PMO At First Sight

 

The reality television show Married at First Sight, currently aired in the United States through the Lifetime network, is premised on the idea that “experts” pair volunteer singles to get married to each other, but there’s a catch: as the title implies, these singles don’t meet each other until they are literally participating in their own marriage ceremony. I pretty much view the series as a milestone on the downward trajectory of American culture. That’s not to say, however, that it’s without a capacity to demonstrate some of the more interesting aspects of group behavior.

One of the things that I found to be a glaring example of the “experts” not doing a very good job of screening candidates has to do with the fact that virtually every couple has to deal with an issue or problem that probably should have been detected during the pairing process. A Season 2 groom threatened to harm his bride, and she eventually took out a restraining order on him.[i] One groom found out almost immediately after his wedding that his new bride had an outstanding arrest warrant. A majority of the couples end up divorced, if not at the end of that particular season, then later[ii]. If I’m in a charitable mood I can be led to believe that these red flags were simply missed by the “experts” conducting the matching process; however, I can’t help but to recall that conflict is one of the main reasons people are attracted to reality shows. Consider that, should each of the couples promptly fall in love with each other, and consistently demonstrate that they will elect to stay married at the completion of the season, the series would become mind-numbingly boring to all but the most sentimental of viewers. To be clear, I am NOT accusing these “experts” of allowing an easily-detectable issue to go unaddressed until after the paired couples exchange vows in order to attract more viewers when the inevitable conflict manifests itself. Nope, not doing that at all. Not at all.

Meanwhile, Back In The Project Management (Office) World…

When a project-oriented organization grows to the point that it decides to establish a group or team that handles PM issues and technical agendas in a coordinated fashion, to ignore how its own business model is bound to influence the nascent PMO’s functioning would be a blunder (not that it doesn’t happen). If the new PMO Director thinks they can simply harangue upper management with PMBOK Guide® quotes to advance the PM capability maturity, ultimate failure is virtually guaranteed. What’s critical in the start-up (or restart) phase is an assessment of the particular PM-centric needs of the macro-organization, combined with a clearly articulatable strategy for how the PMO will meet those needs within the constraints of the prevailing business model, whether or not those constraints are documented, or even acknowledged. And for this, we’re going to need some, ummm, experts.

What would these experts be looking for? Besides a familiarity with the specific marketplace and the organization’s place within it, a basic assessment involves the Quality-Affordability-Availability, pick any two paradigm. The organization that has succeeded by concentrating on affordability and availability is not going to be well-served by a PMO that insists that its Project Managers strictly adhere to the drivel more rigorous edicts of the guidance-issuing community. A (very) basic PMO structure alignment analysis would look like this:

• Organizations known for providing projects on a ready basis (availability), for a competitive price (affordability), should have a PMO that makes available cost/schedule management information systems on a “cafeteria” basis. The individual PMs can pick and choose which information streams help them, and at what level of rigor.
• Companies that deliver a higher-quality service, and can do so presently, will need a PMO with a high level of demonstrable expertise. An advanced training program will be needed. Also, this PMO will need some level of insulation against attacks from the Asset Managers whenever budget defense time comes around.
• The implication of organizations that deliver a high-quality service/product, charge a competitive rate for it, but aren’t generally available (customers need to queue up) is that they need to expand. The PMO that delivers insights into which types of projects perform better than others will match this profile best.

I can’t help but to recall that a natural conflict exists between the business model/world view of Asset Managers and PMs. Consider that, should the new PMO succeed, our friends the accountants would no longer be the exclusive source and residence of the information streams needed to keep the company afloat. To be clear, I am NOT accusing Asset Managers of, generally speaking, deliberately failing to provide a modicum of support for the PMO in order to maintain their positions atop the management information stream hierarchy. Nope, not doing that at all. Not at all.

[i] Wikipedia contributors. (2022, March 8). Married at First Sight (American TV series). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 00:40, March 12, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Married_at_First_Sight_(American_TV_series)&oldid=1075875406

[ii] Ibid.