PMOs Are a Beacon of Agility? Prove It
From the Voices on Project Management Blog
by Cameron McGaughy,
Lynda Bourne, Kevin Korterud, Peter Tarhanidis, Conrado Morlan, Jen Skrabak, Mario Trentim, Christian Bisson, Yasmina Khelifi, Sree Rao, Soma Bhattacharya, Emily Luijbregts, David Wakeman, Ramiro Rodrigues, Wanda Curlee, Lenka Pincot, cyndee miller, Jorge Martin Valdes Garciatorres, Marat Oyvetsky
Voices on Project Management offers insights, tips, advice and personal stories from project managers in different regions and industries. The goal is to get you thinking, and spark a discussion. So, if you read something that you agree with--or even disagree with--leave a comment.
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Date

Monday's executive panel at the PMO Symposium in Houston, Texas, USA. From left: moderator Ed Hoffman, Mario Arlt, Anne Sparrenberger and Gordon Gaenzle.
By Cyndee Miller
It’s the great divide. More than 90 percent of executives get it: Organizational agility is table stakes for surviving in a disruption-laden world. Yet only 27 percent of them consider their organizations highly agile, according to Achieving Greater Agility, the latest in PMI’s latest Thought Leadership Series.
Closing that gap will take more than changing processes or delivery approaches, PMI President and CEO Mark A. Langley told leaders at the PMO Symposium in Houston, Texas, USA. It requires shifting mindsets and culture.
So move past the old agile versus waterfall debate. Leaders should be worrying about bigger things. Like staying relevant.
“The role of the PMO is changing just as rapidly as the world around it,” Mr. Langley said.
Reinforcing a common refrain across the morning’s discussions, Anne Sparrenberger of FedEx said organizational agility is about listening to — and incorporating — the voice of the customer.
But here’s a wakeup call: Barely more than a quarter of executives say they can leverage PMOs to be more agile.
Therein lies the opportunity.
PMO leaders need to step up and foster a culture of agility across their organizations, Bruce Rogers of Forbes Insights told attendees.
And they’re in a prime spot to do so.
“The PMO can play an important role in partnering with the C-suite to drive change,” IBM’s Gordon Gaenzle told the audience.
It’s been said that change is hard—people don’t always want to get on the bus, so to speak. Indeed, some people don’t even want to acknowledge there is a bus. For ABB’s Mario Arlt, PMOs prove their strategic value by convincing people affected by the change that the it’s necessary to the organization’s future.
“Ultimately, cultural change happens at the individual level,” he said.
Mr. Arlt also acknowledged that with agility — inevitably — comes some failure. The big question: Are you learning from those mistakes?
Howard Bagg from KPMG ticked off the four biggest transformation missteps: a dearth of exec sponsorship, lack of the enterprise view, failure to recognize the sheer amount of organizational change and the transition time required for that change.
What’s happening in your PMOs? Do executives at your organization see the PMO as a partner for change? Share your thoughts below.
Posted
by
cyndee miller
on: November 07, 2017 08:48 AM |
Permalink
Comments (3)
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PMO's should be driving agile transformation where appropriate. It should be a case of Agile for Agile's sake, but Agile for the company's sake. Also the maturity of the organization to accept and handle that change is again something the PMO needs to settle with senior execs.
Stéphane Parent
Self Employed / Semi-retired| Leader Maker
Prince Edward Island, Canada
I've always thought resistance to change could be countered through curiosity. Make people sufficiently curious and they will ask, nay demand, to be involved and to participate.
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