Actually, Everybody Works For Us

 

Yeah, I know it doesn’t seem that way. In fact, our workaday world often presents as the exact opposite, with the assertions of the Asset Managers and the whims opinions of the Strategic Managers always seeming to have more traction in the board room than those of we poor PM-types. But appearances can be deceiving, particularly in the management sciences, and this is one of those times. Believe it or not, the rest of the organization, either directly or indirectly, works for the PMO.

Let’s start with our friends, the accountants (a.k.a., Asset Managers). They know (or think they know) the value of the organization’s holdings, right down to the mechanical pencils in the supply cabinets. Interestingly, due to a concept known as “depreciation,” the last mechanical pencil in the box purchased one year ago is somehow worth less than any of the pencils in the box bought last week, despite no ascertainable difference in appearance or performance. But that aside, what is to be done with all of these assets? Do they generate revenue just on their own? Of course not. They only generate revenue when they are used in the pursuit of – wait for it – attaining scope. And, before anybody challenges me on the grounds that many investments, such as Certificates of Deposit or commercial paper holdings, generate revenue but are not matched against scope, I would argue that they are indeed matched to scope, albeit indirectly. Your Asset Managers might be holding the actual commercial paper or T-bill, but the person with its M1 equivalent is starting a business, or performing some other aspect of Project work.

The second type of management is PM. As I’m confident GTIM Nation is fully aware, it’s all about executing scope. And among the three types of management, which one is dedicated to the best way of executing scope? The answer is so obvious that it tends to generate a kind of low-level competition, or even resentment, against PM-types from the Asset Managers.

Finally, we have the Strategic Managers. I may be unique among management science writers in making the distinction between Asset, Project, and Strategic Management, but that doesn’t mean such a distinction is inaccurate or unwarranted. Even a rudimentary review of the types of information streams used by each type reveals that such a distinction is in place, and probably always has been. Within this structure, the Strategic Managers seek to maximize the organization’s market share, meaning that their actions and strategies are made with respect to the relative position of the organization’s competitors. If we set aside the activities of the advertisers, we have the proposal teams performing most of the work for the Strategic Managers. Of course, many Project Team members have been drafted kidnapped invited to participate in proposal preparation, but for those who haven’t had the honor, it typically involves responding to a Request for Proposal, or RFP, for – again, wait for it – project work consistent with the organization’s capabilities and experience. Since many (if not most) of the winning proposals are let on the basis of the lowest bidder who can perform the actual work, a kind of strange little dance goes on between the kidnapped Project Team members/ Subject Matter Experts and the Proposal Team Lead, where the head of the Proposal Team simultaneously seeks to assert technical competence (if not supremacy) at the most economical price they can muster. In a sense, those issuing the RFP are seeking to install a rather cold, hard filter, one that allows through the one contractor who has the most underpaid but competent workers.

Enter the PM-types. If the organization’s Project Teams can’t execute the work in the RFP for a competitive price, the Proposal Team is in a very difficult position, indeed. They can price the proposal at a point where they have some level of confidence that the organization can perform the work, and almost certainly fail to be the lowest bidder; or, they can price the proposal where they think it has a shot at winning, but will almost surely be at a price point where the under-performing Project Team will overrun. Conversely, if the organization’s Project Teams are efficient and effective, the Strategic Managers in general, and Proposal Team Lead in particular, are in a far superior position in relation to the competition. Not only will they be able to project a price point that has a shot at winning, they can point to the accomplishments of the Project Teams in accomplishing similar work in the verbiage of the proposal itself.

So, yeah, the PMOs might not appear to be very highly placed in the org charts, but both the Asset and Strategic Managers really need we PM-types to be on top of our game for them to have a shot at succeeding. No, we’ll never receive the kind of recognition we deserve with respect to the other two management types, but that’s okay. It’s all part of that “servant-leadership” business.

But, to the rest of the organization, the PMO has every right to say “you work for us.”