Better portfolios, better projects

John Edmonds explains how to use strategic portfolio management to bring about transformational change.

As the rate of change increases, organisations that have learned how to transform themselves through effective leadership and strategic control are more likely to survive and prosper. Portfolio, programme and change management are increasingly being recognised as key approaches to enable organisations to deliver their strategy and manage that transformation.

One example is a client of ours – a university with high ambitions in terms of change, but very stretched resources. There was a lot of project activity taking place, but it lacked focus or control across the campus, and project management capability was quite variable and dispersed. It had many so-called ‘strategic projects’, but there was little in the way of corporate control or direction. It therefore decided to implement a portfolio management strategy across the organisation and introduce programme management to ensure a focus on delivering the transformation required.

The university told us it had 130 major projects, involving approximately 70 project managers, plus project directors and sponsors – and it needed to engage with them all. Change like this brings huge challenges for everyone, but let’s focus on two roles – sponsors and project managers. The university was aware that, to make the change successful, support was needed from senior management, who needed to know exactly what was expected of them (this is important, as many organisations do not engage senior management in these situations). 

So, as part of our involvement, we started to tackle role-based learning requirements and develop bespoke training for programme directors and senior responsible owners. 

Finding a champion

Prior to this, important engagement occurred when the chief operating officer decided to attend the first major training that we delivered – a Managing Successful Programmes (MSP®) practitioner course. Arranging for such a high-level delegate to commit to this was quite a coup for the internal change team, and created a ‘champion’ for the activity to follow. He subsequently attended the opening of each MSP® course and opened the events with a talk that positioned the training in the wider corporate strategy. Better still, he also acted as a change champion among his peers in senior management. This put the new portfolio/programme approach squarely on the ‘agenda’ of senior management’s discussions — and, interestingly, many other members of the senior management team attended later MSP® training courses.

This could have been counterproductive. Many times we have witnessed senior managers becoming frustrated by a lot of the detail contained in frameworks such as MSP® and PRINCE2®, resulting in them becoming detached from the perceived bureaucracy involved. 

However, in this instance, there was a good deal of positive energy within the organisation, and, after all, it was an educational establishment, so we avoided this potential pitfall. Of course, it also helped that we were already planning follow-up events to tackle specific role-based learning requirements.

Together with the client, we had tailored the programme structure to meet its requirements by using the roles of programme director and senior responsible owner. Tailoring the method or framework is an essential element in engaging senior managers. An unthinking implementation of MSP®, PRINCE2® or any external standard would simply alienate, leading to its ultimate rejection.

We have always found that it is wise to remember that senior management already has experience, knowledge and wisdom about its organisation and the challenges it faces. We consider it essential to allow senior management a voice to express this in a time of change.

Engagement principles

The workshops we designed were as much about engagement as education. In his book, Practical People Engagement, Patrick Mayfield set out a series of principles for good engagement. Here are four that were valid in this instance:

Seek first to understand, then be understood. We ensured that we listened first to the experience of those senior managers.

Effective change is always led. Without the buy-in of senior management, the initiative will eventually falter.

Recognise and minimise the pain of change. They are all busy people and change means increased busyness. Our interventions must be thoughtful and helpful. 

Meaning trumps authority. Their favourite question is ‘Why?’ 

Our answers must be meaningful

Now it is time to discuss project managers themselves. Quite simply, the whole point of any project is to deliver something that will introduce change to one or more organisations, and while you, as project manager, may not be a part of the desired future state, you are a catalyst for the transition, and many people may be looking to you for guidance, ideas, expertise and advice about that process.

However, whereas project management is a series of relatively well-defined processes and concepts, the ideas behind portfolio, programme and change management are rather more equivocal. For project managers who thrive on certainty, the uncertainty and ambiguity of transformational change is a challenge.

Yet however vague transformational change might seem when compared with the relative discipline of project management, we have no choice but to recognise its vital part in organisational transformation. What characteristics would enable project managers to become better catalysts, and how can they develop the skills and knowledge required? The characteristics can be summarised as follows:

Enact

A project manager needs to act as a role model throughout an organisation. This involves setting a positive and meaningful example of how to lead change successfully. Two particular audiences for this ‘role modelling’ are senior managers and middle managers. Both groups in turn need to be encouraged to become role models themselves, and project managers can be instrumental in making this a reality. 

This ‘upward engagement’ is important as the programme moves on from the initial defining stages. The danger is that senior management becomes a little detached. Project managers need to maintain the momentum and keep the profile high.

Engage

Stakeholder engagement is so often the weak area of any project. In a recent survey, three-quarters of organisations stated that they defaulted to a top-down approach to communication, and less than 10 per cent encouraged dialogue around change initiatives. 

Project managers must begin to prioritise engagement and communication, as people need to understand and buy into the case for the change if that change is to succeed. All stakeholders need clear answers to the ‘why?’ questions around change. Once again, if project managers set an example in this area, others may well follow.

The sense of collaboration that was created at the university we were working with was a very positive element in moving things forward. Project managers must avoid the ‘us and them’ relationships that can be created in many project environments. The university asked us to design change-management workshops that project managers and business managers alike could attend. These were hands-on, pragmatic events that encouraged collaboration and joint working practices, thus raising the levels of engagement further.

Empower

Ultimately, change happens within the organisation; projects ‘simply’ deliver the products that allow it to happen. Therefore, the need to empower others is paramount. Change leaders at all levels in an organisation need to be recognised, equipped and supported so they are empowered to play their part in successful change.

The workshops gave people skills, ideas and approaches that they could use. This gave them practical tools in their hands and demonstrated that their organisation was actively empowering them to make a difference.

Successful business transformation calls for leadership from all levels – sponsors and senior managers, project managers and business managers – all of them collaborating and fully engaged.

John Edmonds is head of training and director of strategy and marketing at pearcemayfield.