America.
It was, you know, founder, president,
and, uh, like I said, all round demigod, that,
that made the PMO Global Alliance happen, uh, you know,
was the driver behind the, the, the, the Global awards
and all of this kind of good stuff.
And, and it really is a, the,
the PMO GA is just a fantastic community.
If, if you're not in the PMO, ga,
go check it out and join up.
Um, but it's a fabulous community of PMO leaders
and PMO practitioners around the world.
Yeah. And, um, part of,
and really the driver for today is that through
that community, uh,
the PMI has just released a, a, a new report.
Uh, that's all about how to,
how do you bridge the gap, right?
It seems like everyone that cares about PMOs
right now, and anyone that cares about strategy
and strategy execution is talking about the gap, right?
The strategy to execution gap.
So, so the, the, the latest report was about
how do you bridge that gap, right?
How, what are the things that the executives care about?
What are the things that PMOs are delivering,
or what the PMOs are focused on?
Um, what are the, what are the mismatches?
So I'm hoping that today we're going to be able to dig into
some of the, some of the myths, some of the insights,
uh, from the report.
And, uh, and then in particular,
dig a little bit into the, so what, right.
What do we do with that?
Well, first of all, thank you very much, Stuart,
for the opportunity to be here again with you.
It's always a great pleasure.
Thank you for all of you that are connecting with us today.
So, uh, this, this, this report, by the way, I,
I've just posted, uh, a link
where you can find more information about
that if you didn't have a chance.
This, this report is, is really interesting.
It's something that we, I, I designed together
with top leadership area at PMI, uh,
last year in the, in the beginning of last year.
Because I, I, I wanted to, to find some,
some data that could really show us
how aligned PMO professionals are in terms
of understanding expectations, you know, of,
of our most important customer, the, the executives.
Uh, and I had my feeling right, uh, based on,
on all this work that we've,
we've been developing the last years.
But the data showed us something very interesting, you know,
uh, uh, with deep, uh, information
and also some insights that I could imagine.
But basically, it, it showed exactly what I, I,
I imagined that that could, could be, uh, uh, the,
the reality of many PMOs, that is the fact that in many
companies, what PMO leaders are trying to do is not exactly
what the executives are expecting them to do.
You know? So, uh, and, and,
and we say, we, we see many PMO leaders saying, we need
to be more strategic, blah, blah, blah.
But many of them, it's only words
in the wind, you know?
So it, it doesn't happen in the reality.
And there are many reasons for that.
I know sometimes it's not because they don't want that, but,
but anyway, uh, there is still a big distance between
what PMOs are doing today
and what our executives really value, you know, uh, and,
and expect that these PMOs could become real
partners, strategic partners.
So, uh, this report brought us, uh, now I believe a lot
of information that can make us think
or rethink about ourselves, you know, what we are doing,
what we are prioritizing, what really matters, you know,
for, for those that we are serving to,
I think this is the big point.
And, and just in terms of methodology, sometimes you hear,
um, you know, you'll, you'll see vendors will often do this,
and as a, as a software vendor, right?
I, I know, 'cause I've been in, I've been part
of organizations that have done it where a vendor will, um,
go out, commission, commission some research, right?
But actually what they're trying
to do is prove their point of view.
And so they will, so they will skew the customers
and it'll be, you know, they'll have asked 30 customers
who they, or 30 people who they, you know,
they know them all and they know what they're gonna say in
advance and all this kind of stuff.
That's not what happened here with the PMI research.
You guys have got a pretty robust
research, research team, right?
And you, you went out thousands of PMOs.
Yeah. This is, this is something that surprised me when I,
when I started at BMI
and start to talk with people from total leadership.
It's really surprised me
because I imagine that things were a little different, uh,
exactly because of what you said.
But it's not like that. Actually, most of all this research
that you see is, is developed by, by third parties,
you know, uh, with expertise on that.
And most of them,
people not even know that is PMI
that is surveying them, right?
So it really surprises me, you know?
And, but it makes sense because it creates kind
of bias, you know?
So if, oh, I'm PMII am asking you about this,
it's very, very possible that you will, will answer,
you know, uh, uh, in a way that will make PMI happy,
you know, maybe, I dunno, right?
Because you, you want to feel aligned with, you know,
with the voice of the future of PMI.
So it makes sense. So when, when the, the, the,
our colleague responsible, uh, uh, for that area told me,
uh, these details, you know, I said, wow, it's really cool,
you know, because actually, uh, things, uh, we, what,
what we we do is, I, I told them what I want
to know, right?
Not, not in terms of of the answer that I want,
but what I want to know more, you know, about that, how is
that specific behavior?
And they start to design everything, you know, and,
and hire companies.
So that's why this big research that you'll see
that are releases from time to time, they take some time,
you know, usually it's a big one each semester, you know?
And why, because they are very expensive. You know?
I imagine that you should be simpler, you know, like, like,
uh, academic research, you know,
that sometimes we are trying to do for our PhD.
No, no, no. It's, it's really complex
and very expensive to do that.
But on the other side, we have something pretty reliable,
you know, so it's something cool. Yeah.
Excellent. So, so
before we jump into the first question, which we,
or the first learning from the research, lemme just share,
lemme just share my screen, um, for a quick second.
So if you're wondering what research we're talking about,
it's this research here.
And if I press, hopefully if I press
enter now, there you go.
There's the link to the research. Yeah.
Um, so, uh, so you can get a copy of this for free,
I think Americo, even if you're not a PMI member,
Uh, actually, uh, you need
To, or is a PMI members only,
But you can, you can have a free account, right?
We need to be a user, actually, right?
So if you are a user at a website, you can download it.
You don't need to to be a, a, a a, a full
Member. Okay? So
this is the report that we're looking at.
So quickly, very quickly to the audience now, uh,
if you could jump into chat
and, uh, uh, give us a quick yes.
If you have downloaded and had a look at this report.
I'm interested to see if anybody's actually opened it up.
Yeah, yeah. In the article that I shared with you, uh,
in the chat, actually, uh, it's,
it's more an analysis about the report.
So you see some graphs, you know, from the report, but,
but it's not the report by itself.
You'll find the, the link to the report there.
Okay, cool. So we've got a few, we've got a few yeses,
so, so that's great.
Not everybody's seen it. So if you've read it,
you're not allowed to answer the next question.
So here's the, here's the first question.
What do you think senior executives says?
So, and, and America, I love
what the phrase you used earlier, right?
The most important customer
of the PMO is the senior leadership team.
It's not the only customer, but it's the most important
Customer. Exactly. Exactly.
Yeah.
And, and it brings some impacts, you know, so the, the,
the first point is why should we focus
a lot on, on the executive level, right?
First of all, because they pay the bill, right?
So it's something important, right?
Uh, and, and also
because in a certain way, what you can do for them
can generate maybe the most impactful outcomes
for the organization, right?
So there is nothing, there is no problem.
It's not, it's not a wrong to generate
operational value or tactical value.
There are many PMOs
that they are doing a fantastic job managing resources,
supporting project planning.
All of those things are very tactical and operational,
and it's okay, but they, uh, they make much more sense
for other groups of customers.
You know, project managers,
maybe project team members, functional managers.
All of them are important.
But if you understand that all of them, they have, they,
they, they have their all value chain, you know,
and all this chains, they will converge to
how the PMO is perceived by the organization.
Each of them will have a different weight.
I could say, you know, and, and,
and what is the PMO value for an organization?
It's the balance of how all of them
perceive the value of what you are doing,
but weighted by the relevance of each one.
You know? So if, if the project me members love you,
but the executives hate you, you have a problem, right?
Even if we have more team members,
then executive, that's the idea, right?
And the way I think of it, Americo is, right, if,
if you think of the PMO as a business,
Right? Exactly. Yeah.
You have, you have a customer,
Yeah. Key accounts,
I could say.
Who's paying the bill, right?
The customer's paying the customer, yeah.
Is paying the bill. But you also have a supply chain, right?
And the supply chain.
So those are the people in this case
who are delivering the project, supplying the IT resources,
providing, uh, financial data and so on, right?
So they're all stakeholders.
And, um, so, so, uh,
but they're more, a lot of them are, they are customers in
that they want things from you,
but they're almost supply side customers, right?
They're, they're providing to you.
But the one that's paying the bill, that's the executive.
And that's why we care at the end of the day. Yeah. Yeah.
And, and, and the executives have a, you know,
it's their job to deliver
the business results of the business.
Okay. Exactly. And the PMO is there to support them.
So, into the chat very quickly, um, uh,
if you would, so if you've already read the report
or seen America's Post,
you're disqualified, you're not allowed to answer.
But if you haven't, what do you think is the most important
thing, the thing that the ex the executives,
the most important customer of the PMO?
What is the, the thing that is most important to them?
Have a quick guess. ROI straight in there
and we'll come, we'll come to our shocks
question on ROI in a moment.
We've got lots of ROI, we've got value outcomes.
I like the way you guys are thinking. Yeah, I love it.
Love it. Value and transparency.
Uh, we want business results, benefits, okay,
I really like this 'cause these are all the outcomes of
what we're doing, but I'm, I'm interested in what,
what do you think, which service,
if you like, what capability?
That's the word you use, right?
America in the, the report. Yeah.
Yeah. What, what
Capability do you think executives find
would, uh, think of this
Question? Yeah, that's a, a very
interesting question
because, uh, one thing that we realized when we were working
with hundreds of PMOs developing the, the PMI PMO XI guide,
one thing that was really clear is that value is a very
broad concept, you know, so value as,
as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, you will read
that on the G, right?
And, and, and so for some people, value will be,
money will be the ROI, for some people, maybe not.
So what I'm saying is, what make people
perceive the PMO as a partner, a a group of people
or a leader that they can trust?
Can be, can, can go beyond the numbers.
That's the point. You know?
So in a, in a certain way, I think what we could say that,
that can cover all these possibilities is we are here
to make you successful.
You, my, my customer, the, the executive.
And, and being successful means, okay, I need to,
to meet the strategic objectives.
Maybe strategic objectives can be ROI, maybe not,
depending on where you are, if you are working for A NGO,
or if you are working, you know, maybe it's different.
Uh, so there are many different possibilities,
and we need to understand the context where we are
to establish what is really important for
that specific customer.
I, I have an, a very interesting example.
A few weeks ago, I was in a conversation with, with a a
a C-level, uh, guy.
And, and he, he, he told me that for him, one of the things
that make him love the PMO is the fact that
before the PMO actually, uh, in many, many, uh,
executive meetings, he was,
he was in, in, uh, very shameful situations
because he, he, he, he told to his, uh,
peers numbers,
and a few times later, she, uh, he had to step back,
you know, because they, they, they, they,
they weren't reliable.
And for him it was very uncomfortable.
So, look, it's not about ROI,
it's not about strategic goals.
It's about how he feel, you know, when he is just doing
his work, you know, and we are helping that.
How can we measure this? What is the, the magical number?
It's not a number, it's much more a feeling,
but it is important because this way,
that guy feel more successful.
You know, so, so
This is, yeah. So a different
Approach, I think, you know,
So I like to think of it as, as the head, the heart,
and the heartbreak, right?
So the head and the heart and the heartbreak,
the head is the financial ROI and the, the hard
Of course. Yeah. Yeah.
Um, but, but not just financial, right?
The R in ROI, right?
Strict textbook, the r and ROI is the financial return.
But actually in the real world, it isn't the R-N-R-O-I is
whatever value you want to deliver to the organiz.
So it, I'm, I'm, I'm,
I'm deliberately not using the words I normally use.
'cause we're gonna come to it in a second.
Um, but the, the, the, the R-N-R-O-I
can mean different things, right?
So the head stuff is about the R maximizing the r
maximizing the return. Exactly.
Exactly. And if you think, if you are PMO leader,
think about your job.
You know, I'm sure that there are many things that you do
that enable your customers, the executives, maybe
to be more successful.
But you cannot say that, oh, it'll increase the ROI
of our projects in 10%.
You cannot say that, right? It's okay.
Because if you ask them, what do you think about us?
They will say, okay, I cannot live without you, you know,
not because of the numbers, but
because of, of this perception
that you are doing something valuable for me.
And that's the heart, right? That's the heart, yeah.
That I'm talking about right
Side of, of that, right?
Yeah. Yeah. So the heart is about delivering those things
that as an executive, help me feel good.
So, do I feel comfortable in the data?
Do I ha do I understand how we're making decisions?
Do I understand where all the resource, like
that stuff makes me feel good?
Does it deliver a direct ROI? No, no. Yeah, yeah.
But it makes me feel good. Like I can do my job, right?
And then the heartbreak is projects that go horribly,
horribly wrong, right?
So it's actually about eliminating the heartbreak, right?
How do I, how do I help you do that?
So, So, so I come back to the, the report for a second.
So in the report, right there was, was about, uh, what,
you know, which services or which,
which capabilities are most important.
And strategic alignment came out on top.
Absolutely. Right? So, so the thing
that the execs cared about most was strategic alignment.
Did, uh, from the, the, the research America,
how well aligned were PMOs with that?
Well, uh, we, we had some,
some specific topics, right?
So strategic alignment was one of them.
Uh, and, and we saw that actually,
if we take the two most important ones selected by,
by executives, then selected by VMO leaders, we see
that actually, uh,
sical alignment was the most important one,
definitely for executives.
Uh, but project management stuff
was the most important one.
Also with strategic alignment.
But they were almost equal, you know, uh, for PMO leaders.
So it means that, okay, we are also saying
that we are concerned about strategic alignment,
but we have a very big focus on how we are doing things,
you know, and all this stuff.
And as I said, one thing is what you say, one other thing is
what you do, right?
Uh, and, and when we look closer, you know
what people are really doing.
I dunno, maybe you share the same feeling,
but is that being, uh, aligned strategically?
For many people, it is much more a wish than something
that they are really able to do, you know,
because of many, many difficulties.
So what I understand,
and that's what we defend on the guide, that is anything
that you are trying to do as a PMO.
So the services that you are providing, the functions,
activities, everything should be based on a,
on a specific need, right?
And of course, in theory, all these executives,
they have this need, you know, they want strategic alignment
and all of those things that are, are related to that.
But the, the, the, the reality is that many of these
executives, they want that,
but they are not used to do that.
And when we come with all our stuff, you know,
our technical things, you know,
and they tell them, Hey, that's how you should work on this.
We have, again, the human side of this process coming up.
And we have some resistances, we have some,
everything is normal because it's a journey of development.
But, but the pro, the point is, what I'm trying to do
to say is it's not a technical problem.
We know what to do, right? We know what to do.
What can we say that is very new, about 40 photo management
or about benefit management?
We know what to do. The big deal,
the big challenge is dealing with people,
how we can convince or how we can better than convince.
Because convince looks something punctual,
it'll happen today.
You are convinced. But it's not about convincing people.
It's about changing people, changing their culture,
changing their way of see things, you know?
And, and it takes time.
Because if you try to harder, maybe what you will
here is who do you believe you are, you know,
that is coming here to tell me how I should work.
I know how to do that. I'm here for years.
How many of you already heard something like that? Right?
And that's exactly the point,
because we are believing that it's only a matter
of technical stuff.
If we present something really great
with excellence, it'll happen.
But it's not like that, you know? So that's
What I, so, so, so I've got a quick question
for the audience then, which is, if, if,
since strategic alignment is the most important thing
to executives, right?
And by the way, the best way to achieve strategic alignment,
I'm gonna wave the flag, is using a methodology called a HP
Analytic Hierarchy Process, uh,
which is available in our software, transparent choice.com.
Go check it out. It's marvelous.
But set the advert aside for a second.
Um, so jump into the chat, everyone,
and zero to 10, zero being what strategy,
and 10 being everything we do is very deliberately
and accurately aligned with our strategy.
Where would you say you are in your organization?
Zero being no alignment, 10 being perfectly aligned.
I'm really interested to see what kind of spread we get.
And we, I'm expecting it to be all over the place, right?
So we've got a few fives,
got a few fours, we've got an eight.
Wow, that's punchy. That's, that's brave. Okay, great.
Love that. Um, six.
Okay, fantastic.
What if, what about if we say
everything is perfectly aligned?
Yeah, I, I would,
There is something about that, Stuart, that I,
I heard about more than one people, uh, in our community
during our discussions in the last years.
Uh, because, uh, when they, they were trying to use, uh,
something like transferring choice, for example,
that is fantastic.
We, we are establishing, for example, criteria
for decision making, right?
And many people when see that, they say,
wow, it's fantastic.
Look, that software, you know, that platform,
we can now make decisions.
I'm talking about US PMO leaders, right?
And we say, okay, so again, excellence.
And we come to the executives with our list of
criteria, you know, that should be used
because that's how we should decide.
You know, that's how people decide about their portfolio.
And they look to that
and say, come on, who do you believe you are?
You know, I know how to make decisions.
And a big wall, you know, is created
between what you are trying to do.
And bam, one thing that I saw
that is interesting is, uh, some people told me
that they started mapping the way
that they make a decision today.
It, it's not about, if you agree with that, it's not about,
if it's aligned with the best practice, it's only about,
let me try to create a model with a software
that can replicate the way that they make a decision.
And over time, we will try to improve it.
We'll try to add something else, you know,
maybe change the criteria, try to make them see that, hmm,
this one maybe is, doesn't make too much sense, you know,
it's too much personal, blah, blah, blah.
But, but the first start point is,
let me translate the way that you decide.
Because if you give them a result
that is different from the way that they see, they will say,
sorry, it doesn't work. It makes sense,
Right? So, so that's,
that's really key, right?
So, so, um, the, there's a real paradox here, right?
So, so the, if you go to the executive team
and say, I know how to fix this, and I'm gonna go
and fix it, and I'm gonna give you a solution
that will fail, doesn't, it doesn't matter
what solution you come up with, it will fail.
'cause people, especially senior leaders, they don't,
they don't want things to be forced on them.
They wanna, they wanna have a bit of control,
and they wanna feel like they're exci
exercising their judgment.
And, and we were talking about this,
Rebecca Reynolds is on here.
Um, she was on last month's webinar, uh,
with Fred Casagrande and, um, uh, and Mike Cannon.
So this is one of the things we were talking about there.
So the, the, the, the point is, first of all, they have
to be willing to prioritize, right?
So, so they want strategic alignment,
but if they're not willing to then say no
to things, right?
Because just saying yes
to everything isn't strategic alignment, right?
That's, that's just not doing your job.
Absolutely. So, so, um,
so strategic alignment requires prioritization.
So you'd be amazed, this is, this is
where we spend all our time, right?
Um, so you'd be amazed how often executive teams say, well,
why do I need to prioritize?
Why do I need to do that? Well, you want it
to be strategically aligned, right?
You want to, you wanna achieve your business goals. Yeah.
And you understand, we don't have enough resources,
don't we really?
Oh, okay. Right.
Um, uh, so, okay, we don't have enough resources, so we have
to prioritize if we're gonna deliver.
So do you want us to prioritize randomly
throw dots at the dart board?
Or should we get serious and design a process together?
So, so the PMO should not be making prioritization
decisions at all, ever.
The business should be making the decisions,
but the PMO, as you said, America should be supporting
that process, making sure that the process is good,
process transparent.
There's buy-in. The, so the, the reason
that a HP comes out on top of the pile is
because it is both analytical, right?
So it, it actually gives you a measure
of strategic alignment.
Exactly. But it's also really powerful at building the
buy-in that you need to get there.
If, if you try just
to get alignment without buy-in, you're dead.
Absolutely. Absolutely. If
You have buy-in without alignment,
then you're gonna lose your buy-in really quickly,
because execs know it, right?
Yeah. So you need to do both anyway.
We could spend the next two hour, oh,
I could spend the next two hours on that,
but we're not going to, so there's a, so there was a,
there's a gap in the report that says,
your execs want strategic alignment,
and PMOs know it's important,
but they're not ranking it as high as the execs.
So action number one, I guess America is go have a chat
with your leadership team about alignment,
and do they feel comfortable,
and are they getting the support they need?
You think that's a what kind, what would you,
what would you recommend as the first step to,
to do something about that?
Uh, definitely is, is about creating a proper culture
for that, you know?
Uh, and, and it, it's very connected with the, the feeling
that, okay, we are here because of the company, not
because ourselves.
And we know that there are many companies that,
as executives, they are like silos.
You know, we, we saw that all the time.
So they are doing their job, they are measured by that.
If they're delivering what's supposed to be delivered,
they will get their bonus.
And they are happy with that.
But maybe for the company, it's not the, the best way.
And, and, and again, I will, I I, I'm working on that now,
and I'm, I'm, I'm really, you know, uh, amazed about
what we, we are, we are seeing, you know,
when we go deeper on this discussion about this human side
of all of this,
because for example,
if we ask any executive about should we prioritize our
portfolio, they will say, yes, of course.
Who will say no? All of them will say yes, right?
If we say, should we measure the benefits
of our project?
All of them will say, of course. Yeah, of course.
But the reality sometimes is a little different.
Because, for example, if you don't measure
the benefit realization, sometimes it's very comfortable
because there is no accountability, right?
So nobody will be challenged
because it's not delivering what was promised when we say
that, okay, we should prioritize,
but you don't really move too much on that.
It's very comfortable for some people,
because if they have a, a loud voice, you know,
like someone dominant in this as active group, for me,
it's very comfortable.
Why I want criteria. Now.
I just, you know, raise my voice
and my choice is selected.
You know what I'm saying? And all of this is part of,
of the life of companies.
So how many of us already seem something like that?
And sometimes, again, we just consider the technical side
and just say, no, they, they, they know, they understand.
But it doesn't happen.
And why it doesn't happen,
because it's not about the process.
It's not about the platform, the software,
it's about people, you know?
And if we don't understand that
and think how we can change this, not from the night to,
to the, the morning, but over time, nothing will happen.
There will be always obstacles
because people try to keep their, their, their privileges.
You know? Does it make sense for you?
So, so, so, so I wanna build on some of that, right?
So, so again, we, we, I could,
I could spend the next two hours talking
about prioritization.
Susan, you and I need to talk
'cause I disagree very strongly with your statement.
Uh, I think if they are not connected,
that's the root of all evil.
But, um, uh,
but I know your background, so I would love
to hear your point of view one-on-one.
'cause you've had some really interesting
experiences over the years.
Um, but the, so I wanna come back to
what you said a minute ago, America.
'cause you, you wove in, right?
You threw in there a little bit of benefits management
and a bit of this, that and the other.
So next finding that I want to talk about in the report was
around being value centric, right?
That was one of the big themes. Yes. So tell me about that.
What, what was, what was the big finding?
Well, definitely, we,
we see people talking about value now all the time, right?
And for PMOs, it's not different.
So we see many ideas, you know, coming up like
VMO and things like that.
Uh, this is something that sometimes I ask myself, you know,
because I see people just saying, oh,
we are in a transition from a PMO to A VMO.
And I ask myself like, where, what
you were doing the last year?
You want concern about value, you know?
So it's not changing the name
that will make you generate value.
It's about understanding your customers, understanding
what they really need,
and creating solutions for that outcomes that can be
perceived as benefits for them.
And then they will be successful.
And by consequence, the company will be successful.
So this is a, this is a, a simple process.
So, uh, if you think, not simple
to be implemented, but simple. Yeah.
Intellectually simple. Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. So, so, uh, uh, value.
Now, it's a really, there is a hype, you know, it's a very
trendy word, but, but understanding exactly what it is
and how you can deal with that, especially
with this subjective side of value.
It's like a spectrum.
You know, you have something very objective like, like ROI,
but honestly, the life of many PMOs is not really close
to this objective side, because we are supporting projects,
and projects are not the business.
And the PMO is supporting something that is not the,
the, the, the, the business.
So we are really far from the
results on the business, you know, but it's okay.
It doesn't mean that we are not important.
It's just something that we need to consider
and start to think how this subjective side
of the PMO in terms of, of delivery, uh, uh, in terms
of outcomes generated, how we can work with them,
how we can understand them as something needed,
and how we can measure and work with them.
Because all of these two sides will compose
what we need to make our PMO recognize it.
You know? So, so, so, so given that the, the value is
so important, and you've got, you've got these two sides,
how do you, how do you define value?
How do you, what, what does a value
centric PMO look like?
Perfect. So a value centric PMO,
PMO is the one that not only delivery what is expected,
but what you are delivering is perceived
and recognized by those that are receiving that.
That's basically the idea.
So this is something interesting
because for many years I've seen material about
delivering value.
And usually people stop when they say, okay, what I promised
to you is that you would make better decisions.
Now I'm providing you dashboards
and you can make better decisions.
And we suppose that our job is completed, but it's not
because it's just a kind of potential
that you are creating
that decisions can be made in a better way.
But there is a, a, a, a, a jump between the outcome
that you are generating and how it's perceived as a benefit.
Actually, this perception happens in the mind of the people
that you are serving to.
Sometimes things are there, but
because of many different reasons, a lack of competence,
a lack of maturity, some specific personal interests,
they are not really using those outcomes in the way that
it was supposed they were supposed to, to, to, to be used.
You know? And this way people start to say, oh,
what you are doing is not important for us.
And that's the real deal.
Because by the end of the day,
what will make your PMO thrive?
It's not what you are doing and what you are delivering,
but it's how those people that you are serving to understand
as valuable what you are trying to do.
You know? So this concept are important.
And, and, and, and that ties back
to the first conversation about strategic alignment.
'cause the strategic alignment step is
where you defining what's valuable, right?
What is the value that we want to get back?
What are the benefits that we want to get back?
You know, the, the absolutely that str that
strategic alignment step in prioritization is really the
first step in benefits management.
It's not, it's not about delivering the product,
it's actually about setting yourself up to deliver,
to maximize the ROI, the,
the business impact from the, from the business anyway.
Absolutely. Absolutely. So, so, um,
just a very quick interesting thing.
Um, I, I, I, a little while ago,
I stumbled across an interesting piece of research
by a guy called Offer something or other.
Hmm. I've forgotten his surname.
Anyway, it'll come to me in a minute, I hope.
Um, uh, so he's a, he's a research fellow at,
uh, the University of Australia, university of, uh, one, one
of the big universities in Australia.
And he did some really cool research looking at, um,
hundreds of projects.
And he looked at, um,
how much project delivery teams focus on templates process,
you know, the project management, the, the, the, you know,
on time, on budget, all the traditional stuff
that the project community love Versus focusing on
value, right?
So, so, you know, obsessing,
our processes are always a built around value.
So our governance and reporting is around value.
Our decision making is around value.
It's not around project, it's around value.
And what he, what he showed is that, um,
you need a certain level of project process,
but you don't need a lot, you just need a certain level.
And it's context dependent.
If you're doing a mega project,
you need more than if you're doing small IT projects, right?
So, so the, the threshold is some, but there's a threshold,
and anything beyond that threshold is a waste of time.
It's adding no value at all, right?
So all that bureaucracy is adding, is adding no value,
but there was a very strong correlation with
focusing on value in the project delivery, right?
So, so actually achieving value was very strongly correlated
with focusing on value.
Wow. Research proves something that's really obvious, right?
But it's really important to say this, right? Yeah.
As a community, we need to stop focusing thinking that our,
our job is to put templates
and processes and tools in place.
Yeah, yeah. And to focus on that value.
Exactly. And that's a good point
because many people understand that focusing on value
is doing what you are doing in the best way possible.
And they believe that excellence, technical excellence,
automatically generate value.
But it's not true. No, no.
Especially because excellence, depending on
what you are doing, you can
waste a lot of money with that.
Right? So, Peter Drucker said
that nothing is more useless than doing the,
the be in the best way possible.
Something that is useless, right? That's right.
So that's exactly the, the, the idea.
So this is a matter, not all of strategic alignment,
but a, a matter of customer alignment.
You know, what they really need as results and,
and this, their needs, it's not something that you agree
or not, it's not only a fact.
If you want to be perceived, if you want
to make them recognize the value that you are generating,
you should focus on their needs.
And you can say America,
but sometimes they, they, they, they, they, they,
they don't know that they don't know, you know?
They don't know that they don't know.
So they, they are not really concerned about
some important things.
Yes, of course you need to, to, to, to seed
for the future, but you cannot forget that you need
to generate perception of value in the short term,
otherwise, you will not survive enough time
to see the results that what you are trying to do, right?
So it, it, it's like if you are, if you are sick,
it's not only about the antibiotics that will generate,
that will, that will heal you in 10 days.
It's about some painkillers
that will make you feel better now,
because that's what you are feeling.
That is important. I'm bad, you know, I'm,
I'm in a bad situation, I'm sick, I want to feel better.
So a balance between doing what I have to do
and doing what I need to do for the future,
because we are evolving, is something that makes sense as a
strategy for the PMO.
Now, before I go onto the next question, right?
So this is a really good place to say.
Um, so America
and I are gonna be in San Diego in a couple of weeks,
two, three weeks, something like that.
24th, 25th of March. Yeah.
24th and 25th.
And Rebecca's gonna be there. Rebecca's on here as well.
Yeah. Rebecca also,
Um, so we're, we're, we're gonna be at the, uh, the, the
PMO Unconference, which is,
which is a really interesting event.
Do you wanna, do you wanna just tell us a little bit,
bit about the unconference
and what makes it, what makes it different?
Because a lot of these,
the topics we're talking about today, uh, things
that are on the agenda at the uncon,
Definitely this, this event, uh, actually it's,
it's the third edition.
This is now the, the PMI global event for PMOs.
So PMI in the past has had the, the PMO symposium.
Now PMO and Kong replaced that.
So it's the global event for PMOs.
Uh, we had it in Paris, in Istanbul, now in San Diego.
Uh, and, and what is really cool, this event,
that it's not a traditional event where you just sit there
and start to, you know, uh, listen to, to the people.
Actually, you are part of that, right?
As, as I, I like to, to say that the,
the stars are in the audience, right?
Because they, uh, instead of traditional speakers
and, you know, uh, uh, uh, traditional sessions
where you are there only to, to listen what they are saying.
Uh, all, all the people involved,
and you are one of them stewards.
Rebecca, also, you, you are facilitators,
so you could be speakers,
but you are there as peers, uh, con, uh, uh, uh,
leading a conversation,
and everyone in the room participate on that.
So the, the, the, the, the sessions, instead of 40 minutes,
it takes three hours, you know, and we can go deep.
People can bring their experience,
people can bring their challenges, their difficulties,
and we can work together, we can learn together.
Sometimes we have insights. We can live with a solution.
If not, we can hug each other and cry together, right?
It's part of, of the, the, the moment, right?
But, but it's a, a, a very strong way of learning, you know,
in a, in a collaborative way.
That's how I started PMO GA years ago.
And it's something that I truly believe.
So this, this conference is very, very important for me.
And we have a fantastic conference now in San Diego,
if you have a chance to come.
I, I'm sure that nobody will regret that
because it's, it's very, very special.
And, and the first year, so I've been lucky
because I, I've facilitated every one of them so far.
And the first year,
nobody really knew what to expect, right?
It was all a bit, all a bit crazy.
And, and so we got into the room
and the session was on, you know, uh, delivering to the
customer the services, what services
do the customers care about?
And what we realized very early in the workshop was
that actually there were, there were three
or four groups who had different ideas
that they wanted to explore.
And so the power of the uncon is
that we then just split the room into three groups.
Exactly. Right? And we had three facilitators in the room,
and we went off in these three different directions,
and at the end, we all came back and said, what do we learn?
Exactly. So It's, it's that ability to,
to really engage with not just the thought leaders, right?
'cause at the conference, we're not thought
leaders, we're facilitators.
And the real insight comes from the shared stories
from your peers, right?
That that's where the big insight comes from.
Yeah. That's how we create new things, you know?
And this year there will be something really cool,
because I will record the audio
of all the, the tracks.
We have seven in parallel,
and we will use AI to generate reports
based on 12 hours of discussion in each track.
And these reports will be made available for the community,
uh, a few days after the event.
So that's it. We are contributing to the development
of our PMO landscape. Yeah.
Fantastic. So if you're available 23rd, uh, sorry, 24th,
25th of March, uh, come to San Diego, it'll be great.
Um, I have learned that, um,
I, I've, so I've heard
that there's a really good zoo in San Diego.
Yes. The biggest one.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, and so I was speaking with one
of the facilit, I won't tell you who it is, uh,
but one of the facilitators, I said, oh, let's go
to the zoo on the Monday, right?
And he, he's like, no, I'm not going to the zoo
'cause I'm allergic to elephants.
Really? Oh my gosh.
So after the session, I'll tell you who that was, America.
But yeah, imagine that.
How do you, how do you discover
that you're allergic to elephants?
That's a good question. You know, I, I know
that I'm allergic to cats,
but I have six cats, you know, so I,
I understand why I am allergic to them, but
Excellent. All right. Let's get back
on track. Come on. Behave. Behave.
All right. Uh, so the next topic that, that came up
as being really important was, was kind of resource
and capacity planning.
So what, what were the, some of the issues around, uh,
resources and, and capacity planning that,
that you surfaced up?
And, and do you know what, this is one that frustrates me.
Why is this still an issue?
Yeah, that's a a very good point.
Actually, this report, oh, I'm sorry.
This is because of my cats, you know, actually
shouldn't be too, I'm spending two weeks at home
and that's what happened.
You know, when I'm traveling all the time, I'm okay,
but two weeks at home, it's too much.
So the, the point is, resource management is something
that I believe it deserves a, a specific research on that,
you know, because today, come on, we have more
and more alternatives.
You know, we have fantastic software, uh, AI is coming
to help us with that.
But it's, it's still a problem, still an issue.
Companies are struggling with that.
And again, it's not only the process,
there is something else, you know,
and maybe this silos structure, you know, can influence that
because nobody want to maybe share key resources.
You know, it looks like we have some, uh, uh,
some, uh, I could say, uh, uh, uh, some points
that look to be the, the roots of, of these problems,
you know, the cause, the root cause.
Uh, but, but anyway, uh, we need to, to go deeper on that,
you know, and understand looking to the forest, you know,
understand exactly how, how it works, you know, and, and,
and, and have something reliable. You know, so
I'll tell you, I, you, you said you used a phrase a second
ago, which I'm not sure I agree with.
Um, I don't think this is a
resource management problem at all.
I think it's a RESO resource capacity
management problem, which is
Different uhhuh. Yes, yes,
yes. Exactly. Yeah.
It, it, you know, that's different.
Those two things are quite different.
Resource management is what task is Johnny
doing next week, right?
Yeah, yeah. It's true. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Capacity management is, do we have the capacity overall
to deliver this portfolio work? And
When we are selecting our projects,
we are considering that.
And that's the big point, you know,
because actually managing that is much more
during the execution of the portfolio.
But, but when we are designed the portfolio, uh,
it's about capacity, as you said.
And it's very, very common
that projects are selected sometimes based it on criteria,
but not based it on, on constraints, you know?
And this is like, you are wasting our time, you know?
So definitely it's,
We would, we were, we were talking just, uh, a month
or two ago, I was talking to the strategic, I have
to be very careful what I say.
So it was one of the top five global banks,
and it was the C-suite level of planning, right?
So these guys are allocating billions of dollars of resource
across a global bank.
And it was really fascinating.
'cause my question to the person running the process was, so
what, at what point do you,
do you overlay resources on this?
The answer was, we don't. Right?
So, so the problem, so, so the problem,
I think the root cause is twofold.
Yeah. The first one is that, um,
the process doesn't connect resources to, so,
so when people talk about the strategy execution gap,
that's where we started today.
This is the gap. This is the gap.
Very true. Very true.
So it's, it's aligning the resources
to your strategic goals, right?
To the projects and initiatives
that support your strategic goals. That's the gap.
Yeah. This things should be much more connected than
what we have today, no doubt.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, so what kind
of things did you hear in, in the research then, America?
What, you know, what was kind coming outta that in terms of
how people are tackling it, addressing it?
What advice can you give to people who are wrestling
with this issue now, apart
from to buy our software, of course.
'cause it does that for you, but, um, you know, what?
More generic, because not everybody's gonna go
and buy, buy our software tomorrow.
So what could be people, what, what can PML leaders be doing
to help bridge that gap today?
Yeah, I, I see that today, uh, resource
capacity is treated as something more tactical.
And actually it should be something at the strategic level.
So understanding your capacity, what is possible, you know,
and how, how you can explore and expand this capacity,
because there are many, many different possibilities.
You can outsource.
You can, you know, but, but you should be prepared for that.
So if you already structured,
and the PMO can help with that, by the way, for many years
before PMO J that's what part, uh, it was part, not
of my job, but part of something that my company, uh,
did in the past, you know, consulting, but also outsourcing.
And I remember that we had one big,
big insurance company in, in Latin America,
that all the time that they need new project managers
for some specific projects.
They just call us and said, Hey, I need 10 people.
I need 20 people, 50 people.
And we just provide them to that.
So they could, couldn't just, uh, uh, uh,
increase their official headcount,
but this way they had the, the, the,
the flexibility that they needed.
The point is, it's not something that you should discuss
after defining your portfolio.
You should discuss before that at the strategic level level.
And then when you go to the tactical level,
it's just a matter of putting inaction, you know,
these alternatives that you already planted them.
You know, I'm not trying to make a miracle, you know,
it's just a matter of putting inaction, things
that we already planted,
how we will use our alternatives to make that happen.
But it should be discussed at a strategic level,
understanding our constraints.
No doubt about that.
Fantastic. So, and,
and I know that Rebecca's gonna be sitting there vibrating
with frustration at this point
because, uh, you know, Rebecca does a lot
of work in the C-suite, mostly in government, um,
uh, government and nonprofits, but mostly in government.
And the constant frustration is h
how do you help the leadership team?
Oh, there you go. She's got a comment in there as well.
How do we, how do we get the leadership
team to take this seriously?
How do we take, get them to think
strategically about resources?
'cause it's not, it's not a question
of which project's the best, it's the question.
The real question is what combination
of projects delivers the most value
given our resource constraints?
Yeah. And that's not always as simple as doing the projects
that deliver the most value.
Exactly. You know, Because, you know, one
of the high value ones could be a complete resource hog
and kill everything else, right?
So, um, so, so it's a really, really key thing.
Now we're out of time,
but, um, what, so
what I'm gonna do really quickly is I'm gonna just say
to people, thank you for coming.
If you can stay, please do so.
'cause I, I've got one more question
for America before we go.
One more topic to cover that I'd like to cover.
Um, but if you, if you can't stay, um,
and you are struggling with some of the, the, the, you know,
you recognize some of the issues
that we've talked about today,
but you're struggling
to get your leadership engaged in the conversation,
if I can suggest go, go ahead
and head to our website here, transparent choice.com,
and go get a portfolio fixed briefing, right?
So this is a little, little workshop that we put together,
a little free workshop that we do, which helps
pull together, it's a little bit of a diagnostic, right?
Where are you today? And helps you pull together a bit of a,
a case for change so that you're, you can, one way
to get your executives engaged in this whole process is
to help 'em understand what's in it for them.
Because at the end of the day, they're
not gonna do it because you want to do it.
They're gonna do it because there's something
in it for them.
So this, this little workshop on our, our front page here,
you can go and just click on there.
It'll take you through to, to the calendar, um,
and we can, we can dive in, uh,
and help build that case for change. Yeah.
So, and, and definitely, uh, Stuart, this is something
that I truly recommend
because sometime people miss this point,
because of course you have many clients, you know, and, and,
and each one is a different scenario, a different situation.
So instead of looking for benchmarking, you know,
with each one, actually, when we talk with someone like you,
you have a very interesting perspective of
what many companies are doing
because they are your, your clients
or at least potential ones.
So this way you can make these connections, you know,
and say, okay, you don't need to copy anyone.
You can take this from this one, that one, that one.
That is exactly what we also defend when
we are creating PMOs.
You don't need to copy anyone, you don't need to, to,
to follow any model.
You have to create your solution.
And this perspective of about
what the market is doing is something
that can help a lot. Definitely.
And, and coming back to the Uncon, right?
One of the great things about the uncon is that you get
to hear other people's stories, other people's frustrations.
You get to hear that you are not alone, right?
You're not the only one wrestling with these issues.
I understand. Yeah. Sometimes we can cry together,
but most of the times we can find alternatives
and learn together, you know?
Absolutely. So shocks just asked the question about
how we can encourage 'em to look at the portfolio
and discuss probability of success and so on.
Um, which feels like we need another
webinar to cover that one.
Um, but before, so
before we go there, there was one other little piece that,
that I found really interesting
and was highlighted in the report in several places, was we,
and we touched on it earlier, was this idea
of customers, right?
So we said that, that, um, the, the,
the most important customers, the leadership team,
the executive team, uh, whatever it is, you know,
however you structure yourselves,
but they're not the only customers.
And there was a number about, you know, the, the,
the best PMOs have four groups of customers or more, right?
So talk, talk a little bit about that.
What does that, what does that actually mean?
How can I, how can I identify those customers?
How can I serve them?
Absolutely. FF first of all, there is something
that co it, it comes first that is understand
your mission as a PMO.
Because saying
that executive team will be an important customer
for every PMO is not, is not true.
There will be PMOs that they will serve a,
a specific business unity, a specific department, an IT PMO.
It's not about the executive team.
I'm sorry, it's about your CIO, right?
So, so of course you will behave in a different way.
The chances that you'll be very strategic,
we will be, you know, different.
Because now you are just looking to
that specific area and it's okay.
Right? There will be many companies
that they have combinations.
They have in some project oriented areas,
they have their all PMOs,
and maybe we have one that is a enterprise, one
for those projects that they are, they, they, they, they,
they are, uh, uh, uh, uh, they, they are cross, you know,
uh, projects.
So, so it's okay.
There are many ways of organizing that,
but there will be many PMOs that definitely
the executive level, the, the,
the senior leadership is a fantastic
and very important, uh, uh, customer.
Uh, and we have to give attention, proper attention to them.
They are not the only ones
because definitely other groups
of customers should be serving in a, in some way,
and you cannot just underestimate their impact
or their power in this process
because, you know, people, uh, they, they usually try
to say good things about you,
but when they want to say bad things,
they will spend much more energy on that, right?
So they can sabotage what we're trying to do.
So we need to have a balance, right?
But, but in general, in gen, uh, in general, the way
that I define customers are all those people
that you are serving to
or better, all those people
that will judge what you are doing.
You know, if there is anyone that is really judging
what you are doing, you know, saying, no, it's good,
it's bad, it's something useful.
It's not probably this people
or this, uh, person will be one of your customers
and you should at least understand how, uh, important
they are for you.
So are there any patterns generally, right?
I know every organization is different, right?
But, you know, senior leadership team,
that's one set of obvious customers. Yeah,
There are four, four of them.
Senior leadership project managers,
because the most usual model is that they are in the
business areas, in the departments, not at the PMO.
We have exceptions, but according to research,
it's like 20%.
Sometimes I think today, uh,
maybe it's a little more frequent,
because sometimes PMOs, they, for, for those projects
that are really big ones, like transformation projects,
sometimes they say, okay,
these people will be full-time dedicated to the project.
So I will, I will, uh, uh, have specific project
or program managers for them,
and they will report to the PMO.
So they are part of the PMO,
but the usual way is they are spread in the organization.
And managing projects is much more a function than a role,
than, than a position, you know, a title.
Uh, and so project managers, executive team
or senior leadership as you want, uh,
functional managers in general, it, marketing, hr,
finance and so on.
And team members, project team members, you know,
so definitely these are the most common.
And I can tell you that based on how people use our,
our apps, you know, the, the, the apps that give life
to the PMI PMO practice Guide.
By the way, let me share this with you here.
If you go there, you find the two first apps, they are
for free that we created to support some steps
of the PMO value ring framework.
That is the heart of the PMI PMO XI guide.
Yeah. Yeah. We've not,
we've not even touched on that today. Yeah.
Yeah. It's, it's really cool.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, so if you wanna go deeper into that,
um, I would, uh, strongly recommend to book you tickets out
to San Diego, and then we can go out,
have a quiet drink somewhere down by the beach
and dig into this stuff in more detail. Oh
Yeah, that's definitely, and we can go
to the zoo without the elephant, the zoo.
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
So, so America, I, I, I, I want to thank you, uh, for,
for carving out time.
Um, really appreciate that.
Um, it's, it's been a, a fun session.
It always is with you, my friend.
Uh, it's been a fun session
and, uh, thank you to the audience, to the, to the audience
as well, to the attendees for being such a chatty group.
Um, it always makes it more interesting, more fun, uh, to,
to see, uh, other people's opinions as well.