more than inspirational, one,
an inspiration has to do with finding ways
by which they own it as a, as a great salesperson.
That's, as we know, it's about your ability to have
them believing that it is their idea
and their views, finding ways.
Remember when we talk about ownership
and those elements, we start,
we discussed earlier when Stu stopped me, at the end
of the day, you want them to own that view of the future,
this experience driven culture.
And really what it matters, uh, for
or effects is, is owning a future vision
for the organization that's different.
You know, you saw Ashok, Ashok really broke that down into,
you know, examples of what's below that.
But I'm talking about a North Star and Enoch, for example.
What I did is luckily I, the CEO hunted me
and he wanted to really change the culture
of the organization to be a projectized organization.
So he knew PMI, he knew the standards,
he knew what he wanted.
So the North Star was to build the muscle of project,
program portfolio management, run the entire portfolio in,
in a projectized way.
And oh, by the way, dealing with the most
randomly political crazy kingdoms in that organization
that I had to find a way to break through.
And oh, by the way, we have a, a board of directors
that have no idea how to govern, right?
And just really entertains only listening
to presentations and so forth.
You gotta change that as well. Yeah.
How do you do that? And, and yeah. And
Shan, uh, just asked, uh, yeah,
please include about construction as well, right?
Yeah. So, so if you're building a building
Yeah, it's No different.
You're building it for a reason. Yeah. You gonna get value.
There are things that value might just be economic. Yeah.
But it's probably also social. Yeah.
It's probably aesthetic. Yeah.
There's probably a bit
of environmental value in there, right?
Absolutely. Quality of life, connecting a community,
having a very different safe kind of a place for kids.
You know, there's a lot of ways
by which it's much more than just the bricks and mortars
or the actual, uh, out outcome that, that so degrades a
Great point. And the funny thing
about value is it, it's very,
it it depends on which stakeholder group you're speaking to.
Yeah. You talk to the executives, it tends to be about
return on investment and strategic impact, right?
Tho those two Yeah. Very roughly, very crudely, right? Yeah.
But if you talk to, um, so that building example,
if you talk to people in the local
community, it might be about jobs.
Yeah. Or it might be about cleaning up a patch of land
that has become a hangout for drug dealers.
Yeah. Or it might be about something else, right?
So the, the value, understanding what the value is
and making sure that you focus on delivering that,
that value, that egg,
Yeah. That's
key to project success, portfolio success,
and frankly to business success.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
So what, what I want to do is really, so Kevin,
the answering that question is the multi-billion dollar
question when it comes through the organizations, right?
So it's really something that we're all, uh, you know, have
to tackle, but it's also gotta be tackled with a lot
of energy for many of us who, who believe this.
And but also find ways
by which there's a mass massive sharing of those stories
of success on when it happens.
So the e example, that was a turnaround
that I truly enjoyed tremendously
because I can see it in the change
behaviors of execs and others.
All of us have the opportunity to create that.
And the more we create, that is my point.
The higher the likelihood we are going to have the,
it is almost requires momentum built
and continuously acted upon.
It's like a, a revolution.
And it's, it's to, for, for example, Obama years back,
he tried, he, he had this, um, you know,
program management bill for example, that really was
to force the entire US government to operate in this kind
of a projectized program, fashion,
et cetera, did some change.
But there, the continuity,
continuity is what matters the most.
Finding ways for that to continue, it's gonna have
to be like a true commitment.
And you saw Pmmi, for example, the recent guide
and the linkages between A PMO and the rest of the world.
We gotta shift the language,
Kevin and others around the room.
We cannot speak the same language to executives.
They care less about everything in the middle.
They care about those kinds of elements
that are really ultimately about the specifics
of the industry and the growth in that industry, right?
So that's really critical.
My big to go to when it comes to those cultures
and changing the mindset
of executives is this simple picture right here.
The idea of almost always being able
to get onto the balcony rather than being on the dance
floor is super important.
Without that ability to see holistically
what it's gonna take to drive change differently
and drive the view of the organization for how PMOs run
and their impact and what value means, we're not gonna win
that game because ultimately I believe in those three have
to be connected, the head, the heart, and the hand.
There's not a time I speak about project
and program management without that linkage,
because, you know, without it, you, this whole idea
of linking to value is not gonna happen
because it's not just the numbers and the growth
and the ROI, it's really why do I really care the most?
It's finding that fire, you know, pulling
and find, you know, finding fire.
I think it becomes very important.
I'm not gonna do this poll,
but I wanna show you what happened in this poll,
because that's important, right?
So what do peel more leaders focus on to drive change?
If you think about it, do we cannot do
this unless we have this?
So Kevin, back to your point
and others around the room, we gotta be courageous.
This transparency and this safety stuff we've been talking
about for years, we have not even scratched the surface in
getting to a place where we are truly able
to have a development of that courageous muscle,
because we gotta be vulnerable.
We gotta find an appetite for risk
that's very different than what we have.
And ultimately, we got to own the ways by which executives
and other think in terms of what does it take
to award change and value differently
than it has been today.
That's very important because, you know,
if you think about those blocks
that I have here in the work, this idea
of continuously refining the focus so
that the focus is taking us to something that matters.
And this muscle of learning combined with adapting day in,
day out, this is what's truly needed
for us in these cultures of the future.
And ultimately, we'll, we'll have a way to impact
that mindset of the executives.
So just before you jump into human to human
'cause that's good topic.
Um, so, so Kevin May makes an interesting comment about
PMOs, uh, and,
and PM often creating a negative reaction
with the executive leaders, right?
Yeah. So, you know, bureaucracy,
administration, all that kind of good stuff.
Yeah. And so what, what are your thoughts on that?
You know, sh should we just, uh, I mean,
if you're creating a change, if you, if you're saying,
you know, so you do the case for change
that we talked about, go,
if you haven't done it, go book one now.
But if you're doing, if
you're doing that case for change, right?
You're going and you're saying, Hey, leadership team,
we wanna, we wanna fundamentally change the way this thing
works and we wanna make sure we're delivering more value.
Yeah. Is it worth saying
that value thing is no longer a PMO,
it's a value delivery office or a strategy delivery office.
What are your thoughts on that?
Yeah, Stu, this awesome question.
We all debated that many times.
Um, uh, I'm not a big fan
of really focusing on the title or the name change.
Matter of fact, if it was up to me right now,
and I've talked to Pierre about that before,
and, uh, if it was me deciding on
that profession, for example, Pierre
Pierre's, the CEO of the PMI, for those who've done that
Exactly. And so
I would almost like dismantle the title pm, right?
Project manager is really the wrong title for
that person in this day and age.
Uh, and, um, you know, I'm coming from a PMI fellow.
It's pretty, pretty crazy strange, right?
But the reality is that's what's needed.
We need to be very much open to
massive disruptions to what we are comfortable with, right?
So, uh, you know, valued value, office strategy,
office strategy, execution, office,
da da, it doesn't matter.
I need a fitting entity that is clear on its mission,
clear on the kind of change that needs to happen.
Has the muscle of being very intentional
and driving, you know,
transformational change in the organization.
Highly authorized by, authorized
by the executive and or the board.
I still believe the right place
for A PMO is directly into the executive team.
It cannot be like hidden and buried somewhere.
It cannot be not looking at portfolios.
It cannot be looking at just, I mean, it bo you know,
completely like a couple a not a couple years ago last year,
I was on a panel in Berlin
and it was talking about, oh,
our PMO has beautiful role in driving templates
and capabilities and forget that it's, it's, it's, it's,
it's almost like a must do.
But the reality is PMOs are
change entities in the organization.
They are the one, the, the, you know, between the Carter
and I and Antonio and Stu
and others, we all believe that running the business
and change the business are two animals.
PMOs are not there to just focus on running the business.
They are there to change the business.
60% of their time needs to be in changing the business,
finding ways by which we operate differently.
We learn continuously,
remember the description of learning engines.
So back to your points to, I would love
to call them the learning engines of,
of the future organization, period.
And learning means execution,
but also means capability means growth, means change,
means adapting, means, uh, you know,
artificial intelligence means all the elements
that come together in an entity
that is the heart of the business.
The PMOs of the future are the heart of the business
and the what, the value driven heart of the business.
Yeah. They are courageous entities that force us
to almost always, you know, turn every stone
and make sure that we are focusing on what matters.
And that is a very tough business.
That is not business as usual, nothing in the PMO
and the future of business as usual.
I can completely, completely dismantle that
and let it, you know, be embedded in the organization
or utilize AI and other things
to do all the mechanical tactical stuff.
We don't need tactical when it comes to future PMOs.
Um, so, so, so I know you're gonna talk about Yeah,
the human, human, the only thing I wanna highlight is
this example right here.
Yeah. Because I love, I love this guy.
Do you wanna share your screen now? Sorry.
Yeah, yeah, I will, I will. I'm trying to find it.
Um, I thought I had it open.
Um, so basically I, you know, I love this, uh, analogy
of the, uh, the janitor, right?
So I'm a big fan of, uh, this top 1, 2, 2,
so many things open, I guess.
Uh, this is, are you seeing this? Yep. Yep. Okay.
But I need to expand this. I, I can barely see it.
It's going to this screen. Okay, lemme move this here.
There's too many screens running.
So basically, uh, we talked about this,
but I want to go all the way here to this slide
and I want to go to this guy right here, right?
Oops. Don't like this view at all.
This happens when you use so much technology here.
So anyhow, you slides show.
So basically the janitor story, right?
Again, many of us know that in the NASA
and the president, JFK, et cetera, I want the human
to human future is a highly em empathy,
empathy driven future, right?
So no matter what digitalization we go through,
this guy told the president of the US basically at the time
and part of the team that's, you know,
putting a man on the moon, right?
So, uh, that is the key
because ultimately the human to human is a highly driven,
trust centered future, and the trust currency
and this whole game playing and, and,
and time, as I mentioned earlier, is not our friend.
Clock speed is so important.
The future we are, uh, going ahead and being part of
and fortunate enough to experience, et cetera.
So finding different ways to build trust,
including trust in, in the data, trust, in the, um,
in the intellectual capital and how it's being utilized
and so forth, that needs to be our focus.
Because ultimately, if I look at this example here
of what's even, you know, helping the creation
and sustaining value in our organizations,
you saw the data show that the mind shift
that is necessary towards value together with the building
that learning organization are
amongst the most critical things PMOs
and change entities can do.
And that allows me to build the trust
and the focus on the human
and the utilization of digitalization, uh, in a way
that is, is valid.
Yeah, lots of data we have still in the, in the work here,
but I, what I want us to really go,
and I'm, I'm, you know, we can,
we're gonna share all of this with you, right?
So we're not gonna dedicate time to that.
But at the end of the day, the one message here, please,
what matters is what's in the yellow there.
All this fun stuff in your roadmap
or, you know, even articulating value in each
of your initiatives, because all
of the eyes here are initiatives.
That's all nice and good.
And knowing where you are
and being real about where you are now is all good.
But what matters the most?
What is, what is there and why does it matter?
So here, even this is okay,
but it's not fully, uh, the full value of the North Star.
I wanna have this harmonious, you know, PM practice,
da da dah, towards what extent, you know,
as we call it sometimes the so what.
So work on the yellow, change the yellow to a way
that's clearly inspiring and that change
and transformation journey,
that's what's gonna help us drive the experiencing, uh,
you know, elements of the culture
that we really need to have, right?
So lots of other pieces we're gonna share with you,
but bottom line, it's really two key points in our
discussion before we tackle some questions.
Culture and a human digital thread.
I love the word thread because that's
what I see the future is taking us, what is that fine thread
that connects our behaviors, practices, ways of leading,
inspiring, et cetera,
to the utilization of, of digital, right?
This whole end-to-end ecosystem between the two,
but really finding a way that the culture, eating strategy
for breakfast, you mentioned earlier,
is adopting continuously to the changes in the design
of that feature our organization.
Those are the two key messages that we wanna make sure
there's a continual ability to adapt
and change the culture, to focus on
what matters the most at any given point in time.
And with a futuristic line of sight, of course.
And then making sure that thread is truly managed and linked
and embedded in every aspect
of the portfolio that we have, right?
So we wanna go to questions
and please, you know, there's plenty
of changes for connection. Just, just
Jump jump back to that little
sunshine slide, if you would.
Yeah, absolutely. Uh,
Ash wasn't quite clear on, on the message here,
Right? Yeah. The message
is really, so we, we have
to plan in horizons, that's still,
even though I don't believe in strategic planning the way I
used to in the past, it's not about cycles.
I don't believe in six month and quarters and all that.
We have to do that only because we have to report to,
to the markets, and it has an impact on the
organization stock, et cetera.
But just have horizons that inspire.
So we, us, the way I usually think
of this is there are horizons, there are clarity
of the short term horizons.
That's usually more than the longer term horizons.
So you see more initiatives
or in the short term that are focused on value.
So the eyes, you don't drive it in terms
of deliverables or a name of project.
You drive it in terms of what is the value
that this initiative is gonna create, da, da da.
You think about elements here that can connect
to how organization works.
Collaboration, what is the service being delivered,
what are the supporting, enabling,
remember I talked about enabling processes
and systems in that culture, the people and capability.
Those are typical four that I try to pick.
Nail this, be honest about the now, where are you now?
Give yourself a score. Use maturity models,
use whatever is needed.
Use, you know, the recent PMO assessments
or whatever it is who you work with, but the yellow
and the sun and the horizon is what matters the most.
Try to nail this, you know,
And, and the text, the text in that sun right now,
that's just an example from an
Example, but even example is weak.
Even that's weeks too.
Because I wanted to illustrate the message, even though
that was motivating enough to drive the value
of those initiatives that I was running.
And this was part of the work I've done in EA for example.
So this was supported by actual initiatives over the horizon
that was committed to, uh, in the, in the transformation
that our organization, and it was towards that sun.
But even that sun is what I'm saying, needs
to even be nailed even more to focus on the so what
and be inspiring enough in the organization. Yeah.
And, and, and this is where some of the, uh, fra frankly,
where things like portfolio management done well can really
help and, and the prioritization piece in particular.
Absolutely. I I, sorry, go ahead.
I just wanna make sure, because we don't have time. I wanna
Go ahead. Go ahead.
Uh, okay. We seem to have lost you, Al I dunno whether
it's just me, is it just me?
Uh, is still speaking, but is his voice is gone. All right.
So I'm gonna fill in while Al figures out
what's going on, okay?
Okay. Now can you Hear him? Oh, he's
back again. He's back again. There he is.
That's ridiculous what's going on.
It must be the snow outside.
Let me share one more time, see if you can see this.
And while I talk as well.
So what I was saying is, can you still hear me okay?
Yes, we can. Alright, perfect.
So connect with me, of course.
Uh, you know, if you're into reading, check the books.
This is the recent book that just came out
that Stu was talking about.
And as one of, uh, takeaways of you attending today,
if you're welcome, if you're interested in,
in getting the book or anything,
check out all the books here by, by scanning this,
you know, connect on LinkedIn.
But today we're giving you, uh, Wiley just sent me this
as well for any of the attendees
or webinars and events like that.
So you're welcome to also use this code if you are
interested to, to get the recent book.
I haven't even seen it yet.
I know it's out, so they haven't sent me a copy yet.
Um, otherwise I would be holding it proudly
because it's really a topic that's sincerely, you know,
clear, you know, clearly, uh, dear to my heart.
And it's really important because we gotta elevate
and change the language
and the ways by which we tackle the culture.
There's hardly any time for us to go into a lot of it here,
but the case studies and the examples there hopefully can
help you with that as well.
So I'm excited to, to hear more about it, uh, and, and,
and hear your reviews, your comments.
I want to learn from you, but for now, I wanna dedicate,
I don't know how much time we can give still, stu
for questions and exchanges, um,
because I know we, we kind of had to, uh, run through some
of this, but, you know, there's, there's a ton there.
Of course, we can, we can address and talk about, you know,
Fabulous. So, so
we are more or less at the top of the hour.
Uh, Han what, what I would say is, um, uh, if you go
and use the link, uh, that Lenora dropped
and grab some time in, in my calendar, um, I, I will try
and maybe even loop al into that as well,
and we can dig into your, your, uh, immediate pain
and see, see if there's any way to help.
Um, uh, the one thing that I would also encourage Lenore,
if you, if you've got the other link, um, a lot
of the things that Al's talked about today, um, you know,
obviously Transparent Choice we're, we're a software company
and a lot of the things that Al talked about, you know, so
that that short, medium, long-term planning horizon
paradigm, for example, part of the reason that exists and,
and is embedded in traditional culture is
because that's all you could do.
It was too difficult to do the planning.
It was too difficult to create a roadmap
that was deliverable and you couldn't change it.
Right? And that's just not true.
So with Transparent Choice
and some of our ai I AI tools, you know,
you can update your roadmap in seconds.
Yeah. Right? And, and that's incredibly powerful.
So you, you create, you know, you can create
that really clear North Star,
and then you can create a map of how your pro projects
and programs support the North Star and contribute to it.
And then you can, you can lay out a roadmap, a resource,
you know, a, a, a high level capacity plan roadmap,
and you can, you can do that in a few seconds, right?
And that means that you can actually
drive change more quickly.
You can respond to things that go wrong.
You can, um, uh, adapt
and be lowercase agile in the way
that you're delivering this.
Yeah. Um, and that opens up all kinds of possibilities
that didn't exist before.
Um, and, and can really help create
and foster this, this culture, this transformation culture
and accountability and all of those kind of things.
So, um, that was really in the hope that some
of you would put some questions in.
Um, but I, you know, I,
I don't think there've been
any questions that have appeared.
Um, so I, I think from, from my point of view,
um, I I, I really just have one
big question, Al, which I'm gonna ask,
and this is the question it was asked earlier by Kevin.
Oh, Kevin, there's another question in there. Um, there
Are a couple here now. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Oh, okay. So the o the overlap the question's about the
intersection between OKRs, um,
and PPM and things like that.
Um, and so I tell you what, I'm,
I'm gonna take a little bit of a stab at that.
Um, al you probably have a different view,
so you should feel free to jump in.
Yeah. So OKRs, right?
For those of us who've got gray hair, right?
Uh, or indeed any hair, um, OKRs, we've,
we've seen this before, right?
You know, we, they, they were called, um,
uh, key business indicators.
We had balanced scorecard, we got KPIs.
They're all kind of similar sort of concept of, look,
you've got some goals, I'm gonna deconstruct the goals into
numbers that we can assign to people,
and they gotta deliver the numbers.
The problem with that framework is it doesn't tell you
anything at all about how to make decisions.
It just measures.
It sets a goal and measures whether you got there.
And what portfolio management does when you do it right,
is it gives you the framework
to actually drive the decisions.
And it gives you the, um, it, it, it,
it helps you navigate the cultural barriers
that sometimes exist to making decisions in order
to align your, your projects
and your people, um, to the business with a forecast that,
you know, at the beginning whether
or not you're likely to hit your OKRs, right?
But, but just having OKRs for, for example,
reducing carbon footprint and improving profit
and having those two OKRs doesn't tell you how to trade off
and how to make a decision on how to allocate resources
between those two OKRs.
So the KR framework is complimentary
to portfolio management, but it is not a replacement.
And lots of people talk about it as if it's a replacement.
It's really not. They are entirely complimentary
ideas and concepts.
Yeah. So I, I'm, I'm not gonna spend more time on
that question, and I, I am not gonna disagree much with, uh,
what Stu talked about.
I think, uh, he, he's raising some very good reservations.
I would say just one last comment on that.
OKRs can only be meaningful within the context of portfolio,
like he said, but also they need to be, uh, written and,
and, uh, shaped very differently than
most organizations do them.
So the quality of OKRs can go a long way.
Objectives and key results is really important link
to strategy and done with a strong portfolio muscle
and with potentially tools, uh, you know,
that are really sensing the changes face,
as Stu talked about would be fantastic.
Ashok, your question is also great.
Um, I would say there are common themes across all cultures
that if you know, you know what good looks like, right?
So yes, maybe the construction guys say, oh, it's our way
to do it this way, or the that dah dah, right?
So they all have different ways,
but at the end of the day, what good looks
like is very similar.
It's value based, it's experimenting, it's uh, it's safe,
it has inspiring leadership, it has clarity of North Star.
I mean, all those fundamentals, those have
to be across the board.
I love the one about the, uh, you know, the golden nuggets
for exec, you know, strange sessions coming soon.
So wants Stu to comment on that.
But ultimately, your,
your point about prioritization there, it's super important.
However, and I would imagine that's what's unique about
what Stu and his team has in terms
of the advances in the tool right now, that, uh,
the position for portfolio management prioritization is only
a small, tiny thing from a bigger value out of tools
and out of strategy, which is what I refer to
as strategic choices, right?
Elevating the dialogue to be much more focusing on
what are the strategic choices
and fork in the road organizations can take based on
where the data is taking us based on the, the realities
of the, the market, the business, the industry
and everything else that's coming all together in
that investment portfolio.
That's what matters the most.
Prioritization is something we have
to do anyhow at all our levels, PMs, leaders,
PMO heads, et cetera.
But it's where does, does that link
to key strategic choices organization can, can, uh,
be focusing on still we wanna add
to this important question.
Yeah, just super prac, practical, uh, answer to, uh,
it was anonymous post, I think that one.
Yeah. So, um, Lenora has just posted a link to, uh, a page
where you can go and book a demo for our software.
If you go and do that, we can have a conversation one-on-one
about how to, how to address that.
Um, you know, the, the, you know,
everything I said was was spot on,
but the, you know, fundamentally, um, uh, having a bit
of a framework in place that that's built.
So there's a lot of research
and decision science research into how, how to do it, right?
Yeah. And the, the doing it right bit is important
because that's what give, delivers buy-in.
Mm-hmm. So we talked earlier about
how different stakeholders have different value.
Value is subjective actually. Yeah.
And so, uh, so if you don't have a good framework
for prioritizing, what you end up
with is different stakeholders will have different view of
what is valuable, and then they'll start fighting
for the projects that meet their worldview of what value is.
Um, and so, so you get into the, he shouts loudest
and the squeaky wheel syndrome and all these things.
And so, you know, a, a good prioritization framework will
fix that, and it'll allow you to overlay resources
and capabilities and all that kind of good stuff
to understand what, um, what's achievable
and help the business understand what's achievable so
that you, and then this is so important,
so you don't overload your resources so you don't overcommit
and as soon as you overcommit,
do you know, do you know Mike Hannon?
You know Mike Hannon? Yes. Yeah. Okay, great.
So I was talking to Mike earlier today.
So Mike Hannon, for those of you who don't know, is one
of the world's premier experts on theory constraints,
critical chain in project management,
basically making projects go faster.
And, um, you know, he, he was laughing, he was telling me,
uh, about, you know, when he goes into customers,
the very first thing he tells 'em
to do is just stop half your projects.
If you do that, things will get better, right?
Just stop half your projects.
Don't care which half, just stop half of them, right?
And things will get better. So prioritization lets you be,
you know, good prioritization lets you No,
Absolutely. But it's sometimes
More sophisticated.
It's a great point, but sometimes Mike's point is
easier said than done, right?
But it does require the point we talked about earlier,
being courageous, uh, showing that you care.
This human to human point we were briefly talking about is
really about ultimately making sure others can empathize
with the decision you're trying
to recommend to the organization.
So data is great, but also you're dealing
with humans at the end of the day.
So it does require a lot of our talent
and capability in terms of getting that negotiation done.
Uh, so yeah, I mean, great comments in the chat.
Um, uh, you know, I'm loving, you know,
to catch up on some of those.
And, uh, and yes, like many of you also even that, uh,
you know, you know, roadmap of change in a way, if we want
to call that sun, uh, example, it's really, uh, you know,
goes to the mechanics of rolling wave planning in a way,
some of the agility practices that we all have
to practice anyhow, right?
So it's not rocket science,
it's about finding the most simplistic fitting way
by which you can drive the message
of why are we creating the change we
want to create in the organization?
And, you know, going as takeaways
and next steps, if you don't follow some
of the Simon Sinek videos and the Bnes Brown of the world
and so on, even though they're not in the PM space
as well, check that out as well.
But also at the end of the day,
and I'm gonna put also some of the papers here in the chat,
um, you know, because, you know, those are easier for you
to grab and we'll connect you two, uh, together with what's
to offered there in terms of, you know,
scheduling time with him and the team.
But, you know, have a look at some of the, uh,
the continuous publications.
I learned a lot by pushing myself to really think about,
okay, so what's really happening?
And some of the papers there are about the creation
of that culture as well.
And these are open and free, free for you to check out and,
and so on to help you drive the kind
of questions you wanna ask, uh, Stu
and the team further also as you go forward.
Yeah. Awesome.
It's been really great to seeing the energy, Stu.
Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure.
Well, that, it is been fantastic as ever,
uh, talking with you, Al.
Good luck digging out from the snow.
I don't wanna get out and try. I I am so tired of it.
No, we'll just, we'll just, just keep you talking
until you, until your wife finishes.
I, excellent.
Well, so, uh, so thank you to everybody for, for coming
and joining, and thank you all for participating.
Your participation really makes these events work.
Um, hearing a couple of old guys banging on, that's okay,
but being able to react to the things that you're reacting
to really helps us bring it to life
and makes it more interesting for us.
So thank you very, very much for your participation.
Um, uh, please check out our website in a couple of weeks.
We will be doing a demo webinar of our software,
and then in a month's time,
we will be having Mike Hannon talking about how to
massively increase the flow of projects.
And I'm talking doubling tripling,
and I've, I've even seen him quadruple the flow
of projects from the same resources.
Um, and he's gonna talk a little bit about the magic fairy
dust that he uses to make that happen.
So, uh, so do join us. Do join us next month.
Uh, watch out for the invitation,
and, uh, we'll see you all there.
Don't forget to book your PA Case for Change Workshop.
Um, uh, and in the case of anonymous, don't forget
to book the, the demo so we can help figure out, you know,
how to get that prioritization process working for you.
Thank you everybody.