WEBVTT 1 00:00:14.550 --> 00:00:27.819 Dan Dures: Okay, welcome, people, thank you for joining us today. It is 4 o'clock, I can just see the people filing in at the moment, so, we'll be starting in one or two minutes. 2 00:00:28.050 --> 00:00:47.319 Dan Dures: While you're waiting for us to begin, let's maybe check the chat, get used to sharing a little bit around who you are, where you're joining us from. Hey, Ashok, nice to see you again. It's me, not Stuart, this month, and Gregor's joining, so new faces, for you to… 3 00:00:47.330 --> 00:01:03.009 Dan Dures: to see and chat to. But, as an old hand, I'm expecting lots of participation questions, but only easy questions, please. So, yeah, follow Ashok's example, say hi, let us know where you're joining us from. 4 00:01:03.060 --> 00:01:17.069 Dan Dures: Share expectations with what you're hoping to get from today. Check I've got the chat function set up correctly, I think I have, because Ashot was able to say hello. Hey! Hello, guy! 5 00:01:17.780 --> 00:01:25.719 Dan Dures: I know you've been chatting to Stuart a while as well, so good to see you here. Cincinnati, Ohio. Okay, so… 6 00:01:26.340 --> 00:01:32.859 Dan Dures: South Africa, we are… so we've got… different… Dots me from different places. 7 00:01:33.320 --> 00:01:36.060 Dan Dures: So, I think… oh, yeah. 8 00:01:36.290 --> 00:01:39.219 Dan Dures: Urvi joining us from Boston, fantastic. 9 00:01:40.050 --> 00:01:43.050 Dan Dures: I love this all coming in now. Right. 10 00:01:43.960 --> 00:01:48.539 Dan Dures: Tim's from Worcestershire, so thank you. So, we've got all sorts of… 11 00:01:48.760 --> 00:02:02.300 Dan Dures: coverage and, presence from around the place, so I think as we are getting in, and yeah, hi Ashot from Solihull. I was gonna guess Birmingham, which is probably going to offend you horribly, but, pretty close to the mark, I hope. 12 00:02:02.560 --> 00:02:04.060 Dan Dures: Stuart is, in fact. 13 00:02:04.170 --> 00:02:16.550 Dan Dures: in Japan on, holiday. I shouldn't probably say that in public in case anyone on this Zoom call is intending to rob his house, but, hopefully we're all friends here and we can trust each other. So… 14 00:02:17.590 --> 00:02:20.609 Dan Dures: I think we will get started. So… 15 00:02:21.370 --> 00:02:27.630 Dan Dures: Thank you very much for joining us today. Our goal, is… 16 00:02:28.130 --> 00:02:42.040 Dan Dures: to help you guys, learn how the PMO can… we called it, I think, fixing prioritization, drive change, deliver value, low prioritization. We'll be expanding a little bit on that as we go through it. And I'm really, 17 00:02:42.230 --> 00:02:56.419 Dan Dures: lucky to be able to be joined today by Gregor. Gregor will doubtlessly introduce himself properly during the course of the webinar, but Gregor brings, I think, sort of 25 years of PMO expertise with him onto the call. 18 00:02:56.560 --> 00:03:10.769 Dan Dures: And is a very experienced advocate of the Impact Engine, and is the founder of PMO Expert, which is specialist in supporting PMO's, 19 00:03:11.130 --> 00:03:16.699 Dan Dures: In the… which region would you describe yourself as, Gregor? I know you're based… 20 00:03:16.700 --> 00:03:17.230 Gregor Androjna: Hi. 21 00:03:17.230 --> 00:03:17.790 Dan Dures: sweat. 22 00:03:17.790 --> 00:03:23.000 Gregor Androjna: I would say, basically, more in strategy delivery, so that's my expertise. 23 00:03:23.110 --> 00:03:38.379 Gregor Androjna: Of course, I am building OSO PMOs, using impact engine system, etc. However, the point is to deliver value to the leadership, to the organization, to the people, and, help people to make it… their lives easier, right? 24 00:03:38.850 --> 00:03:56.320 Dan Dures: Fantastic, yeah, and I've been excited preparing this webinar with Gregor, who's bringing that experience to what we do at Transparent Choice, which is very much around developing the best practice and the software to support people in their prioritization objectives. 25 00:03:56.570 --> 00:03:57.400 Dan Dures: And… 26 00:03:57.520 --> 00:04:06.940 Dan Dures: To Gregor's point, what is prioritization if not delivering the strategy? That's what we're here to do. So, with that said, let's get the screen share up. 27 00:04:08.940 --> 00:04:11.760 Dan Dures: Okay, can we see my screen? 28 00:04:11.910 --> 00:04:13.200 Dan Dures: First test. 29 00:04:15.130 --> 00:04:16.160 Dan Dures: Gregor? 30 00:04:16.160 --> 00:04:17.989 Gregor Androjna: Yeah, now it's back on. 31 00:04:18.620 --> 00:04:22.349 Dan Dures: Awesome, okay, in which case, we are go. So… 32 00:04:24.330 --> 00:04:28.499 Dan Dures: Sometimes, when we speak with, with PMOs and, and, and, and… 33 00:04:28.500 --> 00:04:47.519 Dan Dures: Gregor, I'm sure you'll probably have a similar experience. It feels like this is the daily life. There's a kind of… a lot of activity, a lot of pressure, a lot of stakeholders demanding stuff, a lot of projects, often too many projects, a lot of data, a lot of resource constraints, and sometimes it just feels like it's overwhelming. There's too much going on. 34 00:04:47.520 --> 00:04:50.260 Dan Dures: And yet, so much pressure to get the job done. 35 00:04:50.280 --> 00:04:54.849 Dan Dures: Do you feel… does this… does this seem about right to you, Gregor? Obviously, you used to be. 36 00:04:54.850 --> 00:04:55.709 Gregor Androjna: Yeah, yeah, sure. 37 00:04:55.710 --> 00:04:57.429 Dan Dures: You know the feeling, right? 38 00:04:57.430 --> 00:05:17.410 Gregor Androjna: It's funny, when you have… you're a project manager, and you have few projects, you have few problems, but when you are leading the PMO or something like that, you have the… all the best problems of all the project managers, right? And the leaderships, and customers, you know, and contract challenges, etc, right? 39 00:05:17.410 --> 00:05:21.669 Dan Dures: You're the guy in the middle who everyone expects everything to be solved, right? 40 00:05:21.670 --> 00:05:22.230 Gregor Androjna: Yeah. 41 00:05:22.450 --> 00:05:41.030 Dan Dures: So, yeah, and, you know, ultimately that's what we want to do today, is, you know, you've given us an hour, hopefully we won't take a full hour, but we want to be able to give you back, if you like, some ideas and thoughts that will help you on that journey to get out from underneath the quicksand and start to 42 00:05:41.030 --> 00:05:44.720 Dan Dures: Really enjoy work and deliver value more effectively. 43 00:05:46.250 --> 00:05:57.669 Dan Dures: So, I'm going to start with a few things we hear, things that frame why we're doing this. And again, if this is you, if you find this relatable, jump in the comments. 44 00:05:58.070 --> 00:06:08.550 Dan Dures: I mean, the first thing is, if you like, it's LinkedIn's favourite topic, as far as I can tell in my feed, which is the importance of aligning to strategy. So, it's, you know. 45 00:06:08.670 --> 00:06:19.930 Dan Dures: planning your portfolio to deliver value is being benefits-focused. I'm not going to go into huge amounts of detail on this, because I think we've talked about this before, I've talked about it on LinkedIn, 46 00:06:20.250 --> 00:06:25.920 Dan Dures: I think most, most folks involved with PMOs do. But Gregor, this is our job, right? To help this make this happen. 47 00:06:26.610 --> 00:06:27.320 Gregor Androjna: Yeah. 48 00:06:27.320 --> 00:06:27.700 Dan Dures: Such. 49 00:06:28.640 --> 00:06:47.100 Gregor Androjna: Yeah, I would say that this is some clear picture, but then again, there's… from my point of perspective and what I see at clients, most of the time, this seems like that they are throwing strategy goals through the fence and hoping that it will happen, right? 50 00:06:47.230 --> 00:06:53.449 Gregor Androjna: And at the end of the day, these yearly plans and et cetera, et cetera are sometimes just wish lists. 51 00:06:53.650 --> 00:07:02.650 Gregor Androjna: Which have no clear connection or translation of those goals to the execution. And, end of the day, it benefits 52 00:07:02.650 --> 00:07:16.439 Gregor Androjna: Might be, just financial benefits, not a complete impact value, which can be delivered or can be taken into account for people and customers, right? 53 00:07:17.090 --> 00:07:28.969 Dan Dures: Yeah, and ultimately, you know, it sounds really easy, just link strategy to execution. It is really quite complicated, or it's quite challenging, and there's lots of things to do, and we want to help you on that journey. 54 00:07:29.250 --> 00:07:35.700 Gregor Androjna: I think this is one of the top challenges of PMOs, how to connect to leadership and strategy, right? 55 00:07:36.310 --> 00:07:37.290 Dan Dures: Absolutely. 56 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:41.129 Dan Dures: Another challenge, we hear a lot of information, 57 00:07:41.860 --> 00:07:52.970 Dan Dures: And there's some contradiction in here, right? Sometimes it's like we've got no data, we don't have enough data, sometimes it's everyone's complaining we've got too much data, or, you know, we've been asked to create too much data, or… 58 00:07:52.970 --> 00:08:02.379 Dan Dures: we have to do manual data creation, or we're trying to use AI to create data, and it's a… it's… it can be a mess, because there's no data governance. So, lots of challenge, I think. 59 00:08:02.640 --> 00:08:07.009 Dan Dures: And it comes down to this reality. Everybody wants data, but nobody wants to fill in forms. 60 00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:08.960 Dan Dures: Sound familiar? 61 00:08:09.210 --> 00:08:16.120 Gregor Androjna: Yeah, then again, it comes usually to, I don't know, gathering status, you know, a lot of reports. 62 00:08:16.120 --> 00:08:16.650 Dan Dures: Hmm. 63 00:08:16.650 --> 00:08:25.850 Gregor Androjna: forgetting about the question, why do we, manage or produce data? Yeah. And, there's a challenge 64 00:08:26.330 --> 00:08:35.840 Gregor Androjna: how to do it. But then again, I think we should focus on the, I don't know, red lights, you know, where the leadership needs attention. 65 00:08:36.110 --> 00:08:45.469 Gregor Androjna: And we should support, with data leaders, for great or, let's say, informed decision-making, right? 66 00:08:45.610 --> 00:08:46.160 Gregor Androjna: And this. 67 00:08:46.160 --> 00:08:46.730 Dan Dures: Yeah, absolutely. 68 00:08:46.920 --> 00:08:52.600 Gregor Androjna: When… where we can, find the right spot, how much data do they need, right? 69 00:08:52.840 --> 00:09:09.349 Dan Dures: Absolutely, and as we go through today, you'll hopefully see, you know, that when we work with clients, it's all about finding just enough data. So don't collect more data than you need, don't create that kind of analysis paralysis, but you've got to shine a light into a dark room sometimes in order to be able to see what's in it. 70 00:09:09.350 --> 00:09:09.940 Gregor Androjna: Huh. 71 00:09:11.930 --> 00:09:17.959 Dan Dures: Next, I mean, we hear a lot about delivery challenges, and, you know, this is the, you know, the challenge of putting 72 00:09:18.190 --> 00:09:30.700 Dan Dures: you know, three shopping… a week's worth of shopping into one shopping bag, right? We've all been there. You've been to the supermarket, you think you've got five bags, you've got one. It doesn't fit, no matter how well you try and pack it. 73 00:09:31.350 --> 00:09:48.600 Dan Dures: And this is, you know, what we hear about all the time with portfolios. Whether it's too many projects, or we've got these invisible projects, which we'll talk about later, it's massive challenge of getting everything into plan when too much is being thrown at you. 74 00:09:48.870 --> 00:09:50.659 Dan Dures: Does that sound fair, Gregor? 75 00:09:51.280 --> 00:09:59.969 Gregor Androjna: Yeah, sure. I would say that there's the challenge that most of PMOs are, like, just in delivery mode. 76 00:10:00.250 --> 00:10:19.520 Gregor Androjna: So, in this delivery phase to execute the project, so, with lack of clarity on what are the business goals of projects or programs, portfolio, I would say, they are lacking a lot of times the clear picture on the constraints. 77 00:10:19.520 --> 00:10:29.730 Gregor Androjna: or the process, or the people, or all around, how we can do it. And, there's a push from leadership, usually, also to… 78 00:10:29.790 --> 00:10:44.109 Gregor Androjna: try to do all the projects at once. Since they are approved, we should do it all, or even worse, if there are clients behind the projects which is bound to contracts, right? 79 00:10:44.150 --> 00:10:47.379 Gregor Androjna: Yeah. And we have to do it, but then again. 80 00:10:47.380 --> 00:11:04.510 Gregor Androjna: There's a lot of competition going on between different types of projects, you know, strategic ones, change projects, you know, maybe projects for customers, and there's a lot of small initiatives going around, and this is invisible work, and this is really a dangerous one. 81 00:11:04.530 --> 00:11:15.340 Gregor Androjna: Because it's a challenge to manage them, because they are everywhere, and there's a question, how do you kill a project where there is no project, right? 82 00:11:15.410 --> 00:11:20.830 Gregor Androjna: There's just work going around, and it's challenging to manage those, yeah. 83 00:11:21.090 --> 00:11:36.539 Dan Dures: Yeah, absolutely. We had a question come in, probably from the last slide from Guy, just around, I guess, examples of data. So, I will… I'm going to hold that thought and fire it back at Gregor when we get to his case study, because I think it's a really good, example of 84 00:11:36.540 --> 00:11:41.829 Dan Dures: You know, not going overboard with data collection and focusing on what you need to get the job done. 85 00:11:42.340 --> 00:11:42.980 Gregor Androjna: Good. 86 00:11:44.540 --> 00:12:04.440 Dan Dures: Next, this is around, sort of, PMO identity crisis. Again, this is quite popular in the socials and when we talk to people, but it's just this idea of the PMO under pressure, the PMO being the first thing that gets cut when money's short. The PMO being seen as the process police, the PMO being seen 87 00:12:05.040 --> 00:12:18.090 Dan Dures: as, a kind of a source of competition for, different silos around the organization, trying to wrestle control, of funding. 88 00:12:18.910 --> 00:12:21.540 Dan Dures: And a lot of the time, again, it's… 89 00:12:21.840 --> 00:12:41.180 Dan Dures: what we want to do today is give you an idea of a role you can play in terms of value-led prioritization that can really help define the identity of the PMO, and really make use of that positioning that Gregor was describing, kind of right in the middle of the spider's web, in order to become a real kind of value advocate. 90 00:12:41.310 --> 00:12:49.459 Dan Dures: So, Gregor, you work with Impact Engine and with a lot of PMOs, right, and this is critical, this idea of developing the brand and the identity of the PMO. 91 00:12:49.820 --> 00:12:57.089 Gregor Androjna: Yeah, yeah, that's true, but then again, looking at this list, and challenges, what we face in practice. 92 00:12:57.210 --> 00:13:08.610 Gregor Androjna: It's, a lot of times bound to the… this bureaucracy, wrong focus, simply because we are taught through, project management. 93 00:13:08.610 --> 00:13:32.490 Gregor Androjna: expertise and standards and principles that we should do or make the best processes and tools, use the best tools to make it all work. But then again, this is the wrong approach, wrong question. The point is that we should focus on, rather, outcomes than to outputs, right? 94 00:13:32.860 --> 00:13:41.230 Gregor Androjna: And we need to think about projects, about not delivering them. We need to think about delivering the value, the impact. 95 00:13:41.270 --> 00:13:58.890 Gregor Androjna: And, looking to the project in that way, we get another perspective. But then again, this is really challenging, because sometimes we are not… we don't have a mandate to do that, because this is something leader… leadership does, you know, so… 96 00:13:58.890 --> 00:14:04.120 Dan Dures: I think we've touched on a really important point here, and this is what we are going to present to you today, is… 97 00:14:04.380 --> 00:14:11.729 Dan Dures: probably not the greatest fit for a process-driven, PMI-type, you know. 98 00:14:11.870 --> 00:14:21.290 Dan Dures: approach that you can, document and mandate and train and get accreditation for, because it's all about how you engage the organization, and 99 00:14:21.490 --> 00:14:45.849 Dan Dures: everyone's organization is slightly different, slightly weird, slight… works in a funny way, and it doesn't necessarily fit a tight model. So there are some principles, and we'll talk about frameworks and best practices as we go through, but a lot of this is about how you arrive in your organization and bring these principles to bear, where you live, and not against the kind of standard operating model you can just 100 00:14:45.850 --> 00:14:47.810 Dan Dures: Drop into an organization. 101 00:14:48.260 --> 00:15:08.200 Gregor Androjna: Yeah, I'm not saying that we don't need them, they are great tools, they are great approaches, experience and everything, lessons learned, you know? But then again, this should not be the first line of focus, right? We should… we must focus on value delivery for, I don't know, strategy and so on. 102 00:15:08.200 --> 00:15:16.200 Gregor Androjna: Then, this makes, this creates, the processes and tools we need, right? Not resource. 103 00:15:16.440 --> 00:15:20.370 Dan Dures: And so I got ahead of myself, started clicking, but this is, you know. 104 00:15:20.600 --> 00:15:39.930 Dan Dures: one of the reasons we need to is if we kind of, you know, think of where we are here in 2026, the budget pressures we keep hearing about are everywhere, right? We already talked about, you know, people kind of putting pressure on PMOs to demonstrate value, to justify their existence, but it feels like everyone we talk to is under pressure to 105 00:15:39.930 --> 00:15:48.119 Dan Dures: to control their spending, to show more ROI from the projects they're investing in, to make some capacity for AI investments. 106 00:15:48.150 --> 00:15:53.550 Dan Dures: To deal with frozen headcounts, again, Working through more… 107 00:15:53.760 --> 00:16:13.140 Dan Dures: prosperous years. We've seen a lot of companies being able to kind of throw headcount at problems in order to solve new demand with new people, but I think now, with the pressure on getting the most out of the people you've got in your organization, it really does bring into focus the importance of prioritization. 108 00:16:14.410 --> 00:16:15.090 Gregor Androjna: Yeah. 109 00:16:15.200 --> 00:16:18.790 Gregor Androjna: I would, I would say… That's the challenge today. 110 00:16:19.060 --> 00:16:38.279 Gregor Androjna: it's getting worse and worse, you know, the market and the global environment, whatever is happening, you know, and exponential technology developments. This AI, I suppose, will solve everything, but then again, will it? So, 111 00:16:38.640 --> 00:16:41.879 Gregor Androjna: it's some kind of threat to PMOs, right? 112 00:16:41.960 --> 00:16:59.399 Gregor Androjna: And even without that, PMOs were… are not stable as a business unit. There are some, I don't know, function, which can be seen easily as a cost center, right? So it's very fast in the chopping blocks. 113 00:16:59.470 --> 00:17:06.840 Gregor Androjna: And I think we really have to embrace the connection to leadership and sponsorships. 114 00:17:07.040 --> 00:17:13.290 Gregor Androjna: And, try to help them deliver value so that we can show the value, right? 115 00:17:13.500 --> 00:17:27.360 Dan Dures: Absolutely. And obviously, what we're designing and we'll talk to you about today is trying to put you on the right side of this. So, as pressure becomes on budgets, as AI grows, you can position your PMO to be successful in that environment. 116 00:17:28.640 --> 00:17:37.420 Dan Dures: So… I've alluded to it, right? We've talked about, you know, value-led prioritization as being the focus today. 117 00:17:37.800 --> 00:17:42.819 Dan Dures: The key thing is, of these themes, and they seem quite disparate and quite different. 118 00:17:43.170 --> 00:17:51.320 Dan Dures: But the point is, with these themes, they all relate back to prioritization. Not exclusively, but if you think about it. 119 00:17:51.490 --> 00:18:00.200 Dan Dures: Strategy execution, the bridge, is about getting the right projects, picking the right projects, in order to deliver the right outcomes, and creating that connection. 120 00:18:00.330 --> 00:18:10.170 Dan Dures: Having the right amount of data is a function of understanding what you're trying to achieve. Insight to action, so you're not collecting data for its own sake, but you're collecting data with specific ends in mind. 121 00:18:10.930 --> 00:18:15.870 Dan Dures: improving the flow of your portfolios, and Gregor's got some fantastic 122 00:18:16.440 --> 00:18:31.119 Dan Dures: experience in this space. But if you can get the flow working through your portfolio, you're going to increase productivity. And with greater productivity comes ROI and better performance, which obviously helps in terms of the mandatory pressure. 123 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:48.569 Dan Dures: And hopefully what we can start to do is show you the potential by wrapping this together, you can start to brand your PMO as that kind of value enabler, as it's like the organization that joins the dots, that encourages collaboration, that has that ruthless focus on outcomes. 124 00:18:48.830 --> 00:18:53.740 Dan Dures: And reconciles that in order to… it reconciles that, perhaps, to the more, kind of. 125 00:18:54.160 --> 00:18:57.590 Dan Dures: Process-oriented best practice around project delivery. 126 00:18:58.160 --> 00:19:04.130 Dan Dures: So, maybe not a silver bullet in terms of a super easy, quick win, but it's, we believe. 127 00:19:04.610 --> 00:19:11.790 Dan Dures: in most organizations, the biggest lever that they've got in order to step change the ROI of their portfolio. 128 00:19:13.530 --> 00:19:18.440 Dan Dures: So, let's dive in a little bit more to what we mean. So… 129 00:19:18.840 --> 00:19:28.329 Dan Dures: This next two slides is broadly just an excuse for a funny picture, but we have a phrase in… 130 00:19:28.820 --> 00:19:35.879 Dan Dures: kind of, British terms, which is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. So, for those of you that don't follow these things. 131 00:19:36.330 --> 00:19:52.649 Dan Dures: Titanic was the world's biggest ship, and it sank because it ran into an iceberg. But people were still kind of rearranging their deck chairs and organizing it and playing music as it sunk. And sometimes it can feel a little bit like that, with prioritization. You're trying to organize things. 132 00:19:53.100 --> 00:20:05.489 Dan Dures: But you know you can't actually organize it because it's just the wrong projects. There's too many projects, you don't have the authority to stop projects. You don't have the authority to control, influence, or move resources. 133 00:20:05.600 --> 00:20:11.340 Dan Dures: So if you don't have that authority, you're simply trying to… you're trying to shuffle around the projects. 134 00:20:11.850 --> 00:20:17.909 Dan Dures: But actually, your ranking doesn't help, because there are too many projects, and you can't say no to them. 135 00:20:19.110 --> 00:20:31.870 Dan Dures: So it becomes… in that context, prioritization can be quite frustrating, can feel quite administrative. So you're putting in the effort, you're building the model, but you're not necessarily driving the change that you need to see off the back of it. 136 00:20:32.170 --> 00:20:44.839 Dan Dures: So, when we talk about prioritization, this is not what we talk about, alright? We are talking about something where we fundamentally got that kind of decision authority and that impact associated with doing the modeling exercise. 137 00:20:46.490 --> 00:20:48.590 Dan Dures: Does that feel about right to you, Gregor? 138 00:20:48.990 --> 00:21:03.800 Gregor Androjna: Yeah, well, that again is very challenging. We should… we must talk about it, because I think there's a challenge related directly to this picture of Titanic, because it's hard to see those icebergs, right? 139 00:21:03.800 --> 00:21:04.250 Dan Dures: Mmm. 140 00:21:04.250 --> 00:21:15.759 Gregor Androjna: And PMOs are the ones who can help see those icebergs, right? And I think the most challenging discussions I have 141 00:21:15.760 --> 00:21:34.149 Gregor Androjna: It's about, with leaderships, which, are already handling, values, priorities, you know, they're trying to manage everything around, but then again, they have some biased goals and priorities, right? Everybody is trying to do, the best. 142 00:21:34.320 --> 00:21:37.780 Gregor Androjna: But usually the best for their business unit, right? 143 00:21:37.780 --> 00:22:00.370 Gregor Androjna: And there's a challenge how to, basically do them all, because they want all, they are making changes, they are adding projects, but end of the day, without adding any capacity, they want just to be done all, right? So, this brings us to the PMOs, which, who struggle and, are challenged with multitasking, you know. 144 00:22:00.370 --> 00:22:09.369 Gregor Androjna: With, too much projects, and, of course, low pre… low productivity. And, that's the problem, that's why projects are delayed, right? 145 00:22:09.740 --> 00:22:22.510 Dan Dures: Yeah, absolutely. And, I mean, you talked about steering around the icebergs here, nice segue into our next slide on this one, but this is a really important image for me, because it's just… 146 00:22:22.580 --> 00:22:39.170 Dan Dures: really captures what we're trying to achieve, right? We know the PMO is not empowered to be the guy making decisions, to stop projects, to decide exactly when things start, but the PMO has a really important opportunity to enable leadership to make good decisions. 147 00:22:39.590 --> 00:22:46.209 Dan Dures: So, again, most leadership teams, will have an innate… they will want to do the right thing. 148 00:22:46.440 --> 00:22:52.290 Dan Dures: The PMO is there to help them do the right thing by structuring the data, by presenting the choices. 149 00:22:52.390 --> 00:22:58.400 Dan Dures: In order to mean that the prioritization becomes possible for the leadership to do. 150 00:22:58.890 --> 00:23:06.389 Dan Dures: So asking people… asking leaders what they… what they value most is part of that process, but if you stop there, you will not achieve. 151 00:23:06.450 --> 00:23:21.300 Dan Dures: what we call value-led prioritization, because it's not building the data model and the kind of implementation capability that you need to go along with, you know, the initial kind of preference that leadership will suggest. So… 152 00:23:21.560 --> 00:23:26.419 Dan Dures: This is about how projects can deliver transformation effectively. 153 00:23:27.020 --> 00:23:41.860 Dan Dures: And that might be the invisible projects, it might be the big strategic projects, it might be from one directorate or from another directorate. It's about turning that whole mishmash of data and noise into a rational program of change. 154 00:23:44.220 --> 00:23:48.060 Gregor Androjna: I like the term that we call PMOs navigators. 155 00:23:48.440 --> 00:23:49.280 Dan Dures: Yes. 156 00:23:50.310 --> 00:23:51.730 Dan Dures: Value Navigators. 157 00:23:51.730 --> 00:23:53.259 Gregor Androjna: Value navigators, yeah, exactly. 158 00:23:53.260 --> 00:24:10.359 Dan Dures: Yeah, trusted advisors helping steer the organization. So, we will talk about value prioritization. We've sort of… we have a little formula. For those of you that are interested in this kind of thing, I've just updated our Ultimate Guide. You can Google it and jump on and find it online. 159 00:24:11.130 --> 00:24:25.559 Dan Dures: But we passionately believe there are three elements that you need to succeed in prioritization. One is value. We've talked about value a lot, but it's quantifying value, and this is around the modeling, 160 00:24:26.060 --> 00:24:33.170 Dan Dures: and everything involved, and again, I'm not here to bang on about AHP today, but that's what it does. 161 00:24:33.390 --> 00:24:36.769 Dan Dures: constraints is… is critical. Again. 162 00:24:37.050 --> 00:24:51.849 Dan Dures: you'd be stunned how many organizations kind of ignore constraints and hope they can get everything done. But if you can't model them, quantify them, and control them, they will control you. So, ignoring them is rarely a good solution. 163 00:24:52.080 --> 00:24:55.289 Dan Dures: And again, the sort of secret hidden element of this is buy-in. 164 00:24:55.620 --> 00:25:00.990 Dan Dures: If you do not build a model and a process that people trust, it won't work 165 00:25:01.300 --> 00:25:06.140 Dan Dures: You will… you won't get that behavior. And if you don't make your process easy enough. 166 00:25:06.380 --> 00:25:16.819 Dan Dures: people will not engage with it. So you need to make your process and the data trustworthy, and you also need to make it the easy route, so, actually people follow it. 167 00:25:16.990 --> 00:25:22.769 Dan Dures: Because it makes life effective, it works, not because you've got a big stick and you force them to. 168 00:25:24.460 --> 00:25:27.799 Gregor Androjna: I think this is one of the most important slides, 169 00:25:28.200 --> 00:25:31.109 Gregor Androjna: Because it's, simple, it's straight. 170 00:25:31.360 --> 00:25:35.640 Gregor Androjna: And it shows the picture of the practices. 171 00:25:35.750 --> 00:25:44.889 Gregor Androjna: I'm saying that, PMOs are usually Working around execution, and our… Challenge with constraints, right? 172 00:25:45.010 --> 00:25:51.699 Gregor Androjna: And these constraints sounds like complaints, nothing more to the leadership. 173 00:25:51.940 --> 00:25:58.100 Gregor Androjna: And they have no mandate to talk about or connect to values, to talk about business. 174 00:25:58.180 --> 00:26:06.989 Gregor Androjna: So, they cannot connect and help. And then again, they are trying to get buy-in, and this is… 175 00:26:06.990 --> 00:26:10.890 Gregor Androjna: The one maybe most, missed point. 176 00:26:10.890 --> 00:26:30.669 Gregor Androjna: Because we are usually talking about a good communication, but then again, it's about buy-in, it's about understanding where the problems are, where should we focus, what is the priority, etc, etc. And without proper communication and buy-in for different stakeholders, outside, inside, etc. 177 00:26:30.670 --> 00:26:45.200 Gregor Androjna: we have great challenges. So, if nothing else, this slide, I think it's very important to understand. And PMO's has to focus beyond constraints and execution to the value and buy-in. 178 00:26:45.760 --> 00:26:48.970 Dan Dures: Brilliant, yeah, and if you've ever tried prioritization but it hasn't quite stuck. 179 00:26:49.720 --> 00:26:58.830 Dan Dures: I would always start here. Did I achieve these three elements in what I did? And if not, this might help explain the reason that that system didn't stick. 180 00:27:00.510 --> 00:27:07.179 Dan Dures: And again, we've been sort of alluding to this as we go, but it's really important as PMOs 181 00:27:08.010 --> 00:27:19.079 Dan Dures: that you believe that you can do this. So that you don't see prioritization as this kind of abstract thing that leaders do, and that you just suffer the consequences because they do it badly. 182 00:27:19.230 --> 00:27:25.280 Dan Dures: You know, your role, and the opportunity, is very much around, 183 00:27:25.810 --> 00:27:38.280 Dan Dures: in terms of leadership responsibility, it's about giving them solutions. So it's not giving them the problem, it's late, this project's late, we've got this bottleneck here, it's actually coming up with solutions. 184 00:27:38.600 --> 00:27:43.949 Dan Dures: Combinations of projects that they can select in order to best deliver their goals. 185 00:27:44.690 --> 00:27:56.969 Dan Dures: It's about understanding that, collaboration is critical, so being that kind of function that joins the dots, that gets people working together, that supports the… 186 00:27:57.020 --> 00:28:08.539 Dan Dures: the communication, and it builds the kind of governance structure that literally puts the right decision makers in the right room at the right time. That's critical, because without that kind of scaffolding. 187 00:28:08.860 --> 00:28:11.509 Dan Dures: Decisions don't get made, right? And nothing happens. 188 00:28:13.290 --> 00:28:28.560 Dan Dures: There is a data element to it as well, and again, don't overdo it on the data, but if you don't have good data going into this process, it's just talking, and it's just… things go in circles, and you can't sustain in bed and start to scale. 189 00:28:28.980 --> 00:28:33.350 Dan Dures: And finally, Oh, this is really important. Obviously. 190 00:28:33.650 --> 00:28:37.640 Dan Dures: Gregor, they should do everything we tell them to, right? But, in reality… 191 00:28:37.870 --> 00:28:52.429 Dan Dures: Prioritization is not a kind of copy-paste process that you can say is exactly this. So we do have a framework that you can download it with steps. It's kind of designed as an aid memoir, a checklist, some ideas of things you should look at. 192 00:28:52.430 --> 00:29:06.460 Dan Dures: But ultimately, when you implement prioritization, the language has to feel right for you. The level of complexity has to feel right for you. The approach has to feel right for you. It can't just be, here's the standard, go. 193 00:29:06.560 --> 00:29:19.080 Dan Dures: You know, your maturity, your culture, the nature of the portfolios you're managing, they will all need to be built into the solution so it feels like you're adding just the right level of structure. 194 00:29:19.710 --> 00:29:22.310 Dan Dures: Right, have you ever had two clients the same, Gregor? 195 00:29:22.670 --> 00:29:37.960 Gregor Androjna: Yeah, well, no, actually, not in my lifetime. Well, there's a great challenge about this, because everybody's unique, you know, the business is unique, people, culture, everything is unique, and you simply cannot 196 00:29:38.030 --> 00:29:46.049 Gregor Androjna: copy any processes, right? Because it doesn't work that way, and from that point of view, yeah, every framework is great. 197 00:29:46.050 --> 00:29:58.560 Gregor Androjna: But then again, you have… we have to take it lightly, with, pinpoint of specifics, and finding, the root problems, root causes, etc, what we will talk also. 198 00:29:58.890 --> 00:30:07.660 Dan Dures: Yeah. We had a good question from Urvi on asking about the minimum set of criteria for an MVP. 199 00:30:07.990 --> 00:30:19.140 Dan Dures: which feels like a modeling question, so I might pick that one up, but, I'd say, you know, 4 or 5 criteria. Anything that can kind of split the field effectively is fine. 200 00:30:19.960 --> 00:30:30.709 Dan Dures: we don't… we tend to recommend between 4 and 5, or maybe kind of up to, sort of, 4, 5, but with more sub-criteria if you want more details. So, it's just about… 201 00:30:31.060 --> 00:30:42.150 Dan Dures: that minimum level that builds confidence. So, if you've got big projects worth a lot of money, a lot of complexity, you probably do need a bigger model, even at MVP. If you've got a relatively 202 00:30:42.420 --> 00:30:53.600 Dan Dures: simple portfolio, don't overdo it. Don't overcomplicate it. So, the smallest number possible that differentiates your projects and builds faith that your model is good. 203 00:30:53.720 --> 00:30:55.440 Dan Dures: That would be my advice. 204 00:31:00.130 --> 00:31:01.060 Dan Dures: So… 205 00:31:01.700 --> 00:31:11.939 Dan Dures: Gregor, I'm going to hand over to you at this point, I think, and you can explain what life looks like from a PMO, and why this might be a reality people find familiar. 206 00:31:12.810 --> 00:31:24.700 Gregor Androjna: Yeah, well, we can show different pictures, but then again, if you imagine, that we are running a city, which is behind, and, 207 00:31:24.700 --> 00:31:33.559 Gregor Androjna: this, running city is basically our operations, right? And, we usually could say that, we have roads. 208 00:31:33.580 --> 00:31:46.970 Gregor Androjna: which are some kind of paths of processes to get things done, right? And there's a lot of roads, and there are busy roads, and we could see also the vehicles as tools. 209 00:31:46.990 --> 00:31:58.429 Gregor Androjna: and people who are responsible to deliver, those initiatives, whatever they are doing. But then again, there's a lot of stuff going on around. 210 00:31:58.430 --> 00:32:10.620 Gregor Androjna: And the challenge is that it's quite busy when you are in PMO and you see all what's going on, even though you're not connection directly to the operations, but just project 211 00:32:10.620 --> 00:32:24.809 Gregor Androjna: feel this, enough, and, it's, really changing. But when, we also, try to consider what this looks like from the perspective of leadership, right? Yeah. 212 00:32:25.110 --> 00:32:28.189 Dan Dures: It looks more like this, right? 213 00:32:28.190 --> 00:32:43.789 Gregor Androjna: Yeah, it's more this if we are challenged with strategic, let's say, projects, right? And there is no other things to be done, right, from them. So, why… why there's no… why there is so slow progress, right? 214 00:32:43.890 --> 00:32:53.389 Gregor Androjna: Why projects are delayed, you know? Where's the quality, you know? And why the prices or costs are rising, right? 215 00:32:53.770 --> 00:32:58.069 Gregor Androjna: So, it's, quite a challenge, to… 216 00:32:59.020 --> 00:33:16.370 Gregor Androjna: become this navigator to show the leadership that there is more. I think the biggest challenge is that we are forgetting that there is operation, there are investment, there are strategic projects, there are transformation projects, right? And there are also small stuff. 217 00:33:16.370 --> 00:33:19.060 Gregor Androjna: projects, which are those bicycles, I would say. 218 00:33:19.060 --> 00:33:22.240 Gregor Androjna: Which… it's hard to handle, right? 219 00:33:22.510 --> 00:33:33.259 Dan Dures: And yeah, and the reality could… solving this isn't one solution, right? It could be a bunch of things. So, it could be, how do we solve it? We put in a cycle lane, and all the cyclists use the cycle lane. 220 00:33:33.440 --> 00:33:48.610 Dan Dures: AKA, you know, a smaller project portfolio. It could be we ban bicycles. We decide we hate bicycles, just cars. AKA, you know, focus, stop everything that's not, you know, strategic. It could be that we say, do you know what, we need bigger roads. 221 00:33:49.040 --> 00:33:53.870 Dan Dures: There are lots of different solutions that you could put in place to solve it. 222 00:33:54.960 --> 00:34:14.229 Dan Dures: But it's important to understand that, you know, leadership can see that challenge and help you solve it, as part of delivering, kind of, full prioritization, rather than just struggling, going, we can't fit another car on the road, I know it looks empty to you, but actually, it's full. And if we add more… the more cars we add. 223 00:34:14.600 --> 00:34:16.940 Dan Dures: The slower the ones we've got will go. 224 00:34:17.130 --> 00:34:24.450 Dan Dures: And this is the point about that clogged road, you know? If we go… if we go back here, nobody's getting anywhere anytime soon, right? 225 00:34:24.750 --> 00:34:30.400 Dan Dures: So we need the road to look like this, so that those projects can get to where they need to go to fast. 226 00:34:30.830 --> 00:34:36.150 Gregor Androjna: Yeah. Well, reality is somewhere between, but then again, the point is that, 227 00:34:36.150 --> 00:34:59.589 Gregor Androjna: we have different perspectives, right, from leadership to top down and up to top, and it looks different, and we should not jump to conclusions, to solutions, or let's say, let bicycles on the bus and make a straight lane for the buses only. These are solutions, of course, but then again, we have to understand deeper root causes. 228 00:34:59.590 --> 00:35:01.590 Gregor Androjna: What's going on in real life? 229 00:35:01.930 --> 00:35:11.940 Dan Dures: Yeah, no, absolutely. And take leadership on that journey, and when we talk about data, I think one of the most critical things you can do with data is just explaining that the road is full of bicycles. 230 00:35:12.330 --> 00:35:12.940 Gregor Androjna: Yeah. 231 00:35:12.940 --> 00:35:14.349 Dan Dures: Count the bicycles. 232 00:35:14.470 --> 00:35:27.230 Dan Dures: start to understand if those bicycles are making critical journeys or not. So you can start to actually take control of them by turning, if you like, a lot of activity into a structured, governable data set. 233 00:35:27.530 --> 00:35:35.580 Gregor Androjna: Yeah, I would say let's put them in the packages, or buckets, right, and manage them in portfolio as well. 234 00:35:36.040 --> 00:35:50.390 Dan Dures: Very good, yes. Now, Gregor, you're going to take us through an example where I think you've done this, right? You've faced into this challenge, and you've seen real value even through, you know, relatively, 235 00:35:50.930 --> 00:35:52.640 Dan Dures: straightforward MVP, so… 236 00:35:52.640 --> 00:36:07.700 Gregor Androjna: Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, let's go back to the traffic jams and everything. If we look at the PMO project manager as a driver on this highway, and he's responsible for delivering projects. 237 00:36:07.700 --> 00:36:16.580 Gregor Androjna: In time, cost, and, quality, so triple constraints. We easily get into the blink game. But then again. 238 00:36:16.580 --> 00:36:34.340 Gregor Androjna: we can try to help him, or train him, or give him better tools, or support, whatever. But then, if we ask him what's going on, he will usually say, well, it's not about me, it's about my team. My team is not delivering the fast 239 00:36:34.340 --> 00:36:41.490 Gregor Androjna: the right, deliverables, right time, and et cetera, et cetera. But then again, if we ask them. 240 00:36:41.490 --> 00:36:56.779 Gregor Androjna: they will say the same. So, we are trying our best, our desk is full, there is too much projects on my desk, and everything is urgent, you know, everything is priority one, and we cannot manage all of those, right? 241 00:36:56.910 --> 00:37:04.670 Gregor Androjna: Even though we cannot do, better with trainings, you know, if we, put, 242 00:37:04.720 --> 00:37:23.200 Gregor Androjna: that project manager or team in the trainings, or give them the additional lessons learned about fast driving, safe driving, or whatever, giving him better car, do good maintenance on the cars, right? He is still in traffic jam. 243 00:37:23.200 --> 00:37:39.630 Gregor Androjna: Right? So, we need to get to the bottom of the challenge, the problem, what's going on, and usually, we are, trying to figure out how to manage those, people, resources, and, get into the… 244 00:37:39.690 --> 00:37:49.620 Gregor Androjna: manage… resource management solutions and tools, right? But then again, we figure out there's simply too much work to be done to be scheduled. 245 00:37:49.650 --> 00:37:55.799 Gregor Androjna: in those, in those plans, right? So we figure out simply that it's too much 246 00:37:55.820 --> 00:38:15.160 Gregor Androjna: projects, right? It's not just projects, it's our small staffs, our bicyclists, our operations staff, right, which we have to handle. So, end of the day, we figure out that if we dig enough, we, a lot of times, figure out that there is a prioritization problem in the organization. 247 00:38:15.160 --> 00:38:36.619 Gregor Androjna: not just such as a problem, but the point is, if we manage prioritization, we will manage projects better, right? But then again, we can go forward. Also, there's a question if there's clear business case, if there's a clear value of a project, if there's no clear value, so how can we do prioritization? 248 00:38:36.620 --> 00:38:52.179 Gregor Androjna: If there's no clear prioritization, how can we manage resources, right? If it's too much, you know, on the desk, so how can project team members deliver stuff, right? And how can project managers deliver projects again? 249 00:38:52.550 --> 00:39:07.080 Dan Dures: And this is where we start to get to that minimum data, right? It's just quantify, starting to be able to quantify the value of the benefits, starting to be able to quantify the level of demand that the project will require. 250 00:39:07.280 --> 00:39:13.029 Gregor Androjna: So, end of the day, the problem is not project manager, which is usually to be blamed to. 251 00:39:13.030 --> 00:39:30.959 Gregor Androjna: But understanding, basically what's going on, understanding the project value, understanding the intake, of projects, so, do staggering and, cancellation of some projects, or which are… can be waste, et cetera, et cetera. So, 252 00:39:30.960 --> 00:39:46.050 Gregor Androjna: We can try to manage all of those through, let's say, control centers, like, for traffic and etc, which is useful. But end of the day, we can manage to some degree all those. 253 00:39:46.050 --> 00:39:58.009 Gregor Androjna: End of the day, we need some, not just regulation of tracking, we need also regulation of investments, of the, change proposals, you know, those small stuff. 254 00:39:58.010 --> 00:40:17.519 Gregor Androjna: And we, simply need to manage also those, in, in, a common portfolio, so that we deliver the right changes, so that the projects are, actually, getting, faster in, the execution. 255 00:40:17.520 --> 00:40:26.990 Gregor Androjna: So we deliver more projects in shorter time, and with that focus on the right things, we simply deliver more value, right? 256 00:40:28.090 --> 00:40:31.559 Dan Dures: Brilliant, yeah, now… You say deliver more value. 257 00:40:32.400 --> 00:40:46.069 Dan Dures: what I'm really excited about today is to hear a little bit more about a case study where you've delivered value, right? So, we've been talking about one of the guys you've been working with where you are. How did that come about, and how did these kind of factors come into play? 258 00:40:47.580 --> 00:41:02.430 Gregor Androjna: Well, basically, in general, all, of course, but then it bands in the client or the case, which are, maybe stronger or, weaker, to address. But it's, 259 00:41:02.850 --> 00:41:03.960 Gregor Androjna: let's say… 260 00:41:04.070 --> 00:41:16.049 Gregor Androjna: can be… we can have easy approach. It's not always about heavy processes, heavy approaches, heavy frameworks. The first thing on my mind is always keep it simple, right? 261 00:41:16.290 --> 00:41:23.470 Gregor Androjna: get, to understand about the, the problem. So, if you go to the next slide… 262 00:41:23.470 --> 00:41:41.329 Gregor Androjna: Maybe to… would be easier to understand. So, the first point is about understanding the problem. So, basically, understanding the mindset where we might have challenges. So, for that, we have to do some kind of assessment, whatever do we do. 263 00:41:41.330 --> 00:41:46.950 Gregor Androjna: we have to listen to the people, right? Because they're explaining where they are stuck, right? 264 00:41:46.950 --> 00:42:09.030 Gregor Androjna: And we can get to understand what should be stopped, or what should be improved, or what should be… we should start doing, and etc, etc. But the first point is to understand, really, the problem. And we have to align on the problem. If we are not aligned on the problem, everybody will focus on different solutions, right? 265 00:42:09.150 --> 00:42:17.450 Gregor Androjna: So, since we find those few, most, let's say, 266 00:42:17.550 --> 00:42:40.810 Gregor Androjna: valued problems, potential problems, potential solutions. We have to figure out what are the reasons that we have those problems, because when we find the root cause of those problems, these are usually the reason why several or tens of symptoms are pumping out all over the organization. 267 00:42:40.810 --> 00:42:49.629 Gregor Androjna: And if we don't find that root cause and address that root cause with a proper solution, which have a clear value. 268 00:42:49.720 --> 00:43:00.040 Gregor Androjna: And we picked that solution because it has a big value and has understanding between the leadership and stakeholders, so we get to the buy-in. 269 00:43:00.070 --> 00:43:17.330 Gregor Androjna: How, important it is, this initiative. And in our case, let's say this initiative was, based on, under… getting the understanding that there are people constraint problems, 270 00:43:17.380 --> 00:43:24.689 Gregor Androjna: And the leadership believes that they are doing the best on managing portfolio. 271 00:43:24.820 --> 00:43:29.670 Gregor Androjna: That they are, having clear picture on the value, on priorities. 272 00:43:29.670 --> 00:43:54.539 Gregor Androjna: But then again, the translation was lost to the execution, and end of the day, we saw and get to the understanding that, yeah, we… that might be a clear picture for you. At the top, there are clear priorities, but to people, there is no clarity. Everything is priority, number one, and they simply do not follow priorities, and 273 00:43:54.540 --> 00:44:04.009 Gregor Androjna: From that point of view, it became clear that we should do something about prioritization, so we put it on the roadmap, we, 274 00:44:04.010 --> 00:44:13.020 Gregor Androjna: chopped this solution also in the maturity levels. This is a very important step. 275 00:44:13.020 --> 00:44:25.209 Gregor Androjna: That you don't, develop the, let's say, solution to the perfect end, or the maturity, before, you address also maybe other 276 00:44:25.210 --> 00:44:35.980 Gregor Androjna: Solutions which, can be more important, have more potential value after you deliver one simple solution, to… up to the one level. 277 00:44:35.980 --> 00:44:52.339 Gregor Androjna: So, when delivering this change, it's very important to understand when with roadmap, how mature, how far will we go with this change, and what kind of value we'll be delivering. 278 00:44:52.340 --> 00:45:01.679 Gregor Androjna: Right? So, since, we wanted to improve, the prioritization, it was all about, 279 00:45:01.790 --> 00:45:21.039 Gregor Androjna: Getting, governance simpler. So, we, actually has, changed a little, with our organization, and we, established the steering group meeting, where we have the first task to make clear what is the priority list. 280 00:45:21.590 --> 00:45:36.570 Gregor Androjna: Because there were some priorities, but there was some lists on the system, but people did not look at it, they did not follow it, it was not clear, it was sometimes not up to date. And the first point was to make clear, clear. 281 00:45:36.570 --> 00:45:55.739 Gregor Androjna: what is priority number 1 and 2 and 5 for those specific project managers, so that they didn't have, like, 30 projects in the quarter, and trying to figure out which is more important. So, transparency is the first step. The next step was, of course, also to clear this list. 282 00:45:55.740 --> 00:46:09.829 Gregor Androjna: With the waste, with, ones with low value, with the ones we didn't have, clearance to go, on the, let's say, field execution. So, we simply… 283 00:46:09.970 --> 00:46:12.909 Gregor Androjna: Needed, a clear priority list. 284 00:46:13.000 --> 00:46:36.230 Gregor Androjna: And, clear communication with people to focus and, on the right stuff, to stagger those projects, to, start fewer of them at the same time, right? Finish them quickly, have this great focus on, execution of those few, close them, and start next one. So we can, also. 285 00:46:36.230 --> 00:46:45.709 Gregor Androjna: manage also issues, changes, risk, and everything around what was happening. And we can do this, let's say, without additional. 286 00:46:45.710 --> 00:47:01.970 Gregor Androjna: big processes and tools just have to adopt the culture and make an understanding what is really important. And this is really the first step. If we start with heavy process or with heavy tools, we will not solve that. 287 00:47:01.970 --> 00:47:18.199 Gregor Androjna: So, we have to keep it simple, we have to keep it on the level of low maturity, just one step ahead to get understanding, buy-in, mindset, and everything, and learn from that, and iterate with the new challenge and solution, right? 288 00:47:18.340 --> 00:47:20.289 Gregor Androjna: And from that point of view. 289 00:47:20.670 --> 00:47:26.810 Gregor Androjna: In one… next year, we actually have achieved… oh, client has achieved. 290 00:47:26.860 --> 00:47:36.710 Gregor Androjna: Also with my, let's say, humble participation, the, 84% of higher, realization of 291 00:47:36.710 --> 00:47:47.690 Gregor Androjna: projects on the field, so more electricity grid transformers were, implemented in grid, and also 68% more financial 292 00:47:47.690 --> 00:48:06.310 Gregor Androjna: realization was achieved, as well as some cases, free time, shorter time was achieved in getting, clearance, for, where we can, where they can do work on the field, right? And et cetera, et cetera. There's a lot of. 293 00:48:06.310 --> 00:48:11.590 Gregor Androjna: Things around. But it's all about choosing the right challenge. 294 00:48:11.590 --> 00:48:25.720 Gregor Androjna: the right amount and maturity level of, that solution, and try to set up surrounding also with the additional, you know, 295 00:48:25.840 --> 00:48:29.900 Gregor Androjna: Changes, small changes, but there's also a trick. 296 00:48:30.110 --> 00:48:41.480 Gregor Androjna: not to get involved too wide, to different challenges. It's really challenging to focus on one thing, solve it, deliver the value, and go to the next one. 297 00:48:42.170 --> 00:49:00.990 Dan Dures: And I think what's really impressed me as we've talked about this is just the scale of those stats, right? And as you say, this is an MVP, this isn't something that is hugely complicated, but through solving some really fundamental planning capabilities. 298 00:49:01.140 --> 00:49:07.649 Dan Dures: You've been able to transform, or help transform the effectiveness of a key part of this organization. 299 00:49:07.780 --> 00:49:10.780 Dan Dures: And, and actually being able to then. 300 00:49:11.190 --> 00:49:23.460 Dan Dures: talk to those statistics and play them back to management. Going right back to where we started is a real boon for supporting the profile and the ongoing success of 301 00:49:23.870 --> 00:49:36.069 Dan Dures: PMO. So, rather than telling people you're running processes, or you're already busy, or you've got a new report, it's actually being able to point to this as the reason why the PMO should be the last thing anyone considers cutting on funding. 302 00:49:36.400 --> 00:49:40.910 Gregor Androjna: You know, the saying, the, culture eats, 303 00:49:41.480 --> 00:49:44.739 Gregor Androjna: strategy, or let's say, processes for breakfast, right? 304 00:49:44.740 --> 00:49:45.400 Dan Dures: Yeah. 305 00:49:45.400 --> 00:50:03.549 Gregor Androjna: And as it's sincerely true, here is the case, because just changing culture, people, mindset, and everything, we can achieve a lot, and now we can imagine how much more they can achieve with proper solutions, processes, and tools, but, step by step, right? 306 00:50:03.550 --> 00:50:04.650 Dan Dures: Yes, absolutely. 307 00:50:04.920 --> 00:50:07.230 Dan Dures: Fantastic. So… 308 00:50:08.210 --> 00:50:13.919 Dan Dures: As we approach, we've got a few months left, we'll try and keep some time for questions. I'll just zip through the last bits. 309 00:50:14.260 --> 00:50:20.750 Dan Dures: because I just want to kind of give you a sense, of what we can do to help. So… 310 00:50:21.970 --> 00:50:31.510 Dan Dures: Recently, we've just put out a PMO's guide to prioritization, so I'm sure we'll be able to include this on the email we send to follow up, but we've built… 311 00:50:31.640 --> 00:50:38.650 Dan Dures: as I say, 11 steps, each step has 5 or 6 checklists. I would stress this is not designed to be… 312 00:50:38.800 --> 00:50:56.789 Dan Dures: completely rigid. It is simply, if you are sitting down thinking, how can I do what Gregor's done, or equivalent, it's the advice we know works, the processes and the things to think about. And to Gregor's experience, you might go lighter on the modeling, you might go lighter on the process planning when you're starting. 313 00:50:56.950 --> 00:51:04.050 Dan Dures: It's a case of finding the right balance for you, your organization, and the level of maturity you're solving for. 314 00:51:04.740 --> 00:51:08.260 Dan Dures: And the point is, we've sort of broken it into these three chunks. 315 00:51:08.630 --> 00:51:20.450 Dan Dures: It is a lot of it is about planning, it's about building buy-in before you rush off to start doing something new, so you know you've got a, an approach that has the support of the organization, of the leadership. 316 00:51:20.510 --> 00:51:33.679 Dan Dures: And really understands the problem it's solving for. And everyone can appreciate the problem it's solving for. This is not a PMO process we've invented for fun. It is something that solves things that are fundamental to the business. 317 00:51:34.550 --> 00:51:48.579 Dan Dures: Doing is about reaching that MVP and building momentum. Again, I've seen stuff with clients before where it's like, they'll put up a process and they'll say, well, do you do this process? No. 318 00:51:48.800 --> 00:51:50.670 Dan Dures: But you wrote this 2 years ago! 319 00:51:50.870 --> 00:52:03.619 Dan Dures: Yeah, there's no one's… no! You've got to… if you're going to do things, you've got to have momentum, and you've got to have a really short gap between the kind of concept and the first value being delivered. Otherwise, simply, it'll get lost. 320 00:52:05.050 --> 00:52:18.040 Dan Dures: And then the review is about the iteration. It's about then building the maturity, building the stability, in order to take what hopefully is a really good MVP, and then embed it as an ongoing, 321 00:52:18.940 --> 00:52:23.340 Dan Dures: Best practice, a capability that can thrive within the organization. 322 00:52:27.590 --> 00:52:43.319 Dan Dures: I will put in a short ad break for those of you that know us. We do, transparent choice. We build a lot of stuff around best practice. We also do software that is designed to support prioritization, prioritization modeling specifically. To Gregor's point. 323 00:52:44.220 --> 00:53:02.190 Dan Dures: you may not need it for your MVP, depending on the level of complexity you have. You may think you can do everything in a spreadsheet. It might be true, if you've got a relatively simple portfolio, but I would say, and I have to credit AI for giving me this parallel, but it did make me laugh, you know. 324 00:53:02.540 --> 00:53:14.269 Dan Dures: Can you do this all in a spreadsheet? Yes, but technically, you can also cut your own hair. But should you cut your own hair? Answer, probably not. You know, and it's a bit like that. 325 00:53:14.510 --> 00:53:28.940 Dan Dures: do you… should you be using a spreadsheet to do your prioritization? We think not, that's why we've built the tool. And if you've got that feeling, give me a call, and I can show you what we do, and just explore if there's a fit. 326 00:53:30.060 --> 00:53:33.099 Dan Dures: I feel like it's the end of the ad break now, I can move on. 327 00:53:33.470 --> 00:53:37.199 Dan Dures: But, and, and, and finally. 328 00:53:37.890 --> 00:53:44.459 Dan Dures: I guess I'd like to sort of leave with a kind of call to action, if you like. There are lots of reasons why 329 00:53:44.850 --> 00:53:55.510 Dan Dures: you'll leave this call and then decide to do nothing. Hopefully, the fact that we've not inspired you won't be one of them, but you will be busy, you'll have lots of day jobs, you'll have fires to fight. 330 00:53:55.510 --> 00:54:12.280 Dan Dures: you'll have tried prioritization, someone will say, well, we do prioritization, we have a meeting for that, we have a planning process for that. You might worry that you haven't got the maturity. You might be looking at a process and say, well, we've done it last week, and it's not coming up again for a while. There's always reasons. 331 00:54:13.230 --> 00:54:28.709 Dan Dures: But there is one compelling reason to act now, and that is because value-led prioritization, we believe, is the single biggest lever that you have to drive change from the PMO within your organization. And therefore, you know, if you want to elevate from 332 00:54:28.840 --> 00:54:37.199 Dan Dures: You know, reporting function and in order to be that kind of high-impact, trusted advisor steering the 333 00:54:37.300 --> 00:54:41.759 Dan Dures: the organization between the icebergs, we think prioritization is where you should start. 334 00:54:43.460 --> 00:54:54.780 Dan Dures: Now, I've got a couple of questions to come back on, and do feel free to jump into the chat if you've got additional points, but Gregor, is there anything else you'd like to add at this juncture before we finish? 335 00:54:54.810 --> 00:55:12.349 Gregor Androjna: Jess, it's not just about prioritizing projects, it's about… prioritization is important in our life, right? So, we have to make decisions at home, we need to make a decision what we are working on, we need to make a decision about, I don't know, leadership level, right? 336 00:55:12.350 --> 00:55:20.510 Gregor Androjna: And we also need to make decisions on projects, you know, small changes, initiatives. It's all around. 337 00:55:20.600 --> 00:55:35.200 Gregor Androjna: And there's a challenge if we are not doing the right small changes, we will never succeed to have a great, let's say, process for executing investments and other initiatives. 338 00:55:35.390 --> 00:55:45.620 Gregor Androjna: And end of the day, we are addressing the challenge that we will not deliver those value our leadership is expecting, right? 339 00:55:45.880 --> 00:56:02.339 Dan Dures: Yeah, very well said, very well said. Just to close out on a couple of questions as well. We had a question from Urvi about, tacit knowledge, I think, and… and when… when criteria and, if you like, gut instinct disagree, 340 00:56:02.530 --> 00:56:08.009 Dan Dures: Which, and if you ever look at it now, you'll see, Gregor, but my… 341 00:56:08.940 --> 00:56:18.599 Dan Dures: response on that would be, first off, you should always be testing when you're building a set of criteria. Test your criteria against projects you know. 342 00:56:18.760 --> 00:56:28.550 Dan Dures: to make sure that, you know, the vast majority of pros and cons are built into the criteria. Criteria should simply be the pros and cons for projects. 343 00:56:29.230 --> 00:56:37.720 Dan Dures: built into a sort of, if you like, consistent framework that can be used to measure all projects. Now, you will build your model. 344 00:56:37.720 --> 00:56:53.559 Dan Dures: And of course, you will find exceptions that break your model, that somehow something special does need to be considered. And what I'd say is that a prioritization model is your 80-90% solution. It should be helping guide most of your decision. 345 00:56:54.320 --> 00:57:06.679 Dan Dures: But there should always be scope in a process to look at the model, look at some of the marginal decisions and the recommendations, and go, there is a valid reason why that is not right. There's a valid reason why we need to include this project. 346 00:57:07.490 --> 00:57:09.370 Dan Dures: But make sure it is a valid reason. 347 00:57:09.520 --> 00:57:13.049 Dan Dures: And make sure whoever's making that call is accountable for that call. 348 00:57:13.260 --> 00:57:16.240 Dan Dures: Because that's the point, is we make these… 349 00:57:16.690 --> 00:57:22.280 Dan Dures: The subjective overrides, the exception, and not the foundation for everything. 350 00:57:23.370 --> 00:57:23.930 Gregor Androjna: No. 351 00:57:27.990 --> 00:57:34.610 Dan Dures: And finally, that's the last… the question we had a while ago, actually, now, but I did say we'll come back to it. 352 00:57:35.060 --> 00:57:46.950 Dan Dures: was just around, example of instances where you were able to identify the right data, and how you got accepted. I just wanted to sort of, I guess, use this opportunity, maybe, Gregor, just to kind of re-emphasize your case study. 353 00:57:47.000 --> 00:57:57.090 Dan Dures: And say, how much data did you collect during that case study? Was there a lot, or was it a relatively low data-driven exercise? 354 00:57:57.090 --> 00:58:03.079 Gregor Androjna: Well, it was relatively low. It's about making the clear picture of the priority projects, right? 355 00:58:03.720 --> 00:58:08.860 Gregor Androjna: And, yeah, okay, something you can do by just checking it out. 356 00:58:09.020 --> 00:58:23.119 Gregor Androjna: But then again, it can get complicated, but the first thing and first point is to make it simple at the start, right? Not to get too complicated in details of gathering data and everything. 357 00:58:23.120 --> 00:58:31.790 Gregor Androjna: Yeah, data can be wrong, right? But, then again, you cannot make, data, 358 00:58:31.870 --> 00:58:51.840 Gregor Androjna: Right? Before you change mindset, before you change culture, before you change people, to understand why they are participating in projects, why they are delivering that project, not about triple constraint, it's about value. And when they understand that, they will create better data, right? 359 00:58:51.840 --> 00:58:59.080 Gregor Androjna: And, when they understand that they are part of prioritization, they were part of prioritization, 360 00:58:59.080 --> 00:59:12.140 Gregor Androjna: setup, right? They will also follow it, and they will, make sure the data is okay. So, we cannot force to make better data, we can, make, 361 00:59:12.350 --> 00:59:23.920 Gregor Androjna: Let's say, smart decisions for changes, and try to focus on changing people and mindset, and build up to the level that we get better data. 362 00:59:24.460 --> 00:59:25.140 Dan Dures: Brilliant. 363 00:59:25.240 --> 00:59:41.370 Dan Dures: And on which note, Gregor, we've reached the end of our hour. We're actually on time. So, thank you very, very much for joining us. Thank you to those participants who've given us questions and listened to us. 364 00:59:41.420 --> 00:59:46.959 Dan Dures: We will send out, doubtlessly, all these details to you after today's call. 365 00:59:47.240 --> 00:59:57.830 Dan Dures: this is me, this is Gregor, if you want to kind of get into the software, if you want to help building that kind of MVP, reach out and we can discuss how we can make that work. 366 00:59:58.450 --> 01:00:17.919 Dan Dures: By all means, if you've got a question you didn't get a chance to ask it, or it hits you in about 30 seconds after we hang up the call, again, you've got our details here. Jump on, get in touch, and yeah, we would love to continue this conversation in greater detail to find out more about your particular challenges. 367 01:00:18.080 --> 01:00:27.990 Gregor Androjna: Yeah, sure, I will make time, so send me an email, contact me on the LinkedIn, and maybe contact me there, and I will also answer, so… 368 01:00:28.140 --> 01:00:34.570 Dan Dures: Oh yeah, we love LinkedIn, so follow us on LinkedIn, and you can have more of the same, delivered to your phone every day. 369 01:00:34.810 --> 01:00:35.550 Gregor Androjna: Yeah. 370 01:00:36.450 --> 01:00:41.849 Dan Dures: Brilliant. Thank you very much, everyone. Okay, have a good rest of the day, wherever you are in the world. 371 01:00:42.630 --> 01:00:43.300 Gregor Androjna: Bye. 372 01:00:43.430 --> 01:00:44.380 Dan Dures: Cheers!