I wish I had me when I was you...

We do a lot.  We are ALL doing a lot.  I am willing to bet that every single one of you that reads this article does A LOT! 

What do you all have in common?  You have a never ending list of things that you need to do on a daily basis.  Trust me, I get it…my list never ends!  Between PMO Strategies and our training and coaching programs, consulting engagements, and speaking engagements,  my various responsibilities on the board of PMI Washington, D.C., and new this year, trying to get a nonprofit off the ground, my day seems to go on forever…and that’s just my “work” life.

People ask me how I do it all.  Well, first, I’m not sure one CAN do it all.  What I do is the best I can.  I had to learn to let go of perfection…and that was NOT easy!  Good enough had to be good enough.  It’s the best I can do and it’s the best you can do.  To make that shift from striving for perfection to being laser focused on how you are going to Get. It. Done., you may have to learn how to be really happy with good enough.

That’s why I’m writing this particular post this week.  I’m watching some of my teams and clients struggling to find the balance of good enough so they can keep moving and get to the awesome outcomes they are intending.

Ever get frustrated with someone committing to something and then they are unable to live up to that expectation?  If most people have good intentions, then is it possible that they might just be suffering from a little too much perfection and not enough being OK with good enough?

I think we all need a little reminder that sometimes, we have to be happy with good enough if we are going to get where we are trying to go strategically.

Is it better to do a 30 minute workout or just give up because you couldn’t get in the hour you had hoped?  How many workouts get skipped because we really wanted to make it to that class or go for the long run?

At work, are you trying to solve every problem you have and every step of a massive project with one document?  Are you somewhere around your 25th revision and completely overwhelmed with how to get from here to done?

Are you trying to report every little detail on a status report and afraid that you might miss something or be judged if it isn’t perfect?

We spend a lot of time worrying about the what-if of not getting it perfect, but we often miss the what-if of taking too long to get to results.

Let’s assume that the document DID have a very important purpose…

First, you have the meeting to talk about the documents you want to create.  Then, the meeting to start talking about the content.  Then, the meeting to talk about the progress of the writing.  Then, another meeting because you now have 10 new inputs to the document that mean you need to revisit the whole table of contents.  Then, the review meeting.  Then, the review meeting.  Then, the review meeting.  You get the idea.

Have you considered how much time went by while you were writing your 25th revision of that document?  What is the impact of NOT getting that document out sooner?  What is the outcome you expected to get as a result of that document being read?  Have you let your opportunity pass you by?  Did the process get in front of you and people found other ways to get stuff done because this document never got to a “final” version?  Is it actually obsolete now because the environment has shifted and this deliverable no longer serves the intent you originally anticipated?

Yes?  Then why are you still working on it?

No? Then finish the version you have now, get it out there and reviewed and call it done.  We spend so much time revising and reviewing documents, cycle after cycle, until we miss the golden opportunity to create action and outcome for which the document was originally intended.

How about that status report?  This is a big one for me.  Why are you doing the report?  To tell management what’s going on so they will take action, make a decision, etc.?  If you take weeks to get that first report to them, you’ve missed an opportunity to bring them with you through the change.  If you wait until you have all of the information, all of the facts and every little detail of every task that’s been done, you are likely to face two big problems:

1. your status may no longer be relevant
2. the project needed decisions, support, actions weeks ago and now you are behind because you are JUST presenting information to leadership to get them to act.

Perfection is the enemy of progress.  How much further could you be on your project if you had gotten OK with good enough and gotten something out there?

Ask yourself…what is the purpose of what I’m writing/creating/producing? Who is the audience and what do they need really to know?  What is the message you want to convey?  What do you want someone to DO as a result of what they read?

Focus on actions and decisions.  Everything you create should serve a specific purpose in getting you closer to your outcomes.  If it doesn’t, why are you creating it in the first place?

Now that I’ve got you thinking, I will leave you with this imperfect post and start writing the next one where I walk you through specifically HOW you can communicate your status to executives in one page and in less than an hour so that you can ALL get back to the business of Getting. It. Done.

The building blocks that came before this were meant to break down the concepts that I’ve found most effective in ensuring that the organization you have for driving effective and sustainable change has a fighting chance of delivering on that mission.  Now, it’s time to talk about how that organization you built to last…does last.

Alignment must continue.  You must make sure that your portfolio stays relevant with the priorities of the C-suite.  If the organizational direction is shifting, your priorities for your portfolio better shift with it.  If your portfolio still has projects in it that leadership doesn’t care about any more, why?  It’s OK to shut things down.  You must continue to be the strategy navigator and information gatekeeper on the right portfolio of projects that will drive your company forward.  You must  be OK with letting projects go.  Kill them and kill them fast if they are not in alignment with where your leadership is headed or the ROI is no longer there.  The slow to die project is one of the most painful and demotivating energies in the organization.

Create partnerships thoughtfully.  Remember the stakeholder management section of these building blocks?  Keep that stakeholder management strategy in place to engage the stakeholders in a meaningful way and know who you have to manage and how.  Remember the three categories of people?  Those that love you, those that hate you and those that just don’t care.  The process of engaging with people must continue long after your PMO is setup.  Their needs will shift and so will what you need from them.  Keep the conversation going and figure out ways you can help them before asking how they can help you.

Those folks that are still in the just don’t care category still need to be pulled into the fold. Go back to the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) exercise for each of them and determine how you can work with them to find a way to provide impact and value for them.  The haters? They better all be in an advisory council working with you to tell you all of the reasons what you are doing won’t work and then you arm them with the whiteboard and the marker and let them go to work telling you how to fix everything.  Now they own the solution and you have them on your side.  If you aren’t doing this, those two groups will ensure the extinction of your organization right in front of your eyes.

Keep your veterans, but bring in new people too.  There’s a reason to keep around those people that have been there from the beginning.  There are two really good ones, actually.  First, they are the historians. They remember how you got there and what it took to get the PMO or change organization up and running in the first place.  They can tell you what pitfalls to avoid or they can help you with the next new change you need to create because they are your internal change agents that can help you drive the next change or evolution of your organization.  They get it and they will help you.  That’s valuable.  Second, loyalty and those you can trust is priceless.  Period.

You also want to bring in some new folks.  They will ask questions you have long since stopped asking.  They will challenge you.  They bring diversity of thought and ideas.  One of the best things I did for the PMDoS PMO I ran last year was to replace me for this year.  The new guy is doing an awesome job and bringing new ideas to the table that I hadn’t even considered.  This allowed me to move into the role of Executive Director and focus my energy externally on how we grow the cause and share our mission.  New people create new opportunities for the veterans to stretch their wings and will bring new ideas to the table you hadn’t even considered.

Focus on the mission.  Always ask why.  Every day with everything you do, ask yourself why you are doing it.  Make sure it’s providing value and it’s in alignment with where your organization is going.  Otherwise, you shouldn’t be doing it.  Ask whether or not the template you are creating or the meeting you are setting up is going to directly move your change effort forward.  If not, why are you doing it??

Marketing.  Do it.  Your brand is everything.  You have to market yourself, your team, your organization and your cause.  It’s an ongoing storytelling process to highlight the reasons you are doing what you are doing and to get your name and value out there.  Yes, even internally.  Don’t assume people “get it”.  Yes, we think what we are doing is so obvious and valuable that everyone should just understand.  They don’t.  They are busy, they don’t care, they are worried about the latest project they are on, or trying to figure out when they can sneak out early to get to a soccer game.  That’s their focus.  Not your PMO and why they need it.  Look at who is representing you.  Make sure you arm those you want talking about your PMO or change organization with the tools they need to tell your story in the right way.  Help them make it personal.  Teach them how to connect a big change your team is responsible for to the outcomes that people really care about.  If you tell someone that the new system you are implementing will increase the company bottom line, you might get them to glance up from what they are doing.  You tell them that that same system will make it so they can get to Bobby’s baseball games on time and now you have their attention.

Driving Real Change across an Enterprise

I’m going to wrap up this series by going back to the beginning. Alignment with what matters means that you master both the art and the science of establishing a PMO. First, you have the right people, doing the right things, the right way. Then, once you have those fundamental building blocks in place, you must focus your energy on creating change and aligning your PMO with the needs of your business.

In the first post of this series, we learned how to ask the right questions to understand how to be the “go to” resource for your leadership to manage change. Once you figure out how to become relevant to your business leaders, you must figure out how to stay relevant if you want to be an invaluable solution to your organization. Keep talking, engaging, and asking questions. Continue to look for the places where changes need to be made. Continue to look at where the C-suite is spending their energy. Continue to improve your PMO capabilities to stay in touch with the needs of your stakeholders.

According to the Economist Survey: Why good strategies fail – Lessons from the C-suite, 61% of executives admit that their firms often struggle to bridge the gap between strategy formulation and its day-to-day implementation. The C-suite sets organizational direction, which is realized through strategy implementation. The challenge is that many of those brilliant visionaries don’t know how to get the changes implemented. That’s where the PMO comes in. They need you even if they don’t know it! You must be the strategy navigator for your organization.

How does your PMO become the strategy navigator? It starts with earning your seat at the table during strategy definition. Don’t just assume that they will know to invite you in or that you have the right to be there. Bring a needed skill or value to the table. The PMO can be the facilitator of the strategy definition process. Offer to schedule the meetings, take the notes, and facilitate the process of getting the appropriate subject matter experts together to define the business strategy. Do whatever it takes to get you in the room. Once you are in the room, you are a part of the conversation. Once you are a part of the conversation, you now have a firsthand look at the challenges the company is facing and what they are doing to solve them. You will hear what really matters and the thinking behind getting to where they want to go. You are now in the know.

Once the strategies are defined, the PMO is the natural place for those changes to be managed. You have the experts, the tools, and the methodology that is necessary to deliver on the strategies. By earning your seat at the table during the strategy definition process, you are now also their trusted advisor and partner on executing the strategy implementation plan.

Finally, with the right portfolio management solution at your fingertips, you are now the place that the executives will go to find out how their initiatives are doing. This makes you an invaluable resource to the leadership of the organization. When they need to know how things are going, they are coming to your PMO. That’s exactly where you want to be.

Now let’s focus, once again, on people. Where you have your people aligned says a great deal about what you, as a PMO leader, value. Make sure you are aligning your talent against the portfolio of initiatives according to their strengths, where relationships already exist, and where they have subject matter expertise. You must use the right person for the job. Just like every tool in the toolbox solves a different problem, each change initiative will need a change leader with different strengths. Don’t forget the post on PMO Talent in this series. It is crucial to hire

correctly so that you have a team of change leaders that can fit the various types of business changes you will need to manage.

The PMO is, and should be, a constantly evolving organization. You will learn new things every day about the organization, the people, the culture, and what it takes to be successful in meeting the stakeholder needs. Be aware, ask questions, and make sure your PMO remains agile so that you can respond as the needs shift. These techniques and an appetite for success are the key building blocks you need to build an effective and sustainable PMO.

Change management is essentially about three things:  The project, the people and the people.  What does that mean?  The project is about the work that needs to get accomplished. Essentially, we are talking about the scope. Getting this work done, by the way, is also about the people.  In order for any project to be successful, you need that talent we discussed earlier driving the changes within the organization and they must bring along those stakeholders that are a part of the change.

Secondly, successful change management is about the people side of change.  That means that we must have a good change management strategy in place that looks at what needs to change (the project) and how that change is going to be implemented (through the people).  There are many methodologies out there that help you figure out how to create a great change strategy.  One of my favorites is Prosci’s change management methodology.

Above all, though, it’s about the people.  What do I mean here?  I am talking about the sponsorship of your change.  The number one reason that change initiatives fail or succeed can be clearly tied back to how active and engaged the sponsors are on the change initiative.  Sound right?  Think back to any change projects you were a part of or are a part of right now.  Are your sponsors engaged?  Are they asking the right questions about how they can help and removing barriers for you to be successful?  If not, you are going to feel like you are pushing a boulder up a hill with others simultaneously pushing it back down the hill.  Why is that?  Because they are!

Change is tough.  Not everyone is going to be onboard with the changes you are creating in the organization via your PMO.  So, what do you do?

First, you start with change agents.

Following the principles outlined in hiring the right change agents in your PMO, you should be on your way to solving for the PMO as change agents.  They are the champions for change and the ones driving the changes within the organization.  Once you’ve got them on board, you then focus on those that are likely to work with you to drive change within the organization.  They are the stakeholders on the project that are eager to roll up their sleeves and help.  They are activists for the change and they are vocal about wanting to see progress.  LEVERAGE THEM.

These groups of change agents in your PMO and across the organization can be organized and leveraged in a way that lets them provide a leadership from the bottom up approach.  Work with their passion and give them the information they need to act as vocal supporters of the changes you are creating within your organization.  You should also empower them to hold others in your organization accountable for the change they need to participate in.  Leading by example and asking the right questions is a quick way to get the positive reinforcement your change initiative will need.

Secondly, you must engage your sponsors.

This is a big one.  I remember being relatively new to an organization and watching what happens when sponsors don’t know how to engage.  I was hired to build a PMO, but before I was there, they had hired several program managers and said, “OK, now you are a PMO”.  They brought me in to help teach these program managers how to “be program mangers” and to build a PMO to manage some transformational change the company was about to undertake.  I quickly observed that, yes, the PMs did need some education, but you know who was really in need of some training?  The sponsors.

No one had taken the time to explain to them their role in the changes they were responsible for implementing.  They would stare at the PM in a sponsor update and just wait for the PM to report on and then provide solutions for the problems they were facing.  So, one of my first and most important acts was to pull all of these sponsors together and teach them what it meant to be a sponsor.  They need to feel responsible for the changes because, oh by the way, they are responsible for the changes!  They are the business unit leaders that are supposed to be creating change in their organizations.  They are leveraging the PMO as a facilitator of that change, but they are ultimately accountable.  Help them learn this and tie this accountability to their professional success and you will be on your way.  Look for a separate article specifically on the roles and responsibilities of a sponsor in coming months!

Once you have educated your sponsors, you have to keep them actively engaged.  You do this by giving them access to all of the information they need on a regular basis to make educated and informed decisions, remove barriers, and champion the change.  When you give them this information, you then tell them what they need to act on and the impact of any decisions they make.  This will help them accomplish a shared objective.  You will make them look good while they are getting done what you need to get done for the changes to be successful.  As they are driving results, they are now seen as someone that can make real change happen in the organization and, oh by the way, they are becoming a huge advocate of the PMO in the process…everyone likes someone that makes them look good.

For the last 17 years, I feel like I have been in constant hiring mode.  Actually, I HAVE been in constant hiring mode.  Building, transforming, rescuing, and running PMOs requires a constant focus on talent management.  I constantly had resumes on my desk and have looked at thousands of resumes and conducted countless interviews.   What I have found in that process is that there are definitely things to look for in the resume and in those early phone conversations, but you have to be able to spend time with this person face to face to see if they are going to have what it takes to drive real change for you.

So, what characteristics do these super stars have?

First…they usually do have at least one certification.  Whether it’s the PMP or another continuing education certification or degree, I’ve noticed that the people that are really into the profession and the kind of people that like to continue to grow and further their careers all have some type of designation or credential.  Not only does this show that they have a leaning toward their own career development and improvement, but it allows your team to have a common language when they communicate.  That saves a lot of time in translating when you are asking them to share information or help each other with a project.  With that said, that only gets your resume in front of me.  It doesn’t determine whether or not I will hire you.  In my book, that’s simply table stakes.

Certifications matter, but only so much…

So, what does this talent look like?  Sure, they have PMPs and they have experience managing projects and programs.  In order to be competitive and the kind of person I want to hire, they have to have really sharp communications skills and have the ability to influence anyone to do anything.  As silly as it sounds, they also have to be…well… likable.  I’ve seen some of the sharpest minds lose an entire audience by not being able to reach them on a personal level.  Where the rubber really meets the road is on the soft skills side.

It starts with communications and expectations management.  One of my super stars was helping me interview and the candidate asked him what I was like to work for.  He said, “That’s easy.  Just do what you say you are going to do.  Manage her expectations!  She’s savvy and will know if you aren’t being straight with her.  Be realistic, ask for help when you need it, but set the bar where you think you can reach it.  Setting the bar too low is just as bad as setting it too high.” This is what the right talent knows. Expectations management is, above all, the best way to manage up.  They know they have to keep me engaged and informed so that I can come to the ready immediately when they need me.  My job is to provide them air cover.  The rest of the time, my job is to support them, be available to brainstorm ideas, and then get out of their way!  Good talent needs the creative freedom to solve problems and manage the efforts the way they see fit.

The type of resources you want in your PMO are change agents by lifestyle, not just job title.  These people are the ones that can and do handle change well on an ongoing basis.  Not just project change, but these people are continually growing and evolving in their personal lives and know how to “live” change.  They are the ones that have some kind of regular development and interests outside of work that give them that well rounded and looking to keep changing/growing kind of approach to life.  Who better to sit with your customers and help them live through a change than those that do so continually?

A pattern that has emerged for me in the super star talent is related to the ability to show empathy.  This talent needs to be able to meet the customer, client, project team member where they are, not where they’d like them to be.  The right talent inherently knows this and constantly puts themselves in the shoes of their stakeholders, addressing their needs before those stakeholders even realize they have the need.  The ability to get into someone’s head and understand what their motivators are and how you can leverage individual motivations toward common project goals is truly an art.

This talent becomes a chameleon of sorts, by remaining flexible to the different demands of stakeholders.  They know who they need to be for each audience.  The executive wants to know the bottom line.  The project team wants to know that they have someone watching their back.  The customer wants to know that they are going to get what was promised.  All of this goes into how this kind of talent will interact with their stakeholders and who to be to whom and when.   The PMO leader wants to know that the stakeholders are all getting what they need and that the projects are getting delivered.   The good ones are going to have an inherent sense about what needs to get done and how to get it done in a way that keeps everyone happy and productive.

You have to find them and then you have to keep them…happy.

Leverage the super star talent you already have to help you interview these candidates.  Good talent knows good talent when they see it.  And speaking of good talent, make sure you are hiring for diverse strengths.  You need a diverse set of skills in order to apply different types of people to different situations.  Since they will be very diverse in their strengths, they will also likely need to be managed differently.  Know how to give them what they need to be successful by having a flexible management style.  The kind of resources you want are going to need to be constantly challenged and engaged.

I’ve been fortunate enough to find this talent in my career and when I do, I find ways to work with them again and again.  Who wouldn’t want to have these people on their team?  They meet with their stakeholders, rally them around a goal, keep everyone moving and feeling good about it because their own personal needs are being addressed, and get things done…on time and as expected.

With the kind of talent described above, you can safely let go of the reins and trust them to get the job done.  Isn’t that what we are all looking for?